TwoCents | Eren Yeagar and Freedom's cage

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Attack on Titan What becomes of the humanity within when a human becomes a god? In the world-famous Shonen Anime, Attack on Titan (AOT), I believe we get one version of an answer to this question. Eren Yeagar, the show's main Protagonist turned antagonist walks the life of the human chasing ultimate freedom. Even after gaining the god-like powers of the founding titan, Eren is an epic example of the difficult contradiction of becoming a god and retaining one's humanity. Firstly, to briefly introduce the existential themes of AOT; Jean-Paul Sartre describes human existence as an existence “for-itself". By this, he refers (in simple terms) to a conscious existence. Being conscious, human beings think, feel, and resist a fixed mode of existence. Sartre defines our situation as radically free and as an anxious one. On one hand, a rock, stone, or Cup exists "in-itself" and has no awareness - it has no desire to be anything else - less or more; a human being, on the other hand, exists with no fixed definition or purpose and must choose one for himself or herself. Today I could be a lawyer, for example, and then I could turn destroyer of rain forests the next. We exist first, and then we find purpose or definition “existence precedes essence”.<img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000006901.webp" alt=""> This is the source of the anxiety Sartre speaks of. We will always have the angst of deciding on who we are, and what matters most. We decide at every turn even without intentionally choosing because we are radically free. To resist or deny this is what Sartre terms bad faith - that is - living as though one can only have one particular route through life - we can always choose. Sartre further suggests that in trying to escape this feeling of angst, man tries to become a fixed being, having no more desire that he/she cannot fulfil. We want to avoid the anxiety of having to choose while, however, retaining the freedom of being able to. We want to be unmoving facts of existence who, nevertheless, can choose to be anything. This is what Jean-Paul Sartre defines as man's desire to be God. God is that historically fully defined being who still retains full freedom; this, as we will come to see, is a contradiction. A human cannot be fully defined or satisfied in themselves because at the core of human existence is an insatiable nature. If a person suddenly became fully defined, wouldn't they cease to be human? <img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000006903.jpg" alt=""> Let us return now to Hajime Isayama’s dramatic story, Attack on Titan. We first meet Eren Yeagar as an unremarkable boy enclosed like the rest of humanity within the towering walls of Paradis Island. The humans are so trapped because of the Titans; a genre of gigantic humanoid monsters who lurk beyond the walls and have seemingly killed most of the human population. Eren is symbolically awakened (or born) to a new level of consciousness after two major events: First, Armin, his dear friend, reveals to him a free world beyond the walls in a book waiting to be explored and experienced; secondly, in a tragic event the titans breach the otherwise impregnable walls of the city and in the attack, Eren's mother is violently killed, sacrificing her life to save him and his loyal friend Mikassa Ackerman. Following this tragedy, Eren joins the survey corps, an elite military unit that ventures beyond the walls to explore and, in part, defend Paradis Island from the Titans. Here he finds purpose: he will see the world beyond the walls like in Armin's book and he will exterminate every last titan. This is what he defines as his sole purpose - this is freedom to him. As the show progresses, we see how Eren becomes increasingly possessed with the freedom he has imagined in his head - his search for it is insatiable. First, the walls are in the way, then the titans; the humans beyond the wall fall in his cross hairs and even after beholding the peaceful waters and fields beyond; it is not enough; then there are enemies everywhere.“We’re born free. All of us. Free. Some don’t believe it, some try to take it away. To hell with them!” <img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000006902.jpg" alt=""> To understand how Eren achieved the god-like nature, earlier mentioned, it is important to briefly recount the history and lore of the Titans' powers. In AOT, all Titan powers come from Ymir Fritz, this historical figure made a pact with a mysterious parasitic Creature once upon a time, and this granted her the powers of the founding titan. with this power, she was able to control mindless titans (formed by transforming her descendants directly or injecting them with her spinal fluid); manipulate her descendants' minds and memories and connect them through a mysterious realm called the paths (coordinate) which transcends space and time.Following her death, her powers which had served the king in world domination; were split amongst the king's daughters and then among the Royal family members. 9 major titans formed in this process with special powers and autonomy. The Attack Titan was one of such Special titans; it possesses the power to send memories from the present to past holders of the Attack Titan.I have left some gaps to be brief but it is more crucial to note that Eren Yeagar discovers two important things after nearly meeting his end in a titan's mouth: first, for some reason he doesn't know till later on, he is in possession of what he later learns is the attack titan's powers; and after being abducted by people he thought of as comrades, he discovers there are Humans beyond the wall who would even seek to harm his home. Eren discovers that the concept of freedom he saw in Armin's book, beyond the walls of Paradis island is under threat by not only mindless pure titans but others with special abilities like him. They are in the way of his freedom and he screams his desire to kill them all. he says quote: “ If someone is willing to take my freedom... I won’t hesitate to take theirs.”  He is set on a path then to find his fullest freedom having internalised that it could only be the Titans in his way Eren seeks to be fully realised and free even if it means other humans are in the way. It is here that he fixes himself onto one path to cope with the anxiety of his existence. "you bastards, I'll kill you all!” He learns he is also in possession of the founding titan- his father had eaten up the holder in an Eldian liberation mission before allowing himself to be devoured by Eren - passing on both powers. Using the founding's power to gain liberty becomes Eren's new purpose; a power only accessible if he can come into contact with the Royal blood of the Fritz or Reiss lineage. Upon acquiring this power he effectively becomes a god and decides to wipe out all of humanity in pursuit of ultimate freedom. It is crucial to note that he continues with this plan even after living amongst his enemies and empathising with them. They're just like him, he realises. Still, he resolves to wipe them all out, all the same.<img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000006906.jpg"> Once in control of the founding titan Eren becomes like the “in itself" he is (symbolically) complete, and he is fully realised but here is the Contradiction; being able to perceive all time (past future and now) at once, he is convinced of being powerless to change his destiny. He orchestrates mass murder, sees his death coming, and even still he presses on as if he has no choice. Eren changes from the protagonist who declares that we are all free, who says "I am free. Whatever I do. Whatever I choose. I do it out of my own free will.” to the antagonist telling his friends to try to stop him “you are all free".Under the Sartrean lens, I find some explanation for the walking rumbling mass of contradiction. Eren denies his agency by fixating on his corrupted version of Armin’s dream. He thinks if he kills the Titans, he'll be free; then he encounters other people who send Titans their way and decides they must die also. Beyond them are other humans with weapons of their own; they must die as well.“So if we kill the enemy, the one waiting for us on the other side, will we... finally be free?”  By becoming a god, he becomes a fixed aspect of reality - he becomes “Eren who brings about the rumbling” and nothing else; just as a sun god would be shackled to the sun or the god of time tied to the passing of this aspect. He loses the radical freedom Sartre describes, first, because of bad faith and then because the gods are not truly free - Not like us. The irony found in Attack on Titan’s story is that our hero/villain is free when in his cage of Paradis - he can be many things from that point. He is however most trapped when he becomes the most powerful being in existence even beyond those walls. To conclude, here is a quote from Mariko of HBO’s TV series, Shogun: If Freedom is What You Live For, You’ll Never be Free from Yourself

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