Characters / Attack on Titan: Eren Yeager

Attack on Titan Main Character Index
Shinganshina Trio (Eren Yeager) | Warrior Trio | 104th Trainee Corps (Krista Lenz) | Survey Corps (Levi Ackerman) | Military Police Brigade | Garrison | Titans | Marley [Warrior Unit (Zeke Yeager)] | Eldia | Others | Before the Fall

WARNING: Unmarked spoilers abound. Beware if you are not updated with the manga.

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Eren Yeager

Voiced by: Yūki Kaji (JP), Bryce Papenbrook (EN), Miguel Angel Leal (Latin American Spanish)

Portrayed by: Haruma Miura

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

"I'll just keep moving forward... 'till I killed my enemies."

^{Click here to see him as "Kruger"}

^{Click here to see his post-Time Skip appearance}

"I want to see and understand the world outside. I don't want to die inside these Walls without knowing what's out there!"

The main protagonist of the series. An aggressive young man with two defining passions: his desire to explore the world beyond the Walls, and his hatred towards the Titans. His grudge against the Titans is catalyzed further into a murderous rage when they invade his home town and he is helpless to save his mother from being devoured. When he graduates the 104th Training Corps, he is ranked 5th overall and he intends to join the Survey Corps.

During his military training he is judged to be of average skill and talent for Titan killing and 3DM maneuvering, but through sheer hard work he is able to graduate 5th out of his class with notable checkmarks on hand-to-hand combat. After a near-death experience during the Battle of Trost, he discovers that he possesses the ability to create and control a Titan body, transforming himself into a Titan. This revelation makes him a target for several opposing factions, who either view him as a threat or the key to humanity's survival.

Eren is forcefully enlisted into the Survey Corps to be kept in check by Captain Levi Ackerman, to be used for explorations outside the Walls by Commander Erwin, and to collaborate in Titan-related experiments performed by Hange Zoe. Most of his fellow 104th top-10 teammates follow suit and join him in the Corps. However, his inexperience with the power means that he struggles to transform into anything that is not a berserker fueled by blind hatred at first. Even after he learns to gain some measure of control, the experience gap places him at a distinct disadvantage against his main adversaries.

After Eren is captured by enemy forces, he awakens his most powerful ability and the main reason the Titan Shifters were after him: the power to control other Titans. In the next arc, he becomes a target for kidnapping again, this time alongside Historia and by a dangerous enemy faction hiding within the Walls.

Four years after reclaiming Wall Maria, Eren has used the war between Marley and the Mid-East Alliance to infiltrate the mainland. Disguising himself as a wounded soldier, he travels to Liberio and befriends the Warrior cadet Falco Grice.

Branch: Survey Corps

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A – B

• 11th-Hour Superpower: In the War for Paradis arc, he gains apparent full control of Ymir Fritz's Founding Titan, allowing him to control mindless Titans and remotely pull Eldian minds into the Paths as well as use them to speak to the Eldians telepathically.
• Above Good and Evil: After suffering from Black-and-White Insanity, Eren starts believing that freedom is the most important objective and justifies his ruthless methods.
• Action Hero: His modus operandi. At the end of the day, fighting is how Eren usually chooses to solve his problems.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: A mild case. He's rather handsome in both mediums, but his face is rounder and his cheeks are noticeably fuller in the anime, making him more conventionally "cute" (especially as a child) than his manga counterpart.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • The anime throws him a bone and lets him fare a bit better in his rematch against the Female Titan. In the manga, she all but defeats him and cripples him beyond movement by kicking off his leg and then bashing his head in (although his Healing Factor kicks in quickly). In the anime, he actually manages to get up from this and tackles her while hopping on one leg, eventually managing to decapitate her with a punch.
  • In the manga, Eren's skill with the 3DM gear is largely considered middling at best and it takes him a while to develop a decent capability with it. In the anime, Eren is already capable of doing fancy, acrobatic spins in the air using the gear by the Battle of Trost and generally maneuvers around with dexterity and grace as if he were Mikasa. Somewhat rectified during one scene in Season 2 though, where he gets his 3DM wires tangled up killing a Titan and clumsily flops to the ground - though considering he's spent more time fighting as a titan rather than a human, his getting rusty would be justifiable.
• Adaptation Distillation: His relationship with Annie is downplayed in the anime, as it skips some scenes from the manga showing her mentoring him in combat. Consequently, his adamant denial of her identity as the Female Titan and hesitancy to fight her (which Mikasa unhappily speculates is due to "special feelings") has a slightly weaker justification.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Both the windows and curtains. Eren has dark brown hair and vibrant green eyes in the anime, which are clues to him being the Rogue Titan, but jet-black hair and steely grey eyes in the manga.
• Adaptation Expansion: During his second fight with the Female Titan, his calm teamwork with Armin and Mikasa to capture her is replaced in the anime with Eren losing control of his Titan form and going berserk, chasing down the Female Titan and brutally beating her down. However, despite going berserk, Eren still hesitates upon seeing a crying Annie, which allows her to crystalize herself.
• Affably Evil: Post-timeskip Eren genuinely cares about his friends and wants to protect them. He understands that the people of Marley aren't really any different from the people of Paradis and seems to actually like Falco. He empathises with Reiner and understands why he took the actions he did. He also happens to want to kill every living thing in the entire world outside of Paradis for the sake of Subjects of Ymir no longer being persecuted.
• All for Nothing: Invoked. All his efforts to protect Historia from harm are amounting to nothing when the military junta allows time to pass, closing dangerously into Zeke's time limit for his plans regarding the Paradisian Eldians and their allies, as the Curse of Ymir will kill him in mere months' time. As such, Historia is forced into pregnancy to produce heirs and is prospected to inherit the Beast Titan from Zeke (following the plan), basically conceding everything while achieving nothing for themselves. As such, and due to their inaction, Eren is forced to attack Liberio. As of Chapter 107, all is going according to Zeke's plans, while the military junta and Hange have been basically sitting on their hands and allowing every advantage they have to be taken away from them. After The Reveal in Chapter 121, it seems Eren was angry at the Survey Corps because they all but forced him into the future of the Rumbling, which might have been avoided had the Survey Corps been more proactive in their efforts to deter Marley from trying to eliminate them. It's also implied Historia's pregnancy was planned by her and Eren; though the reason for it still remains unclear.
• All Your Powers Combined: Eren currently has three Titan Powers under his command.
  • The Attack Titan: Was bequeathed to him by his father, Grisha. It's a Titan that always wants to be free, explaining Eren's rash behavior throughout the series. Later revealed that the main power of the 'Attack' Titan is actually to see into and influence the memories of its past and future holders. Eren used this to devastating advantage as he influenced his own father's actions to get the Titan. And that freedom bit may have been Eren subtly influencing all of the previous wielders.
  • The Founding Titan: Has to power to control Titans by mental orders, which was also bequeathed to him by Grisha. Although the Will of the First King prevented the Reiss Family from making any major changes to the status quo, with Eren it means major advancements can be made for good. However, he can't use the power of the Coordinate unless he touches a Titan with Royal blood. Later Eren persuades Ymir Fritz to stop following the orders of the Royal family, allowing him to utilize the full power of the Coordinate by himself without being subjected to the First King's will.
  • The Warhammer Titan: Originally belonging to Lady Tybur, the true ruler of the Marleyans, it's one of the strongest Titans in its offensive capability, with power to harden faster than the Female Titan, the ability to remotely control its titan body, and to create objects like gigantic weapons or spikes. In fact, Eren had to gain this power by crafty and underhanded methods rather than a straight fight.
  • Reiner theorizes Eren's ultimate goal is to assimilate all the Titan Powers within himself, as he came very close to getting both the Jaw and Armored Titans as well. After Eren unlocks the godlike power of the Founding Titan, he gives up on this and remarks that he can rob the surviving Titan Shifters of their power, thus removing any direct threats to him. During the final battle, he along with Ymir unleash hundreds of past incarnations of the Nine Titans, all with their own offensive capabilities, on his former friends. He doesn't need any more Titan powers.
• Almighty Idiot: It is implied that after "freeing" Ymir Fritz and starting the Rumbling, Eren is not actually aware of the outside world, instead dreaming of being a child again soaring through the sky. This is either because he is physically incapable of interacting with the world, having been reduced to a head and spine, or it's a coping mechanism to deal with his omnicide. Either way, he barely has any actual thoughts in regards to those around him, not even showing any outward recognition when Mikasa approaches him and kills him, even his final Attack Titan acting essentially on autopilot.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Not that he minds being a Titan.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: In Chapter 139, in a mental conversation with Armin, Eren agonizes that he didn't mean a word of what he said to Mikasa to push her away, doesn't want her to get over him and marry someone else, and is actually in love with her.
• Animal Motifs: Eren is heavily associated with birds, in particular the parasitic jaeger, Their ability to fly completely detached from the world is likened to Eren's own desire for freedom.
• Anti-Hero: He's an idealist in a cynical world, he wants the best for humanity, and his gift is stated to be his Heroic Resolve. What muddies up his status as a straight-up hero is that he's fueled by his hatred for all Titans and his Unstoppable Rage can be absolutely terrifying to behold.
  • After the Time Skip he is of a different variety than what he was at the start of the series. He is no longer a revenge-fueled berserker, but his actions have become more morally questionable. He manipulates a kid who into helping him in his conquest against the kid's country, threatens to kill a bunch of civilians to Reiner, and then proceeds to carry out that threat by transforming, killing many men, women, and children in the process to assassinate Willy Tybur.
  • Ironically, the above mentioned acts were the last heroic acts done by Eren yet. After the attack, Sasha dies due to a vengeful Gabi sneaking up on them, Eren himself turns coat and imprisons the Survey Corps minus Levi, coordinates assassinations of top Cadre of the Eldian military, whom he and his friends appointed 4 years ago, verbally beats down Mikasa and Armin, then gives a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Armin. After Gabi shoots him during Marley's surprise attack, he gains the ability to go to the Paths, and verbally commands his father to massacre the Reiss family to steal the Coordinate, and persuades Ymir to unleash the Wall Titans to end life outside the island.
• Anti-Villain: Depending on your view on his motivations, he's either a Well-Intentioned Extremist or a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist Tragic Villain. While Eren's decision to destroy all life outside Paradis is a horrific one, there are hints that he didn't want this to happen. Eren's conversation with Reiner in Liberio made it evident that he doesn't hate anyone and instead views them as victims of brainwashing. Eren looks pained after commanding Grisha to massacre the Reiss Family. During his announcement of the Rumbling, Eren made it clear he was doing it to protect his friends and the people of Paradis, and not for personal gratification. In fact, his former friends theorize that the only reason the remaining Shifters haven't been robbed of their powers is because Eren wants them to kill him. This later turns out to be true.
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: He gains the specific ability to defy this trope thanks to his power to command Titans, as well as being able to do it himself as a Titan Shifter. Following Hannes' death, Eren unconsciously directs mindless Titans to rip the Smiling Titan into pieces, and later hinders Reiner and Bertolt by turning the horde against them.
• An Arm and a Leg: His arms and legs are repeatedly severed over the course of the series, but, thanks to his Healing Factor, he always recovers them.
  • As part of his disguise, he's missing his left leg below the knee. It appears that he has gained control over the regrowth of his limbs in the time skip. He may have also lost an eye as well, though whether he has or not is hard to tell with the bandage over it. Either way though, he's shown to have both eyes by the time he removes the bandage.
  • His healing factor has improved dramatically the past 4 years, as he can now regenerate an entire leg in seconds. For reference, it used to take him hours to heal that much.
• Arc Villain: Serves as the main antagonist of the final arc. Eren manipulates events in order to gain access to the Paths realm and meet Ymir Fritz. Managing to outwit Zeke, Eren convinces Ymir to give him the full power of the Founding Titan so that he can awaken every single one of the Wall Titans and command them to trample all life outside of Paradis Island. His friends don't accept this, thinking that he's gone too far, and band together with their former enemies to stop him. It's ultimately revealed in the final chapter that Eren was deliberately playing the role of the villain to give his friends the motivation to stop him and paint them as heroes to all that's left of humanity while simultaneously wiping out enough of the world that they couldn't effectively retaliate against Paradis.
• Arch-Enemy: Reiner. Eren's hated him for his betrayal all this time and although he now understands him, that anger is still there. They have the most fights out of anyone in the series.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: His default strategy against Titans is "attack relentlessly until it's dead" with varying results, in Titan form this works okay in human form not so much. He later manages to avert it during his battle against the Armored Titan, once he manages to calm down enough to start using tactics. After the Time Skip, Eren takes the time to actually pay attention around and use tactics to overpower his opponents.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He quickly deduced the War-Hammer Titan's weaknesses and exploited them to devour her, becoming the new War-Hammer Titan.
• Ax-Crazy: Subverted. Eren is normally too rational despite his obsession with revenge, and his berserker moment occurred when Eren had no conscious control over himself. One of the main aspects of his arc is to show how he gradually gains control of his Titan form from the Lotus-Eater Machine stupor experienced by mindless Titans to a more manageable functional state under his full command.
• Badass Boast: He has had several.
  • From the manga:
    Eren: Humanity will feast on the Titans.
  • From the anime:
    Keith: ... or will you become a glorious soldier who exterminates the Titans? The choice is yours.
    Eren: Yeah, I will. I'll exterminate every last one of them.
  • After he finds out that Reiner and Bertolt were the Armored and Colossal Titans:
    Eren: I will do everything in my power... To make your deaths as excruciating as possible.
  • While inside a Titan's stomach.
    Eren: Damn you all to hell! I refuse to die like this! I'll drive them all out! Kill them with my bare hands! Do you hear me!? WITH MY BARE HANDS!^note Eren was missing his left arm at the time.
  • After usurping the Founding Titan's full control and releasing the Wall Titans on the rest of the world:
    Eren: My objective... is to protect the people of Paradis, the place where I was born and raised. However, the world wishes for the annihilation of the people of Paradis. The hatred that has been swelling up for so long will certainly not end until not just the Paradisians, but all of Ymir's subjects have been eliminated. I reject this wish.
  • As a child:
    Eren: I put down some dangerous animals. Animals that just happened to look like people.
• Badass Family: After being put through hell after the death of their mother, Eren and Mikasa have become quite skilled at slaughtering Titans. And this applies doubly once Eren begins harnessing his powers as the Rogue Titan.
• Badass in Distress: After a close fight with Annie in her Titan form, Annie is able to defeat him when he is distracted and he is swallowed, forcing Levi and Mikasa to rescue him. Happens again in Chapter 45 after a close fight with Reiner, Bertolt bodypresses him (in Colossal Titan form, from the top of the wall) , giving Reiner the opportunity to swallow and abduct him. And even when he awakens to discover both his arms missing, he continues to resist his captors, including PUNCHING Reiner in the face with his stumps repeatedly. It doesn't work out, but points for trying.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Eren ultimately succeeds in eradicating all titans from the world, as well as flattening much of the world, even if it results in his own death and inability to exist in said world. Most of his friends, despite risking their lives in stopping him, go on to live long lives and use the leverage of the Rumbling's outcome to foster peace between Paradis and what remains of the outside world. It's no exaggeration to say that Eren did indeed accomplish nearly all of his higher goals in the end, save, ironically, his desperate inner desire to find a conclusion that averts You Can't Fight Fate.
• Bad Liar: According to his mother, Eren's ears turn red when he lies. However, this is otherwise subverted because Eren has been shown to be an excellent Consummate Liar and actor when dealing with other people. Perhaps he simply couldn't fool his mother's maternal intuition though.
  • Seemingly played straight when he tells Zeke, after a short time of the latter forcing him to watch Grisha Yeager's memories, that he's ready to admit that he was wrong and accept Zeke's plan to sterilize the Eldian race. Eren's deadpan delivery makes the lie almost comically obvious, and Zeke easily sees through it and presses forward with the memory viewing. This is actually a subtle piece of reverse psychology on Eren's part: as discussed in Batman Gambit below, seeing Grisha's memories all the way to the end was exactly what he wanted.
• Barbarian Long Hair:
  • He grows his hair out during Time Skip, and wears it long and unkempt, as part of his cover as a traumatized soldier. It also helps obscure his face.
  • When he returns home, he cleans himself up and throws half of his hair into a bun, presumably how he actually wears his hair now.
  • This is also the hairstyle his Founding Titan form takes, the hair itself being as long as a Colossal Titan. He retains this hair when he takes up his Attack Titan form one last time.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Zeke intended to prove Eren how Grisha brainwashed him. Eren was secretly counting on Zeke to do exactly that because it would enable Eren to influence the past (ordering Grisha to slaughter the Reiss family), starting the chain of events that would fulfil his end goal.
  • The means of his end goal is also this. He freed Ymir Fritz especially to unleash her fury on the world, causing her to awaken the Wall Titans, a necessary step for Eren's endgame. That is? Kill every living thing not residing on Paradis.
  • The Rumbling turns out to be a stepping stone to yet another gambit; getting Mikasa to kill him in spite of her love for him. It turns out the source of the Titan powers is Ymir Fritz's "love" for the first King Fritz, which she is shaken out of after seeing Mikasa kill Eren, ending the Power of the Titans for good and therefore the reason for Eldians' persecution.
• Beard of Sorrow: Initially leaves himself unshaven, since he's posing as a traumatized soldier. Upon returning home, he shaves it off with hardened resolve to fight Marley.
• The Beastmaster: In Chapter 50, he discovers the ability to control Mindless Titans. Later he learns that he has the Founding Titan but can't use it due to not having royal blood. Four years later, Eren manipulates Zeke into taking him to the realm of Paths, where he successfully nullifies all restrictions of the Founding Titan and uses it to unleash the Wall Titans.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • The military at Paradis toted Eren as humanity's greatest weapon, which in turn made him into a "savior", or a "messiah" of sorts. What's the problem with that? Well, a messiah doesn't have to answer to any authority, does he?
  • As a child, Eren had always envisioned freedom as soaring above the clouds, without any obstructions. While he does get his wish, what he did not expect was that those "clouds" were actually dust and steam raised by thousands of Wall Titans as they razed civilization and extinguished humanity. On his orders.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: By Chapter 123, it is clear that while he started as someone trying to exterminate all (to his knowledge mindless) Titans to stop them from doing the same to mankind, he has instead turned into the force behind the Titans who aims to intentionally eliminate nearly all life on the planet.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • The main reason Historia outright refuses to devour him to gain the Coordinate. Eren is the first person who recognizes Historia as an individual (even praising her for dropping her facade and voicing her opinion) and not just as a placeholder for other people's agendas. She also recognizes that Eren is her friend, and she doesn't want him to get hurt.
  • He befriended Falco because he remembers him being the only one to stop and help him when he pretended to collapse due to injury and PTSD. It isn't a pure friendship on Eren's part as he uses Falco to lure Reiner into a trap of sorts with Falco being completely unaware he's being used. But he was implied to have a genuine fondness for the kid.
  • The reason why Ymir Fritz of all people decides to help Eren. He was the first person who was genuinely nice to her and encouraged her to make her own choices.
• Being Evil Sucks: Even after unleashing the Rumbling to protect Paradis, he takes no pleasure at killing thousands of people, innocent or otherwise, including mothers and children. Quite the opposite; it drives him into a Villainous BSoD in Chapter 131, which causes him to hallucinate himself as his younger self eager to be finally "free."
• The Berserker: He has pretty serious rage issues even in his normal state since he was at least around nine years old when he killed two grown men in murderous fury in order to save the girl who would become his adoptive sister, Mikasa. This is portrayed greatly in his Titan form where his entire fighting style as a Titan consists of roaring, smashing to a bloody pulp, rinse and repeat. Due to his Character Development, he becomes more cold and calculating after the Timeskip.
• Berserker Tears: Basically whenever a tragedy happens that strikes an emotional cord with him, you can count on Eren bursting into tears while violently letting loose his anger upon his enemies.
• Betty and Veronica: The official parodies portray Mikasa and Annie as these, respectively, with him oblivious to their affections.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted, Mikasa acts this way towards him. He hates it though.
  • Played straight with Armin, though they're about the same age.
  • Later he even shows traces of this towards Krista, telling her he likes her better when she's not constantly faking a cheery attitude, and is also the one who calms her down when she's in tears after Ymir left with Reiner and Bertolt.
• Big Damn Heroes: As the main character, he's bound to have some of these.
  • His first meeting with Mikasa. He tracked down the human traffickers who'd kidnapped her and made a beeline for their hideout, knife at the ready.
  • His first appearance as the Rogue Titan, saving Mikasa after she ran out of gas.
  • After he has his powers under control, he carries the large rock and seals the hole, giving humanity their first victory against the Titans.
  • His biggest one yet is in Chapter 50, everything is going from bad to worse. The soldiers are being slaughtered left and right by Titans, Erwin lost an arm, Mikasa is hurt, Hannes was just eaten, Reiner is coming for Eren, Jean was knocked out by Reiner throwing Titans everywhere, Armin being forced to protect him, and Eren is having a Heroic BSOD over Hannes' death. After Mikasa breaks him out of it, Eren awakens his new power to control Titans, he swarms the normal Titans to brutally murder the Smiling Titan, then turns his attention on to Reiner, giving the humans the time to escape.
• Big "NO!": Eren screams out one of these as his mother is about to get eaten. In the anime, his scream of "STOP IT! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" expresses the severe intensity of this encounter.
• Black-and-White Morality: His view of the world is very much this, so much so that he feels absolutely no remorse for brutally murdering criminals and even becomes angry at Reiner for having guilt over his crimes. It borders on Black-and-White Insanity in some cases.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Played with. He callously tells Mikasa that her attachment to him is artificial due to her Ackerman conditioning, and that as such, she has no free will and no control over her actions; however, another Ackerman in the form of Levi, is not attached or bound to anyone like Mikasa is, and his attachments like Erwin and Hange are nowhere as profound as Mikasa's with Eren. As such, it's implied that at least partly, Eren is undermining Mikasa's sincere love for him. Another overlooked aspect of this is that Mikasa is just as defensive of Armin as she is of Eren, further undermining her conscious choices to take care of her dearest friends. In a flashback that takes place prior to Eren's confrontation with Mikasa and Armin in Niccolo's restaurant, Zeke had told Eren that he'd never heard of Ackermans being compelled to protect a host.
  • To further elaborate on the previous point, Eren makes a point of capturing the Survey Corps and directly telling the previous to Armin and Mikasa, instead of being done with them and just executing them altogether. As such, it's implied that Eren is acting like a Hidden Agenda Villain, and severing his attachments to his friends has a point and a purpose. Come Chapter 123, we learn that his ultimate goal was to activate the Rumbling and destroy all life outside of the Walls so that Paradis may yet live, making it clear he cut ties with Mikasa, Armin, and the rest of the Survey Corps to keep them from getting involved in his plans.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Eren operates on Freedom vs Ignorance morality. He deems those who are ignorant as despicable.
• Body Horror:
  • Eren's Founding Titan form, as a result of being attained after being decapitated and reformed by Ymir Fritz's power, is intensely disturbing even by Titan standards. For example, due to being largely skeletal, it has small, more or less useless legs and walks like a millipede on its ribcage instead, the more humanoid body hanging upside down.
  • Also, Eren no longer has his body and exists only as a head attached to a spine, which we see in Chapter 138 shortly before he is killed. In chapter 136, Gabi recalls witnessing Eren's transformation and how his spine (or something similar; it happens to resemble the organism that bonded to Ymir Fritz) seemingly leaped out of his corpse and attached itself to his decapitated head.
• Book Ends: We are introduced to Eren seeing a vision of Mikasa, saying "See you later, Eren." He is beheaded by her while he appears to be in a dream world, with those exact words being spoken as he's being beheaded by her.
• Bound and Gagged: He's been tied up more than anyone else. This is due to the fact that Self-Harm is a trigger for his transformation so keeping him from biting his hand is the main priority of those who don't want him to transform and break out.
• Boxed Crook: He becomes one, after his powers are discovered. Levi and his hand-picked Special Operations Squad are given orders to keep him under control, and kill him if necessary. When the 57th expedition fails, he's almost taken back into custody and the threat of execution is never far off should the government decide he's too dangerous or not useful enough.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Zeke believes Eren to be another victim of Grisha's brainwashing and goes to great lengths proving this to his brother in an attempt to "save" him. Armin and Levi, on the other hand, believe Zeke is manipulating Eren into committing heinous deeds against his comrades. They are all ultimately proven completely wrong: Grisha learnt his lesson well and did not brainwash Eren. Ironically, it was Eren himself who was controlling Grisha using the Attack Titan, and Eren was influencing Zeke all this time.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Has a brief bout of this during training. After talking big and saying weaklings should just drop out of boot camp (although it was an anime-only scene), he earns little pity upon discovering that he seems to have zero natural talent when it comes to the 3D maneuvering system. His Determinator spirit returns when it's realized that his lack of progress was due to faulty equipment.
  • After learning that he was The Unchosen One, Eren beats himself up (figuratively and literally) for ever thinking he was "special."
• Break Them by Talking: After the Time Skip, he's become incredibly skilled at breaking people down psychologically. At Liberio, he forces Reiner into discussing the Paradis Operation and nearly breaks his will in the process. In Chapter 112, he uses the same tactics to take Mikasa and Armin prisoner, threatening to transform to keep them restrained while breaking them down through precise insults and accusations. He claims that Armin has been compromised by the influence of his predecessor, Bertolt. And he claims that Mikasa's affection for him is because her heritage as an Ackerman makes her a slave.
• Broken Bird: After learning the truth about his father's past and four years go by, Eren is a hollow shell of his former self. He's no longer eager and hot-blooded, starts behaving coldly to even his closest friends, and he has deadened emotional responses to every action he takes afterward. No matter how much turmoil and carnage he inflicts on his true enemies, Eren is numb to it all. He alienated everyone on the basis that he alone will carry the sins of humanity as long as it brings about freedom. In the end, Eren had decided to launch a suicidal final attack on the world by gaining the power to begin the Rumbling, and was painting himself as history's greatest villain to overshadow the racism toward Eldians and bring them together with Marleyans and other nations to fight a common enemy, and after that was done, Mikasa put him out of his misery by taking his head.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Deeply admired and looked up to Reiner, leading to a complete destruction of the pedestal when he learns that Reiner is the Armored Titan. He expresses disgust over his former hero's deception and hypocrisy.
  • Falco comes to greatly admire "Mr. Kruger" for his support and good advice, even going so far as to sneak letters out of the ghetto for him. Then he learns the truth about Eren, and realizes he's been helping the enemy infiltrate Liberio. To say Falco is devastated is putting it lightly.
  • His fellow 104th partners start thinking that the Eren that declared his affection towards them is long gone.
  • "And the only way to win is to fight. So fight and fight."
• Broken Smile: Sported a brief one upon learning that Marco was dead.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Eren does this quite literally every single time he fights other Titans. He once lost both his arms doing it, and most of his ribs.
• Brutal Honesty: Interestingly, he's actually a very good liar when he needs to be, but he seems to prefer not to; instead, expect Eren to always share his opinions as bluntly as possible. After Historia shared her concerns with him, he bluntly told her that he found her creepy when she was trying to act as a Nice Girl, although he adds that he actually likes her true self as Historia, considering her an honest and normal person.
• Bully Hunter: The story was inspired by Hajime Isayama's memories of bullying in school, and thematically, Eren's that small, scrawny kid who refuses to let people push him around no matter how many times he gets knocked down.
• Bullying a Dragon: The outside world with Irrational Hatred for the Eldians conveniently ignore Eren's potential as the Founding Titan to destroy civilization, even when Willy Tybur warned the world against him. They learn the lesson the hard way when Eren breaks the Walls and sends the Wall Titans out to destroy every living being, with the Eldians they hated all this time the only ones capable enough to stop him.
• Byronic Hero: Eren starts out as a troubled but passionate and well-meaning kid whose maturation coincides with increasing cynicism towards the world around him, tempering his hatred but never truly letting go of it. As an adult, he burns bridges with those close to him while also becoming a symbol to those who desire change, and he goes down a darker path trying to accomplish what he thinks is right, embracing the role of a villain in the process.

C – D

• Call-Back: The ending of Chapter 106 has him and Mikasa recite their survival mantra, however, hardened by the loss of Sasha and distrust of his comrades, Eren spins a new take on the end.
• Came Back Strong: His near-death experience triggers his Titan Powers.
  • Chapter 119 ends with Gabi shooting his head clean off. Three chapters later, not only has he survived, but he forms the single largest Titan in the series, tapping into the Founder's full power.
• Cannibalism Superpower: His Titan Shifter power comes from having eaten his own father after being turned into a Titan. He also inherited the Coordinate ability, which his father had gotten by eating Frieda Reiss.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Invoked by Eren. He tells Hange that as the holder of the Coordinate, he's too valuable to be harmed, and that as the holder of the War-Hammer Titan, it's basically pointless to contain him. As such, the Eldians of Paradis are effectively dancing to his song, no matter what pretensions they think they have.
• Character Development: He's grown more introspective and thoughtful from his many experiences. Since he has a lot of mistakes to make up for, he has developed some crippling self-doubt. However, because he can reflect on his experiences and what went wrong before, it all culminates in a moment where, despite everything he's been through, he chooses to bet on himself once more.
  • Chapter 70 shows you how much Eren has changed as a character. His rant from "I want to kill Reiner and Bertolt and give them the most excruciating death ever" changes to "I must kill them regardless of whether I want to or not." When prompted by Historia about whether he wants to or not, he seems to hesitate and only replies that he must.
  • In Chapter 72, Eren admits to both Armin and Mikasa that he used to resent Mikasa's strength and wished that he could be as strong as her or Levi. But, after everything he has experienced, he now knows that everybody has a role to play.
  • Eren has become considerably more mature, stoic, and worldly during the Time Skip, likely due to maturing, his experiences, and receiving the memories of his father and his namesake. This comes full circle in the 100th chapter, when confronting Reiner after years apart. As opposed to the angry young man that saw his enemies as "not human", Eren is able to recognize the humanity of his enemies and the tragedy of their situation. This extends to him offering sympathy to Reiner, and shrugging off the idea of carrying out his past threats of revenge. On the flipside, he has also become capable of rather cold acts of cruelty, such as Titan shifting in the middle of a crowded square full of Marleyian civilians who are completely innocent of Marley's war on Paradis and even victim's of Marley's oppression. Mikasa notes with horror that in the process of killing Willy Tybur, Eren caused the deaths of many innocent men, women, and children.
  • His past self was notable for being recklessly vengeful, violent, and irritable; overall, he was someone who lacked self-control, was easily swayed by his emotions, and absolutely required the help of his comrades to make it through his first few missions alive. By Chapter 121, we see that Eren has become The Chessmaster, a Greater-Scope Villain in his own right who manipulated and plotted behind the scenes as far back as when he kissed Historia's hand. He singlehandedly used his future self's memories to access Paths—without letting anyone know—and urged his own father to slaughter the Reiss family and essentially be the causal force behind the entire plot. Suffice to say, he's come a very long way from the reckless kid he once was.
• Character Name Alias: In-Universe. He's borrowing his namesake's surname as an alias, going by "Mr. Kruger".
• Chaste Hero: He seems to be utterly uninterested in anything romantic, to the extent he states that he found Krista to be somewhat "creepy". This trait is played up in official parodies, with Eren viewing Mikasa and Annie as One of the Boys.
  • While his thoughts on Mikasa were still unclear for the most part even after the Timeskip, (not helped by him at one point verbally abusing her and Armin in order to keep them safe from himself), he finally admits in his final conversation with Armin that he would prefer Mikasa have feelings for him and only him even after he dies and he would like to stay alive to be with her (the former part which he at least admits is selfish and awkward and would rather keep between him and Armin); showing that, for what it's worth, he did indeed finally recognize and internally want to accept her advances by the end, even though his mission wouldn't allow him to. So, his final position in the series as far as romance goes is as a Celibate Hero (or Celibate Villain by this point in the story, if you prefer).
• Chekhov's Skill: During training, Eren's only remarkable skill was his proficiency in hand-to-hand combat, which he admits is pointless when facing Titans. At least, it would be if not for the fact Eren can turn into one.
• The Chessmaster: Ever since Eren infiltrated Marley, everything seems to be going exactly according to his enigmatic scheme. There are occasions when Eren is caught off guard but he immediately regains his composure and resumes with his plans. He prefers to use misdirection on his allies and enemies, concealing his true goal. He is so proficient at this that he even outgambits his elder brother Zeke, a master schemer himself.
• Chick Magnet: Official parodies potray him as such and he is a muted example in canon with him being the center of Mikasa's world and Annie's hinted fondness as well as becoming close to Historia.
• The Chosen One:
  • Considering his prophetic dream at the beginning of the anime, and its puzzling counterpart in the manga with the Mysterious Girl, and also adding to the memories of Grisha Yeager and Eren Kruger that he later inherited (keep in mind, this all happened before Eren gained the Attack Titan), it's heavily implied that Eren was always meant to inherit the Attack Titan.
  • As the military junta poises him as the flag-carrier for their cause, his followers and the public in general at Paradis see Eren as a messiah of sorts, who will lead them in glorious victory against their enemies. Of course, the junta loses control of Eren completely, as it's implied that Eren both drank the Kool-Aid and is being led by the nose by his brother Zeke's agenda.
  • Turns out he indeed was this, as Eren pulled all sorts of strings via Kruger and Grisha to ensure he alone got the Attack and Founding Titans.
• Chuunibyou: The primary explanation Levi makes for Eren's sudden outbursts and tendency to talk to himself in Chapters 88 and 89. The truth is far more horrifying.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Though he looks to be somewhat on the scrawny side with his shirt on, Eren's military training has actually left him pretty shredded.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: In Chapter 138, his final Attack Titan form is this in some senses. While it is powerful enough to fight off Armin's Colossus Titan, it is relatively easy to take out given the circumstances, and appears and is destroyed within a single chapter.
• Color-Coded Eyes: In the anime, his eyes are a vibrant green. It's one of the few features he has in common with his Titan form.
• Combat Pragmatist: During his fight with the Warhammer Titan, she crystalizes her actual body so he cannot eat her, his jaw breaks upon trying. A bit later, while defending himself from an attack from Porco's Titan form, he notices that Porco scratched Lady Tybur's cocoon. So he uses Porco's Titan form's jaws to manually crush Lady Tybur's cocoon, and lets the blood pour into his mouth, acquiring the Warhammer Titan.
• Compelling Voice: Erwin theorizes that his voice can be used to influence not only Titans, but humans as well. Turns out it can, but only in the hands of the Reiss family. After the Time Skip, Zeke releases the restraints on the Founding Titan, giving Eren full access to the Coordinate. Eren doesn't waste any time to use this, commanding the Wall Titans to invade the world and starting a mental connection with all the Eldians on Paradis.
• Consummate Liar: He doesn't bother with lying most of the time, but as seen in Mikasa's backstory, he can act very convincingly, enough to make hardened criminals temporarily lower their guard.
  • He's gotten quite good at deception, no doubt another skill he picked up from Reiner. Not only was he able to convince the doctors he had PTSD-induced amnesia, he also manages to convince Falco to deliver a letter to ensure its contents wouldn't be checked by the authorities by having Falco think that it was merely to let his family know he was safe. The rub of it is they're not outright lies either. He is a War Vet, and he does show many signs of shell-shock (distant stare, lack of expression, difficulty in making conversation...); he just let them assume that he was on their side, as Reiner did years ago.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: Something he learned from Reiner. He claims to be a man named "Kruger", so traumatized by his experiences during the war that he can't even remember where he lives. As all the patients are suffering from PTSD and have no family to claim them, his story is accepted by the hospital staff.
• Cover-Blowing Superpower: Averted. He's now able to suppress his regenerative powers to keep his leg from growing back, making his disguise even more elaborate. He's also able to suppress his Titan form should his hands be injured, as evidenced with the nasty gash he has in Chapter 99.
• Crazy Sane: Seriously, if his Unstoppable Rage and Titan Shifter powers weren't extremely useful against the Titans, he'd probably get locked up in a mental hospital.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: In the final chapter, Eren admits to Armin that he is in love with Mikasa and doesn't want her to elope and get married to another man.
• Create Your Own Villain: Ironically, the Tyburs' attempts to scapegoat him as the Devil ends up becoming the final nail in his belief that the outside world will always hate Paradis. This directly leads to him unleashing the Rumbling, exactly as they said he would. A Marleyan leader expounds upon this in Chapter 134:
  "We made use of hatred. We let it grow. We believed it would save us... We took every problem caused by our shortcomings and spat them all out onto an "island of devils." And the result... was the birth of that monster... who has now come to repay us for all of the hate we've ever shown..."
• Creepy Child: He violently murdered two men at the age of nine, and Hannes admits he always found Eren a little scary because he was so intense.
  • Committing double homicide at the age of nine is troubling enough, but then there's little Eren's cold and calculated demeanour during most of the ordeal: he initially presents himself as a lost child to put the men off guard, prepares an improvised spear to compensate for the height difference when he stabs one of them in neck, and afterwards shows complete disregard for the weight of his actions, telling his father "they were animals who only happened to resemble humans."
• Crime of Self-Defense: The Marleyans believe he is committing one. The story intentionally gives evidence both for and against this perspective.
• Cruel to Be Kind: What his cruelly cutting his ties with his friends turned out to be, as not only he didn’t want them to be dragged down with him when he started the Rumbling, he wanted them (especially Mikasa) to kill him when he did, so they would be hailed as heroes to the reminder of the world. And despite a lot of hesitance on Mikasa’s part, the plan works, and his friends only realize the truth when they remember the conversations he had with each one of them in the Paths after he is killed.
• Cursed with Awesome: Being a Titan Shifter. Humans regard him as a liability (at best) or an abomination (at worst) but it's extremely useful for Titan-slaying, grants him a useful Healing Factor in both Titan and human forms, gives him an outlet where Unstoppable Rage is actually a good thing, and may very well be legitimate hope for the survival of humanity. He later gains a power that is undeniably useful: Controlling Titans. However, this is the reason that he is being targeted by the enemies of mankind and may be part of the reason they attacked the city and ruined his life to begin with.
• Cute and Psycho: How he's looked at by people outside of his closest friends and family as a 9 year old. The military bring up his actions during his trial to question his humanity.
• Dare to Be Badass:
  • You can bet money that this is his response to anything resembling apathy, doubt, or cowardice in others. A good example is when he rallies the panicking and doubtful Trainees right before the battle for Trost, exhorting them to be strong as they've already shown through 3 years of hellish training that they are strong. Most notably he's had a profound effect on Mikasa (see her entry below).
  • Does this to himself in Chapter 50 after Mikasa thanks him for all he's done for her declaring he'd do it a thousand times over if he had to and tries to take on a Titan with his bare hands.
• Dark Messiah: His followers—especially Floch—firmly believe that once Eren unleashed The Rumbling, he became the hope of Paradis' freedom and will permanently end the cycle of hatred and revenge in the world.
• Dead Guy Junior: Eren was probably named after Eren Kruger, a man who had a big role in Grisha's backstory and was also the host of the Attack Titan before Grisha; the same power that this Eren now possesses.
• Deadpan Snarker: Eren can be pretty sarcastic at times, but he tends to be at his snarkiest when he's not saying anything at all.
• Death Seeker: Averted, despite what the majority of his allies think of him. However, in Chapter 133, Reiner theorizes that the only reason that Eren has not prevented his former friends from trying to stop the Rumbling is that deep down, he wants them to kill him. As determined and amoral as he's become, not even he would be able to live with guilt of exterminating humanity beyond the Walls. When Mikasa decapitates him, Eren makes no attempt to resist.
  • Ultimately Played With. He wanted the Survey Corps to kill him so that they could be established as heroes who got rid of him, and making the foundation of peace between Eldians and rest of the world. However, he also states that he would have gone through with the Rumbling entirely if his friends could not or would not stop him. When he confesses all of this to Armin, he makes it clear that he really doesn't want to die and would rather stay with his friends.
• Declaration of Protection:
  • He gives one to Mikasa, declaring that everything he has done for her, he'd do all over again.
  • After Eren and Historia reaffirm their friendship, Eren makes a vow to not let her be a pawn for political purposes, like the way her father tried to manipulate her. His failure to do so after the timeskip greatly angers him.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Many of Eren's tropes are not unusual for shonen protagonists, but what is unusual is that they are treated more realistically by have as many negative consequences as positive ones for him, and paint him as a Psycho for Hire. Determination is essential for a soldier and especially for one fighting The Dreaded, but rushing blindly on determination alone will get you or someone else killed. If he wasn't a Titan Shifter he'd be have fairly little to show for his determination, and be dead. He is called on his stupidity, suffers defeats aplenty, and practically all Eren's victories come with active support from friends and allies. His greatest victories occur not as a result of physically overcoming his enemies, but through relying on his own wits and intelligence; come the endgame of the series, Eren has taken command of The Founding Titan's abilities, and has the power to enact omnicide with just a thought, all because he decided to act with caution and become The Chessmaster.
  • With the reveal of Eren's true destiny in the final saga of the series, it turns out he's a deconstruction of many different types of The Chosen One - The Unchosen One, The Poorly Chosen One, It Sucks to Be the Chosen One, Apocalypse Maiden and even The Chooser of the One - all in one go because it is his future self, and eventually his present self, who determine that he ends up the Founding Titan, enabling him to trigger the Rumbling to end the rest of the world. It is a plan that is outlined many times as a horrific recourse of action and that Eren is not entirely in the right for activating it but does so anyway because he cannot see any other option to protect his people. And despite going through with it, it's not an action which comes easy; even before he sets his plan into motion, he's clearly crippled by the guilt of his pre-determined astronomically numbered kill count but cannot find a way to change the future. And in order to motivate his former allies into killing him and letting the world see them as heroes, he had to become an enemy to them as well, betraying and acting like an absolute bastard to do so, even though it crushes him to do so and leaves them with no short amount of grief.
• Decoy Protagonist:
  • Subverted. He's maimed and eaten in the first major battle, which seems like the perfect start to a Collateral Angst scenario to motivate the more skilled Mikasa or stir then cowardly Armin to heroism, until it's revealed that Eren is a Titan Shifter and escapes.
  • In an overall sense, even after coming back as a Titan, Eren has been mostly out of focus and he mostly seems to serve as The Big Guy. The cast seems to function more in an ensemble with plenty of different view points just as important (if not more) as Eren's.
  • This is zig-zagged by the Time Skip as Eren is back in the main spotlight but due to his moral ambiguity, seems to switch between being portrayed as a Byronic Hero, Villain Protagonist or the outright Big Bad to Reiner/Gabi and Falco/Armin and Mikasa's hero, sometimes even in the same chapter. The ultimate truth is: it's complicated. Eren serves as the main antagonist to the remaining protagonists while still fulfilling the role of the overall main character, and he does succeed in his goal despite how vile it is. Everybody he cared about would've been forced into committing an act of evil without his intervention, so Eren takes the brunt of it for the sake of his friends. This makes him no less of a monster even if his motivations are sympathetic.
• Designated Victim: He is either severely injured or kidnapped in every major arc so far. He lampshades this in Chapter 62.
  Eren: How many times have I been kidnapped now?
• Despair Event Horizon: While he did come dangerously close to crossing it when he learned he is the only reason the Reiss family is unable to save humanity from the Titans, which would make every sacrifice for his sake meaningless, he was able to get his morale back up after being saved by Historia and getting support from his friends, and still held hope that humanity could take back the world from the Titans. When he discovers that not only does humanity still exist outside the Walls, but that people outside the Walls all want to see his people dead, is when truly crosses it. This is reinforced when he reaches the sea and all he can think is "on the other side of the sea are enemies" and he wonders if he kills the enemies, can they be free? He falls past the point of no return when he sees the past and future as he holds the hand of the new queen, Historia. The door locks behind him when ironically, the Tyburs' attempt to scapegoat him as the Devil ends up becoming the final nail in his belief that the outside world will always hate Paradis.
• Determinator:
  • The very core of his character. Eren had to earn his position as 5th best of his class through sheer determination as he lacked any other outstanding or natural talent like those ranked above him. When Hannes is asked whether he's worried about the trio's survival, he expresses they all have a trait that helps them survive. While Mikasa has sheer physical prowess and Armin has sharp intuition and intellect, Eren's trait is simply being unbreakable. Hannes notes that even as a child, when Eren picked fights, he might not have always won, but he never gave up.
  • Notable is that Eren never wins in a straight fight. He loses against the Female Titan and the first three times against the Armored Titan and is literally crushed against the Colossal Titan. He loses the one-on-one clash against the Warhammer Titan, and even with the Warhammer's powerful abilities, he is overpowered when facing Reiner, Porco, and Pieck at once. However, suffering one crushing defeat after another does nothing to deter him, and he comes out on top through either guile or support from others.
  • Also worth noting is his ability to bite his hand enough to draw blood over and over trying to transform. For anyone willing to try this, bite down on your hand as hard as you can and see how painful it is, and that's without even breaking skin. He cranks this up even further when he's severely injured, his sheer hatred proves enough to motivate him to further impale himself on a spike lodged in his chest to transform.
  • Still pledged to exterminate all the Titans. Right after he got his arm and leg bitten off. WHILE he was in the stomach of a Titan.
  • Captain Levi had this to say about Eren.
    Levi: It's clear to me. This guy's a true monster. His Titan abilities have nothing to do with it, either. No matter how much force you hold him down with, no matter what kind of cage you shut him up in, forcing this guy's will into submission is something nobody can do.
  • Bordering on Perpetual-Motion Monster, Eren now fights and transforms repeatedly without any regard for his stamina, all while combatting three separate Titans. Galliard is even surprised at how little of a crap Eren gives to the limitations inherent to Titan Shifters.
  • Even after the Survey Corps sever his connection to Zeke, thus ending the Rumbling, separate Eren from the organism, and Armin nukes his Founding Titan form, Eren still doesn't give up, assuming a colossal Attack Titan form and fighting Armin until Mikasa is able to decapitate his real head and end him once and for all.
• Devoured by the Horde: It turns out he has the power to invoke this when he used this odd scream to get a bunch of Titans to gang up and tear apart the Titan that killed his mother years ago.
• Did Not Get the Girl: In Chapter 139, he admits to Armin that he is in love with Mikasa, but that he had to push her away so that she would be willing to kill him and stop the Rumbling. In the end, they're only able to share one kiss right as he dies from decapitation.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In Chapter 50, after recovering from his Heroic BSoD, he blocks the Smiling Titan's hand, and then punches it, before using his Coordinate powers to sic a horde of Titans on it.
• Die or Fly: His Titan-shifting powers awoke when he was in the belly of the Titan who ate him, and his ability as the Coordinate manifested when his group was surrounded by Titans outside the Wall with little hope of anyone getting out alive.
• Disappointed in You: Bluntly deems Armin to be worthless, accusing him of allowing Bertolt's memories to dull his judgement.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Eren's campaign to slaughter all of humanity outside of Paradis falls under this. While prejudice against Eldians is an issue across the world and several world leaders and foreign officials were all for waging war against Paradis, one must keep in mind that it is primarily the governments of the world, Marley especially, that are responsible for spreading the vicious hatred against Paradis to such a ridiculous extent and pushing Eren and the islanders to desperation. However, the Rumbling indiscriminately kills anyone and everyone outside of Paradis Island, and as several characters point out, the vast majority of Eren's victims are innocent civilians who have no control over their governments' policies, were likely brainwashed into believing anti-Eldian propaganda, or otherwise had nothing to do with Paradis' problems, and thus shouldn't be forced to suffer because of Marley's actions. Eren understands this, and makes it clear that he never believed any of these people deserved to die, but sees completely and utterly erasing any possible threat from the outside world to be the only surefire way to end the cycle of hatred and war they are all caught in once and for all.
• Dissonant Laughter: Invoked and played with. In Chapter 105, he laughs when he first hears Sasha's dying words ("meat"), as they brought up one of his fondest memories of her, when she stole a ham from the Officer's kitchen right before the Colossal Titan attacked the district of Trost. Later, in Chapter 108, Connie, who witnessed his laughter and smile, took great offense at this, as he's under the impression that Eren was laughing at the fact that Sasha died. Though it could also be his coping mechanism, as he reacted the same way to Hannes' death.
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • At the end of Chapter 98 when he confronts Reiner. He's surprisingly cordial, even saying he that he's glad that Reiner got to go home. But he's also staring him down with his one viable eye, in the same vein as a hunter eyeing his quarry. It's a bit unsettling actually.
  • In the realm of paths, Eren explains to Zeke about his future memories. The serene smile he makes when he says "That scenery" unnerves Zeke.
  • In Chapter 138, he is shown to be completely calm, if not bored, outwardly while his true body (or what is left of it) is inside of his final Attack Titan's mouth, despite the Titan being in a brutal fistfight with Armin's Colossus Titan. This expressionless appearance continues up until Mikasa severs his spinal cord.
• Distressed Dude: He's frequently the victim of kidnappings or kidnapping attempts. First by the Female Titan, then by Reiner and Bertolt, and now by the 1st Brigade.
• Dog-Kicking Excuse: In Chapter 131, he tearfully confesses to a confused Ramzi that while he felt that the Rumbling was necessary to save Paradis and that he felt guilty for it, he genuinely WANTED to destroy the human race because he was "disappointed" that humanity thrived beyond the walls and that he wanted to see the "beautiful sight" of his vision of pure untainted freedom.
• Do Not Go Gentle: When he faces what seems like certain death, instead of sitting down and accepting it, Eren gets up and tries to punch a Titan.
• Doom Magnet: Since the Titan Shifters want to capture him, a lot of Titans inevitably end up appearing and many soldiers wind up dying as a result.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: A year after Bertoldt attacked Trost, the Titans have finally been (mostly) cleared from Paradis Island and Eren and Armin finally get to see the ocean with their own two eyes. But while Armin and the Survey Corps celebrate, Eren just gazes ominously into the distance instead, reminding everybody that they can't truly be free until they've dealt with their enemies.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: He infiltrates the Liberio Ghetto to rendezvous with Zeke after going AWOL from the military at Eldia, apparently going along Zeke's plan to sterilize the Eldians by using the Coordinate and betraying his comrades by doing so. Except Eren had no intention of helping Zeke and merely used him to find Ymir by accessing the realm of paths. He outright tells Zeke that he would never approve of the sterilization plan, when he already has an even more brutal, but pragmatic alternative in his mind.
• Dramatic Irony: Eren, the boy who sought freedom, ultimately ended up being the least free of all. As hinted to in chapters 130 and 131, where he was on the verge of breaking down over his realization that the future he sees is unchangeable, that he was meant to commit a horrific, irredeemable act (and then die for it under the hands of the woman he loves) — apologizing to Rhamzi after he saved the boy from his assailants, knowing he will just die in the Rumbling.
  • Hammering the point home is Eren learning why You Can't Fight Fate, in what must surely be the ultimate irony in the series — because the events of the series all the way from his own father inheriting the Attack Titan were masterminded by EREN HIMSELF, via the Attack Titan's ability to see through time and set up a Stable Time Loop. When present-day Eren realizes he's been pulling his own strings all along, he basically gives up any resistance to his destiny.
  • His Founding Titan form can even be interpreted as symbolism for this, with his bony arms being held by "strings" attached to the spikes on his spine, emulating the look of a marionette; a puppet. Falco's avian appearance also contrasts with Eren's titan form being 90% ribcage; a bird and a cage.
  • More or less confirmed in the ending, where he confessed to Armin that the Founding's powers have taken a toll on his mind, where the past, present, and future all exist in his head simultaneously, that and as mentioned before, the fact that throughout those four years since he saw the future, he couldn't change a thing. It was also revealed that he was more or less a slave to fate; he really was meant to be a villain that will be killed by Mikasa, so Ymir could witness true love and free herself from her own "love". It's implied that the most that he could've done was for all of it to end in his friends' and Paradis' favour; the Rumbling was going to happen regardless.
• The Dreaded: Willy Tybur officially designates Eren as such during his announcement, saying that Eren wishes to completely undo the peace Karl Fritz worked so hard to achieve after taking the power of the Founding Titan, and is currently the single greatest threat to the entire world. Shortly afterwards, Eren shifts into the Attack Titan and assassinates Willy in full view of the entire international community.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Played With. The dream Eren had in chapter 1 was revealed 137 chapters later to have been a vision of a possible future in which he and Mikasa ran away and left their friends to deal with the war against Marley. However, it is ambiguous as to how he received this dream, as it was a vision of Mikasa's, and one of events that never occured.
• Dumbass No More: Downplayed. While he was never really a dumbass, he was quite the hotheaded Leeroy Jenkins who would let his emotions get the better of him in dire situations. Something that nearly got him killed during his first mission and lead to the deaths of nearly his entire squad barring Armin. Post-Time Skip, he has become far more calm and perceptive than he was as a teenager, able to devise clever strategies while fighting two other intelligent titans. Later chapters reveal him to be The Chessmaster and a Manipulative Bastard who masterminded most of the present plot, and capable of outwitting geniuses such as Armin, Hange, and Zeke.

E – H

• Early-Bird Cameo: He made his first post-Time Skip appearance tailing Reiner in Chapter 93 (p.36) with just his back facing the readers, and then as the Shell-Shocked Veteran Falco stops to help in Chapter 94, his true identity not being revealed until Chapter 97.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Pretty badass by himself — he's ranked fifth in his class — but discovers his Titan-shifting powers after he gets eaten by a Titan.
• Enemy Summoner: Using the power of the Founding Titan, Eren can manifest the past forms of the Nine Titans at-will, and uses them to fight his former allies. However, this ends up backfiring on them when Armin is able to use the Paths to connect the original hosts — even the deceased ones — to their bodies.
• Enfante Terrible: Even as a child, there's always been something a bit off about Eren. His father implied he was very cold and anti-social, noting that Armin was his Only Friend. At the age of nine, he planned and carried out the brutal killing of two grown men to rescue Mikasa. While it was ruled justified, the soldiers sent to the scene were shaken by what two children managed to do to three adults. Even before his mother's death, Little Eren was a little unstable.
• Equivalent Exchange: This is the ugly truth behind Titan-shifting; any Titan who consumes a Titan Shifter will gain their normal body back as well as the power to transform into one of the nine Titans themselves... but, their human body will progressively weaken from there on out and they will die in 13 years. In Eren's case, this means he'll live to be no older than 23.
• Et Tu, Brute?: For all his pathological hatred of Titans and criminals in general, he's very distressed to learn that his own mentor and comrade Annie was the Female Titan responsible for the slaughter of the 57th expedition, and (in the manga) can't bring himself to express hatred towards her (while hesitating to harm her personally in the anime as well). By the time he learns about Reiner and Bertolt however, his Black-and-White Morality returns in full effect and he wants nothing more but to kill them "as excruciatingly as possible".
  • The reason he didn't freeze up was because they had some warning. The Survey Corps knew that there was more than one shifter in their ranks and Reiner and Bertolt were the most suspect. Eren had been in the know about this since he and a few other members of the crew had been ordered to keep a close eye on them. He still took it pretty hard, hence his outburst.
  • Another example is also in Chapter 83, when Levi promised to give Armin the Titan serum but changed his mind upon seeing Erwin still alive/in critical condition. Eren's face when he confronted Levi was one full of fury and nothing less than intimidating.
• "Eureka!" Moment: After successfully reclaiming Wall Maria, Hange and Zackly later discuss how Eren was able to use the "Coordinate" ability unimpeded by the First King's Will despite not having Royal Blood. As they're talking, Eren thinks back to what happened, and comes to the shocking revelation that because the Smiling Titan was originally Dina Fritz, his father's first wife and a member of the Royal Family, making physical contact with her Titan form when he punched her hand allowed him to use the "Coordinate" ability for a short time. However, Eren decides to keep this information to himself out of fear for what might happen to Historia.
• Evil Counterpart: In an interesting turn of events, he becomes this to Reiner, who had previously served as his Evil Counterpart. Both are determined and morally complex individuals who have caused terrible atrocities. However, Reiner was driven by a desire to be a hero and save the world, and didn't know that the Eldians he had been raised to hate were just normal people until it was too late. Eren on the other hand, desires to destroy all life outside of Paradis Island and is even aware that most of the people who will die are completely innocent, and goes through with regardless, seeing how the world was adamant on persecuting him and all Subjects of Ymir.
• Evil Is Bigger: Upon taking up his Titan and revealing himself as the true villain of the series, Eren's form dwarfs the mindless Colossal Titans and even Rod Reiss's monstrous transformation. It is so humongous that the Colossus Titan and many others can bud out from it at Ymir Fritz's urging, with it larger than any of them.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • In contrast with his friends, he seems to harbor a grudge against Gabi for killing Sasha, so he insistently refers to Gabi solely as "The Brat who killed Sasha" to drive the point across, further twisting the knife in for the already guilt-ridden young girl.
  • It's revealed that Eren actually holds Zeke in contempt for his anti-natalist ideology and seeing him as a brainwashed victim. He makes this known by repeatedly mocking Zeke and his trauma with their father throughout their trip through Grisha's memories, culminating in Eren trying to ruin Zeke's moment of reconciliation with the man by casually reminding him he devoured him.
• Evil Overlord: Evil isn't quite right at all, but Eren disobeys the Paradis military to collaborate with Zeke and launches an assault on Liberio. He publicly assassinates the Marleyan leaders, including its main leader Willy Tybur and massacres hundreds of civilians as collateral damage. Eren steals Marley's War Hammer Titan and continues to spread his influence. In the blink of an eye, many partisans and a large chunk of the Survey Corps form the Yeagerist group and appoint Eren as its undisputed leader. For his exploits, he wins the support of the Paradis public who were disgruntled with their government's policies. Just one day after escaping prison, Eren assumes absolute control over virtually all of Paradis and his followers hold the top brass of the government and military hostage. Eren unscrupulously imprisons Armin and Mikasa along with their former comrades. Afterwards, he betrays Zeke, assumes control over the Founding Titan, rouses the Wall Titans and commands them to obliterate all life outside of Paradis.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Eren's dynamic with his brother Zeke is revealed to be this. Zeke is a Straw Nihilist who wants to exterminate the Eldians by sterilizing them. On the other hand, Eren has sacrificed his morals in pursuit for freedom and denounces Zeke's goal as puerile. Subverted, Eren becomes the Oblivion once his true plan to commit genocide of non-Paradisians is revealed.
• Evil Wears Black: After the Timeskip, he still wears a variant of his usual casual outfit, but the green and brown hues have been replaced with a decidedly colder black and white. Almost a little too fitting as the former "hope of humanity" commits a steadily growing list of atrocities.
• Expository Pronoun: After finally learning the contents of his father's basement and experiencing his memories in a dream, Eren wakes up using Grisha's "watashi" instead of his own "ore", which gets Armin's attention.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Killed a grown man as a child, by stabbing him over and over (and over) again while screaming in a murderous rage. He also has a tendency towards this when fighting in his Titan form, especially during his first transformation.
• Eyepatch of Power: He wears bandages over one side of his face, helping obscure his true identity from the few that could recognize him. Given the Manga's heavy use of Norse Mythology, this also makes him resemble Odin, the One-eyed King of the Gods. Like Odin, Eren can also see the future.
• Face of a Thug: Armin even says he and Jean have the look of a criminal in their eyes. This comes up later when Jean pretends to be Eren so he can escape from the capital and probable execution. Interestingly, he doesn't object to looking like a thug, just that he doesn't have Jean's horseface.
• Facial Horror: When his Titan-shifting ability is pushed to its limits, Eren can barely eject from his Titan body, and his face ends up partially melted off. He recovers. He also happens to be shirtless in this scene.
• Failed a Spot Check: How Eren managed to overlook something as crucial as putting his armband on the correct arm despite having Grisha's memories and diaries from his life in Marley is anyone's guess. If it weren't for Falco's intervention, his cover may have been blown. Given the reveal that Eren could see the future, it's almost certain that he intentionally put his armband on the wrong arm to ensure the future he saw comes to pass.
• Failure Hero: The foundation of Eren's struggle; he is a weakling in a cruel world. Throughout the story, Eren fails repeatedly and suffers for his mistakes, but he comes back a little stronger and a little wiser every time.
• Fair-Play Villain: Eren makes it clear to the Survey Corps that the only reason they are able to fight against him and his plan to destroy the world is because he allows them to, not wanting to take away their freedom to do so. That being said, his fairness only extends to not brainwashing them on the spot with the Founding Titan's power; he is completely unfettered in his goal and makes it clear to his friends that he will not go quietly.
• Fanservice Pack: Not that there's much fanservice in the series, but the end of chapter 106 shows that Eren has definitely gotten bigger in the previous four years.◊
• Fatal Flaw: His hotheadedness and inability to control his rage would have gotten him killed at Trost if he hadn't lucked out with his then-unknown Shifter powers. Later, he's in the company of two people who know a great deal about Titans and the other mysteries of the plot while in a situation where there's nothing they can do but talk. Eren knows that his best course of action is to grill them for information and specifically acknowledges that he needs to keep his temper. Even so, one off-color remark sets him off threatening to brutally murder them, and he (and the audience) learns nothing.
  • Eren himself acknowledges this at the end of the the Uprising arc.
  • After the Time Skip, Eren has learnt to overcome his recklessness, which makes him even more dangerous.
• Fearless Fool: Jean in particular considers him one, and many consider his over-confident attitude concerning the Titans a death wish. He's beginning to learn to pick his fights, but only after several very harsh lessons.
• Fighting Fingerprint: After Annie kicks his ass and teaches him her technique, he adopts it as his main fighting style. One of the strongest hints that the Rogue Titan is him is that it puts up the same boxing stance and uses the exact same techniques shown earlier.
• Fighting Your Friend: During his training session with Reiner, he was against practicing with his teammates but accepted it after his discussion with him. This is played straight when he has to fight Annie and subverted after he discovers Reiner and Bertolt's true identities.
  • After the Time Skip, he fights the survivors of the 104th and the remaining Warriors, who wish to stop his genocidal ambitions.
• Fight Magnet: He tends to draw in battles with Titans and pick fights with people that he disagrees with.
• Final Solution: Eren's final plan is to have the Wall Titans trample upon the entire world outside of Paradis Island, whether they be Marleyan or Eldian. If the world will always see Paradis as an island populated by devils, then the only way to ensure Paradis' protection is to lay waste to everyone else.
• Friendly Enemy: While accepting their positions make them foes, Eren is perhaps the only person to really understand Reiner's suffering and offers him sympathy. It speaks volumes for their situation, that Eren is the first person Reiner is able to open up to after a lifetime of lying and coping with guilt.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • The Warriors try to sway him to their side under the impression that he only has the Attack Titan power; it turns ballistic when they realize that he has the Founding Titan too.
  • His friends speculate that Eren is not on their side anymore due to his cavelier attitude towards the attack on Liberio and Sasha's death. He later leads a revolt against the Military Junta and personally puts them in custody.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Eren starts off the series as an ordinary kid living in Shiganshina who only stood out due to his curiosity about the outside world and hatred for titans to the single most powerful Titan Shifter in existence; he can see into and influence the past and future, control the Wall Titans all over Paradis Island, and has announced to the Eldians all over the world that he is set on wiping all other human life off the face of the Earth.
• Gemstone Assault: After devouring the Warhammer Titan and inheriting its power, Eren can construct just about any weapon or tool from crystallized titan flesh, even in human form. He mainly uses it to create massive crystal spikes on his body or the surrounding area, working as an effective means of defense and offense.
• Glad He's On Our Side: Even as he slowly gains the trust of the soldiers in his squad, most of humanity remains fearful of him, for good reason. All hell breaks loose for the Survey Corps once Eren decides to act on his plan, with Mikasa and Armin being imprisoned and brutally beaten by Eren, and Eren coordinated some of the Yeagerist faction's plans to usurp power from the Survey Corps. Ultimately, he becomes a global threat when he awakens the true extent of his power, showing just how lucky Eldia was to have him with them for as long as they did.
• Glass Cannon: Initially in Titan form, with his human form being a standard Fragile Speedster. He's strong even by Titan standards and his punches are devastating, but his body used to be surprisingly frail like a typical Titan and Gorn typically ensues as he breaks and sometimes completely severs his limbs from the force of his own attacks. This changed once Eren gained his hardening ability and he learned to master it in Titan form, using it to great effect for both defense and offense, though still remaining vulnerable wherever he hasn't hardened.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: It's implied that learning the truth about the history of the Eldians, and the miserable life of Ymir Fritz that lead to the creation of the Titans was the final straw that solidified Eren's decision to destroy all human life outside of the Walls.
• Godzilla Threshold: As Eren explores the world outside Paradis, he becomes more jaded by the reality. Eren is so depressed, that he decides to enact the Rumbling, in the hopes that his people would be free from the global threat.
• Good All Along: Zigzagged to the point of making the audience dizzy. Eren turns on his old friends, siding with Zeke in a conspiracy to provoke the rest of humanity into war with Paradis while also undermining the island's government. His friends aren't sure what to think of his actions, as they find themselves imprisoned under Eren's orders. He finally reveals he only cooperated with Zeke to earn his trust, because accessing the Coordinate's true power required a Titan with royal blood. However, another layer of complication is added as the brothers travel through the Paths — Eren has been manipulating his own father and others all along, to ensure things reach their current point. Grisha is briefly able to communicate with Zeke, pleading with him to stop Eren with a terrified expression. And for good reason: Eren's ultimate goal is to exterminate everyone outside Paradis, more specifically killing each and every non-Paradisian... however this realization is escalated further when it was revealed that he was counting on his friends to stop him so that they can become heroes and stop the oppression by having them be the ones to execute him.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: The Healing Factor that comes with being a Titan Shifter has saved him more than once, and it means that he can shrug off dismemberment and at one point having his face melted completely off.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Yes, of his own story. As is revealed in Chapter 121, Eren has been using the Paths to influence past Attack Titan holders into doing his bidding, as he, not the Attack Titan itself, was the one striving for freedom endlessly. Most importantly, he pushed his own father into slaughtering the Reiss family, directly causing one of the most major events in the plot.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: The overall goal of the humans but Eren is hateful enough to declare he'll kill every Titan by himself. This decreases once he finds out what Titans really are (or rather, what they were). He still does intend for extermination of every living thing outside of Paradis, but it's made very clear that feels he has no choice and he doesn't take any joy in it.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Before the fall of Shiganshina he can go from calm to extremely angry when people don't take the military seriously (either civilians or slackers like Hannes) and frequently picks fights with delinquents over trivial things. After watching his mother get eaten just about everything pisses him off (but nothing more than the Titans).
• Hate at First Sight: According to him, towards Mikasa. This was later revealed to have been a lie in order to push Mikasa away to prevent any interference from her when conducting his genocidal campaign against the rest of Humanity.
• Head Butting Heroes: He frequently butts heads with Jean, Mikasa, and to lesser extent Armin.
• Healing Factor: As a Titan Shifter, he passively heals at a rapid pace, even regrowing whole limbs in a matter of hours.
• Heel Realization: During his conversation with Armin in the Coordinate, Erin starts to break down and admit to himself that his motivation for the starting the Rumbling wasn't purely out of selfless desire to protect his friends. Instead, a large part of it was his personal desire to destroy the outside world that was such a far cry from the wonder he dreamed of in childhood.
• Heroes Fight Barehanded: He's the best hand-to-hand combatant in the 104th, having trained extensively in it during his boot-camp days. At first it doesn't seem like a useful skill given the size difference between humans and Titans, but when his nature as a Titan Shifter is revealed it becomes a very good thing because it gives him a massive edge when fighting other Titans.
• Heroic BSoD: Once he knows that Annie is the Female Titan, he can't bring himself to transform and fight her, not even to save himself when he's getting crushed. It takes several of his friends yelling at him, including Mikasa, Armin, and Jean, then the memories of his mother getting eaten and the Special Operation Squad getting killed before he finally snaps out of it. It is a sight to behold. This happens only in the anime version, in the manga he snaps out of it much faster, just as Armin and Mikasa go off to distract the Female Titan.
  • When he finds out that some of his friends are Titan Shifters instigating mankind's destruction, he does not take the news well.
  • He has a nasty one when Hannes is eaten in front of him, making him feel completely useless. It takes Mikasa reassuring him of everything that he has done for her to break him out of it, and when he does...
  • When he sees the Titan who ate his mother approaching him and Mikasa, he completely shuts down. It takes her confessing how much he means to her to snap him out of it.
  • Suffers another one when he discovers that he is pretty much, in his own words, "unnecessary" due to the Reiss family being able to eat Titans and therefore absorb the memories that he received from Frieda. He even refuses to turn when Kenny wounds him, and asks Historia to eat him. Again, he regains his senses after Historia, in an unexpected turn, chooses to side with him instead and boosts his willpower.
• Heroic Build: His Titan form has it, and his actual body is pretty sculpted, too.
• The Hero Dies: Subverted when he appears to die after losing An Arm and a Leg in his first battle, but comes back as a Titan. Eventually played straight in Chapter 138 when he dies for real via a beheading from Mikasa.
• Heroic Lineage: Eren currently possesses the powers of the "Attack Titan," one of the original nine Titans, that he inherited from his father, Grisha, and his namesake Eren "Owl" Kruger.
• Heroic Resolve: A necessary ingredient for transforming into his Titan form.
• Heroic RRoD:
  • As he pushes his Titan Shifting ability to its limits, maintaining lucid control becomes more and more difficult, and can result in loss of consciousness at best, and Eren melding with his Titan body at worst.
  • After Eren overuses his new power he suffers an intense nosebleed.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sacrifices himself to save Armin during the Battle of Trost, though he manages to survive the experience.
  • Seeming pulls one again by losing his will to live and allowing Historia to claim her birthright by eating him. At the last moment, she decides to not go through with it and restores his determination.
  • He made himself into the world's true enemy, so that his friends will stop him and being seen as the heroes who will strive for true peace.
• Heroic Second Wind: At one point, it looks like he's down for the count, but then sees the same Titan that ate Thomas Wagner. He immediately gets the resolve to fight his way through several Titans to put it down.
  • In the anime, after Annie kicks his face in, Eren manages to get a second wind from his unshakable willpower and his desire to murder every last Titan.
  • While Hannes is getting eaten Eren is powerless to help (being unable to transform) and breaks down in tears. Mikasa snaps him out of it and he tries to take on the Titan that ate his mother and Hannes with his bare hands. Thanks to his power as the coordinate kicking in, Eren walks away victorious.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: At more than one point in the story so far, Eren's realized that he's made the wrong decision and people wound up dying as a result. While nobody blames him, as said "wrong choice" is more often than not a reasonable one with consequences that no one could have predicted, he still blames himself whenever this is the case and responds by flying into a murderous rage and slaughtering whoever is truly to blame.
  • After learning that he is incapable of hardening, Eren briefly questions if he is capable of shouldering humanity's hope and muses how powerless he still is.
  • Taken to new heights when he realizes that he was simply meant to be a vessel for the Reiss family, and for a moment, loses the will to live, calling himself "unnecessary". He quickly snaps out of it after some much needed pep talk from Historia.
  • Practically embodies this trope once he finds out that he's fated to try and destroy humanity outside the walls. He comes to despise himself so much that he genuinely can't understand why anyone, including Mikasa, could care for someone like him.
• Heroic Will Power: How he maintains control of said Titan form.
• Hero Insurance: This is a Downplayed Trope. His fight with the Female Titan destroys a good part of Stohess district, and many of the buildings he destroys were not empty (his first attack notably throws her on a "church" where a bunch of Wall Cultists were praying). The reactions afterwards vary between blaming Erwin for the damage — since it was his plan — yet knowing that this was the only way to stop Annie once she had transformed. But nobody seems to blame Eren personally. Said damage is much more emphasized in the anime, though.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: He is framed as an Omnicidal Maniac that is planning to destroy the world, in order to justify declaring war against Paradis. It doesn't help that he acknowledges he could be the bad guy, and he's willing to kill innocents in order to assassinate Willy Tybur. Later revealed the suspicions against him was justified, although it was due to the very fact that the Tyburs tried to paint him as a villain actually propelled him into confirming his plans.
• Hero-Worshipper: Little Eren held the Survey Corps in the highest regard and aspired to join them one day.
• He's Back!: Crosses a Despair Event Horizon near the end of the Uprising arc, but manages to come back from it.
• Hesitant Sacrifice: In their last conversation in the Paths, Eren tells Armin his true motivation was to use the Rumbling to force the world into a state in which it is unable to attack Paradis. In doing so, he would free the Eldians of the power of the Titans, become the target of the world's hatred, and allow his friends to become heroes for stopping his rampage. This would give them leverage in bridging the gap between Paradis and what's left of the world to compensate for losing their Titan powers. He is resolved to this fate, but breaks down crying that despite everything he doesn't want to die and still wishes that he could have lived on with all his friends.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Armin, who's been one of his closest friends and allies for most of his life. In fact, Armin was Eren's Only Friend for quite some time before they met Mikasa.
• He Who Fights Monsters:
  • Eren's Titan is a fiercer combatant than all other Titans including the other Titan Shifters. If anything, he's too fierce for his own good.
  • Years later, Eren's obsession with defeating his enemies and fighting for freedom has turned him into a cruel man, turning against his friends and even ally with his half-brother. In addition to this, not only has Eren use the Titan Shifters' infiltration method against them, he uses the same threat against both enemies and friends alike (threatening to transform into a Titan if they do not listen to him).
  • Comes to a head in Chapter 123. Remember Eren planning to avenge humanity by exterminating all Titans? Eren later becomes the force that will end the vast majority of human civilization by using the power of the Titans. A Colossal Titan was responsible for breaking down Wall Maria and causing the destruction of Eren's home... and now, Eren is personally commanding millions of Colossal Titans to lay havoc upon every inch of land outside Paradis. He even seems to acknowledge it, though without caring at all, when he announces to the entire invading force on Paradis that in response to their apparent desire to eliminate every last Eldian, he is going to attempt to kill every living thing who is outside of the island, which includes Eldians who happen to live outside Paradis.
• Hey, You!: He refuses to call Gabi by name, referring to her as "a brat," since he hates her for killing Sasha.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Armin believes Eren is merely pulling an act pretending to be a jerk to protect his friends from Yelena and Zeke. That said, Eren's true intentions remain enigmatic. Even Zeke, Armin or Mikasa have no inkling of what he really wants to accomplish. Eren finally reveals his true plan: destroy all life outside of Paradis, so that the atrocities against the Subjects of Ymir will finally end.
• Hidden Depths: Eren is a loyal friend and an enthusiastic person who offers his hand in help as much as he can. He is also surprisingly good at approaching the kinder side of the people he meets, making his friends and comrades staunchly defensive of him. His tendency to pick fights makes people initially antagonistic against him, though he only gets better with time.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: The Living MacGuffin that everyone wants to obtain simply walked into Marley, disguised as a maimed and traumatized Returning War Vet. No one looks at him twice, allowing him to slip into the ghetto and create a convincing cover story.
• High-Pressure Blood: Used for drama, whenever he bites his hand. Blood tends to splatter out around his teeth, even though such an injury generally wouldn't actually cause that to happen.
• Hive Queen: Revealed in Chapter 50 to possess the ability to command Titans, causing them to attack his opponents. The other Shifters are shown to feel/sense the command, but are able to resist or ignore it. This ability is later shown to have an important limitation which prevents it from being a Story-Breaker Power (namely, he needs to be in physical contact with a member of the Fritz family to use it).
• Hope Bringer:
  • For many people. His Titan Shifting ability is a weapon that could permit them to eradicate Titans. Even more so after Chapter 50 when he awakens the power to control normal Titans.
  • Most citizens of Paradis view him as this, calling Eren their hero and savior, who can crush Marley and save Eldia. Eren's arrest by the Survey Cops incites outcry, with the citizens clamoring for his release and venting their anger on the government. There is even a splinter faction in the military devoted to Eren, believing that he should be entrusted with the leadership of Eldia since he has what it takes to win.
• Hope Spot: Eren encourages Falco to persevere by appealing to his uncertainty. He tells Falco that he'll either find hope or find hell, but the thing that Falco will regret the most is not knowing. While it was part of an attempt to manipulate the boy for his own purposes, the speech did represent Eren's honest views on own experiences and the ugly truths he uncovered along his path.
• Horrifying Hero: He's unquestionably on humanity's side, but being a Titan Shifter horrifies everyone, understandably.
• Horrifying the Horror: Even his elder brother, Zeke becomes terrified of just how merciless and calculating Eren has become, going so far as to enter the Paths and compel their reluctant father to murder the Reiss family and steal the Founding Titan.
• Hot-Blooded: Evident throughout the series, but particularly lampshaded in Chapter 34. Due to his perilous situation, he resolves to control his emotions. This state lasts for less than half the chapter.
  • Subverted after he infiltrates Marley. Eren has become more stoic, calculating and ruthless.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Eren initially has difficulty activating his Titan-shifting power at his own free will. He eventually learns that only by having a deliberate goal in mind as he experiences pain does the transformation work.
• How Much More Can He Take?: Pieck and Galliard are flabbergasted at how Eren is just transforming himself to his Titan form over and over again seemingly without regard for his stamina. Any other Titan Shifter would be exhausted after three consecutive transformations while battling.
• Humble Hero: Eren's come a long way since his brasher days at the story's beginning. He's no longer as Hot-Blooded, and has learned to adopt a more submissive behavior.
• Humble Pie: His experiences during and following Trost greatly humble him, causing him to be more introspective and less rash.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Humanity's trump card against the Titans, and absolutely vital in taking on the other Titan Shifters.
• Hunter of Monsters: Well, his last name is Yeager. He's the fourth type, one who seeks revenge against the Titans for his mother's death.
• Hypocrisy Nod: A flashback in chapter 131 has Eren admit it's hypocritical of him to want to save a boy from being beaten for thievery, considering he plans on using the power of the Founding Titan to wipe out all life outside Paradis Island.
• Hypocrite:
  • Accuses Armin of being influenced by Bertolt's memories upon inheriting the Colossal Titan while ignoring that he himself carries the Attack Titan, the War-Hammer Titan, and the Founding Titan.
  • Even worse: Accuses Armin of being influenced by Bertolt's memories upon inheriting the Colossal Titan, while using the Attack Titan's memories to retroactively influence his father's actions.

I – N

• I Cannot Self-Terminate:
  • In Chapter 65 of the manga while in the underground chamber in the Reiss chapel. After it's been revealed what happened to the Reiss family and what Eren has to do with it, Kenny Ackermann takes the gag off of an Bound and Gagged Eren and cuts open his forehead to allow him to get revenge, only to be surprised when Eren basically states how he never wanted any of this while sobbing and Eren begs Historia/Krista to eat him and set things right. For a moment it looks like she will, but she ultimately refuses.
  • In a broader sense that also applies to all other Eldians, he admits in his private thoughts that Zeke's plan to sterilize all Eldians- rendering them and, by extension, all Titans extinct within one generation- makes more sense in terms of preventing more tragedy for the world overall. Despite this, Eren simply cannot stomach the idea of essentially helping to kill of his entire race, so he rejects the plan in favor of his own.
  • This also applies to his actions in regard to the Rumbling. Due to the timeline being predetermined (which itself is due to Eren orchestrating events for the Rumbling to come to pass), he is unable to avert the future or stop himself from slaughtering humanity. Reiner notes that if he was in Eren's position, he would want someone to stop him, which turns out to be right on the mark. Eren refused to take away the Alliance's will to defeat him, but he also made it clear that the only way the Rumbling can be stopped is to kill him.
  • Another explanation could be that he's simply not all there mentally; he's overwhelmed by, from his perspective, the past, future and present all merging into one, and to cope with the guilt of his actions he regresses to his childhood self, keeping his true personality and will behind it.
  • It's implied that the other components of the Founding Titan, Ymir and the Mysterious Organism, are also part of why Eren isn't making it easy for his former allies to strike him down; Ymir is the one who sets the past Shifters on the Alliance, acting on her own initiative for a mysterious goal and the Organism is acting on instinct to reattach with its host. Unable to control them, considering they ultimately are the Founding Titan's power, Eren has to gamble on his former friends succeeding, continuing his act of the villain in the process.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • Eren invokes this type of reasoning to justify his increasingly extreme actions in the latter portions of the story. This eventually culminates in him enacting the Rumbling on the entire world outside of Pardis so that no one will ever harm his people again and friends could finally have a chance at peace.
  • Zig-zagged in the end. Eren fully believes that the Rumbling is unjustfiable and despite not wanting to die believes he deserves it and even set up that his friends can use his death to broker peace. However, he also admits to Armin that he would have completed the Rumbling if his friends had not stopped him. When Armin asks why, Eren can only state that he had to while remembeing Grisha telling him that he's free; the implication being that Eren was driven above all else by his desire for freedom.
• Idiot Hero:
  • He lets his emotions get the better of him. The show Deconstructions the typical shonen examples by showing the realistic consequence of rushing blindly on willpower alone, and thereby ignoring the plan that your military superiors have set up. The consequences are terrible for him and his team in Trost.
  • Subverted as the series goes on, as he comes to recognize his own faults and slowly learns the value of proper strategizing. It would seem that being bailed out from certain death many, many times due to having a Healing Factor has a way of changing people. However, this is averted hard after the Timeskip, where he becomes The Chessmaster and has an almost unrecognizable grasp of his situation and emotional nuance about everything, and it's also averted in the sense that he turns into the final villain of the story.
• Ignored Epiphany: Eren is completely aware that causing the Rumbling would make him a monster, but he refuses to stray from the path of causing it anyways despite the fact that numerous alternatives are proposed to him that would lead to far less death and suffering.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Despises the fact that humanity is reduced to the state it is, going as far as to call the Walls "cages". Eren has always had these desires, however in Chapter 88, it is revealed that there is additional influence to this as the Attack Titan is a Titan that constantly moves forward and seeking freedom. It's later revealed Eren's will to be free was superimposed on his predecessors so that no one finds out the Titan's true power, which is to be a Seer. Although, in a bit of tragic irony, Eren himself was never free like he wanted: once he unlocks his full potential, he comes to realize just how little true agency he had in his future self's generations-spanning plan and that ultimately he has no choice but to play it out.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: He blames himself thoroughly for the deaths of the Survey Corps elite squad. In Episode 24, when he's undergoing a major Heroic BSoD and his usual motivations (namely "kill all the Titans" and "humanity will be free") don't seem to be able to shake him out of it, he gets angry remembering their deaths and gradually regains his resolve via Unstoppable Rage.
• I Let You Win: While Eren did not take the fight lying down, it's also noted by others that he could have ensured that the Rumbling is complete by using the Founder to mind control his friends or remove the Titan Powers. He ultimately enabled his own defeat by giving them the opportunity to stop them.
• I'll Kill You!: He says this to the Female Titan, though it can't hear him at the time, even threatening to eat it. In the anime, when he goes berserk fighting it he says that he'll destroy the entire world. He swears a much more emphatic threat to kill Reiner and Bertolt after he learns that they are both Titans and double-agents.
• I'm a Humanitarian: While in Titan form, he eats Willy Tybur's body right after crushing him to death- presumably just in case he really was the War-Hammer Titan (he wasn't). He also ate Lady Tybur after finding out she was the real War-Hammer and attempted to eat Galliard immediately afterwards, suggesting he's planning to steal all of Marley's Titan powers.
• I'm Going to Hell for This: Eren fully believes that he deserves to go to hell after killing 80% of the human population in the Rumbling.
• In-Series Nickname: Amongst The 104th Trainee Corps he's known as "that Suicidal Bastard" ("Suicidal Maniac" in the dub) due to how eager he was to pick a fight with the Titans; Jean came up with the moniker, and is the only person who will say it to Eren's face. This comes up later on, when Armin bluffs the Female Titan by saying this nickname instead of "Eren" and figures out that she must be one of the Trainees to correctly guess who he was talking about.
• Ironic Echo
  • Eren Kruger tells Grisha that "You started this story" to convince him to infiltrate Paradis to retake the Founder. Eren Yeager repeats the phrase to Grisha through the Paths in order to convince Grisha to kill Frieda and take the Founder.
  • Way back at the start of the story, after witnessing his home getting trampled by Titans, he joins the Scouts and proclaims, "I'll destroy them! Every last one of those animals that's in this world!" Come the final season, Eren has triggered the Rumbling, and this same quote is used for exterminating humans instead.
• It's All About Me: Downplayed. While he genuinely cares about his friends and protecting Paradis via causing the Rumbling, He was willing to repeatedly risk their lives for the sake of fulfilling his vision of absolute freedom. He feels horrible about this, openly admitting such to a confused Ramzi that's unable to understand his speech that he was "so dissappointed" when he discovered people outside the walls existed.
• It's All My Fault: At several points, he's forced to make choices that end up getting people killed. He hates himself for this and keeps holding himself solely responsible even when there was no feasible way he could have known the consequences.
• It's Personal: For Reiner and Bertolt, the feeling is definitely not mutual (his feelings towards Annie are much more complex). They indirectly caused the death of his mother. Of course he won't forgive them.
  Eren: I'll do everything in my power... TO MAKE YOUR DEATHS AS EXCRUCIATING AS POSSIBLE.
  • He clearly hasn't forgotten Gabi's face since their last meeting in Liberio, and is quick to take "the brat who killed Sasha" hostage along with the rest of the Corps.
  • Seems to have it out for Frieda Reiss/Karl Fritz in particular for allowing Shiganshina to fall, giving off a look of unadulterated rage and hatred as the young queen declines to stop the Warriors' assault and explain that the Paradisians deserve destruction.
• It Is Beyond Saving: This is how he feels about the rest of the world outside Paradis. If the world only sees the Eldians living on the island as nothing but devils and will stop at nothing to destroy them all, he feels he has no choice but to unleash the Rumbling on it.
• Jack of All Stats: His skills at 3DMG are average. He is skilled at martial arts though and that helps a lot when you are a Titan Shifter. Also, his instructor notes that his sheer persistence and dedication to training allow him to surpass many others.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has a habit of saying what's on his mind when he really shouldn't and his anger is horrifying, but he is ultimately a nice guy in casual conversation.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Following the Time Skip, namely after he was imprisoned after his attack on Marley. Eren casually dismisses Mikasa's staunch loyalty as being a slave to her Ackerman heritage and telling that he's always hated her right to her face. He also claims that Bertolt's memories are hindering Armin's judgment and calls him useless for that. Armin lashes out at Eren but is instinctively pinned by Mikasa, partly proving Eren's point (as Mikasa doesn't intervene in their fight afterwards). Subverted when it becomes clear that he was using this as an act so that none of his friends get dragged down with him once he enacts his goal.
• Jerkass: After the Timeskip, he's become downright hostile and unpleasant to his former comrades, wasting no opportunity to tear them down whenever they try to talk to him (including Hange, Armin, and Mikasa). Ironically enough though, this is Inverted with his enemies, who he now displays a surprisingly calm and even attitude towards (a stark contrast to his original self). Like everything with Timeskip Eren, however, jury's still out on what these changes in behavior actually mean.
  • Eventually revealed to be a Jerkass Façade he was intentionally pulling in order to keep his friends at a safe distance from him; since his ultimate plan hinged on them being seen as heroes who defeated the Ominicdal Maniac, he had no choice but to keep them far away. Armin still lets him have a punch in the face for the sheer lengths he went to to drive Mikasa away, however.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • In Chapter 107, Eren berates Hange due to the fact that Historia was indeed treated like livestock in spite of all his efforts and worries for her well-being, and that no one was able to give him or Historia a better alternative to that route in the four years since diplomatic talks began with the Marleyan military rebel faction and other allied countries. He even states that his punishment is pointless, as being the holder of the War-Hammer Titan, he doesn't even have to break out of confinement to wreak havoc. As a result, Hange later laments not being able to give Eren an answer, and states that she might not have been the right person to take command of the Survey Corps in the first place.
  • During his venomous, hateful rant against Armin and Mikasa in chapter 112, Eren does make some points^note To oversimplify it, according to Eren, Mikasa is no more than a bioengineered human specifically designed to protect her host. Eren claims that her true self is overridden and destroyed by her Ackerman blood to carry out the duty. Eren corroborates it by explaining that to be the cause of Mikasa's frequent headaches (her true self is being suppressed by her Ackerman power). that probably have at least some truth to them. At the very least, the evidence for Mikasa's attachment to him being unnatural does lean towards Eren's side, as she very clearly has shown time and time again in the past to go to irrational lengths to protect him (including instinctively pinning down Armin when he attempts to punch Eren in her defense). And due to the nature of Titan memories, he's also probably not wrong in believing that Bertolt's memories of home and lingering affection for Annie may be influencing Armin's judgement. However, he certainly didn't have to present these things to them like a cruel jackass, and his accusations of Armin losing himself possibly applies to Eren himself as well. And then revealed Eren was playing all of them by pretending to be influenced by Zeke, in order to reach Ymir.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Post-time-skip, Eran has committed many terrible acts that could be considered his jumping. From killing innocent civilians, including children, in the raid on Liberio, arranging Darius Zackly's assassination, cutting off his friendship with Armin and Mikasa, even going as far as to calling Mikasa a slave, and saying that he always hated her, to compelling his own father into murdering the entire Reiss family (barring Rod) to gain the Founding Titan. However, the action that cements his status as a Villain Protagonist, is awakening the Wall Titans to exterminate all life outside of Paradis Island.
• Keystone Army: Chapter 133 reveals if the heroes have any chance to stop the Rumbling, they have to kill Eren himself.
• Kick the Morality Pet: In Chapter 112, the long-awaited reunion between the main trio takes a sharp turn when Eren begins heaping abuse on his childhood friends. His cruelty brings Mikasa to tears, and enrages Armin to the point of throwing punches. For bonus, Eren ends things by literally kicking Armin while he's down, and then has his followers take Mikasa and Armin prisoner at gunpoint. Like everything else with post-Time Skip Eren, his actual motivations for doing this remain highly suspect.
• Kid Hero: He is 15 by the time of the battle of Trost.
• Knight Templar: After the four-year time skip, Eren has fully transitioned into this, in spades. After a lot of thought, he decides to destroy the world outside Paradis, and erase the hatred against the Subjects of Ymir. Subverted because Eren does acknowledge that his actions are immoral. On the other hand, the racial policies of other nations had morbidly escalated the persecution of the Subjects of Ymir. This is the reason Eren doesn't strip the other Titan shifters of their powers, to give them some freedom to defeat him.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After his mother's death, Eren was supposedly injected with a mysterious serum by his father, but can't recall the details due to a side-effect of said serum. The serum is believed to have been what gave Eren his Titan-shifting powers. However, the serum didn't give him all of his powers as the Coordinate powers he received from eating his father, who had eaten the real person with Coordinate powers: Frieda Reiss, Krista/Historia's older half-sister.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: When they discover he is able to transform into a Titan, humans allow him to live so he can exterminate all Titans.
• Last of His Kind: In Chapter 121, it's implied that Eren may well be the last ever holder of the Attack Titan power, as he states that the memories of the past and future holders effectively stop at his own. This ends up being because, at the end of the series, he has Ymir remove the Titan powers from the Eldians forever after he is mortally wounded.
• Leeroy Jenkins: During his first battle, Eren gets pissed upon seeing a Titan eat one of his comrades and charges madly into the fray. This gets nearly everyone with him killed. Ironically, the only time where he doesn't pull this leads to many people being killed by the Female Titan.
  • His basic tactic as a Titan when facing other Titans. It's a double edged sword because Eren has a limited amount of time as a Titan anyway and thanks to his Healing Factor and hand to hand training he can bring down dozens of them but is susceptible to overwhelming numbers.
• Legacy Character: Invoked and played with. According to the theory of the ethereal pathways that connect all Eldians, and by hints given by Eren Kruger in Grisha's memories, it's strongly hinted that Eren Yeager was meant to be the Attack Titan, or that there was at least a certain predisposition for him to acquire the Titan power, especially due to the fact that Kruger was able to mention Mikasa and Armin to Grisha Yeager years before the children were born, heavily suggesting that Kruger might have been tapping into Eren Yeager's memories from the future. Unrelatedly an Enforced Trope, as Eren Yeager engineered the circumstances of his becoming a Titan Shifter in the first place.
• Leitmotif: The first intro theme Guren no Yumiya (Crimson Bow and Arrow) is stated to be Eren's theme.
• Lightning Bruiser: After having been a Glass Cannon in his Rogue Titan form for much of the time, he finally gains the ability to harden his skin and thus greatly neutralizes his biggest weakness.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Mikasa, in an odd fashion. Eren has been such an effective crutch that he doesn't even need to be alive for Mikasa to be supported, all she needs is her memory of him.
• Long-Lost Relative: War Chief Zeke is Eren's older half-brother, born from Grisha's first marriage. He's also Eren's antithesis in just about every aspect.
• Loss of Identity: Invoked. Because of the momentous memories of Eren Kruger and his father Grisha, Eren behaves like a somewhat different person than how he used to be. His demeanor is less belligerent, he is more cunning and calmer, and he is less given to smile. He is still Eren, but not only "Eren" anymore.
• Lotus-Eater Machine:
  • Briefly (compared to Ymir's experience) trapped in a weird dream state while trying to retake Trost. In his dream he has no memory of his mother dying and doesn't remember his desire to explore the world beyond the walls (which Armin is able to remind him of breaking the dream). While in this state he is very violent towards Mikasa and tries to kill her. It's later implied that all Titans experience this when they lose control.
  • It heavily implied to have happened again when Eren unleashes the Rumbling upon Marley. While The Wall Titans are crushing everything in their path into dust and rubble, Eren imagines himself as a child soaring through the clear skies unobstructed by anything finally witnessing "the scenery" he longed for. Armin manages to catch a glimpse of this younger projection of Eren in the Paths Realm, seemingly completely unaware of the death and destruction he's causing. To top it off, Eren's actual body within the Founding Titan's massive form is unconscious.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: His Titan-shifting in particular demonstrates the more horrifying aspects of the power.
• Love Makes You Evil: A major motivation in his decision to unleash the Rumbling and destroy most of the human race is a corrupted desire to ensure the safety of his friends from Marley and the outside world's hatred.
• MacGuffin Super-Person: Just about every faction in the story aside from the Garrison wants to have custody of him (though Pixis goes along with Eren being put in the Survey Corps' custody). This is understandable, as he's the first known human capable of transforming into a Titan. Even when other Titan Shifters start pop up, they still see him as important enough to risk everything and abandon their plans to destroy the people within the Walls just to kidnap him. This is later revealed to be due to Eren also having the mysterious "Coordinate" power, which lets him control Titans.
• Main Character Final Boss: By instigating the Rumbling, he becomes the final antagonist of the series. He put himself into this through the use of the Attack Titan's power, as he believes that by instigating the Rumbling, he would not only present Paradis as a global threat to the other nations across the sea, but also allow his former comrades (who disagree with his motives) to fight and ultimately kill him, as a means to put an end to the power of the titans and be hailed as heroes to the rest of the world.
• Manipulative Bastard: Eren has become quite adept at the art of manipulation since the time-skip. He tricked Falco into relaying messages to his allies in the Survey Corps from Liberio; lured Falco and Reiner into a deadly trap so that they wouldn't be able to interfere with his attack at Willy Tybur's festival; exploited his status as Paradis' greatest weapon to ensure his friends would come to save him in his fight against the Warhammer Titan; recruited Floch specifically to eliminate all obstacles within the government and garner public support; feigned agreement with Zeke's anti-natalist views to ensure that the Marleyan volunteers would keep supporting his plans whilst secretly planning to betray them; and even managed to use his ability to see his future memories to push his father into slaughtering the Reiss family and pass the Attack and Founding Titans to Eren himself. Although there was a huge risk of failure, Eren executed his plan so well, that neither his allies nor his enemies were aware of his true goals until it was too late to stop him.
• Many Spirits Inside of One: According to Isayama, the memories and personalities of his Titan's previous hosts sometimes influence him. When prying into Falco's rival/crush on Gabi, he was being influenced by "someone else" and their memories.
• The McCoy: The brashest, most emotionally-driven, and most eager to fight among the main trio, although he's quick on his feet and can think when it counts. He is also highly invested in doing what he feels is the right thing, which may not always be the best thing.
• Mental Time Travel: The Attack Titan's true unique power is to see not only past memories of inheritors, but future ones as well. As such, from the future, Eren has actually been influencing and sometimes directly manipulating past inheritors of the Attack Titan for thousands of years to relentlessly seek freedom and take certain actions so that things would ultimately lead to a future where he himself would get both the Attack Titan and the Founding Titan while also putting him in a position to destroy the world with the Rumbling.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Implied during the conversation with Armin and Mikasa at the restaurant. His eyes have suddenly affected a similar disinterested and detached look as Frieda Reiss had at the Chapel when the Will of the First King took over. However, later Averted hard and even Inverted; Eren's future self was actually The Chessmaster all along and it's been his will controlling other people (the inheritors of the Attack Titan, specifically, including his younger self) for thousands of years from the future.
  • By possessing the power of the Founding Titan, he holds control over the wills of any Titan and even the wills of other Eldians.
• Mirror Character:
  • Although their goals and personalities are very different, Eren and Annie share the same love for unarmed combat, and both sometimes show a disturbing sadistic streak. Also, Eren's Titan form is closest to Annie's in terms of fighting ability, and even copies some of her moves. Finally, both characters have a mysterious father figure implied to be connected to — or perhaps responsible for — their Titan-shifting abilities.
  • He is also shown to be this to Historia. Despite their apparent differences, they both share the fact that they are being used as tools to further the agendas of their fathers without regard to how they themselves feel.
  • With The Reveal that came at the end of the "Uprising" arc, it turns out that Eren has much in common with the Titans, and the Shifters. It's seems to have put a damper on his Black and White views of the world.
    Eren: What are we really fighting against..? Are Titans... really Humans... trapped in a nightmare..?
  • His thoughts about Reiner and Bertolt.
    Historia: What are you going to do... If we meet them again?
    Eren: ...(quietly) I must kill them.
    Historia: Do you want to kill them?
    Eren: ...I must... kill them.
  • Falco, much like Eren in his youth, is lagging behind his teammates and their main competitors happen to be girls that they very much care about and want to protect and are The Aces of their group (Gabi and Mikasa). He gives encouragement to Falco much like Reiner had done for him before, all while acting as a mole for the enemy.
• More than Mind Control: Implied Trope. Though it hasn't been confirmed, it's heavily hinted that Eren's behavior and decision-making might be actively being altered by a number of factors including the memories of his own father, and the Attack, Coordinate and even the War-Hammer Titans' influence; that is, not including Zeke's manipulations, which are an additional extra-thick layer to his mind-cake. Then subverted, Zeke wasn't manipulating Eren at all, Eren was manipulating them all along.
• The Mole: Infiltrates Marley's forces, and sneaks into Liberio as a soldier. The Irony is not lost on him.
• Motive Rant: Delivers one in Chapter 123 directly into the minds of every Subject of Ymir, revealing himself as the series' ultimate villain.
  Eren: My objective... is to protect the people of Paradis, the place where I was born and raised. However, the world wishes for the annihilation of the people of Paradis. The hatred that has been swelling up for so long will certainly not end until not just the Paradisians, but all of Ymir's subjects have been eliminated. I reject this wish. The Wall Titans shall trample all earth outside of this island underfoot until all existing life there has been exterminated from this world.
• Mundane Object Amazement: As noted under The World Is Just Awesome, Eren is amazed and flabbergasted that there might exist bodies of water so massive no merchant could ever empty it, or that there might be entire plains of ice or fields of sand.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Despite ruthlessly shaping the story to be in a position where he could begin the Rumbling to 'avenge' Paradis, and in the process betraying almost everyone who trusted and supported him all through his journeys. Chapter 131 shows Eren is so traumatized by the devastation he and his Titan army are wreaking that he is willfully hallucinating the times when he was a hot-headed but oblivious little boy who just wanted to see the world outside the Walls just to escape the carnage.
• Mythical Motifs: Eren is heavily associated with Loki from Norse Mythology. Loki is a Jotunn, yet accepted among the Aesir as Odin's blood brother, and while he causes no small amount of trouble, he also helps to fix most of his mistakes, even after the Aesir chain up one of his sons inside of a cave and throw the other into the ocean. Once Loki goes too far, though, he is severely punished, leading him to become extremely bitter and enact his revenge by causing Ragnarok, which will see virtually all of the gods slain, including Loki himself. Eren is initially very idealistic and even after being confronted with the truth about the world outside of the walls, is willing to try and find a way to coexist. After seeing the extreme systemic racism that Eldians face and Marley attempting to demonize him into a devil so that the world can enact a Final Solution against the Eldians of Paradis, though, Eren ultimately decides to be the kind of monster they implied he was; he becomes a cunning schemer and sets up events to use the Titans to enact a Final Solution on the rest of the world in defense of his home.
  • In accordance, Eren also has several parallels to the children of Loki;
    • Fenrir; his Attack Titan form has several wolf-like features, such as its wild hair, vicious nature in combat and exposed teeth. Furthermore, Fenrir is known for swallowing Odin, the Nordic Top God, whole; Eren eats Grisha, who was the previous holder of not just the Attack Titan, but Founding Titan, the most significant Titan power of all.
    • Jormungandr; When Eren takes on his Founding Titan form, it is very long and whilst not slender, is still serpent-like, especially the smaller ribcage handing off the front. And like Jormungandr being one of the two Nordic Beast of the Apocalypse, Eren brings about the world's end via the Rumbling like this.
    • Hel; With the Founding Titan and Ymir's assistance, Eren is able to revive several past Titan Shifters to do his biding; like Loki's daughter, he is essentially the master of the dead.
• Neat Freak: Funnily enough, Levi's habits seem to have rubbed off on Eren, as he frantically insists to Jean and co. in Chapter 51 to make their cabin spotless- much to Jean's irritation. However, it's likely that a huge motivation for this is simply because he's terrified of Levi.
• The Needs of the Many: Briefly touched upon late in the series, when Eren realizes that his plan to save the residents of the island might not be worthwhile if it requires killing the rest of humanity. He does end up going through with it, though.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: An inversion. Eren became one of the best hand-to-hand fighters thanks to training from Annie, which later becomes very significant when it allows him to overcome Reiner's advantage of size, strength, and armor.
• Never Gets Drunk: According to Word of God, he's developed an incredibly high tolerance for alcohol. Which suggests that Eren's been hitting the bottle a lot in the last 4 years.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: His last conversation with his beloved mother Carla, prior to her untimely demise at the hands of the Titans, involved screaming at her. He later expresses frustration at himself for this.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: A rare justified example. One of Eren's last acts is to use the near limitless power of the Founding Titan to create a unique colossal variant of his Attack Titan. He ends up using this form to fight Armin equally.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Reiner and Bertolt might have been captured without incident if Eren hadn't gone and mentioned their hometown at that particular moment. Instead, it inspires them to decide now is the time to make their move and leads Reiner to confess everything to Eren. It rapidly goes downhill from there.
  • Eren's rampage during the Festival causes a major divide within the Survey Corps, with even Armin and Mikasa looking upset with him. Levi has him arrested for his actions, and Hange states his decision was a betrayal of his comrades. Taken even further, Jean informs Eren that he is directly responsible for Sasha's death. Subverted; it is All According to Plan.
• Nightmare Face: Eren's face at the final panel of chapter 123 resembles the Devil.
• Non-Linear Character: Due to being a bearer of the Attack Titan, Eren is able to glimpse into the memories of every previous bearer and future ones, including his own. This power lets him view the past and predict the future with clarity as long as he makes contact with someone that has royal blood.
  • It gets stranger once he reaches the realm of the Paths. Once there, he can use the Founding Titan's power to effectively alter the past by projecting his current self's perspective onto the holders of any of the three Titans he holds. With access to these of the memories and the Founding Titan's ability to control any other Titan, he can freely observe and alter the past at key moments. Something he only knows how to do because he sent memories of doing this to himself in the past. By the end of the series, he's changed so much of the past and implanted so many experiences into his past self that he tells Armin that he is no longer able to distinguish between present experiences and his time-displaced memories anymore. To him, every moment is so detached that it feels like he's only a passive observer of his own life with no impact on the outcome. The only thing he's certain of is that all his memories end with his death very soon.
• Non P.O.V. Protagonist: Becomes this from the Marley Arc onwards. It's part of his role as the Hidden Agenda Villain.
• Noodle Incident: After the Eldians meet with the nation of Hizuru, at some point, Eren met with Yelena in secret with Floch's help. Having expressed his appreciation and love for his teammates before, Eren apparently makes a Face–Heel Turn, and begins taking extremist actions unbeknownst to both the military and his teammates. Eventually subverted, as his meetings with them are shown.
• No Place for Me There: His discussions with Armin and others at the end of the series make it very clear that he views his sins as so inhumanly grave that he has no right to live with them in the devastated world that no longer wishes to destroy them afterwards, despite outright admitting he doesn't want to die.
• Not Afraid to Die: What sets him apart from many other recruits. When Eren fights, he has no time to let the prospect of of death get in his way, and, in spite of what his allies think of him, Eren has every intention of walking out of each fight alive. Best exemplified when he unhesitatingly rushed at the Colossal Titan the moment it reappears, while everyone else is too stunned to even move. It is only at the very end of the series, when he deliberately set himself up to be killed, that he displays any hesitation at his death.
• Not Brainwashed: After he makes his move to enact his final plans, he repeatedly tells his various allies who all assume he's being manipulated that everything he does is of his own free will.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Eren explicitly discusses this in the 100th chapter, acknowledging both his similarities to Reiner and the fact that Eldians on both sides of the conflict are simply ordinary people facing similar struggles.
  • Floch admires Erwin and Eren because they are both ruthless and resolute.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Eren's stoic façade briefly breaks when Sasha dies.
  • After beating Armin to a pulp following his justified outburst at Eren's comment that Mikasa is nothing more than a slave to her Ackerman blood, Armin manages to turn the tables verbally by pointing out that if Eren's idea of freedom involves hurting his lifelong friends, he's nothing but a slave himself. Eren grits his teeth in utter rage at that remark and doesn't give a response.
  • He also becomes increasingly panicked once Zeke is wounded in the second battle in Shiganshina and the Warriors continue to press upon him.
  • When within his father's memories with Zeke in the Paths Realm, listening to Frieda go on and on about justifying the genocide of Eldians for their ancestors crimes infuriates Eren.
  • His stoic behavior is fully revealed to be a facade in chapter 139, where he tells Armin that he really didn't want to do what he did and distanced himself from his friends to allow them to move on when he dies, and in particular motivate Mikasa to do her part and kill him.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: In between this and a true Well-Intentioned Extremist. As emphasized by his conversation with Ramzi in chapter 131 and the scene of him as a child above the clouds, his claim that he wants to save Paradis from annihilation by uniting the remaining world against him in hatred isn't his sole motivation. In truth, he also desires for himself and his friends to experience the vision of vast, empty freedom that Armin showed him as a child, and the existence of people in the outside world got in the way of his vision and prompted him to do the Rumbling. He provides his friends the ability to stop him, but he makes it clear that if he hadn't been stopped, he would have destroyed the entire world.

O – S

• Obfuscating Disability: When he infiltrated Liberio, Eren severed his own leg and put out one of his eyes to maintain the guise of a wounded Eldian soldier. Of course, being a Titan shifter means he can regenerate both those missing body parts without a hitch, and only does so after he gathers the intel he needs and is ready to commence the next part of his plan.
• Oblivious to Love: He finds Mikasa's desire to keep him safe irritating and tends to treat her as something of a rival or nuisance. Except that he isn't. He's completely aware of how Mikasa feels about him, returns her affections, but pretends to be oblivious as part of his plan to push her away so that she'll eventually have the strength to kill him. However, a flashback with a conversation he had with Zeke in Marley implies that Eren did believe at one point that Mikasa's love fo him was due to her Ackerman genes. By the time he accused Mikasa of this herself, however, he knew it wasn't true.
  • Unlike his squadmates, he fails to grasp that Hitch may have feelings for Marlo. A bit justified in this case since he doesn't really know either of them and only has Marlo's poor assessment of the situation to go off of.
• Off with His Head!: Chapter 119 ends on the cliffhanger of Gabi blowing Eren's entire head clean off his shoulders with an anti-Titan artillery rifle just as he's about to reach Zeke, notably when Eren is not in his Titan form. Fortunately, Eren recovers quickly and unleashes the Wall Titans. Or unfortunately, considering he plans to commit mass genocide with them. Of note, Eren didn't have a further plan to recover from being decapitated, he was just lucky his head landed on Zeke's hand before his brain function stopped. This ends up being his final fate in the series penultimate chapter with Mikasa being forced to cut Eren off from the spinal column connecting his head to his Titan, which is the only part of his human body left and the only thing keeping him alive, killing him for good.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • He insults Rod Reiss's short height before realizing that Levi is right behind him.
  • During the audience at Queen Historia's court, he realizes that the Smiling Titan and Grisha's first wife Dina Fritz are one and the same and that was what triggered the Coordinate ability, the shock causing him to jump out of his chair. Immediately after that he realizes that if he reveals that connection between the Coordinate and the Royal Family, he might put Historia's life in danger because he would need royal blood in order to use the Coordinate correctly, meaning they might titanize her or otherwise put her in harm's way; this is because Historia purposely refused to eat Eren to gain the Coordinate, as if she did so, she would be subject to the Will of the King and restart the policy of isolationism and stagnation that they fought so hard to abolish (though she also is completely against eating Eren, a friend that is very dear to her). When he is reluctant to speak despite his outburst, Hange picks up on the fact that he realized something and dismisses it to Zackley as Eren acting up.
    • Gets an even bigger one soon after that when he kisses Historia's hand during the award ceremony. Eren revisits the memory of his father pleading with Queen Frieda to use the Founder to stop the Titans from infiltrating the walls. While he doesn't freak out as he did previously, Eren looks absolutely horrified at what he just witnessed, as everyone else present noticed. Unbeknownst to them however, Eren saw far more than just that memory. He also gained access to his Titan's ability to see into the future, and what he saw shook him so badly, it shredded what little innocence and optimism he had left and triggered his Face–Heel Turn.
  • After being The Stoic for so long Eren gets a subtle one when Reiner gets back up in order to rescue Galliard from him. He clearly wasn't expecting Reiner to still have the willpower to fight and is perturbed that he lost his chance to eat the Jaws Titan.
  • Has a brief moment of shock when he realizes Pieck lured him into a trap to have Porco eat him. He quickly composes himself once the trap fails though.
  • Happens twice in the Paths chapters. Once when When he realizes Founder Ymir is ignoring his commands in favor of Zeke's and again when Zeke orders Ymir to follow through with the Euthanasia Plan.
• Older and Wiser: Zig-zagged. While the young Eren was filled with righteous fury towards his foes, as an adult he no longer sees his enemies as monsters to be exterminated. Instead, he explains to Falco how people fight because they are pushed into it by their environment, other people, or their own vision of something beyond the horror of war. However, he deliberately goes against the Survey Corps' plan during their assault on Liberio, and his rash decision causes an otherwise-flawless operation to end up with several casualties, including Sasha. Hange lampshades this, saying that his actions were "suicidal" and the Survey Corps had to bail him out for them. In short, while Eren is much more composed and intelligent, he's no less reckless.
• Old Soldier: Post-timeskip, Eren shows the grit and the grizzle associated with the trope despite being only 19. He certainly had an early start, considering he was a Child Soldier.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He isn't a maniac but does believe that genocide of humans outside Paradis is the only favorable option for survival. In Chapter 123, he unleashes the Wall Titans and starts the long-feared Rumbling. He declares his intention to achieve freedom through a global extinction, wiping out all living things outside of Paradis, as he reveals in an extended rant.
• One-Man Army: Deconstructed and frequently Subverted. The revelation that Eren can turn into a Titan immediately makes him the strongest fighter humanity has on its side and capable of killing more Titans single-handedly than most squads of trained soldiers. However, his bottomless reservoir of fury and complete absence of discipline frequently cause him to get himself way in over his head and result in the Survey Corps needing to back him up or bail him out. At times, these character flaws, combined with his general importance to the plot, cause him to be targeted by the enemy before he can even accomplish much and force the Scouts to devote all of their energy to protecting/rescuing him, making him more of a liability than a superweapon. Even when he is undoubtedly at his most capable and ruthless during the raid on Liberio, his decision to attack on his own and trust the other Scouts to think of everything else almost gets him killed multiple times—had it not been for Mikasa and Levi (who have been directly referred to as one-person armies themselves), he likely would have fallen to either the Warhammer Titan or the Jaw Titan. This all becomes moot, however, when he attains the full power of the Founding Titan, unleashing the thousands of Colossal Titans in Paradis' walls and becoming a one-man apocalypse.
• One-Winged Angel: His activation of the Founding Titan's power in the final arc results in his transformation into a massive, grotesque monster resembling a walking ribcage with another skeleton from the pelvis-up for a head. It towers over even the Wall Titans and serves as an embodiment of the Rumbling's sheer scale and destruction.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Annie is finally revealed as the Female Titan, he does not (initially) react with the typical murderous rage he shows when Titans are around — he shows a surprising amount of compassion, and is actually willing to hear her out — he simply cannot bring himself to completely dehumanize her. This highlights just how deeply he's grown to respect her.
  • The only time he completely loses hope and is unable to use his rage to get back into the game is when he's unable to transform as the Smiling Titan bears down on him and Mikasa. He does not take it well
  • His lack of resistance to the prospect of being Eaten Alive in Chapter 65 briefly takes Historia aback.
  • Played for laughs in Chapter 70 when Jean gets up to his old tricks and throws a few sarcastic remarks in Eren's direction (complete with a hilarious Troll face)... and is a little disappointed when Eren doesn't take the bait.
  • After reading his father's journals, he starts showing some very odd behavior: scowling at nothing, muttering to himself, sudden outbursts, etc. Most disturbing of all he starts having Not Himself moments where he talks like a different person. The fact that he is seeing different memories from various people has probably not done his sanity any favors.
  • After the Time Skip, this is Played for Drama. Levi, Connie, and Mikasa all comment on how this "new" Eren isn't anything like the Eren they've known over the years. His actions and behavior towards his friends leaves them baffled, and likewise confuse the audience.
  • Finally revealed in the final chapter that his personality after the Time Skip (with his change in perspective having started since the medal ceremony) was more or less him steeling himself for the the terrible duty his Future Self had set for him, forcing him to play the role of the Genocidal Super Villain that would force his friends to slay him in the end. However underneath it all, he was still the same Eren he always was. It was just buried very deeply.
• Order Versus Chaos: His obsession in gaining freedom using questionable methods puts him in the Chaos Neutral.
• Our Hero Is Dead: Gets eaten by a Titan in Chapter 4. It starts to look like a case of Decoy Protagonist, except he's Not Quite Dead. He comes back A-OK in Chapter 9 as the Rogue Titan, who ignored any humans it came across and instead slaughtered every Titan it could find.
• Out of Focus: Thanks to getting kidnapped again during the "Krista is Royalty" plotline, he goes several chapters without an appearance.
  • Happens again starting with chapter 91 as the story switches to Reiner's perspective off the island the story had taken place on up uptil that point, back at his homeland of Marley. This is later revealed to be because Eren's intentions have become a lot more complex, and a lot more dark.
• The Paragon: Invoked. He is poised as this by the military high command of the Eldians given the sheer importance of his contributions to the cause of humanity; as such, he starts being considered as the front and center of the war effort by both his followers and the common population. A problem arises with the fact that his cause and the military's begin straying from the other's path, especially when division starts appearing in the Eldian army, with a faction adopting a pro-war and pro-Eren narrative, causing the high command to be undermined as a result.
• Partial Transformation:
  • Just after Eren awakens his Shifter powers, he has trouble figuring out how they work, which leads to him accidentally Shifting just his arm when he reaches down to pick up a dropped spoon.
  • When lashing out at Hange over Historia being forced into motherhood by the government, his Titan Shifter facial ridges manifest and he not-so-subtly threatens to use his newly acquired War-Hammer Titan powers to break free and go on a rampage.
• Patricide: It's revealed that Grisha intentionally fed himself to Eren, so that his son would gain the ability to control his Titan form.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Prone to this when dealing with enemies he feels are "not human", such as the kidnappers from his childhood or the Titan Shifters. Ironically, it's after he grows out of this mindset and sees the humanity in even his oppressors that he enacts his most extreme and nigh-genocidal gambit.
• Perpetual Frowner:
  • Eren is a master frowner to say the least. His life from age ten has done little favors to ameliorate this and his anger is something to behold. Still, Eren is a kinder person than what he appears to be.
  • After the Timeskip, Eren's facial expressions pretty much consist solely of a stoic, contemplative frown or a frown rooted in extreme anger. Easily Justified, however, considering the fairly miserable life of constant warfare he's trapped in.
• Person of Mass Destruction:
  • And no, we're not referring to his Shifting powers. The Coordinate can be used to control all Titans, including the thousands of Colossal Titans that make up the Walls. In fact, this is what the First King threatened to do if his "paradise" was ever invaded; wake up the literal sleeping Giants and sic them on the rest of the world. It is perhaps fortunate that the Coordinate is particular about bloodlines, because if Eren had been able to do this before his Character Development...
  • Eren's ultimate plan is revealed to be a mass genocide on a scale unlike anything ever before seen in the series, taking full control of all Colossal Titans from within the Walls to trample upon literally everyone outside of Paradis.
  • Even after the Rumbling is started, Eren's newfound Founder Titan is still the top dog in destruction. How? It is capable of summoning every single Titan Shifter to have ever existed from the spines on it's back. And unless the original shifter had a particularly strong will, all those titans are slaved to Eren and Ymir. Back at the beginning of the series an army of a few dozen titans were terrifying; Eren is able to summon thousands of intelligent Titan Shifters, all of whom (as Connie succinctly states) were all trained for combat thanks to the Titan Wars and Marley's Warrior program.
  • Even after losing the Rib-cage form, Eren's Founding Titan comes back with one more trick up it's sleeve; it copied the power of the Colossus Titan and merged it with his own Attack Titan. Armin (in his Colossal Titan) tried to fight it only to get his skull shattered (literally) by Eren's titan's hardened fists. And if his initial transformation is any indication, Eren's titan also took the explosive transformation that made the Colossus Titan a "god of destruction".
• Pet the Dog:
  • He befriends Falco, and is relieved when the boy admits he probably won't be chosen as a Warrior. He offers encouragement and advice to the boy when he feels defeated over his training. Cruelly subverted later when it's revealed that Falco's letter deliveries were at least part of the reason Eren befriended him, and he later has no qualms nearly killing Falco as an incidental casualty. Has a small moment again for Falco when he tries telling Zeke not to scream and titanize the poisoned Eldians yet, knowing Falco is among them.
  • Later, he genuinely sympathises with Ymir Fritz, hugging her and encouraging her to be free. This is perhaps the first time anyone has ever been actually kind to the girl.
• Phlebotinum Girl: He possesses the Coordinate ability, which the king hopes to acquire by eating him.
• Physical God: After unlocking the Founding Titan's true powers, Eren reveals the only reason his former friends have any chance to stop the Rumbling is because he allows them to, stating he could rob their powers and their wills with a thought if necessary.
• Play-Along Prisoner: When he's held in prison after his attack on Libero, he angrily tells Hange that he's only still in the cell because he's cooperating with the Island. Now that he has the power of the Warhammer Titan, there's no prison in the world that could hold him against his will.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: After the truth about where his power came from is revealed, Eren loses the will to live and outright asks Historia to eat him. She doesn't, and instead gives him a good lecturing to restore his fighting spirit.
• Plot Coupon: He is in possession of the key to the Yeager residence's basement, which is believed to hold a secret that may contribute to humanity's victory against the Titans. The basement in question, however, is still located in the Titan-infested area of Wall Maria.
• Plot Magnet: He is so important that many fans want him to get captured.
  • This is somewhat subverted later on when it is revealed that a lot of Eren's apparent importance comes from the result of a number of circumstances that just happened to come together. He actually has a brief moment of I Just Want to Be Special angst from this, before being righted again.
    Eren: The instructor was right. ...I wasn't special at all. It's just... that I was the son of a special man.
  • Double subverted, as we find out in Chapter 121 that the 'circumstances' in which he got all his powers were engineered by Eren himself, from a future period.
• Power Copying: He's able to learn and effectively use one of Annie's moves after she used it against him. She's genuinely surprised when he uses it later that evening, and ends up teaching him her fighting style.
• Power Echoes:
  • In the English dub, Eren's voice becomes distorted when he's in his Titan form. In the Japanese version, his voice becomes distorted when he declares his intent to tear the Female Titan apart and devour her for killing his squad-mates.
  • During his rematch with the Female Titan in the anime, after she almost bashes his face in and takes off, Eren reaffirms his resolve to kill all Titans with his voice distorted and echoic.
• Power High: Not so much from power itself, but simply from being able to kill Titans with ease. When he first regains consciousness after having emerged from his Titan body, he sleep-talks about wanting and being able to kill so many Titans with a creepy grin on his face.
• Power Incontinence: When attempting to move the boulder during the battle of Trost, Eren suddenly lost control of his Titan and attacked Mikasa — being trapped in a dream-world of himself with his family until Armin snapped him out of it. Up until Chapter 129 it was unknown why this happened, but it was explained that this is a common risk with new Titan Shifters after Falco suddenly lost control of his Jaw Titan form after helping his friend and attacked Pieck.
• The Power of Hate: What really motivates him is his desire to eradicate every Titan on the planet. Seeing as he needs a specific goal to transform, the desire to kill is actually is the trigger to many of his transformations. Even while in the stomach of a Titan, it is his insatiable rage that manifests his powers for the first time.
  • Later on he actually laments that, unlike Armin, he started to draw so much of his strength from this, rather than from his desire to see the outside world.
• Pro-Human Transhuman: Determined to use his Titan powers for the sake of humanity. Specifically, Paradis-based humanity.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Before the attack of the Colossal Titan, Eren was always warning others that the Walls won't protect them forever. People would laugh at him and say he was crazy — Until that day...
  • Showcased again in the flashbacks of the years between the timeskip. While everyone else was marveling at the cultural and technological wonders the Marleyan volunteers brought over, Eren remained indifferent to them and stayed focused on the inevitable war with Marley and the rest of the world. Several characters like Armin and Hange were shown to be confused by his newfound pessimism, but once Marley attacks their island and Eren is forced to initiate the Rumbling, they come to understand his behavior and regret not being able to offer a better solution.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Eren begins his journey mentally unhinged but antiheroic, having already brutally killed two kidnappers as part of his and Mikasa's backstory. He grows up but develops a grudge against all the corruption he finds in society, and when he learns just how far the corruption reaches and how long it has been going on he snaps; he has a well thought out, carefully considered plan that is outright villainous even with its idealistic aims. Though exactly what is going on remains ambiguous. Over the last several months leading up to his attack on Liberio, he was secretly conspiring with Zeke's group and a rogue element within the military itself. Since being brought home, he has refused to explain himself to his old friends and even threatened them with his powers. As Paradis braces for a potential retaliation from the rest of the world for Eren's attack, his actions have also inspired a xenophobic movement that seeks to unseat the current government and restore the old Eldian Empire. With Commander Zackly's assassination coinciding with Eren breaking himself and his followers out of prison, the nation is a powder keg with Eren being set to oppose his former comrades. Finally, Eren manages to reach the mental world of the Titans, speak with the first ever titan Shifter, and gives her free reign to do whatever she wants. Including the choice to destroy the entire world by stomping on everyone with an army of freshly awakened Wall Titans... which was Eren's plan all along, to kill all non-Paradisians using the above-mentioned Colossal Titans. By Chapter 123, he has solidified his role as not a soldier fighting to stop the Titans from killing even more people, but the very force behind the Titans themselves to intentionally cause even greater catastrophes. He eventually dies as a villain who nearly destroyed all of humanity outside Paradis...and it was an outcome he had already foreseen and accepted, as he was counting on his former friends and comrades to put and stop to him and be hailed as heroes.
• Protagonist Title: His Titan form is the titular Shingeki no Kyojin. Somewhat less so in the English version, which has the Attack Titan (though a more accurate translation would be Advancing Titan) as the heroic Titan in Attack on Titan. After the Time Skip, this becomes Antagonist Title as Eren becomes one of the major villains of the series, this would render the interpretation once again "Advancing Titan", as in "The Titan that is attacking."
• Protectorate: Under Mikasa's completely unwanted protection, and, later, the Survey Corps'.
• Psycho for Hire: A heroic example. Having a job where you have to kill Titans perfectly suits a guy who craves exterminating them, no? Deconstructed massively after the Time Skip, as his madness has elevated to the point of being an Omnicidal Maniac.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Whilst assuming his Titan form during the first half of season 1 Eren displays traits of this when killing other Titans showing absolute glee about slaughtering them with no remorse. Fortunately he grows out of the psycho part but still retains some of his manchild tendencies.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • An epic one towards military higher ups in Chapter 19, calling them out on their baseless speculation about him when they haven't even seen a Titan before, and demanding that they put their faith in him.
  • He also gives one to Reiner during Chapter 43, claiming he no longer considers Reiner human after everything Reiner has done.
  • Delivers shockingly brutal ones to Armin and Mikasa of all people upon their reunion in chapter 112, explaining calmly and yet ferociously that he believes Armin has let Bertolt's memories make him "absolutely useless and soft". He then goes on to coldly dismiss Mikasa's feelings and explain that her devotion to him is nothing more than the result of experiments done on her bloodline long ago, calling her a "slave" and expressing that he's always hated her. He earns Armin's wrath for his troubles, though being bigger and stronger, he easily deals with him.
  • He delivers a brief one to Zeke, saying that Zeke is a fool if he thought Eren would be his pawn, and calling Zeke "a pathetic man still haunted by his dead father."
• Rebellious Spirit: His childhood was marked with constant battles with other children (and even adults in the Garrison), all the while calling people livestock for being content in their lives within the Walls. While he was Properly Paranoid, he continues to challenge social norms and accuse high-ranking military and government officials of being cowards.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Hot-Blooded Red Oni to Mikasa's Emotionless Girl Blue.
• Rejected Apology: Played With to "Denied Permission to Feel Remorse" in this case. Thanks to his rigid view of morality, when Reiner, the host of the Armored Titan, shows remorse for the destruction of Wall Maria and attempted destruction of Wall Rose, this only enrages Eren even further since he sees him as a monster who isn't allowed to feel any emotions. He later sincerely accepts Reiner's remorse regarding the decimation at Paradis, but doesn't stop because he needed to destroy Liberio to spur his plan.
• Required Secondary Powers: Lampshaded in regards to his power as the Rogue Titan, as he doesn't have them. It's pointed out that Eren's strength is monstrous even by Titan standards, but his body is still relatively frail like any other Titan and can't handle the force of his own punches; he tends to break his arms and hands with every landed hit. He gets better much later on, as he acquires the ability to harden his flesh like Annie and Reiner.
• Returning War Vet: While infiltrating Marley, Eren posed as a maimed and traumatized soldier returning to Liberio from Marley's Mid-East Alliance War.
• Revenge: Eren has a personal, ever-growing list of people he seeks bloody vengeance for, and every name leads back to the Titans.
  • He bears a strong grudge against Marley and others for their atrocities against the Subjects of Ymir.
  • When Thomas dies during the Battle of Trost, Eren absolutely loses it and pursues the Titan who did it to avenge his friend. It nearly cost him his life. Thankfully, his Titan-shifting powers saved him.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: You could say his entire life is one. He always wanted to join the Survey Corps, but after the Titans killed his mother, he promised to kill them all.
  • A year before that, there was his first meeting with Mikasa. His father was her family's doctor, so they were the first ones to find out that Mikasa had been kidnapped by two traffickers and her parents murdered. Eren also found out where they were before the authorities did, and went there with a knife and some serious bloodlust at the ready. Doubles as a Roaring Rampage of Rescue as well.
  • He has his biggest one yet after finding out that some of his friends were the Titans responsible for all of his suffering.
  • After transforming in Liberio and brutally killing Willy Tybur, his first order of business is wiping out the Marleyan officers all grouped together on the sidelines.
  • Chapter 123 reveals his whole plan is this against every living being outside Paradis Island, may it be Eldian, Marleyan, or anyone else.
• Rousing Speech: He gives one to his fellow cadets at graduation, declaring his resolve to fight against the Titans and inspiring several of them, including Connie and Sasha, to join the Survey Corps with him to help.
  • Gives one to Ymir Fritz, outright telling her that she has the right to make her own choices and that she doesn't have to obey anyone. The poor girl is touched by his words and starts crying.
• Sanity Slippage: While nowhere as bad as the other Shifters Eren is in need of some serious therapy. Completely justified as he watched his mother get eaten and his home razed by the things that kept him caged from seeing the outside world, and later the identities of the Colossal, Armored and Female Titans are things that would need psychiatric help to deal with...
  • Best shown when 'dreaming' (actually remembering) his rampage after becoming the Rogue Titan for the first time with a Slasher Smile on his face. Armin's expression shows that he realizes just how far off the deep end his friend has gone.
  • It reaches a boil in Chapter 89, where the characters in his memories start mentioning things that they can't possibly know, like "The Owl" mentioning Mikasa and Armin, and Grisha going "who are Mikasa and Armin" then "The Owl" going "I don't know. Whose memories are these anyway?"
  • As of Chapter 131, Eren's mind is beginning to snap as he carries out The Rumbling. While murdering innocents, he imagines himself soaring high above the clouds as a child in a state of Dissonant Serenity.
• Satanic Archetype: To the Marleyans, Eren (as the holder of the Coordinate) is effectively the leader of the Devils of Paradis, who himself usurped the "deity" of the Kings of the Walls to wage war on humanity with his hordes. The Reveal that the holders of the Attack Titan inherit their successors' memories, and that Eren has been influencing them throughout history—like the proverbial devil on the shoulder—makes him fit this idea even outside of the Marleyan propaganda. This is best exemplified when he convinces Grisha to slaughter the Reiss family.
• Saying Too Much: His restraint isn't that great even after some harsh lessons. At one point, he even mentally questions whether to keep his rant going or not during his trial but proceeds anyway. Bad idea.
  • After the Time Skip, Eren has learned to use the Unspoken Plan Guarantee to a devastating effect.
• The Scapegoat: The Tybur family's plan to destroy the Eldians living in Paradis Island is by publically revealing that King Karl Fritz, aka the First King of the Walls, was the one to end the Eldian Empire and saved the world. However that peace is now supposedly threatened by Eren because he stole the power of the Founding Titan from King Fritz's descendants turning Eren into the face of the evil Eldians living behind the Walls. Judging Eren's actions against his own comrades since the attack on Liberio hints that the Tyburs were not entirely wrong about Eren.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Without bloodhounds, gps, tracking devices, cameras, or surveillance equipment of any kind, he was able to track down Mikasa's kidnappers and Mikasa herself, alone, and at age nine. How he was able to do this is not shown.
• Scary Skeleton: His fully unleashed Founding Titan's form looks like, as Levi rather bluntly put it in Chapter 133, a "ridiculously big pile of bones" with only the barest amount of actual muscle tissue holding it together. The skeleton itself is only truly humanoid from the waist up, with the much larger lower body resembling a giant millipede made of bones.
• Schmuck Bait: Does this to Reiner when he prepares to transport the currently hand-less Eren to his hometown, in an ultimately futile attempt to break free:
  Reiner: ... We're leaving now. Eren, don't try to resist.
  Eren: (Barely containing his anger) Come on, don't get violent with me. Look at the shape I'm in. Does it look like I can resist? Please, gimme a break... (suddenly elbows Reiner in the face)
• Screaming Warrior: Eren is quite prone to this. Especially in Titan form. Mikasa even says that his roar embodies humanity's collective rage.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He insists that if he had gone to get help after tracking down Mikasa's kidnappers they would have been too late (which is likely true). With only himself and a knife there, he did the only thing he could to save her.
• Secret-Keeper: He doesn't breathe a word to anyone about his secret ability to see his future memories. Zeke learns of this ability from Grisha, but at that point, it is too late for him to stop Eren.
• Seers: The Attack Titan's unique ability is to view the memories of future successors. Grisha was able to see the memories of future Eren and was extremely terrified, but nevertheless yielded the Attack Titan to him. When Eren kissed Historia's hand, he also saw the memories of his future self, as well as the final destiny of the Eldians. Eren kept that knowledge an absolute secret and has been using the Paths to subtly influence his predecessors, especially Grisha.
• Self-Harm:
  • How Eren shifts to his Titan form; he usually bites his hand. Eren himself does not understand how he knew doing so would trigger the change. It should be noted that the bite alone isn't enough to do it (as he found out during a Survey Corps experiment), he also needs a specific impetus besides "turn into a Titan" such as "block that cannon shell".
  • Eren also punches himself in the face a few times just before the battle with Rod Reiss's titan, having come to realize that he'd let his Titan power go to his head. Mikasa and Armin become concerned, with the latter saying it's too soon for him to transform, but Eren remarks that he's beating up a useless brat.
• Self-Made Orphan: Not of his own accord, but in order to give Eren the Attack and Founding Titans, Grisha had to transform him into a pure Titan and have Eren eat him. It's later implied that Eren might have manipulated Grisha into feeding himself to him. Additionally, in the final chapter, it's implied that in order to make sure that Bertolt would live to fulfill his role in the future, Eren used the Paths to manipulate the Smiling Titan into eating Carla instead of him.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The manly man to Armin's sensitive guy.
• Shadow Archetype: To Erwin. Both men are composed, ruthless and are astute chessmasters. They are resolute and are willing to sacrifice lives to realize their personal dreams. Eren's actions are on a greater magnitude and uses the Unspoken Plan Guarantee to keep everyone in the dark. He is much more brutal and is willing to go as far as to sacrifice his cherished friendships with Mikasa and Armin.
• Shame If Something Happened: The place Eren chose to confront Reiner at was not random. When Reiner doesn't move after Eren tells him to take a seat, he (Eren) notes that there are a lot of people settling in to watch the Tybur's Play... right above them. He points up while saying the last part, letting Reiner see that there's a fresh gash on his hand, conveying the unspoken threat without immediately alerting Falco. He later makes good on this threat in order to kill Willy Tybur.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Played with. Though he's faking it to remain in the hospital, it's fair to point out that he's not that far off from being one considering what he had to go through in Paradis.
• Shirtless Scene:
  • In Chapter 53, Eren is given the honor of being the first shirtless scene in the series. It is combined with Fan Disservice, thanks to his face being melted off at the time.
  • In Chapter 61, his captors seem to have taken the time to remove his shirt before chaining him up.
• Shoot the Mage First: The "long distance armament" version, rather than magic. Eren spent months planning the Rumbling. He notes all the airbases and missile arsenals across the world and makes it his priority to destroy them first, to eliminate even the slightest threat to his Founding Titan. Armin and friends barely escape the airbase in Odiha when the horde of Wall Titans arrive there at alarming speed.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Compared to his adopted sister, who's The Stoic, The Lancer, and an Emotionless Girl.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Eren gets this treatment, both from others and from himself, with regards to Grisha Yeager's slaughter of the Reiss family. Historia very nearly kills Eren when she finds out about this, and while her reaction in a moment of rage and grief is understandable, it does seem unfair to Eren considering that he was just a child at the time and had no knowledge of what his father did. This later becomes a subversion, as through his manipulation of past events via the power of the Paths, Eren is revealed to be directly responsible for the deaths of Historia's family.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Peppers nearly every sentence with curse words, even as a little boy.
• Slasher Smile: He sported one while still asleep after his first transformation into a Titan, thinking his memories in that form were a dream. He also gets an epic one when he's one strike from slaying the Female Titan in his Titan form, though his human form is the one doing the smiling.
• Spanner in the Works: For the Warriors; As Reiner put it, he is "the worst possible person" to possess the Coordinate. There are a number of good reasons for this:
  • Eren is too much against them for them to sway him over, adding to the fact that he's a relentless and incredibly stubborn person to begin with;
  • Reiner and Bertolt respect him and care too much about him for them to subject Eren to an Undignified Death just to gain the Coordinate and their boss, Zeke, also won't go that route since Eren is his Half-brother;
  • Eren has the complete backing of the Survey Corps and he is the flag-carrier for humanity's plight;
  • Eren might not be able to use the Coordinate correctly, especially considering that he is neither a Reiss nor a Fritz;
  • There's also the possibility that Zeke might not be so keen to kill his own brother just to gain the Coordinate.
  • The most serious reason: his anger; Eren is well known for his hatred towards Titans/Shifters, and definitely not the kind of person you'd want holding an ability that could potentially wipe you all out.
  • Then there's also the fact that Eren holds the Attack Titan too, which happens to be a fighting, kicking, and biting powerhouse, and was purposely created to fight to the death for its freedom, making it a bitch to retrieve from its holder. Not even Frieda Reiss using the Progenitor Titan was able to overpower Grisha's Attack Titan, and she was a few hairs short of being a physical god. As it turned out, Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt were collectively unable to wrest it from Eren... who holds the Coordinate now, too. Crap.
  • Almost as serious is that, as revealed by Rod Reiss and by Grishia's journals and memories, the Coordinate doesn't just affect Titans; it has power over all the Eldians, namely with the ability to see and reshape their memories at will... and it's in the hands of a guy who's defining trait is having rage issues so intense that his nickname is suicidal bastard. If someone like that had a free pass to your mind, you'd probably be wary too, good intentions or not.
  • As a matter of fact, the revelation of Eren being a Titan Shifter derailed their plans in the first place, as by choosing to separate, Reiner and Bertolt left Annie to fend for herself on her own at the MPs. When push came to shove, Annie was found out without any support from her fellow Warriors because they decided to tail Eren instead. Annie's discovery in turn raised suspicion on Reiner and Bertolt themselves, making the split about the worst move they could have pulled. Good job, guys!
  • He's also the Spanner to his brother's euthanization plan, instead incorporating it in his goal to destroy the world and later betrays him and makes him a conduit to generate the Titans.
• Spare to the Throne: Invoked and played with. Curiously enough, Eren is considerably removed from the definition of the trope for someone actually associated to it. His father Grisha was married to Dina Fritz, the last remaining member of the Eldian Royal Family that stayed in Marley, making Grisha a royal by marriage only (and not by blood); this separates Eren by two degrees, as he's Grisha's son from his second marriage. Also, Eren carries the Coordinate, the power of the Progenitor Titan that basically makes the King of the Eldians "King" in the first place... only that Eren is not a royal himself and cannot use it for crap unless he comes in contact with a royal Titan, or said royal devours him. As a matter of fact, Eren has made a point not to mention anything regarding Dina to the Military establishment at the Walls because this might put Historia's life in danger, as Dina herself was Titanized precisely to prevent the parties in question to misuse her royal blood, and Historia is a royal, too.
  • Eren takes a third option, though. He went into the Paths and convinced Ymir to not listen to the Royals any more, leading to her letting him use the full power of the Founding Titan. And it was revealed Eren was in the position to do so because it was him who ordered Grisha to kill the Royal Family.
• Spotting the Thread: Invoked and subverted. When he first sneaks into Liberio, he is using the armband that identifies him as an Eldian on the wrong arm. Falco notices, but assumes the error to have happened due to war-induced trauma and puts it on the correct arm for him. Overall, Eren is not found out, even after telling Falco that he was faking his trauma. Another thread that Falco doesn't catch until it's too late is that if Eren met Reiner more than four years ago, he most likely did so while Reiner was on the island of Paradis, meaning that he's an Eldian and Reiner's enemy.
• Spring Cleaning Fever: Eren is shown to thoroughly clean any new place he winds up in, not because he likes cleaning, but because of his experience with Levi.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Mikasa. The final chapter reveals that he does return her feelings and would love nothing more than to start a relationship with her. Unfortunately, circumstances outside of their control separate the two, and Mikasa is ultimately left with no choice but to kill him to save humanity.
• The Stoic: Eren's most notable change is his temperament. In stark contrast to his old self, he's become a very withdrawn and calculating individual.
• Story-Breaker Power: Eren slowly acquires more and more Titan abilities on top of the Attack Titan, such as the Founding and Warhammer, the latter of which is likely the most useful combat-wise. It is later revealed that the Attack Titan has the ability to transcend time through its successive holders, an ability that even surpasses the Founding Titan in many ways. Finally, in Chapter 122, he gains full control of the Founding Titan's power.
• Strong Family Resemblance: His face is almost identical to his mother's. Curiously, his half-brother Zeke looks exactly like their father Grisha. After the Time Skip he still bears a striking resemblance to his mother, but Isayama states that he's starting to more heavily resemble his father as he matures.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: His eyes are sometimes colored this way in the manga, to emphasize his unusual abilities.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Initially, he is unable to control his Titan form and viciously attacks Mikasa. Armin manages to get through to him, and he's since learned how to control himself. In the anime, he goes berserk a second time while fighting the Female Titan, proclaiming he'll destroy the world and nearly eating Annie, only to be stopped by the sight of her crying.
• Super Serum: Got his powers after Grisha's injection. But not all of them.
• Super-Soldier: His Titan powers have the potential to make him one, and he is treated as humanity's trump card. When announcing the plan to reclaim Trost, Pixis invokes this trope as a cover story to explain away Eren's powers to the masses — stating that he is the result of a secret government experiment to create a Super-Soldier.
• Survival Mantra: "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!!"
• Sword over Head: In the anime adaptation, Eren, while in a murderous craze, has the opportunity to either capture or outright finish off Annie during their fight, but he instead hesitates, allowing Annie to crystalize herself.
• Sympathetic Murder Backstory: Played with. He once murdered two men to rescue Mikasa, but this is later used by the Military Police Brigade to paint him as dangerous.
• Sympathy for the Devil: His confrontation with Reiner does not go as anyone expected, having learned the truth about the Warriors. Eren expresses understanding and even sympathy for them, recognizing them as children that were lied to their entire lives and then tasked with (supposedly) saving the entire world. He acknowledges them as victims of their circumstances, even telling Reiner that he understands now how much they must have suffered the entire time. Reiner tries to reject Eren's sympathy, insisting that he was to blame for everything and begging for death. However, this sympathy and understanding doesn't stop Eren from doing to Reiner's hometown what Reiner did to his. He might have not destroyed Liberio at all, if his alternative plans had any chance to work.

T – Z

• Teeth Flying: During his trial, Levi kicks him so hard in the face that a tooth comes flying out immediately- although, thanks to his Healing Factor, it grows back in a few minutes. This also tends to happen to him in his Titan form a lot, as he often loses several teeth every time he takes a punch to the face from a fellow shifter. Probably a natural consequence of his tendency to fight with his jaw wide open while screaming (though to be fair, his Titan's teeth are exposed even when he's not yelling due to its lack of lips).
  • Levi also knocks half of Eren's teeth out of his mouth when the latter tries to take the Titan serum from Levi after the Battle of Shiganshina.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Eren spends the first episode consistently telling everyone he knows that the Titans could breach the walls at any moment despite them having been kept out for the last 100 years. So, of course, guess what happens before the day is even over?
  • After graduating, Eren says something along the lines of "Now we'll be ready if the Titans attack today!" Needless to say, they weren't.
• Thanatos Gambit: Downplayed. In Chapter 139, Eren tells Armin that he orchestrated the Rumbling so that when his friends stop him, they would be hailed as heroes by the outside world and use that leverage to protect Paradis Island. However, this outcome is less of a thought-out plan that necessitates his death, and more trying to save face in front of Armin; in reality, Eren truly believed he would exterminate all of humanity before he learned he would be stopped, and even with this plan, he acknowledges that all it would do is make it so the war between Paradis and the outside world would not be a Curb-Stomp Battle in the latter's favor.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: When Willy Tybur announces him as the enemy of humanity and declares war on him and the Devils of Paradis, Eren tells Reiner that he might as well answer as such, if that's what they want. He proceeds to transform, destroying the building over him and killing hundreds of innocents. In Chapter 123, Eren is clearly exasperated with the rest of the world continuously labelling the Paradis citizens as devils that need to be mercilessly slaughtered, without even considering their condition. He is also appalled by the discrimination Subjects of Ymir have to face at the hands of Marley and other nations just because they were born as such. Eren decides to play according to that prejudice and confirms the worst fears of the world by unleashing the Colossal Titans to exterminate most of the human race.
• This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: Invoked. Connie is furious at the fact that Eren laughed when Sasha died. This is so blatant, so deeply offending, and so opposed to his previous declaration of love towards his friends that Mikasa falls short on trying to defend Eren.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: As he sees the Titan that killed his mother five years ago slowly approaching him in Chapter 49.
  • Becomes a near permanent part of his appearance by the Marley arc. Ravaged by his apocalyptic future memories and his experiences in trench warfare, Eren gives off a distant, hawk-like stare as his default facial expression, only dropping from this during moments of intense emotion.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In Chapter 41, Eren finally gets to kill a Titan (as a human) just like he's always wanted. Notably, this doesn't have any real story importance and he's promptly told to step back.
• Token Super: Eren is the only human member of the Survey Corps who can turn into a Titan. This makes him the trump card of the military defending the town against Titan attacks.
• Took a Level in Badass: Quite a few times. The first was awakening his Titan Shifter powers, and the second time was awakening his "Coordinate" power, which allows him to command all normal Titans.
  • In Chapter 66, Eren upgrades his Titan by eating a serum labelled "Armored" after choosing to act and fight against Rod Reiss's Titan.
  • During the attack on Liberio, Eren devours the Warhammer Titan and obtains its powers. This makes him so strong that he can thrash both the Armored and Jaw Titans simultaneously.
  • Takes a bigger one after unlocking the full potential of the Founding Titan. His form dwarves the above-mentioned Warhammer Titan look like a fly as he gains the ability to bio-manipulate all Eldians simultaneously. He also gains the ability to remove the Shifters of their powers making a potential conflict useless, as well as complying the Titans of the past to attack his friends if necessary.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: As an adult, Eren has become a cold and ruthless person fully willing to Kick the Dog to further his unknown goals. This includes manipulating vulnerable children, causing his own grandfather to suffer a breakdown, and viciously insulting Mikasa and Armin.
  • Chapter 139 reveals that he is forced to act cold and harsh towards his former allies so that they can muster the courage to kill him and learn to move on in their lives after his death. Deep down he's actually the same Eren we knew in the beginning of the series — kind, headstrong and selfless who fought for the freedom and happiness of his comrades and Eldian's.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: He gets eaten, then Titan-shifts for the first time within the Titan's stomach. The results of an unintentional Eat Me are not pretty.
• Touch Telepathy: A minor example, but the memories he inherited from his titan powers tend to spring up when he touches Historia. Though they sometimes show up without being in physical contact, the most clear ones seems to appear when he touches her.
• Tragic Dream: From the beginning of the manga, his biggest dream is to eliminate the Titan scourge so that he can finally leave the Walled Society and be free to experience all the natural wonders of the world with his friends. That dream grows more distant and twisted as it is continuiously blocked by titan shifters, Paradis' government, and even humanity itself beyond the walls. Eventually, he decides the only way to save his loved ones and achieve his dreams is to exterminate all life beyond the walls using the titans that he despised his whole life. In the end, while he did achieve his dream of eliminating the titans, it came at the cost of 80% of humanity, being remembered forever as the world's worst mass murderer, and finally the end of his own life.
• Tragic Hero: Every single attempt Eren makes at a step forward is met by constant set-backs and horrific deaths of others that break him down increasingly further and further. His inability to set aside his inhuman rage and yearning for his vision of freedom results in him and others suffering immensely, eventually degenerating him into a Tragic Villain.
• Tragic Keepsake: In the Attack on Titan 2 canon, he keeps Kare's sketchbook/journal following the latter's Heroic Sacrifice to save him and the rest of the Survey Corps recruits in the game's epilogue level.
• Tragic Villain: He recognizes that the Rumbling is an inhumanly cruel and grotesque solution that is temporary at best, but he genuinely can't conceive of a solution that requires less mass death and chaos as a result of his emotional trauma, self-loathing, and obsession with the abstract idea of 'freedom'.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Eren remains calm and in control during the confrontation with Reiner, probably to keep from alarming Falco, and even shows surprising empathy at times. But it's also clear that he has some mad left over. When Reiner didn't move after he was told to sit, Eren made a subtle threat against the dozens of civilians in the building above them, and showed that he'd already slit his hand in preparation to transform. Later on, when Reiner worked up the nerve to ask a question, he shot it down with some choice words.
  "Why?" Really? You don't get it? I'm the same as you. I didn't have any other choice. That's why."
  • This seems to be his new go-to method of expressing his anger after the Timeskip in general. Despite his calm tone, he is furious with Armin allowing Bertolt's memories to affect his judgement over the years, openly deeming him to be worthless.
  • He's also angered when his friends choose to fight him regardless of him committing the Rumbling in order to safeguard them, but respects their conviction to stop him and save the world. He calmly tells them he does everything according to his own will and dares them to stop him.
• Trapped in Villainy: Invoked, and overlapping with This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!. Eren berates Hange, and thus the military junta, for forcing him into this and then acting high and mighty, as if they hadn't strong-armed him through their inaction regarding the prospect of Historia being forced to produce heirs by following Zeke's plans for the Paradian Eldians and their allies. Eren has had to attack Liberio, killing hundreds and wreaking havoc, stating that at the very least he was able to achieve something by obtaining the War-Hammer Titan rather than achieving nothing like they have. He clearly didn't want to commit mass genocide on a whole other level, but he is forced to reach this answer after seeing the world's hatred of the Eldians.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia:
  • The gap in Eren's childhood memories is revealed to be the result of him suppressing the memories of his father's death.
  • He's faking Amnesia to remain committed to the veterans' hospital, and admits as such to Falco.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening:
  • The first time he shifts into Titan mode is inside another Titan's stomach with 2 limbs missing, screaming that he will kill every last Titan. This kid does not give up.
  • Awakens his ability as the "Coordinate" after Hannes' death, allowing him to command normal Titans.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: As a child, he killed two grown men to save a kidnapped Mikasa and showed no remorse. He even effectively deleted it from his memories, and the scene is only told from other people's perspective, even the parts no one else alive was there for.
• True Companions: He, Mikasa, and Armin are this, being close-knit childhood friends who have risked their lives for each other on many occasions while in the military. That said, after the Time Skip, Eren's personality shift and cruelty toward his friends are straining their bonds.
• Übermensch: Becomes this after the Time Skip. Eren staunchly prioritizes his ideals, follows his own rules and doesn't give a damn about anything else. Ethics, morals, laws, friendship, innocent lives... none of these matter to him anymore.
• The Unchosen One: Eren eventually finds out that he only gained his powers because his father ate Historia's sister Frieda and then fed himself to Eren. Learning from Rod Reiss that he was never special and that (according to him) he was actively holding humanity back broke him to the point that he was willing to allow Historia to eat him and regain the Coordinate.
• Undying Loyalty: Even unconsciously, he will protect Mikasa and Armin. It's a fundamental part of who he is.
  • Apparently subverted post-Time Skip. Eren decides to commit genocide against the rest of the world, which Mikasa and Armin don't agree with and try to stop him. Eren makes it clear to his friends that while he doesn't want to kill them, he will not hesitate to do so should they decide to stand against him. Double Subverted when it turns out that Eren wanted Mikasa and Armin to kill him, and was most likely holding back against them.
• The Unfettered: Pre Time Skip, Eren had always been willing to go to extremes for the sake of his goals and had little compunction with brutally killing those he felt deserved it, but he reserved violence for direct enemies. Civilain and military casualties of his Titan fights deeply disturbed him. Post Time Skip has now completely embraced his darker tendencies in order to end the war with Marley once and for all coldly transforming into his Titan Form in order to kill Willy Tyber, undeterred by the amount of collateral damage or innocent civilians he killed in order to do so. Not even child victims seemed to get his attention. This is in stark contrast to rest of the 104th's (except Floch) who try to limit their attacks to just the soldiers when possible and look saddened when they are sometimes forced to kill innocent people.
  Eren: I'll just keep moving forward... 'till I killed my enemies.
• The Unreveal: It's not quite known how Eren never manifested his Titan powers for years on end after his father imbued him with the Attack Titan, especially considering that he is such a willful and belligerent person to begin with. However, prior to Trost, Eren had never experienced such physical trauma as he did when he was devoured by the Bearded Titan. After the dust had settled, even the mere act of trying to grab a spoon could trigger Titanization on him.
• Unscrupulous Hero: He may be a Horrifying Hero and his Titan Shifter form causes a lot of destruction, but it's that same power that makes him one of humanity's biggest Hope Bringers. It gets worse post-Time Skip. He will now go to any lengths executing his master plan of ensuring Paradis Island's safety and he will slaughter innocents without compunction.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee:
  • After obtaining his future self's memories, he never once discussed a single detail of his own hidden agendas to anyone—not Mikasa, not Armin, not Zeke, nor anyone else in the Survey Corps. It all pays off. He pretty much gets everything he'll ever need to end the war against Marley and then some. And to realize that the readers of the story didn't have any clue what his goal was, until it was far too late.
  • Later played with. About ten months ago, Eren had disclosed his true goal to only Floch and Historia. While Floch pledged unswerving loyalty to Eren, it is unknown how Eren got Historia to cooporate, especially when Historia had disagreed with him.
• Unstoppable Rage: His rage is a terrifying thing. Annie is noticeably frightened at several points during their battles, and during the mission to capture her, she abandons her mission to kidnap Eren (a thought that terrifies her comrades) and attempts to scale Wall Sina with her bare hands once he comes out swinging.
  • This is made even more apparent in the anime, where An Arm and a Leg have been broken off of his body in the second fight between him and Annie, and he's set aflame, he comes out running and crushes her skull. Damn.
  • After getting his arm and leg bitten off and while in the gut of a Titan he takes a moment to freak out before declaring that he WILL murder every last Titan.
• The Usurper: Willy Tybur publicly poises Eren as such, being the holder of the Coordinate his father Grisha appropriated from their rightful holders, the Eldian Royal Family. In Paradis, his followers poise him too as the rightful leader of the Eldians against the military junta under Historia, and also against the foreign enemies of the Eldians.
  • Played straight when he orchestrates the Jaegerists' coup d'etat against the military junta, placing himself as the de-facto dictator of Paradis Island.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: In Chapter 84, Eren finally gives Bertolt the excruciating death he promised him by having him get eaten by a Titanized Armin in order to steal his Titan-shifting abilities. However, Bertolt's final moments consisted of screaming, crying, and begging anyone to come and save him, no different than any other person caught in a Titan's grasp. Eren clearly doesn't look even remotely happy about it, despite everything that Bertolt has done.
  • In his Villainous BSoD, Eren is clearly not happy decimating innocent people to safeguard Paradis's, so much that he unconsciously ignores the massacre he's committing and hallucinates himself to be an innocent young kid.
• Vigilante Man: He hunted down and killed human traffickers, taking the law into his own hands. That he was a child at the time and the brutality of his actions left the authorities shaken.
• Villain Has a Point: While Eren's Final Solution is morally indefensible, he has proper reasons for doing so. No matter how much Paradis implores for peace, most nations insist on denouncing them as devils that need to be exterminated. Worse, Marley and other nations were planning an all out strike on Paradis, much sooner than expected. As Paradis is at a huge disadvantage in terms of technology, resources, and population and unable to gain any foreign allies, the island would inevitably fall to a full assault. To ensure the survival of his people, Eren has come to believe he has no choice but to wipe out humanity outside of the Walls. This is also acknowledged In-Universe by the remaining protagonists after he goes rogue: while they find Eren's plan unacceptable and are resolved to stop him at any cost, they admit that Eren wasn't wrong about his assessment of their worsening situation and nobody allied with them had any viable alternative solutions.
• Villainous BSoD: In Chapter 131, after finally initiating the Rumbling, the emotional toll of massacring millions of innocents proves to be too much for Eren to handle in the moment. As somewhat of a defense mechanism, he retreats into his own mind and hallucinates that he's a child again freely soaring across the skies the planet like he always wanted. Willfully oblivious to the horror he is unleashing on the land beneath him.
  Eren: For the sake of the island, the Eldians... No, it wasn't just that... What was really beyond the walls... it was different from what I dreamed of... From what I saw in Armin's book... it was different... When I learned that humanity lived outside the walls... I was disappointed. I... I wished... for everything to somehow disappear. I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...
• Villain Protagonist: Degenerates into this after the Time Skip, to the point of casually murdering women and children in his attempts against Marley, and verbally abusing Mikasa and Armin. And then fully embraces this role once his role in influencing his own father comes to light.. Interestingly, the more he slips into this, the less the story actually follows his point of view, to the point that focus shifts to everyone else after he unveils his genocidal plan, enhancing the horror.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Eren enjoys strong support of the Paradis public, hailed as the messiah who will usher a new era for the Eldian empire. They are aware that Eren has killed Marleyan civilians, but they justify that Marley has done the same to other nations. Eren was merely giving them a taste of their own medicine. Also Eren has taken the government and military hostage, and people support him because the government was irresolute.
• Walking Spoiler: Revealed to be this in chapter 121. The Attack Titan's ability is to utilize the Paths to surpass time itself and see the future. Eren uses that ability to rouse his father into killing the Reiss family, and this happened chronologically BEFORE Eren had actually inherited the Attack Titan. To Zeke's horror, Eren reveals that for the past four years, he was always aware of the ultimate fate of the Eldians, something he concealed from literally everyone and that he will execute it. Eren had gone back in time to show Grisha glimpses of the future. Whatever it was, Grisha was so terrified of the future memories that he used the Paths to plead Zeke to prevent Eren from committing it. With the confirmation of his plan to kill every single living thing outside of Paradis in Chapter 123, he officially reaches into this status.
• War Is Hell: He explicitly calls it this while talking with Falco, stating no one would want to fight if they knew ahead of time how it would destroy them.
• Watching Troy Burn: He, Mikasa and Armin had to evacuate from Shiganshina, the first district to fall into Titan hands after a hundred years of volatile peace. Coupled with the loss of his mother, his response was to swear revenge.
• We Meet Again: To the Colossal Titan:
  Eren: Hey, there....it's been five years.
• We Will Meet Again: Once the Survey Corps are forced to leave Liberio after their attack, Eren tells Reiner that the two of them will meet once more on the battlefield.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Confirmed to be one in Chapter 123, though his means are far too warped for it to be portrayed positively. His goal is still to protect the people of Paradis... but through his manipulation of the events of the series, including his own past, he aims to do so by killing every single living thing outside of the island to ensure their continued survival. Even his real goal being that of ensuring peace between Paradis and the rest of the world ends in the extermination of 80% of humanity. However, the full degree to which this is his actual intention is questioned in chapter 131, placing him between this and a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Several characters call him out on his unwillingness to fight Annie once she's revealed as the Female-type because of the high death toll the unchecked rampage causes. In the anime version, later, Armin calls him out on his seconds-long hesitancy to capture her, which lead to Annie encasing herself in her Crystal Prison.
  • Mikasa (and later Hange) admonishes him for carrying out the attack on Liberio, killing hundreds of innocent men, women and children.
  • Eren himself berates Hange for not finding an alternative to Zeke's plan in the negotiations with the Military Volunteers, which involves Historia resuming the rule of the Kings of Eldia to produce an heir. As such, with the time running out, Eren is forced to attack Liberio, with no one offering even a slight glimpse of a way out.
• What You Are in the Dark: Listening to Willy Tybur's expository speech, Eren notes that he understands exactly how Reiner felt and that he understands that the people of Marley are just people who have been brainwashed by years of propaganda... but this doesn't stop him from turning into the Attack Titan, bursting out of an occupied building to assassinate Willy Tybur.
• Whipped: Played for Laughs and played with (because they're not married). He puts a brave face everywhere he goes, and will fight tooth and nail against anyone that looks at him funny... except for Mikasa. He never expects her to kick his ass, and he turns into jello whenever she does it. It's fair to point out that he ultimately cannot not expect such things from a person that babies him like she does. As a matter of fact, Mikasa is the only character that warrants Eren to want to stop and talk it over before picking a fight, and it never works.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: He is pretty idealistic, thinking humanity could still beat the Titans. And believing no matter how many times the Survey Corps fails, they at least bring back information mankind can use. Sadly, this is lost after Eren learns that humanity not only thrives, but actively hates them, Eldians/The Subjects of Ymir.
• Wild Card:
  • It's implied that Eren acted without the full approval of the military command back at Paradis in order to strong-arm the Survey Corps into assisting him at Liberio. It does appear that the Survey Corps had drafted plans for the invasion going by their strategic movements during the battle at Liberio, but were still weighing on the risks by the time Eren set his foot in Marley's borders. Chapter 105 confirms Eren acted without approval from the Survey Corps, and they only knew to come up with a plan of attack because he warned them he would do it with or without their help.
  • In Chapter 108, his 104th friends speculate that Eren might not be operating based on their well-being anymore, even discussing the possibility that they would have to allow him to be eaten should he be proven treacherous.
  • Played with. Upon his unilateral and unauthorized attack on Liberio, Eren is no longer playing for the Eldian establishment anymore, escaping from custody and later capturing the Survey Corps with the troops that he swayed to his side. While the military and the Corps speculate that Eren is being manipulated by Zeke, judging by the strong anti-Marley sentiment of his troops, and by the fact that Eren himself is still vocal about referring to the Warriors as the "enemy", the possibility that Eren was completely swayed by Zeke is just as iffy as the rest of his actions.
  • Chapter 121 - 123 shows the Deconstruction of having such a massive Wild Card, as the Survey Corps and the Yeagerist faction were too busy pointing guns at each other, while giving a pass to the 'manipulated Eren', leaving him free to set up releasing all the Wall Titans on the world, as well as subtly shaping the manga, which only happened because Zeke and others had massively underestimated Eren.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Eren starts off the series a passionate Wide-Eyed Idealist with a reckless streak who gets broken down over the course of the series, to the point where by Chapter 123 he pretty much enacts a plan to commit mass genocide on a truly insurmountable scale, all for the purpose of obtaining freedom for himself and the other Eldians trapped on Paradis.
• The World Is Just Awesome: In-universe, it's hearing about the fascinating and weird aspects of the outside world like never ending pools of water, entire fields of ice and sand, and burning water that drive Eren to want to leave the safety of the Walls. By the time of the main story, it's the other part of his raison d'etre aside from murdering every single Titan: Eren wants to venture out into the world simply because it is the awe-inspiring world he was born into.
  • Unfortunately, by the time he reaches the sea shore, Eren has gone through so much trauma and has become jaded. Over the next four years, Eren is disappointed with reality where nations promote racial violence against the Subjects of Ymir. Eren loses all hope for peace and decides to destroy all life outside of Paradis.
  • His final stance on the matter is clarified via flashback in Chapter 131. Though it is not his primary reason at all. He simply wishes for a world where his friends and people are no longer in danger and expresses great remorse in the lives lost.
    Eren: When I learned humanity existed beyond the walls, I was...so disappointed.
• World's Strongest Man: After the Time Skip, Eren was already among the strongest Titan shifters, but after acquiring absolute control over the Founding Titan, he is practically a god. Eren's new Titan form far surpasses the size of the Colossus Titan. Not only that, he is able to command hundreds and thousands of mindless Colossus Titans to march and destroy all nations outside of Paradis. He can also disintegrate Reiner's armor and shatter Annie's crystal through willpower alone. He can even summon previous incarnations of the previous Nine Titans with all their abilities. Even after the destruction of his Founding Titan body, Eren is still able to reform one last Titan body as huge as the Colossal Titan and easily overpower Armin's own Colossal Titan.
• Worthy Opponent: Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie genuinely respect and seem to care for him, regardless of circumstances requiring that they are enemies.
• Would Hurt a Child: While he isn't actively seeking to harm children, he accepts the possibility that they will die as a result of his actions. Several are killed when he transforms underneath an occupied apartment building, and more die during the battle between Eren and the War Hammer. He also knowingly endangers Falco, manipulating him in a manner that will get his entire family executed if discovered and later transforms with Falco standing close to him, though he might've known that Falco wouldn't get caught and that Reiner would transform to save him.
  • In a more direct vein, remember the moment when Historia and Hange speculated the murder of the innocent Reiss children by Grisha, a doctor as a necessary sacrifice to save the world from Titan oppression? Turns out Grisha was actually willing to let the Reiss family escape as he didn't wish to kill the kids. Those murders were Eren's direct orders.
  • He probably hasn't any qualms with this trope anymore, as his goal is to exterminate all life outside the Walls, including children.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • He has no problem headbutting with Mikasa.
  • He punched Annie when he was fighting with her in titan form.
  • He murders Lady Tybur in a grisly manner, inheriting her Warhammer Titan.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: What makes Eren so dangerous is that he holds both the Attack and Founding titans, which have historically been mortal adversaries and seen as the polar opposite of one another. The Attack titan relentlessly seeks freedom and typically acts a lone wolf, while the Founding titan has been held by the Eldian ruler and has the power to bend the entire Eldian popoulation to its will.
• You Are What You Hate:
  • The first variation—he genuinely did not know about his Titan-shifting capabilities. Yet once he gets over the initial shock, he seems to take it in stride for the most part, and wants to use his Titan form for the betterment of humanity.
  • Though it's hinted in previous chapters, in Chapter 112 it's implied that Eren has fallen to the Attack Titan's will as a relentless seeker of freedom, betraying the Eldian military, his comrades and his best friends, due to the fact that they have become "slaves" in his mind. It goes to show that Eren Kruger's statement to Grisha was not only true, but was also a warning: the Attack Titan will always seek to be free. This is later subverted. Eren is not controlled by his Attack Titan predecessors, but it is the other way around: he was controlling the actions of his predecessors especially his own father, Grisha.
    • In the same vein, Eren lectures Armin about the role of memories in forming a person's identity and how Bertolt's memories are influencing Armin. However, Eren doesn't bring up how the memories of the people who have become a part of him (Grisha, Kruger, Frieda Reiss, Lady Tybur etc.) are influencing him.
  • Eventually it all comes to a head as Eren uses mental time travel to cause half the plot by manipulating Grisha into killing the Reiss family and forcing Eren to eat him. Then Eren frees the Founder Ymir Fritz, which gives her a free reign to reawaken and control every Titan in the world.
  • The irony of it all is Eren is a slave to his own desire for freedom as Armin points out after their brawl. This hits a real nerve with Eren because he knows Armin is more right than even he knows.
• You Are Worth Hell: While facing seemingly certain death together, Eren has declared that everything he's done for Mikasa he'd be willing to do all over again. Inverted by Eren himself, as he confesses to her and Armin that he hated her at first sight, as he was just using her as a bodyguard. And then later double Inverted when Zeke reveals that Eren's lines about Mikasa's supposed "Ackermann slave programming" was a big lie in order to drive Armin and Mikasa away so they would not try to stop him from initiating the Rumbling.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Via fully unlocking the ability to witness the memories of all the Attack Titan's wielders, including those of his future self, Eren realizes that ultimately he has no choice but to initiate the Rumbling in order to achieve a Bittersweet Ending for his friends. This realization, particularly in how his future self had manipulated nearly everything to reach this point, more than just about anything else is what breaks him.
• You Killed My Father: Drops this on Bertolt in Chapter 46, telling him that a chunk of Wall Maria landed on his house, breaking his mother's legs and leaving her unable to run. The seemingly-cold response he gets only infuriates him further, and Eren vows to kill him as slowly and painfully as possible. He eventually delivers on that promise in Chapter 84 by feeding Bertolt to a Titanized Armin, though by that point he finds no satisfaction in doing so. And then turned on its head in the Grand Finale, where Eren reveals he learned through his future memories that he himself manipulated the events so that his mother would get killed, specifically stopping the Smiling Titan from trying to eat Bertolt after it spotted him and sending it towards his mother, all to give his younger self motivation.
• You Monster!: His reaction upon discovering Reiner and Bertolt's true identities, stating that he wants to puke. He later delivers a screaming rant to Reiner, calling him an inhuman monster with no right to feel guilt over his actions. Part of his Character Development is noting that they had no choice in their actions and noting that they indeed are similar, as they are willing to commit the worst crimes to protect their loved ones.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Coolly tells Pieck that she is unauthorized to shoot him, or else her family would pay the price.
• Younger Than They Look: After the Time Skip, while he doesn't look old per-se (and is, in fact, as fresh-faced and Bishōnen as ever), he has a very mature and world-weary look to him that makes it hard to believe he's still just 19 years old. Being a Child Soldier in a cruel world can have that effect on a person it seems.
• Your Answer to Everything: Annihilating all of the Titans. It becomes "freedom" or "to be free" post Time Skip.
• Your Days Are Numbered: As revealed in Chapter 88, anyone who inherits one of the nine original Titans abilities die thirteen years after inheriting due to Ymir Fritz dying thirteen years after she obtained her powers. As such Eren has approximately eight years left to live, so long as the statement is true. Chapter 91 shortened that to four. In the end, he dies before that limit by Mikasa's hands.
• You Will Know What to Do: The last time they saw each other, Grisha told him that the only way to make full use of a certain "power" was to take back Wall Maria and find the "truth" in the basement of their old home. After Eren finally gets to the basement and learns about Marley and the rest of the world, his personality changes drastically to the point where no one recognizes him anymore presumably due to acquiring the necessary memories to complete his father's mission.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Eren tells Armin that by performing the Rumbling, Paradis and the outside world will be on equal grounds so that the conflict will not be a Curb-Stomp Battle. In addition, Armin and their friends will become heroes for turning against the island of devils and stopping the Rumbling and use that leverage to protect Paradis for retaliation. Armin's clearly not happy about this, but he ultimately shoulders the burden of the Rumbling, and with Eren wiping his friends' memories of his confessions, he allows that all to come to pass.

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"Look for me in Hell. I'll be waiting."