Eren Yaeger and Nietzsche: Dancing with Madness
The intricate interplay of madness and profound insight beautifies and enchants the ultimate anime masterpiece: “Attack on Titan.” Friedrich Nietzsche’s grand declarations and pure fidelity to truth resonate with a kind of divine madness — a necessity to embrace the chaos within. It takes courage to articulate a vision that shatters the foundations of traditional morality and thought. Similarly, Eren Yaeger’s fidelity to the truth — what lies beyond the walls — leads him to discover the Titans and launch himself unflinchingly into destruction. This exploration unveils how Eren’s journey mirrors Nietzsche’s conceptual Übermensch, a figure who must, at times, destroy to create — a phoenix-like rebirth from the ashes of annihilation.
“I overcame myself as sufferer; I carried my own ashes to the mountain; a brighter flame myself I made..”
Both Eren and Nietzsche harbor a burning passion for freedom and boundless existence — Eren in the physical realm and Nietzsche in the metaphysical. Nietzsche’s mental unraveling symbolizes a necessary obliteration of his former self and societal essence, allowing the birth of his final, more radical thoughts opposing religion’s and society’s arbitrary values. Nothing — not even God — escaped the ruthless scrutiny of Nietzsche’s eagle-like gaze. His razor-sharp intellect cut through the veils of illusion, while his boundless spirit soared above conventional constraints, revealing the raw, unvarnished truths of existence. His introspection aimed to understand society through the self, with unyielding courage and devotion to truth, integrity, and passion.
Eren, too, undergoes a transformation that borders on insanity, his psyche fracturing under the weight of his ideals and the horrific actions he deems necessary. Blinding himself (that was painful to watch!) was not a problem if it meant getting closer to the truth, literally and figuratively. In the pivotal scene where Eren discovers that the Titans he sought to annihilate were, in fact, his kin, he confronts a profound and shattering truth: he himself was the “monster” he formerly abhorred. This revelation is akin to Nietzsche’s exploration of the abyss: “And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Neither trembled at the searing, blinding light that awaited them, steadfast in their unyielding pursuit of truth. In the face of blinding brilliance, they pressed on, unwavering, their souls kindled by the fierce desire for enlightenment, transcending the mortal fear of the unknown.
Nietzsche’s concept of the Übermensch involves the transcendence of conventional morality to embrace a higher, self-defined value system. This philosophical obsession is evident in Eren’s relentless pursuit of freedom and truth, even at the cost of his sanity and humanity. Nietzsche’s eyes were immune to society’s dictates, his mind as sharp as the sharpest blade, slicing through complex ideas with ease and precision — but without attachment to any belief. There is no doctrine he adapts, only a love of fate, for constant rebirths and overcomings. For life. This resonates with Eren’s journey through the truth’s tumultuous nature.
In “Attack on Titan,” Eren’s transformation is marked by repeated acts of self-destruction and rebirth, aligning with Nietzsche’s notion that to create, one must first destroy. The narrative arc where Eren repeatedly sacrifices his humanity to uncover the deeper truths of his world illustrates this cycle vividly. Nietzsche’s philosophy suggests that such destruction is necessary for the rebirth of more profound sensibility, vigor, and a love for life and danger.
One might consider the extent to which we are willing to embrace this dialectic of madness and insight. Can we, too, confront the abyss and emerge transformed? Especially if the abyss is within–Can we accept that sometimes, the path to enlightenment necessitates a dance with madness, a willingness to obliterate our preconceived notions to birth new paradigms of understanding? The balance between sanity and madness, reason and unreason, is beautifully delicate. The path to the Übermensch, as illustrated by both Nietzsche and Eren, may indeed require a departure from traditional sanity, but it also poses ethical dilemmas and the potential for destructive consequences, as evidenced by the latter’s annihilation of 70% of humanity. That was not good.
Eren’s actions, while driven by a pursuit of truth and freedom, also lead to immeasurable suffering and destruction. The Rumbling’s catastrophic devastation illuminates the moral cost of our lofty ideals. One can imagine Nietzsche warning Eren, “‘Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.”
“For believe me: the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is — to live dangerously!” Nietzsche’s exhortation encapsulates the spirit of both his philosophy and Eren’s journey. Eren lived no less dangerously; it seemed tough in the Shiganshina District. And so, perhaps, in our own small ways, we might find a bit of Eren and Nietzsche within us, dancing on the edge of reason, embracing the chaos, and living dangerously. Cheers to the mad ones!