Attack on Dogma - Part One: Radicalization

 

Attack on Dogma: The Critiques of Radicalization, Nationalism, Dogma, and Otherizing in Attack on Titan

Part One: Radicalization

Tyler J Perry

Spoiler Warning: While I will endeavor to avoid manga spoilers for the last nine chapters of the Attack on Titan manga, I will discuss themes that are not related to the finale. Furthermore, I will freely discuss anime spoilers through Season 4 Part 2, to include items in the currently unreleased winter cour finale.

I have been studying Japanese since approximately April 2017. As part of my language study, I often read manga in Japanese, usually after I have familiarized myself with the associated anime. The Western equivalent to this would be reading the Infinity Gauntlet comic after watching Avengers: Infinity War, albeit, anime adaptations of manga tend to be much more faithful to the source material.

Ahead of the season 4, part 2 premiere of Attack on Titan, I set a goal to read the entire manga, a total of 34 volumes, before the release of the finale episode. Before the release of episode 10 of 12, I achieved this rather audacious goal.

Attack on Titan is one of those stories that has stuck with me because of its themes, its mysteries, and its reveals. I give high praise to manga author Hajime Isayama for his ability to set up a significant plot twist that the reader is unlikely to guess ahead of time, deliver that twist in unexpected ways, and then leave the reader wondering how they could have missed all the signs.

It would be simple to whittle down the thematic arguments of Attack on Titan to a mere discussion on why war is bad. As Russian forces invaded Ukraine in the middle of the most recent run of new episode releases, this theme carried a different impact than before. However, I find this characterization of the story’s themes to be oversimplified.

This is the first essay in a series of at least four. Over the series, I will put forward that Attack on Titan, both its anime and manga incarnations, offer a scathing critique on the way society enables radicalization, nationalism, dogmatic thinking, and otherizing or xenophobia. I will evaluate how the manga and anime discuss those themes, how the manga and anime have been criticized for those themes, and how my own interactions with the manga and anime have caused me to think differently about conflict, war, religion, and national and ethnic identity. This essay will tackle the topic of radicalization, focusing on the radical ideas of two characters, brothers Zeke and Eren Yaeger.

Please note that, in the interest of time, I will be assuming that the reader is familiar with the characters and story beats. Only brief introductions to those ideas will be put forward to establish relevant facts for the analysis.

THE RADICALIZATION OF ZEKE YAEGER

Zeke and Eren Yaeger are the sons of Grisha Yaeger, a faction leader in the Eldian Restoration Movement. In this capacity, Grisha endeavored to restore the glory of his people by using his own son, Zeke, as weapon to overthrow the oppressive Marleyan regime. Unfortunately for Grisha, young Zeke did not share his father’s zeal for the Eldian movement, and Zeke turns his own father and mother in to the Marleyan authorities.

Before Zeke makes his decision to betray his parents’ trust, he undergoes a period of grooming under the compassionate eye of Mr. Ksaver. Ksaver is in possession of the power of the Beast Titan, but he is a quiet man with a scientific mind and a gentle disposition. All he really wants to do is play baseball, and Zeke finds in Ksaver a better father than Grisha. Ksaver and Zeke bond over long conversations as they play catch, with Ksaver praising Zeke for his strong throwing arm.

Though Ksaver treats Zeke kindly, he has a bleak view on the Eldian condition. This paradigm is largely shaped by the tragic deaths of his wife and son. After his Marleyan wife discovered Ksaver’s Eldian identity, she murdered her own son and ended her own life because of the shame. This incident plants in Ksaver’s mind the idea that it would have been better that Eldians had never been born. This idea he slowly teaches to Zeke, though Zeke comes around to the idea as if it were his own.

Within the text of Chapter 114, which details the development of the relationship between Zeke and Ksaver, the reader is given the impression that Ksaver is surprised by Zeke’s suggestion that the power of the Founding Titan could be used to prevent Eldians from having children, but also agreement with the notion that this condition would be preferable. However, Ksaver’s actions after this conversation show that he was ready for this moment, as he instructs Zeke on the exact steps that would need to be taken to ensure that their “euthanasia plan” is carried out.

Zeke inherits the Beast Titan from Ksaver, and he uses their years of playing baseball as a weapon to slaughter hundreds of Eldians at the Battle of Shiganshina only a few years later. Zeke is radicalized into believing that the euthanasia of his people is the only way to save the world, and he acts on that idea without critically considering other alternatives. He believes that the idea is so self-evidently correct, that he fails to understand how anyone else, even, or especially, his brother Eren, might fail to understand how right and true the cause is.

When studying Zeke’s radicalization, it is important to note that he is brought to a radical perspective through careful grooming or brainwashing. First, his parents try to radicalize Zeke into believing that his role is to inherit the power of the Titans to bring Marley to its knees and restore Eldia to its former glory. Grisha and Dina show love to Zeke when he conforms with their extreme views, but they withhold love when he fails to meet their unrealistic expectations. Ksaver, on the other hand, fills a void left behind by the Grisha and Dina’s failures. Where Grisha and Dina made Zeke susceptible to radical ideas, Ksaver steps in to finish molding Zeke into a truly dangerous weapon.

I believe that Ksaver was innocently unaware that he was radicalizing Zeke, but the consequences of his actions are much the same. Ksaver became the Beast Titan so that he could study the Titans and learn how to use the power to erase Eldians from existence. When he found the answer to the problem, he realized he could not carry the plan to fruition. Zeke, however, could as a result of his royal blood. All Zeke would need was a willing ally to unlock the power of the Founding Titan.

Zeke would come to believe that he had found that ally in his brother, Eren.

THE RADICALIZATION OF EREN YAEGER

Eren Yaeger was born within the walls of Paradis. He was unaware of the conflict between Marley and Eldia, instead believing the outside world to be overrun by the human-eating Titans. When his friend Armin shows him a book filled with stories of the wonders that exist beyond the walls, Eren is filled with wonder, as though his eyes had been opened for the first time. Eren imagines that the person who could see the outside world would be the freest person in the world.

When the Colossus Titan appears and kicks in the gates of his home district of Shiganshina, Eren experiences the trauma that will catalyze his future radicalization. Eren witnesses the horrors of the Titans pouring into his hometown and devouring its citizens. His own mother is killed, ironically enough, by the Titan-ized Dina Fritz, the first wife of Eren’s father, Grisha.

In his rage, Eren vows to wipe the Titans from the face of the world. So strong is his anger and his hatred of the Titans that he does not stop to think of the moral implications of his own mysterious ability to transform into a Titan. He does not consider the points raised by Reiner and Bertholdt, each of whom have been radicalized in their own ways, though we will discuss their characters in future essays. Eren is blind to his anger and hatred of the Titans, and his worldview is shattered when he learns the truth.

The Titans were innocent, though dangerous, victims of the real enemy, the nation of Marley, located on the other side of the sea. With this new knowledge comes the threat of being compelled to continue the cycle of passing down Titan powers through successive generations of breeding and consumption while the Eldians on Paradis Island work to develop their technology to be competitive on the world stage. This is an option which Eren finds unacceptable. He resolves to find a solution during his lifetime.

For the next three years, Eren does work to find a viable solution to the problem of having the Eldians of Paradis Island welcomed as equal partners in global trade, diplomacy, and, if necessary, war. However, his fears are confirmed, and he resolves to work with his brother to carry out a plan to save the world.

Zeke, believing he has an ally in his younger brother, joins forces with Eren to carry out his euthanasia plan. When the moment of truth comes, Eren betrays Zeke, stating that he opposes Zeke’s plan to euthanize all Eldians because “[he] was born into this world”. Zeke, believing in the obvious rightness of his cause, is convinced that the only reason Eren has betrayed him is because of the brainwashing that Grisha must have performed on Eren. Not wanting to give up on his brother, Zeke takes Eren on a journey through their father’s memories.

It is here that we see that Grisha, having learned from his mistakes with Zeke, actually tried at every turn to avoid radicalizing Eren. As Eren explains, “I have always been this way. Ever since I was born… If someone is willing to take my freedom, I won’t hesitate to take theirs. Our father never made me that way. It’s who I’ve been since the time I was born.”

Despite the obvious signs that Eren is not his ally, Zeke persists in his belief, certain that the righteousness of his cause will yet be revealed to Eren. When they come to Grisha’s encounter with the Reiss family, the moment that Eren admitted was the one where he had lost respect for their father, Zeke believes that witnessing this moment again will change Eren’s mind and give him the clarity he needs to support Zeke’s ambitions for Eldia.

Even now, Zeke believes that the only reason Eren is opposing him is because he believes, uncritically, that Grisha must have brainwashed Eren is some way.

Zeke is shocked to learn that, by means of some wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey shenanigans, Eren is the one responsible for brainwashing Grisha. In fact, Eren has been self-radicalized as a consequence of his trauma and his single-minded pursuit of his own freedom.

It may be that Eren was obsessed with freedom from an earlier age, but the text suggests that it was Armin showing Eren the book about the outside world that caused Eren to awaken to his state as a bird in a cage. That pursuit of freedom, specifically his own, above all other considerations, transforms Eren from a brash boy into a genocidal man.

Eren overpowers Zeke and takes the power of the Founding Titan for himself, using it to wield a weapon of mass destruction only the world of Attack on Titan could bring.

THE RUMBLING

Though the anime has only shown a glimpse of the devastating potential of the Rumbling, the magna features horrific detail of the destruction caused by the movement of millions of colossal Titans marching on the world, flattening its surface underfoot. But above the screams of terror and death, Eren, envisioning himself as the hopeful child yet to experience the trauma of having his mother eaten before his very eyes, soars as a bird no longer caged.

“This is freedom.”

Freedom for Eren is gained as he crushes his enemies, innocents who were taught false ideas about the world, under his power. All who happen to be in the path of the Rumbling are made victims of Eren’s radical beliefs.

Unlike Zeke, Eren is self-radicalized, quite literally so. Yet, this difference is almost superficial. Both are victims of childhood trauma. Both see the world through a narrow lens. Both fail to accept alternative worldviews as valid. Eren does appear to be more self-aware about these flaws than Zeke, even going so far as to discuss motives with Reiner, though through veiled terms, before unleashing a devastating attack on innocents and military targets alike.

Attack on Titan does not paint Zeke or Eren as the hero. Zeke is a bad person with selfish motivations, even if he believes himself an altruist. Eren has no illusions that he is acting out of a selfish desire to protect his own freedom and the freedom of those he cares about. Zeke’s plan would genocide an entire race slowly, but the effect would be the same as if he had walked through every home on Paradis Island and killed each person with a bullet to the head. Eren’s plan would only leave a single race intact, and the rest of the world a barren waste.

A utilitarian argument may favor Zeke’s plan over Eren’s, but both plans are morally reprehensible. Both plans are the product of radicalized minds.

APPLICATION AND CONCLUSION

When using themes from fiction to discuss real world events, it is not particularly useful to try to categorize a real-world person or ideology into the fictional archetypes offered by the fiction. No true analogy for the Eldians and their ability to transform into Titans exists in our world. The closest analogy to the Rumbling might be nuclear weapons, and that analogy is wildly imperfect. Neither Zeke’s nor Eren’s plan map onto any real-world ideology.

Yet, I think we can see patterns of how radical thinking can work its way into our lives, whether it is brought on by conditioning from others, or through our own self-radicalization. If we do not think about the world critically and examine every idea, especially the ones we hold to be true, through a rational and critical lens, we are subject to coming to dangerous conclusions.

We are all vulnerable to this kind of conditioning. Perhaps the most terrifying thing about watching documentaries about cults like Heaven’s Gate is learning just how ordinary the people in those cults were before they became radicalized. You, dear reader, are just as vulnerable to the brainwashing experienced by Zeke Yaeger or the self-radicalization experienced by Eren Yaeger. If you do not watch yourself and check the reasons why you hold the values and beliefs that you do, you can be radicalized too.

Like the characters in the world of Attack on Titan, we live in a cruel world. We can fight that cruelty with cruelty. We can succumb to it.

Or we can respond to it with compassion, empathy, and understanding for all.

Attack on Titan is a warning of what can, or indeed, will happen if we fail to be good to each other.