Attack on Titan has been getting closer to the series finale with each new chapter of the manga, and this has led to a historic amount of reveals giving fans a better grip on the cloudy history of Eldia, Marley, and the mysterious power of the Titans. As Eren gets closer to accomplishing his dream of destroying the entire world, the latest chapter of the series sees him tap into his connection with Ymir, the Founding Titan, and it’s here that we see just how Ymir gained the Titan power herself — how she became the very first Titan.
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Chapter 122 of the series goes back over 2,000 years and sees Ymir suddenly fall into a mysterious tree. It’s here that the spinal cord of a Titan mysteriously gets attached to her and she becomes the very first Titan, and a weapon of the Fritz family.
The chapter sees Ymir’s village taken over by Eldians, and all of their tongues are cut out. She’s then blamed for a missing pig, and is cruelly nearly put to death before she accidentally falls into a mysterious tree. Deep within is a floating spinal cord, and she then emerges in her Titan form soon after. Fritz then uses Ymir as a slave to do menial jobs, bear his children, and attack the people of Marley.
When Ymir dies, Fritz chops pieces of her body and feeds them to his children as a way to keep the Titan power flowing through their bloodline. He gives them the instruction to have their future children eat their spines when they are on the verge of death, and so on until fans see it in the present day. But as Ymir continues to remember this story of suffering and slavery, Eren manages to connection with her.
Hoping to work with her and use her power, he tells her to instead use that power to destroy the world. Previous chapters have shown Ymir as an emotionless entity in the Coordinate space, but the Founding Titan here is a poor young girl whose had a string of terrible misfortune thrust upon her. Even after death, she has been stuck in this space for 2,000 years, and now she and Eren will make their move to destroy Eldia by waking the Titans in the Walls.
What do you think of Attack on Titan‘s final arc so far? Are you ready for it to end? Are things starting to make more sense or is it all just more confusing now? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and TV @Valdezology on Twitter!
Attack on Titan was originally created by Hajime Isayama for Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2009. It’s set in a world where the last remnants of humanity live within a walled city in order to escape the danger of the Titans, a race of giants monsters that eats humans. The lead character, Eren Yeager, ends up joining the military with his two childhood friends Mikasa and Armin after the Titans break through the wall and attack his hometown. Now Eren, Mikasa, and Armin must survive in a world where they not only have the Titans to fear, but the very humans they are trying to save. You can currently find the series streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.