Eren's plan in Attack on Titan

Question

After watching Attack on Titan I can't find a reason strong enough ( probably cuz I'm dumb ) that made eren desperate to do the rumbling . In fact I find Zeke's plan more sensible . Can anyone explain to me the motivation behind Eren's drastic step ?

Answer 1

The way I see it, Eren was forced to make a choice: It was a choice between carrying out genocide against your friends and all the people against Paradis just to atone for the sins of their ancestors and to appease the world or to save Paradis from everyone else.

The world went through all means to make them suffer for all the years they've lived. In Chapter 100, Willy even encouraged every country to fight against the Eldians on Paradis. Eldians in Marley live in internment zones and were discriminated. Let's think about it for a second: was it fair? They were trying to force the descendants of a race to atone for the sins of their ancestors. The descendants who currently live in Paradis and Marley have done them no wrong. In fact, it was them who kept antagonizing the Eldians (e.g. exiling Eldians as titans, sending Titan shifters to recover the Founder which led to the Wall breach, discriminating Eldians in Marley). Naturally, just as how the rest of the world treats them as the enemy, it's inevitable that some of the Eldians would, given the actions done against them, also treat them as the enemy. It's fair to punish those who've done you wrong but is it fair to punish their descendants as well?

The threat of the titans cannot be denied, yes. They could have tried resolving it peacefully but did they give a chance? No. Even Willy wanted the Eldians in Paradis dead. So, Eren did not make the choice. Rather, he was forced to make the choice because the world chose to see them as an enemy. Personally, I think Eren's response was only natural. They were attacked, they responded in kind.

It's easy to say that what Eren's decision would 'carry on the cycle of hatred' etc. But, when trying to understand a character, I try putting myself in their shoes. If I was Eren, would I choose the world over my family and friends? Would I choose to save strangers who condemn me over people I know who were always with me? Would I really sacrifice myself for the people who tormented me, who brought hell unto my life for a sin I did not even do?

Answer 2

It's all revealed in the last two chapters of the manga. By looking at your question it seems you haven't read that yet and since anime is yet to cover it in next year, here's few things he mentioned why he did it.

Heavy spoilers ahead, only read next lines if you are okay with it cause its gonna spoil the whole story for you.

Last chance to go back, next sections will have the answer with heavy spoilers!

1. To end the war and hatred.
In the final chapter, Armin and Eren have conversation, in which Armin asked Eren, why did you pushed us away and made us hero? And that's not the whole truth.

2. Eren asked Armin and Mikasa to kill him in the end!
So that they can live a happy life later when all of this is over.
And so did they. Here Mikasa can be seen going for the Eren's head (Chapter 138)
And the final goodbye! (from chapter 139)

3. He wanted to make the world titan free and free the Ymir as well.
So that no one will be able to use the titan powers again against the humanity. When Eren gets killed all the titan power fades away! All the existing titan vanished into thin air by doing this he frees Ymir as well.

Answer 3

It's because he saw that the entire world hated him and his kind that the only solution he could arrive at was to kill the entire world. This is pretty much what convinced him that the entire world was his enemy. https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Eren-turn-evil#:~:text=It's%20because%20he%20saw%20that,entire%20world%20was%20his%20enemy.

Answer 4

Frankly, killing the rest of the world was the natural progression and evolution of the terrifying ideology Eren Yeager has held since the beginning of the series. As to what that ideology is, here's a quote from memory:

I'll kill every last one!

Additionally, whether rooted in reality or not, Eren sees the problem as a binary dilemma: it's either us (Paradis) or them (the world).

It's completely within character that Eren would not go along with Zeke's plan. He only pretended to in order to get the power he needed for his own plan. This mirrors how Zeke went along with everything Marley told him to. This shows Eren has gained the maturity to scheme (as opposed to the usual emotional and murderous outbursts we see from him earlier in the series). In Episode 78 - The Two Brothers, Eren finally displays his disgust:

Did you seriously believe I'd euthanize the Eldian people? What kind of person do you take me for?! I would never go along with that repulsive plan! Sorry, Brother. I've been against you from the start.

Reproductive Rights

I have to stop here for a moment. Because you wrote "In fact I find Zeke's plan more sensible", it seems what may be lacking in this discussion is a general understanding of eugenics and reproductive rights. Most people find eugenics (including forced sterilization) appalling. And most people would agree reproductive rights are good. Some historical and legal context will undoubtedly be helpful in understanding why Eren finds Zeke's plan completely disgusting.

Eugenics programs have historically existed. You'll doubtlessly be familiar with the atrocities of the Nazis, but such eugenics programs that included forced sterilization have also existed in the United States. As one would expect from America, these programs were racist, particularly targeting African Americans. See this article: https://ihpi.umich.edu/news/forced-sterilization-policies-us-targeted-minorities-and-those-disabilities-and-lasted-21st

Regarding reproductive rights, here is an excerpt from Article 16 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.

Also see this article: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/shalev.htm

All this to say, a belief in reproductive rights is very much a thing, and eugenics and forced sterilization are weapons of oppression. Zeke's conclusions are not normal, and took some special circumstances for him to reach. And it is certainly not at all unusual that Eren would look at the same sterilization plan with disgust.

Back to Eren and Zeke

So where's the difference here? Zeke led a life where his father tried to turn him into leader of the Eldian Restoration Movement. He ended up hating his father. And in general, he hated that Eldians would choose to have children when those children were just going to be miserable. Thus, this is the problem he sought to solve, and hence the euthanization plan. Eren didn't go through this. Eren had a loving mother and a somewhat normal childhood, for a while. At no point during the story does he reach a critical juncture where he would blame the Eldians of Paradis for anything, let alone everything. If he were to go along with Zeke's plan, it would be out of cold logic--which is not something Eren is very likely to do. Eren is on the side of Paradis, not the rest of the world, so why would he choose to take away the people of Paradis's freedom? Why would he make them die off for the sake of the rest of the world?

Eren's ideology is dominated by "freedom" and the "struggle to live". And he is willing to kill anyone who gets in the way of that, as that is part of the "struggle to live". We can see this ideology prominently in the flashbacks regarding when he met Mikasa, when he tells Mikasa to fight against the bandits who kidnapped her.

Going back to the conversation in episode 78, Zeke tells Eren about the cycle of hatred, and how the world will be a living hell as long as Eldians exist, and then asks why Eren won't end it. Eren's response:

Because I have a right to live in the world I was born to.

Eren Sees the World as his Enemy

Eren decides not to go along with the euthanization plan because he is fully on the side of Paradis Island, where his friends and family live. He decides to kill the rest of the world because he sees them as his enemies. He chooses such a dire tactic because he sees the problem as a binary dilemma: it is either us (Paradis Island) or them (the rest of the world).

Due to his mother's death by a titan, Eren starts in a place where he wants to kill every last titan. However, his world view is shaken up by many revelations that we the audience get to go through with him. Namely:

1. Titans are Eldians forced to undergo transformation.
2. The people behind the walls are not alone in the world.
3. The titan attack that killed his mother was orchestrated by a foreign nation.

In Episode 59 - The Other Side of the Wall, we already see that Eren views the rest of the world as his enemy (emphasis mine):

Yeah, the sea. It's so damn big. Just across that sea, freedom's waiting. That's what I always believed, at least. But I was wrong. I know what's waiting across the sea now. It's our enemies. Hey, if we did cross the sea and killed our enemies, would we finally be free?

In the same episode, we also see Eren no longer views the titans as the enemy. When they come across one, he says:

It was shipped to Paradis. Which means its a fellow patriot.

At some point in season 4, we get a flashback showing Eren and the other scouts visiting the outside world and going to an international conference. There, Eren witnesses that there is not a shred of sympathy for the "devils" of Paradis, thus cementing his view that the whole world is his enemy. Even the allies they have are only using Paradis in order to get revenge on Marley. Many of them have no love for Eldians, and some of the volunteers were even in on Zeke's euthanasia plan.

Eren is a soldier, and fighting is all he's known. He has no faith in politics or diplomacy. The world is a threat to his people, so he seeks to eliminate that threat, all on his own volition and all with his own power. As he tells Reiner, the two of them are the same--they are both willing to commit indiscriminate mass murder for the sake of their friends, family, and country. It is not terribly surprising Eren has progressed to this point. Eren started out saying he was going to kill all the titans, but we learned the titans were people--victims. And now, the target of Eren's "kill them all" has merely changed along with his understanding of the world.

Answer 5

he wanted to destroy (rumble) the world, and have his friends (specifically Armin or Mikasa) kill him to prove that the people of paradise island aren't these so-called "devils" and also so his friends and his people don't get killed by Marley, also he wanted to get rid of titan power;(that's why he said 'he didn't want anyone to take his titan') and he wanted a new world without fighting nor titans so, basically, he wanted to "kill all titans" especially 'the titan shifter power'

I don't know