(I reviewed this early by way of the Attack Titan)
I'd first like to applaud the people responsible for the eerie silence when Eren starts talking to Grisha, never would I have thought that having no music would fit the atmosphere so well. I loved how the scarf scene was enhanced by Mikasa's utterance "It's warm" with a reverb effect and definitely the choice to reuse Wit's storyboards for the key scene with eye shots of Grisha and Zeke to connect back to episode 1 how he was looking at an estimation of Eren looking back at him this entire time. A most clever decision to maintain consistency and the foreshadowing genius of Isayama!
This episode was such a rollercoaster of emotions not just for us but for Eren himself, displaying various interesting faces in his journey through his father's memories.
In the paths before entering Grisha's memories, Eren displayed a bout of anger at Zeke's resignation of himself and his own bloodline for the sake of perishing for the greater good. But it wasn't a matter of comparing the bloodshed from either plan to which Eren calls messed up, but the ideology each brother abides by that are at odds with each other (as represented by Eren not catching the ball the previous episode). The rejection of one's people disgusts Eren, as someone who lives with the pride of being born and being free. His anger at Zeke and scorning him as a pathetic man who could only define himself by sacrificing his own dignity, that is the ultimate act of shame for him. Because "I don't want to just live (for the sake of it)(ED7).
But Eren is also capable of sorrow. After witnessing the bloodbath at his own hands at the cabin, Zeke thought nothing more and signalled Eren to move on, but the scene of him wrapping his scarf around Mikasa means a lot more to him. The scarf represents beauty in a cruel world for Mikasa, as well as the promise he made to his mother to protect her at all costs, a promise he had now discarded through Louise's words to Mikasa, representing a beautiful moment lost in the past. To MIkasa now, it is a symbol of her attachment to him, which Mikasa feels conflicted about at the moment. We don't get a chance to see this side of Eren very often, and it sucks that neither does Mikasa.
=I am me, I always have been=
I anticipated this moment since it came out years ago because it marks such a significant turning point for Eren's character because while he used the catchphrase "Because I was born into this world" rather loosely this was the first time we've heard Eren actually show some semblance of self awareness and acknowledgement of his nature. It's the moment of clarity we've all been waiting for as someone who understood that he was never brainwashed by anyone or even influenced by his environment to come to this point because the main driving force behind his unquenchable thirst for absolute freedom came from within ever since he was born. He had always felt this way, and this was something Zeke, someone who never wanted to become a warrior, who was content with living in the internment zone is safety, could never understand. It's a battle of nature and nurture within Eren and between Eren and Zeke, as brothers who foil each other.
=Bootstrap Paradoxes=
I'm certain that many are confused about how Grisha could "see" Zeke and to be clear it's very well established in the narrative how this happens without any plotholes. Grisha simply sees Zeke from Eren's POV as he peeks into the future memories of Eren by way of the founding titan's power (hence the title of the episode), thus also foreshadowing that Eren would have his way midway through the episode by gaining the power of the coordinate from Ymir to transfer it to him in the first place. Grisha is literally seeing himself from Eren's eyes as he "looks" at him, just imagine that for a moment.
Since dynamic determinism is basically confirmed by the existence of this causal loop through the path (and hence memories), all characters continue to preserve their own agency through compataiblism, which is the theory that supports the coexistence of both free will and determinism, so no worries there. It's just ingenius how this was all setup and foreshadowed from the very first episode, from the very first chapter, and the execution of "time travel" (though not really) just blows my mind everytime.
I was speechless then and I am speechless now, simply a 10/10 episode.
