Eren Yeager

"The transition of Eren from like a protagonist you root for, to a character where you're like: "Damn. Damn, I don't know about that shit." It was one of my favorite things about Code Geass, where the protagonist becomes someone you can't really root for anymore, because they're making some decisions like: "Damn, that shit's fucking evil"."

- penguinz0 in Moist Meter: Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2

Eren Yeager (Eren Jaeger in the anime, Eren Jäger in German) is the main protagonist (until the Paths arc and became the main antagonist in its final arc) of the Attack on Titan series.

He is a former member of the Survey Corps, the leader of the Yeagerists, the current inheritor of the Attack Titan and later revealed to be the Founding Titan as well. He serves as Reiner Braun's foil and is the half-brother of Zeke Yeager.

Why He's the Slave that Runs For Freedom
"If you want to stop the Rumbling, then you have to kill me. Because you are all free."

- Eren's chronological last words, before being killed by Mikasa for good.


 * 1) Not only is Eren the main protagonist, but also the main villain, and the author of his own story. Saying that he's free to do whatever he wants, and had valid points that people made the choice to follow (also known as slaves), and not having the freedom to do as they please.
 * 2) * Eren started out as a simple-minded, and a brash kid at first, seeking revenge at the Titans for eating his mom, until he saw the past that the Titans were nothing but slaves to Marley. The moment when Eren saw his future after kissing Historian's hand, Eren has now become much darker and more evil as time went on. He also later thought on what he will do next, changed his viewpoints and motivation that he will decide what's best for Eldia by killing all of humanity except for the Titans.
 * 3) ** Even back then, his hatred towards Titans are justified since they've destroyed his hometown, killed plenty of people, and has eaten his mother.
 * 4) * Attack on Titan gave one of the biggest plot twists to ever happen: Eren is the one responsible for encouraging his father Grisha Yeager to kill the Reiss family, which made not only brought the mystery of Historia's relatives into a close, but even made the main antagonist Zeke (who saw his half younger brother was brainwashed by their father was actually the same man that gaslighted Grisha into killing) shocked on what happened, then also came to a realization that he was hating the wrong man for years and warned by Grisha that Eren was evil all along.
 * 5) *It also turned out that Eren has been using the body and consciousness of a man named Eren Kruger using the Attack Titan's memories to push Grisha to move forward, and lose his sanity until death.
 * 6) He had memorable relationships with other characters:
 * 7) *Has a complex relationship with his adoptive sister Mikasa Ackerman. Eren often displays a brusque, casual attitude with her, which belies their deep bond and care for each other.
 * 8) * Armin Arlert is his closest friend, and has inspired him to dream of the world beyond the Walls (and in doing so, became partially responsible for motivating him to join the Survey Corps), and exploring the ocean.
 * 9) *Eren has major respect for his seniors, Levi Ackerman, Hanji Zoe, and Erwin Smith. Even after being beaten by him during trial, Eren bears no grudge against Levi, and wants to learn as much as he can from Levi, heeding his advice with little hesitation and trusting his judgment.
 * 10) Eren saved Mikasa from her kidnappers. What's even more impressive that he's able to kill adults at a really young age!
 * 11) He's had many of his best moments:
 * 12) *His quote; "You damn traitors!/Damn you! You traitors!" towards both Reiner and Bertholdt after finding out that they are Titan shifters, and the death of Hannes is also one of the signs that he loses his innocence throughout the series.
 * 13) **One of his saddest quotes: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You are just as useless as you always were! You haven't changed one goddamned bit! NOTHING'S CHANGED!!!" that he hated himself for not having enough strength to save his mom and Hannes from being eaten.
 * 14) *Transforming at the right time Willy Tyber has declared war on Paradis.
 * 15) *Asking Ymir for the Founding Titan's power.
 * 16) His Titan form looks awesome, including his final form, which is makes his army of Colossal Titans look like mere ants.
 * 17) Both Yūki Kaiji and Bryce Papenbrook did an outstanding job voicing him in both in Japanese and in English.
 * 18) *Eren's Titan roars fit in both languages.
 * 19) *This could be said the same to his late actor Haruma Miura, who's managed to look like Eren in the critically panned live action Attack on Titan film, and its sequel.
 * 20) What makes Eren different from other anime protagonists are the following, especially the time-skip:
 * 21) *He doesn't rely on the power of friendship in order to win.
 * 22) * He could even go back in time to tempt someone into doing what they truly desire, even if that desire involves murder.
 * 23) *Isolated himself from his friends by infiltrating Marley as a disguised soldier, manipulated Falco, and mentally broke Reiner for making him feel guilty ever since the day Shiganshina fell.
 * 24) * Not afraid to be very honest with others, even if it meant hurting them with words.
 * 25) *As mentioned before, he has managed to manipulate his half-brother Zeke, his father, and the first Titan shifter Ymir for his own personal gain and pleasure.
 * 26) ** He even pretended to agree with Zeke and Yelena's euthanasia plan to prevent the Subjects of Ymir from producing children only for the two to fall for Eren's plan to commit genocide.
 * 27) *Chose Paradis' safety and freedom by having an army of Collosal Titans to destroy Marley. Even if it risks by dooming the world.
 * 28) **Got his revenge by killing the civilians, the soldiers and the children of Marley.
 * 29) *Stopped his opponents from reaching their true power, which isn't something that protagonists in the Shonen genre can do.
 * 30) *Gotten more skilled in combat.
 * 31) *Increases his power by eating other Titan shifters.
 * 32) *Insane enough to tempt Pieck if she wants shoot Eren in the head or not.
 * 33) *Had brought the previous Nine Titans back to life, and make them follow by his own volition.
 * 34) *Even with being beheaded by Jean and Armin destroying his main body, Eren regenerated by having the same size as the Collosal Titan, and goes toe-to-toe with Armin. Which really shows that Eren refuses to give up, even if it meant killing his closest friends.
 * 35) *Made his former friends to convince both Marley and Paradis to be in good terms and team up in order to defeat Eren and achieve peace.
 * 36) He's also the modern day equivalent of Guts from the Berserk series, as both excel at combat, and will stop at nothing to accomplish their goals.
 * 37) *Eren had also become the anime interpretations of both Thanos, and Darth Vader, since the three are tragic protagonists that became cold-hearted and power hungry genocidal warlords.
 * 38) **He and Ken Kaneki have their own views of moving forward to protect the ones they loved by becoming gigantic, and mutated monsters that killed and/or infected innocents.
 * 39) If you paid attention to the two openings of Attack on Titan: The Final Season as well as its final ending, you can understand Eren's current mental state and point of view.
 * 40) Regardless of what you think of the manga's final chapter, Eren is a man of his word:
 * 41) *Promised that he will wrap the scarf around Mikasa's neck as many times as possible.
 * 42) *Destroy the world (80% of the global population).
 * 43) * Eliminated every Titan in existence (After being beheaded and killed by Mikasa).
 * 44) Eren himself is a complicated character, and all he wanted was to save his hometown and friends from their demises. Even with his wrongdoings, Eren had to carry that pain and burden by turning himself into the villain so that his friends can become heroes who stopped the Rumbling. Eren manipulates his own dad.gif
 * 45) Hear me, all Subjects of Ymir. My name is Eren Yeager. I now speak to all Subjects of Ymir by way of the Founding Titan's power. Every wall on the island of Paradis has been unhardened. All of the Titans buried within them have begun to walk. My goal... is to protect the people of Paradis, who bore me and raised me. But the world desires the extinction of the people of Paradis. Over countless years, their hatred has grown beyond this island. They surely will not stop until they have killed every one of the Subjects of Ymir. I reject their desire. The Titans of the Walls will trample and rumble all the lands beyond this island. Until the lives there... are eliminated from this world.
 * 46) *"I will keep moving forward, until my enemies are destroyed."
 * 47) *"Before long, they will all die. No, I will kill them all... right, therefore it's decided. In the future, too. Paradis Island didn't find a way to survive, right? Anything and everything will be lost. Houses. People. Animals. Lives. Dreams. Aren't we Eldians supposed to die? What would mom think? It's also true that if Eldians completely die out, all of the Titan problems would go away. I... just can't accept things ending that way."
 * 48) *I'm sorry... The reality of the world outside the walls was different from the world I dreamed of. It was different from the world I saw in Armin's book. When I learned when humanity lived beyond the walls, I was so... disappointed. I wanted to wipe it all away. I'm sorry... I'm sorry...
 * 49) *Fight... (Tatakae...)
 * 50) *"I'm just like you Reiner. A no-good shithead. No, I'm much worse."
 * 51) *Tell me Hanji! If you got something up your sleeve, let's hear it!
 * 52) *"Freedom."
 * 53) * I'll kill them all... every last one... The world will rumble!
 * 54) Him transforming into the Doomsday Titan and initiating the Rumbling not only symbolizes Eren becoming the one species he despised and wished for extinction, but also became the cycle of hatred. The skeletal form of hallucegenia that got connected to Ymir, conflict and war between Paradis and Marley, the successor of the late and corrupt King Fritz, the weapon that Marley used against Paradis that destroyed the walls of Shiganshina, and the epitome of evil, that's what Eren had truly become.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) In the first 3 seasons (4 if you include the second half of season 3), he mostly gets captured every time during his fight.
 * 2) Some would say Eren is very unlikable for his attitude and decisions, especially in later events of the final arc. Eren's villainous actions caused his people, including his closest friends to lose trust and turn against him, although this was all part of his plan, but still:
 * 3) *Rejecting the food Mikasa gave him in the shelter after their first attack of the Titans.
 * 4) *Emotions getting the best of him.
 * 5) *After finding out that Sasha Braus was shot and killed, Eren laughed it off, while Mikasa and Armin are mourning her death. But even then, this is somewhat justified because Eren's mental health and sanity worsens with each time passes.
 * 6) *Eren had outright told Armin that he was a useless traitor, and admitting to Mikasa that he hated her all his life. But this made sense that he doesn't hate them deep down, since he had to make a lie by mixing up the truth. Eren only did it to make both Armin and Mikasa to hate, kill, and forget about him.
 * 7) * Gave his family members severe mental trauma.
 * 8) ** Has tormented Grisha through Paths for years.
 * 9) **He also mentally broke his own grandfather after reminding him of what happened to his daughter Faye.
 * 10) * Reminded Zeke that the global population's blood will be on his hands since he's the one who teamed up with Eren.
 * 11) *Indirectly killed Hanji Zoë with his army of Collosal Titans.
 * 12) *Had the hallucigenia gas infected and transformed everyone at Marley (except for Mikasa, Armin, Levi, Falco, Annie, Pieck, Reiner, and Onyankopon) into mindless Titans.
 * 13) *Had to keep Bertholdt alive by luring Dina to avoid him, but indirectly lead to eating his mom.
 * 14) *He still committed mass genocide and killed off 80% of the global population by stomping them all to death. Not only that, but his plan to protect Paradis ultimately failed, since a few decades later Paradis would be bombed and destroyed, thereby making Eren's mass genocide rather pointless.
 * 15) **The chapter ended abruptly after an unnamed boy traveling across the woods and stopped by at the massive tree where Eren was buried. While not 100% confirmed, it's highly implied that Eren plans to use the boy by giving him Titan powers so he could start the entire thing all over again.
 * 16) The design of his Founding Titan form is sometimes hard to follow, even though it's supposed to be creepy and uncanny.

Trivia

 * His voice actor Yuki Kāji had also voiced Ayato Kirishima from Tokyo Ghoul, Koichi Hirose from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Issei Hyoudou from High School DxD, and Meliodas from The Seven Deadly Sins.
 * Kaiji is also married to Ayane Taketsu, another famous voice actress who voiced Nino Nakano, Kirino Kousaka, Azusa Nakano, and Koneko Toujou.
 * His English voice actor Bryce Papenbrook had also voiced the latter: Kirito from Sword Art Online, Makoto Naegi Danganronpa, human version of Morgana from Persona 5, and Caesar Zeppeli from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
 * Eren and his father, Grisha Yeager, are the only known Titan shifters to have taken more than one of the Nine Titans.
 * Eren was likely named after the first known inheritor of the Attack Titan, Eren Kruger, who had a profound influence on Eren's father Grisha. Ironically enough, Eren would later use Kruger's last name when infiltrating Marley, presenting himself as Eren Kruger.
 * Hajime Isayama designed Eren's Attack Titan form after Japanese martial artist Yūshin Okami.
 * His surname, Yeager, is derived from the German word Jäger, meaning "hunter".
 * The head of his Founding Titan strongly resembles horror movie icon, Sadako Yamamura.