Eren Yeager is (not) a SLAVE | The Complete Character Analysis

true enslavement comes from the cage you place upon yourself on both paradis and marley the aldians were conditioned to accept a reality in which they were caged birds controlled by the whims of those at the top on one side people were brainwashed by those in power and on the other people were brainwashed by those in power both were subjugated to a world where they were the oppressed ruled by the oppressors a world without freedom day by day year by year people either lived under the fear of being eaten or the fear of being killed but such was the reality of this cruel world and so no one questioned the circumstances they were forced to abide with no one challenged the notion of complacency instead rather than fighting the cruelty of their world the people complied with it in other words they accepted the walls of enslavement coming to a one-sided compromise that this was just how things were meant to be but there were select few who rejected such a compromise select few who desired freedom more than anything else in this world and the name of one such person is aaron yeager [Music] from the very moment aaron was born he aspired to be free to fly far and above the confinement of such suffocating walls he was a person within a cage hell bent on breaking away from the shackles that constricted him his resolve was unwavering and the philosophy of fighting against oppression was engraved within his soul while others cowered in fear aaron strove to fight while others had given up aaron strove to never give up but through a large majority of the story despite striving for freedom aaron was powerless to attain it every last person i've seen was the same way whether it be booze woman nor even god family the king dreams children power they couldn't keep going unless they were drunk on something they were all slaves to something and aaron yeager was a slave to the narrative the fight for humanity is in essence the fight for freedom and by taking this concept isiyama crafted aaron's character as the literal embodiment of such a philosophy but in doing so made aaron less of a character and more of a symbol in other words aaron was less so characterized by his human-like traits and more so characterized by his philosophy as he saw it he was good and those in opposition were evil humanity was the oppressed and the titans were the oppressors and so aaron's desire for freedom stemmed from his desire to fight against oppression it was a simplistic one-dimensional mindset followed by a simplistic one-dimensional ideal basically aaron had a really big boner for titan blood and most people were not into that kink so initially many had a problem with aaron's character they felt as though he was unrealistic and instead a personification of a shonen archetype but isayama developed this aspect of aaron's character he made it so aaron a character defined by his ideals almost enslaved to them was in direct contradiction to his reality you see aaron desired freedom more than anyone else to him freedom was something so precious that it was worth sacrificing anything and everything for but in contradiction to this ideal the reality was like everyone else aaron was bound to the cruelty of his world when reiner and bertolt first attacked he could do nothing but watch when his mother was devoured he could do nothing but cry when his comrades were killed he could do nothing but scream in each of these instances aaron was anything but free instead aaron was just another person enslaved to his reality placed under circumstances in which he was powerless to change anything no matter the actions he took no matter how much he desired to be free tragedy was inevitable because the world was cruel there's this scene where after being eaten by the jesus titan aaron straight up starts crying because he literally can't bring himself to accept the cruelty forced upon him the five years he and his comrades spent the lives hopes and dreams each of them held all of it was taken away just like that but despite the tears streaming down his face aaron extends his hand not willing to give up and for the first time ever a light of hope shines down upon humanity aaron now had the power to tighten shift and with it he saves armon and mikasa he retakes the tross district and he joins the survey corps in the end resolved to fight at the forefront of humanity all of which are active steps taken by aaron in order to achieve his ideals but when the female titan appears aaron is subject to face reality once again despite acquiring new powers the levi's squad is a massacre the survey corpse endangered and aaron eventually captured and it's during the sequence of events where the irony between aaron's ideals and his reality is brought to light once more you see throughout the majority of pre-time skip aaron's actions are a byproduct of someone else's he doesn't drive the narrative but rather the narrative drives him in this case the appearance of the female titan is what pushes him to act but once he does aaron fails to change anything to save anyone instead he gets captured and his life is left dependent on others to save him in the process causing multiple casualties just like when the walls were first breached aaron is placed under circumstances in which he has no control thus no freedom which i think is extremely compelling as is because we're shown a character who desires freedom but in each attempt to be free fails to do so in other words it's this contradiction that makes aaron so interesting but what's even more so fascinating is aaron's lack of freedom or what i define as his enslavement to the narrative is shown in conjunction to his worldview in the beginning of the series aaron has a very linear and narrow mindset and to complement this aaron himself ends up having the least amount of freedom during this portion of the story for example in season 1 aaron viewed the female titan as a monster and nothing more nothing less she was the bad guy and aaron was the good guy as such with this one-dimensional method of thinking aaron's actions within the story served as only one part of a grander whole thus he had little to no freedom over the events that transpired and instead was subservient to the story this pattern continued throughout season 2 and 3 as well just like with annie he viewed reiner and bertolt as monsters and nothing but monsters of course this was completely justified because they were monsters monsters who all played a part in genocide but they had human qualities to them as well however at the time aaron wasn't aware of the other side he couldn't see that the people he deemed as monsters were in fact a lot more nuanced complex and morally grey than he'd initially thought them to be and so in accordance to this viewpoint his role within the story was more so as a plot device rather than a person of free will in fact isayama himself has said in interviews that initially aaron was just a character dragged along by the story but this supposed flaw of aaron's character actually ended up becoming the essence of aaron jaeger you see as the story continues through scenes that humanize him and his eventual worldview being completely shattered aaron someone initially bound to the narrative ends up writing the narrative shifting from victim to perpetrator and slave to free thus aaron changes from this angsty brat with his ideals as his only defining trait to a more individualized independent and complex character and because we follow his journey from being powerless to being the person in control his ideal to be free becomes so emotionally resonant but before i can talk about this version of aaron i need to first talk about aaron's development and how he got to that point [Laughter] ah this scene is where i think the shift in aaron's character begins after witnessing hans's death which directly parallels his own mother's aaron shuts down he blames his inability to change the outcome but more importantly his inability to change himself you see he was powerless when his mother was murdered and here he's powerless once again both in the past and the present aaron is just another subject to this cruel world he's still a slave and it's in this moment when we're explicitly shown how tragic and utterly damaged aaron is as a character even though his core philosophy is centered around fighting for freedom aaron is still at heart human and so like anyone else he cries he cries when it dawns on him that his mother had truly died he cries when the members of the survey corpse are killed he even cries when he's betrayed by reiner and bertolt and here he cries once again as someone he genuinely cares for is devoured the culmination of all these tragedies leading to a traumatized child yearning for freedom but broken from all the hardship and despair surrounding his life now i've talked about this in my previous aot video but i want to build upon what i said before and hopefully give more insight see after mikasa ernesti tells aaron that his life isn't meaningless that he's someone mikasa is eternally thankful to mikasa leans in for a kiss a kiss of death but when aaron rejects this kiss he essentially makes a statement to the very world of attack on titan saying i may be weak i may be flawed i may just be another slave to the whims of this cruel world but despite these shortcomings i refuse to back down because once you give up hope is lost and despair comes out on top but if you fight as small as a chance there may be a flicker of light will continue to shine leading you to the path of freedom all of this going back to that core philosophy if i win i live but if i don't fight i can't win meaning to stop struggling is to give up hope to give up freedom and so aaron keeps on persevering he bets on that dim light and rejects the role placed upon him aaron yeager is not a slave he's free and so he stands and a miracle occurs not only is this a pivotal scene reaffirming aaron's ideals while simultaneously humanizing him but it's also a triumphant moment for mankind in which aaron's choice changes the course of history his choice gives humanity another chance at freedom after this point aaron convinces himself that it's his duty as humanity's savior to carry the weight of all the lives lost and to continue moving forward essentially he realizes that because of his powers he has a responsibility to uphold to make sure that the people who died for him are given value but this transition only lasts for a brief period because eventually the burden of expectations and the burden of countless lives lead to his mental breakdown one that drives him to give up everything that he's ever fought for his own life his own freedom you see once aaron realizes that the powers that allowed him to fight were actually a byproduct of human lives he's unable to cope because to him the fact that people not monsters but people had been sacrificed and more importantly that he was a catalyst to stripping away another person's freedom utterly breaks him as historia is moments away from inserting the titan serum and soon after eating aaron aaron doesn't even fight back instead he tells her that him just being born was a mistake it should have never happened he and his father's actions caused so many to die the levi squad the residents of the strohis district the soldiers who tried to rescue him hans and many others all of them were dead because aaron was born and so aaron tells historia to eat him under the pretense save humanity but in reality he says this because he can't handle the burden placed upon him if his fight for freedom was actually a detriment to other people's freedom then was all the battles he overcame worth the sacrifice aaron someone whose core ideal centralized around freedom here is willing to give it all away but that's when historia tells aaron's [ __ ] she asked to stop being a little [ __ ] because he was being a little [ __ ] in this moment aaron was going against all the principles he preached instead of moving forward he was running away sure it might have been difficult to carry such a burden sure aaron might have not been the perfect candidate as humanity's savior but despite this to give in is to accept complacency and more importantly to let someone else's will dictate your own it would be a life where people aren't free but caged birds controlled by the whims of the first king and so historia rejects this entire notion and forces aaron to advance with her into a new world filled with unpredictability the caves start to collapse and surrounded by his friends aaron is faced with a choice will you simply await for death or carve your own destiny up until this point aaron believed that he was a failure he couldn't live up to people's expectations nor could he be the light of hope humanity seeked but in this critical moment aaron chooses to believe in himself he realizes that his choice may not be the right one and that he most likely can't live up to the ideal others hope from him but regardless of that fact he resolves to move forward and through his action and his alone saves everyone [Music] to summarize season 1 and 2 showcased aaron's unwavering resolve to fight but also his powerlessness and thus his humanity then in season 3 this unwavering resolve was challenged and eventually broken to the point where aaron had genuinely given up however with the help of historia aaron was able to pick himself back up and in the process became more independent choosing to take matters into his own hands rather than relying on his friends but what i think is so interesting about this development is when aaron says that he should have never been born it stems from his belief that he isn't special you see after overcoming countless hardships aaron realizes that the reason he was valued so highly was not because he was aaron jaeger but because he was a person who could tighten shift in other words his powers were what made him special but he himself was not the truth was without these powers he'd be worthless however because he was given this power he had a duty to fulfill i have to kill them do you want to kill them i have to and so aaron resolves to move forward but does so thinking he's without value but at the crux of this belief instructor keith shadis tells him the words of his mother do you really have to be special do you really need people's recognition i don't think so at the very least not when it comes to this child he doesn't need to become someone great why would he have to be better than anyone else just look at him don't you see how cute he is he's already special because he was born into this world and with this line aaron's journey comes full circle he was wrong to believe he should have never been born he was wrong to believe he was worthless he was wrong to give up on freedom because everyone is special all life has innate value any right to live how they so please from the moment children are born they deserve to be free [Music] oh my now after going as a person and finally coming to terms with his own self-worth begins the retake of wall shigan china during this mission aaron's the most composed and critically aware he's ever been he takes on reiner one on one baits him into survey corps attack accepts arma's plan all the while knowing that his childhood friend would die in the process and in the end takes down bertolt and specifically in the case with armin aaron accepting his proposal is a monumentous decision because by doing this aaron essentially lets go of the one person who defined his dreams you see when the two were young armin came to airmen entranced by the possibility and potential of the outside world flaming waters icy plains and fields of sand all of it existed somewhere outside the walls and it was in this moment as aaron looked at armin's gleaming eyes when he realized he wasn't free the world was so much bigger larger and grander than the confined spaces within the walls and to break away from this cage would be to truly achieve freedom in essence armin was the catalyst to aaron's ideals he awakened them but in this scene aaron fully aware of the consequences makes the choice of sacrifice all for the sake of a brighter tomorrow this time in comparison to the deaths of his mother and hans that's that aaron had no control over and that's that he endlessly regretted aaron instead willingly accepts armin's sacrifice and not only that but resolves to move forward despite losing someone he so endeared it's a complete contrast to his reaction when faced with death prior and through these scenes we can see how far eren has come since his youngest days but what i think helps to characterize aaron even further is when he regresses into his former self soon after you see even though aaron resolved to see armin's death through when he's presented with an option to save armin he almost instinctively reverts to a childlike state acting purely off impulse and emotion but it's for this exact reason that helps us to once again see aaron's humanity because the scene shows how as much as aaron may have grown he's still aaron jaeger the same aaron who would do anything for his friends the same aaron who cried for those who've fallen the same aaron who stood beside armin and mikasa somewhere out there that beautiful blue spanning the entire horizon awaited them and to witness that mesmerizing sight known as the ocean was armin's dream aaron wanted to make such a dream come true and in the process so would his own freedom but the world was cruel our main cast end up surviving their ordeal and eventually reach the final destination as everyone is filled with glee basking under the sun's illuminating rays aaron is defeated he looks at the salted waters expanding as far as the eye could see and witnessing such a sight aaron realizes something on the other side of the walls is the ocean on the other side of the ocean is freedom that's what aaron zolas believed but disbelief this life spent fighting for freedom was a lie beyond the walls is the ocean but beyond the ocean is more enemies enemies that started off as simple one-dimensional monsters then turned into nuanced morally grey humans and was now the entire world thus a new frontier for them to repeat another cycle of loss despair and bloodshed had risen and it's here when aaron is forever changed no longer the youthful innocence he once was but rather a beaten damaged and twisted version of his former self after all the mental torture he's endured the realization that his fight had only just begun ruins him see the world isn't as black and white as aaron had thought it to be it's now a completely human conflict with both sides having their justifications the marlenes discriminate against the aldeans because the idea of sleeping next to people who can turn into titans is terrifying while for aaron he desires eldians to be free because he believes all life has an innate right to do so in both cases both sides live their own life seeking their own freedom but for aaron to achieve his freedom he has to take away theirs at least that's the conclusion aaron comes to and so aaron resolves to fight no matter how many he needs to trample over he'll do so if it means his ideal is made true in this moment aaron's transition begins once a victim wants a hero once a slave but soon a monster and this drastic change occurs due to one core reason because the ocean wasn't freedom the ocean was just another wall in the beginning of the video i mentioned how through aaron's development pre-time skip and his eventual worldview being shattered aaron changes from someone enslaved to the narrative to someone writing the narrative and more specifically how his enslavement to the narrative became the essence of aaron yeager you see throughout seasons 1 1-3 aaron's oblivious to the truth he doesn't know that on the other side exists humans and so he holds on to this black and white perspective in which all his enemies are bad and he is good thus his character ended up becoming a slave to the story but in present day aaron learns of the world beyond his he understands what he has to fight against and he also understands a large majority of that will involve killing innocents but he forces himself almost any self-manipulative way to keep moving forward and through this newly discovered worldview when resolved to fight aaron drives the story through his actions and his alone while in the past aaron was subject to the whims of others reiner bertolt annie and zeke this time aaron is free and that's when it happens a declaration of war [Applause] taking matters into his own hands aaron infiltrates into marley kills willy typer wipes out several military class officials and slaughters countless innocents then when fighting the warhammer titan he stays composed analyzes the situation and employs whatever tactics necessary to win even under circumstances in which he's the most disadvantageous he makes split second critical decisions uses the jotan as a nutcracker and any final climax acquires the warhammer titan powers but he doesn't stop there later on after being imprisoned aaron orchestrates an uprising sacrifices members of the scouts regime betrays the survey corpse and in the end breaks the bonds with his childhood friends armin and mikasa and as morally detestable as all these actions are these actions allow aaron to drive the narrative through his own free will and in the process it also allows him to get closer to achieving true freedom but while others are either wholeheartedly supporting these actions or wholeheartedly despising them i can't help but see how tragic it all is because throughout all of this in the process of fighting for freedom aaron loses what he holds most dear he loses the friendships with the very people he's fighting for that carriage scene with connie john sasha armin mikasa and aaron is one of the most wholesome scenes in the entire series but it's also one of the most truest scenes to aaron's character in it he tells everyone that he doesn't want any of them to inherit his titan powers because to give them his powers would mean to shorten their lifespans and that's not something he's willing to do as he genuinely cares about every single one of them and wants to see it through that all of them continue living on happily in fact this fight for freedom once driven purely by rage is now driven by his desire for their freedom as much as his and so aaron's unyielding resolve is built upon the foundation of wanting to also protect his friends wanting them to be free if he doesn't fight this desire can never be realized and they'll only be prey to the world enslaved to the will of others but if he does fight he'll have to kill countless taking away other people's freedom in exchange for theirs and aaron knows that this ruthless approach will undoubtedly break the connections he has with the people he's trying to save but this is the moral dilemma aaron's presented with a do-or-die scenario in which both choices have no happy end but aaron must choose in the anime it's explained how aaron's extremist actions are taken in order to realize zeke's euthanization plan but that's clearly not true because one of aaron's core ideals is the mere fact that he was born into this world means his life has value and thus he deserves to be free so for aaron to follow a plan that goes against the very act of being born preventing any future life from ever existing is in complete contradiction to his ideal and so on a surface level aaron's committing all these atrocities because he's following zeke's euthanization plan but in reality he's simply using zeke as a means to an end although his true goal and what he actually plans to do is hidden aaron has made the choice to become a monster for the sake of freedom and how he comes to his decision and the philosophy behind said decision can be shown most evidently through his dialogue with falco i've been thinking every day since coming here how did things turn out this way ruined minds and bodies people with no freedom left people who have even lost themselves what kind of person would want to go to war if they knew they were going to end up like this but there was something there all along pushing us right into hell for most of us that something is not our own free will we're forced to by others or by our environment that's why the people who push themselves into hell see a different hell from the rest of us they also see something beyond that hell maybe it's hope maybe it's yet another hell i don't know which it is the only people who do know are the ones who keep moving forward there's really nothing to analyze here because aaron describes it perfectly war is hell on earth and everyone who fights within wars come out as fragmented pieces of their former selves yet despite this people subject themselves to such pain and suffering time and time again often due to some external reason but for aaron he's no longer enslaved to the narrative he's not driven by his environment history or any other external factor but by his own free will and so he willingly goes into that hell he makes the choice of greater evil because that choice might entail freedom but at the end of the day aaron himself doesn't know whether or not his choice is the right one to some he may appear as a devil and to others he may appear as a savior but what he does know is his choice is his alone and once a choice is made you have to see it through all the way to the end and it's the scene that perfectly captures this aspect of aaron's character his broken mental state shrouded by his conviction to fight in other words it's the scene that depicts the tragedy of aaron jaeger because the aaron in this moment the aaron willing to fight for freedom no matter the cost only gets to this point after enduring constant turmoil and anguish for years on end he becomes broken hurt scarred and traumatized through the culmination of despair inducing events and here he's willingly choosing to go down such a path once again even though what lies at the end is a mystery aaron makes the choice to pursue his dreams nonetheless a dream that'll undoubtedly continue to break him what were her last words me is what she said and hearing this aaron starts laughing but his laugh isn't one of mockery it's his coping mechanism a direct callback to when hans died back then aaron was powerless to change anything and that truth broke him to the point of tears and here it's the same thing a cry from someone breaking into pieces because this someone is powerless to protect his loved ones you see ever since aaron touched historia's hand he already knew sasha would die once he made his choice to attack marley but at the same time he wished for the future to change he wanted a future where she was still with them rambling about all things meat but such a future didn't exist a future where nothing is lost simply isn't how the world works and so the sacrifice was made this is what it means to fight for freedom this is the cost of freedom sacrifice trauma regret torment self-loathing grief misery torture and much much more but again aaron convinces and in a way deludes himself to fight fight fight fight [Music] when aaron and reiner first meet again reiner's completely shook the dude is [ __ ] bricks and rightfully so aaron literally starts a conversation with a threat to kill all the residents above but aside from that the last time the two spoke aaron promised reiner that he'd make them die the most excruciating death possible but when reiner brings this up aaron doesn't even react he simply says oh did i say that well let's forget about that aaron a character whose initial drive started off as wiping the world of anyone who would oppose him and his will to be free says to reiner the same rhino who committed genocide and in the process killed his mother it doesn't matter anymore and through this one exchange we're given the biggest indicator to aaron's growth as a character to put simply aaron has matured it's true that before aaron said those words from the deepest steps of his soul but now it's different now aaron sees that reiner isn't just a monster the two are the same both wanted to be a hero both wanted to seek out justice and both realized something crucial after witnessing the other side the other side had shitty people but it had good people too people who genuinely cared for others and would try their best to help in whatever way they could these people weren't demons or devils they were human but because initially both of them were unaware both thought the other to be evil aaron now understands this he understands that reiner had his own justifications just as he has his in the process explicitly stating the parallelisms between them while also acknowledging that reiner was just a subject to brainwashing and as such a victim to his environment you were still ignorant children and all of that was beaten into you by ignorant adults but as reiner hears this he completely rejects these words he tells aaron that it wasn't because of his environment or history it was because of himself at the end of the day no matter the outside factors that played part reiner made the choice to attack he made the choice to kill and this choice is what's been haunting him for all his life but as aaron hears this he helps reiner up and responds with i was right i'm the same as you just like reiner aaron also has a choice and this choice as much as outside factors play a role aaron has the final say he can't blame his actions on anyone else he can't portray himself as a victim it's not his environment or history it's not any of that because the truth is the choice to commit genocide is errands to make and so whatever consequences lie ahead are also his to blame aaron understands that like reiner he knows that his choices and the path that he's soon going to partake in is one that will place an unbearable burden on his shoulders and not only that but aaron also knows that he's just as half-assed in fact the reason aaron says we are the same after seeing reiner regret is because aaron himself is fully aware that he'll regret his actions just as much as reiner does if you look at aaron's expression right before he stands it isn't that of a ruthless perpetrator but rather someone who's simply come to terms with his reality there are good people here and it's not within aaron's desire to kill them but the world doesn't want aaron to be free and so it's either he gives up on his ideal or continues moving forward even if it comes at an expense even if it hurts him just as reiner fought for his ideals aaron will fight for his own neither are rights but it's not about right or wrong good or evil it's simply a matter of perspective with two sides of the same coin each with their own reasons to fight i just keep moving forward until my enemies are destroyed all right so i've basically covered all of erin's character that's been showcased in the anime thus far and i'm now about to go into manga exclusive territory which means only cool kids can continue onwards so if you haven't read the manga stop here and if you have then you're one of the enlightened ones so you're chilling now with that being said here's your three second pause one two three and with that if you're still here then either you have read the manga or your anime only but said [ __ ] it let me spoil myself regardless let's continue moving forward pat siren is probably my favorite incarnation of aaron and it's also pat's airman that broke the world this scene right here is beyond perfection but before i get into it you need some context as airman and zeke go through aaron's memories they encountered this moment and well it's a gruesome sight but as aaron says i am just me i always have been if someone tries to steal my freedom away i won't hesitate to take away theirs i find this line really interesting on a surface level it just goes to show that aaron's core is something that's been engraved within him since birth but compared to then his philosophy has now been twisted and warped into the darkest of routes because his fight for freedom is now a fight to destroy the entire world he wants to create an apocalypse by activating the rumbling and in the end leaving the people of paradise as the only survivors but when i re-read these words i started to think that aaron isn't being entirely honest he says that he won't hesitate to take away another person's freedom if they try to take his but that's not actually true in fact as early on as season 1 he hesitates when capturing annie even though annie was in direct opposition to his freedom he hesitates and what's more is he hesitates not once but twice you see when annie's true identity was revealed aaron literally couldn't bring himself to accept that to be true which is why initially he was unable to transform the mere fact that someone he trained alongside someone who taught him how to fight someone human was actually the bad guy couldn't be real but despite these doubts aaron convinces himself to fight in the process demonizing annie and viewing her as just a monster however at the critical point right before annie's capture he sees her crying a monster was crying and seeing that aaron hesitated if annie was truly just a monster then it'd be much easier to attack but because those tears entailed something human aaron's body stopped moving because for that split second he didn't see her as a monster but as human however in this scene he doesn't hesitate because to him these people were in fact monsters so i think what this dialogue is trying to convey is that the core of aaron yeager still exists but what has changed is the definition behind fighting for freedom at first it meant to fight against oppression and during that time it only applied to the monsters that opposed his freedom from his perspective no matter who he had to fight so long as they were monsters they needed to be exterminated but when those monsters were revealed to be human aaron hesitated however now it's different not everyone is a monster not everyone is evil but regardless of whether or not aaron's fighting against monsters what remains true is aaron's freedom is being threatened by the other side and so aaron chooses to fight all the while ready to take away freedom from innocence while in the past he may have hesitated because these innocents were human that version of him no longer exists the eren in this moment is change in a weird way by understanding that not everyone's a monster aaron himself ends up becoming the monster or so we thought when aaron sees his past self wrapping a scarf around mikasa his eyes soften which conveys how despite walking down the path of genocide aaron still has a little bit of humanity left he still has the choice to not bring about an apocalypse after all these small precious moments are valuable and somewhere out there there are people just like him experiencing such wonders of life but fully aware of this fact despite his slight hesitation aaron throws that little bit of humanity away and it's then revealed that aaron was the real perpetrator behind the same massacre that caused his mental breakdown in season three zeke now realizing aaron's true motives attempts to start his euthanization plan but that's when aaron breaks the shackles binding him in both a physical metaphorical and symbolic manner he escapes from his cage and becomes free free to change the course of history free to break the world it ends now i'll put an end to this world give me your strength you're no slave you're no god you're just a person you don't have to serve anyone you can be the one to choose you get to decide you choose stay here for eternity or end it all you must have been waiting all this time waiting two thousand years just for somebody it's such a beautiful yet tragic scene yamir enslaved to her role for thousands of years is freed but through her being free the world enters its end people are massacred lives are lost children are killed and families are trampled but amongst this tragedy high above the clouds exists a scene to that of a bird flying freely this is freedom or so aaron says the scene has this surreal yet majestic feel to it and really goes to invoke that sense of bliss aaron feels but what i find so fascinating is once again like pat's aaron these words are predicated on a lie at least from my interpretation this isn't freedom what this is is blissful ignorance the fact that aaron's depicted as a child and not as an adult is a direct indication of that because children are ignorant they see the world through a blurred lens only taking in the wonders and beauty life has to offer but because they're children they're unaware of how cruel and unfair the world can be they don't know that life has just as much darkness as it has light and so as child aaron says the words freedom it's what i see as a symbolic representation of aaron averting his eyes instead only looking at what he desires to see and ignoring what he doesn't aaron wanted freedom and so what he sees is freedom but beneath the clouds exists terror tragedy death and anything but freedom yet it's for this exact reason that aaron has reverted to a childlike state in the first place because the truth the burden of him being the catalyst behind such despair of him taking away such precious life hurts earlier in this chapter aaron sees a child getting attacked but he hesitates saving the boy because aaron already knows that through the rumbling he'd kill him in the future but despite knowing this aaron helps him nonetheless and then any twist begs the child for forgiveness he explains how learning of humanity beyond the walls utterly broke him he was disappointed because he realized beyond the walls there were people people who were also born into this world people who also deserved freedom this child deserved freedom but these people would soon all die because aaron would take their freedom away and it's this truth that tears aaron apart a mental conflict eating away at aaron's entire being he's a completely half-assed piece of [ __ ] still hesitating still with doubts but in the end resolve to see it through you have the freedom to defend the world's freedom and i have the freedom to continue moving forward it's at this point where airmen can no longer be saved a final clash between ideals between two sides striving to be free and with that we reach the finale the emotional heart of aot aaron and mikasa in chapter 123 aaron asked mikasa how she views him and i think partly why he asked this is because he was looking for a reason to live a normal life or rather he was searching for an answer that justifies such a route a route in opposition to the rumbling one where he wouldn't have to sacrifice anything nor have to kill anyone but he didn't get such an answer and the rest is history now skip forward to chapter 138 and we get a glimpse into aaron and mikasa's vision of a make-believe quote-unquote happy end by running away and aaron not committing mass murder the two are able to live as they'd always wanted but this reality wasn't their reality and so mikasa says the words see you later aaron and in a beautiful finish we witness a kiss of death i think this is an amazing conclusion to aaron's fight for freedom because it brings everything full circle you see aaron and mikasa's relationship was always more than a simple romance to both of them the other represented family and a place of comfort a place to call home from childhood to now they lived together they faced that together and they overcame that together at several pivotal moments they were together when the light of humanity first shined and the fight for freedom began they were together and here as their fight for freedom ends aaron and mikasa are once again together the kiss of death when it first was brought up was one that entailed tragedy where hope was lost and despair had taken over if that kiss was accepted then the fight for freedom would have ended alongside their fight for humanity but unlike the previous this kiss of death entails a future in the final chapter aaron explains how this entire time he was simply following a predestined path and so despite him driving the narrative through his own free will aaron was still enslaved to his role his role to make said destiny come true but contrary to other people's opinions i actually think this is fitting for aaron's character because it goes to show that as much as people may think they're free they're oftentimes still slaves to something which perfectly draws parallels to kenny's quote shown in the beginning of the video however despite this being the case with the free will that we do have we as people can take steps to find purpose and meaning in our lives and hopefully make life worth living for aaron he was a slave to the pats however through his own free will he fought and continued on fighting in order to attain a future where armin and mikasa could truly be free and so by sacrificing himself by sacrificing his own freedom he fought for the freedom of those he loved he found value in his own life by using it as a means to allow his friends to live all the while uncertain as to whether or not those very friends would survive the consequences of his actions uncertain as to if his actions were the right ones but that's the thing aaron's uncertainty is what shows his humanity after all at his core he's still the same wishful yet confused boy aspiring for his friends to be happy when aaron explains how even to the very end he still had doubts not wanting to die and instead wanting to live beside his friends him explaining these mental burdens him still regretting him being unsure all of it is true to his character because he's always been just another human being trying his best to live and specifically with his exchange with armin when he says i don't know it doesn't literally mean i don't know instead the line more so conveys that although aaron doesn't have a concrete answer for his actions what he does have and olas has had is his desire for freedom from the very moment he was born he was told you are free and thus all his actions were a byproduct of that core ideal and this scene as cringe as it was only reinforces aaron's humanity even more it shows aaron's childlike mentality and innocence the same innocence he's been boiling up all throughout his life the same innocence that he's never got to show because he was too busy carrying countless burdens aaron was never just a psychotic genocidal maniac the rage he felt against the world was real but the love he held for his friends was just as real he wasn't simply a good person nor was he simply a bad person he was a conflicted character with nuanced ambitions filled with ambiguity a person who had good intentions but was broken from all the suffering he had to endure eventually leading him to become a monster however at the end of the day both his inclination to fight for freedom and his inclination to protect were always there and i know for some or kind of a lot aaron's true feelings on all of this on both him committing genocide and him expressing his love for mikasa may seem like a stretch or out of left field but regardless of your opinion on the matter i think the main message these scenes serve to tell is again of aaron's humanity and i hope through this video you were able to see that now do i personally think aaron's final scenes were executed perfectly well to be honest no i get why so many felt this ending to be lackluster because it's not perfect but despite that i still found it beautiful and i [ __ ] appreciate the themes and ideas isayama played upon because for the most part he managed to create a beautiful one-of-a-kind work of art but nonetheless as aaron's embraced by armin and mikasa's loving arms in a poetic sense he's freed from his life of tragedy and torture no longer a monster but in his final moments human and so through his end follows a future a future not of despair and a future not necessarily of peace either animosity still exists and the people outside of paradise are fearful of retaliation from the aldians and so this begs the question did aaron's actions really serve to do anything well yes it did you see war has an oldest will continue to exist throughout history it's simply within human nature and no matter aaron's actions he can't change what's engraved within people's hearts but in the first place aaron's goal has never been to achieve a perfect world of peace and harmony it's never been his desire to solve everyone's problems his goal has always been to achieve freedom and that's exactly what he does through his freedom being sacrificed he carves a path in which his people could be free of course this freedom isn't guaranteed because conflict will always be there but the truth remains that this future is one filled with potential the potential for [Music] is hope so is this [Music] [Applause] me

Channel: Yatoru

Views: 398,387

Keywords: Attack On Titan, AOT, Shingeki no Kyojin, Attack on Titan Analysis, Eren Analysis, Eren character analysis, eren yeager character analysis, eren jaeger character analysis, Eren Yeager Analysis, Eren Jaeger analysis, Eren x Mikasa, Attack on titan Eren analysis, Attack on titan Eren Yeager Analysis, Attack on titan Eren Jaeger Analysis, Attack on titan final season, Shingeki no kyojin final season, Armin Arlet, Eren, Eren Yeager, Eren Jaeger, Mikasa, aot eren, aot Eren yeager

Id: j6W3oDmFLpU

Length: 53min 36sec (3216 seconds)

Published: Sat May 08 2021