Why does Eren not have the ability to intentionally control past Titans or send his memories to past inheritors?

This page explains that the depiction in the work shows that Eren does not have the ability to control the past Titans nor the ability to send memories to his past inheritors at will.

It is precisely because he lacks such abilities that Eren’s struggle to keep moving forward seeking freedom overlaps so beautifully with the story.

Eren’s doubts, “set in stone” and “wanted”

Eren’s monologue in chapter 130, “Even if all of this was set in stone from the start… Even if all of this was what I wanted”, negates the existence of the ability to manipulate past Titans at will and the ability to send memories to the past at will. This is because if Eren is able to intentionally intervene in past events in order to reach his desired future, whether or not the process has been decided from the beginning cannot be a serious problem for him, it is a superfluous doubt. It follows, therefore, that Eren is aware that it is impossible to intervene intentionally in past events. Naturally, this also means that he has no such ability.

Eren feels that even if he had complete control over the Founder, everything has been decided from the beginning and he cannot change the past or the future. Since the medal ceremony in chapter 90, Eren has seen memories of the future and has had several experiences of encountering the same events as those memories, which has led him to feel that the future is apparently unchanged. And the fact that even after the Rumbling was triggered he still feels that “even if everything was decided from the beginning” means that this feeling has remained unchanged. This means that even after Chapter 122, when he is said to have taken “complete control of the Founder”, he has not made any deliberate intervention in past events, nor does he believe that he can.

This monologue expresses Eren’s struggle with the contradiction between his perception of his situation and his desire for freedom. If everything is fixed from the beginning, then he admit that he am not free. On the other hand, if he deny this and assume that he is free, then all tragic events, such as the deaths of his friends and family and massacres, happened because he wanted them to happen. What is important is that “set in stone” and “wanted” are juxtaposed until the very end. Only one of them will ever go away.

Nevertheless, the fact that Eren chose “all of this was what I wanted” – that is, that he kept moving forward to seek freedom – is the basis of the story from chapter 90 onwards, and is also a factor that gave rise to the tragedy. One of the points reached is in chapter 131: “Freedom”. He told Falco, “The people who push themselves into hell”, “Keep moving forward”(ch.97), he said “I am free” in the table talk(ch.112), he showed Zeke that he told Grisha to “Stand, Father”(ch.121) he told Ramzi, “I wanted to wipe it all away, I’m sorry”(ch.131), he revealed “the truth that Dina ignored Bertolt” to Armin(ch.139) etc. The only way for Eren to prove that he was free was to claim so, and this resulted in activating Rumbling.

Eren cannot intentionally intervene in the past and has no motive to do so

In this story, the interpretation that Eren, who took full control of the Founder, manipulated the past to make it the future he wanted is not possible. This is because there is no evidence to show that Eren overwrote the past or set it up to do so from the beginning. If it is to be shown that he overwrote the past, it is essential that the pre-written past is depicted, but there is no such thing. There are also no episodes to support that the past was the way it was from the beginning and that it was Eren who intentionally created it.

“Eren’s complete control of the Founder” and the activation of the Rumbling are simultaneous. It is absolutely impossible for Eren at this point in time to have a motive to manipulate the past. This is because he wished for Rumbling to be activated and it has been. He has no reason to dare to intervene retroactively in the past himself.

The theory that Eren cannot choose to intentionally intervene in the past is not valid, because it is possible to intervene in the past, but the intervention point is determined to be a suitable point for activating Rumbling. The existence of the ability to intentionally intervene in the past is untrue, and there is no justification for a theory that builds further assumptions from there. It is nonsense to try to make the story fit in that way. It is better to assume that strange phenomena are coincidental than to do so.

Dina ignores Bertolt. Conspiracy or Coincidence?

The event in which Dina ignored Bertolt was not caused by Eren’s deliberate intervention. It is not possible that Eren understands that he himself had to intervene in this event, already knowing that Bertolt did not die that day and that time. This is because, in order to prove that he had to, he would have to present a different outcome if he did not, which, however, does not exist.

When one pretends to be coincidental, it causes a misplacement of priorities. If Eren happened to look at his memory of the incident and came to the conclusion that Bertolt should not be dead yet, and then moved Dina, it would be a completely meaningless retconning of the episode.

If the explanation involves the ability to intervene in the past, the Dina episode cannot have any meaning unless Eren clearly chose to do so with an intention. However, it is also impossible to prove that Eren was certain of the outcome. Therefore, it follows that Eren did not intentionally manipulate Dina.

For Eren, there is no reason or motive to send Grisha his memories.

The recapture of the Founder by Grisha was also not Eren’s intentional intervention. Since Eren has already inherited the Founder Titan and already knows that Grisha slaughtered the Wraith family and took the Founder, the explanation that he manipulated Grisha by sending his memories in order to obtain the Founder cannot be established. As in the case of Dina, there is no description of failure. The theory that he did it on the spur of the moment cannot be used either, as it would be an retro-continuity.

Even if Eren were able to show Grisha, the previous heir, the scene he saw as a memory at exactly the right moment, it would be meaningless. This is because Grisha, having seen the memory, would have acted in accordance with Eren’s expectations, and the result would be that the events experienced by Eren would simply be realised as they were. An earlier flaw is that when Eren probes Grisha’s past to decide when to send the memories to Grisha, the past is revealed and determined as of that moment, and Eren can no longer do anything about that past. To put this in perspective, Eren would never want to send memories to Grisha to do something for a certain purpose. In this story, the ability to send memories is meaningless even if it exists.

It is only that Grisha sees Eren’s memories. Eren’s memories are seen by Grisha on his own, not intentionally sent and shown to him. In a sence, Grisha is in control. In other words, Eren has no choice but to keep moving forward.

Eren kept insisting that he was free.

Eren tried to prove that he is free by showing others that. It would be more accurate to say that he claimed it, because it is impossible to actually prove it. It is not enough to just think it in one’s own mind; it is important to show it to a third party.

Eren said to Grisha, “Stand, Father,” in order to assert his own freedom by showing it to Zeke, and also to discourage Zeke’s will to go through with the euthanasia plan by destroying his image of Grisha. In order for Eren to save his friends, he had to stop the euthanasia plan at all costs. The influence on Grisha was a byproduct of the result.

Eren revealed to Armin that he himself was responsible for the Dina Titan ignoring Bertolt and going to Carla. The meaning of this is the same as the “Stand, Father” he showed Zeke. Eren said this because he was almost certain that Armin had already seen and known about this scene through Bertolt’s memory.

When Armin jumped off the airship, or in table talk, “What about you is free?” he asked Eren. Armin has always had secret doubts about Eren, and this was one of them. Eren’s answer was this and Armin knows the truth of it.

Why did Grisha see Eren’s memories and why did the Dina Titans ignore Bertolt, even though there was no deliberate control by Eren? From more on these, please see another pages.