Warning: spoilers for AoT ahead, in case you've not watched it, pls do - otherwise you might just get hella confused 😆

Every once in a while, you watch an anime, and still in the midst of it, you mourn that you'll never be able to experience it for the first time again. But if the story is complex enough, at least you get further re-watches during which you might notice entirely new things. Attack on Titan has been such an anime for me, with each encounter bringing new details to light.

Of course, the story is flashy and gory, plenty entertaining. As such, in our anti-intellectual climate, viewers might be inclined to say, "It's not that deep."

Fair enough, not all anime has to be overanalyzed. Take Hellsing, that one is really not that deep and attempting to assign more meaning to it than what it is: an over-the-top, cliche evil nazis meet megamanical catholic priest, all eventually erased by Acuard, the vampire with the best drip, while London drowns in blood, is as fun as a wisdom tooth removal.

Back to AoT, the masterwork by Isayama. The typical it's not that deep viewer can easily be identified in conversation by asking them how they thought the ending was. If they say it was mid, I'm sorry, you just didn't get it, and that's where I stand on this.

After all, what did they expect? The entire world to be crushed under the feet of giant Titans? Erens' friends living in the knowledge that the price for their freedom was genocide of all other races? The more I think about it, the more I appreciate the ending. See, that's the perk of overthinking things.

But let's step back a little because.. the thing AoT is about, despite the title having the name Titan in it, titans are just a tool to address a much more philosophical theme:

Freedom

Since AoT is about freedom, and since crypto people, especially those affiliated with Network States, love to talk about it, I'd say it's required viewing. Or reading. The manga and anime don't deviate a whole lot, I will say, though the music is so awesome, so if you wanted to pick one or the other, watch it.

The interesting part about freedom conversations in crypto is that they evolve around the freedom from, the external freedom from annoying things such as taxes, more than, of the philosophical kind, the qualitative kind, and rarely ever address the question of where does one's freedom end, or whether freedom is, after all, not a relation and not complete isolation from all consequences (where the crypto freedom overlaps in cursed ways with the alt-rights love for the term).

That's why... I think that Eren, in a different timeline or a fanfic written by a crypto enthusiast, would have made for a perfect network state leader.

Let me explain...

The evolution (or lack thereof) of Eren

When we first meet the protagonist, he's a kid living in the walled city on Paradis Island (the name is a very obvious hint at what the first king had tried to build on this island; but there's a dark twist put on it when it becomes a dumping ground for activists/people the regime on the other side wants to get rid of..but anyway, that's a tangent for another time).

Eren spends most of his days staring at the sky, watching clouds pass by, and occasionally picking fights, but ultimately finds his existence to be horribly boring. Yet, he does not question his surroundings. The first time his boredom is alleviated, and the seed is sown for his idea of freedom, is when Armin, a friend, shows him a book depicting the world outside the walls, rivers of fire, huge salty lakes, planes of ice and sand.

In that moment, Eren realizes, he's unfree. He cannot see any of these things as they lie behind the walls where Titans roam, keeping the humans on Paradis Island inside the confines of the walls.

Not much later, Armin's foreshadowing that just because the walls had held up for the past 100 years, there was no guarantee that they'd do so today, turns into reality. After the gate to the wall is destroyed, Titans enter the city and quickly wreak havoc, leading to Eren seeing his own mother being eaten alive. While being carried away, he swears that he'll rot out every single one of them.

So far, so simple a character arc. The goal, too, seems simple: save humanity from extinction through Titans. This is where it'd end if it were a typical shojo manga and the creator not Isayama.

Eren, Armin, and the third member of their friend group, Mikasa, join the Survey Corps, a troop exploring the outskirts of the walls and killing Titans along the way —a logical progression. What isn't, is that not long after Eren finds out he can turn into a titan himself. This muddies the easy villain picture, as it now appears that what they killed wasn't some evil menace sent by God, but humans turned into titans. - The difference being, for some reason, Eren can turn back, while those roaming around can't.

What this does for Eren's character is mostly nothing, except that it bestows him with greater destructive powers when lashing out, and puts him in a special spot as he becomes the hope for humanity inside the walls; at once using his titan powers to fix a hole in the wall.

Outside of that, he remains an immature, childish, annoying brat, which is why, during the first season of AoT, he was pretty unpopular. It didn't help that his role was that of a passive agent, best known for being kidnapped by others and pushed around without much ability to logically think ahead. He often feels powerless and unable to do much at all, while completely blind (or let's say incapable of) responding to Mikasa's feelings for him.

His perception and character, at least to the outside, only change once he unlocks more of the abilities of the Attack Titan (the one he holds), allowing him to see a future memory (let's not get to deep in the mechanics of that, suffice to say, at this point he does not see the entire future, he only sees the scenery of freedom as used in the cover :)).

Along the way, we learn that humanity outside the walls exists, and is actually plotting to kill all the Eldians on Paradis Island because the island holds valuable natural resources (some things never change). The titans sent to destroy the walls (Reiner, Berthold, Annie) were just the first forebearers of that.

"I'm just like you, Reiner.."

Reiner is worth mentioning, as his character mirrors Eren's in many ways, except that he manages to grow up, whereas Eren does not. Reiner grew up in the ghettos on the other continent, in the Marley nation, where Eldians, due to their ability to be turned into titans once injected with a titan's spinal fluid, are cast as devils. Living in this Apartheid state, the only way to escape this status is by becoming an honorable citizen, by becoming an excellent soldier, and then inheriting one of the titans Marley holds.

Indoctrinated from an early age, as the child of a Marley dad and an Eldian mum, he dreams of becoming a hero and then living in peace with both his parents. Yet, he learns from visiting his father that this dream will never come true, but chooses to pursue the hero's path nonetheless. The idea of saving the world justifies all the killing he brings about. It helps that all he's ever heard about people on the island is that they were island devils. Language, always a first step toward dehumanizing and paving the way for cruel deeds.

In the end, though, he goes to live among multiple Eldians and realizes they were no devils. They were just people all along. In one scene, he reminisces about this before trying to kidnap Eren, wishing he had never found out, so he wouldn't have to become so evil himself (or recognize himself as such - his way of dealing with his own moral corruption is a splintered personality).

Despite knowing it, he still goes through with his plan because he can, and he still clings to the idea of becoming a hero. He realizes that he killed thousands for selfish reasons, and eventually is seen trying to commit suicide as he has nothing to live for anymore (so he thinks...anyway, Reiner's character arc for another time).

The illusion of free will...

Not long after, the audience's perceptions of Eren start to shift. Still, what many viewers think of as a glow-up is actually the opposite, though; it's one of the worst things that can happen to someone so obsessed with freedom. It's realizing one lives in a deterministic universe where the future one has seen is bound to happen. That's why he doesn't care to cut his hair anymore; he just doesn't give much f*ck anymore.

The freedom scene above (cover img) is brought about by Eren making contact with royal blood, specifically, his brother from another mother, Zeke, and kicking off the rumbling: summoning all the giant titans that are hiding inside the walls to trample down all life outside the island.

Reiner knows this is the potential Eren has, and therefore wants to stop him (and ofc, for ideological reasons of early childhood indoctrination). Unlike Eren, he maintains his illusion of free will because he does not see the future. Eren, however, knowing that the future is already written, tries to push ahead to reach his highest goals:

• Freedom

• Safety for his friends.

The freedom he seeks is the scene he's seen in his future memories, the one of exploring an empty Earth. He goes on to live undercover in Marley, and once again learns that they aren't all enemies. They're just humans.

In one scene, he breaks down to a kid who doesn't speak his language, and cries as he knows he'll trample this kid to death in the future. This is the future he brings about with his desire for freedom.

There are surely logical reasons for him to activate the rumbling, especially after learning that the world was about to stage a full-force assault on the island, trying to kill all Eldians to erase that threat for good. He waited to see whether there were options for peace, but with the entire world stacked against them, and negotiations failing to deliver promising outcomes, it seemed no other path was open. He tried, and realizes again and again, the future is set in stone.

And anyway, he had in his memories the future foretold. To the people who say, Why start the rumbling if he knew he was gonna be stopped: he didn't. He only unlocked full access to the future once he came into contact with Zeke and kicked off the great trampling.

His desire for freedom and safety for his friends isn't the only reason he decided to commit such an atrocity. It's much more childish than that.

"When I learned that humanity was alive outside the walls, I was disappointed."

The world was nothing like the dream world Armin had shown him. Even worse, they were all against them. He was living a lie. He realized no one was truly free; we were all victims of fate.

At the same time, his triggering the rumbling is a logical culmination of a concept in the show: the idea that only a human who casts aside their humanity can break through the cycle of hatred they're trapped in. Become a monster to beat the monsters...

Take my favorite character, Erwin. As a commander, he led thousands to their early graves for what he believed in, and the desire to finally understand whether his father's theory of how humans came to live in the walls was true. As such, he's not a good person.

Still, in his last moments, he's able to abandon his dream.

That's another theme of AoT... how we become slaves to our dreams, unable to see clearly, and eventually consumed by them. Is such a person really free?

Kenny Ackermann offers a case study of this. A cruel, murderous, violent man the first time he meets someone more powerful than him, it's Uri, a Titan holder, who, instead of crushing him, offers kindness, and asks for forgiveness for what the royal family had done to the Ackermanns (Ackermanns were a family that the royals could not influence, therefore a thorn in their eyes).

The lesson Kenny takes away is that, only once one becomes uber powerful, can one afford to be kind. He then goes on to become an even stronger, more ruthless person, a mercenary who even fights his own nephew. In his last moments, he breaks free from this. He realizes that he'd been drunk on something to keep him going, but he is not ready to turn into an ultimate monster (a titan; he holds an injection that could turn him into one). He avoids complete self-destruction by choosing to die a human instead.

Both Erwin and Kenny manage what Eren can't: give up on their dreams, acknowledging the limitations of it, and stop short of being fully consumed by it.

Ironically, the guy most infatuated with freedom is the least free of them all.

Eren, enslaved by his nature, his desire for adventure, and to fight for freedom, would have brought havoc on to the world one way or another. That's the kind of person he was - a theory that's further solidified when reading the school cast special attached to the last few bands of the manga. In it, Isayama casts a world as if Eren and the others were just normal school kids.

In one episode, Eren dreams of a Zombie apocalypse in which he fights to regain his freedom. When waking up, we see him crying, not because of being scared, but because he wished it to be true. A normal life is too boring for him; he wanted the adventure, the drama, a threat to fight against, regardless of the world he was born into. That's just his nature. Even Zeke, his half-brother, fails to understand the drive in Eren, especially once realizing that Eren was nurtured by a loving father, unlike him.

In an interview, Isayama once wondered: "Is it just a coincidence that I was not born a murderer?" The environment we're born into is a mere accident, yet it doesn't absolve us from accountability.

"Being born in one's country of origin is a mere accident; nevertheless it does not dissolve the subject of all responsibility."

Mbeme in Necropolitics

In short, Eren never grows up. He doesn't remember the first words his fathers said to him as a baby except for "Eren, you are free."

Towards the end of the show, he does go a bit insane, thanks to temporality collapsing for him, as when he touches Zeke and triggers the rumbling, he gains the ability to see the future and the past all at once. From that second, he knows that he'll be stopped, and that the choice Mikasa brings about will end the curse of Titans for good. He choses to not control his friends, and tries to make sure they become the heros to keep them safe.

Eren knows before launching a full-on assault on humanity outside the walls, that they are just humans, and many innocent will die. He does it regardless.

He remains an immature child throughout the series. What changes is just our perception as he tries to drive away his friends from him, takes a more active role in bringing about disaster, but is still driven by the same twisted idea of freedom, sown by the book Armin has shown him.

That's why many viewers were confused when, suddenly, while speaking to Armin, Eren breaks down the second Armin brings up, namely that Mikasa should move on and be happy with another guy.

Deep down, he was never the stoic guy he pretended to be in the latter part of the story. He was the same kid who swore to eradicate all the Titans in revenge. That asked whether freedom was on the other side of the Ocean only to find it was not what he thought it'd be. Let's not forget, he is 19 at the end of the series.

The end is not mid

Speaking of the end, there's, of course, the idea that the ending was mid. I beg to differ. I think it's quite genius for a series that deals with the theme of freedom, free will, and desire.

In the end, what brings about the end is the person who loves Eren through it all, despite how horrible actions he takes. While she never quite confesses her love to him, it's evident for all to see, and certainly Eren knows this too, as in an alternate timeline, he envisions them having run away from it all and living out their last few years in peace in a hut near the woods.

He tells her to forget him and to live on. The one moment he sets someone free.

She doesn't do that. While from the start she still wished there could be a way to end it without killing Eren, in the finale, she wraps the scarf he once gave her around her neck, and proceeds to ask the others for support to bring about Eren's end.

She doesn't reject the love she felt, but she also does not let it blind her to the reality, and what she has to do.

She musters the strength to do the unthinkable, and so breaks through the cycle. The cycle that held hostage the founder Ymir, who was the first Eldian ever to be turned into a Titan. A girl who only sought love and acceptance, a slave, once set free, only to be haunted, then comes in touch with a life force giving her Titan powers. As such, the king acknowledges her, and once she's built bridges, streets, and contributed to society, as a reward, he gave her kids.

Eventually she's trapped in her Stockholm syndrom, unable to break from her being a slave due to loving her master, therefore keeping up the Titan's existence.

Ultimately, it's not by becoming a monster oneself that the cycle of hatred is broken, but rather through love.

That's a genius choice, as love and freedom are often cast as opposing, because to love is to give up some of one's freedom. What if the opposite is true?

"The moment we choose to love, we begin to move towards freedom."

Bell Hooks

Back to Eren and the thesis I had at the beginning: Eren would make a perfect Network State leader in our modern days.

He's immature and driven by a twisted sense of freedom ✅

That's quite similar to many conceptions of such escape states that crypto bros are promoting these days. It often looks more like a selfish desire to free oneself from what one perceives to be unfair conditions, using one's success and monetary wealth as proof that one has earned it and owes no one anything.

But unlike Eren, who at least acknowledges that violence would be a problem, they pretend that the material conditions don't exist, or if so, they don't speak of them because, let's be real...

That'd make things so much more complicated. Imagine having to acknowledge that not everyone has the same notion of freedom as you do. That your state will crumble at gunpoint, because outside of "freedom from," you've not managed to establish a philosophy to die for.

Or that, for humans, freedom is not just a singularly positive thing. At least part of drug abuse is related to the desire to escape being human and to be free of one's own consciousness. That's why John Gray picks up on the marionette as the most free, for it does not know it's unfree.

Like Eren, who had no such consciousness until Armin showed him his book, opening a Pandora's box.

Erich Fromm dedicated an entire book to exploring how the relatively free citizens of Germany chose an authoritarian, dictatorial leader, leading them into a war they couldn't win, committing genocide along the way; it's not a coincidence if there are parallels with AoT, manga authors love Nazi Germany for villain inspiration.

Being forced to reckon with the fact that when we speak of freedom, we often mean different things, and that there is a dark underbelly to it, is not a comfortable endeavor, especially not in an industry where the only important ideology is becoming capital. The most important freedom: that of moving one's money as one pleases, and the freedom to max extract—a pvp. Anything goes; consent is not required.

There's a dangerous tendency there, and while Eren might live in a deterministic universe trapped in his collapsed temporality, we do not. We'd do well to at least speak of the fact that we're all born in this world, we all are physical beings, in a society. We're humans.

"... the theory that every individual is completely free to will and what is good and noble [...] ignores the legacy of heredity and the pressure of environment; it suggests that the individual lives in a vacuum whereas the only life he has ever know or can know is a social life."

- J.S Whale in Facing the Facts

Our freedom does not exist in a vacuum. It's not isolation. It's a relation. It's not just quantitative, it's qualitative. A state of mind, an ability to realize ourselves, and to have faith in this life.

Eren is focused solely on his freedom and the safety of his friends. As such, he commits the same crime as all those network state leaders who seek to achieve freedom for a select few, while fleeing the economic realities of the many and the potential oppression that is the price of their liberty.

"To want to be free is also to want others to be free."

Simone de Beauvoir

Thanks for reading 💚

I obviously limited the plot lines quite significantly; had I covered them all, it'd be an entirely new book, that's how complex AoT is altogether. It's also a beautiful tale of the best and worst of humanity, a meditation on nature vs. nurture, fate, and the concept of freedom.

It'll also make you cry a lot. But that's good, it means you're not yet dead inside like many of those tech bros :))