Eren Yeager

### What Makes Them Sympathetic

Protecting Mikasa from three kidnappers before giving her his scarf to keep her warm.
Eren was forced to watch as his mother died right in front of him before he was then forced to eat his own father to be turned into a titan.
Making himself a mass murderer so that his friends can live the rest of their lives in peace.

### Type of Villain

Cataclysmic Anti-Villain

**Eren Yeager** is the main protagonist of the *Attack on Titan* series. He is a former member of the Survey Corps, the leader of the Yeagerists, the last inheritor of the **Attack Titan** and later revealed to be the **Founding Titan** as well. Later in the story, he becomes the inheritor of the **War Hammer Titan**. He serves as Reiner Braun's archenemy and is the half-brother of Zeke Yeager.

While initially presented as a heroic protagonist, Eren gradually becomes more of a morally ambiguous anti-villain by committing several violent acts and global genocide, for what he claims to be for the sake of Eldia.

He is voiced by Yūki Kaji in Japanese and by Bryce Papenbrook in English (Both of whom also voice Zeldris in *The Seven Deadly Sins*). He was played by the late Haruma Miura in the live-action film adaption of *Attack on Titan*.

## What makes him sympathetic?

* Eren always dreamed of freedom and had a strong determination to escape the walls of Paradis Island, even before the Titans’ attack.
* Eren witnessed his mom being eaten alive by one of the Titans attacking his hometown, Shiganshina, when he was just 10 years old.
* Ironically, his father, Grisha Yeager, abandoned him just a couple moments from his mother’s death.
* He took revenge for his mother’s death by hating on Titans and wanted to irradicate all Titans in the world.
* Eren deeply cared about his family (especially his mom) and his 2 childhood friends, Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman (despite he betrayed to the latter two on Season 4).
* Eren was sympathized for Armin’s vision of seeing the ocean, which become the reason why Armin is being bullied by a local gang.
* Eren saved Mikasa from the human-trafficking bandits that had killed both of her parents, and finally convinced his father to adopt her as his foster sister.
* Later when he was 15, Eren joined the Survey Corps, driven by the same ambition as why he hated Titans.
* His father injected Eren with the Titan serum in his childhood so that Eren would inherit his father’s Titan powers.
* Eren sacrificed himself to be eaten by a Titan so that Armin would not be eaten by it, just before he transformed into a Titan himself for the first time.
* In his Titan form, Eren saved Mikasa from being eaten by a Titan at Trost.
* Eren contributed in the fight against the Female Titan, which by this he gained trust by the Survey Corps, despite he regretted that most of the comrades died.
* Eren was sympathized for Christa Lenz after her reveal as Historia Reiss and even complimented her for being more assertive.
* Eren saw two of his peers, Reiner Braun and Berthold Hoover, betrayed him and revealed themselves as the Armored Titan and Colossal Titan.
* After he found out that his father stole the Founding Titan from the Reiss family, he willingly sacrificed himself to be eaten by Historia so that she could get her supposed-to-have powers back, which Historia eventually refused to do.
* Despite his decision to destroy 80% of humanity outside Paradis, Eren didn't actually want this to happen. Instead, Eren viewed the rest of the world as victims of brainwashing, like what stated on his conversation with Reiner in Liberio.
* As what he stated before the Rumbling started, Eren did the Rumbling to protect his friends and the people of Paradis, not for his own savior.
* Eren didn't steal other Titan Shifters' powers post-Rumbling because he wanted them to be the ones killing him.
* Eren made himself a mass murderer post-Rumbling, so that the world will view him as the devil and his friends would be able to live peacefully.