I Found A Few Interesting Parallels And Repeated Motifs With Eren.

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Consistent themes and elments in Attack on Titan

During these few weeks I have been re-reading past SNK volumes, and I have noticed how coherent and overlaying some of the elements and themes of the series are. The ideas and problems presented in the beginning, connect and resonate to the post-basement reveal world. In this post I`d like to talk about some of these consistent things.

As a side note, I have read up till volume 26/chapter 106, so I will construct this post within that context. In here I ramble about the elements that I noticed during the re-reading of past volumes, so it is likely that I have missed some. The structure of this post will be the following one: 

-  Images of monsters 

-  Good or evil - How people are viewed? 

 - David versus Goliath 

- The prevailing current and going against it 

Images of monsters 

In the beginning of the series, one of the things that makes the Titan so scary and such a hard threat to deal with, is the massive gap of knowledge about their true nature. Humanity, or the people of Paradis, have very little knowledge about the origin of the Titans, or what kind of creatures they are. This unknown nature is a perfect breeding ground for fear. Since humanity does not know about the true nature of the Titans, and for a long while did not really possess means or tools to find out, all they had as source material, was the knowledge that Titans are the natural enemy of humanity. 

This is something similar what happens in the outside world, when it comes to the people of Ymir living in Paradis. Since they live in a island, far away from the mainland, no one living in Marley has not really seen any residents of Paradis, and does not really know what they are like. This transforms yet again into something unknown, something that is filled with Marleyan propaganda. When you do not have the means to find out what the supposed “demons of Paradis” are actually like, and you`r head has been filled with enemy propaganda since the day you were born, it is no wonder enemy images manifest themselves.

Both the Titans from Paradis perspective, and the people of Paradis from the perspective of Marley, act as examples of an wonderfully constructed, external enemy, that thrives from unknown factors and propaganda.

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Commission for @neezuko - A fanart Eren and Historia .

The Reason Eren Sent the ST after Carla (theory)

In 139, it was revealed that Eren directed the Smiling Titan to where his mother was. This was not a plot twist done for shock value as it been hinted at several times in the older chapters by emphasizing on the Bert's panel and reaction as well as even including it in Eren's memory fragments through the Smiling Titan's eyes. However the chapter did not elaborate on it (like many other pressing topics, it was left behind).

Now, let's begin:

Many fans felt frustrated why this critical plot point was not addressed in the finale: why Grisha gives Eren the Founder and Attack Titans' powers despite he was horrified by the path Eren choosen and more importantly despite he told Zeke to "stop Eren".

Yes, Grisha was not on board with Eren's plan... at that point in time.

There's something changed Grisha's mind.

Just like his mind changed from submitting to the Reiss family because of his morals to murdering them in a shocking turn of events:

It's consistent with Grisha's character to switch from morally hesitating to ruthlessly and angry murdering given his goal, trauma and past failure which motivate him to complete his mission.

During the murder of the Reiss family scene, Eren was the factor in changing Grisha's mind by reminding him of all these things.

Upon seeing Eren's future memories, Grisha hesitated again. It's when he told Zeke to "stop Eren" in Eren's presence.

Zeke pulled off his memory-travel connection with Eren before they visited the fragment of the Attack Titan inheritance, therefore Eren is not able to directly influence Grisha's volatile will.

Eren on the other hand was established here to be fully focused on his goal more than saving his mother, which means his goal is something he will put ahead of her; something he will choose over her.

Eren also kept Carla's fate in the dark from Grisha.

And then, Grisha knows this:

"Eren, avenge your mother. You must. I know you can."

When Grisha found out his wife was eaten by a titan, just like how his sister was eated by dogs, because of Marely, because of this world, Grisha's morality hesitation solidified into wrath and anger again. (Grisha, after all, is very similar to Eren)

Grisha entrusted Eren to complete the mission in a parallel sense to how he burdened Zeke with saving Eldia mission. "He's my son."

In 139, Eren admitted that he wants to flatten this world because that exists in his nature, even if he doesn't understand why he just feels he has to because that is his call.

Eren sent the Smiling Titan after Carla to convince Grisha to give him the Founder's power, the power he was after from the start.

Edit: a more flattering interpretation of plot twist is that Eren, being a plot device protagonist, had written himself in the corner and felt no other choice but to follow a preset of events.

I don’t care what others says, I love this two girls OwO

Attack on Titan The Final Season Part 2 - Official Main Trailer

Part 2 of Attack on Titan: The Final Season will premiere on January 9, 2022.

I don’t think it’s fair to characterize Eren in such a way. It should be noted that Eren’s friends had also failed on multiple occasions to show him respect by ignoring blatantly obvious sides of him. At the ocean he questions omnicide and his friends simply ignore it, at the meeting about Zeke he brings up omnicide again and his friends just pretend it didn’t happen, then in Marley he’s obviously sad, scared and disassociating at times and once again they ignore his problems. His friends and the Survey Corps were also way too open to possibilities, it’s precisely because of their idealism that they’re in this situation in the first place. Eren has definitely made mistakes in relying too much on himself, but the SC is just as guilty in their openness to possibilities and their faith in peace, Isayama says so himself, “Peace cannot be achieved by ideals alone, how many sacrifices must be made to pave the path to peace?”. So it’s wrong to characterize them as being so respectful and loving to Eren when they deliberately ignored parts of him that they didn’t want to see.

 On top of this you say Eren overestimates his strength and abilities but with Reiner in the basement he tells Falco that he saved him by delivering  the letter, he genuinely acknowledges that the Raid was impossible without the help of the Survey Corps, and it should be noted in the way he looks at Mikasa that he’s very emotional inside about what he has brought them to do.

 And you’re disregarding the fact that he still had enough faith in his friends to entrust them with the task of stopping him, the destructive side of Eren is a side that can’t be tamed, so Eren antagonizes them later to create enough distance for them to be forced to acknowledge that side of Eren and make the decision to cut it down. He may not trust them as much as he did before, and he should have used a more tame and allied method of sublimating those desires, but at it’s core his faith in his friends still exists and Eren doesn’t overestimate himself so much as what he does is the only way he knows how to act.

Eren the Slave

There’s a common misconception in the fandom that Eren’s turn in the final arc from hero to antagonist is due to character development. This is from a belief that Eren as a character, believes in freedom and therefore has been carrying that idea on his shoulders the entire time. 

There’s a confusion between the narrative which Isayama sets up for Eren which is told from a third point of view and therefore is objective, and Eren’s own personal narrative which is composed of Eren’s own personal thoughts and feelings. Basically in any story these two things will coexist and push and pull against each other, narrative the way the world sees the character and reacts to them and personal narrative the way the character sees themselves. Eren’s conception of himself is a one man army fighting for the freedom, and willing to become the enemy of the whole world in order to do it but just because a character believes that about themselves does not necessarily mean that it is true. 

The following post is a discussion of Narrative Identity that is a theory that postulates individuals for an identiy by integrating their life experiences into an internalize,d evolving story of the self that provides the individual with a sense of unity and purpose in life. The narrative is a story, it has characters, episodes, imagery, a setting, plots and themes which means the events taking place in it have to have meaning. 

Eren is a slave of many things, including narrative, and because of his own personal narrative he cannot change. Eren isn’t a character who has changed, moreas he’s a character we’ve had our perspective of him change as the story progresses and widens it perspective which is still development. All character development requires some kind of change or movement on the character’s part, but it doesn’t mean their characters themselves have to change, because the reader’s perspective on them can be what develops instead. 

So underneath the cut: Eren’s current development is about his failure to change, which makes him the least free character in the manga. I suggest reading my Eren and Reiner meta as a precursor to this. 

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Celestial Ceilings

Ah yes, my favorite genre...