At this level, it’s protected to say that one of many issues Assault on Titan can be remembered for essentially the most is Eren Yeager’s radical shift in characterization.
This doesn’t refer solely to the truth that he has change into an omnipotent Titan that makes use of his measurement and affect to crush people underfoot although. As an alternative, it refers to his changing into the kind of person who treats others as lesser than him and who forces his will upon others to strip away their freedom. He has change into the tyrant he railed so onerous in opposition to, and does so within the title of making certain his house and people he cares about stay free for the foreseeable future.
The truth that Eren finally ends up taking part in this position continues to be one of many greatest factors of competition amongst followers of the collection. In any case, Eren’s flip towards extremism takes him from being the collection’ problematic hero to appearing as considered one of its most despicable villains but. Even when the story leads towards a second of redemption for him, it’d be understandably troublesome — if not not possible — for followers to make peace with the truth that he selected to change into a genocidal maniac with the intention to obtain his desires.
And but, there’s an integral side of this topic that get’s neglected far too usually. It’s key to the dialogue surrounding Eren’s rise and fall, and to raised understanding why he strikes towards taking the actions that he does.
As for what the subject is, it principally boils all the way down to this: Eren might by no means have made a “proper” selection in Assault on Titan, as a result of he represents the flawed morality of the present’s world.
From the get-go, Assault on Titan has by no means been a narrative that lends itself to neat and tidy resolutions for conflicts. Although it could be a Shonen collection, it isn’t afraid of steeping the morality of its world in shades of gray.
Its characters might attempt to be good and pure, however most each considered one of them is flawed and pushed by lower than altruistic motivations. They aren’t indomitable forces of optimism; they’re human beings who want to keep alive and handle the folks closest to them by any means mandatory. They’re prepared to take actions that might be thought of abominable if it means defending what’s theirs, they usually’ll purchase into horrible ideologies if it helps them keep the sense of security and safety their lives are constructed round.
Worst of all is that there isn’t some fast and simple resolution to fixing this. Even in a world with large monstrosities and people who’re in a position to manifest magically-powered meat mechs, its individuals are simply as able to being ugly and merciless as actual world people are.
It’s a radical departure from the standard Shonen view of individuals being good at coronary heart and solely needing to be nudged towards doing what’s proper by a plucky hero. This isn’t one thing the collection is delicate about both. The third season shines a highlight on this very topic via Hange and Levi’s torture of the Army Police member Sannes, who warns them that they’re doomed to change into the villains of another person’s story in due time.
And he’s the proof of this. Like them, he as soon as acted out of loyalty and the need to maintain his house protected from battle by any means mandatory. This allowed him to fake that his actions have been simply, and that no matter he and his allies did was for a higher good. These motivations led him to do horrible issues, and to go down a path which might finally make him the antagonist others noticed as a risk to their freedom and security.
His street to hell was paved with good intentions — simply as Hange, Levi, and the remainder of the Scouts’ paths are. And the one factor standing between them sharing Sannes’ destiny is a shift in public opinion.
It doesn’t take lengthy for Sannes’ predictions to be confirmed proper. The very subsequent season exhibits how the unique Scout Regiment has been painted because the villains by the loyalists who comply with Eren’s ideology of prioritizing Paradis Island’s security, even at the price of the remainder of the world. Their makes an attempt at sustaining peace and searching for a greater resolution trigger the remainder of the island to color them as a risk, they usually wind up imprisoned or hunted as enemies of the folks regardless of doing what most would view as proper.
Which brings us to Eren. Although he could also be positioned because the hero for many of the story, he’s not pushed by some altruistic want to avoid wasting the world. He’s pushed by hatred and anger, initially towards the creatures who killed his mom and destroyed the peaceable life he knew, and later towards the folks of Marley that villainized and dehumanized Paradis Island to the purpose of making an attempt to wipe them out with Titans.
Even after gaining the omniscient view of time by coming into contact with the Founding Titan and seeing the true scope of what the Titans’ existence does to the world, his motivations aren’t magically made higher. He nonetheless needs to guard what HE values, and what HE holds pricey, at first.
He’s the precise sort of hero the world of Assault on Titan would create, and represents its morality to a T. It’s no shock, then, that he would declare conflict on the remainder of the world, and finally set off an apocalyptic occasion within the type of the Rumbling. Doing so was the one manner for him to guard what he valued, and so he went with the choice regardless of its penalties.
It’s a horrible selection, but additionally one which the remainder of the world’s inhabitants could be prepared to make in a heartbeat. His selection, whereas on a a lot bigger scale and extra widespread, is in step with what Marley did through their navy campaigns utilizing the Titans and what they deliberate to do to Paradis Island with the intention to defend themselves.
Does this make Eren’s selection the suitable one? Not remotely. If something, it exhibits how restricted his and so many others’ scope of view for the world and its issues have been, and the way the morally gray viewpoints of most of its characters have been solely ever going to result in catastrophe. The inherent selfishness of people who inhabit Assault on Titan’s world, whereas lifelike, might solely lead to a disastrous calamity the likes of which Eren enacts.
Which is form of the entire level of the collection: even when an motion is taken for a purpose that one might argue is correct in a roundabout way, the ends don’t justify the means. These like Eren who’re prepared to sacrifice the numerous for the few aren’t redeemable, and can solely sow extra ache of their drive to do what they suppose is correct.