The creator of Attack on Titan didn’t intend for Eren to enjoy the popularity he does today

A character that started off as a short-tempered kid is now the most talked-about character in the world of anime (spoilers ahead)

With just a few months left for the Attack on Titan manga to end, all eyes are on the soldiers from Eldia as they plan to stop Eren from destroying the world.

The final season of the anime is also going on currently, and longtime fans are looking ahead in shock at the drastic change in the protagonist Eren Yeager. While the hype surrounding the anime is rising, many no longer support Eren after his attack on Marley, the neighbouring empire that had been launching titans that laid waste to Eren’s homeland Eldia.

What the creator said

Eren’s dwindling popularity doesn’t cause any concern for the manga creator Hajime Isayama. During an interview in 2017, Isayama spoke with Weekly Shōnen Magazine and expressed his surprise at how popular Eren became.

About the character, Isayama said that the story needs to exist to make him “alive” or in other words, he’s a slave to the story. He admitted that Eren was created without any liveliness, and all his hot-tempered behaviour we see at the start was something we see in small kids.

Isayama wanted the character to be a blank canvas that carries the burden of humanity and that maybe fans would see themselves in the tragic hero.

A life of his own

That wasn’t the case. The world of Attack on Titan is drastically different from other animes and fans could no longer see themselves in Eren, as he had taken a life of his own. In season 4, we see him pushing towards his goal of total genocide, just so that his people wouldn’t be subjected to Titan invasions. With just a handful of chapters remaining, it’s highly doubtful that Eren will be redeeming himself in the end. The world of Attack on Titan isn’t a world with redemption.

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