Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan is one of the most iconic anime/manga protagonists of all time. Eren’s character is based on the MMA fighter Yushin Okin, which ties into Eren’s character. From the first moment of the manga and anime, you can tell Eren is a passionate fighter and always has been. His outlook on society is one where everyone has to fight or else they would never beat the titans. Eren’s Titan is a fighter while his dad Grisha’s titan was not a fighter and not even comparable to Eren’s. The attack titan is symbolized like the MMA fighter that Eren is based on.

In the scene where Sasha dies and her last words are “meat,” when Eren heard this he laughed. This is Eren’s realization that he can not change the future, A man who wants freedom but is the least free person. He has seen the future and is chained to a destiny he can only foresee and not change. Eren has acknowledged that no matter how strong he is or how hard he tries he can never change the future. This is why he hates himself for what he’s doing and laughs because of how useless he feels just like he did with Hannes’s death. Eren is forced to watch all his friends die which he sees as freedom because at least they will experience something he at the moment couldn’t. Eren’s attack titan is a show of how Eren runs from reality. The attack titans ability is to look into the future which shows how Eren runs from his current reality, for his own warped sense of “freedom”.

A person can only be truly free if they believe they have achieved freedom. A man in a cage could be the freest man in the world just by thinking they are. This plays in with Eren’s character because physically being restrained which is shown by the founding titan rib cage making Eren psychologically free. In the freedom panel, you can see Eren in the sky with his arms wide out. This portrays how Eren represents his limitless self. His subconscious projects his idea of freedom to be embodied by his freest self (younger  Eren) standing on what used to serve as humanity’s (Eldians) biggest enemy and main opposing force to his pursuit of freedom (wall titans).

“What is the point if those with the means and power do not fight?”-Eren Yeager. This is showing us how Eren displays that everyone’s life is meaningless and nobody has a special meaning behind life when we are born into this world but we try to give ourselves a purpose throughout our life, because of him trying to achieve freedom through the means of false hope of saving the world. Eren setting an impossible goal leads to him creating his own purpose(being free). Eren’s naive thinking that he had achieved his goal did he truly become free and understood the meaning of freedom. So even though he hadn’t achieved his goal yet, the thought of it being achieved set Eren free of all things since he finally reached his true purpose.