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Isayama’s attention to detail when constructing scenes is one of my favourite aspects of AoT. 121 is probably one of my favourite examples of this. When eren tells Grisha that “he started this story” there is a brilliant juxtaposition between Grisha grabbing his sister’s hand in
One panel with Grisha stabbing his own hand in the next. To me it’s meant to represent Grisha’s self hatred and blame for everything he cause. This is shown through the emphasis on the hand that led his sister to her death. This same hand is then shown in the next panel as the
As the hand that Grisha stabs to obtain his Titan powers. Viewing it in context of the panel with his sister and the dialogue of him “starting the story” it implies that the last push to commit his acts was his self loathing. Him stabbing that hand could be seen as an act of self
punishment in this context. And this is a darkly poetic twist to Grisha’s arc. His whole life was driven by hatred to Marleyans, his father and himself. Grisha’s arc is about how hatred leads to one becoming the very thing one hates as seen with his treatment of Zeke and him
growing a similar hatred towards marleyans like the solder who killed his sister had towards eldians. And to fit with the themes of cycle of hatred with Grisha’s character it was his self hatred that led him to commit the most evil actions. Despite his hatred, Grisha never
wanted to hurt anyone. He was even disgusted when watching the man who killed his sister fall into his demise. Which makes it all the more tragic when he succumbs due to his sense of obligation which has roots in his guilt. He even murders the children present which to him was
Unforgivable especially since his sister died as a child. And what’s more fucked is that he was pushed by his son eren who represented his second chance to make things right in his life. Long story short: Grisha has a fucked up life lmao
