The Broken Mind of Eren Yeager.

spoilers for Attack on Titan episode 88 the final chapters special one you've been warned the hour-long special of Attack on Titan season 4 part 3 the Final Chapter special one has brought us one step closer to the end of the series and invites us one step further into the broken mind of Aaron Yeager enter it at your own peril thank you the beginning of episode 88 gives us 11 and a half minutes of Master Class Attack on Titan we witness a beautifully scored and directed depiction of the horrors of the rumbling and the rightfully menacing and villainous justification that Aaron has for it we essentially watch as Aaron comes to turn with what he must do accepting that this is the only outcome and dissociating to the point of considering the genocide of the entire world to be his absolute freedom let's try to understand this step by step because Aaron's mind is anything but simple [Music] his dialogue first starts with notes of ambiguity and questioning his first line is that later though I'm not exactly sure how far in the future I Massacre these people he says that it is already determined that he will and must do this in this moment at the beginning of the episode we do sympathize with Aaron he gives the impression that he doesn't necessarily want to do this but that he simply must he is willed forward by his knowledge of the future blindly pursuing what he sees as the only option he mentions that he imagines they couldn't find a way to save Paradise in the future and had to resort to killing everyone he even asks what his mother would think of what he's doing this internal monologue he has creates this stark contrast to the Aaron we left off with last season the manipulative all-powerful Mastermind and bearer of the founding Titan and the one with the humanity we remember [Music] it is the classic struggle of Fate versus Free Will as Aaron watches a young child get assaulted in an Alleyway he begins to walk away acknowledging that in the future he will kill this child in the rumbling what good would helping him do now who is he to act good now and protect him knowing that he will kill all of them someday like some cruel act of kindness just prolonging their suffering yes he has the free will to help him in this moment but if he knows he is destined to kill him why bother we as the Watchers are placed in this back and forth between the past and the present the present and the future however you want to call it we are put in Aaron's shoes as Aaron cries apologizing unrelentingly to the young kid he could not help but save that the future foretold he would do we simultaneously witness as Aaron brings about the child's death we are left with this beautifully tragic yet horrifying reality and Aaron fears who he will become but cannot help but do it at this moment it is difficult not to sympathize with Aaron but then we are quickly reminded of what Aaron truly believes when he is not justifying his actions as just being a pawn to the Future a harbinger of the end his own justification the reality of the world outside of the walls was different from the world I dreamed of I was disappointed I wanted this I wanted to wipe everything away [Music] in a single moment we remember that this is still the path Aaron chose he crushes those children with conviction he is sorry but that will not stop what he knows he must do the destruction the massacre the genocide [Music] Aaron has convinced himself that this scene this view from the sky above the walls seeing the world that he and Armin once dreamed of is freedom he has reached the Pinnacle and finally done it regardless of the means he has reached that end and convinced himself that this genocide is in fact absolute freedom his mind is broken as I'm sure all of ours would be too were we just a child given all the power to destroy the world and the foreboding someday you would do it who are you to argue otherwise if you are destined to do this and a part of you might believe that this is right why bother trying to do anything else what began as a sympathetic demonstration of Aaron's feelings of being trapped on this path that the Future Has inevitably laid out for him some form of Twisted justification it devolves into the reality of it all Aaron wanted all of this he will become Reiner he will become worse than him he will take away the lives of Marlins and the rest of the world if it means that paradise can keep theirs in the pursuit of absolute freedom from the Terrors of humanity outside of the walls forever the most interesting line I think from this episode comes from Aaron's dialogue with the remnants of the survey corps where he tells them that they are free to protect the world's freedom and he is free to keep moving forward this goes a long way in justifying Aaron's actions as well or at least how he sees it in his mind and that freedom is subjective Aaron acknowledges that his freedom is derived from taking the rest of the worlds from them and forcing them down into absolute subjugation and Massacre as His Kind were for thousands of years Marley and freedom on the other hand means using eldians as tools and scapegoats to take the blame of History's massacres the current survey corps freedom is given to them by Aaron it is the freedom to choose how to act with their Titans and to try and protect the rest of the world's Freedom if they desire it Aaron wants to protect them he won't take away their freedom and thus it is their freedom to decide what they want to do with it it brings up one of the most interesting themes in Attack on Titan and one of the most confusing as well The Clash of views amidst an eternal cycle and back and forth of who is the enemy and who is the victim and the justification behind Aaron's actions knowing that there will only be one true Freedom among those different groups of people when the rest are eliminated after what he's been through what he's seen in the past present and future all the different ideas and clashes of morals everything this is all Aaron can do to finally end it aside from that I think this episode was beautifully made from the pacing to the soundtrack to the attention it gives to each character in this finale all of it kept me intrigued and excited for the finale to come let me know your thoughts and as always this has been the anime culture corner I hope you enjoyed the video don't forget to like And subscribe for future in-depth show manga and character analyzes

Channel: Anime Culture Corner

Views: 159,756

Keywords: attack on titan, attack on titan final chapter, attack on titan special, attack on titan final season, attack on titan part 3, attack on titan final episode, aot, shingeki no kyojin, eren, eren yeager, anime, manga

Id: hrX1CUJ0PH8

Length: 8min 31sec (511 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 05 2023