Did Eren Really Eat His Dad, Grisha, In Attack On Titan?
Attack on Titan fans were treated to a huge reveal when Eren gets to find out about moments in his past including how he became a Titan and how his father, Grisha, was eaten by a Titan that appeared to be him. Prior to that, he didn’t remember anything about it as the memories seemed to have been suppressed until it was unlocked by two members of the Reiss family, prompting the question, did he really eat his father?
Eren eat his dad Grisha in one of the rather emotional parts of the Attack on Titan story. Grisha decides to transfer his powers (the powers of the Attack Titan and the Founding Titan he just got) to his son, Eren. In the process, Eren becomes a Pure Titan and eats up his dad hence, taking the powers his father held.
Grisha possesses the Attack Titan and had just been in battle with Freida Reiss, who has the Founding Titan after she refused to help stop the Titan attack after an invasion.
Grisha defeats her to take control of the founding Titan though she is not the casualty in the battle as he kills every other member of the Reiss family except Rod Reiss who escapes. After that, he successfully injects a serum into Eren who turns into a pure Titan and then devours his father.
This part is not revealed until Season three of the anime series and it marks a very important part of the show as it prompts excitement for what comes next as well as setting up a couple of key story points in the future episodes. Grisha is one of the important characters of the show and even Eren, his son, is the main character of the show so it is expected that the reveal will play a huge role in other subsequent episodes.
Did Eren Eat His Dad Grisha?
The story of Attack on Titan is set in a place where humans are staying and taking shelter on one side of a big wall that has man-eating Titans on the other side. It was always like that until one of the Titans breached the wall and allowed the humans to be exposed. Grisha, one of the important figures in the series, secretly holds the powers of the Attack Titan in him and when the Titans struck, he confronts Freida Reiss of the Royal Reiss family of Eldia, who holds the powers of the Founding Titan. They go into battle and he manages to devour her and in return, get the powers of the Founding Titan.
In season three of Attack on Titan this is revealed when Grisha transfers his powers to his son Eren (the powers of the Attack Titan and of the Founding Titan).
Eren consumes his father, becoming a Pure Titan and inheriting his father’s powers.
According to how the series has been going, a Titan can devour another one and take its powers, so that explains how the death of Grisha means Eren would take his powers.
Why Did Eren Eat His Dad?
The whole memory of how Eren killed or ate his father or even how he got the powers of the Titan in him appears to have been suppressed so even he didn’t know about it until the revelation and it happened when the suppressed memories were unlocked by Ron Reiss and Historia Reiss. Historia is a member of the Royal Reiss family of Eldia and the daughter of Ron Reiss. Ron was the only member of the Reiss family that managed to escape after the battle between Grisha and Frieda that ended with Grisha killing her and every other member of the family.
Eren eats his father because it was exactly what Grisha wanted even though he didn’t know much about it. With Grisha nearing the end of his 13-year lifespan as a Titan (Titans live for only 13 years after they have gotten their powers), he decides it’s only best that his powers went to the right person considering he now had the powers of two Titans and he believed the best person was his son, Eren. It was not like Eren had any true intentions of eating his dad according to the revelation but it was just what Grisha wanted.
As the story goes, Grisha, Eren’s dad, kills Freida and now takes control of the Founding Titan that Freida used to control to add to his own Attack Titan he already held. After that battle, he takes his son into the woods and injects him with a serum. He also hands Eren keys to the basement where he has all the information on the nation of Marley as well as his true objectives. And just after this moment, Eren eats him.
What Episode Did Eren Eat His Dad?
In season three of Attack on Titan, fans, and lovers of the show got a view of how Eren got his Titan powers and also a massive revelation of how it happened. Historia Reiss, the elder half-sister of Frieda, who was killed by Grisha to get the Founding Titan powers, unlocks the suppressed memory of how it happened, also with her father, and that lets Eren know the root of his powers and how eating his dad gave him the powers. The episode also shows Eren how his dad killed off the members of the Reiss family.
The revelation is in Episode 6 of the third season and the name of the episode is Sin. In the episode, Eren is held captive in the Underground Chapel and he tries to free himself but couldn’t quite do it. Historia then approaches him to tell him that her father, Rod, didn’t go wrong and that he was also after the good of humanity he had no choice when he gave orders regarding the Scouts and Pastor Nick’s killing. Rod arrives just then and after a while, he and Freida place their hands on Eren which causes him to remember brief moments in his past.
In the memories, he sees their Reiss family, the underground cavern, his father’s keys, a Titan, and him as a child eating his father. Following that, Rod asks if he now knows his dad’s sins. That moment also seems to unlock a memory in Historia’s past as she remembers seeing a girl who her father identified as Frieda, her elder half-sister. The episode is the 43rd overall episode of Attack on Titan and its Japanese air date was August 27, 2018, while the English Airdate was on September 30 in 2018.
What Age Was Eren When He Ate His Dad?
From the memory that Eren got when he got the touch from Rod and Historia, it is clear that Eren was still a young boy when his father gave him the keys and he subsequently ate him. It was also at that same age that Eren became a Titan and when the wall between the humans and the Titans was breached.
According to cbr.com, Eren learns he was the Attack Titan in Season one when he was 15 years old, five years before he inherited the Attack Titan from his father. This means that at the time when Eren ate his father, in an event that made him a Titan, he was only 10 years old. Just a couple of years later, he joined the survey corps and graduated.
Why Didn’t Eren Remember Eating His Dad?
Eren doesn’t remember the whole story of eating his father and becoming a Titan though he is young at that time that is not the reason for it. There have been several fan theories to answer the big question of how he didn’t remember that but one thing I can confirm is that there was a reason for it.
Right before the moment where Eren eats his father, he is injected with a serum by his father, Grisha, and it is possible that the serum was for him to forget the moment. In Season 3 episode 6 where the revelation comes, Historia Reiss also remembers a memory in the past and her father lets her know it was Frieda and she removes the memory to protect her. This may also be something Grisha did to protect Eren.
Also, there’s a theory that when a Titan devours another Titan, they don’t remember the moment. Bert asked Ymir once if she remembered who she ate but she said she didn’t. Not only Ymir, but Bert also didn’t remember who she ate. This could mean that because Eren ate Grisha and he can’t remember because of that.
Whichever one it is, I’m more inclined to go with the first one because Grisha loves his son, Eren, and wanted to pass on his powers to him so that he would allow himself to be eaten by him. There is also no explanation for the serum he took and the reason behind the injection may be that he wanted him to forget the moment and forget what he did to the Reiss family.