What was Eren's vision about?

Question

I can't believe I missed this three times. I went back to the beginning of AoT in episode 1 and noticed these scenes that occurred at the beginning of the episode. Eren is having some type of daydream or nightmare before waking suddenly with Mikasa leaning over him. Here are the still shots of it.

What exactly were these visions? Were they some type of compressed/hidden memories? What was the farm house we saw? I am also pretty sure this wasn't in the anime but manga answers are welcome also. ;)

Note: I couldn't find a video link to give but there is a animated GIF version of it that I made here. Also helpful but it is quite easy to see the scene if you want to since it occurs straight after the opening of AoT in episode 1.

Answer 1

I agree with @Maroon. It's basically just a foreshadowing dream/bad feeling he had which combined his existing knowledge with his aspirations/dreams.

However he does have legitimate flashbacks/dreams he doesn't know anything about later in the show/manga and discovering what it all means is part of the plot. He also keeps dreaming about a "female" he doesn't know. His memory is hazy, and there are

the lost 3 years when his father experimented on him

which I feel they will reveal over time. He also probably has memories/dream issues associated with

being the controller

though it wasn't revealed if he became that

during the 3 year break or was like that before,

which could impact whether his dreams were induced by or related to it.

Answer 2

This answer contains spoilers.

Please do not read if you are not up to date with the manga (chapter 89 is where this answer is based upon).

This question is strongly related with the title of the first chapter/episode: "To you, 2000 years from now". Check this related post on Anime StackExchange, which I answered similarly.

TL;DR

Eren's reality, is sometimes distorted by the memories of the future and past inheritors of the 'Attack Titan' power.

Also keep in mind that there is no official answer, thus the correct answer (for now) would be "We don't know".

However, after discussing on some forums and reading some theories, some hints provide a common direction.

As we know, Eren obtained the power of the Attack Titan with the Coordinate Titan (also known as the Progenitor Titan) from his father, Grisha Jaeger. Ever since, he has been having certain "visions", or "memories" especially while fighting other titans. In the manga chapter 89, this becomes clear.

SPOILERS!! Images from manga chapter 89.

(Picture source: Mangastream Disclaimer: I do not own these pictures. They are only used to answer this question more clearly.)

Leading to Hange asking:

Which brings us to the second hint of this chapter. Eren recalls the time he was able to use the Coordinate Titan's power.

Focus on "everything connected".

Which brings us to the culmination of the chapter (and the 'answer' to your question):

SPOILERS! If you have not read chapters 87 and above, do not read further!

Whose memories are these, I wonder

TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION

There exists a memory-timeline that is outside of our perception of time. That is, Eldians who have obtained (at least) one of the 9 original Titan's power, have access to the memory-timeline of all previous (and possibly future) Eldians who obtained the same power!! In simple terms, Eren has the 'Attack Titan' power and the 'Coordinate Titan' power. He is able to access his father's memories, and either alter them or combine them with his own memories. Thus, the visions he is having in the first scenes of the first chapter, might be a result of a distorted reality, caused by the memories that the future inheritor of the 'Attack Titan' power is inheriting from the Attack Titan memory timeline.

As stated above, this is all speculation because nothing is revealed yet.

I apologize if this raised confusion, but I am more than happy to clarify parts of my answer.

Answer 3

The vision that Eren had in the first espiode were premonition of things that were going to happen in the anime or later on but he chalked it as other nightmare, so did Mikasa. Eren doesn't understand these visions and what they are about.

Answer 4

As the royal family is able to erase the memories of ordinary people, maybe the dream is not a vision or anything, rather than memories from Eren's ancestors that were erased (but not completely erased) by the royal family.

I mean it's also a mystery where Eren's father came frome, as he was found outside the wall with supposedly no memory of how he got there. I think there's a good chance that these event are connected.

So if the visions are memories of Eren's ancestors, they might have taken place before the wall was built, therefore resembling Shiganshina Distric before the wall protected the rest of humanity
(I don't think this part is too relevant anymore reading from chapter 86 onwards)

I think that from chapter 89 p. 45-46 there is a strong indicator that history is bound to repeat itself. This might also be the reason for starting the series with the sentence

"to you 2000 years from now"

I think that supports the theory that Eren's "vision" are really his memories of past times. Either that or something about timetraveling or time loops.

Worth mentioning is also the repeating phrase chapter 89 p.36

Everything is connected

Answer 5

I don't think there is more to the visions you mentioned. They aren't in the comics and only seem to represent the events that are about to happen later in the same episode. For example, you can see the flowers and mill from Shiganshina District when Eren walks up and you can also see the Smiling Titan devour Eren's mother.

On the other hand, there is more to the visions that appear before the intro. I'll not go into details as they aren't specifically asked for, but as you said they are indeed suppressed memories from the past.

Answer 6

Eren doesn't have any titan power during that 1st dream. He didn't get his powers until he had his 2nd dream (which wasn't a dream, but a memory). When Eren and the others evacuated Shiganshina, his dad found Eren and took him out to the woods to pass on his titan powers.

I feel like everyone posting about his 1st dream are overlooking that fact. That dream had no significant meaning for the past. As for the future.... it wouldn't make sense.

Answer 7

Since shifters can see the memories of other shifters of the same titan power, maybe he was seeing the memory of some other attack titan holder looking at Eren's memories. That didn't really make sense the way I said it, so I'm going to give an example: maybe Grisha saw Eren's memories of those things, and Eren saw Grisha seeing Eren's memories.

Answer 8

Spoilers below up to the current Manga issues:

I have a theory that this opening scene will also be one of the last scenes of the series, and that Eren's consciousness may 'loop' back to this initial scene. The way that he wakes up so disoriented, not knowing where he is at first, and saying that the dream seemed to go on forever, makes me think that what he was experiencing was the paths and not just a dream. We know that Eren is able to alter the memories of previous inheritors of the attack titan like his father and Eren Kruger, and even influence their actions retroactively, so it makes sense that he would be able to influence his own past self's memories an actions as well. I don't think the series will end with a cut a dried time travel plot (eg. current Eren goes back into his child body and relives all the events) but I think this scene might indicate more of a ripple effect with both the past and the future influencing Eren.

Answer 9

This visions don't apear in the first chapter of the manga. This is probably just a stupid mistake that happened because the person who produced this episode didn't know that Eren just started to have those visions after the fall of Wall Maria because he inherited the attack titan's power from his father on that moment.