I just had a mind-blowing meta-theory about Attack on Titan and I need to share it.

I really think there is a direct connection between Eren Kruger’s cryptic words and what Armin finally realized when he was inside the Paths.

If you look at the story from a meta-perspective—thinking about the relationship between the author, the manga, and the characters—Kruger’s words make perfect sense.

When he says "There is no such thing as truth in this world," truth means history. It’s just a fluid fiction shaped by whoever tells it.

When he says "That is the reality," reality means the manga world itself—the cruel, unyielding fantasy created by Isayama.

And when he says "It is a fact that Dina possesses royal blood," fact means the canonical lore or the story setting. It's the absolute rule established by the creator that can't be changed.

Kruger basically knew they were all trapped inside a predetermined "setting" and "reality."

Fast forward to the final arc. I'm convinced this is exactly what Armin figured out when Ymir swallowed him.

When Armin finds himself in the Paths, he goes through a process of elimination, explicitly denying every typical possibility: "This is not a dream, an illusion, or the afterlife." But right after that, he says, "This is the Paths. This is reality."

If you look at this through a meta-lens, "the Paths" is literally the blank sheet of paper—the manga canvas. It’s a vast, stark white space where every character's destiny is drawn and connected. And "reality" means the manga world itself. Armin stripped away every illusion and arrived at the ultimate conclusion Kruger hinted at: he realized he is just a character existing inside a manga.

Armin managed to figure out the structure of the world entirely on his own. But the tragic part is that too many people in this world are just swallowed up by it—and I’m talking about both the characters in the story and us, the readers. While characters like the Restorationists or the Marleyan soldiers were completely consumed by the "history" fed to them, and while we as readers get easily sucked into the narrative, Armin looked at the absolute white space of the Paths and deduced the meta-reality of existence.

So, here is my ultimate conclusion:

The true Founding Titan is actually Hajime Isayama himself. And all this time, we, the readers, were the ones having our memories altered by his power.

This is the conclusion I’ve reached after reading "Attack on Titan."

That is all!

Isayama is the True Founding Titan (A Mind-Blowing Meta-Theory)［spoiler!］