Yeah. Only some few people who can really look into the depth of his character. I hope others are like that too as well. Eren's character is truly phenomenal, his progression and perspective of things is really different than anyone else's. Every character in AOT is written perfectly but really... Eren is the most well-written character ever.
I totally agree. His character development even before the timeskip is nuanced and brilliantly done. He truly is very complex character and I wished more people saw that! That’s true, so many characters are very well written, especially Eren as the mc. I’ve realized that Eren parallels and contrasts with most of the cast (for ex: Eren and Armin, Eren and Reiner, Eren and Erwin, Eren and Mikasa, Eren and Gabi, etc). A lot of ppl say that Eren ruins AOT but I couldn’t disagree more
At the beginning we saw an inocent kid's life being destroyed by horrible people (Not by titans, the real monsters in SNK are people) and many of us felt sorry for this kid whose mother died in front of him so cruely. It'd be weird if I didn't feel empathy for this caracter. I personally love how deep his development has turned to, I saw him grow and I certanly don't hate him, but I hate what he's doing now (there's no way I'd forgive him after killing inocent children).
But I understand him after all. He's a victim and all I can say is that I feel sorry for him.
This author is a genius
The problem for me is not necessarily that ppl hate him, it’s just that ppl hate him for the wrong reason last and completely dumb down his character, either intentionally or they... just don’t understand. Like they think he is evil or that he is selfish and hates his friends and WANTS to do the rumbling and I for one have no idea where they got those ideas.
And yes exactly. Maybe he never won, but he’s never lost either. He’s always just been doing his best, always fighting.
The best part of Eren is that his development makes sense. His reasons, his actions make sense. He IMO seemed the most... human to me in the beginning. So angry, so flawed, so so emotional. Unlikeable, but relatable/compelling. And seeing someone so human become who he is now is the tragic part. War and suffering brings out the devil in anyone. That’s one of the many themes of AOT, shown not only through Eren but in all the characters, all of these victims of war.
i’m screenshotting this to remind myself after rereading the manga and finishing the final ep of (the heartbreaking) final season four — to remind myself of how beautiful this story is and how it fearlessly encapsulates humanity in the intertwining of events. this is truly a masterpiece and i am grateful to have been born in the lifetime this was created.
thank u so much for ur comment/thoughts on this. call me dramatic or whatnot but i legitly cried after reading ur comment. u just summarised all the points that i tried to point out in perfect words. i really empathize with eren's character the most and reading this kinda makes me felt emotional idk why
Saving this comment in my notes, so I can remind myself what a great anime this is years into the future. It’s just mad how we all thought it’s just another fantasy anime about killing man eating monsters but fuck it goes so much deeper and it’s so raw and really reflects into the real world. Everything has a purpose. This has taught me that we’re all special because we’re alive living right now in this very moment and that’s powerful enough.
Eren was a normal kid. He just wanted to look up at the sky without seeing walls. He just wanted freedom for his friends and for himself. He just wanted to reach the sea with Armin. But all he got was racism and hatred, all he got was the death and betrayals of his loved ones and comrades, and he blamed himself. All he got were memories that told him a painful truth- the detriments and prevalence of the cycle of hatred, that his friends were going to be its next victims, but he still tried to stay sane. Do you think about how despite everything he’s been through, despite Reiner being a source for most of his trauma, he matured enough to look him in the eyes and say “you must have suffered. You were just kids. You didn’t know right from wrong. We’re all the same.” Do you really think he wanted this? Eren believes that everyone is special because they were born in this world. That just existing is enough. That everyone deserves the freedom to live. Isn’t that such a beautiful mentality? So do you really think he wants to commit genocide? Wants to go against his morals, wants to take away the freedom of so many victims and innocents, wants to push away his friends and make them hate him? Eren only had 8 yrs left but still spent 4 years trying to cheat his own fate, trying to find another solution, trying to see if the scouts would have another way.
The AOT fandom sometimes annoys me, ppl love hating his character, calling him evil, a hitler, calling him selfish, saying he hates his friends. And half the ppl who like him don’t actually like him because they are using him to support their fascist or weird ideologies and actually supporting genocide, which is wrong. Eren didn’t want this. And if you rlly knew his character, you wouldn’t want it too.
The scouts understand him now. They don’t blame him. They blame themselves, for ignoring his pain and depression, for not giving him any other option. Even the MARLEYANS understand Eren more than half the fan base. “... and that devil was born, to return the hate we gave it.” Even they know that Eren is just another victim. He is the biggest victim of this story, of the 2000 yr cycle of hate.
Eren: “I won’t give my powers to any of you guys... I want my precious friends to live long lives,” he says as he stabs his eye, saws off his leg, abandons his humanity, forces himself to be a monster, goes against his morals and justice, shuts down his emotions, etc.
Eren haters: hE hAtEs HiS fRiEnDs, hE’s SeLfIsH.
Puh lease. Read the damn manga again or smth. Preferably without selective memory.
Btw if you dislike his character that is totally fine, Eren wasnt made to be likeble. But the whole point of AOT is understanding perspectives, that everyone is morally gray. Eren too. So hating him without trying to understand him just removes a lot of meaning that you could be getting.
Eren was just a normal kid forced into a tragic fate much bigger than him. He’s not a simple 2d “villain”. He is literally the best mc for AOT, and one of the best in fiction. I said what I said.