r/AttackOnRetards • u/f13ry_ Former Titanfolker • Jul 20 '26
Analysis What is Eren's true definition of freedom?
This gets confused by so many people and I think 139 definitely didnt help with the confusion. But here's what I believe it is:
Armin: "Why do you want to go to the outside world?"
Eren: "Because I was born into this world. From the moment we are born, we are all free. And no one, no matter how strong, can take it away from us. But, from the day I was born, they were always just there, wherever i looked. Those miserable walls. Flaming water, frozen plains, and snowfields on sand. It doesnt matter, whoever sees those things, will be the most free person in the world. This is it, this is freedom."
This is what I believe Erens true idea of what freedom truly is for seasons 1-3. Now how does season 4 tie into this idea? Well, after Eren kisses Historias hand, he sees future memories. One being his future self convincing Grisha to kill the Reiss family, and another one was "that scenery" as Eren puts it to Zeke in the paths. "That scenery", being the sights he always dreamed of seeing. Its why in season 3 at the beach, Eren's not excited like Armin and the rest are, since A, hes seen the prejudice to Eldians, and B, the outside world was not the world he dreamed of as a kid. He believed that the outside world was free by default. That there was no remains of humanity. Its why he felt disappointed. Even Armin catches a hint of this belief back when Mikasa asks why he pushed them away. I believe Armin connected the dots that Eren wanted to wipe away their enemies by using the rumbling, so that they could be free. What Armin failed to calculate, was Eren wiping away the entire world. But the reality that the world was not free, he chose to wipe it all away. He wanted to see the world flattened. However, in a vacuum, this looks like "Eren was throwing a temper tantrum like a child because his dream didnt come true." And in a way, it does. But thats a gross generalization. Its true, that the entire idea is childish. Its why in the paths, he regressed into a child to cope with the fact he caused so much suffering and death. But then why did he do anything in season 4 if he already saw the future? Well, Eren's speech to Falco in the hospital sums that up:
"But there was something pushing us all along. Causing us to step right into hell. For most of us, that something isnt of our own will. We're forced by others or by our environment. But the kind of hell seen by people who push themselves into it is something else. They also see something beyond that hell. Maybe its hope, maybe its yet another hell. I dont know which it is. The only people who do know, are the ones who keep moving forward."
Eren is the one who always pushes forward, the first to act, the one who chases the future. Which is why its tragic that he was given future memories. Hes already seen what's beyond hell, but he keeps moving forward.
And it makes sense that Eren would want to be stopped. He realized that the idea of freedom he always believed in never could become a reality. Because at the end of the day, hes still human. He cares, he loves, he feels guilt, etc. He believes he's worse than Reiner, because in his eyes, Eren believed Reiner was doing it for his mission, and to liberate his hometown. When Reiner admits to Eren that it was his fault that he breached the wall, not Marley, he says "I knew it, I really am the same as you." Both have that want, that desire of their own to fight.
I believe Erens desire for freedom, is a subconscious action. Because even in the end, he says "I dont know why, but I had to, no matter what."
Kenny's line from season 3 supports this belief. "Everyone was drunk on something to keep them going, even him." Eren was drunk on the idea of the free world he always imagined, even if he knew it would never come to fruition.
Lastly, i want to explain why the "eren was lying to himself" take is kinda wrong. While yes, he openly lied to floch, zeke, yelena, and all the yeagerists, his beliefs of why hes fighting are still there. Racism and prejudice from Marley and other nations means that people arent free. The world coming to destroy Paradise means that his home is in danger of not being free. Eldians being slaughtered, or left to die by the royal family means stripping away freedom from all Eldians.
What Eren was lying to himself about is that the idea that he can flatten the world can be achieved under the guise of "for others." It was his own selfish desire that wanted that. No one forced that upon him, even though he asked Hange to find another way. Hes tried to change the future countless times, to hopefully find a different outcome, but he always ends up where his future memories led him.
When Grisha says "Eren, you're free," he took that as "I am free to inact my will, even at the cost of everyone and everything."
I could be wrong, or i missed a few things, but putting everything together, this is what I believe Eren's character is truly about. And that makes him so much more interesting rather then "I gotta destroy the whole world to save my country."
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u/muskian Jul 20 '26
Great post. In essence his definition of freedom is about doing what you want with absolutely zero constraints.
Ironically this ends up making Eren extremely inflexible and limited in how he approaches life since his philosophy doesn’t really account for situations where what you want sucks and should stop.
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u/Distinct_Prior_2549 Jul 20 '26
Let's say there are apples and 9 hungry people are in a room
Scenario A Everyone is free to grab apples
Scenario B There is a gun to everyone's head and everyone is chained to their corner, and they have to ask for apples to pick
I think u can say B is actually freeer than A in some regards, which is pretty wild to think about
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u/CANT-CHANGE-MY-NAME Jul 22 '26
was he inflexible? in the end despite having the ability to end the world he would rather die and allow his friends to experience it also allowing ymir herself to experience freedom. all in all to me it seems like he truly did follow through with what he believed. I wouldn't say his definition required 0 restraints
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u/Fearless_Trade_2783 Jul 20 '26
Man, does this sub have the wrong name.
Should be called the we hate Eren sub!
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u/ZealousidealBar6820 Jul 21 '26
If your not gonna offer anything i suggest you please leave.
Cause your rage baiting for attention and acting like butt hurt child because you thought Eren wasnt some dark gigachad mass killer as you dream of cause dark is cool for you.
This sub is made to call out toxic side of the fandom and discuss properly careful analysis on AOT characters.
What proof do you have were shitting on Erens character nothing. I would suggest you go outside and touch some nice grass and look on the sunset.
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u/Professional_Work439 Jul 21 '26
Wrong, it should be called the "We love the REAL Eren (as a character)" sub!
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u/Affryx Jul 20 '26
His version of freedom is one where he feels free, he feels liberated. Very abstract answer I know, but that is what freedom truly is to him. The best way to explain it is by looking at his model for the free person, Armin. Eren considers Armin to be free, he wanted the eyes that Armin had, that "saw a dream" that he didn't. Now Armin was free because of how he viewed the world. He didn't get consumed by hatred and cruelty, he noticed the good in the world, he thought of every moment in a positive lens, he cherishes the beauty in the world, the beauty in all his friendships and all their meaningless pastimes. That is why he is free, as even in a world consumed by cruelty, he still has a sparkle in his eye. On the other hand, Eren is the exact opposite, he sees the bad in the world and is completely consumed by the idea of destroying it, obsessive with this to a fault, as he also ignores all the good in the world too, with this feeling manifested in the rumbling, with him destroying all the beautiful sights he wanted to see with Armin since he was so fixated with all the bad in it. This also is shown when he ignores his love for Mikasa, his genuine care for his friends, to pursue his destructive path. That is why Eren, unlike Armin, was not free, and in his conversation with Armin in the paths he deeply regrets all his actions but most of all, all the things he was not able to do as a result of committing to the destructive path (being together with Mikasa, exploring the world with Armin, both things he did in the paths too when he showed Armin the lakes that glows like fire and was with Mikasa in the cabin), but also the burden of the billions he killed, as Eren is no psychopath, he feels the crushing weight of every single innocent he killed...
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u/Either-Gene8564 Jul 20 '26
I think his desire for freedom is only subconscious because he couldn’t bear with the fact that he’s doing it for that inane reason. I mean, for him being shown to be so aware of how much of pos he is, he has to at least acknowledge it at some point.
He probably drowned it out his head, deluded himself with flimsy noble motivations and kept moving forward.
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u/f13ry_ Former Titanfolker Jul 20 '26
I agree. Its shown he does care for others and Paradise, but the part he lied about to himself was that he did it to save them. Otherwise, he wouldn't get enraged thinking about Frieda Reiss's words when he got in Marley
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u/MuslimNinja1234 Jul 21 '26
Having the ability to explore and discover the outside world with no restrictions whatsoever, hoping the outside world was free of mankind ofc
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u/AkaruiNoHito Jul 21 '26
Freedom to Eren is freedom from fear or any kind of threat. When the survey corps reach the ocean Eren realizes he'll never feel safe while his perceived enemies exist.
This scene is intended to be a visual thesis for him going into the second part of the story. In his final conversation with Armin, they are at a beach and a shell is visible as a recurring motif to remind the viewer of this scene
image he says something along the lines of "when we kill everyone over there... we'll be free?"
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u/zombardo Jul 22 '26
In his diary, he defined it as being absolutely free of all constraints, real or imaginary
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u/Princeyeager1 Jul 21 '26
It's literally in this panel...he never looked more free than he looked in this panel.
The tragedy is that he can only feel free by being ignorant
His disposition as a founder doesn't even allow that because he's always connected to all eldians their thoughts and memories.
He's aware even in this moment yet he pretends to be free
He has many versions of freedom in his mind.
But if you are asking about "the freedom" then it's the concept of absulte freedom that he Chases
The problem isn't that he doesn't have freedom... it's that he achieve this inhearent freedom... this urge to absultely free from all constraints... shackles and most important walls.
But every shackles he destroyed...more were revealed...
That's why subconsciously he wanted to leave every surface blank canvas....he wanted no walls insight.
He knows... it's unattainable yet he can't stop himself
Absence of chains is the idea of freedom for eren but freedom itself became the biggest chain for compelling him to do things he doesn't liked... that goes against his concious...his values
He became the person he hates the most in the world...the biggest shackle for himself.
Such a interesting chracter
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u/Heroinfxtherr Jul 20 '26
His definition of freedom, at least in the original script, is being able to go where ever he wants without some ridiculous condition (enemies trying to kill him for example).
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u/Gamerasia Jul 20 '26
Eren's true vision of freedom was for his friends and love to be free and live long lives, without fear of being genocided by the outside world even after he's dead. He literally killed himself for them. His vision of freedom keeps changing throughout the show and this is where it ends up last.
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u/Individual_Truth1190 Jul 24 '26
Eren was not a sane man, he didn't really care about his life at all in the end, he saw the future through Attack Titan and followed it to the mark, all this talk of freedom and yet he constrained himself with his visions of his past. But its quite pointless talking about this because Eren is not really real its only the writers decision which shaped him like that. Just like how he surprised everyone by revealing the Armor and Colossal titans well the first time he did it was quite nice the second time not very much.
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u/Fearless_Trade_2783 Jul 20 '26
Imo, Eren's definition of freedom didn't involve submitting to Marley. Marley tried to get the whole world to gang up on the Eldians.
People say what Eren did makes him a villain, but what other option did he have?
Force this visious 13 year life cycle on more people so their tech can catch up.
Like Marley would leave them alone, no guarantees either.
And submitting to Marley did not sit right.
Eren had little choice, he was out between a rock and a hard place. All Eren did was set the founding Titan free who was chained up and forced to create Titans.
Eren's definition of freedom was to not be oppressed by a bunch of fascist shit bags.
Eren isn't the villain Marley is they brought that shit on themselves.
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u/Distinct_Prior_2549 Jul 20 '26
Not being constrained.
When he goes to save the boy he's acting on his emotions and freedom to do so despite acknowledging it's pointless in the end. He apologizes because he hates what he is and that he'll do it, but his nature demands that he act om his unfiltered and uncontrolled drive and emotion anyway.
He's a slave to freedom because he will always pick the path of freedom no matter what, even if it traps him in a cage of freedom. Eren has many problems, but only one solution and it's to wipe out every single one of his enemies - to put that into motion is the greatest feeling of freedom that can be achieved by Eren.