Attack on Titan fans are still thinking about a specific flashback scene from season 1, episode 6, which aired in 2013, involving Eren and Mikasa's father. However, the time-travel nature of the story makes this plot relevant 12 years later, a testament to Hajime Isayama's wonderfully subtle foreshadowing and attention to detail.
Attack on Titan ended its broadcast in 2023, although the ending was not liked by everyone, the fan community of the series still actively participated in discussing theories, fanart and even released an ending done by them.
Until episode 6, fans only knew Ackerman Mikasa as Eren's silently protective and terrifyingly strong adopted sister from Attack on Titan, with no information on how she was cared for by the Yeager family. But that changed in episode 6 when Mikasa reminisced about her past, revealing that Eren's father – Yeager Grisha was once a doctor for Mikasa's family.
When Grisha brought Eren with him to visit Mikasa's parents' house for an appointment, he found them dead for several hours, but Mikasa was nowhere to be found. The girl was kidnapped and later rescued by boy Eren. Later, Mikasa asked Grisha for directions back to her house. Eren gave her his scarf and Grisha told her to come live with them. This scene explains Mikasa's unusually strong bond with Eren, as well as the origin of her near-superhuman strength.
A decade later, something else caught fans' attention. In season 3 episode 21, the previous Titan, Kruger Eren, told Yeager Grisha to complete his mission if he wanted to save Mikasa and Armin, before injecting him with the Titan's spinal fluid and inheriting the Titan. labour. Since this happened years before Mikasa and Armin were born, Reddit user u/krishm97 speculated that Grisha meeting Mikasa in Attack on Titan may not have been a coincidence.
Attack on Titan theory: Grisha takes his son to meet Mikasa because of Kruger Eren's mission
We cannot be completely sure whether Grisha remembered Kruger's words or not. But considering how the Titan Shifters were able to access the memories of previous heirs and how Grisha named his son after Kruger Eren, there's a good chance he remembered. If so, when Eren befriended Armin, Grisha would have had the first clue that Armin and Mikasa that Kruger Eren mentioned were important people to his son.
Even so, it seems unlikely that Grisha will go looking for Mikasa right away. But if he knew anything about the Ackerman family, it made sense to search for their surviving members. And this search will lead Grisha to Mikasa's family in the farm lands of Wall Maria. Additionally, with Mikasa and her mother being the only two Orientals living within the walls, Mikasa is certainly not a common name, raising the possibility of Grisha concluding that the Ackermans' daughter is Mikasa is mentioned by Kruger.
Even if Grisha just happened to meet the Ackerman family, there's certainly a high chance he would recognize Mikasa's name. That would explain why he chose to take his son Eren, who was known for his mood swings, to meet Mikasa when the two had nothing in common other than age. And even when he found out her parents were dead, he still believed that she was alive, especially asking Eren if he had seen a young girl around. When Eren replied no, Grisha went to call the Military Police so they could investigate the incident.
But Eren got to Mikasa's kidnappers first, killing two of them and awakening Mikasa's Ackerman blood so she could finish off the third. Grisha was extremely confused when he learned this, but when he scolded his son, Eren cried and told his father that he “just wanted to save her quickly”. This surprised Grisha, and he approached Mikasa, asking her if she remembered her from the times they met when she was young.
Attack on Titan fan theory suggests that Grisha brought Mikasa home because of Eren's memories in the future
Maybe in asking this question, Grisha himself was recalling Kruger's words and seeing them in a new light, after his son Eren showed interest in a girl he had never met before. This may be the moment “Grisha realizes the weight of Kruger's words”, and may begin to come to the conclusion that the person who told him to complete the mission to save Mikasa and Armin is the future version of Eren. So when Eren gave Mikasa his scarf, Grisha asked Mikasa to come live with his family.
This is one of many theories that Attack on Titan fans have come up with in retrospect, and given the show's interesting approach to time travel through collective consciousness, this won't be the last. together.
