If there’s one thing Eren Yeager is known for, it’s his obsession with freedom. From Attack On Titan’s beginning all the way to its end, Eren did anything and everything for the sake of attaining freedom for himself and everyone on Paradis Island.

RELATED: Attack On Titan: 10 Times The Villains Redeemed Themselves

That said, the manga’s polarizing finale brought newfound interest in Eren’s cause – and not for the good reasons. Because of the last chapter’s divisive revelations and twists, more critical readers questioned if Eren really was as “free” as he claimed, or if he ever deserved freedom at all.

Warning: Colossal spoilers ahead. Pun intended.

10 Eren Was Abducted By Almost Every Bad Guy Ever

Eren Chained In The Cave AOT

This is the lowest-hanging fruit, but it bears mentioning. After discovering the powers of the Attack Titan, Eren gets kidnapped more times than anyone could care to remember. Different factions want his blood and abilities for their own reasons, such as the remainder of the Marley Warrior Unit (Reiner and Bertholdt) or Rod Reiss’ conspiracy.

Despite wielding the Attack Titan’s raw strength and the Founding’s transcendental capabilities, Eren almost always found himself in a bind that others had to get him out of. It gets even more unintentionally hilarious when the last chapter confirms that Eren could’ve freed himself at any time, but decided not to.

9 Eren’s Understanding Of Freedom Is Incredibly Limited

Eren Flies Freely In The Sky

Simply put, Eren can’t exactly call himself “free” if he doesn’t even understand freedom means and entails. Basically, Eren’s idea of freedom was doing whatever he wanted to while going anywhere in the world (see: Chapter 131). This selfish take is partially responsible for his decision to end all life beyond the walls because he was disappointed in what he saw.

Eren doesn’t have anyone but himself to blame for this ideology, not just because he didn’t properly develop it but because he imprinted it on himself. This was one of the many truths Eren told Armin in the finale. Here, Eren revealed that when he was born, he imprinted his signature laser-focus on achieving freedom no matter the cost on himself.

8 Eren Used His Freedom To Murder Billions

The Titans March Forward

With the power of the Titans, Eren activated The Rumbling and killed approximately 80% of humanity beyond the walls. Just because Eren had a superweapon doesn’t mean he should’ve used it, regardless of how justified he felt total annihilation was or how secretly heroic his motives may have been.

The ironic thing is that originally, Eren’s single-minded fight for freedom started when a Colossus Titan destroyed Wall Maria. Years later, Eren destroyed all of Paradis’ walls and unleashed untold thousands of Colossus Titans that mercilessly trampled on humanity’s freedoms and right to live peacefully.

7 Eren Trapped The Eldians In The Cycle Of Hatred He Detested

The War Torn Future

Even before Attack On Titan began, the Eldians were already oppressed. Blamed for King Carl Fritz’s centuries-old bloody conquest, the Eldians were tortured through systematic prejudice. When Eren discovers this, it drives him to activate The Rumbling, which only perpetuated the vicious cycle of murderous hatred and repeated previous generations’ sins.

RELATED: 10 Ways The Attack On Titan Universe Is Like The Real World

The Rumbling arguably justified the worlds’ hatred, and the Eldians were bought into Eren’s villainy as well. After Eren’s death, the Yeagerists turned Eldia into a militaristic state preparing for global retaliation. Whatever peace Eren achieved barely lasted a generation, and he doomed Eldia to getting wiped out anyway as seen in its distant, modernized future.

6 Eren Dragged His Friends Into His Self-Made Hell

Armin Asks A Hard Question

Aside from betraying and lying to them, the worst thing that Eren did to his friends and loved ones was dragging them down to his level. Even though The Alliance was trying to stop him, Eren didn’t kill or hinder them because they were his family and they were predestined to kill him. Thing is, given his reality-altering powers, Eren could’ve kept them out of his private hell.

Instead, Eren made those closest to him suffer yet another war and burdened them with choices they should never be forced to make. Cases in point, he made Armin fight him as a Colossus Titan and forced Mikasa, who truly loved him, kill him. Just because he felt he wasn’t allowed to make his own destiny doesn’t mean that Eren had to make others feel the same.

5 Eren Could’ve Averted The Story’s Events, But Didn’t

The Colossus Titan Emerges

One of Attack On Titan’s biggest twists is that the entire story is basically Eren’s fault. Thanks to his Titan powers, Eren made sure that his life’s events and tragedies perfectly led up to The Rumbling. This all started with the Smiling Titan, which he commanded to kill his mother the day Wall Maria fell, thus giving him his bottomless anger and determination.

If he was truly free, Eren could’ve averted literally everything that transpired in the story by changing the very beginning. Maybe he could’ve influenced the Marley Warrior Trio to turn back, or maybe he could’ve made the Smiling Titan devour Betholdt instead. Eren had the freedom to create his own alternate universe but didn’t.

4 Eren Had The Power To Rewrite History But Did Nothing

Eren Pushes Grisha Off The Edge

Eren’s transcendental powers are so far-reaching that his timeline isn’t the only one that he can alter. Whether they’re alive or dead, Eren can literally step into any other Edlian’s shoes and influence their decisions. For example, Eren made Grisha kill Frieda Reiss to get the Founding Titan and convinced the centuries-dead founder, Ymir, to start The Rumbling.

RELATED: Attack On Titan: 10 Characters Who Survived The Series (But Shouldn't Have)

With these abilities, Eren could’ve rewritten history in such a way that the Titans’ existence ended before it began, averting a massive body count. In this way, he could’ve saved generations of Eldians from the pain and suffering that defines their modern lives. Instead, he followed the predestined path of The Rumbling to the letter.

3 Eren Resigned Himself To His Apocalyptic Destiny

Eren Resigns Himself To His Fate

The moment he kissed Historia’s hand during the recognition ceremony, Eren witnessed his destiny as the man who would end the world. After seeing this, Eren did absolutely nothing to avert his dark fate. From that moment onward, he begrudgingly set the groundwork for The Rumbling, deviating little from the preordained narrative.

In the last chapter, Eren admitted to Armin that while he had some reservations, he still chose to enact the doomsday scenario. If Eren truly was free, he would’ve defied the darkest timeline with the same passion he had for his original fight for freedom, or he would’ve run away just as he did in his dream. Unfortunately, he did neither.

2 Eren Trapped Himself In His Own Time Loop

Eren Is In Hell

Because of Eren’s time-traveling abilities, Attack On Titan technically counts as a time loop. Eren went back and forth between the past and future to line up events as they should, and the loop finally closed with his pre-planned death. The thing about time loops in fiction, though, is that characters stuck in them almost always try to break or escape it.

Neither of these options crossed Eren’s mind, despite the fact that he created the loop to begin with. By his own design, Eren made his life such a nightmare that its only logical conclusion had him ending the world in a fit of rage. Eren could’ve broken the loop at any time, but he moped about his sealed fate instead.

1 Eren Could’ve Chosen Another Path, But Chose Not To

Eren & Mikasa Run Away

Eren causing The Rumbling and killing most of humanity may have been his life’s most likely outcome, but it wasn’t the only option. Not only was the choice to run away always there – as seen in his childhood daydream that he showed Mikasa – but he simply could’ve chosen not to fulfill the dark future that laid ahead.

Destiny and the legacy of the Titans aside, Eren was still his own person. He could’ve chosen to do literally anything other than committing global genocide. Instead, Eren considered this to be set in stone and lived the rest of his life making true his self-fulfilling prophecy. He can blame the unforgiving world or the Eldians’ misfortunes but at the end of the day, it's Eren's hands that are covered in the blood of innocent billions.

NEXT: Attack On Titan: 10 Times The Ending Was Foreshadowed (& Nobody Noticed)