In the latest episode of season 4, the series took a 180º turn, and now Eren is the main antagonist. He had turned to the evil side and is planning to cause the greater destruction of all time.
Until the Season 3 of the Attack of Titan, Eren was considered the main protagonist of the whole series. We get the perception of him being a good guy and a person who really cares about his close ones.
Many fans are still shocked due to the turn of events that took place whereas some expected it to happen. A hero-turning villain is no new story to the anime fandom. The different events in the whole anime series led the hero to turn into evil.
So, what led to Eren turning evil?
There were different events that had been the possible cause for Eren to become evil. Let’s look at each event and how it fueled the evilness in him.
First of all, let us look at what is the true definition of Evil.
What is “Evil”?
If we look at the google definition, evil is something that is profoundly immoral and wicked. So, the person that does something wicked and moral as hurting others or murdering them can be considered evil.
Eren also did the same thing. He encouraged mass murder of other nations and many people lost life. He planned to destroy everyone. So, this does make him evil.
The question arises, is Eren evil to all the people?
We are sure that the answer that popped up in your mind is ‘No’. In the episodes of Season 4, we see people divided into two groups, one supporting Eren also called Yeagerists, and another group who wants to kill Eren.
So, Eren wasn’t evil to all people. The perspective that people define is whether his act is evil or not. Some believe that Eren’s violent act and plan to destroy the Marleyans are justifiable. Since Marley’s were the first ones to attack Paradis and cause great chaos.
The chaos which we see in the beginning episodes of the first season was the plan of Marleyans. The chaos resulted in Eren losing his mother and many more Paradis citizen. So, Marleyan deserved to be destroyed.
Some argued that it is not right to murder the innocents just because of the cruel act of their fellow citizens and army. This led to people being divided into two groups.
So, what do you think? Is this action of Eren really evil? The answer depends on your own perspective of good and evil. But for the overall article let us consider him evil since he did cause the greatest chaos of all time that lead to great casualties.
Why did Yelena make that face to Armin?
Events That Led to Eren Turning Evil
Eren didn’t take the extreme decision to destroy the whole world just because of one single event. There were many events that surely had been the cause to push Eren to evilness.
From his tragic background to his misfortune, there were many factors that led him to the verge of turning evil. Let us look at the possible event that caused Eren to be the villain of the whole world.
His Mother’s Death
The last thing anyone wants to witness is their beloved mother being killed moreover eaten by a monster. It will surely leave a great trauma on that person. The worst thing Eren also had to witness it.
After the Colossal titan destroyed the wall of Shiganshina, the titans from the outside world were able to enter the city. This caused great chaos. Carla, Eren’s mom got stuck under the wall during the event. Eren and Mikasa tried their best to free their mother but failed.
They were little in size, so there was nothing they could do for their mom. At that time their mother begged them to run away and save themselves. They refused to do so and Hannes had to take them forcefully away from that chaos.
As they were running away from the situation, Eren had to witness his mother being eaten by the titan. This fueled Eren’s hate more. But funny enough in the latest episode, it is revealed that it was Eren who used the Founding Titan’s power to make Dina eat Carla.
Despite the death of Eren’s mother being his own plot, we can conclude that this event was also one of the reasons for Eren to turn into evil
Turning into a Titan himself
We all know that every citizen of Paradis grew up taught that titans are the main enemy of humankind. So, it is given Eren also had the same viewpoint toward titans.
The action of the titans was also very brutal toward mankind. It is natural for Eren to hate on them. But later Eren turns into a titan himself. He inherited the Attack and the Founding Titan from his father which was hidden until he graduated from 104th Cadet Corps.
This kind of forecasted the fate of Eren. Eren turning into the human’s greatest enemy kind of makes him the bad guy of the whole series. Even if he utilized his power in helping the people of the Paradis, he did cause chaos that cost the lives of many innocence.
Death of his Friends
In the whole series, Eren had to lose many of his friends. The pain from losing his friend to titan drove him to evilness. Some of the friends that he had for so many years lost their lives in many missions.
We cannot imagine the pain Eren had to go through. The pain of losing the friends he grew up with. He also had to live with the fear that he might have to lose his friends after every mission that they had to go on.
After joining Levi’s squad, he had to face the female titan along with other members of the squad. During that, many squad members lost their lives trying to protect Eren. So, Eren blamed himself for the death of those members. This drove him to destroy the world in order to protect his friends.
Acknowledging the Outside World
Eren grew up thinking that Pradis is the only world that exists and outside the walls, only titans resided. So, he only knew that outside the world was dangerous for humankind.
Later, when Armin heard about the beautiful things that existed in the outside world, Eren had a change of heart. He believed that he was just living in a tiny cage. The wall of the city was a cage for all humankind and he wanted to be free. This pique his interest to explore the outside world.
To his dismay, the outside world was not what he expected it to be. He got to know that there were other cities just like Paradis. But the harsh truth was those cities hated Eldians and were turning them into titans.
The citizens of Marley were brainwashed into thinking that the people behind the walls were demons and this was spread all over the world. So, the biggest threat for the people of Paradis was the people outside the walls.
This truth also drove him to be evil. Eren thought about killing everyone outside paradise and protecting his fellow Eldians of Paradis.
Betrayal form Friends
Eren didn’t only have to lose his friends but also had to face the betrayal from them. The titan that attacked his city and also led to the destruction was his very own friends that he admired.
He faced the first betrayal from Annie, who was a Female titan. Eren had a hard time believing that Annie was one of the enemies. Although Eren didn’t have a strong relationship with Annie, he did admire her. He admired her strength and also learned a few skills from her.
The betrayal didn’t end with Annie. Shortly after that incident, he found out that Reiner and Berthold were also titans. Reiner was the Armored titan and Berthold was the Colossal titan. They were the ones that caused the great chaos in his hometown. This was a great hit to his heart.
Learning that his own friends were responsible for the loss of his family member and friend hurt him deeply. This drove him to seek revenge and he did end up killing many people from their hometown. This was the just beginning of his evilness.
Seeing the Future
We all remember the deadly face of Eren when he touches Historias hand. We see him going through a trance for a moment. Everyone beside is shocked to see Eren’s expression.
We later get to know that Eren had the ability to see his future. He saw what kind of person he would become and the harsh truth that he won’t be able to do anything to protect his close ones.
So, what causes him to see the future?
In the latest episode, it is revealed that Attack Titan not only possessed the ability to receive memories from the future like every other titan but also the ability to see the future.
Historia belonged to the royal family and had royal blood in her. So, Eren being the inheritor of the founding titan triggered his ability to see the future. This also led him to become evil in the later episodes.
Finding No Peaceful Solution
After acknowledging what the future holds for his friends and the citizen of Paradis, Eren tried his best to find the solution. The solution is to prevent the unthinkable from happening.
We can be sure that given his personality of Eren, he might have thought of a peaceful solution. But in the later episodes, we get to know, that no peaceful solution can prevent the destruction. So, he resorted to being evil.
He planned to destroy the world and the people residing outside the walls of Paradis through Rumbling. He relied on his fellow comrades to live peacefully without killing anyone but they weren’t able to do anything.
This led Eren to push away his friends. He later became someone that his friend would also have a hard time trusting. He simply turned his backs on them.
Meeting The Anti-Marleyans and Zeke
When Eren was able to meet the Anti-Marleyan, Yelena, she was able to bring him close to Zeke. Later when Eren went to Marley, he was able to meet Zeke secretly. There he formed a team with Zeke.
Although Eren was just fooling Zeke by pretending to go along with his plan of making Eldians no longer bear children. Eren acted as a caring brother for him and deceived him.
While pretending to go along with Zeke’s plan, Eren formed a real pact with Floch to form Yeagerist and cause Rumbling. If Zeke had been more careful with Eren then he might have prevented Eren from becoming the final villain.
True Intentions of Eren for turning Evil
In the series, the true intention behind causing all the ruckus is revealed. He only wanted to protect his friends and family against the people outside Paradis and the vicious titans.
Even though his approach to protecting them seems unjustifiable and inhumane, the motive behind was pure. He was only the one who knew the outcome of the peaceful reaction to the Marley act was the destruction of his people. So, he resorted to violence.
Eren never had selfish desires. His action was just the reaction to the attempt of Marleyan’s attempt to take advantage of the Paradis and its people.
This doesn’t mean the action is Eren is allowed, it just depends on the perspective of an individual. How they would look at the cause and the effect of the destruction.
When did Eren turn Truly Evil?
“I have always been this way. Ever since I was born” – Eren Yeager
Eren had a tragic childhood. Loss of his mother and later knowing the harsh truth of his das reality did traumatize him. He had his emotions hurt, the betrayal cause him to lose trust in his fellow squad members and friends.
Although the above-mentioned events did play their role in turning Eren into a villain or the evil guy. The main reason that made him evil was his personality.
The above statement of Eren will make you understand what we are trying to say. Eren himself believed that he never changed. He said he had always been the same since he was born. We will further elaborate on what he was trying to say later in this article.
So, Eren had his evil side since he was born. As he grew older, he understood the world better and his hate for titans only grew bigger. He also had always been obsessed with freedom.
In order to gain freedom for himself and his close ones, he was willing to take any measures. Even if that meant him turning against the whole world and destroying it.
Was Eren Really Evil?
We all remember the event where Eren was brave enough to kill a person when Mikasa was kidnapped. We can say that Eren was not always sweet and innocent as we believe him to be.
It is not a bad thing that Eren had a bad or vicious side to him. Every human has their bad and good side. We all know the saying “People will show their true colors someday“. So, the true colors of Eren were seen in the situation of danger.
So, rather than saying Eren turned evil, he was not genuinely good from the beginning. We can say his true form was revealed in a sudden situation.
He was like every other person out there with flaws and strength. He had his own morals and ways of protecting his people. His morals allowed him to even massacre children and innocent people. He even manipulated his father to start the chain of events.
This concludes that Eren was not objectively evil but he did what he thought was best for the people he cared for. Even if that led to him killing many people. His own perspective and morals led to complete genocide.
Was Evil Eren Successful?
No, Eren’s plan to destroy the world was partially unsuccessful. Why partially you might ask? Eren was able to wipe only about eighty percent of the total population.
Eren had to face death before he was able to successfully wipe out the whole population outside Paradis.
Will we see Good Eren?
In most anime series, the villain turned hero is always seen turned back to good at the end of the series. Well in Attack on Titan, it is not happening. This proves AOT is different from your common anime.
Eren was determined to his decision, even if that led to him being the bad guy. Regardless of his true intention, Eren’s extreme action is not excusable. What he did was wrong even though it seemed the right thing to do from his perspective.
So, the same friend that he tried to protect by causing all the destruction turned on him. They didn’t support Eren’s moral of destroying humanity for protecting Eldians.
Mikasa Ackerman, the closest person to Eren also thought the same. She killed Eren to stop him. That was the only way to stop Eren. She decapitated Eren which caused him to die.
So, Eren never turned good. He died as a villain in the AOT. Despite doing great deeds for the people at the beginning of the series, he remained the villain and the evil guy at the end.
