The Genius Of Eren Jaeger's Character

Aaron is a genius character yes this Aaron yeah to me if eren yeager were a character in any other series i really wouldn't like him at the beginning of attack on titan his characterization is very cliche and he has the mind of a typical Shonen protagonist he has the clay goal - and his morality starts off as completely black and white that being every bad person is inherently evil and will be stopped by the good guys he's a hot-headed edgy little [ __ ] and is motivated by his hatred and revenge and is completely idealistic yeah it's really nothing special it's one of the reasons why he's one of the most misunderstood and undeservedly hated characters in the series but the mere fact that he starts off like this is genius because the world of attack on titan isn't a good versus evil story the welder aaron inhibits is cruel and harsh and doesn't in any way conform to his characterizations eren yeager is a shounen character in a seinen series attack on titan is filled with insane amounts of moral ambiguity mind-blowing reveals and complex characters that completely juxtaposed with aaron which is what makes watching him changed throughout the series so interesting the evidence for this is shown as early as episode 5 when aaron after years of training confident in his ability dead set on his goal of killing all the Titans has this happened to him we see Aaron screaming and crying his eyes out whilst he's inside the stomach of it's heightened finding it confusing and unbelievable that he is going to die without killing a single one of them Aaron's ideals were crushed by the cruel world of attack on Titan it was at this point I knew this wasn't going to be a show of following the conventional Shonen rules of storytelling that I was initially led to believe the fact that Aaron's character was specifically written as black and white was definitely a deliberate choice by Issei Yama we're already used to the typical shown in protagonists having this just sense of good versus evil he almost acts as a sort of surrogate for the audience so they can attach to him but plot twist in attack and tighten those ideals don't mean [ __ ] no in this cruel world what really matters in the grand scheme of things is fighting for survival and watching Aaron's character develop and mature into a more pragmatic complicated and even morally questionable character is what makes him so genius Lee written good job' sciama nice now before a fellatio the [ __ ] of the manga curse so hard I cannot leave and pronounce my words let's try and understand Aaron's character development on a deeper level to see why he's so well written into the story ah yes this little [ __ ] just kidding he wasn't that bad as a kid it's not until a few years later he becomes the adorable little incarnation of edge we all come to love oh I take that back Aaron starts off as a slightly stubborn kid who hates the idea of the most interesting thing about him here are his rather wide ambitions and dreams of joining the survey courts and seeing the outside world which was adopted by his friend Armin this obviously poses conflict with Mikasa and his mother Carla as the death rate of the survey cops is equivalent to that of the [ __ ] great purchase in Stalinist Russia Aaron's unwillingness to listen and overall naivety are his major downfalls but despite that he's a relatively normal kid well I say that with massive parentheses as it's not every day a nine-year-old Unruh motiveless stamps a man in the face multiple times I'm willing to defend Aaron's actions here as in his undeveloped black-and-white mentality he disassociated himself from the killing by rationalizing them as purely evil beasts with no redeeming qualities don't get me wrong his actions were far from normal and he does showcase some sociopathic traits in his youth but harming other creatures is something everyone is capable of as shown by the insect scene Aaron's sense of compassion or empathy wasn't fully developed yet as well he's a kid so when it was his choice to either fight or escape his justified anger at the men who killed macaws his parents and stole her freedom caused him to fight now that I'm done justifying child murder you can see from early on in the series that Aaron's core belief is freedom freedom from the walls freedom to explore the world and in this case fighting for me Casas freedom it isn't until the end of the first episode when Aaron's mother is eaten for this Titans dinner that aaron has his first major development as a character okay so this version of errand lasts until the end of season two so pretty much the entirety of the anime so if you want to see the moments where Aaron actually develops into a more interesting character it's cool to read the [ __ ] manga anyway we all know this Aaron the straightforward obnoxious and edgy character that's fueled by his desire for revenge justice and ambition to change the world but this is also the part in the story where his simplistic ideals are always challenged by the world and the people around him Aaron seems to be unable to accept that other people have different viewpoints or perspectives and this makes him push others away although I still have to give it to Aaron despite being obnoxious he is still relatively competent he managed to become the fifth best training in his class only being beaten by three Titan shifters who have already had military training and a [ __ ] superhuman despite being reckless he's still charged against the colossal Titan by himself so he was pretty badass at times however a lot of times he did treat me cus alike [ __ ] for no real reason other than he was jealous of her and his terrible teamwork in judgment essentially led to the deaths of his entire squad now once Eren realizes he's a Titan shifter it shows the first sense of pragmatism we see in his character he hates Titans with everything he has but he's won himself and he never hates himself for that this shows that his interest in killing all the Titans is less for his selfish revenge and more to benefit humanity as a whole this is shown in his trial where he literally tells everyone including all the military leaders within the walls just to leave it to him so humanity can prevail however at this point Eren still has to learn a crucial lesson rage doesn't work in his favor his first fight but the female Titan was disastrous he gets beaten captured and ended up being saved by Levi but at the cost of him being unable to walk for a short while Eren is determined to kill the female Titan without hesitation simply because she's a bad guy and must be destroyed but once it's revealed that Annie is in fact the enemy he's been fighting he straight-up denies it like in Aaron's mine it makes no sense that one of the few people he got along with in the training camp was a mass murderer this major act of betrayal is the first time Erin's worldview is properly challenged this is a huge difference from kid Aaron and despite Annie being arguably morally worse than the child kidnappers he doesn't immediately demonize Annie like he does to them it's obvious Aaron had a lot of compassion for Annie which results in him being unable to initially transform into a Titan in their second fight as he still can't comprehend that Annie is capable of these horrible acts or maybe it's because the thought of fighting someone he genuinely cares about hurts let's just ignore the crazy Aaron Berserker mode in the anime because it contradicts that rage doesn't work in his favor but in the original source material the manga Aaron gets beaten by Annie again but by working with the others around him they successfully capture her but then a day later he gets portrayed again turbo bro you see at this point it's just the beginning of the mine [ __ ] aaron has to go through in the timeline of attack on titan Aaron's only realized that he's been a Titan shifter for one month when he fights Annie which is practically nothing in comparison to Annie Bertil and Reiner who've been training for years Aaron so far has only used rage as a battle technique and we all know how useful that was then only a couple of days after he finds out that Annie was the female Titan and fights her it's revealed that Reiner Umberto were the armored and colossal Titans the fact that Bertil and particularly Reiner who Aaron has held in such high esteem and even considered to be a brother has betrayed him makes this one of the most impactful moments in Aaron's life people he genuinely considered to be comrades were actually the people who caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and more importantly Aaron's mother whose death was the source of his rage however this point in time also marks a very important difference initially and understandably Aaron is blinded by rage and it's evident that it doesn't work out for him as he gets demolished by Reiner however whilst Aaron's on the floor with his head bashed in and barely being able to stand up he realizes something very important the ability to use what he learned from his enemies and use it back at them this is important as for the first time Aaron actually keeps his composure in a fight listens to his peers and uses actual fighting technique I think that the challenging experience he went through Annie's betrayal just a few days prior as well as the evidence presented a few hours before the reveal genuinely helped Aaron overcome his blind rage and not make the same mistake he did at will Cena and guess what it works out for him this was an important development to his character as when Aaron actually kept his composure he gains the upper hand in the fight and if it weren't for Bertels intervention he might have even beaten Reiner in combat now we get to the forest scene which I believe is one of the most crucial points for Aaron's development as he starts to realize just how big of a lie he's been living in at the start of the scene Aaron is completely unable to understand both Reiner and bustles perspectives and motivations and therefore aims all his built-up hatred and rage towards these characters he promises them a slow and agonizing death as in his black and white mentality they are irredeemably evil enemies that must be destroyed and to an extent his rights they both cause the deaths of countless amounts of people but Aaron's vengeful outbursts calls him mere to take Reiner in bertolt side at this point there was a massive toll on Aaron's mind as his comrades were all being outed as the very beings he vowed to kill and it was like his entire world was being flipped upside down Aaron's reaction towards Ryan and Bertot was strong because he initially cared about them so much and for them to be the cause of his misery for years puts him through mental turmoil what also makes her exchange more interesting is the role yamir plays she doesn't think of RINO Berto as enemies and loses faith in Aaron because he's quote talking like some stupid kid she sees the futility of how he's acting and how pointless his actions are stating that she doesn't know who the true enemies are in fact the cruel world itself is the enemy this reinforces the point that what really matters in the grand scheme of things is fighting for survival not the grandiose idea aaron has of killing all the completely evil enemies even if Aaron killed Ryan and Bertil there he is completely naive to believe the conflict would somehow end and Ymir understands this okay so the point in the story where Aaron confronts the smiling Titan is what I regard as the death of Aaron Yeager as we know him all his past trauma has accumulated into this one point in the span of a few days he's been betrayed beaten and characters such as hands have literally died in front of him Aaron's spirit at this point was broken he breaks down as he believes he's still the same useless kid that he always was but like Mikasa has for most of his life she supports Aaron and her words really resonate with him enough to give him that final push of motivation that ended up saving both of their lives at this point Aaron truly values the importance of people in his life and the relationships he has particularly for Mikasa rather than pushing others away and running ahead he treats people with more respect and as a result his relationships develop beside from his love for me Casa I guess you could say that was a Titanic rejection goddess so this newly developed version of Aaron takes place in the manga after season two so if you're an anime only keep in mind that there will be some manga spoilers okay now that will the anime only to go on all the people that are still watching this should be manga readers or anime watchers who thought [ __ ] it I still want to be spoiled anyway at this point in the story Aaron feels the burden of the vast amount of people who have sacrificed their lives for him this causes him to develop a sort of superiority complex to cope with the deaths stating that they were an unavoidable event this is an interesting development as beforehand Aaron would most likely complain and become depressed that the lives lost because of him buts with the help of John Aaron comes to understand the true weights on his shoulders and the value of his life and this gives him all the more reason to push forward and fight for Humanity's sake as they're all relying on him I mean the fact that Aaron even thank John for pointing this out in the first place is enough evidence that he's a changed person that is until people keep dying for him the realization that he's an important person for Humanity actually begins to continually wear him down as more sacrifices are being made leading to a deeper and deeper hole of depression as the series goes on this is until he fully breaks down in chapter 65 Aaron gives up the flame of revenge and drive for freedom has all but died out at this point as he's faced of his father's sins of killing the rice family and sealing the founding Titan Aaron comes to realization that he is not a special person at all and fully believes all those deaths for him were in vain the burden on his shoulders becomes too heavy for him to carry as Aaron himself states that he cannot atone for the deaths of everyone in scored Levi the residents of the stow Hess district the countless soldiers that have tried to rescue him hands his own father and many others he gives up on his dream and truly believes that the events in the past 5 years were all his fault in order to end his misery he tells his story a--to eat him masking it in the fact that it will save humanity however unknowingly to Aaron emerging from this depression and utter breakdown we'd be the symbol of hope he's been aiming to become this entire time freed from his captivity his story are pretty much Kools Aaron alt she was envious of his ability to move forward in the face of adversity as he always knew what he wanted to achieve with the roof collapsing and time running out until they eventually crushed to death Aaron is once again forced to make an arduous decision whether to believe in the power of his friends or trust in his own power we saw the consequences of him not believing in his own strength last time this happened with the female Titan so Aaron takes a risk in the end he miraculously saved his friends from immediate death by putting faith in his own ability and being willing to bear the burden and actually handle it with confidence this time even after the events in the chapel Aaron is still at his lowest mental states lamenting that he feels sorry for Humanity that their Savior is him this is a complete reversal of when he believed he was somehow special and he realizes that he's just a normal person who was dragged onto this bloody path his powers were special not him but at this moment he also comes to another realization he thinks at the pass the death of his mother and the countless others fighting for humanity's survival and he literally punches himself in the face to get rid of the quotes brat that's been shackling him all this time it's at this point he can finally build himself up to be humanity's Savior unlike Aaron's reckless attitudes before in the story he now has a sense of confidence and resolve in his actions this resolve is reinforced when he states in a calm manner that if he confronts Reiner of Bertil it is simply his duty to kill them this shows that Aaron has finally learned to push his hatred aside and keep his composure instead he uses that hatred as motivation to become stronger so he can carry the burden of having this special power even though he is not a special person Erin's character is now almost the complete opposite of how he was in the first two seasons and it took him all this time to realize the only reason he got this far was because of the lessons given to him by other people chapter 72 shows this as for once he actually agrees with John and accepts his opinions and rather than pushing Makassar away like he has most of the series he openly admits that he was jealous of her ability and accepts her help his personality has changed you to a mix of the grim trials he's had to enjoy but also the support he's been given from the people he admired and ironically the most important lesson he's been given was from the person he hated the most Reiner in order to achieve our goals we have no choice but to push forward and fight for it with all we've got I may actually make a video in the future on Erin and Ryan's relationship as it's honestly one of the most interesting parts of the story for me but that's for another time anyway when Erin finally fights Reiner once more it is the ultimate testament to the development he's been through Erin even though he hates Reiner more than anyone else keeps his anger in check and is therefore able to showcase his true power by keeping his composure and working with others his judgement is no longer clouded and as a result he beats Reiner in combats when fighting the colossal Titan he puts his trust and faith in Armin's plan and keeps his composure even though he knows that Amon will most likely die as a result of it he accepts Arman sacrifice in order to defeat Bertil as Erin knows it will be a massive step for Humanity he even completely accepts Allman's death that is until he's given a slither of hope so the moment known as sarin Bowl is arguably one of the most controversial moments in the entire series it's at this moment where Erin temporarily regresses into his old self but it's understandable Erin finally completely understands Armand as a person this entire time Armand wasn't fighting to take revenge or kill the Titans like Aaron was he simply wanted to see the ocean to have freedom Aaron truly values Arman's dream as he can resonate with the idea of freedom when Levi shows up with a serum that can heal Armin in Aaron's perspective he needs to do everything he can to selfishly ensure his survival even if it means fighting against others to prevent our win' from having the serum I'm not gonna say who I thought rightly deserved the serum as it might cause a shitstorm in the comments but I can understand why Aaron acted in his old childish and the selfish ways even though afterwards Armin even himself admits he shouldn't have been the one chosen to survive it's extremely obvious Aaron is trying to justify to others but mostly to himself why Armin was the right choice this shows that Aaron's older and more selfish traits from his youth will always accompany him after all it's impossible to become a completely different person but I believe this humanizes Aaron more he's changed and evolved into a more confident and collected person who's more understanding of others but he's still Eren Jaeger Eren is now finally able to take on the basement obviously learning about the truth of the world an attack on Titan was mind-fucking enough for the reader so I can't even imagine how it would be for Aaron once he begins to gain the memories of the predecessors of the attack Titan through his father Grisha and Ehren Kruger it actually begins to massively damage his mental health he finds it more difficult to discern reality from the past and this results in random outbursts that are noted by the people around him the fact that most of what he's fought for and believed has been a lie this entire time places a deep irreplaceable mental scar on himself this is beautifully represented when the survey corpse finally reached the ocean nine months after the basement reveal you see the ocean was supposed to be the accumulation of all their achievements a sort of end game for what they were all fighting for the Titans were all defeated they reclaimed warmer and everyone was celebrating as they finally achieved the freedom they've all been fighting for but Aaron our main character can't even muster up any happiness we're all the physical trials and mental torture he's been through truly worth it this entire time because of his newfound insight he realizes that all history has been this entire time is just a meaningless cycle of bloodshed he knows fully well that right now the conflict is nowhere near its end he is no longer naive the true price for their freedom is much greater with the entire world standing against them holy [ __ ] I do not care what anyone says this version of Aaron is by far my most favored in the series and he's solidifying himself as one of my favorite main characters of all time if we just look at Aaron physically he's almost unrecognizable to his old self although as of this video he's only been shown in the story from chapter 93 to chapter 102 this Timescape version of Aaron is by far the most pragmatic mature and ruthless version of his character to date in fact his actions are so controversial I'd even go as far to call him an antihero at this point his extreme moral complexity is just not where you'd ever expect from his character when you start watching the series so far he's been unnaturally good at keeping his composure and for a character whose main issue was succumbing to anger this marks a massive change as he's matured into an adult Aaron's goals at the moment are a lot more unclear and ambiguous but they could be interpreted to be similar to the ones he had when he was younger protecting his friends and those he cares around him and fighting for freedom however the difference now is that Aaron is a lot more ruthlessly pragmatic and morally gray to achieve those goals he is willing to be ethically wrong in order to achieve what he in his opinion perceives to be the greater good Aaron is no longer fighting against just the title but the twisted and corrupt society all around the world and even the cycle of history itself this draws many similarities to the attack Titans predecessor Ehren Kruger who did countless amounts of morally questionable things by torturing and transforming aliens into Titans but he was willing to bear the burden of his sins in order to set the wheels in motion to stop the persecution of the LDN race he did it all for the greater good it's obvious that the memories of the attack Titan have affected Aaron's development and it can be said that he's carrying all the hatred from the previous Titan shifters Aaron is also a ridiculously amount more understanding and almost forgiving of Reiner the most obvious evidence of his development is when he look at the last conversation they had Aaron looks directly at Reiner and states it is my mission to see you die the most excruciating death possible those words obviously shook Reiner to the core and when they meet again and speak for the first time in years that's what Reiner thinks are n' is here for after a short pause Aaron's reply is simply oh did I say that pretend I didn't then Aaron openly talks about his mother's death which Reiner caused and calls out the parallels between both of them stating that this whole time it was painful for you wasn't it I think I understand that now and guess what just before he begins his attack after Willy's declaration of war he still follows Winer's advice that he gave him years ago in order to achieve our goals we have no choice but to push forward and fight for it with all we've got I think we were born this way I just keep moving forward there isn't really much more I can say about Aaron's development because well from his dialogue alone it's evident that he's a completely changed person but even then him crushing and eating Willy Tiber killing countless military officials and civilians and keeping his composure against the monstrous war hammer Titan evidence enough that he's by far the most ruthless pragmatic and morally ambiguous he's ever been throughout his fight with the Warhammer Titan he constantly kept his composure analyzed the situation and didn't so much as flinch when he was seconds away from being killed he quickly found the whereabouts of the Warhammer shifter and fully intended to devour her showing that he's much more of an effective warrior Eren as the holder of the founding Titan has the hatred of the entire world now focused on him and even so he is willing to bear that burden and move forward Eren still now has character Falls but throughout the story he's fixed the majority of them to adapt to this cruel world he is a normal person with special powers who was thrown onto a road of hardship betrayal and despair the burdens he's had to carry were forced onto his shoulders to be humanity's hope to fight for freedom and now to save the LDN race from the entire world the fact that the arrogant immature and straightforward Eren at the start of the series develops into such an understanding ruthless and morally complex character is testament to his fantastic character journey in writing for a protagonist that was hated for being so generic and arrogant to eventually be shaped by the world and people around him into someone much more complex is the genius of Eren Yeager's character [Music] [Music] anyway if you enjoyed this video I'd really like to say smash that [ __ ] like button but studies show that saying that gives 1 in 10 viewers cancer so I'm just gonna say I'd greatly appreciate it if you liked the video be sure to subscribe to the channel for more videos and follow me on Twitter where I normally share posts but may say the odd occasional thing of actual value thanks for watching

Channel: Soul

Views: 2,032,886

Rating: 4.9335618 out of 5

Keywords: Attack on Titan, Attack on Titan Season 3, Attack on Titan OST, Eren Jeager, SoulMadness, SoulMadness AoT, SoulMadness Attack on Titan, Shingeki no Kyojin, SoulMadness Shingeki no Kyojin, Levi vs Beast Titan, The Genius of Eren Jaeger, Attack on Titan fight, 進撃の巨人, 9th titan shifter, attack on titan chapter 100, attack on titan chapter 102, shingeki no kyojin chapter 102, eren vs warhammer titan, Eren Jaeger, Eren Yaeger, shingeki no kyojin

Id: WhZ-eq9LlTc

Length: 29min 19sec (1759 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 04 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/S0ulMadness]

Ohh wow, didn't expect my vid to be posted on the sub that quickly. Seriously means a lot that you enjoyed it though! I'm still relatively new to the whole analysis scene and am trying to carve out my personality/style. I felt obligated to make a video on Eren due to his development and incredible character arc from the start of the series to now, good job Isayama.

[u/worldruler2468]

First and foremost, not my content.I am also pretty sure this is the same guy who does the motion manga, I'll update with his username for crediting

Second, this is all around a good video. The problem I have with most anime youtubers is they lack sufficient evidence, and while this video isn't perfect in that regard, it still does a pretty good job.

Last thing, actually planned on doing a video on Eren Jeager and this video also cover some of the topics I would have.

I am not even sure if he has a reddit account, but it's Soul Madness motion manga, I believe.

[u/godbotktt]

Love soul madness <3