Why did Eren turn evil in ‘Attack on Titan?’ Eren’s emotional confession with Armin, explained

Since the controversial ending of Attack on Titan, Erin Yeager has been at the center of some heated discourse. As a young boy, marred by the trauma of seeing his mother eaten by a Titan, Eren quickly joins the ranks of the military to fight back.

This raised questions about Hajime Isayama’s philosophy on being pro-military, but it was Eren’s final motivations that gave many fans pause. After so many years fighting against the Titans, Eren unequivocally becomes the villain. He decides that the only way to get what he wants is to trigger The Rumbling, commanding a force of Colossal Titans to charge across the world and destroy everything. This has inspired a question that many fans will probably continue to ask for years to come.

Why did Eren turn evil in Attack on Titan?

The question at hand is admittedly a complicated one. Did Eren turn evil? Was he always that way? Or were his motivations pure? Ask any Attack on Titan fan and they’re likely to all give you different answers. The closest we will ever get to knowing the truth of it is a singular flashback scene that occurs at the end of the series. While Eren turns into a classic anime villain, intent on destroying the world, he spins a different story to his childhood friend, Armin.

In this conversation, the walls that Eren has built between him and his friends open just a sliver. Eren admits that the entire reason he pushed everyone away and committed war crimes was to purposefully turn himself into the villain. He knew what he was doing and wanted to put his friends in a position where they would have to destroy him. By his logic, this would mean that Armin and Mikasa would be turned into heroes in the eyes of the people. This eventuality would be the only way to reach peace and a world without Titans.

Viewers may have to do mental gymnastics to get to his line of reasoning, but it seems better than the alternative. With this in mind, Eren isn’t just an unempathetic monster intent on world domination. And even though his character is a little bit murky because of the things he was willing to do to set this plan in motion, it does make some feel better about his outcome. Whether his decision makes sense or not, at least his intentions were in the right place. Though it’s hard to agree with someone who planned committing genocide. Ultimately, there is a reason why Eren does what he does, though no one will ever agree on the merits of that reason.