The Misunderstood Brilliance of Eren Jaeger | In-Depth Analysis

Comments · 898

• AR

  @arveuss · 4 years ago (edited) · pinned

  We back baby 😈<br>Edit: Some parts (specifically the title screens for each chapter), got messed up due to copyright. Don&apos;t mind the awful audio 💀

  385

• SO

  @sourcesymbiosismetamorphis2228 · 4 years ago (edited)

  I like how Eren ponders on the idea of what his own mother would think of him for doing what he did killing 80% of humanity. It&apos;s rather tragic he himself knows what he is doing is wrong but is doing it for the right causes to liberate his own people. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Eren is def in my top 3 best anime protagonists of all time.

  1.7K

• DO

  @downwardsaerial2239 · 4 years ago

  I actually like having the end of this show spoiled for me because now, like eren, i know exactly whats coming and im just waiting for it to happen

  936

• NY

  @Nytthael · 4 years ago

  Eren said to ymir: you are not a god or slave, just a person.<br>We need to think about eren in the same way.

  132

• KR

  @krosack · 4 years ago

  The choice to commit genocide was made for him. When he kissed historia’s hand, he didn’t see a possible future out of a million like Dr. Strange; he saw THE future. There are no branching timelines and there was no way to change the outcome of his fate. He’s more like the greek tragic figure oedipus, being told of the terror that awaits him &nbsp;and then immediately being &nbsp;rocketed towards it. Eren mentions many times that he can’t help but go through the motions or fight against the decisions that led him to the rumbling. Almost implying that something else was in control. Had he lived longer, he might have realized he was a character in a manga who’s writer has already drafted his story’s end. Sometimes real life seems that way.

  688

• IT

  @itsmesteve1081 · 4 years ago

  I think it was confirmed by the author that eren was not always wanting to see outside the walls. He didn&apos;t want to see outside the walls until armin came to him with the book when they were kids. He looked in to armin&apos;s eyes and realized he wasn&apos;t &quot;free&quot;. That&apos;s when he started to chase this &quot;freedom&quot;. And I think it&apos;s plausible because of you look back at it eren wasnt always seeking &quot;freedom&quot;. I&apos;ve would always used to look at the wall and just wished something would happen. He was always loathing

  720

• MC

  @mcwildo2617 · 4 years ago

  The best part about Eren is while he believes he is free, everything else is telling you he isn&apos;t. Visual clues like his head being held up by strings and his founding titan resembling a marionette, as well as the fact that he cannot see all the horrors he is committing due to his real eyes being closed and his child form&apos;s view being blocked by the smoke. It just shows again how twisted he is. He believes this is freedom but its genocide, and he is a slave to committing that genocide since he by nature just has to do it. Therefore, as the perpetrator, &nbsp;he is a slave to himself.

  773

• PE

  @peagames2002 · 4 years ago

  For what Eren has proven again and again: His power comes from his rage... when he loses his sense of humanity. We&apos;ve seen Eren in end of his journey in manga much different. He didn&apos;t seem angry. More like out of his mind, unchallenged and tired. He was tired of the madness that he was letting himself to do. He had the power to change the tide of world, but he seemed to have lost all motivation to stay angry. It was same thing what happened when he was being rescued by Historia, or encouraged by Misaka. <br>Would he ever... ever find enough courage to give himself to push forward, alone?

  367

• AV

  @avadhootathalye3117 · 4 years ago (edited)

  The reason why Mikasa decided to confess during that obviously very dangerous and grim moment is she thought that they were finally going to die, (seriously, like for real this time, no escape, no 3dm gear, no titan power to help them out of that fucked situation, if you don&apos;t count the coordinate power which eren didn&apos;t know he actually had that time) and she will never have the chance to do it. She wanted to comfort eren, convince him that he was actually not useless (like some people say). Eren NEVER was useless for me too. Then she leans for her first and supposedly LAST kiss for Eren, and Eren actually understood what Mikasa meant and what she was trying to do with that kiss, &quot;she was giving up on life&quot; with that kiss. This made Eren remember what his mother was telling him about also being always there for Mikasa, so if he accepts Mikasa&apos;s kiss then it would just mean that he was accepting their current situation, their fate, their inevitable death, and this would break his promise to his mom, contradicting what he always told Mikasa to never back down and fight. So he stood up, the kiss can always wait later, and this time he always be there for Mikasa.

  338

• DI

  @didosauce6008 · 4 years ago

  It’s kinda funny looking back on the whole series that started with a boy who wanted to kill the titans for the sake of his people’s freedom, and ended with that same boy killing all the titans and freeing paradis &nbsp;just not the way anyone ever intended

  160

• GI

  @gianghuynh9570 · 4 years ago

  Eren dismantled the anime protagonist trope quite well because at the end of the day so many anime protagonists are children who refuse to grow up and refuse to let the world consume and shape them. Eren is a perfect example of how catastrophic it would be if you let an anime protagonist with anime power run free in a real world. 80% of the world died. Sure his friends survive and become heroes (except 1) and there may be a shaky, vague idea of world peace, but again 80% of the world died. I find it interesting too when other anime explored this. In the new Dragon Ball Super series there was a moment when Goku hesitated to kill Frieza and Frieza destroyed Earth along with everyone Goku loves. Of course Goku was saved from this mistake by literally deus ex machina, however Goku has been known to value the thrill of a fight over the objective of the fight itself (aka defeat evil and protect the weak). He has been taught this is a bad idea a few times yet often ignore the lesson. So yeah the lesson here is if we let Goku being the protector of Earth the Earth would literally be obligated because he is addicted to a “fair” fight. Much like letting an idealistic man child possess life shaping power ended very badly for 80% of people in AoT universe.

  118

• SA

  @sasa162525 · 4 years ago

  Also, I like to add something, Reiner and Marley would&apos;ve loved to kill everyone on Paradis Island. If Eren didn&apos;t go all out, they would have died and the world would celebrate their death. How is it a large population lives weigh more than those a few lives on Paradise? &nbsp;Why shouldn&apos;t Eren fight back? I guess the main villain of the story isn&apos;t Eren or the titans or Marley, it&apos;s human nature of war. They kill so many lives and you think they have the conscious to stop from murdering everyone. I don&apos;t agree with what Eren did, but whose to choose otherwise? Fight back the invasion over and over again? Enslave other people and nations to your cause? Bring back the horrible Eldia empire? Initiate world war? Or just ignore the fact and help the pathetic king erase ur memory and leave u ignorant of everything as he waits and never fight back? Everybody is at fault. Eren isn&apos;t the devil, he&apos;s just human.

  703