AOT S4 E9 - BRAVE VOLUNTEERS

Eldians weren’t going to attack. Then Grisha went on a mission to get the power to fight Marley. That’s why Marley went. Bc they knew Grisha was in there plotting against them

It all could have been avoided for sure. The reason it is happening is that they honestly wanted power and money imo. Yes there was a vague threat from the king in the walls BUT paradis had a huge cache of fuel underneath that Marley wanted, plus having the founder would make them unstoppable. The people captured by Marley (volunteers) were colonised, Marley just wants to be able to do that more.

For your question of when exactly Eren started to change, it was in the last episode of season 3 when he kissed Historia's hand and saw something but at this point we as the viewers don't know what the "something" is. You can see the change in him later in the episode when he is disconnected from the others and very grim while they are at in the sea.

remember Eren Kruger the owl telling Grisha to take care of Mikasa and Armin, before they were even bornvm? Before grisha ever left Marley? why did Grisha invade the walls? why were the walls attacked that day after Grisha left the house in the first episode? After he told Eren that he was going to show him “what’s in the basement”? non spoiler questions to keep in mind.

Fun fact: onyankopon is how Ghanaians call God in Twi language.

"She has become eren" hurt people hurt people lol

If the tyburs revealed the fact that king Frits was the one to have stopped the titan war, they would’ve just lost their main argument for scapegoating the eldians. Also, having the founder would mean having Marley at the absolute top of the food chain again, it’s the strongest weapon on earth. The nations around Marley have all developed weapons that can start overpowering titans, it won’t be long before the titans aren’t an “I win” button anymore. Just some of the reasons as to why Marley might’ve gone for the founder instead of leaving them in peace.

About this all being avoidable, as Samarth said, Reiner Annie and Berthold were kids who has been brainwashed by a propaganda that has been going on for generations. To touch on the point of being avoidable, remember Tybur Speech, Marley never attack the island because the founding titan was in the hands of the royals. So the vow renouncing war was active because of the bloodline, when and why they send the colossal and the armored to destroy the wall? When Marley learned that the founding titan was stolen and was no longer in royal hands. Marley and the world got scared because the uncertainty, no royal blood no vow. What was their desicion? send the titans to retrieve the founding; if we don't know who has it, we feel safer having it ourself. I don't know if i explained myself well here, but hope it helps you understand better the Why Marley send the kids to "Save the World"

For clarification on Ackermans (only stuff mentioned so far): The Ackermans are not the Asian side of the family (as many people seem to think, I’m not even sure if Levi is technically Asian at all, he’s so short due to childhood malnutrition) but the Kenny side. Levi found out he was an Ackerman after Kenny revealed that he was his uncle, so towards the end of s3 p1. The Ackermans were said to hold the power of a titan within the body of a human. They are immune to many of the founders memory bs and we’re just created by the king as a personal guard. You must understand just how strong the founder is, we know that the founder created hundreds of thousands of colossal titans to make the walls out of, who knows just what he’s capable of. I don’t know if the Ackermans are a pre or post wall thing, I’d assume they’re pre.

Youre right. In the previous episode where Sasha dies.. ...it doesn't seem pivotal in the moment given the sheer insanity and overwhelming reveals back then. I wont give anything away but the butterfly effect it has is insane. (Ugh so sad watching her friends mourn her here:( )

Just a clarification on the Kings royal blood effecting the minds of the Titan. It only applied to the Founding titan. When a founding titan of royal blood obtains the founder, they lose the free will to choose what to do with it. Their minds are altered to not use the founder to its full potential. This is a choice made by the previous king when he wiped the memories of past eldians. In order to stop them from seeking freedom or developing. Which Erwin so desperately wanted to understand as his father as he had the illegal possession of the history of eldians on Paradise. Zeke is a titan of royal blood but since he doesn’t have the founder, (beast titan) his royal blood is hinted at effecting things differently. But we don’t know how yet. As for Eren, he is the first obtainee of the founding titan without royal blood. This is the motivation behind why erens dad took it from the royals. And why Rod Reiss wanted to feed eren to Historia to maintain the royal blood effecting the Founder.

I could watch like 10 of these watchalongs back to back no breaks

Marley attacked paradis despite knowing that its not gonna activate the rumbling anyway is for two reasons, first they actually didnt know , the ones who knew were tyber family , second reason is because the world caught up to there titan power , so they wanted to get the founding titan and its powers, this was stated in early episodes of s4

On a point about the "we didnt have any choice" I think Armin is more so talking about how they felt. In Eren and Reiners conversation, Eren said "You did it to save the world, you had no choice". Even though that wasn't really the case for Reiner or Annie or maybe even Bertholt and Marcel, it's a comment on how people (children esp) are propogandized and used as tools. It is a double entendre, it was never just about saving the world it was always about maintaining a certain hegemonic power, or as a response to some personal trauma, or some other selfish reason. Yes there were many choices that could have been made to stop atrocities from happening and they weren't actually done for some greater good, but how do you get a lot of people to believe wiping out a civilization is something desirable? What do you believe about the world and how it works? How do these beliefs decide what you think is right to do and what you would do? And "saving the world," are there any words sweeter than that?

16:20 in the last episode of season 3 when they make it to the shore armin finds the shell. think it represents his dream of him and eren reaching the sea from the descriptions they read of it in the book growing up. 20:26 don't want to risk getting into spoilery territory as I don't think its been properly explained in the show as of this episode, but eren already becomes much more withdrawn and unlike himself by the time they make that journey to the sea in the last episode of season 3.