[If nothing else, Frieda appreciates that Eren freely shares information with her. Granted, he may simply see her as nothing but a spectre, a ghost that has no bearing on his present and future. (And she doesn't know what he does withhold.)
Had she been given the opportunity to meet Zeke, they'd likely have been besotted with each other immediately. Finally, someone who understands that there's no atonement for Eldia's sins! Finally, someone with an Eldian extermination plan that is as humane as it gets! Finally, someone willing and able to implement it!
But that element of willingness would have faltered whenever Frieda would have had a clear-headed moment - a moment where it's only herself in her head. In such a moment, she'd have recoiled from Zeke, and she might even have reached out for help in the direction of Eren, who's dead-set to not let the people of the Walls pay the price for their ancestors' deeds - only to draw back from him too, given his readiness to spill the blood of the outside world.
Between the Jaeger brothers, there ultimately wouldn't have been space for her to subsist in, not as herself, not as a person. In the end, Zeke would have needed her titan, not her, and his adoration would have been for the person she became through the first king's will. Voluntarily or not, she'd either have aided him, or Eren would have been forced to take her out to prevent that from happening.
As it is, right here and now in the Coordinate's light, Eren's anger is every bit as self-righteous as Frieda's persistent, suicidal non-violence, and neither of them can chip away at the other's resolve even a tiny bit. When he tells her that she wasn't always like this, she doesn't react in the slightest. Of course I wasn't always like this. I was an ignorant child, little more than a sheep bleating about how it'd do away with all the wolves, knowing nothing of the world.
She's about to finally respond, having let him express himself while quietly listening, to tell him that it doesn't matter if the Eldians of Paradis Island want to live, because Judgement Day will come for them rightly and regardless - but he beats her to the punch, deciding to end their fruitless stand-off.
And just like that, everything disappears - the endless sands, the starry sky, the light tree, even her chains. They're back under the sky of Ellipsa. For a moment, she stares at their clasped hands, her mind a whirl of all sorts of things. How ironic for them, who revealed themselves as ideological foils, to be brought back still in this pose.
They let go of each other at the same time, and Frieda can't stop looking at Eren. You're my enemy. For the first time, metaphorical gears that were never allowed to turn before start moving inside the labyrinth that's her thoughts and memories and inherited will. The revelations will need time to settle, to be digested by all the parts that make up Frieda Reiss and the Founding Titan and everyone else whose memories she holds inside.]
...
I heard you.
[A cryptic thing to say, and the only thing she says. She won't be the first to move, but if Eren leaves, she won't stop or impede him.
Much later, the Frieda that still lives inside the labyrinth will be able to look at all the things about Eren that frighten and repel her in this moment and find kinship with him, as well as a sense of compassion for knowing that it has to be as hard for him as it is for her. But right now, she can't sense or communicate anything but frosty guardedness. He's dangerous.]
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Had she been given the opportunity to meet Zeke, they'd likely have been besotted with each other immediately. Finally, someone who understands that there's no atonement for Eldia's sins! Finally, someone with an Eldian extermination plan that is as humane as it gets! Finally, someone willing and able to implement it!
But that element of willingness would have faltered whenever Frieda would have had a clear-headed moment - a moment where it's only herself in her head. In such a moment, she'd have recoiled from Zeke, and she might even have reached out for help in the direction of Eren, who's dead-set to not let the people of the Walls pay the price for their ancestors' deeds - only to draw back from him too, given his readiness to spill the blood of the outside world.
Between the Jaeger brothers, there ultimately wouldn't have been space for her to subsist in, not as herself, not as a person. In the end, Zeke would have needed her titan, not her, and his adoration would have been for the person she became through the first king's will. Voluntarily or not, she'd either have aided him, or Eren would have been forced to take her out to prevent that from happening.
As it is, right here and now in the Coordinate's light, Eren's anger is every bit as self-righteous as Frieda's persistent, suicidal non-violence, and neither of them can chip away at the other's resolve even a tiny bit. When he tells her that she wasn't always like this, she doesn't react in the slightest. Of course I wasn't always like this. I was an ignorant child, little more than a sheep bleating about how it'd do away with all the wolves, knowing nothing of the world.
She's about to finally respond, having let him express himself while quietly listening, to tell him that it doesn't matter if the Eldians of Paradis Island want to live, because Judgement Day will come for them rightly and regardless - but he beats her to the punch, deciding to end their fruitless stand-off.
And just like that, everything disappears - the endless sands, the starry sky, the light tree, even her chains. They're back under the sky of Ellipsa. For a moment, she stares at their clasped hands, her mind a whirl of all sorts of things. How ironic for them, who revealed themselves as ideological foils, to be brought back still in this pose.
They let go of each other at the same time, and Frieda can't stop looking at Eren. You're my enemy. For the first time, metaphorical gears that were never allowed to turn before start moving inside the labyrinth that's her thoughts and memories and inherited will. The revelations will need time to settle, to be digested by all the parts that make up Frieda Reiss and the Founding Titan and everyone else whose memories she holds inside.]
...
I heard you.
[A cryptic thing to say, and the only thing she says. She won't be the first to move, but if Eren leaves, she won't stop or impede him.
Much later, the Frieda that still lives inside the labyrinth will be able to look at all the things about Eren that frighten and repel her in this moment and find kinship with him, as well as a sense of compassion for knowing that it has to be as hard for him as it is for her. But right now, she can't sense or communicate anything but frosty guardedness. He's dangerous.]