Eren and Zeke were in the same place in Liberio. Eren held the Founding Titan; Zeke had royal blood. So why not shake hands and settle everything? Instead, they finally made contact in a battle where Eren lost his head. A family handshake became a world-class emergency operation.
The distinction is between opening access to a power and controlling what that power will do. The manga shows Zeke avoiding contact, although it does not itemize every tactical reason for that decision.
1. The meeting happened. Zeke passed a baseball instead
Chapter 115, “Support,” shows a flashback to their conversation during Eren’s infiltration of Marley. Zeke proposes making Eldians unable to have children. Eren pretends to support him. Zeke considers direct contact dangerous at that moment and hands him a baseball instead.
The Founder and a person with royal blood form the crucial combination. “Stop playing catch and shake your brother’s hand!” is a perfectly reasonable reaction to the power rules. But touching opens the process; it does not automatically finish it.
2. A touch is not an automatic Rumbling button
In chapters 120–122, the brothers enter the Paths. Eren rejects Zeke’s sterilization plan. Zeke tries to command Ymir using the authority of royal blood. Ultimately Ymir makes her own choice after Eren addresses her as a person.
Their contact starts a battle for control rather than instantly launching the Rumbling or imposing sterilization. Imagine two brothers fighting over the administrator login while the actual system owner has been standing there for two thousand years. The permissions menu is terrifying.
3. Why not activate the Founder inside Marley?
The confirmed facts are that Zeke refuses contact and the brothers continue their operation. Zeke’s wider plan involves not only stopping births but using a limited Rumbling as military deterrence to protect the people of Paradis through the remainder of their lives.
A plausible interpretation is that operating the Founder in hostile territory would make controlling the aftermath and escaping difficult. Paradis offered access to the Wall Titans and military preparations relevant to the deterrence plan. Trust was fragile too: Eren was lying about his goals, and Zeke did not yet understand everything about the Paths.
These are inferences, not a definitive explanation supplied by the author. Their hands were close, but the futures they wanted were far apart.
4. What does Magath have to do with Gabi and Falco?
Theo Magath commands and trains Marley’s warrior candidates, including Gabi, Falco, Udo and Zofia. He is neither their father nor a relative. Yet he genuinely cares about them. He authorizes Gabi’s dangerous battlefield mission, then embraces her when she survives the Liberio attack.
The adult who is relieved a child came home alive also helped send her to war. His affection is real, and so is his participation in a military system turning children into Titan weapons. Later he recognizes more clearly the adults’ responsibility for forcing war onto children.
5. Marley is trapped by its own Titan dependence
Marley expanded its empire with Titan power. As modern artillery improves, that advantage shrinks while enemies have plenty of reasons to retaliate. Abandoning Titans overnight is risky; continuing their use means recruiting more children to inherit a power that limits their lives to thirteen years after succession.
A short-term military necessity is not a permanent moral justification. Magath’s interest in reform reflects his awareness that dependence on Titan warfare consumes the next generation.
6. Neither a handshake nor a hug guarantees the outcome
Eren and Zeke could touch, but disagreed about the goal. Magath could hug a cadet, but affection alone could not dismantle the war machine.
Being able to perform an action is different from controlling its consequences. That brotherly touch eventually required a near-fatal race to connect fingertips. It might be the most expensive high five in fiction.
Manga: Hajime Isayama, Attack on Titan, chapters 92, 115, 120–122 and 129. Scene guides: 115 · 120 · 122 · 129.
