Attack on Titan’s True Villain Wasn’t Eren, It Was The Fans

Attack on Titan ended with one of the most divisive finales in anime history. Was Eren the true villain? Was it Ymir? The Titans? No. The true villain of Attack on Titan was hiding in plain sight: the fans themselves. Our obsession with theories, shipping wars, and moral purity tests turned the fandom into a battleground worse than Paradis vs. Marley.

The fan expectations poisoned the discourse around Attack on Titan, reducing its brilliant writing to “who’s right?” hot takes. Let’s break down how the fandom’s toxicity overshadowed the story’s nuance, and why we’re all a little guilty.

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The Time When Fans Became The Yeagerists

When the finale dropped, the internet exploded. Some fans called Eren’s character “assassinated,” while others rage-quit over the ship wars between Eremika and Erehisu. But the loudest complaints came from fans who wanted a clean villain, someone to blame for all the suffering. They missed the point: Attack on Titan was never about good vs evil. It was about cycles of violence and impossible choices.

The irony? Fans turned into Attack on Titan's true villain and acted like Floch’s Yeagerists, attacking anyone who disagreed with their interpretation. YouTube essays, Twitter threads, and Reddit rants turned into ideological warfare. The fandom became the very thing the story warned against: tribalism.

Theory Culture Broke Our Brains

For years, fans treated Attack on Titan like a puzzle to solve. “Eren is manipulating the past!” “Historia’s baby is the key.” When the ending didn’t match these grand theories, fans cried “bad writing.” They considered AOT a mystery box; however, it was a tragedy. Eren wasn’t a mastermind; he was a broken kid who made horrible choices.

The real villain here? Headcanon addiction. Fans valued their own theories over the story’s actual themes, then blamed Isayama when reality didn’t match their fanfics. Sound familiar? It’s the same entitlement that ruined Game of Thrones discourse.

The Morality Debates That Missed The Point

Attack on Titan main villain were the fans

“Was Eren right?” “Is genocide ever justified?” These debates flooded social media, reducing the whole point of focusing on AOT’s gray morality to binary hot takes. The story deliberately avoided easy answers, but fans demanded them anyway.

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Some fans actually supported the Rumbling, twisting the story to match their extreme views. Others saw the Alliance as perfect heroes, ignoring their flaws. Just like in the story, the fandom took sides and missed the main lesson: no one is completely innocent in war.

The Double Standard For Female Characters

Attack on Titan fans knew how Mikasa and Historia faced disproportionate hate. Mikasa was called “useless” for not killing Eren sooner, while Historia was reduced to a plot device for her pregnancy subplot. Meanwhile, male characters like Levi and Reiner got free passes for similar flaws.

This isn’t just fandom toxicity, it’s sexism. AOT’s women are as amazing as the male characters, take Annie’s redemption and Ymir’s sacrifice for instance, but fans judged them harsher than the male cast. The real villain? Patriarchal storytelling expectations.

Final Verdict: We Were the Titans All Along

If we say Attack on Titan’s ending wasn’t perfect, it’s time we ask ourselves, were we the perfect viewers Isayama hoped for? We vilified Eren for his crimes, then became the real villain of Attack on Titan, and committed our own, harassing creators, doxxing shippers, and refusing to engage with the story’s uncomfortable truths.

The solution is simple: Try to view the story through the writer’s lens and understand what they are trying to convey.