Here are my questions: 1. If the Reiss family had the power to change minds how did they get overthrown? Was this because the daughter who had the power to change minds died in the church? The Reiss family did have the power to manipulate others’ minds through memory manipulation and it was done through the founding titan. The founding titan that the Reiss family has in their hands, was inherited to them from 145th King, named Karl Fritz. Karl Fritz lineage and descendants are both the Fritz and Reiss family (Reiss is the new name to hide the fact of being the from the Fritz lineage) and he had a will / legacy that was so powerfully instilled through him from the Great titan war that it was able to be carried into the his succeeding founding titan memories. The will was to basically seek peace regardless of what happens to them from outside forces. He wanted all his people of Eldia to get wiped out till none of the bloodline existed and accept their fate happily because of all the trouble titan power caused to the world. So this basically means the founding titan power is incredibly useless to inherit at this point because nobody has yet to conquer the will of King Karl Fritz. When it was time Frieda Reiss to inherit the “TRUE” founding titan power from Rod’s brother Uri, she was only 15 at the time and I believe her death was 3 years later at 845, she was very inexperienced at using mind manipulation power against subjects of Ymir. So, she couldn’t use them against Grisha properly and ultimately caused the demise of the Reiss family and causing the “true” founding titan power to be intertwined with the attack titan. 2. If the Reiss family was overthrown then why would they want them back as the rulers? Why did the military corps try to overthrow the current king to try and put Historia in power if they knew that Rod was bad? Well they didn’t know Rod Reiss was bad, he was a being bad actor through this entire overthrowing arc. Everyone attached to the government was a façade for himself to find a way to become the last Ruler for Eldia till their inevitable demise. He stopped caring about using the Founding titan to save humanity and free themselves from the walls. After seeing his family change perspective so many times of saving humanity through the will of King Fritz being so powerful, he decided to enact on his selfish desire to die as the last rule of Eldia and that was his main goal. And the main King Fritz shown in the early parts of the show during the government arc, was a puppet Fritz that served as decoy for Rod Reiss. Basically, meaning all the people as figure head to Rod were not subjects of Ymir. 3. I don't fully understand how what Erin's dad was trying to do was going to help. Maybe that gets explained later. So he somehow got the formula to give Erin titan powers and gave them to him to.....overthrow the Reiss family and destroy the titans (since the Reiss family seemed to want to keep the titans alive, just out of the walls)? Eren’s father was man from the outside world. He traveled inside and outside of the walls. It will be explained later on but I’m not sure how far in depth it was done through the anime. I haven’t watched it since I finished reading the manga a while ago. 4. Maybe I missed it, but obviously others seem to be able to turn into titans, not just the Reiss family. Maybe I'll learn about it later but there has to be either another process that helps them do that or there is a splinter cell of people who broke off from the Reiss family with the formula and replicated it/use that? It will be explained later. But the vial you mentioned in question 5 is a titan shifting vial that turns subjects of Ymir into titans. A majority of the Eldian people are descendants of Ymir Fritz. Mikasa and Levi are not one of them. 5. Rod wanted Historia to do the ceremony because she had the power to control people, but he didn't, so his power wouldn't be complete after injecting himself? Or was there another reason why he didn't take the vial for himself sooner? If that makes sense. lol Historia currently is completely normal with 0 titan abilities. She has royal blood through being the illegitimate child of the royal family as Rod Reiss had a mistress that was later exiled to the northern parts of the wall. Moreover, Historia here was taken hostage by her father to turn into a regular titan through the Titan vial to then eat Eren Yeager the current founding titan at this time and regain Founding titan powers for their lineage. Along with Historia, Rod Reiss is also completely normal, the only difference is that he knows about the 13th year titan curse that every titan shapeshifter succumbs to. Acting selfishly for his best interest to avoid the will of the founding titan and curse of the titans he wanted to live prosperously in the walls as long as possible as a “ruler” and that and he goes as far as resorting to taking hostage of his last royal blooded family member Historia.
