#eren analysis

[clfixationstation]

The dynamic is NOT Eren gets angry, Armin soothes him. It's Eren gets angry and Armin does damage control for him. Eren slips into despair and Armin gives him hope. Armin gets tangled in his own anxieties and hopelessness and Eren comforts him. Eren encourages him, puts his faith in him, gives Armin the confidence to flourish.

It goes both ways. They have such understanding of each other, such kindness and respect the reserve only for each other (& Mikasa of course).

[the-last-hipopotamovolador]

I dont know how many times I have to say this but the biggest misinterpretation of Eren's character is that he is a fascist/racist/xenophobe.

YES HE IS A GENOCIDAL AND HIS ACTS ARE UNFORGIVEN , but NONE of his actions were based on a moral belief of "the people of paradise are superior to the rest of the world, all the rest of the cultures/nations/races have to be eliminated because they are inferior".

He is a 19-year-old boy who grew up all his life in an environment of fear, violence, extreme need and total lack of freedom. He is a character deeply marked by trauma. He always was a violent and impulsive boy with radical beliefs thinking that the world is "us" and "our enemies" and that life is kill or be killed.

But he is NOT a person who committed genocide based on discriminatory beliefs. He did it because in his way of understanding the world the only way to be free was to live in a world without other humans who threaten to take away his freedom. In Eren's eyes all the people outside of paradise are enemies, people who were guilty that he and the people he loved grew up locked up in a tiny piece of the world without even knowing why or how, and people who want him and anyone else from paradise to be dead. He is the definition of "a monster created by hate."

If you watched/read Shingeki no Kyojin and your interpretation of Eren is "anime hitler lol" then your levels of analysis and reflective thinking are at rock bottom.

[happybird16]

I'm going to make myself cry typing this but here we go..

I think one of the points of Attack on Titan is that humanity is forgetful. Doomed to forget, actually.

Our main cast are heroes, not just the surviving ones. Levi deserves to have statues built of him. The surviving members of the 104th even went on to become politicians, traveling the world to help change things for the better. I have no doubt that they had buildings named after them, streets and parks named after them. There were probably history books specifically dedicated to each and every one of them.

But humans are forgetful.

There were no photos of Eren. He probably only continued to exist in history books, where he was demonized and vilified for decimating the world. By the time their fingers started to get all wrinkly from age, Mikasa and Armin probably forgot what Eren looked like. What he sounded like.

Time passes and humans forget. Statues crumble, buildings rot and fall apart. People forget figures that used to be significant. History books are changed. Even atrocities eventually become dulled in humanities collective memory. Bombs turn everything to dust. Humans are doomed to forget and repeat their mistakes again and again and again.. and I think that's the point.

[4everinyour-roaa]

eren IS the cycle of hatred, he carries not just his own hatred for his enemies, but he also carries that of grisha's, kruger's and all the previous shifters.

he even perpetuates it into his child self, by the act of turning dina to carla he grows that need for revenge in his young heart, fueling his own hatred for the warriors and marley.

which is why the rumbling was never going to free ymir, or break the cycle. you cannot break the cycle of hatred with even more hatred, and more violence.

so it makes sense for the character who symbolizes unconditional and selfless love to be the one who breaks said cycle with her choice.

even in the selfless act of killing her loved one for the sake of the greater good, that very same act was also done out of her love for him.

so as opposed to eren who fought out of hate, mikasa only ever fought out of love.

[sonofthesaiyans]

Hats off to Jean Kirstein, the Scouts' unlikeliest hero.

Honor dictates that I say a few words to honor the birthday of one of the 104th's strongest and most naturally gifted soldiers.

Jean Kirstein is a character who, at one point, I would have said had one of the most impressive arcs of any individual character in Attack on Titan. Once content to keep himself to the sidelines in service of the royal government, Jean has really come a long way from when we first met him in the early days of season one.

Jean has always been abrasive and cynical, holding on to no fantasies about the miserable world he and his friends have long been trapped in. But in spite of all he's gone through, he's shown a keen sense of judgement and natural leadership that has allowed him to survive again and again in a situation he at one point would have been all to happy to look the other way, and never turn back. In a world where insanity dominates between the Titans and humanity, Jean always seems to know what to do even when he's at an utter loss of what the outcome could be, and he's so often been a voice of reason when faced with the panic of his comrades or the zeal of his friendly rival turned mortal enemy, Eren.

His old pal Marco recognized this potential in Jean, and it seems Marco's words have resonated strongly with Jean long after his own demise. Understanding what was at stake, he took a hard look at what he signed himself on to and charged at it head on. Through and through, he's proven a dependable ally to those serving by his side and ultimately, under his own command. One of Jean's greatest assets, and perhaps in his own mind his greatest curse, is his nobility. Whatever his faults and failings, Jean has always sided with the greater good, and is one of the most incorruptible characters on Paradis. He's been pushed to his limits every bit as much as the rest of his circle......And through it all still stands tall.

By no means flawless, and I actually have some far stronger opinions about Jean in spite of the fact that I rarely ever comment on him around here.......And that's a discussion for another day.

For tonight though, gotta acknowledge the impressive track record of a guy who probably never should have been a Scout in the first place.......And somehow has lived to speak of the experience after going through Hell and back time and time again.

Seriously, Jean Kirstein would have been a worthy contender to become Commander of the Scout Regiment, or second-in-command under Hange and/or Levi. Whatever the case, he's certainly been an asset to the greater cause of freedom, and perhaps understood the meaning of what that was far better than Eren himself EVER did.

Keep moving forward as you always have, Commander Jean.

Happy Birthday to a man worthy of wearing the Wings of Freedom.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh, and one last thing; If you really do truly love Jean, then for the love of all that is good and just.........

Do NOT even think about it with the lame as hell Horseface jokes. I think the fact that I acknowledged not just Jeanmarco, but also "Jeankasa" up here is being pretty generous as it is. So please, don't push it, alright?

Besides, I can name five other characters who look more like horses than him.....

[the-last-thread-of-my-sanity]

I’ve been thinking lately about how much the ‘curse of Ymir’ really does affect the psyche of each of the nine shifters and how it impacts the ending of the story.

Up until the end of Season 3/Chapter 87-88, the reader and the viewer have no idea that the shifters have a limited amount of time to live. They seem to possess this god-like power and they can rejuvenate and survive almost any injury. They seem unstoppable.

This is what motivates Erwin to create a plan to take one of the nine shifter powers with the serum- having another Titan in your arsenal would make a difference in winning the war.

But what the Paradisians don’t know is how holding the power of the Nine just perpetuates a cycle of violence and cruelty. It’s a curse as much as it is a power. No matter how brilliant or grand your scope is for what you can do with this near limitless power, you have to contend with the fact that you will only have thirteen years to do it.

This revelation to me is the what colors the entire last arc of the story leading into and after the time skip.

For Zeke, it amps up the level of desperation he has for accomplishing the euthanization plan- relying on Eren was still a variable that was largely unpredictable, and he trusted him more than he probably would have if he weren’t running out of time.

Going back further in the story, it retroactively explains why Ymir (of the cadet corps) would go back with Reiner and Bertholdt at all- a seemingly nonsensical choice when it seems she has something to live for in her relationship with Krista/Historia. But Ymir knows she has little time left. She has no future. So she chooses to surrender.

For Annie, it shows her desperation to get back to her father, a man who showed her very little affection, and yet if she could just make it back maybe she could live at least a year or two with him and make at least one happy memory with the man who raised her to kill.

Armin, I honestly feel the most for, because what he and everyone else thought of as his salvation, was actually just saddling him with a curse. And heaps of responsibility to try and be grateful for it. He went from a character with a singular and wholesome conviction, to someone wracked with guilt and forced to solve the world’s problems with limited time and resources.

In Reiner’s case, I actually think the fact that he knows he is going to die is the only thing actually keeping him alive in the tail end of the story. He wants so badly to face retribution for his deeds, and he can only find the strength to keep towing the line because he knows his violent demise is guaranteed.

Characters like Pieck and Bertholdt seem to accept their lot in life- but deal with this internally and develop their own sense of morals despite it- albeit in different ways and in Pieck’s case with a shade of pessimism. Falco and Marcel stand out as a characters who see the farce for what it is- but still want to subject themselves to it in order to prevent someone they love from suffering through it in their place.

Eren, though, it’s easy to see how discovering he has already lived more of his life in powerless ignorance than what he has left is what ultimately causes the collapse in his character. Combine that with the way that he sees ‘future memories’ and doesn’t see any future beyond his own, and suddenly you have a naturally impulsive and violent person living in the most fatalistic reality ever. It makes perfect sense that his fall from grace is near immediate and precipitous.

What difference does all that power make if all it means is that you become a tool for destruction with no future? That you will be forced to curse someone else so that this cruel power will continue to exist? That is the true legacy of Ymir and the Eldian Empire- you can have near limitless power, but you will never have true control over your own life.

And it makes for such interesting discussions and questions about power and mortality and agency- and all the seemingly ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ ways to respond to their dilemma.

Anyway, it is always ‘thinking about the moral quandary of the titan shifters’ hours around here…

[cosmicjoke]

AoT Short Stories Vol. 4: The Former Underground Jail- Levi & Eren:

Okay, again, I'm honestly just struck so much by Levi's kindness, and the awkward but resolute way he tries to express it. I'll never, never understand people who don't get this about him.

So this story revolves around Eren's early days of being in Levi's Special Operations Squad, and having to be kept in a cell in an abandoned castle after a marching exercise ordered for the entire Survey Corps ends up being aborted due to a heavy rain. Because it isn't just Levi's squad that Eren is around here, they have to take the precaution of keeping him separated from the rest of the group, as they still don't know what the nature of his Titan powers are, or whether the can be trusted.

Levi is left keeping watch over Eren in the cell, and notices how miserable he is, sitting in his soaked rain gear. Eren points out that members of the SC don't trust his Titan powers, and they don't want to add to their already substantial worries:

"'That's right', his commanding officer Levi said before turning the lamp in his hands towards Eren. The young man almost looked like an abandoned puppy there with his rain gear still on as he dripped with water, not revealing his expression. Levi's already furrowed brow deepened even further.

Ugh... He looks like one of the beggars in the Underground City. All alone in both body and spirit, just wandering... He's supposed to be humanity's big hope?

Levi let out a loud sigh before delivering a short order.

'In any case, take off that wet rain gear and give it here. You look like a sewer rat. I'll dry it off using the fire upstairs.'

'... Okay.'

Eren lifelessly unlatched his gear, then wrung the rain out of it before handing it to Levi. He noticed Eren's cold and trembling hand and spoke to another one of his soldiers waiting upstairs... He couldn't it if Eren stayed this depressed.

'Petra! Team up with Oluo and guard Eren.'

'Yes, Sir!"

Here we see see Levi's great compassion on full display. He feels awful for Eren, and can't bear to see him so depressed, but doesn't know how to comfort him at all. He compares in his mind the way Eren looks to the beggars on the streets of the Underground City, and wonders how someone who looks that way is meant to be humanity's hope. We can see here Levi's own conflict in putting so much of a burden on the shoulders of someone who's clearly not equipped to handle it. They don't have a choice, but Levi clearly realizes that Eren isn't someone who should be in the position he is. More than that, Levi clearly wants to cheer Eren up, but struggles with knowing how to do so. This is the thing people don't seem to understand about Levi. He's the kindest and most compassionate man, but again, because of the way he grew up, he was never taught the proper way to express that kindness and compassion. Nobody ever showed him how to be gentle or sweet, even as he longs to be. The very fact Eren's clear depression is bothering Levi so much speaks volumes. He doesn't want to see this poor kid suffer. He wants to relieve that suffering, but doesn't know what he can do to lessen it. He's torn between keeping the rest of the Survey Corps safe, and helping Eren. So he calls Petra down to look after Eren for him, knowing she's more well-equipped than he is to doing and saying the right things in order to bring someone comfort.

"When Petra descended the stairs and saw the despondent boy with slumped shoulders alongside her superior officer unable to fully handle the situation, she seemed to recognize what was going on.

'Understood. Um... So is he staying locked up here until the rain stops? That seems a little...'

'That's the decision for now. I'll go check with Hange. If this castle is built to be sturdy, it shouldn't have trouble keeping Eren in check no matter where he might transform... If I know that for sure, I'll give him permission to walk around.'

'Good. I hope he can. Looks like squads with some of your corpsmates are here too, Eren. You want to meet them, don't you?'

'I don't know. I'd be happy to, but...'

'I'm sure they'd love to see you! You've been training away from them for so long.'

Seeing Petra cheerfully encourage Eren made Levi realize once more that he had made the right choice selecting her for his squad.

'Either way, stop sulking like that. This weather's irritating enough on its own.'

'S-sorry.'

As he watched his officer climb the steps from behind, Eren's lowered face wore an expression that had grown the smallest bit more relaxed."

Again, we see that it isn't a lack of wanting to be kind on Levi's part that makes it a struggle for him to offer Eren comfort here, but simply a lack of knowing how to. Petra understands this about Levi, and realizes immediately what it is he's asking her to do, and launches into saying all the right things to Eren to offer him that comfort. This really does demonstrate in such a powerful way just how kindhearted Levi truly is. He thinks about how he was right to select Petra for his squad, upon seeing how easily she's able to encourage and lift Eren's spirits. He picked Petra because he saw her own, great kindness and compassion, and unlike him, an ability to appropriately express it. Levi's own kindness and compassion is every bit a match for Petra's, he just doesn't know how to express it in a way that others will understand. He tries, but it always comes out in this very blunt and at times seemingly rude manner, leading people to think he's callous and cold, when it's exactly the opposite. He tries to help Eren here by offering to dry off his wet clothes for him and then promising to talk to Hange to see if the castle is a safe enough environment to let Eren walk around freely in. He doesn't want to keep Eren in that cell. He wants him to be able to roam around freely and talk with his friends. He calls Petra down specifically because he doesn't want Eren to feel so bad, and he knows Petra will know the right things to say to lift him out of his despair.

Levi's kindness just kills me, as does his own, personal struggle to express it. It really highlights the tragedy of Levi's life, that someone with such a loving and compassionate heart was raised in an environment and by people that made it so difficult for him to convey those feelings to others. Levi's life growing up in the Underground tried so hard to snuff the kindness out of him, but all it really managed was to make it harder for him to express that kindness in a way that could be understood. This is why I'm always going on and on about what an amazing person Levi is, that through all of that, all of the hell he grew up experiencing, and his own struggle simply to survive, he never lost hold of his inherent empathy for others. He never let the cruelty of his life turn him cruel. The tragedy in Levi's struggle is in how it warps people's perception of him, making them think he's some unfeeling, cold-hearted person, when in reality, he cares more deeply and feels greater compassion than anyone. It's tragic to realize Levi's already horrifically awful childhood continues to affect him so profoundly into adulthood, to the point it causes him to be completely misunderstood by his peers. It must cause an immense sense of isolation in Levi, this struggle to make his actual feelings known, and to have people assume he's something he's not, just because he was never taught how to properly express himself and what he means. He tries so hard, though, both to show he really does care, and to offer kindness and comfort in whatever ways he can, even when it makes others look at him like there's something wrong with him. That's exactly what Dimo Reeves meant when he called Levi "awkward but kind". And that really is a testament to what a good person Levi is. He doesn't really know how to offer his kindness, but he tries anyway, because he feels so much intense compassion for everybody.

[inkedkatt]

[diariodeunrincondemi]

Although everyone is talking about Armin and Eren's dialogue (which was amazing), for me the heartbreaking moment was that of the civilian refugees being cornered between the cliff and the advancing titans and the man lifting the baby to pass it back, in a desperate gesture to save him.

A father assuming, in the midst of terror, that he was going to die, but wanting to save his son, because it was better for his son to be an orphan and have a chance to live than to die in that terror.

And that moment is heartbreaking because it is full of realism. Because we still see it today on live broadcasts in the news: adults doing everything they can to protect and save their children in the midst of terror, hoping that it will end and they can live. Because there is nothing more horrible than the death of a person who could not experience life.

[clfixationstation]

The only thing I dislike about Eren's death is that he's always felt trapped, and in the end his only freedom was death. Like, that's depressing as hell for any person that could feel similarly...

[rivai-hana]

IT ENDS WITH US🥰😘 💚💜

levi and hange are living a peaceful life in my dreams

[casually-eat-my-soul]

I’m a big fan of the trope “I can’t fix him, but I can devote myself to his ideals and become his personal shield, and slowly become more monstrous to the point of being unrecognizable to myself and others only to be killed or thrown away”

The “what have you done” and “I did it for us”

Truly an art form

[happybird16]

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but can we talk about Eren's Founding Titan? Specially it's eyes

They're murky and grey-ish, as if he's blind. His usual vibrant green has been dimmed with a milky film. There's so much symbolism in this, in Eren being unseeing, his vision clouded.

He's not present in the moment, can't bare to witness the destruction he's unleashing upon the world. The blood and gore, the unimaginable amount of death beneath his feet. Despite this being his intention, an inevitable immutable future in his eyes, he can't, won't watch.

Armin's colossal form doesn't have ears, so he doesn't have to hear the screams his destruction causes. In this vein, Eren's Founder is blind, purposefully entrapping himself within his own mind. His mind has even reverted to a childlike state in order to cope. Eren talks about freedom, but, surrounded by the colossal titans, he never truly leaves the walls. He just brings them with him.

[everythingseasoning]

You know what really gets me about all villains is that at one point they were just kids who were so neglected, kids who didn’t understand how to process and make sense of their extreme, traumatic, complex situations … At some point that monster you hate so vehemently was an abused, scared, lonely and confused child, an innocent person— somebody who simply ended up doing their best, doing what they knew how to do — doing something we all could’ve ended up doing, had we grown up with their brain chemistry in their shoes. We all just know what we live, and live what we know. You can’t blame a child for not knowing better. I even argue that you can’t blame adults for not knowing better, if they were never taught, never pulled from the darkness. It doesn’t excuse their actions. I am not justifying that. But this explanation just makes the whole situation so, so, sad.

And if you disagree or agree, or both, you can reblog with your thoughts :) I welcome discussion. But please. Use critical thinking and compassion.

[4everinyour-roaa]

mikasa and eren are both contrasting characters,

eren deals with a lot of insecurities, mikasa carries a lot of pride.

eren is constantly thinking about the future (quite literally living in it considering titan memories due to the founding and attack), while mikasa constantly thinks about the past.

eren is angry and impulsive, mikasa is calm and collected with a clear idea of what she wants to do.

eren allowed people to enter his heart including reiner and annie which explains his sadness finding out about their betrayal, while mikasa only concerns herself with the people that she loves and has no room in her heart to care about more after her trauma.

even in the way they love each other, all mikasa wants is to be by eren's side even if it means risking her life, while all eren wants is for her to be safe even if it means their separation.

and interestingly enough, their character development is basically becoming who the other used to be, in s4 mikasa starts to be more like eren from s1, and s4 eren is more like mikasa in s1

[sweatreleaseofdeaths]

I never liked some aspects of SNK's ending since it came out back in 2021. Not because I thought it was bad or because I thought it wasn't well made, but because it felt forced. 

The sudden change of Eren's feelings about Mikasa was one thing that pissed me off, but also because Isayama's original ending wasn't even supposed to be the one that we got. It felt like he only wrote that specific ending for the fans and readers (and maybe because he was tired too; have you seen the bags?) and not because that was the ending that he wanted to write. 

Like you can clearly tell by the last arc that he took a drastic turn on where the story would go to make it "happier," for lack of better words.

 

The way I saw it from the beginning, there was no getting out of it. No happy ending whatsoever. And true to it, the ending with got was bittersweet. Everything Eren did was for nothing because the cycle started back again.

I did actually appreciate that, because it showed us something that was an actual reality. Even if it did help for a bit, nothing really changed because it's in humanity's nature to always start the cycle once again.

However, what I wanted to see more was his original idea of everybody dying. Instead of that, Isayama went and tried to pull a Naruto (with Armin and Eren) so that they could talk it out, understand each other, and come to an understanding. (The understanding being: the reasons of his actions, Eren's need to die, and their promises) 

From an interview (if I'm not mistaken), the original ending was apparently inspired by "The Mist," which is basically about the protagonist being the cause of his loved ones downfall in an attempt to protect them. Sounds familiar, right? It feels like it was going in that direction, then Isayama just decided to make them all resolve their differences, for some reason. 

I personally don't hate the ending; like I said, I just think it was a tad forced on his end.

 

On the Mikasa/Eren thing, do NOT get me wrong. Mikasa is and has always been an important character to this story. Her as well as her relationship with Eren IS special. Now just because what they share is special doesn't necessarily mean that it's "love.".

On Mikasa's side, she literally lost her parents and met Eren a second later because he killed for her and came to her defense. She latched into him because of that. She was a traumatised child with a deeply unhealthy view of love, so while she did love Eren, the way she showed it could be interpreted as just obsession toward her rescuer.

But the thing with Mikasa's character is that the more the story goes, the more you see her become her own person without Eren. Either it be choosing between her desire to stay with him or her duties as a soldier, or even when she had to make a choice between killing him or not being willing to because of how much she loves him.

I honestly love Mikasa as a character so much. You can see her growth and see her trying to get past her trauma step by step. So, at the end, even though she never stopped loving Eren, she moved on and started a life for herself, because that's where her development was leading to.

Contrary to her, Eren had little to no self-restraint. He was hot-headed and only believed in what he believed, walking the path that he felt was right. He was obsessed with one thing and one thing only (that's literally everything he talked about), never straying from it no matter what happened.

I feel like he never tried to get past his trauma, only feeding into it the more time passed. From always getting into fights because of different perspectives he had with people (i.e., hitting one of the guys who was badmouthing the scouts with a stick) to ending 80% of humanity. Eren was selfish from the beginning; everything he did was for himself. Even the rumbling was partially for himself because his freedom couldn't be obtained if the people outside the walls were still around. 

Eren was and will always be a deeply selfish person, but there is also more to that. (So much more that I'm not even going to get into that here, because I love Eren too much and wouldn't be doing him any justice by resuming his character in just a few words.)

 

TLDR: Eren did not love her romantically (he did LOVE her; it just wasn't romantic), and even if Isayama wanted to say that they did love each other, what they shared ultimately was toxic. It could've turned into something better if Eren was less self-centred, but then again. My issue with all of this is that Isayama underexplored this aspect of their relationship so much that it just was out of the blue (and might I add ooc without getting shot) when Eren started wailing about not wanting her to end up with someone else.

You can't just make a story, build it, and put effort into it, then make a little throwaway line of "Oh, these two love each other, btw." That's just not how it works. You have to develop it for the readers to understand, and even if some people end up not liking it, it wouldn't matter because at least you made it make sense. 

 

Also! I'm not criticising SNK, nor am I criticising Isayama. I've loved this story for years, so really, at the end of the day, even if some things still felt off to me, I will keep loving it to death. (And you can ship whoever you want who gives a fuck!)