AOT’s last chapter (spoilers): My humble and philosophical analysis/opinion on the last Chapter and SNK in general.
As most of you already know AOT/SNK has come to an end. To celebrate and mourn this ending I wrote a short piece of text about my view on the ending and the philosophical aspects of the story.
I will start with the head, no pun intended, our Eren Yeager/Jaeger. After reading the manga and watching the anime I can confidently conclude that Eren Yeager isn´t the Nietzsche supporter I ought him to be. The philosopher Nietzsche, for those who are not familiar with him, supports the ideology of the ubermensch. The ubermensch is a super-human who decides his own values and consciously chooses not to be part of the herd. This human is capable of being the one in the front line, the egoist and the savior of mankind within his own perspective. Eren´s facade led me to believe that Eren was the man with the hammer, a nickname that was often given to Nietzsche for not supporting ´secretly egoistic values´ like mercy, honesty, justice, and playing down the possibility of God's existence.
Situations that supported my perspective were the Mikasa-Armin-Eren talk (Episode 73, 2:49), the Hange-Eren moment ( Episode 69, 10:30), Eren´s declaration of war (Episode 64, 21:07), and of course the rumbling (Manga). Now, after reading the latest chapter, I have recollected my thoughts and concluded that Eren fits the philosophy of Auguste Comte´s altruism. Altruism is characterized as the desire to help others regardless of the outcome for you. It´s sacrificing oneself without expecting anything in return. The latest chapter is the purest evidence for my stance. Within this chapter, we come to find out that Eren actually pretended to be a Nietzsche ally for the sake of his loved ones and wanted to save them regardless of the outcome for himself. A true and heroic sacrifice that closes this story perfectly. Eren got his redemption, even after almost everyone, including yours truly, thought he had gone off the edge. Nothing could be further from the truth. Chapter 131 (Manga) gave us Eren with emotions. After he apologized hysterically to Ramzi for the rumbling, which was going to take place after a couple of years, he was nothing more than human at that moment. Ramzi is definitely a short-lived character but one that allowed us to see our altruist Eren. The contrast between his facade egoist (ubermensch) and his true selflessness (Altruism) is what makes this story a true heartthrob, in my humble opinion.
Now that I discussed the philosophy I recognized within the story I shall move on to a bit of history. I can't help but correlate Mikasa´s and Eren´s doomed relation to a genre that was immensely popular in France (1800), romance. Within this literature genre, an uncountable amount of books were written around intense emotions, sacrificing one´s love, staying behind not able to reach the unreachable love, and running from reality in fear of what is to come. We see within the story of SNK that Eren and Mikasa love each other, that is a fact nobody can obelize. This love, strong as it may be, can't exist and develop because of a higher sacrifice that had to be made. Breaking the King's curse, Ymir´s bloodline, stopping the Titan lineage is more important than their love so the story ends in a romantic tragedy. The goal has been met but at what price? The ultimate one, the price of the heart, true and undying love that embodies itself when Mikasa makes the final choice and decapitates Eren which frees the world but cages her heart.
In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed AOT/SNK to the bone. It has made a huge impact on me and helped me come to terms with the fact that sometimes love, as pure and true as it is, just isn't enough. In certain situations, emotions won't have the upper hand against rationality and the head must win over the heart. Even if it hurts, it's better to stitch up the wound and prevent future infection than to bow down to cowardice and let the infection run wild with fatal consequences as a result.
Thank you to Hajime Isayama for this amazing story, a great artist of this time.
JmtL (Justmythoughtslol on reddit)
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