One of my favourite things about highly intense and dramatic stories
is seeing how the characters start to act when the die is cast and the situation has never been
more dire. The prospect of world ending stakes show things about people as they begin to act
in ways that reveal more about who they are than ever before, and that sort of intimacy
in character writing is something I’ve always found so enticing. And with regards to this,
the final season of Attack on Titan has brought with it an immense amount of insane drama,
emotional climaxes, monumental plot twists and many of these character moments that I’ve
talked about, and the common denominator between all of them, the eye of the storm as it were,
is Eren Yeager. This new post timeskip, seemingly ruthless Eren Yeager who takes the ideals he’s
always held and carries them to their furthest cutthroat extremes. And something I love about
this section of the story is that through working through some very subtle subtext, we can see that
Eren is not immune to this either - his actions and behaviours tell us so much about who he is
at this point and where his motivations and heart lies, and most importantly for this video - how he
feels about himself, and how he tries to contrast that through the mask he shows to the world.
In the middle of a walk through Eren’s childhood memories, Zeke, partly to quell his own
loneliness, tries to convince his brother that the two of them are kindred, indoctrinated spirits.
But as the truth of the matter becomes clear and Zeke begins to learn that Eren
simply did not have the same upbringing as him, Eren says something very indicative
that echoes backwards and helps us key into very telling facets of his psychology.
He tells Zeke, the man attempting to make it so that Eldians will never be born again,
that he is nothing like him. And his reasoning is clear - he says that Zeke is so defined from
the outside in, so much of a reaction to his environment that he has no true sense of self,
no individuality in his ideals. And Eren says that that could not be further from his own mentality.
It’s a totally vehement opposition - from Eren’s perspective, Zeke is nurture,
with his entire life’s journey being the result of his experiences. Whereas Eren is nature,
having been defined by the monstrous yearning for freedom from birth. Eren is Eren. He
always has been. However, the force with which he tried to get this point across
and the minor blind spots he seems to have remind me of another vital sequence in the
final season - the table scene with the two people that he loves most.
I am free. Everything I do is because of my freedom, and I hate everything that
isn’t free. I am nothing like the pathetic kindred spirit
you think I am, we have nothing in common. In both cases, this is very forceful from Eren,
front loading these proclamations to try to prove something. But the thing is,
we now know that he has seen future events through kissing Historia’s hand and has been unable to
stop at least some of what he wanted to stop. The prime example being Sasha’s death, highlighted by
his laugh in response and drawing reference to a very similar instance from long ago.
The commonality here is clear - it’s a characteristic response of Eren’s
to what he perceives as his own failures, powerlessness and ability to enact change.
It’s a self-critical laugh of futility in both cases that he can’t alter the tragic events. And
what this means is that during the table scene, he knows he doesn’t have total freedom at all - to at
least some extent, he is a victim to the whims of the fate he’s seen. So then, why does he say
something that isn’t true? Why does he flaunt his freedom? Because he’s insecure about it, he
isn’t confident. He has seen that certain events are fixed and unchangeable, and so what he says
here is done to convince those around him and most importantly, HIMSELF, that regardless, he is truly
free. Because the alternative is too horrifying to bear, because he needs to believe this.
So with this in mind, when he says that he hates anyone who isn’t free, is he REALLY
talking to Armin and particularly Mikasa? Not really. I think he’s speaking of himself,
going back to that immense self-hatred he feels and has felt for so long about his inability to
have true agency. In what world would Eren just spontaneously begin to hate his beloved friends,
the ones who he states a mere couple of years prior to this that he wants to live
long and happy lives? No, here he is hating the one person he has always been hardest on,
and portraying a juxtaposing front to the world to try to convince himself of something
he doesn’t believe is the full truth. He needs to, or he’s liable to come apart at the seams.
Likewise, to link back, his words to Zeke here are a similar sort of mask. I do agree with him that
he’s had this core, pure and at times frightening yearning for freedom and has had it from birth
til now. But he has also experienced key moments that shaped him. Armin showing him the wonders
of the outside world, his mom’s death, Reiner’s betrayal, what he saw when kissing Historia’s
hand, and much more. These are shown to be core, defining moments for his character and these have
shaped his actions and experiences too. He is, on some level, also formed by his environment,
so he has some common ground with Zeke there, as faint as it may be. Yet he utterly dismisses
the possibility outright. There is absolutely nothing we have in common, I am nothing like you.
I view his defiance and unwillingness to relate to Zeke to be due at least in part to the fact
that Zeke’s motives and ideals are so violently opposite to his and as such, he doesn’t want to
acknowledge any common ground with someone like that. It’s abhorrent to Eren. Nevertheless, due to
all of this and quite a lot more, Eren is wearing a mask post-timeskip. A mask to show to the world
that backs his loved ones away from him, one that lies to others and particularly himself
about his freedom and experiences in an attempt to convince. The things he does are heinous but
while absolutely convinced they need to be done, there is inner turmoil here on multiple levels.
This dualism and inner conflict between how the exterior contrasts the interior
is displayed in numerous ways throughout the presentation of the anime and manga,
but one of the scenes that sticks with me most is the pure, soft sadness and sensitivity on Eren’s
face right after manipulating Grisha to kill the Reiss family. He is just so saddened and
totally exhausted by the role he has to play and the pain he feels in playing that role,
and you can feel that emanating off of him. What he is doing is heinous, and he knows it. But..
his task isn’t finished yet, as he follows through with his endeavor and begins a cataclysm unlike
anything we have ever seen. It is clear that Eren is wearing this false mask to carry out his goals.
But to what end? Why does he have such conviction and why is he doing this? What does he see that we
cannot, and is it finally the true horizon that he has been seeking for what seems like forever?
We simply don’t know the answers at this point, nor do we know if any of these questions have
a true answer. But what is clear is that this version of Eren is a fabrication on some level
born out of his nature and experiences. And if the final image of the ending is anything to go by,
he will be set ablaze before he ever relents from this crusade. Many thanks for watching.