The Folklore of Attack on Titan: Eren, Freedom, and Birds
By Vidhi Gupta
*Heavy Spoiler Warning!*
It is safe to say that the only thing Eren Yeager yearned for was freedom. Freedom is the only thing in the world that is a basic human right and the most difficult status to obtain. This paradox of a concept is shown best in Attack on Titan, an anime that began in 2013. The show begins with the simple story of a boy called Eren Yeager who lives with his family and friends within 3 walls. It is said that humanity outside these walls has perished and titans (giant humanoid creatures that feast on humans) plague the outside world. Eren, unlike the people living within the walls, thinks they are just like herds being raised for slaughter. Unfortunately, in the entire show, that’s the only time when Eren was right.
The Plot
The show eventually reveals that the founder of Paradis Island, King Fritz, had grown tired and guilty of the slaughter and genocide that the subjects of Ymir (Eldians) had caused and escaped to Paradis Island with the surviving faction of Eldians. The remaining, who weren’t able to escape with King Fritz, were sent to live in Ghettos and were treated as less than humans. For the next 100 years, Eldians were treated as criminals that their ancestors had committed. While it is revealed that humanity outside the walls exists, it is also revealed that the very walls, which were made to protect Eldians, contained living titans in them. The first three seasons of the show were very well made and had many interesting twists and turns. However, the ending of the show was equally disappointing. A creative and well-thought-off plot must be given its due credit, however, Attack on Titan overcomplicated many of its plot points and changed the narrative of the story at the end altogether. When something becomes so convoluted that it goes beyond human perception, it becomes unnecessary rather than creative. That is exactly what happened with the show. The connections between Ymir and Eren, Ymir’s backstory, Mikasa’s headaches, and Eren’s overpowered being, among others, made it too much for the audience to credit the author. Rather, it became an unnecessary burden on them.
Eren and Freedom
Throughout the show, Eren’s quest for freedom and more so, for truth, is what leads him to Marley. It would be untrue to say that he didn’t love Paradis Island. He did, however, the power of the Attack Titan and the Founding Titan, made a mess of his brain. The kind of information about the past, present and future that Eren got, led him to the most destructive and suicidal path. Eren’s first feelings of suffocation emerged when Armin brought a book that belonged to his grandfather and they read about the sea. When they fulfilled this dream together, Eren did not experience the kind of feeling he expected to, that is, one of liberation and joy. That is because Eren was never truly free. The power of the Attack Titan allows its wielder to see into the future, whereas the power of the Founding Titan allows the wielder to see the past. After season 3, Eren was bound to the fate he had set for himself and was chained to Ymir and her paths. Through those signals, he manipulated not just Zeke and the rest of humanity, but Ymir as well.
An interesting observation one can make is how birds are represented in the anime. Every time Eren thinks of what freedom would feel like, or it seems as if he has gained freedom and broken the vicious cycle of war, hatred, and discrimination, or when he is stifled once again, birds fly freely across the sky. There are several moments in the anime where Eren looks up in the sky and birds always occupy it as if to signal the freedom they possess. Arguably, one could say the birds mock Eren for they know about the existence of the world like Eren never will. Likewise, in the final scene of the show (that is when it finally ended), when Mikasa has buried Eren and she is sitting with his scarf wrapped around her, a bird comes to peck at the scarf, as if to remind Mikasa of the world in which no longer lives.
Mikasa held on to Eren’s memory the way Eren never wanted her to. The birds have the freedom that Eren never gained even after death since the vicious cycle of hatred and discrimination that he wanted to end, never ended. In the end, Eren truly was a suicidal maniac and an idiot.
Observations
Armin introduced Eren to a world he was unfamiliar with, and it remained that way. There was always a part of the world that Eren could not have explored and the sense of frustration that he felt for being deceived by the royal family of Paradis Island would not have gone even with the fulfilment of his obsession with freedom. Eren’s decision to sacrifice himself for the benefit of future generations also destroyed 80% of humanity. There were many cruel decisions that the characters had to make, however, one that I did not agree with was Historia not killing Eren. In season 3, if Historia had eaten Eren and become a titan like her father wanted her to, then the Founding Titan would have returned to its original owner and Historia would not attacked the world as per the wishes of Fritz.
It is also frustrating to see how Ymir and Eren are similarly bound to reality and the paths in a way that makes them slaves to humanity. Even death could not free them. Ymir spent 2000 years making and re-making Titans at the behest of the wielder of the Founding Titans, whereas Eren was buried only to open up a path for a similar traveller like him. As was mentioned above, this type of story goes beyond creativity and more towards a ridiculously over-complicated plot and that is the downfall of Attack on Titan.
