“eren was right” no, he was deeply wrong and dissatisfied with reality because of a childlike wonder he once had of a perfect world. he became a monster because he simply wanted to. armin shares the same themes as eren, yet never sacrificed his knowledge between right and wrong. armin’s anger goes beyond than just condemning eren for what he did, it’s meant to show us the truth of humanity’s motives—kill or be killed, the only way to live is to fight. the fact that you’re even saying that further proves the point that isayama was trying to create. and no, eren was not some nationalist war god; he was a selfish person, struggling with inner turmoil and the consequences of his inhumane actions. he’s cruel, he’s tortured—he’s morally grey. it’s the defining point of his character.
I know we’re only three days away until the AOT ending’s five year anniversary, but I just have to ask this:
Was anybody else paranoid asf over the possibility that Jean would die? He and the rest were pure titans so it gave off the impression they wouldn’t make it. 🥺
(I literally almost had a heart attack with chapter 138)
Why Mikasa couldn't cut her hair after Eren's death: A 10-Year Psychological Analysis
"She cut her hair whenever she had to fight for Eren, but she let it grow whenever she longed for a peaceful life with him."
I believe Mikasa’s hair length is not just a simple change in style, but a profound symbol of her feelings for Eren and the psychological distance between them.
1. 844 - 847: Her Longest Days (Pure Longing)
Period: From the day Eren wrapped the scarf around her until just before joining the Cadet Corps.
Status: Long, pristine straight hair reaching down to the middle of her back.
Meaning: This was a time of pure, innocent love when she became family with Eren and lived in peace. However, as soon as Eren told her, "Cut your hair, it'll cause an accident," Mikasa cut her precious long hair without a moment's hesitation.
2. 104th Cadet Corps ~ Season 1-3: The Bob Cut (Devotion & Duty)
Period: From the Cadet days through the Battle of Trost, the Female Titan arc, and the Return to Shiganshina.
Status: The iconic bob cut we all know.
Meaning: This symbolizes her 'obedience' to Eren’s words and her resolve as a 'warrior' to protect him. It was a sign of her devotion, prioritizing Eren’s safety
3. The 4-Year Gap: Semi-Long (The Hope of a Woman)
Period: After seeing the ocean until the Raid on Liberio (The railroad construction scenes in Season 4).
Status: Semi-long hair falling past her shoulders.
Meaning: This was a time when the Titans—the only obstacle—seemed to have vanished, and she dreamed of a normal future with Eren. I believe Mikasa's desire to be loved as a 'woman' rather than a warrior was reflected in the growing length of her hair.
4. The Raid on Liberio ~ The Final Battle: The Shortest Cut (The Distance & Resolve)
Period: From Eren’s departure to Marley until the Rumbling.
Status: The shortest pixie cut she’s ever had.
Meaning: This was the dark age where the psychological distance from Eren was at its peak. To bring back the spiraling Eren, Mikasa returned to being a 'warrior.' While she looked colder and stronger than ever, it also showed how fragile and distant her relationship with Eren had become.
I think this shortest haircut symbolizes her ultimate resolve to face the cruel reality and bring Eren home.
5. After Eren's Death ~ Her Final Moments: The Return of Long Hair (Eternal Longing)
Period: From the series finale until Mikasa’s passing (The ending credits).
Status: Long hair that grew back over the years.
Meaning: Because Eren, the one who would command her to cut it, was no longer by her side. Her long hair is a record of the lonely years she spent without him and proof of a longing and waiting that never ceased until her death.
Finally, she waits for him as the 'free woman' he always wanted her to be.
Just like her final words to Eren, "Itterasshai (See you later)," the hair represents her endless waiting to meet him again.
6. Itterasshai: Reunion in the Afterlife
Analysis: In the "Itterasshai" music video, Mikasa’s hair has returned to the long style from when she and Eren first met.
Conclusion: I believe this symbolizes the joy and complete peace of being able to love each other without any obstacles or pain, finally free from the world's burdens.
'In the end, it is only in the afterlife that they reunite and achieve the love they couldn't fully express in life.
Mikasa's hair length is the ultimate proof of that eternal love.'
The system is at fault, and so is Eren - A systemic look into Attack on Titan and Eren’s trauma, and the solution to it all.
I think that one of the points the series makes about Eren’s character is that the rumbling and the subsequent genocide it caused was his fault, but also the world’s. Attack on Titan denounces humanity’s cruelty, but it doesn’t absolve responsibility from Eren either, and I think that’s a genius way of looking at the morality of our protagonist’s actions.
Understanding Eren’s Trauma
The driving force for Eren's character is his wish to be free because he was “born into this world”, though if you allow me to go deeper into the WHY he thinks that way, I’d argue it’s not only in his nature as many often argue; it was also boosted by the fact that he lived surrounded by walls to protect humanity from titans (and I’d say both the titans and the walls represent the antithesis of freedom to Eren) in one of the poorer districts of the city, in which everyone craved security and stability over the risks that came with venturing out, which Eren considers the behavior of cattle. Everything around Eren is telling him that he isn't free.
And of course, the defining moment that turns this desire for freedom into obsession is his mother’s death, which could have been prevented if the symbols of Eren’s lack of freedom were gone. Rather than just sources of frustration, the walls, the titans and Eren's own lack of ability become reminders of the loss and suffering inherent to being trampled by the strong—the pain that comes with not being free.
To understand his subconscious thought process more, I picture it like this:
“If humanity ventured outside the walls, exercising their freedom and killing the titans, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“If we didn’t live in Shiganshina, a dangerous district where the poor live due to being so close to the outermost wall, this wouldn’t have happened.”
And coupled with this, comes his own lack of exercising his freedom:
“If I had been strong enough to do what I wanted, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Eren's trauma is reaffirmed again and again, by failing to save Hannes, then failing to save Armin, and so on, and it all builds up to make him become who he is in the final act of the story.
Later on, it's revealed that Marley, actual humans, just like them, are the real villains behind Eren's opression. And that's when our protagonist snaps. It's no coincidence that the whole point of his genocide is to end civilization as we know it—he can't stomach a world in which everything that happened was by the hands of humans, one in which the monsters have families and insecurities just like him—it's just too nuanced, and that's too much to handle for Eren. It's easier to trample over everything and restart, than to face his inferiority complex, one that has its roots in the symbols that trample over his freedom, rather than solely on his nature.
From Personal to Systemic (and viceversa)
However, if we look even further than Marley to point towards someone to blame for these symbols, Marley became the way it is because human civilization was responsible for the divides that now can be seen not only inside, but outside the walls.
To put it in a simpler way, why did Attack on Titan start? Because King Fritz enslaved Ymir, someone with the power to become a titan. But we should go into the why, shouldn’t we? And it’s because that’s how human civilization works. The ones in power use it to their advantage and leave a wave of trauma that lasts generations, all to make up for their own weaknesses and fears. It’s about how the personal becomes systemic, and viceversa; and that’s exactly what happens with Eren. He represents the ultimate way in which you can trample over someone's freedom, which is met with retribution (and at the same time being an attempt at making up for his horrible trauma.)
I’d have to get into a whole rant about systemic issues and the feudalism that laid the basis for capitalism for this to become more understandable, but in the end, I’m saying all of this to prove a pretty simple point: it’s all about the cycle of hatred, which isn’t simply about revenge. It’s years and years of systemic oppression, combined with circumstance, combined with nature, and how all of it is processed by Eren’s self-esteem and ego, that led Eren to become who he is.
The line between the outside and the inside blurries, and black and white thinking become shallow in comparison to the nuance of the world—just like Eren's worldview.
Of course, I’m not saying that Eren realized all this. Dude was probably angry with the titans because they killed his mom and that was it. But a lot of it was probably part of his subconscious, and even if all of it wasn’t, all of these horrible circumstances were a vital factor in what is what the Marleyan general calls out for what it is:
Except this time, it’s not just by the Marleyan's hands. Nor is it even present humanity's.
It’s everything.
Eren is to Blame
All of what I showcased explains Eren’s insecurities, trauma and subsequent decisions. It’s because of his nature, coupled with the terrible circumstances he was born into, that shaped him into someone willing to wipe out humanity—it isn’t as simple as just because “it was in his nature”, and I’d argue that’s an excuse Eren himself would use to try and rationalize his horrible actions.
That’s actually what Eren does the most with his all-seeing power: he uses it as an excuse not to take matters into his own hands.
What I feel AOT is criticizing here is that whether it was his nature, or his environment, or the generations of systemic abuse, how Eren dealt with his trauma was his decision. Eren perpetuating the cycle of trauma and hatred, of civilization and war, was his decision.
We later learn that Eren was the one who killed his mother, but I’d argue that rather than to only highlight that it’s in Eren’s nature to be free even if it’s a destructive goal, this scene also shows that trauma is self perpetuated—in the end, Eren literally caused part of his own trauma and led himself to a destructive path, though instead of being due to a decision that will have consequences in the future, it’s one that had consequences in his own past. Speaking of which, I think the mind-boggling past-present-future coexistence ability Eren attains due to the Attack Titan isn’t a coincidence, and perfectly complements his character: it’s the ultimate way to reinforce that he’s the one furthering his trauma through his pursuit of freedom, and that no matter where or why it started, he’s the one responsible for not dealing with it and harming everyone and himself so much.
This isn’t to diminish the fact that it was the world that shaped Eren to become that way, or to fall into a “good-victim” and “bad-victim” debacle. Putting it in the frame of the present day, I’d say that saying that your trauma is caused by yourself sounds extremely wrong and it’s not the point I’m trying to make. Yes, Eren causes his trauma, but only a part of it. Eren causes his suffering, but only a part of it. Whatever the case, it’s up to Eren to continue perpetuating that suffering for himself and others, or stop it, and unfortunately, what he ends up doing is continuing it.
Of course, asking for severely traumatized people to deal with their own trauma on their own is not realistic, is it? Asking for severely traumatized people to know how to not take it out in a violent way, without even being taught other ways, is unreasonable. For a quick view on my thoughts, even though I completely agree that Eren should be held accountable for his actions, in the end, the solution to his suffering isn’t to demand him to somehow know how to deal with it: that’s why others are key in helping heal that trauma.
So why didn’t Armin and Mikasa help Eren with his trauma, you ask?
Dude, they’re on like, the AOT equivalent to the 19th century. They probably don’t even know what trauma is, and they have their own to deal with.
Though the real reason is that Eren isolated himself from them, refusing to talk to them about his weakness—refusing to be vulnerable. They weren't allowed to be by his side, and that ultimately spells Eren's downfall.
But we know better now, don’t we?
In the end, I think that what the precious bond between the main trio highlights, whether they're conscious or not, is their ability to stand for each other no matter what kind of crueltry they experience. That’s what the Alliance’s last stand, and their ability to forgive and understand each other in the final arc showcases, too. That even if traumatized, we can make an attempt to connect with one another, and perhaps it will reach those who can’t even think of a way out.
bro i finished aot last evening and omg. that ending was beautiful and so, so, tragic.
so much was lost. so much was built on the ruins of their history.
and to loop it all back with mikasa and armin and eren with the movies was really the best example of a perfect ending. def not a happy one, but not ultra-depressing. somewhere in the middle. just right.
i feel so bad for mikasa i cant even put it into words. having to kill the love of her life. not even able to put his name on his headstone for fear of someone desecrating it. holding onto every last bit of him that remained– his scarf, his head, their last memories together.
their first memories together.
i would never be able to love again after that.
and then poor armin. he lost his best friend, the one who saved him and showed him he wasn't dead weight. the one who taught him to fight. that to win, you have to fight. the one that he was supposed to explore the world with; the one he was going to see the "water that glows like fire" and the "fields of ice" and the "lake so deep and salty that merchants could spend their whole lives trying to remove all the salt from and still never make a dent in" with. that was his best friend.
but isn't it funny, in the end, how eren ended up with an entirely new goal? the opposite to his driving motivation the entire way?
he joined the scouts because he wanted to kill all titans. he wanted every last one exterminated.
but by the end, those were who he wanted to save. he wanted peace for eldians, those who could transform into titans.
in the end, he only became what the world feared. what eldians feared. what he himself feared. all for the sake of the future of his beloved friends.
Hey! For those of you who have been keeping up with my attack on titan first time watching the time has finally arrived where I have seen the whole series.
The final episodes plus the finale were really good. Now personally I am much more of a happy endings type of person so it wasn't really an ideal ending for me, but I definitely think that objectively it was a fantastic ending for the series and made a lot of sense. I thought the plot twists were amazing, I really enjoyed the animation, and all the hidden details were super interesting. The only thing I am not really a fan of is the armin x annie ship, but that's because I don't really ship any of the characters in the show. I think that it can be interesting to think about, but at the end of the day I just don't see it. (I do still find fan arts very interesting though!) So sad this journey has come to an end but I am very excited for more shows and recs to watch as I start to enter the anime scene. If you have any recs please leave below!
