Attack on Titan creator Hajime Isayama says he has some regrets about how protagonist Eren Yeager turned out.
“Eren became a protagonist who committed mass slaughter on a scale rarely seen in other works of fiction," Isayama said (via Dexterto). "As for why I conceived such a story from the beginning, part of it was my desire to create a narrative with a major twist ... where the victim becomes the perpetrator."
"But a large factor was also my own immaturity and foolishness at the time, when I was in my early twenties. That aspect became the core of Eren’s character, leading to the point where he confesses not as someone forced into wrongdoing by circumstances, but as someone who harbored a desire to do harm."
Though Isayama is talking about the manga, the anime is a near-exact adaptation – and Eren Yeager follows the same arc. The story follows Eren as he vows to exterminate the Titans after they destroy his hometown and kill his mother.
The Attack on Titan manga wrapped up in 2021. The anime ended in 2023 after a final season that lasted several years, followed by multiple feature-length specials known as The Final Chapters. The final Final Chapter premiered in January.
"However, Attack on Titan had long since ceased to be mine alone, and Eren became a character loved by many readers," Isayama continued. "In the end, without fully committing to portraying him as a detestable figure, I found myself depicting him with a certain closeness and sympathy. As a result, I feel there remains a sense of insincerity in the story’s conclusion... at least in my own assessment."
I'm going to level with you... the dude committed genocide. Just going off of that, I'd say Eren stayed pretty dang evil throughout the entire story, though, yes, he still has those qualities that still make the viewer or reader root for him (and a lot of that lies in the fact that he's the protagonist and so we kind of have to root for him) but I honestly can't imagine him being any worse.
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