Eren has become the villain of Attack on Titan, but a different answer to a simple question may have stopped him from unleashing the Rumor.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Attack on Titan Season 4, Episode 28, “The Dawn of Humanity,” now streaming on Funimation, Hulu, and Crunchyroll.
Despite his new status as attack on titanEren Jaeger, ‘s ultimate antagonist, is not, and never has been, a cliché mustache-twisting miscreant. Eren has doubts and vulnerability just like anyone else, and “Dawn of Humanity” revealed that Eren once exposed himself to the one person who never wanted to feel weaker than his adoptive sister Mikasa Ackerman. It has always been quite apparent that Mikasa has stronger, more romantic feelings for Eren and before she infiltrated Marley, she asked him how she felt about him. Fast-forward to the terror of the Rumbling, and Mikasa now wonders if all of this could have been prevented if she had answered Eren’s question differently.
Though Eren now carries out the Rumbling with no regrets, a flashback to the Scouts’ first outing to Marley revealed that he has been searching for a way out of the dark future he saw when he kissed Historia’s hand in Season 3. When Eren looked to the refugee camp and said that nothing had happened “yet”, it became clear that he even saw the impact of the Rumble four years ago. Eren and Mikasa had never discussed their feelings for each other before this point, giving the impression that he was truly desperate for any indication of an option other than destroying the world.
Eren’s question to Mikasa, “What am I to you?” he caught her off guard and she quickly replied, seemingly embarrassed, that he is family. This didn’t seem to be the answer Eren expected, as he expressed his disappointment when the rest of his friends arrived, meaning that he and Mikasa would not be able to continue their conversation. Mikasa’s flushed embarrassment at the question (along with everything else she has said and done to/for Eren) made it clear that she has strong romantic feelings for him. Since he asked and seemed disappointed by her answer, this was attack on titanThe first hint that Eren can return these feelings.
Knowing that he would one day unleash the Rumor and kill far more innocents than enemies would surely make Eren feel like a monster. At his lowest point, before fully committing to the future he envisioned, he turned to the one person who’s ever stood by him for validation and didn’t find it, at least not in the way he needed it. . The day after Eren asked Mikasa this question was the day he gave up all hope of a peaceful solution and abandoned his friends to infiltrate Marley. Now that Rumbling is moving forward with all his might, Mikasa begins to wonder if Eren would have done this if she had been honest with him.
Who knows what Eren would have done if Mikasa had told him how she really feels about him? Perhaps he would have added to her sorrow that he would inevitably break her heart by being forced to turn against her. Perhaps he would have given him hope to continue searching for a peaceful solution with Mikasa by his side. It’s possible that Eren was just looking for something to hold on to before he was forced to destroy the world, or maybe he would have dropped everything just to be with Mikasa. All of these questions and more surely battle for supremacy in Mikasa’s head as he considers the possibility that he could have saved the world if he had told Eren that he loves him.
Eren’s question to Mikasa is the most vulnerable he’s ever allowed himself to be with anyone, and his feelings for her may make it possible for Mikasa to convince him if they ever catch up with him. As it is, the last conversation the two had was when Eren told her that he had always hated her, which was a far cry from her previous question of her about how she feels about him.
Could it be that the world’s greatest enemy is flattening the Earth because of a broken heart? There are many things that many characters in attack on titan he would go back and do the opposite, but the answer Mikasa gave to Eren might be the one mistake that doomed the world more than anything else.
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