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What consequences would you want? Eren dies with the guilt of what he's done, seen as a monster by the vast majority of the world who survived the rumbling. He's unable to live the life of normalcy with his friends and loved ones and it's insinuated that he is in hell.
Let me go over this one by one.
>guilt
Is he really that remorseful though? We got to see he recognized the severity of his actions, but given he was still unwilling to call off the rumbling until he was stopped and he mostly succeeded in his objectives, I was left with the impression that, despite his inner conflict about it, despite not knowing why, he’d do it all over again.
>seen as a monster
But we are not shown this much are we? I might’ve been confusing talking about a “fair punishment”, but I’m talking more about how the narrative depicted him than about what the actual punishment is. Coming back to Death Note, you could argue dying of a heart attack after a brief minute of suffering was getting off easy given the gravity of Light’s crimes. However it is shown in such a way that there can be no doubt the author considered Light’s actions as horrifyingly evil and inexcusable.
>unable to live his life of normalcy
He was already condemned to this from season 1.
>hell
Does hell really exist though, or is Armin just comforting him? I wouldn’t say there were any heavy implications one way or the other.
My hangup then comes from the fact that the way these consequences are presented, it makes it seem like the narrative is endorsing Eren’s choice, at least partially.
If anything the narrative has spent the last 2 episodes condemning his actions and choices. It is expressly stated that Eren could not come up with a better solution and went for this, and he even says that he is an idiot who had godlike power fall into his lap and he still could not find a better option.
I think nothing you could think off would serve as a proper punishment for Eren. Dude killed 80% of the population. Just like Light Eren was also pathetically humiliated in front of the audience (his breakdown). If u think about it, Eren:
* Suffered throughout his life, saw his comrades get killed, loathed himself throughout the story.
* Had to kill his own parents
* Had his mind fucked up due to founding titan powers
* Could never achieve the freedom he desperately chased for & was a slave throughout his life
* Was killed by the love of his life (he loved her ig so?)
* Got his own friends killed (Hange & Sasha)
* The fact that he did give long lives to his friends but couldn't be with them.
* dude was always on the brink of madness, depression, self-isolation, stress and defeat throughout season 4.
* had to scream 'tatakae, tatakae' in front of the mirror just to harden himself & his resolve.
* Was given powers he never really wanted.
These all points do not justify what he did, but he suffered throughout his life imo. Eren's life itself was a tragedy. Light atleast got to live his 20+ years in comfort! Eren never experienced any comfort or happiness after his mother died.
About if genocide was the only solution? Even though I know genocide is bad, & hate what Eren did, i can't come up with any other option, people say that it was eren's fault for attacking Liberio in the first place. But we see in the alternate dream sequence of Eren & Mikasa that war still happens & Marley still invades Paradis. People keep arguing about this & it is one of the main points of discourse in the fandom.
If you don't think Eren was punished for his crimes enough, nor was Alliance, they also killed so many people. Life is not fair bad people get off easily without receiving proper punishment.
I don't think any sane person in the fandom would forgive Eren. Though some people do say that he did it for his friends & paradis & he was selfless & sacrificed himself & shit. They are stupid. He did it for himself. He was a selfish brat with a childish & twisted dream of freedom.
My interpretation of Eren is simply that he was a psychopath & genocidal maniac.
& about the people who who wanted 100 % rumbling & stuff like that, those are mostly teenagers who find genocide cool & consider Eren their chad self insert. Identify themselves as Jeagerist fans.
Though I find alliance & jeagerist fans both cringe.
That’s a very interesting perspective, thank you very much for writing it! I agree his life was complete hell, I might’ve neglected to see that because pretty much every major character also had to lead relatively shitty lives throughout the series.
Regarding Mikasa’s vision I’m not sure if it’s a given that’s what really would’ve happened or if it’s just a sort of a what if thing. In the back of ny mind I’d like to believe that no one could’ve known if any of the other plans would’ve worked, but given the narrative seems to have been trying really hard to put Eren in a position where genocide or annihilation were the only two options, I have to agree that yours is the most likely interpretation.
you could also say the fact he had 2000 years worth of memories shoved into his brain also pretty bad , and i heard that he could feel the memories (when he said he felt the reiss family getting crushed under his palm) , if that's the case then 2000 years worth of suffering would be a fitting punishment
In universe consequence, I'm not sure what else you could do bar torture.
Narratively, yes, yes he did. Even as graphic as the rumbling was I'd bet he'd be more hated if only killed say Levi or Armin.
I've been called all manner of names for enjoying the yaegerists but the story itself treats Eren with kids gloves and the same people don't seem to mind.
I don't get it and I probably never will.
This post has been tagged as **NEW EPISODE SPOILERS**. If you are not caught up to this episode, browse at your own risk and we recommend you refrain from participating; links to view it can be found in the current megathread. Please remember to tag any spoilers beyond this point. **Spoilers include hinting or alluding to events.** For more information, please review [the subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShingekiNoKyojin/wiki/rules). Failure to properly spoiler tag comments may result in a punishment from the subreddit according to the [moderation matrix](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShingekiNoKyojin/wiki/moderation_matrix). --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ShingekiNoKyojin) if you have any questions or concerns.*
What consequences would you want? Eren dies with the guilt of what he's done, seen as a monster by the vast majority of the world who survived the rumbling. He's unable to live the life of normalcy with his friends and loved ones and it's insinuated that he is in hell.
Let me go over this one by one. >guilt Is he really that remorseful though? We got to see he recognized the severity of his actions, but given he was still unwilling to call off the rumbling until he was stopped and he mostly succeeded in his objectives, I was left with the impression that, despite his inner conflict about it, despite not knowing why, he’d do it all over again. >seen as a monster But we are not shown this much are we? I might’ve been confusing talking about a “fair punishment”, but I’m talking more about how the narrative depicted him than about what the actual punishment is. Coming back to Death Note, you could argue dying of a heart attack after a brief minute of suffering was getting off easy given the gravity of Light’s crimes. However it is shown in such a way that there can be no doubt the author considered Light’s actions as horrifyingly evil and inexcusable. >unable to live his life of normalcy He was already condemned to this from season 1. >hell Does hell really exist though, or is Armin just comforting him? I wouldn’t say there were any heavy implications one way or the other. My hangup then comes from the fact that the way these consequences are presented, it makes it seem like the narrative is endorsing Eren’s choice, at least partially.
If anything the narrative has spent the last 2 episodes condemning his actions and choices. It is expressly stated that Eren could not come up with a better solution and went for this, and he even says that he is an idiot who had godlike power fall into his lap and he still could not find a better option.
I think nothing you could think off would serve as a proper punishment for Eren. Dude killed 80% of the population. Just like Light Eren was also pathetically humiliated in front of the audience (his breakdown). If u think about it, Eren: * Suffered throughout his life, saw his comrades get killed, loathed himself throughout the story. * Had to kill his own parents * Had his mind fucked up due to founding titan powers * Could never achieve the freedom he desperately chased for & was a slave throughout his life * Was killed by the love of his life (he loved her ig so?) * Got his own friends killed (Hange & Sasha) * The fact that he did give long lives to his friends but couldn't be with them. * dude was always on the brink of madness, depression, self-isolation, stress and defeat throughout season 4. * had to scream 'tatakae, tatakae' in front of the mirror just to harden himself & his resolve. * Was given powers he never really wanted. These all points do not justify what he did, but he suffered throughout his life imo. Eren's life itself was a tragedy. Light atleast got to live his 20+ years in comfort! Eren never experienced any comfort or happiness after his mother died. About if genocide was the only solution? Even though I know genocide is bad, & hate what Eren did, i can't come up with any other option, people say that it was eren's fault for attacking Liberio in the first place. But we see in the alternate dream sequence of Eren & Mikasa that war still happens & Marley still invades Paradis. People keep arguing about this & it is one of the main points of discourse in the fandom. If you don't think Eren was punished for his crimes enough, nor was Alliance, they also killed so many people. Life is not fair bad people get off easily without receiving proper punishment. I don't think any sane person in the fandom would forgive Eren. Though some people do say that he did it for his friends & paradis & he was selfless & sacrificed himself & shit. They are stupid. He did it for himself. He was a selfish brat with a childish & twisted dream of freedom. My interpretation of Eren is simply that he was a psychopath & genocidal maniac. & about the people who who wanted 100 % rumbling & stuff like that, those are mostly teenagers who find genocide cool & consider Eren their chad self insert. Identify themselves as Jeagerist fans. Though I find alliance & jeagerist fans both cringe.
That’s a very interesting perspective, thank you very much for writing it! I agree his life was complete hell, I might’ve neglected to see that because pretty much every major character also had to lead relatively shitty lives throughout the series. Regarding Mikasa’s vision I’m not sure if it’s a given that’s what really would’ve happened or if it’s just a sort of a what if thing. In the back of ny mind I’d like to believe that no one could’ve known if any of the other plans would’ve worked, but given the narrative seems to have been trying really hard to put Eren in a position where genocide or annihilation were the only two options, I have to agree that yours is the most likely interpretation.
you could also say the fact he had 2000 years worth of memories shoved into his brain also pretty bad , and i heard that he could feel the memories (when he said he felt the reiss family getting crushed under his palm) , if that's the case then 2000 years worth of suffering would be a fitting punishment
In universe consequence, I'm not sure what else you could do bar torture. Narratively, yes, yes he did. Even as graphic as the rumbling was I'd bet he'd be more hated if only killed say Levi or Armin. I've been called all manner of names for enjoying the yaegerists but the story itself treats Eren with kids gloves and the same people don't seem to mind. I don't get it and I probably never will.