Attack on Titan Season 4 Brings New Light to Wall Maria's Bloody Fall

By Kofi Outlaw

Attack on Titan season 4 dropped its most game-changing episode ever this week, one that has reframed fans' understanding of the entire anime storyline, and Eren Jaeger's place in it. Even as fans are still reeling from the reveals of Attack on Titan Episode 79, there are also new waves of realization washing in, as fans are looking back at key events of the anime and understanding them (and their deeper meaning) in a whole new light. One big thing that now stands out is Attack on Titan's very first instance of horror and loss: the Fall of Wall Maria in the series' very first episode! 

(Warning: Attack on Titan Episode 79 SPOILERS Follow!)

In Episode 79 of the anime, "Memories of the Future" it's revealed that the secret power of the Attack Titan – to connect the memories of all its inheritors, past, present, and future – essentially allowed Eren to "time travel" back to the key moment where his father slaughtered the Reiss family and took the Founding Titan and coerce his father into doing the dark deed after Grisha Jaeger faltered.

These revelations make the Fall of Wall Maria and its aftermath messed up on a whole other level. We now know that Grisha went through everything he did – all the death and destruction in Shiganshina District and the slaughter of the Reiss's – because it was Eren's will. Grisha has blind faith in his son's plan, even though Eren won't reveal all of his memories to Grisha. 

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That certainly changes everything we think about Eren Jaeger, for sure (other flashbacks confirm that Eren is the dark and ruthless one in the Jaeger family – not Grisha). However, the larger cycle of tragedy that Attack on Titan is infamous for now feels so much more painful when it comes to the Fall of Wall Maria: Eren's mom Carla being devoured by Grisha's first wife Dina in Pure Titan form; that act sending Eren down the path of the Survey Corps; Eren's path leading to him reaching back to push his father into the darkness; Eren's temporal meddling pushing Grisha to ultimately inject Titan serum into the son he loved enough to forsake his duty for; Eren's injection leading to him claim the Attack Titan power from his father that let him go back and cause the war for the Founding Titan to begin. 

Try not to let all that make your head (or heart) hurt. 

Attack on Titan is streaming season 4 on Funimation and Hulu. 

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