Attack on Titan: your opinion on Eren

[Legion]

He makes the anime version that much harder to deal with. I don't like him or his character type at all. I can understand his anger, but angsty, shouty, holier-than-thou characters get on my nerves.

Thankfully the manga has a lot more focus on other characters as well. If it didn't I would rate the series a lot lower than I do.

I also agree that had they removed him from the story early on, it'd have been a lot more interesting, as well as avoiding a lot of anime cliches.

 

[Headsprouter]

Hate him so damn much.

Way too emotional and stupid to boot. I have not seen him think out anything through once, only driven by his blind rage.

Pretty sure he did a lot of thinking in the forest when they were running from the Female Titan...thinking that put him under visible stress to make the right decision.

Spoiler

He didn't. And it wasn't entirely his fault, either. He should have trusted his instincts. In that case, people made him think too much.

And considering how much dicking around they did in the forest, I'm surprised you missed that.

My opinion on him, though? Well, if you couldn't already tell, I don't see him as bad as most of these people do (but then again, I legitimately enjoy the bromance between Johnny and Mark in The Room...) but I can certainly see why you would dislike him. All the characters are really generic anime staples, though...the emotionally detached badass one, the big sister, the smart one, the absurdly talented one, the moe one, the dumb one with "good instincts", I could probably go on.

I like this anime, though. Cool monsters (truly hateable for a borderline misanthrope like myself...) interesting premise (no high school girls!) and impressively little fanservice.

I haven't read the manga, mind you.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I like him and I actually like his "grr angry grr" personality for once. Yes it's generic but it fits so well with the universe. Come on, he watched his mother get eaten when he could do nothing to stop it, I think he has the right to swear vengeance upon the world. I have to give his voice actor credit, the quality in the voice acting gives his generic rage far more credibility.

I will say that I haven't seen anything Shounen in years (and I mean YEARS) and have mostly been watching slice of life comedy stuff or Code Geass-esque stuff where every character has a cold and precise plan and not so much raw emotion in the meantime. As such this whole rage thing is relatively new to me.

Eren is horribly incompetent though

Spoiler

JUST PUNCH HER IN THE FACE! YOU HAVE HER PINNED DOWN! GAH HOW DID YOU MISS TWICE?! FUCK! EREN! PLEASE!

I think that's intentional though, remember how he fucked up "killing" a cardboard Titan in training? Yeah. Best Taytan killah evah. He can carry rocks and scream at things.

Spoiler

It would have been cool if he had stayed dead in episode 5 for reasons already stated, however considering how fucked humanity is, I don't think they have a single leg to stand on without Eren's knack for Titan shifting.

By the way, the phrase "impotent rage" is one of my favourites and it's perfect to what Eren does 90% of the time. It was used in a book once and I found it genuinely amusing.

"OH FUCK YOU!"

"You mad bro?"

"GAAAAAHHHHHH!"

*light early season spoilers*

Spoiler

It was even worth a laugh during the attack on trost. when he was all "raaah! Let's kill these bastards come on guy- ohmigod what happened to my leg? gah, everyone is dead and I am eaten... what an anticlimactic attempt at revenge!

In that regard, while Eren himself is forgettable, the way the story uses him is fun to watch.

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure we can add "bad solider" to the list of shit Eren is bad at. Titan filled area? Should be careful and move as a group? Nope, better break formation, Rage Mode ahead and get everyone killed when they try to catch up. Also where did that mini Titan who took his leg even come from? Fucking sneaky bastards...

I still think they could have saved Thomas anyway. He wasn't wounded (it looks like) and if they hadn't been hanging there with question marks suspended over their heads and y'know killed a stunned, stationary, isolated target ASAP and picked him up things could have gone a lot better.

 

[Legendairy314]

He's an appropriate main character for this type of show. It's a (mostly) serious apocalypse scenario where being eaten by giants isn't the exception; it's the rule. He moves the plot forward, is easy enough to sympathize with, and has some truly awesome moments. I honestly don't know what other kind of character he COULD have been.

 

[Dandark]

At the start of the anime I actually thought I would really like Eren. I usually really enjoy characters who have a lot of hatred and obsession on the object of their hate. I did like him at first and a lot of his flaws made him more interesting. However I started to get tired of him after the battle of Trost, he ended up seeming kinda whiny almost.

At first I saw him as this character who was driven insane by their hatred and rage, I expected nearly everything he does to be related to somehow killing the titans. I was looking forward to seeing the other characters do most of the politics and handling pretty much everything as he was too crazy to do it. They would keep him around just because he is a useful weapon against the titans. However he started coming off as a bit too whiny most of the time, it's understandable for what he is going through but its not what I was hoping for.

I still enjoy his berserk sequences and like him well enough whenever he is spewing hatred but the rest of the time I don't like him anywhere near as much as the other characters.

 

[Weaver]

I hate Eren. I was so happy when I thought he was dead. I actually thought they purposely setup a fucking annoying character to kill off on purpose and I was impressed. Then he came back.

Not sure if I'll watch season 2.

 

[wooty]

I first thought he was just a sort of "medieval Shinji" (see Evangelion). Angry, one track mind, weird parenting issues, has a girl thats all over him but never realizes it. Not fully a fan to be honest, theres just so many more interesting characters in the series.

In my opinion, the best characters in the show are Levi and Sasha. All hail potato girl!

 

[Shadu]

In my opinion, Attack on Titan is, in general, a bit of a messy store with boring main characters (but interesting supporting ones) held together only by an interesting premise.

To that end, Eren was more than just a little lackluster to me. I got tired of seeing his face, predicted every majore plot point that happened to him and just generally wanted to punch his face in. He is generic, as so many have said, and that isn't nessecarily a bad thing. It can be good if done well, but unfortunately, the generic character he was elected to be is one of the worst ones and was not helped by bad writing, in my opinion.

He has good reasons to do what he does, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it because it's just so overdone and boring. Many of the supporting characters are much more interesting than him, and honestly, I'd rather watch a show about any one of them over Eren any day even though, really, there were too many of them introduced straight off and I still can't keep them all straight (nor do I care about them). Like Annie. I mean, I only vaguely remembered who she was before the major reveal of shit, but can you imagine a story about her? That would be much more interesting.

 

[chadachada123]

The fact that he fails is, in my opinion, a huge plus to the show, since every episode has either been false optimism or crushing defeat. Their few victories have been minor ones with huge costs, which is a far cry from the majority of anime that either has no negative consequences or has the main character come and save the day every single time.

I think that Eren's behavior is pretty realistic, along with pretty much everyone else in the show, aside from the few ACTUAL badasses like Mikasa and Levy. Though, Levy himself is realistic, just far too strong compared to the average soldier. Too big of a power imbalance, in my opinion.

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

I'm pretty much indifferent towards Eren, I can see why people don't like him as his emotions do get the better of him, but at the same time, it doesn't bother me. Yeah, one problem Attack on Titan has is with the characters, although I do like Mikasa, Levi and Jean as he develops a lot over the course of the story from a stuck up coward into a capable soldier with good leadership skills

 

[NightmareWarden]

Let me start off by saying that I watched the anime to episode 25 at which point I transitioned to the manga. Perhaps the anime adaptation of the rest of the manga will change this, but the manga does not focus on Eren very much besides following whatever happens to him. It isn't completely fixated on his mental dialogue so much as other characters' interactions.
One of the reasons I like Shingeki no Kyojin is that the world doesn't revolve around Eren. The protagonist is just a tool used by the rest of the characters (known and currently unknown). He is not a particularly interesting nor original character, but he is very impactful. The reason he is manipulated so much by his superior officers is because if he was more competent and showed some initiative by making well thought-out plans, then he would terrify the mysterious manipulators in the shadows of the Wall government/royalty.
In conclusion Eren is a bit of a ragdoll/tool existing purely for the sake of manipulation and a way to move forward the plot, but I do not think it negatively impacts either the manga or anime. I can understand why some people would be annoyed by Eren's constant angsty behavior. I don't think that he is meant to be some sort of deep, meaningful character and THAT is why he is the main character.

 

[Seracen]

Considering the world, his character makes sense. My problems with him right now are that he's a rookie in a war that requires the cold calculation of a veteran.

Once he starts learning and applying the lessons he's had to learn, I feel he'll be better. However, this is an anime, so either he will be a stagnant character, or become more emo from his various failures.

But, assuming the writing is smart enough to evolve the damn character, I can see him becoming much more sympathetic.

 

[Coakle]

I liked Eren form the start. After hearing that theme song for the first time, I was pumped. The only thing I wanted was to see a bunch of Titans bite the dust. Cue every character talking about how hopeless everything is, except Eren. That man wanted what I wanted, to kill every Titan that had ever existed. I liked his screaming fests, you knew his heart was into it.

It was enough to keep everything interesting, while the other, more complicated parts of the story were built up.

 

[soren7550]

Suffice to say I really really hated Attack on Titan. It's got to be the worst medium length anime I've ever watched purely because it teases us and sets up a large number of plot threads and then NEVER RESOLVES THEM.

That'd be because it's an ongoing series. I think the manga is around 60 or so chapters long at this point, and the anime only did the first 30 or so chapters.

 

[game-lover]

Meh.

That's... really all I can say about him. I don't hate him. I will say I'm not especially attached to him and you'd think I would be after about 14 episodes in. But mostly, I feel nothing. Not a thing.

Except maybe that he's a little dense at times. He rants at Mikasa about treating him a like a child with her protectiveness when I think it should be pretty damn obvious why she's so gung ho about protecting him.

But yeah, he's got pretty decent flaws. I guess the main thing is you see much of his flaws, you can't really find the parts that make him a person you could befriend. But times are trying and all that.

 

[mrepicface12]

I'd have to say that you guys are right about Eren not having a good and memorable personality, but going from the statement about killing off Eren in the beginning of the series, I don't think that it would be a good idea mainly because the makers would get a lot of fan hate. I do say that however, Eren is a complete idiot! He can't see whats right in front of him, ya'know, Mikasa has made it so obvious that she likes him, but he needs slapped to realize how obvious it is. It's surprising he even can talk with that stupidity. One thing that I wish they do in the next season is dig into Eren's emotions and finally let the audience know if he really does have feelings for anyone. I also don't like how they decided to imply that he sorta-kinda likes Annie, and I really do hope that they do trash that pairing. (MIKAERE FTW!!) I do agree though that they did screw things up in what should have happened in attack on titan. Eren's personality is way too dark and bland for my taste. The whole thing that they did with Eren being a moody stuck up asshole (pardon my language) really frustrates me. Although I do say the powers he has are really cool, and how they introduced them is interesting, they're going at how he acts all wrong and like I said, TRASH THE ANNIE X EREN IDEA! So pretty much have an episode that makes him realize that his actions and emotions are screwed up, he should lighten up a little...maybe get laid by someone *cough* (Mikasa!) And he should also have and episode where he starts "noticing" some of the ladies in his squad, if ya'know what I mean. *whink* x)

 

[mrepicface12]

He's not really annoying to me, just not very thought out. But thay should add an episode in the anime and a book in the manga about him finally noticing some ladies, particularly in his squad, even more particularly someone he saved from rape. Hint Hint

 

[Twintix]

Yeah, like some others have said, it's a shame that a show with such an interesting premise and colorful supporting cast has such a bland and uninteresting main character. I was so disappointed when

Spoiler

I thought that Eren died near the end of volume 1. It would've been a great set-up for a really bleak world to have him as a decoy protagonist and have him die. Instead, he gets a bullshit Deus Ex Machina superpower that's activated through anger because of fucking course it is!

I wouldn't find this nearly as annoying if this wasn't a staple characterization for pretty much every "serious" anime/manga ever. Problematic, because Eren's reactions to things are actually fairly realistic; His world is really shitty, after all. For shame that I've seen his character archetype far too often.

His saving grace is that he doesn't always succeed; In fact, he's failed numerous times. He's not this invincible superhuman (Okay, he kinda is, but you know what I mean), and he's far from the best. That makes him just a little more believable and relatable. And he's having to learn how to control his anger instead of just blindly raging at everything, which is a step in the right direction.

I actually like Attack on Titan a lot, but not because of Eren. It's because of the other characters.

 

[mrepicface12]

Yeah, like some others have said, it's a shame that a show with such an interesting premise and colorful supporting cast has such a bland and uninteresting main character. I was so disappointed when

Spoiler

I thought that Eren died near the end of volume 1. It would've been a great set-up for a really bleak world to have him as a decoy protagonist and have him die. Instead, he gets a bullshit Deus Ex Machina superpower that's activated through anger because of fucking course it is!

I wouldn't find this nearly as annoying if this wasn't a staple characterization for pretty much every "serious" anime/manga ever. Problematic, because Eren's reactions to things are actually fairly realistic; His world is really shitty, after all. For shame that I've seen his character archetype far too often.

His saving grace is that he doesn't always succeed; In fact, he's failed numerous times. He's not this invincible superhuman (Okay, he kinda is, but you know what I mean), and he's far from the best. That makes him just a little more believable and relatable. And he's having to learn how to control his anger instead of just blindly raging at everything, which is a step in the right direction.

I actually like Attack on Titan a lot, but not because of Eren. It's because of the other characters.

True that my friend.

 

[mrepicface12]

I do say however that the series is very good, a little depressing, but very good.