‘Attack on Titan’ Delves into the Jaeger Family’s Past

Eren Jeager’s family has been one of the more mysterious elements of Attack on Titan as the series not only killed his mother in the pilot episode, but focused a huge mystery around his father and what he was keeping hidden in the basement.

As the series gets closer to revealing what’s in the basement, it’s begun the exploration into what made Grisha and Carla Jeager tick.

Grisha Jeager’s actions in the third season have definitely painted a dark visual of the character, as he’s the one who not only killed the Reiss family and devoured Frieda Reiss to take her power, but he injected Eren with the Titan serum, condemning him to the Titan form in the first place. But the latest episode of the series revealed a more mysterious side of him as he was discovered outside of the walls, and without any memory of how he got there, by Pixis.

As Pixis explained his ties to Eren’s father and mother, it was revealed that Pixis actually brought Grisha into the walls in the first place. In that time, Grisha became quite a helpful doctor and fell in love with Eren’s mother, Carla. Carla was working at bar frequented by Pixis, and Pixis even had developed a crush on her.

During one mission where Pixis was gone from the town for some time, it was revealed that Grisha and Carla actually had Eren in that window. Pixis naturally felt heartbroken by this, but that doesn’t explain what Grisha does later. When Carla is killed, Grisha is seen taking Eren into the woods shortly after.

He vows that Eren will be the one to avenge Carla, and fans can infer that it’s at this moment he injects Eren with the Titan serum and dies as a result of Eren eating him afterwards.

As for Carla, though not much is shown about her past, she is a kind woman loved by many in the town before her unfortunate demise. So Eren doesn’t exactly come from anyone special, but that’s not the point. Carla believed Eren was special simply because he was born, and that hasn’t been disproven just yet.

Attack on Titan was originally created by Hajime Isayama for Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2009. The series has since been collected into 23 volumes as of 2017, and 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, Funimation, and Saturday nights on Adult Swim’s Toonami block.