Highlights
- Eren's intense hatred for Titans fueled his vow to eradicate them all, leading him to become a soldier and gain Titan powers.
- As Eren learns the truth about Titans and the world beyond the Walls, he struggles with his goal of eradicating them and seeks peace instead.
- Despite achieving his vow and bringing about a world without Titans, Eren's actions resulted in the destruction of Paradis and the continuation of human conflict.
When Attack on Titan first began, one of the defining traits of its protagonist Eren Yeager, was his intense hatred for all Titans which manifested as a need to wipe every last one of them off the face of the planet. Following the horrific death of his mother and the destruction of his home during the Fall of Wall Maria, Eren was left completely shell-shocked by how much his life had changed in less than a day. Helpless before the Titans, Eren could only watch as his world crumbled around him. This sense of helplessness manifested as a blind rage that would propel him forward, through many of his exploits in Attack on Titan.
In his anger, Eren vowed to eradicate every last Titan in retribution for what they had done to him and his family, and he was constantly driven by this singular aim throughout his training as a soldier. When the story came full circle and Eren became the enemy of all humanity beyond the Walls after commencing the Rumbling, it seemed as if he had lost sight of his initial goal. However, in the end, Eren managed to make good on his vow, but the manner in which he did so defied expectations and wrapped up his character arc in a fairly poignant manner.
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A Vow Fueled By Vengeance
Eren first pledged to exterminate the Titans when overwhelmed by rage and grief upon the loss of his mother, without giving much thought to how he would actually go about achieving this objective. Fortunately for him, Eren's father, Grisha Yeager, arrived soon after the Fall of Wall Maria and transferred his Titan powers to him, giving Eren the trump card he needed in his campaign to annihilate the Titans.
Soon after, he decided to enlist in the military in the hope of joining the Survey Corps as part of his goal. After spending years training to become a soldier, Eren began to believe that his goal was truly attainable, as he learned the secrets of ODM gear and Titan physiology. Having placed among the top ten graduates of his class, Eren's persistence was bearing fruit, and he was raring to face the Titans once again. Unfortunately, he was also in for a painful reality check.
When Eren's group of trainees found themselves caught up in a battle against the Titans in Trost District due to a breach in Wall Rose, shortly after their graduation, he rushed into battle on his own and was swiftly incapacitated by the overwhelming power of the Titans once again. Forced to confront his helplessness, Eren risked his life to save Armin and was eaten by a Titan. In the depths of the Titan's stomach, Eren's rage and defiance in the face of death allowed him to transform into the Attack Titan for the first time, and he swiftly went on a rampage against the invading Pure Titans in Trost.
The discovery of Eren's Titan powers allowed the military to seal the hole in Wall Rose, and he went on to become the cornerstone of humanity's struggle against the Titans. Once again, it seemed as if Eren finally had a means to do what he vowed to, but soon after, it was revealed that there were other Titan shifters in the 104th Training Corps, indicating that his path to success would not be as easy as he had initially thought.
Uncovering The Terrible Truth Behind Eren's Tragedy
By the time of the Operation To Retake Wall Maria, Eren's mindset had undergone a radical change, and he began to doubt his earlier conviction, on finding out that Pure Titans were actually humans who had been injected with Titan serum. Although he was more than willing to free them from their suffering by killing them, Eren began to question whether he still sought to pursue his goal of eradicating the Titans. This was compounded by the revelations about civilization beyond the Walls, which came to light when he visited the basement of his childhood home in Shiganshina.
On bearing witness to the grim future he was destined to bring forth after touching Historia's hand and gaining access to memories from both the Founding Titan and the Attack Titan, Eren desperately struggled to avoid the fate that lay in store for him. From asking Mikasa about her true feelings towards him, to seeking out diplomatic routes towards peace alongside the Scouts, Eren's desire to prevent the Rumbling drove him to experience intense mental anguish, as he realized that he would have to become the enemy of all humanity in order to save those that he cared for.
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Regrettably, every one of these attempts was met with failure, which weakened his resolve to the point where he began to gradually accept his tragic destiny. At the point of no return, Eren disobeyed orders and infiltrated Marley, sparking off a series of events that culminated in the Raid on Liberio, where he slaughtered many world leaders and innocent civilians, destroying any hope of Paradis maintaining peace through diplomacy. With this, he set out to activate the Rumbling and bring about the horrific future that he had been trying to prevent, coming to terms with its inevitability.
How Eren's Promise Changed As The Series Went On
The events of the Rumbling wiped out the majority of humanity beyond the Walls, diminishing any chance of an unfair retaliation against Paradis by the allied military forces of the entire world. During the four days when the Wall Titans marched across the planet, Eren appeared to remain steadfast in his commitment to end all civilization beyond Paradis Island.
The meaning of his vow was now turned entirely on its head, as his campaign of extermination was directed at all humankind save for his own people, who were the only race capable of transforming into Titans. This was reinforced by his repeated utterance of the exact words from the pledge he made at the start of the series.
Through immeasurable struggle, sacrifice, and suffering, Eren had achieved what he set out to do
Following the climax of the Battle of Heaven and Earth, the Scouts and Warriors who defeated Eren learned that he had activated the Rumbling with the sole purpose of saving those he cared about, and he had willingly given up his own life in return. In seeing out his vision of the future till the very end and allowing Mikasa to kill him, Eren had given Ymir Fritz — the original Founding Titan — the closure she needed to bring an end to the Power of the Titans. The promise which had been twisted beyond recognition by the Rumbling, was now realized exactly as intended, but its final meaning held a great deal more optimism than the intent behind the same words when he first declared them.
"A world without Titans" was exactly what the survivors of the Rumbling and the Battle of Heaven and Earth awoke to, when the dust had settled. Through immeasurable struggle, sacrifice, and suffering, Eren had achieved what he set out to do, but there was a lingering question at the end of his ordeal, about whether the result was worth the cost that came with it. Genocide is not something that can be condoned under any circumstances, and Eren himself knew that his actions were beyond redemption.
While the eradication of Titan powers was to humanity's benefit, the peace attained as a consequence, came at a price that was too high for any one person to shoulder. The eventual destruction of Paradis decades in the future, proved that even after Eren's fulfillment of his promise, humanity continued to find reasons to wage war. In the end, Titan powers were only a means for conflict to escalate, and the root cause was always human nature.
