The complexity of Eren Yeager
After almost two weeks from the end of Attack on Titan I can finally write my opinion on Isayama’s protagonist: Eren Yeager.
First of all I begin by saying that Eren was never my favorite character, not even after he switched 180 degree after the time skip. In the first season I found him too idealistic and judgmental because of his extremism, stubborn with angry issues, selfish who cares only about his feelings and ungrateful towards Mikasa.
To be honest in the first season I was so full of his temperamental behavior that I wanted Mikasa to give him a foot in the ass, pardon my words, and move on with her life. And then second season happened (chapter 50) when I finally saw him as a REALISTIC HUMAN being and literally cried for him. I started to see him in a new light and then the time skip happened and I hated him even more then before.
Probably you think that it was all because what he said to Mikasa, even if I am an Eremika shipper, that was not the main reason. The problem with his character, that I found nonrealistic and unidimensional, was that I did not get “his obsessions with freedom” and the all reason “because I was born into this world” was idiotic because it did not explain anything , it was an unrealistic reason.
From a physiological side I did not understood why he had to kill those kidnappers in cold blood at 9 years only because of taking Mikasa’s freedom. I get that he wanted to protect her and himself so he had to hurt them but how that scene is portrayed is like he was desperate and the main reason was steeling someone else’s freedom. It was an action that I found exaggerated.
And then after the time skip I found him even more unrealistic because he switched at 180 degree in Erwin and Armin and I was: “ How do you change from this blunt, tsundere, temperamental and emotional boy to a calculate, serious, liar, emotionless bastard ?” When I discussed this with my brother he told me that it was development but I wasn’t seeing development because to have a total turn in a character/temperament you have to grow up and learn from your experiences and even then you do not change 180 degree, where Eren changed after he saw the memories from the future. He did not lived those memories but he only saw them so realistic speaking I did not buy the all “development” . Most what you get from those memories is knowledge and depression NOT DEVELOPMENT! And I was right!
Probably I was one of the few fans that did not liked Eren’s character because of a logical approach and yes I disliked him because literally I did not understood his character at all till the end…
And then 139 happened and I must thank Isayama because thanks to one chapter were Eren explains himself to Armin along with his outburst I finally understood Eren Yeager and loved him because now I understood that his obsessions about freedom was a subconscious thought of desiring to be free when he knew he was not. I loved him because he had development but not to a 180 degree character but as Eren Jaeger that we knew from the beginning, he stopped depending on others (Mikasa, Armin, Levi, etc.) and made the hard choices he had to . His development stands in the form of sacrifice and selfness because even if he was not free he wanted his friends to be free. He acknowledged and buried his feelings together with all the selfish/human desires for the sake of the others. Eren was always a tragic character from the beginning and Isayama portraited that very good in the irony that he was the most enslaved character in the manga. Because of that it makes sense and is explained very logical his desire for freedom so bad and all the shitty things he had to do in order to save them all. Eren Yeager was one of the most complex tragic character I have ever read and if you do not see that, then you did not understood Isayama’s story and Eren’s character at all, or maybe you are all 10 years and could not see the all picture here.
In conclusion Eren Yeager was a young man that fought for his people, his friends, the woman he loved but above all he fought for himself and he was a boy born in a cruel world but that did not mean that he was not a human with real emotions, struggles, issues, desires. Thank you Hajime Isayama for creating Eren and this story!
