u/Oven_Stove — reddlx

Isayama recently said that he has mixed feelings about Eren Yeager's portrayal in the anime. His statement: “Eren became a protagonist who committed mass slaughter on a scale rarely seen in other works of fiction. As for why I conceived such a story from the beginning, part of it was my desire to create a narrative with a major twist—where the victim becomes the perpetrator.

But a large factor was also my own immaturity and foolishness at the time, when I was in my early twenties. That aspect became the core of Eren's character, leading to the point where he confesses not as someone forced into wrongdoing by circumstances, but as someone who harbored a desire to do harm.

However, Attack on Titan had long since ceased to be mine alone, and Eren became a character loved by many readers. In the end, without fully committing to portraying him as a detestable figure, I found myself depicting him with a certain closeness and sympathy. As a result, I feel there remains a sense of insincerity in the story's conclusion—at least in my own assessment.”

It's very surprising to me that he said this so recently, because I myself watched Attack on Titan about a month ago start to finish and have thought about it a lot the last couple of weeks. (Honestly, I'm so glad that he still comments on the series. I was afraid I would stumble upon a dead fandom, having watched it myself so late. It was quite the contrary.)

I personally found it to be a very, very amazing anime (most likely the best one I've seen) - but I must admit that there were some things I found to be a little bit off; the main thing being the portrayal of Eren, it was a a moral concern of mine. While I acknowledge that he was generally portrayed as an antagonist to the world, it was somewhat "beautified" in the anime - and that just felt wrong.

Yes, the story is tragic, the character is tragic, I mean, someone becoming evil IS tragic, but it's NOT something to be sympathetic about. You can understand someone's choices or find logic in a person's character development, while also judging and condemning their (wrong) actions. Sins should never be justified.

I think for me the biggest criticism is the way Armin spoke to Eren. I get that Mikasa still loved him - after all, one major plot point is the parallel between Mikasa and Ymir. Both were obsessed with someone beyond (emotional) moral judgement of that person, but eventually, Mikasa put others before her own feelings, which I think was wonderful storytelling. But Armin was a smart person. It felt weird for him to thank and hug Eren after learning that Eren killed so many people, being enthusiastic about ending up in hell together with Eren (I see a big difference between the heinious acts Armin committed and the heinious acts Eren committed - it's necessary defense vs. exuberant offence). I understand that he would still love Eren, but it should've been more in a tragic, mourning way. He should've grieved the person Eren could've become if he had not been that selfish with regards to gaining "freedom". And kind of the same for the other characters (Jean, Reiner, Connie and Annie).

I mean, it overall felt weird to me that Eren supposedly even cared that much about his friends still. We all know that all his actions were his own choices. Despite him knowing his "fate", he actualized it with his own "free will" (despite it not feeling as "free"). Also, Isayama said that the Highschool AU from the manga's are necessary to understanding Eren's true nature. If you don't know, it depicts that if Eren lived in a free world, he would be bored to death (something that we also see at the very beginning of the anime), eventually considering initiating major mayhem/destruction himself. Eren wants to "fight for freedom". And this is not something Eren became, it was part of his nature since the moment he was born - and the nurture aspects of his environment allowed this side of him to deeply manifest.

This still doesn't make him free of blame. Not at all. Just because you care about something, doesn't mean you should put it above anything else - because that's just selfish. We got both a heart AND a brain. Erwin, for example, also chose to give up on his dream eventually, despite his curious nature initially leading him towards a persue of the truth.

I know some people praise the series for its "morally greyness", but personally, while sides of a war can be morally grey (although in reality, it's often not; either one side is bad or both), I don't believe in fully "morally grey" characters. I think people ULTIMATELY are either good or bad, dependent on their intentions (sincerity), morality and behaviour. However, I do think the series generally shows how misconceptions and ambiguity (the "greyness" I appreciate) do lead to people taking certain courses of actions.

All in all, I think Isayama is very goated for stating this regret, because I, too, heavily condemn Eren for the large-scale atrocities he committed. And I certainly don't understand how people can talk good about the murdering of >1bln. people. I appreciate him for the realistic, ANTAGONISTIC character he is. The fact that Isayama also feels the same, honestly makes me love his work more, because that means the intention/thought behind it was accurate to my expectations - the execution was just not fully done well. That takes away perhaps the biggest objects I had with the portrayals. I'm glad he said what he said.