“The Dark, Dark Future We Face”
In chapter 93, Reiner asked Falco to “save Gabi from the dark, dark future we face.” “The dark, dark future” Reiner talks about is the fate of inheriting one of the nine titans. Aside from being turned into a monster and a killing machine, a titan-shifter has only 13 years to live. At first sight, 13 years doesn’t seem absolutely terrible for a soldier – most of the survey corps members probably couldn’t last as long as 13 years in their military service. Â
But what’s really horrible about the “dark, dark future” of the titan-shifters is the absolute certainty of their death at the end of 13 years. Although a survey corps soldier may die tomorrow or even the next minute, he or she can still hope – because death is uncertain, so there is hope that he or she may survive this day, and the next, and even for years to come. Ordinary people, even soldiers, live in the hope that death lies in an immeasurably distant future; it’s this hope that prevents us from descending into despair and insanity.
But it’s different for titan shifters like Reiner. To be a titan shifter is a death sentence; for them the time of death is certain and inexorable. In Dostoevsky’s discussion about capital punishment, he talked about the agony that comes from the knowledge of an inescapable death:
…the whole awful torture lies in the fact that there is certainly no escape, and there is no torture in the world more terrible. You may lead a soldier out and set him facing the cannon in battle and fire at him and he’ll still hope; but read a sentence of certain death over the same soldier, and he will go out of his mind or burst into tears. Who can tell whether human nature is able to bear this without madness?
I think this is the horrible tragedy of the titan-shifters. Despite the power they hold, they’re like death row prisoners with their execution day already marked out. And personally I think that the sense of doom and hopelessness that underlies the fate of a titan-shifter may have influenced Eren’s decision to go along with the rumbling. In chapter 130, there’s a such a sense of desolate sadness when Eren says to Zeke: “What are you even talking about? I’ve got four more years to live at most.”
In this panel, Eren’s line “I’ve got four more years to live at most” is juxtaposed with Historia’s “what would you think about me having a child?” and Eren’s other line “their lives will continue even after I die.” In other words, Eren’s own impending death is placed side by side and contrasted with the birth of a new life (Historia’s child) and the hope of living a long life (Eren’s friends). This contrast brings out the full impact of the sad fate Eren has to suffer as a titan-shifter. Eren may have all the power in the world, but he is a doomed man – a man without hope or future. Eren is expecting his own death sentence, and he hopes to bring the old world to die with him. The new world after the rumbling is not one Eren expects to live to see.
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