Ratings27
Average rating4.4
ENORMOUS SPOILERS AHEAD
Reading this gave me so many intense conflicting emotions that it took me multiple weeks to sort out my emotions (which in all honesty, I'm still doing. I'm literally crying as I write this) so that I could even start writing this review. I'd like to start out by saying that Hajime Isayama did an amazing job with this series. I once read that a good book is one that you'll think about for the rest of your life, and I think Attack on Titan will be that series for me.
I have so many things to say but I want to focus on Eren Jeager. As an aspiring author, my life goal is to create a character even half as complex or well written. Anyone reading this review who knows me in person is probably rolling their eyes right now because of the number of times I've said that but it's true. I could talk for hours about how much I absolutely adore Isayama for the way Eren was written but lucky for you, I don't have the time.
I started watching Attack on Titan almost a year ago and started reading at around the same time. After spending so much time reading and watching his story, Eren became very important to me. Sometimes watching his happier moments was the only thing that could comfort me. After the time skip, I kept coming up with excuses for him because I refused to admit that he was really a bad person. After the Rumbling I relentlessly searched for anything that could redeem him. I even managed to repress certain panels so that when I analyzed the last volumes I would think of it in a way that glorifies Eren. After hearing some hard truths, I finally accepted that he started the rumbling, not knowing if he'd be defeated so that he could live out his own twisted fantasy of freedom. Even now, I struggle with giving him any blame. I find myself jumping to his defense time and time again because I refuse to admit that the boy I watched grow up, who I became hopelessly attached to, is, and always has been, a monster. That in my opinion is the true beauty in Eren Jeager.
Not that we watched him turn into a villain, but that he was always this way and we chose to ignore it.