Attack on Titan Chapter 120 Instant Review: A Stroll Down Memory Path Lane.

Coming into Attack on Titan Chapter 120, “Instant”, I was incredibly nervous.
After the shocking cliffhanger of Chapter 119, I was concerned that Eren would not survive.
Even though I was pretty sure he would, there was this lingering feeling of doubt in my mind.
Thankfully, the meme part of Attack on Titan‘s fan base was right because, as they predicted, Zeke catches Eren’s head when it falls towards him, showing that his baseball skills have more than paid off.
This allows Zeke to send him and Eren to the Path dimension for Eren to recover.
It is here that we get what I already consider to be some of the most glorious panels in the manga.
The one of Eren standing, illuminated by the light of where the Paths meet the Coordinate, is beautiful, and shows just how far Hajime Isayama has come as an artist.
Along with the great artwork, the character development of this scene is also stellar, with Eren and Zeke attempting to top one another with their betrayals.
Eren’s line here about how he betrayed his brother “because I was born into this world” is amazing and probably my favourite usage of that recurring line.
Before this, however, we get official conformation that the girl who saved Zeke in Chapter 115 is Ymir Fritz, the first Titan Shifter.
One thing I did not expect, though, was that Ymir apparently has no mind of her own.
She just serves the royal blooded Titan Shifters, which is why she saved Zeke, essentially making her a slave.
This seems to carry through with the themes of freedom Attack on Titan is known for, and has me wondering if Eren will attempt to free Ymir from her enslavement.
He looks like he wants to help her when he realizes her position.
I have actually already heard a pretty good theory that the Attack Titan was created to eventually save Ymir since it stands for freedom.
But, whatever happens, I do hope Ymir has more of a role in the story because it would be disappointing if the most important character in the series’ lore was reduced to an emotionless slave.
Anyway, after her introduction we get the betrayal topping scene, where Eren betrays Zeke, only for Zeke to betray Eren.
I expected Eren to turn on Zeke because I knew there was no way he would be in favor of the euthanasia plan but I had no idea Zeke was suspicious of Eren’s true motives.
I thought he was blinded by the love he has for his brother.
It was great to see that Zeke had actually outsmarted Eren here because, in earlier chapters, I thought Zeke was getting stupider.
These last few chapters Isayama has really hammered home how intelligent Zeke is again.
Just how intelligent?
Well, after spending so long in the Path dimension with Ymir, waiting for Eren to wake up, Zeke has found a way to remove the Fritz King’s renunciation of war.
This not only allows him to have control over the Founding Titan but, supposedly, should allow any royal blooded person who inherits the power to use it.
So, for example, if Historia or her child inherited the Founding Titan in the future they may be able to use it fully, without being influenced by the first king’s ideology.
Speaking of Historia, I would like to go back to the moment just when Zeke catches Eren’s head.
After this moment, we get a full page panel of Eren’s memories, along with Kruger’s and potentially Uri’s.
Here we get an image of Historia who we can see is wearing the clothes she wore in the flashback panels of Chapter 108, where she was seen talking to her child’s supposed father while a mysterious figure looked on.
This figure is thought to have been Eren by a lot of readers and this image of Historia from his perspective seems to support that.
If this is Eren talking to Historia at that moment then it could be when he convinced her she needed to get pregnant so she could save herself.
Whether this means Eren is the father remains to be seen but, with this image being shown, I do not think conformation is far off.
In fact, we may get a bunch of reveals going forward as Eren and Zeke look over Grisha’s memories.
In “Instant” Zeke is showing Eren their father’s memories to prove to him how Grisha has brainwashed him, only for the reverse to happen.
Instead of Zeke proving to Eren that Grisha never felt sorry for his actions, Zeke learns that he actually did.
The two brothers see their father quickly track down the location of the Founding Titan, only to abandon his mission to stay with his family.
This means Grisha took the Founding Titan when he was left with no other choice after the Colossal and Armoured Titan attacked.
Oddly enough, he even seems to see Zeke and apologies to him for how he was treated as a child.
Zeke is clearly very affected by this and that fact has me wondering if Eren could actually sway him into changing his mindset.
As for what would push him in this direction, I think maybe seeing that his father figure Tom Xaver was working with Eren Kruger could do the trick.
Again, this is just a theory of mine but with images of Kruger’s life being seen in that big memory panel it stands to reason we could get some memories from him next chapter.
And what memory could be better to get Zeke to help Eren than one of Xaver helping Kruger?
However, Zeke working with Eren may not be a good thing since I currently think Eren is planning to destroy the world with the Rumbling.
Still, we do not know Eren’s goal but this seems to be the most likely scenario.
Setting aside this grim topic, I have to say I found the scenes in Grisha’s memories to be rather funny at times.
There is a great moment of sarcasm from Eren and we even see a moment that confirms Grisha meet Kenny.
The reason I found that last one funny is because as Grisha is walking away from him he is sweating like a mad man, probably realizing how demented Kenny was.
It will be interesting to see what memories Eren and Zeke will uncover next chapter.
Maybe they will go even further and see the origins of the Titans?
Fingers crossed.
No matter how much they see, though, almost no time will have passed in the present, as shown perfectly by the title of the chapter “Instant”.
This title speaks to how all that is happening in the Path dimension will be over in an instant once Eren and Zeke return to the real world.
Overall, I thought Chapter 120 was another great one of Attack on Titan.
It once again went in a direction I did not expect, and looks to be laying the foundation for future reveals and the end of the manga.
At the very least, I think we have ten chapters left before we finally reach the story’s conclusion.