eren is perpetually in a state of anger or annoyance.
Honestly, this is probably the most annoying misconception I can think of, given it’s DEFINITELY the one I’ve run into most frequently. Everyone seems to reduce all of the depth and emotion to his character down to a ball of rage and nothing more than just that. It bothers me so much that I even have to go into this sort of detail on the matter, because there’s literally SO MUCH that contradicts this opinion. But, anyway, let’s get started on the matter. I apologize in advance if my thoughts seem rather scrambled, they’ve been everywhere today.
Now, we’re going to start off in the beginning of SnK, Eren is not greeted as happy-go-lucky individual, considering he’s not. Our first, ultimate introduction of Eren is a boy waking from a nap on a casual day, lazing around instead of working on what he should, probably implying that he used to do this often before the incident. So, already, we are not greeted with rage, but rather by a symbol grief along with his confusion. We can see his struggle to want to appear strong, however, in a world where humans are made weak, with a sentence as simple as “Don’t tell anyone… that I was crying.” Now, his anger is not shown up until he witnesses Hannes and the other Garrison soldiers, also lazing around and getting drunk while they are working. I suppose you could call Eren a bit of a hypocrite, given he was just seen performing actions very similar. Sleeping while he was supposed to be working, leaving the work up to his adoptive sister, Mikasa. Though, I suppose, to him, he wouldn’t bother to classify it as such, considering wood-gathering is not of importance to him, while working to protect humanity is. It has always been a belief of his, perhaps rooted somewhere behind his father’s raising, given the few important scenes of Grisha that we do get to see. Take note: he was not angry until he had something to be angry about.
Now, let’s skip to the Training Corps. This type of introduction, after the time skip, does, indeed, begin with Eren looking very determined in line, then skipping to his moments with Jean, showing him, again, angry. Though, again, with every reason behind such emotions. The scene starts off with a pretentious Jean shouting and making commotion, bragging quite loudly about how he is to enter the interior MP Brigade, and hide, as the others won’t be able to. At least, I felt it in a bragging type of sense, considering just how loud and obnoxiously he’s shown speaking, and it gets on Eren’s nerves. I’m sure he was not the only one. BUT, Eren speaks out his opinions, especially if he does not agree with you. He wanted to call him out for his un-righteous way of thinking, and goes to make the point “Until five years ago, this town was part of the interior too.” Now, we can see he’s blatantly annoyed, GIVEN A REASON, and continues even to add a sassy remark that he knows will piss Jean off as well, acting on his emotions (a flaw), and pushing the emotions he is feeling right back at Jean, considering he is now his target (and has been in the past). Let’s also point out that this argument does not start off as violent, instead, rather, it starts as a heated discussing, then resulting in an argument, and then leading to the simultaneous punch of the two immature boys. Though, Eren is picked up by Mikasa, tossed onto the floor outside, and quickly calms down. Eren is very quick to anger, but he is almost equally quick to calm down after his blowing up.
NOW, let’s talk about his entry into the Survey Corps. Eren is scared shitless after being quarantined from the world and locked up for being a titan. He is frightened as hell, and is not truly angered until he notices the debates becoming arguments that involve pulling shit from their asses to sound more correct, the ONE thing that motivates his anger being their assumption of Mikasa’s humanity, or rather, lack thereof. Another reason for his feelings. He is very soon put in his place by Captain Levi, once more, scared shitless, but I’m not here to discuss that side of things right now. He is offered to join the Corps, and given it is his childhood dream, he accepts fearfully, but without hesitance.
There are many other scenes of importance, and crazy happenings that I could have drug into this, but they involved a lot more depth on things unrelated to the question, so I decided to stick with some given scenes that most people are able to recognize. My reason for pulling these scenes into the picture was to discuss that Eren is not perpetually ANYTHING. His emotions all divert from one thing to another, depending on actions, reasons, and words of others. He has a bit of a temper, a bit of an intolerance for that in which he does not believe, and lacks a lot of restriction, making him very impulsive. BUT, if you are to catch Eren during any casual moment, such as eating, having light conversation, thinking, walking, honestly anything in which anger is not to be provoked, he is just like any other person. He is a fifteen year old boy and I feel like this is often overlooked. Here, I’m just going to pull some bulleted quotes to further prove my point.
“Well, you did go through a lot… and protecting your own life is pretty admirable, too. I’ve been saying I wanna join the Survey Corps since before the wall came down… People just thought i had a screw loose. So I’m the crazy one…” (said in a comforting manner with a smile on his face)
“Anyway, what’d you think of my kick? I was just imitating what you did, but it worked perfectly!” (smiling before being told “It sucked. Not even close.” much to his horror) “Seriously…? What was wrong with it?” (said defeated, disappointed)
“Hey! It feels like it’s been so long.” (with excitement, to Armin and Mikasa)
“I… just wanted something to rely on…” (own thoughts, regret)
(a reply after Dimo Reeves’ mentioning to Historia, “Once you become queen, smack him and tell him this… ‘I dare you to hit me back.’”) “.. Hah! I like that! You should do that, Historia!” (laughing, amused by the idea)
Again, just a few lighthearted conversations with Eren.
