By Penny Theodorakopoulou,
Happy Anime Month! And what a way to start the month!
In the previous part of the AoT homage, we discussed whether it is ethical to stop existing by presenting Zeke Jaeger’s “euthanasia plan”. As AoT’s last season keeps leaving us viewers on cliffhangers every single episode, making us desperately and eagerly wait for the next episode to air, the plot of AoT is nearing its end. With the fourth episode having been aired two days ago, eight episodes remain for the end of this great anime with its tremendous philosophical dilemmas.
Now, onto the topic of today’s article. As I mentioned at the end of my previous article, I would talk about Eren Jaeger’s philosophy in the next part. So, here I am, ready to present the protagonist of AoT, Eren Jaeger’s philosophy in regard to freedom.
From the very first episode, Eren was accusing the Garrison Regiment of not being free and deliberately choosing to “live like livestock”, just because they reside within the Walls and do not venture outside of them to fight the Titans and bring an end to their enclosure once and for all; hence he respects the Survey Corps, who want to free the people — and themselves — from the Titans’ tyranny. From the age of 12, when the first attack of the Colossal and the Armored Titan took place, all Eren wanted was to be and feel free; and being enclosed within the Walls was not what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He wanted to join the Survey Corps and fight for his freedom.
Fight. A sentence Eren often says to himself throughout the series. The way he sees it, in order to get what you want, you ought to fight and strive for it. In Eren’s case, he has the obligation, both to himself and to those he cares about, to fight for freedom and do anything in order to get it.
Freedom and Free Will: Two different terms
But what does being free mean? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, freedom is “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants”. True freedom, as one might expect, is difficult to attain. There are hundreds of barriers in order to attain freedom, the most significant of which is Eren’s lack of strength, as he claims especially in the first three seasons of AoT. Eren despises weakness and is envious of those he considers to be powerful because he considers himself to be weak; for if you are weak, you can neither protect yourself nor those you love, let alone offer them something they never had since the day they were born: freedom.
We are certain that Eren is clear in his desire, which is, as mentioned above, to finally be free. In the fourth season, however, after Eren having found out about his father’s past and the endless war between Marleyans and Eldians, he himself is not sure whether he and his people (Eldians in Paradis Island) would be free once they would kill their enemies; it was when he looked at the sea that he realized that, even though he had gone outside the walls and had killed any Titans in his way, he still did not feel free; because he was not free; it was then when he realized what Erwin had asked him in the first season: “Who do you think is the real enemy?”. My personal answer, which we will discuss further below: himself.
In addition to that, Kenny Ackerman, a character in AoT, once said that everyone is a slave to something, be it a person, an idea, an object — anything. Eren is, in other words, a prisoner to his memories, a slave to the Attack Titan, a slave to his image of the future, a slave to his dreams, and a slave to himself. Freedom is fundamentally unattainable, according to the logic of that final clause, hence the entire idea becomes superfluous; which raises the following question: if you are a slave to your own free will, implying you are not your own will, what are you then?
The concept of free will is a little different, however. It is true that having free will is required for achieving freedom, but the opposite is not true. The concept of free will refers to the process of choosing decisions. It is almost a way of life. It is the ability to follow the ethical principles that reside within oneself rather than in the outside world. Being able to keep going because it was a choice you chose for yourself rather than one forced upon you by your surroundings, parents, or anything else. Being free means acting on your own free choice, yet being free does not imply that you have freedom. At least not in Eren’s case, which brings us back to the “fight” ideology. Eren’s only way to find significance in his existence is to fight. Eren invents his own foes. It starts with the Walls, then the Titans, the army traitors, the monarch, and eventually the entire planet. The reality is, Eren cannot exist without enemies. Armin wanted to see the ocean because he was curious, whereas Eren wanted to see the ocean because he thought he would finally be free; that there would be no more adversaries until they reached the ocean. Eren can only see conflict and violence until they eventually glimpse the ocean. However, more foes are on the way. He is unable to enjoy the present. He cannot think of anything else to put a value on his life. At least not by being the way he is right now.
Eren Jaeger’s rights-based approach and his opposition to Zeke Jaeger’s “euthanasia plan”
Apart from the famous “Tatakae” (たたかえ: “Fight”), which also includes “Ore wa susumi tsuzukeru” (俺は進み続ける: “I (will) just keep moving forward”), there is another famous sentence Eren Jaeger says in the last season of AoT that describes his moral philosophy: “Because I was born into this world”. In the field of philosophy, and in moral philosophy to be precise, this is best described as rights-based morality. According to that moral approach, it is “a system of morality in which all people have a specific set of rights that are not to be impeded”. In other words, and in Eren’s viewpoint, he keeps fighting and moving forward because he was brought into this world in the first place; and since he did not choose to be alive, for it was completely up to his parents, he at least has the liberty to choose to be free and do anything in his power to attain it.
Taking that into account, we can understand that Eren’s ideology is opposed to Zeke’s “euthanasia plan”, as we saw in the third episode of AoT’s last season, where Eren revealed his true intentions to his brother. What Eren means when saying “Because I was born into this world”, he basically means that, since he was born, he has an inherent life of freedom, including the freedom to live on and have the right to bear children. For Eren, sheer existence has a lot of merits and carries immense value. Even though the world is flawed and imperfect, he could never relinquish the few things it has given him — his freedom, for instance —, and he would never leave those things or sacrifice them without a fight, even if it meant the death of billions. Since Marleyans are threatening to kill his people, Eren has the moral obligation to protect them no matter the cost — even if that means sacrificing his own life for the sake of his loved ones.
Conclusion
All in all, AoT is an anime that raises a lot of questions such as the aforementioned and many, many more. Eren’s character, however, is way more complex than what we discussed above. We conclude that Eren is neither a good nor a bad person. He simply wants what is best for him and the people he cherishes, which is freedom, in Eren’s point of view. The main idea of his philosophy is to do anything there is in order to achieve the desired goals, no matter whether Eren agrees with the way it has to be done or not. Spoiler alert — he does not agree with either Zeke’s plan or the Rumbling he plans on causing, massacring millions, if not billions, of lives of innocent people. But it is a sacrifice Eren is willing to make. As the title of this very article says: what would you do in the name of freedom?
References
- What is the psychology and philosophy of Eren Yeager in the Attack on Titan manga?, quora.com, Available here
- The Moral Philosophy of Eren Jaeger | Attack on Titan Season 4 Analysis, youtube.com, Available for watching here
- Eren Jaeger — Who Freer than the Tyrant?, tumblr.com, Available here
- Because I was born into this world, tumblr.com, Available here
