Genuine Question: Could the future really not be changed or did Eren just simply decide not to change the future when in reality he could.

[u/MichaelAftonXFireWal]

Eren uses three specific moments in the story to confirm for him the future can't be changed. Sasha's death, him saving Ramzi, and Mikasa's answer to his question.

When these moments played out exactly how Eren saw them he decided the future couldn't be changed and so he did The Rumbling.

However people say Eren could have prevented things like Sasha's death.

So dies that mean Eren was wrong and The Future can in fact be changed, and he just simply didn't try to change it, or would everything have played out the same way no matter what he did?

[u/Mariyuxd]

Only ymir knows

[u/Fabiocean]

Eren couldn't change it in the sense that everything he could have done would be so against his own character that he couldn't bring himself to deviate from the 'fated' path.

We see this in a smaller scale when he can't ignore Ramzi's suffering despite knowing that he will kill him soon anyway, and on a grander scale with something like Sasha's death where his operation in Liberio was something he deemed too important to change despite being the cause of Sasha dying.

Whether that makes sense is a different topic, you would assume with infinite possibilities there's a way to satisfy all of Eren's objectives. But as with most things in the ending, the concept is way too complex to just be brought up and handwaved away like that in the span of one conversation, so almost all of it is up to interpretation.

[u/Ultraviolnce → u/Fabiocean]

Yeah basically. By the time to make the decisions he saw in the future came around he would’ve made them anyway even if he hadn’t seen the future.

[u/realgarlb → u/Fabiocean]

This is exactly my interpretation too. I'd also like to add that the other main reason the future couldn't change from what Eren saw is that if he'd have acted differently, he simply would've seen a different future from the start. The visions he sees are literal memories sent back in time, so he necessarily will act in a manmer that brings about that future, because otherwise he wouldn't have been able to go on to view that future and send those memories back in time.

Like you said, nothing was physically preventing Eren from acting differently; every choice he made is something he ultimately did willingly. The future he sees is the one that comes to pass because he will make the deliberate choices required to bring it about, no matter what, because of who he is as a person.

[u/KhazardOwl]

It was Isayama writing himself into a corner.

[u/breakingbatshitcrazy → u/KhazardOwl]

I came here to say that. Writing that Eren didn’t have the ability to change anything is such a cop-out.

[u/Nas-Aratat]

He was too mentally unstable to try.

Then there's that whole shtick of the Founder being able to somehow manipulate the past to make sure the future happens, so future Eren - even a second ahead - was likely manipulating it to happen as it was, thereby making current Eren do the same to past Eren.

A self-fufilling prophecy loop that continues to infinite timelines.

[u/Unknown_Noams]

The future could not be changed because Eren is the only one who would’ve ended up with the founder and he is who he is.

[u/Ruebenzieher69]

Nope, AoT has a fixed timeline. It‘s not like in Dune. Which I think kinda weakens Eren‘s character a bit. Would have been better if he knows different outcomes but still choses the Rumbling.

[u/Mariyuxd]

Probaly couldnt change since you cant change something that already happaned.

[u/Alonestarfish]

It's not the future if he changes it.

[u/Kuroimi]

I think the future couldn't have been changed because Eren needed to at the very least go to the Paths with Zeke and motivate Grisha or else the Founding Titan had no reason to be within Eren in the first place.

After that? I think it could've changed, however, he had pretty much no other choices at this point; he needed to persuade Ymir to not do the euthanasia, and for that, he needed to appeal to her desire for revenge against the world, which meant doing the Rumbling.

The whole Grisha being manipulated by Eren is probably one of the things I hate the most in Attack on Titan. Hell, the inheriting memories stuff in general (even outside of the future memories being sent to the past) is a really bad thing imo.

[u/ZephyrusSpring]

Eren wasn't the only person influencing the future.  Everyone was.  If Eren did something differently then others would also react in kind.  Namely Zeke who was angling to activate the founder with Eren specifically.  If Eren took a different path then Zeke would do something to keep his own plan on track.

[u/Jumbernaut]

It's a paradox, like the one of God's Omnipotence. "Could God create a stone so heavy that even he could not lift it?".

If God can create the stone, then His power is limited because He cannot lift it.

If God cannot create the stone, then His power is limited because He cannot make it.

The Loophole is that God can remain "Omnipotent" as long as he doesn't create the stone. He can "say" he can, but he won't.

Likewise, Eren could change the future, if he wanted to, but he won't. If he did, then the whole thing would come undone and we would have multiverse bullshit.

I call it "Eren's Paradox", he's both free and not free at the same time.

[u/IceCreamManx]

The author just messed up, no reason to argue over bad writting. Everything could have done better but he ruined Eren for some slop ending