eren and luffy, who really represents freedom in fiction ?

Hi everyone, today I'll talk about a topic that I love so much, freedom. In fiction, especially in mangas/animes there's this huge debate : who really represents freedom ? We have two main conpetitors : Monkey D luffy (one piece) and Yeager eren (attack on titan) with these two some quetions might pop up. Can both of them represent it ? No one of them does ? one represent it better than the other ? thats what I'll write about right now.

english isnt my first langague, if I make any mistakes I apologize.

hope you will enjoy this post, I'll try to be as clear as possible, giving proof of what im saying and finding an answer to the main question. 

I'll first define freedom, which sounds pretty stupid at first but will end up being very important. We need a clear definition of freedom, one that describes it clearly and is understandable by everyone.

freedom is the capacity of a human being to make their own choice without being dicted by someone else, the ability to do what you want, whenever you want, with whoever you want. It's the potency to wake up on the morning and being the master of your day, without an extern entity deciding for you. it's the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants.

freedom is a liberation, a privilege and a license.

Monkey D Luffy

I decided to talk first about luffy because I think he's the easier of the two. it's easy to understand if he can truly represents freedom or not. From his very childhood to the latest chapter luffy has always been free. let me explain now : 

Luffy grew up in a little village, he never had any parents to give him orders, an hour to come home, chores to do, school to go to etc... he was able to play outside all day long with his brothers. Some people might think : "but chay, you can only be free if you desobey the rules, if you dont have rules then nothing blocks you, so it's not freedom it's just life" well yes, but no. luffy had some rules, some oppressions, but they were so small that it never bothered him, he didnt even notice it was in his way. This question of rules/ law with liberty is a whole other theme that I might talk about, but next time, today we focus on freedom only.

Along of his journey luffy follows a "simple" pattern : he comes to a new island, free the oppresed people, and leave by letting them following whatever freedom they wish for. Luffy believes that freedom is unique to each person, he cannot impose his way of thinking to others. he cannot stand injustices and slavery/opression, he wants everyone to feel free because for him it's not just about being free it's about what beneficts it gives you : being free means being the only ruler of your life, the only one responsable of your actions, being free is being happy, being free is what every people are truly searching for because freedom is the most precious thing a human being can earn and yearn for. And luffy understood that very well.

To add with this there's luffy's new form, the gear 5. It literally give him the possibility to make whatever he imagines real, he's no longer limited by his imagination, he can freely let his thoughts and ideas take control, and I think that's a perfect representation of true freedom.

It it obvious that luffy represents freedom, he takes control of his own life and does as he please WITHOUT taking other's people freedom away to apply his (very important point that I will develop in eren's part). Luffy represents freedom, but also justice, kindness, devotion, friendship, loyalty and patience. He does represents freedom in its best forms.

"but chay luffy's view of freedom is childlish, it's not freedom its just sunshine and rainbow ofc he can achieve freedom easily" big no. one piece's world is a parallel of our actual society, being free there is far from easy; racism, child and slave traffics, rape and abuse, world governement, racial hierachies, celestial dragons and their dictature, hidden traffics, social/economical and political crises, famine, pollution, capitalism etc... you can't wake up one day and deciding to be free, that's why luffy's second dream is being king of the pirate, not for strenght, not for fame, not for power, but for freedom. If he's the king of this world, no one can tell him what to do, he's free from the law. That is one of the reason why luffy represents freedom perfectly, his goal makes sense and his journey to achieve freedom is logical and concrete.

So yes, luffy for sure represents freedom. Remember the definition of freedom I gave in the beggining? "it's the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants", thats what luffy is, does, and wants to do. Now if he is the best representation of freedom ? possible, but that's another debate that I'd also love to talk about here !! 

Eren Yeager

Eren's case is more complicated, not because his world is more complicated (already talked about it in Luffy's part) but because his view of freedom had never been correct, now let me explain.

Eren's journey is for sure different from Luffy's one even tho they share the same goal. Since his very childhood Eren always dreamt about being free, to go outside of the walls, to observe the outside world without feeling like a sheep in a case waiting his turn to be eaten by titans. he wants to see the ocean, to find the desert and explore the whole world. he craves for freedom, he wants to taste liberty, but it is enough to represent it ? 

Eren is a victim of destiny, he can't make choices on his own, he has something do to and can't escape his faith. Can someone who cannot control his life can really be claimed as free ? Eren's mind is filled with stangers' memories, regrets, thoughts, goals, lifes, suffers and objectives. he never got the chance to think by himself, everything he's doing had been dicted from the very beggining by these voices, he's being used as a marionette, a messager in some case. He's not Eren Yeager, he's a bunch of different people in one's mind. Remember what I said ? " freedom is the potency to wake up on the morning and being the master of your day, without an extern entity deciding for you." but that's not Eren's case, he's not the master of his actions, he does as what these people tell him. okay he wants freedom, but can you even say it's his wish ? Or one of the people in his mind, who said he was the one who wanted this ? Sure thing he wanted freedom for his friends, but for him ? 

Eren is not free, he is as he said himself a 'slave a freedom' but can we really blame him for that ? He grew up in a world where freedom doesnt exist, where people never knew what it was like to be free, to do as ones please, to experience liberty. someone who never experience freedom can't represent it, and it's just logical; straight girls cant be the representaton of gay men, thats illogic, you can't represent something you never experienced, something you never saw or tasted. But again it's not truly his fault, he was just a kid who was tired of being trapped in a cage when the whole world could be his.

Now that we understood that his idea of freedom is false we can understand how his way of applying it is also wrong. To be free, and free his friends he decided to take the life of 80% of the humanity, of innocents, childrens, babies and people who weren't in the conflict and never asked for anything. That's not freedom that's oppression, he took away other's freedom because it wasn't in correlation with his. To be free you're not suppossed to take someone's else freedom, you can fight for sure, you even need to, but doing a genocide ? For sure no. You can't be free by taking other's freedom it goes against freedom's 'laws and rules'.

Now for his own freedom, well he never was, not even once Eren was free, not even once he was close to be free. Now people might tell me "but chay when he died he was free, dying is a form of freedom right ?" well yes, but not in Eren's case, let me explain. Yes death is a form of freedom, in many civilisations it was the case (and probably still is for some others) it's a way of being liberated from this life, to let go of everything and finally being in peace but dying is not freedom when you dont want to die, which is Eren's case. He never wanted to die, he wanted to live, to be free, to spend the rest of his life with mikasa and his friends, he says it himself "I dont want to die, I want to stay with mikasa, I want to be her one and only love" Eren never wanted to die, so in that case dying is not freedom it's coercion. 

So no, eren can't represent freedom, because he never knew what it truly was, because not once in his life he experienced it, and because he died too young, forced to do something he never wanted to. He's just a child with an already written faith in a corrupted world who didnt have any other choices. We can't blame him, but we cant possibly say he's an example of freedom. 

Conclusion

The conclusion will be short because I think I already developped enough the other parts, but to make it short luffy represents freedom, by his way of thinking, his goal, his journey and his acts. However Eren isn't a good representation and it's simply because he can't represents something he isn't. Luffy is what Eren dreams to be, and Eren is what Luffy fear to be the most.

hope you liked it I tried to be the clearest possible, Im ready to hear any arguments and talk about it as long as they make sense and you have proof of what you're saying !

chay's out