In the finale of Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 2, we finally get to see Historia’s conversation with Eren that’s been kept secret from us until now. But there’s a strange moment in Season 4 Episode 28 (aka Episode 87) where Eren refers to Historia as the “worst girl in the world.” What did he mean?
This article has SPOILERS for Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 28, aka Episode 87. There are no manga spoilers in this article.
Eren Told Historia His Plans & Then Reminded Her of Why They Were There
Historia and Floch were among the only people that Eren trusted with his full plans. He didn’t tell Armin or Mikasa, but he told both of them. And while we know how Floch ultimately reacted, Historia’s reaction was a mystery until this latest episode.
She was definitely not on board, and quickly tried to argue him out of it.
Eren started out the conversation by telling Historia that the only options she had in light of the MP’s plan to have her eat Zeke is to run or fight. But Historia is insistent that she’ll go through with the plan if needed, after everything that’s been sacrificed for her.
But Eren won’t have it.
He doesn’t want her to have a shortened life as a Titan or to just be breeding future Titans who eat their parents. He wants things to be different. So he confides in Historia and tells her his real plan. Of course, Historia immediately believes Eren’s plan is wrong — he will just be hurting innocent people, just like his mother was innocent when she was killed. But Eren insists that the only way to “end this cycle of revenge fueled by hate is to bury our hate-filled history along with civilization itself.”
Historia insists she won’t be able to live with herself if she doesn’t try to stop him. So Eren offers to wipe her memory once he gets the Founder’s power, so she doesn’t have to live with the guilt. She just needs to wait a little while. But she can’t abide by that plan either.
That’s when Eren says, “You can. Because you’re the ‘worst girl in the world’ who saved me back then.”
Eren’s referring to that time he was tied up underground by Historia’s dad, Rod Reiss, and Rod was trying to convince her to eat Eren. At the time, we weren’t positive about the brainwashing and the vow against war, so it seemed like possibly the best solution for everyone. Eren had learned that his dad had eaten all her siblings and caused untold suffering, and he didn’t know why at the time. He felt like everyone would be better off if Historia simply ate him and reclaimed the Founding Titan’s power (along with the Attack Titan that he had.)
Instead, Historia refused to take the Titan serum and eat Eren. She knocked the serum out of Rod’s hands, spilling it, and went to help Eren.
Historia told Rod that he was just trying to manipulate her. “I won’t let you kill me!”
Eren felt so much guilt though, he actually wanted her to eat him at that point in time. “If I go on living, everyone will keep suffering. Hurry up and eat me!” he begged her. “I can’t take living like this.”
But she said, “Shut up idiot. Just shut up, crybaby. Exterminate the Titans? Who the hell wants to do that bullshit? I’m starting to hate humanity! Let ’em get wiped out by the Titans! I’m humanity’s biggest enemy! Got it? I’m the worst girl who ever lived!”
At that point in time, Historia had grown to hate humanity because of how much pain it had inflicted on her. She told Eren that she wanted to save him personally, because she heard him crying in desperation and feeling like his life was pointless. But she didn’t care about saving humanity in general, and would rather save Eren personally than all of mankind.
It’s interesting, because this is, in a way, Eren’s justification for what he’s doing now. And when Historia saved him back then, she set the wheels in motion for this to happen. So when Eren quotes those words back to her, he’s reminding her of how she felt and how he is doing the same kind of thing that she did back then.
Apparently those words do have some kind of effect on her, because she next suggests getting pregnant as a way of stalling the MPs before they make her eat Zeke (which also buys Eren more time.) So I’m guessing that by quoting her, he convinced her to go along with his plan no matter how much it hurt.
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