Attack on Titan revealed the real reason Eren Jeager chose to be a villain in the final chapter of the series! The final arc of the series flipped the script in a big way as Eren Jeager made a turn from being the main protagonist of the series to its main antagonist. After unlocking the Attack Titan’s ability to look back on both the past and future at the same time, Eren decided to go forward with a plan he had concocted with Zeke to control the power of the Founding Titan and destroy the world.
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This decision seemingly came out of nowhere, and this was only made even more confusing due to Eren’s sudden coldness toward Mikasa and the rest of his friends. But with the final chapter of the series bidding Eren a final goodbye, he was able to have a conversation with Armin in which he was able to explain why he became such a villain in the first place. It’s because he wanted to make the Survey Corps seem like heroes to the rest of humanity.
As Eren explains in the final chapter, this was all necessary to fulfill the future he had seen with his Attack Titan ability. While some of his actions got too ahead of him, such as his ugly words toward Mikasa or violence toward Armin, this was all for the sake of pushing them away so they din turn defeat him and became the saviors of the world. With the rest of the world seeing Paradis as a threat, it was Eren’s hope that they would look to the Eldians as heroes instead.
He explains that part of his plan to eliminate 80% of the population with the Rumbling was to keep other countries from retaliating for a while, and that there was a deeper need to free Ymir from her own attachments to the world. The key in doing so was Mikasa, so Eren had done everything he could to bring Mikasa to the point where she would kill him in the end.
Eren felt that he had no choice but to do all of this because of his Attack Titan power setting fate in stone, and there was a part of him that compelled him to do all of that regardless of how he truly felt about his actions. He even says that he would’ve kept the Rumbling going even if Armin and the others weren’t able to stop him, and can’t really explain why either.
So it seems that Eren’s final heel turn indeed was an act he put on to “save” the others by having them bring him down and save the world. It’s not exactly the neat bow his actions in the final arc deserve, and definitely does not equate to all of the violence he enacted on the rest of the world, but what do you think?
Does Eren’s explanation for his villainy provide a good enough reason for his actions? How did you feel about Eren’s fate in the final chapter of the series? How did you feel about him in the series’ final arc? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
