Eren Yeager is one of the most complex and polarizing characters in modern fiction. Driven by a relentless desire for freedom after witnessing his mother‘s gruesome death, Eren sets forth on a quest to secure liberty for his Eldian people on Paradis Island. However, his methods become increasingly extreme, culminating in his decision to activate the Rumbling – sending millions of 60-meter Colossal Titans to trample 80% of humanity living outside the walls.
At first, Eren‘s motivations seem straightforward – to destroy his enemies so they can never again threaten his people‘s survival and freedom. However, as Attack on Titan progresses, it becomes clear Eren‘s mental state and philosophy have become distorted. He sees the world in stark utilitarian terms of "us versus them," believing that the lives of the rest of humanity are an acceptable cost for freedom.
But the story of Eren Yeager is far more nuanced. His charismatic pursuit of freedom – dramatically declaring he was born into this world – took him down a dark path of manipulation, unrelenting violence, and moral event horizons from which he cannot return.
The Allure and Corruption of Pursuing Total Freedom
Eren‘s obsession with freedom is understandable. Nothing is more precious than liberty, sovereignty and the ability to live without oppression. After witnessing his mother brutally eaten by a smiling Titan, the idea of walls – literal or figurative – became Eren‘s greatest enemy. He yearned to explore the world denied by the Titans.
As the story unfolds, the complex philosophies around "freedom" are explored.
We‘re no free men if we‘re walled in! I don‘t want to live like livestock!
- Does true freedom require fighting, violence and subjugation of enemies?
- How far are we willing to go to secure liberty – violating moral codes or harming innocents?
- With opposing groups seeking freedom, can peaceful compromise be reached?
As Eren‘s power grew exponentially with his access of the Founding Titan, fears of losing freedom continued corrupting him. Believing enemies like Marley would never stop pursuing Paradis‘ resources and extinction, he chose the path of violence as the only path to freedom.
Destroy them all before they can threaten us again. Show them we will never be cattle waiting for slaughter again.
But this philosophy required sacrificing more and more of his humanity, sanity and moral boundaries. Freedom cannot be detached from moral responsibility. But Eren increasingly adopted an "ends justify the means" utilitarianism that was seductive yet morally bankrupt.
Predeterminism vs. Free Will
The reveal in the final chapters that Eren has been manipulated by his future self introduce another complex dimension around the concept of freedom.
With the power of the Attack Titan to see future memories and manipulate the past, Eren has been influenced by Future Eren for years. Key iconic moments, like Eren freeing Ymir or declaring revenge early in the story, may have simply been him following a predetermined path orchestrated by his future self.
This introduces deep questions around predeterminism and free will.
- Were Eren‘s choices truly made of his own free agency?
- Can someone be held fully morally responsible for actions directly manipulated by their future self?
- Was Eren always destined to carry out the Rumbling, with no ability to choose differently?
This tragic unfreedom underneath Eren‘s veil of pursuing freedom is a masterful plot twist by Isayama. Perhaps Eren was never actually free – just a slave to his own idealized vision of a future secured by anything means necessary.
Titans and War – Manifestations of Basic Human Drives
The origins of Titans highlight how even supernatural destructive forces are rooted in basic human drives and emotions. Ymir Fritz gained her powers after merging with the "source of all living matter," touching the small worm-like creature that existed in the mystical Tree.
Out of loneliness and desire for connection, her mind and DNA merged with this ancient being, enabling her to build bodies of any size from sand according to her imagination and desires. Her first Titan was built out of the instinctive desire to protect herself from harm.
And the Eldian Empire subsequently weaponized this ability over nearly 2,000 years, using it to torment enemies and turn them into controllable Pure Titans stripped of free will. This manifested the worst human drives for power, control, and sadism against "others" seen as inferior.
Just as the Titans represent exaggerated physical manifestations of human traits, so too has war always been driven by human emotions and failings. Greed. Fear. Hatred. Ignorance. The lust for power over others. Titans annihilating worlds represents human ugliness amplified thousandfold.
Perhaps founder Ymir‘s backstory gives insight into the cycle of war itself. Inner pain, loneliness or desire for belonging lies underneath outward aggression. People feeling small and powerless lash out to feel strong. But the wounds never truly heal.
2,000 years later, Eren would utilize this power left by Ymir to continue the cycles of violence out of his own trauma. "We are the same" he told her in PATHS, as he manipulated her power for his own agenda. The legacy left behind from pain would fuel further division.
utilitarianism, Self-Deception and Moral Event Horizons
By the events of the rumbling initiated, Eren seems fully surrendered to an "ends justify the means" philosophy of freedom through utilitarian destruction of threats. When attempting to justify it to his followers, his language reflects almost religious, deterministic convictions about securing his people‘s safety no matter the moral costs.
But several moments reveal Eren‘s own uncertainty around whether he‘s still anchored to any ethical code at all:
- Questioning if wiping out the rest of humanity beyond the walls makes him "the same as Reiner"
- Asking Falco if being forced to trample the world makes him the worst person in history
- Historia seeing through his facade asking "would you still rumble the world if we ran away?"
- Breaking down seeing the visions of destruction he would unleash
This suggests Eren is still morally conflicted, and not as detached or certain of his path as he presents himself outwardly. He seems to still be wrestling with his actions in his final conversation with Armin.
"If someone tries to steal my freedom away… I won‘t hesitate to take their freedom."
Eren remains unable to detach his personal philosophy from universal morality. His intense empathy for being "born free" still seems to blind him in believing no cost is too high to secure that feeling for his people.
He is too far gone down the path of self-deception, believing only this cruelty will forge a path to freedom by dominating would-be oppressors. But tragically, it leaves him no better than his enemies. Morally corrupted, alienated from himself, having sacrificed his compassion and conscience for security – Eren pays the ultimate price chasing the illusion of freedom.
In the end, he could not see the ultimate unfreedom his actions would bring…