In between hatred and compassion, one must stand above all to move forward, paving a way for a new future. From a Hero to Zero, discover what makes Eren Yeager ended up with a decision that destroys himself and the world he used to believe in.
*SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Today, to commemorate the airing of the anime’s final episode before going AWOL for half a year until they aired the next episode of the final series, we are going to talk about a character from a fictional world, a manga entitled ‘Shingeki no Kyojin’ otherwise known as Attack on Titan. Written by Hajime Isayama many years ago, it has driven a lot of fans to the edge of madness with growth and the characters' development. One of them is Eren Yeager, a teenager who is set to fail and his ideals that are full of flaws during the final arc of the manga. Be mindful of spoilers ahead, as much as I try to avoid them. These are just thoughts from my point of view and anyone is free to make their own conclusions. Alas, a well-known fact of Eren who dreamt of soaring high in the sky had finally achieved his goal; at the price of his own existence.
Before we dive into why Eren’s plans, goals and actions were set to fail from the beginning resulting in one of the most hated ending ever in the Shingeki no Kyojin community, it all started from who Eren was and what shaped his views of the world.
Source: WhiskeyJack on Twitter
Eren Yeager was a child often described as hotheaded, impulsive and passionate. He viewed the world in black and white, even calling the people who were content in living inside the walls as livestock. In Paradis Island, which is an island where they all live, three walls exist named Maria, the outer wall, Rose, the middle and Sina which is the inner wall that protects the capital where the government is.
Source: SNK Tumblr
Thanks to Armin and the book his parents kept, Eren began to dream of the world beyond the walls, the sea of ice and fire that they made a promise to see with their own eyes. In their world, it is taboo to go beyond the walls unless you are with the Survey Corps, who is in charge to eliminate all threats to humanity; Titans. Any form of books or knowledge regarding the outside world is banned but somehow, Armin found it in his possession about the book that describes the world beyond their small island which incites the curiosity to see with their own eyes of the scenery beyond the wall that confines their world.
Eren, who received love and care from his parents shaped him to be a person who would do anything to protect them. In the beginning we saw how Eren stormed into a fight to save Armin from getting bullied, albeit it getting resolved by a cold stare from Mikasa. His action was not limited to the people that he knew, as he tried to assault two kidnappers that kidnapped Mikasa way before knowing her. He was 10 years old when Shiganshina, his hometown and the place he grew up in was attacked and with his small self he tried to lift up the beam of his own home that crushed his mother to no avail.
In the end, the sight of his mother getting eaten by a Titan (in order to not complicate things, we leave it at that) fueled his hatred towards the Titans and became the core personality of who Eren was.
Readers across the community voiced out their dissatisfaction on how the manga ended the way they did. Eren’s plan was far from perfect. He annihilated the Marleyans and initiated a war that ended up killing thousands, perhaps more. His own friends could not believe that the Eren they knew ended up choosing the most drastic way to tell the world that Eldians should never be messed with. To protect Paradis, he betrayed his own half-brother Zeke in the Paths and saved Ymir, the Founder who kept on going in a loop for the past 2000 years.
Eren was a teenager when he foreseen the future and the past shown by the Founding Titan’s powers. He felt trapped by those visions, haunted by the shadows of the past, of those who died. The Attack Titan never stops, they can only keep on moving forward – that was the teaching of Eren Kruger, the Attack Titan before them. To honor those that dedicate their hearts for humanity, Eren declared the Rumbling against the entire world and that was his last straw as he betrayed himself and his own belief.
The moment he touches the future and the past marks the downfall of a protagonist into the dark depths of antagonist role. The twist sparks anger into manga readers and anime watchers alike but it keeps the sense of realism with it as well. His actions, although extreme, are similar to the villains recorded in history, those that believed their mission is pure and will take any actions necessary despite the unethical means they took to see it through.
As Armin and the rest of what is left from the 104th Training Corps graduate alongside Levi ventured into the Path; a link between all descendants of Eldian blood to talk some sense into Eren, he was slapped with a cold truth: Eren was hiding his own insecurities and self doubt behind the cold demeanor of rejecting his friends to stop the Rumbling. Instead, Eren gave Armin, the other Titan Heirs, Mikasa and Levi two choices to pick from; be free or end the Rumbling by killing Eren. This decision came from his passion that drove him to carry all the burden for Eldians in order for them to live on without the threats of Titans as he managed to convince Ymir, the Founding Titan to give her authority as the Founder to him. Despite growing into a matured person throughout the years and grew to empathize with Marleyan Warriors who were sent to Paradis Island in order to take back the power of the Founding Titan, he kept his mission firm to keep Paradis safe. After foreseeing the future of Paradis thanks to the ability of Attack Titan, Eren abandoned his younger self as he set out for the most possible outcome despite the shortcomings of it: The Rumbling. He wanted his friends to stop him since that was the only way and they would be celebrated as heroes if they succeed or the outcome would be disastrous.
Eren believed that despite the honorable goal of his mission to save the Eldians and Paradis, it sometimes required unethical means. He saw himself as a pawn, hating war despite being in the center of it and ended up killing the audience during the taking of War Hammer Titan that ended up killing the civilians and even children.
Source: AOT S3E59, "The Other Side of the Wall"
He yearns to be saved too, nevertheless it is too late for him to undo his actions. No one will remember Eren as the kid who saved them from an icky situation back when he was a trainee. The world will remember him as a villain, recorded in history. Although Eren has become the symbol of freedom due to his actions of wanting to give the freedom to his friends, people that he cherished after having it stripped away from him over and over again, the actions taken along the way was something that could not be ignored. It runs parallelism to our world, how the Attack on Titan world is weaved to fit and be deciphered similarly to how ours work. How once a hero that lived long enough sees himself as a villain in the name of goodness. Alas, is it the good that they foreseen in their eyes as their own view taints and changes their perceptions of the world?
For example we have Adolf Hitler. The jokes of him committing genocide after getting rejected from art school aside, the man killed six million of Jews and millions more as he was convinced that the Jews will ruin the world. Adolf’s view on the Jews was that they were the enemy of the German, similar to how Eren viewed the Marleyans and the entire world as a threat against Paradis Island, his homeland. Adolf once said that by removing the Jews, they (the Germany) will be ‘healthy’ again.
The Evolution of Eren's Eyes
Source: Pinterest
Eren once posed a question, if they eradicated the Titans in the world, will they be free? The answer came to him after the time skip and the revelation on why the Founding Titan decides to ‘cage’ themselves in the three Great Walls: Sina, Maria and Rose. Since the world of Attack on Titan (or Shingeki no Kyojin) took inspiration from Germany, from the name ‘Yeager’ and the opening song from the first season Guren no Yumiya used vocal with German lines as well as their second opening of the same season, Wings of Freedom (Die Flgel der Freiheit in the lyrics).
A lot of stories of our world possess the same foundation as the journey of Eren: the meaning behind freedom and to always move forward, simply because we were born into the world. We are the fledglings, the youths that seek after the meaning of life like moths chasing after the flame. Will our flames burn so bright or will it die right after the spark? Effervescent youths that grew up searching for their place in the world, will they be stumped with the ‘world’ that they imagined turned out as a story beyond the realms of reality?
Good does not always mean evil and evil does not mean they are not good either. In the end, Eren literally became the symbol of freedom that left a deep impression on those that crossed paths with him. The author, Hajime Isayama once asked in an interview back then in 2019 what he will do after the ending of this manga. He simply said that he wanted to create the greatest onsen (spa) ever and with how the final arc of the series turned out, it might be sufficient to say that his spa will be filled with the tears of his fans instead.
*We're not crying, YOU'RE crying......
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