WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from chapter 138 of Attack on Titan. Read ahead at your own discretion!

Isayama has conveniently twisted to plot of Attack on Titan (to purposely depress us fans?) in chapter 138. Let’s be frank here, we DID NOT see it coming. And with it, an interesting tidbit about Falco and his scream in the latest AOT chapter has come to the fore recently.

Jean and Connie getting converted into Titans were too heartbreaking. The shock of the situation might have made some people miss this panel concerning Falco. This very panel is what’s causing the confusion in the first place.

The incident in question takes place just before every Eldian on Fort Slava including Gabi, Connie, Jean, Karina and even Annie and Pieck’s dad get converted into Titans. Levi takes the shifters and Mikasa on Falco for a final charge on Eren. At this moment Falco lets out a scream.

The timing of the scream was surely suspicious and this has raised doubts in the minds of readers. Why the hell did Falco scream?

Why did Falco scream?

The timing of Falco’s scream and the way it was depicted in the manga was indeed suspicious. It made a part of the AOT fandom come to the conclusion that he was responsible for the titanization of people on Fort Slava.

Why? Because it is very similar to what Zeke did in Ragako. After releasing a gas laced with his spinal fluid, Zeke proceeded to convert all residents of the village including Connie’s mom into a Titan using his scream.

Did Falco do the same thing? We think not.

What reason does Falco have to convert all of them into Titans? The people on Fort Slava were his friends and family. He would never do such a thing to them intentionally. There’s no way he is going to hurt Gabi!

Even if he wished to do it for some reason, he still can’t use the powers of the scream because Falco does not have Royal Blood. The Beast Titan’s ability to convert Eldians into Titans was only possible because of Zeke’s royal blood. And guess what? Falco does not have Royal blood.

The reason why Falco screamed could be something as simple as frustration at seeing what was happening. Take a look at what the kid had to go through.

In a time span of 24 hours, he witnessed his brother die, became a titan, probably forgot about all of it, became the jaw titan, had to cope with the news that everyone he knew would be trampled upon soon, placed a risky bet on being able to fly and literally fought a devil.

In the end, he thought he had won, only to witness the very people he tried saving getting converted into Titans. That is too much for even an adult to take!!

So in short; Falco screamed out of frustration in AOT chapter 138. He was not responsible for converting every Eldian on Fort Slava into Titans. That was the work of the mean and mysterious Hallucigenia

BUT, you hold the panel in front of our faces and point out the similarities in the art of Falco screaming and Zeke screaming. Ok, we get it! The effects are too similar to ignore.

So, now the question we need to ask is;

Does Falco have Royal Blood?

As far we know, Falco does not have Royal Blood. Nothing much about his parents is known to us. And his uncle (Grice) was a member of the Eldian Restorationists who got sent to Paradis.

His family does not seem to be a part of the Royal Bloodline. At least not till now (new chapter, new reveal maybe).

There are theories making rounds in the fandom that suggest that Falco might have gotten the ‘scream ability’ from Zeke because he consumed the wine that had the latter’s spinal fluid. While it is technically impossible to pass down Royal Blood powers, it’s better to err on the side of caution (since some information about Titans and how they work is STILL ambiguous).

The paneling with similarities could be an honest mistake or an intentional foreshadowing like some believe it to be. But for now, we’d like to stick to the first possibility. Falco didn’t do it, please!

Now, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that Falco has the Royal blood and that his scream was the trigger for the people to get converted into Titans. It would be the cruellest thing that could ever happen to him. Falco definitely did not want to convert those people into Titans. It would be interesting to see how he copes with this ‘guilt’.

Do you think Falco’s scream was responsible for the titanization in AOT chapter 138? If yes, then why? Let us know your answers in the comments section below!