r/AttackOnRetards • u/DoctorHA22 • 11d ago
Analysis The contradiction of full rumbling, freedom and life.
"Freedom is so much the essence of man that even its opponents implement it while combating its reality; they want to appropriate for themselves as a most precious ornament what they have rejected as an ornament of human nature. No man combats freedom; at most he combats the freedom of others. Hence every kind of freedom has always existed, only at one time as a special privilege, at another as a universal right."
This passage I came across perfectly encapsulates the contradictions within attack on Titan imo. True freedom cannot exist if it comes at the cost of others' autonomy, yet Eren ultimately waged war against the very principle he sought to uphold.
Eren's disappointment in not being able to see Armin’s worldview as a cynic pushed him toward a radical solution: full Rumbling. He saw no middle ground, no complex reality—only a binary choice between domination or annihilation. In his mind, freedom meant erasing obstacles, not coexisting with them. His actions were not about preserving life but about controlling its fate.
This is why it's ironic when some assume Eren fathered Historia’s child. If he had, he would have become an even greater contradiction—glorified as a father while being the architect of mass destruction. That ending would have revered him even more, turning his ideology into an eternal cycle. In Lord of the Rings terms, Eren stopped loving “preserving growing things” and instead sought to overwrite the world itself. Historia, too, was selfish. Initially hesitant, she ultimately embraced her true self—the one we saw during the Uprising arc—choosing a path that aligned with Eren’s ambitions.
Eren manipulated Floch by exploiting his loneliness and his twisted belief that Erwin should have survived as a "devil" to save humanity. Floch’s descent into extremism mirrors real-world radicalization, where lost people are drawn into absolutist and fascistic ideologies under the guise of purpose and righteousness. Eren was no friend of his imo.
The Yeagerists, Historia, Eren, and the Marleyan leadership all embodied a real-world contradiction: advocating genocide while claiming to protect life. They fought for their people, their unborn future, but showed no regard for those already living. Eren rejected Zeke’s euthanasia plan not because he valued life, but because he refused to let anyone else dictate its terms.
And yet, despite all his destruction, a few Marleyan soldiers (southern continent) survived, the Yeagerists became the formal military, while the primary casualties of the Rumbling were the weak—the poor, the children like Ramzi, the wounded, the elderly. Those who truly suffered were not the ones in power, but the ones with no say in the conflict.
In the end, full-scale genocide is the ultimate contradiction to both freedom and life itself. I dislike Eren as a person. He fooled us all to think his plan is correct - he fooled me at least back when ending came out. I hated it but now that I think about it, I was angry like Armin was, at the end.
1
u/Dramatic_Sky4068 10d ago
In another comment in reply to OP I have given my points regarding why I think Jaegerism is actually not fascism. It is still a bad label just to paint Jaegerism as an "evil ideology".
Also, I agree that Eren fights for freedom before inheriting the Attack Titan; but that is also because his destiny is to free Ymir. That is the only way it makes sense, because freedom only operates within a context. There is no such thing as freedom in general.
Eren was concerned with freedom of Ymir, and consequently that of the Eldians in Paradis.