Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama: Character Studies on Eren Yeager and Gabi Braun

 MAJOR MANGA SPOILERS!! 

For my last blog post, I wanted to talk about one of the most complex mangas I’ve ever read: Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama. Many of you may have heard of this series since it is quite popular, but I truly believe it deserves and lives up to all of its hype. In today’s edition of Khuyen’s manga posts, I will be comparing and analyzing the characters Eren Yeager and Gabi Braun. This series is quite complex and very intricate, so I will give a basic summary of the setting and plot. But for the purposes of this post, it is recommended you have prior knowledge or have read this series before reading this post! Manga spoilers from here on out…

BASIC SETTING/SUMMARY

Attack on Titan focuses around a civilization living on an island called Paradis. The catch? The people living there are assumed to be the last ones living, as they are surrounded by huge walls to keep out giants called Titans. The story focuses around the main character Eren Yeager, a strong and hard-headed boy living in the town of Shiganshina. He is often seen with his two friends, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert. All comes crumbling down when the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan break through the walls of his hometown one day and eat his mother. The experience hardens Eren’s resolve to join the Survey Corps, a group dedicating their lives to fighting the titans. As Eren, Mikasa, and Armin join the Survey Corps and time passes on, much changes about each of the characters as they find out more about the history of the Titans and their society as a whole. 

The history of the Titans dates back several thousand years, with the nations of Eldia and Marley. Subjects of Ymir, a race of people who are able to be turned to titans through serums, make up the population of Eldia. Eldia was able to grow their nation through the use of the power of the Titans, which later led to instability and internal conflict. The surviving Eldians retreated and lived in Paradis Island, separated from the rest of the world. Their minds were all erased by the power of the Founding Titan, so the Subjects of Ymir lived there without any knowledge of their bloody history and what resided out of the walls. The Eldians who did not retreat to the island were captured by the Marleyans, and later became citizens of Marley. They were raised to think lowly of Eldians, nicknaming them as the “island devils.” As generations passed, each group lived their own separate lives, only knowing of the groups based on what they’ve heard.

CHARACTER ANALYSES

Eren Yeager’s character is extremely complex to me, literally at points I would have to step back and process everything whenever I think of the events of the series. At the beginning of the series, he appears to be a determined yet short-tempered protagonist, whose main goal is to eliminate all of the titans. As the readers learn more about his backstory, we see Eren slowly detaching himself from his friends and the Survey Corps, as his motives and intentions become more and more unclear. He doubles as both the protagonist and antagonist, which is one of the things that make this series so unique to me. He has grown up his entire life within the walls surrounding his hometown and is constantly striving to his goal to be free. He desires nothing more to travel outside of the walls and experience freedom. Eren truly does care for his friends and family, yet turns himself as the villain to keep them safe. He protects them but at the expense of everyone else’s life (literally). He acknowledges the prejudice between the Eldians and Marleyans, so his solution is to completely wipe out all of humanity living outside of Paradis (which seems a bit extreme for my taste).

Gabi is a character whose reception has been quite mixed amongst fans. It appears as if either half of the fan base either loves or hates her. A large factor could be due to the fact that she killed a beloved character, Sasha. I will admit, I didn’t like Gabi at all when her character was first introduced due to her brash personality. She carries a strong hatred for the people of Paradis Island because of the false history that was taught to her. However, throughout the rest of the manga, she undergoes significant development as she stays with the Eldians. She learns that she has been lied to her entire life, and that the “island devils” living outside of Marley were villainized.

Their characters are used to demonstrate the two sides: Eldia and Marley. Gabi is extremely similar to Eren in terms of personality and ambitions. However, she reflects a younger Eren, rather than the one later in the series. Both were brought up in certain ways, having a negative view on the other group/people not on their side. The only difference being that Gabi begins straying away from what she’s been raised to believe, and comes to the revelation that the Eldians on Paradis are not what they’ve been depicted as. As someone who descended from an Eldian, she is shown prejudice and discrimination, which is what fuels her want to fight for Marley; she wants to be accepted. In the manga, she even says “There were no devils on this island, there were only people. We, these people we had not even ever seen, all of them, we decided they were devils,” showing her major character development. It is a contrast to when she was first introduced; one of her first actions was killing an Eldian because it was what she was trained to do. Attack on Titan revolves around many themes, but one it focuses on is the relationship between humans. Humans can dehumanize other humans based on only lies and misunderstandings, and Gabi’s character perfectly represents that. Eren and Gabi’s characters parallel each other. Eren began with wanting to fight the titans and help save humanity but later started fighting only for his group. Vice versa, Gabi originally only fought for the Marleyans but realized the truth and developed to fight for all of humanity. They both had similar upbringings in terms of their ideologies, but their experiences later on shaped their characters and it draws major differences between the two. I find the two very similar at the beginning of their character arcs, so I often think about how the two could have ended out more similarly to each other.

The two panels on top of these show a direct parallel between the two, getting ready to fight. This is merely my perspective on their characters but as I said, Attack on Titan is so complex and it gives the readers room to build their own contrasting views on the characters.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

The one thing I love most about Attack on Titan is how complex each of the characters are. I covered only two of many characters but they each have their own purpose and Isayama is very intentional with writing their actions and dialogue. I also love how almost none of the characters can be considered as “good” and each of them have their faults and can be viewed as morally gray. It does cause many conflicting opinions of characters for me, but it’s what really makes Attack on Titan stick with me. I would ABSOLUTELY recommend this series to people who have even the slightest bit of interest in it. Just a note, it is extremely gruesome and violent and will take an emotional toll on you. There’s just something so heartbreakingly tragic about the series that puts me to shambles whenever I think about it. The recurring theme of freedom and desire to be from what seems like an inescapable hell draws you into the story and you can’t help but feel emotional for the characters. The readers can note how much careful detail and thought was put into making the story, as everything is quite literally connected, and thinking about it now blows my mind. There may be faults here and there but the world is just so well-developed, the characters are well-written, the story is suspenseful and FULL of plot-twists that I would consider Attack on Titan to be a masterpiece. I did find myself quite confused at times but I was still so drawn in the story I constantly praise this series and consider it one of the best I've ever read. Even if someone might not enjoy it as much, I feel like you can definitely still acknowledge and admire how well-written it is.

-Khuyen