u/4kdej

If you finish this series loving one side and hating the other, you have likely missed the core message the author was trying to convey. Isayama didn't write a story about heroes and villains; he wrote a story about the cycle of perspective and the tragedy of human nature.

The truth is found in the fact that Eren exists as a "Both/And" character rather than an "Either/Or." He is simultaneously a victim and a villain. He is a victim because he is a teenager whose mind was shattered by a power that forced him to experience the past, present, and future all at once, leaving him a prisoner to a fixed destiny he desperately tried to change. Yet, he is also the villain because he is still the one who pulled the trigger and chose to move forward with the destruction even while loathing himself for it.

The author constantly pulls the rug out from under the audience to challenge our sense of morality. First, we were led to believe the Titans were the monsters, until we learned they were actually humans. Then, we were led to believe Reiner was a simple traitor, until we learned he was a traumatized child soldier. Finally, the story framed Eren as the ultimate Devil, only to reveal in the end that he was the greatest slave of all. The story isn't about picking a side or justifying a crime; it is about the tragedy that occurs when a cruel world forces people to become villains just to survive. If you cannot see the sobbing human being behind the monster, you are only reading half the story.

This captures the core of that "not fair" feeling and the deep realization that the world isn't divided into heroes and villains, but into people caught in a cycle of pain.

The Tragedy of Eren Yeager , he was A Slave to a Slave

I just finished the finale and I am honestly in tears. I need to talk about the "sick" irony of Eren’s entire existence and how this show completely shatters the idea of a traditional hero. We spend the whole series watching Eren fight for "freedom," but by the end, it is clear he was actually the most trapped person in the world. He was essentially a slave to a slave, caught between Ymir’s two-thousand-year-old twisted trauma and his own future visions for freedom that he tried, and failed, to change ( referencing the moment he told Armin he tried to change the future but the end result was the same)

There were two moments that specifically broke my heart and changed how I viewed his character. The first is the realization that when he was acting "lethal" and cruel to Mikasa and Armin, he was actually just orchestrating a future he hated but felt he could not escape. He forced himself to be the villain so they could be the heroes. The second is the breakdown where he finally lets the mask slip. Seeing him sob and admit he does not want to die and that he just wants to be with Mikasa proved that under the "Founder" god-complex, he was still just a kid who wanted a different outcome, freedom he could never actually taste.

The most profound thing this show taught me is that there is no such thing as "all good" or "all bad." It makes it impossible to choose a side because every single character is both a victim and a perpetrator. One second you are a victim of a Titan attack, and the next, you are the perpetrator destroying someone else’s home. It made me realize that being a victim is something that changes given the situation. I feel for Eren simply because he had to carry the weight of being both at the same time. He was a monster to the world but a martyr for his friends, all while being a slave to a destiny he did not even want. How do you guys deal with the fact that Eren’s will for freedom was the very thing that imprisoned him? Everyone is twisted on down to the civilians and even in the midst of tragedy they were still set out to kill each other. I believe this show was deeper than what it seems and reflects our world today . An endless cycle of hate , murder ,segregation, villains ,and victimization to what end ?