Eren Yeager
Who is He?
Eren Yeager (Japanese: エレン・イェーガー, Hepburn: Eren Yēgā), named Eren Jaeger (Turkish: Eren, "Saint"; German: Jaeger/Jäger, "Hunter") is a fictional character and the protagonist of the manga series Attack on Titan created by Hajime Isayama. Eren is a teenager who swears revenge on enormous humanoid creatures known as Titans, who have forced him and his people to live in walled off cities and devoured his mother while destroying his home town in the Shiganshina district of Wall Maria. In order to defeat the Titans, Eren enlists in the Military and joins the Survey Corps—an elite group of soldiers who fight Titans outside the walls and also study the physiology of Titans in order to know what they are fighting. As the story progresses, Eren gains the power of becoming a Titan later identified as "Attack Titan" (進撃の巨人, Shingeki no Kyojin). He has also appeared in other related media including anime and video games.Isayama created Eren with the idea of a character whose fears and dreams were relatable but often clashed with his own darkness, resulting into multiple changes to his characterization. In the anime adaptation of the series, Eren has been voiced by Yūki Kaji in Japanese and Bryce Papenbrook in English. Both of these actors found difficulties in employing different types of voices based on how Eren grows up across the narrative. In the live-action film adaptations, he is portrayed by Haruma Miura. Critical reception to Eren was polarized, finding him too antagonistic and harsh for his age. Positive comments focused on the character's ideals and newfound powers as a Titan as well as his character arc. Reception has become more positive in later arcs of the manga and anime as he becomes a more ambiguous rather than heroic character, evidenced in the 6th Crunchyroll Anime Awards where Eren was nominated for "Best Protagonist" and "Best Antagonist" simultaneously, and went on to win in the latter category. The character has proven popular within the Attack on Titan fanbase. His voice actors were praised for their portrayals of the character.
Creation and design
Author Hajime Isayama created Eren to be "an ordinary youngster who gets paralyzed with fear" when seeing a titan.As a result, he was not given unit warrior talent in comparison to other members from the series.Isayama has stated that part of the reason he chose the name "Eren" for the character is because it sounds feminine, which would make it easier to remember.Isayama has stated that he has struggled in the past to make Eren feel "alive" when writing and has called the character "a slave to the story".Isayama stated that Eren's wish to go outside the city's walls is similar to his own. When he was a child: He lived in a rural Japanese town surrounded by mountains. One day, he wanted to go beyond the mountains, which reflected in the town surrounded by walls in the manga where Eren lived in the series' beginning.[5] In retrospect, Isayama believes Eren fits the type of narrative he wrote for Attack on Titan, something that Isayama managed to relate with. Isayama has stated he paid particular attention to Eren's eyes when designing him, in order to make him stand out from the rest of the cast. He specifically chose to give Eren thin eyebrows instead of thick ones because he felt it would be "artificial" to try to use thicker eyebrows to accent Eren's angry personality. Because Eren is an energetic character, Isayama chose to give him black hair so that it would be easier to draw speed lines around him when he is moving.[7] The character's Titan form's physique was modeled after middleweight mixed martial artist Yushin Okami.[8][9] Isayama has also identified Takanori Gomi's southpaw fighting style as a model used for Eren's Titan and the way it fights.[10] Isayama originally intended for Eren to have known all along that he was a Titan.[11] As he looked over previous chapters of the manga, Isayama stated that Eren's fight against the Warhammer was one of his favorite scenes.
Appearances
Eren Yeager is introduced as a ten-year-old residing in the town of Shiganshina who dreams of joining the Survey Corps in order to explore the outside world beyond the walls. A year prior to the events of the story, accompanying his father Grisha to meet her parents, Eren saves Mikasa Ackerman from a group of kidnappers, which led to the development of his ideology at a young age.When the Titans invade Shiganshina, Eren is powerless as he watches his mother be devoured by an abnormally large titan with a face deformity that gives it a constant smile, and thus vows to kill every Titan henceforth.Eren then enlists himself in the military, with hazy memories of last meeting his father while receiving a key to their home’s basement. During his first mission at Trost, Eren sacrifices himself to save his friend Armin Arlert from being swallowed by a bearded Titan.[26] Eren manages to transform into a Titan himself, proving his newfound strength worthy to fight for mankind.[27] Eren earns a place in the Special Operations Squad, a branch of Survey Corps under Captain Levi.[28][29] Eren is hunted by a female Titan but is saved by Levi and Mikasa. The Titan is later revealed to be his classmate Annie Leonhart, who is defeated by Eren but freezes herself. Upon being chased by more of Annie's allies, Eren awakens a power known as the "Founding Titan" (始祖の巨人, Shiso no Kyojin), which he subconsciously uses to direct a group of Titans to attack them.[30] The Smiling Titan reappears and attempts to kill Eren and Mikasa, but Eren uses his power to command another herd of Titans to beat it to death. Soon after, Eren is sent with his friends to an isolated village while preparations are made for a campaign to retake Wall Maria. Eren is then captured by Rod Reiss, who reveals the Founding Titan was originally in his family for years since their ancestor Karl Fritz created the walls, and that the Reiss family used it to rule until it was stolen by Grisha. Grisha is revealed to be responsible for Eren becoming a Titan, passing the Founding Titan’s power to his son at the cost of his life. Eren's classmate Krista Lenz, who is actually Rod's child Historia Reiss, refuses to aid her father and frees Eren. Eren and the Survey Corps led by Commander Erwin depart to Shiganshina to reclaim Wall Maria and battle an army of Titans led by Zeke, the Beast Titan, and his subordinates Bertholdt and Reiner, who are also Eren's former classmates and the real identity of the Colossal Titan and Armored Titan. Erwin sacrifices himself in a suicide charge to distract Zeke whilst Levi sneaks up behind him. Zeke kills Erwin and most of the Corps by throwing a volley of boulders at them, with Erwin being nearly sliced in half. Levi fights Zeke after this, slicing open his left arm, slashing his heels open and slicing his eyes out. He then attempts to subdue Zeke, now in his human form, but he escapes. Armin devises a plan to kill Bertholdt and charges his head on, but Bertholdt uses the collosal's power to burn Armin to a crisp and almost kill him, but Eren rips him out of his Titan and defeats him. Mikasa fires a missile down the Armored Titan's mouth and thus renders Reiner also immobilised. Levi uses a serum to turn Armin into a Titan, so that he can both be healed and possess the power of the Collosal Titan when he eats Bertholdt. He does so, and Bertholdt begs for forgiveness and mercy from the same people he tried to kill before Armin crushes his skull and devours him. With Shiganshina secured,[31] Eren and his friends learn of Grisha's past once they reach the Yeager family basement: Zeke is revealed to be Eren's half brother and Grisha's first son, and the people within the walls are revealed to have originated in another nation named Marley. They learn that humanity exists beyond the walls and that their true enemy is Marley, while they live on an island called Paradis Island, and are a race called Eldians (specifically the "Subjects of Ymir"), descendants of the original titan shifter Ymir Fritz. They learn that in the past, Ymir Fritz’s power split into the Nine Titans that would be passed down to her people. This power was used to conquer and subjugate many races and nations, including Marley. Marley eventually overthrew Eldia, taking control of Seven of the Nine Titans before oppressing and demeaning the Eldians left on the continental mainland, using them as holders of the Titan powers as a means to conquer and subjugate other nations, just as the Eldian Empire had once done. Eren learns that he has a limited lifespan as a side effect of being a holder of two of the Nine Titans' power, including the titular "Attack Titan" (進撃の巨人, Shingeki no Kyojin),[32] along with the Founding Titan, only having 8 years left to live. Four years later, assumed to have been fending off Marleyan infiltrators with the new Colossal Titan Armin, Eren is leading the Survey Corps in an extraction of Zeke in Liberio following Marley having won its war with the Mid-East Allied Forces. Having his left leg amputated, Eren assumes the identity of "Mr. Kruger" (クルーガーさん, Kurūgā-san), a former Marleyan military officer.[33] During the festival held by Willy Tybur to declare war on Paradis, Eren responds with an attack, killing Willy and then devouring his sister to gain the War Hammer Titan's power.[34] Eren's actions result in his arrest but he escapes with a group of Survey Corps members loyal to him called "Yeagerists", and he resumes his search for Zeke.[35] Eren makes himself known to Armin and Mikasa, showing antagonism for his friends, and is ambushed by a group of soldiers led by Reiner. Eren attempts to reach Zeke to activate the Founding Titan's power, but is nearly killed by Gabi; Zeke saves his brother, turning out to be the one who has control of the Founding Titan's power, because as a member of the royal family that wasn't descended from the first King of the Walls, he wasn't brainwashed by the latter's will, and because Ymir Fritz, the source of the Founding Titan's power, was bound as a slave to her royal descendants. Eren convinces Ymir to help him after giving her the choice to make her own decision. Revived, Eren frees the Titans within the Walls and declares his intent to exterminate all life outside Paradis in order to protect his people, becoming the world's enemy. Hange battles the army of Titans but Eren commands them to kill them, which they do via incineration. The Wall Titans destroy all of Marley, as well as the Attack on Titan world's equivalents of London, Paris, America and Africa, killing most of the world's population before a team led by Armin fights Zeke, who was hiding on one of the spikes on the spine of Eren's titan. They gain the upper hand against him, and Reiner tackles Zeke over but he still manages to somehow escape them. Armin eventually gets trapped in the Paths with Zeke and manages to convince Zeke that life has meaning. Zeke eventually reappears again outside of Eren's Founding Titan and admires the rising sun over the nightmarish genocide happening right next to him, catching the attention of Levi, who slashes Zeke's throat and sends his body tumbling off Eren's titan into the path of The Wall Titans below, killing him.[36] With Zeke dead, the wall titans begin to meander around and eventually collapse due to nobody controlling them, thus stopping The Rumbling. Armin transforms under Eren's Titan, causing a shockwave that destroys its body, except the head. Enraged, Eren transforms into a colossal titan similar to Armin's, and the duo engage in a fight that weakens them both. Armin grabs Eren's head and Levi fires a missile directly into it's teeth, and Mikasa jumps inside his mouth. She finds a mutilated and weakened Eren hanging from the roof of the Titan's mouth, with hardly enough strength to open his eyes. To prevent further genocide and to put Eren out his misery, Mikasa uses her sword to decapitate him, before leaving his Titan to fall to the ground onto the remaining Wall Titans.Armin wakes up with a memory of Eren telling him in the Paths his true plan to make his friends heroes by killing him. With Eren dead and 80% of the world's population exterminated, the Founder's power is lost and the Titan Shifters rejoice as they are permanently transformed back into humans. Mikasa buries Eren's head under the same tree he used to nap under as a child, with a small gravestone to remember him by in the coming decades with a family of her own. After Mikasa's death, Paradis is bombed and overrun by ruin as modern technology advances. An unknown boy runs into the tree that Eren was buried under, which has grown to look like Ymir's tree, indicating that the power of the Titans will return.