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"Mature Content Warning!" |
Eren Kruger, also known as the Owl, is a supporting character from the Attack on Titan series.
He is a high ranking officer of the Marleyan military's Public Security. Having deceived the law with false blood test results, he is in truth an Eldian of Marley and the holder of the Attack Titan. Kruger forms the Eldian Restorationists, a rebel criminal organization from the Liberio internment zone, which he leads as an anonymous under the shadows, with the codename "Owl". He pretends to be a Marleyan to infiltrate the nation's military and work for the government as a Public Security Authority, using his position to provide the Restorationists with secret intel.
As he was the leader and Titan predecessor of Grisha Yeager, he presumably is the namesake of Grisha's second son Eren.
He is voiced by Yasunori Matsumoto in Japanese and by Ray Chase in English.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- When he and Gross catch young Grisha and Faye sneaking out of their internment zone without permission, Eren gives Grisha a brutal beating which includes repeatedly kneeing him in the stomach.
- At some point, he inherited the power of the Attack Titan. While it's not explicitely mentioned, this means that he ate his predecessor to take his power because this is the way the power of a Titan can be inherited within the Attack on Titan universe and Kruger has someone else's memories which are mixed with his own.
- He founded the rebel movement of the Eldian Restorationists, which encouraged extremist, vengeful, and supremacist views from discontented Eldians living in the Liberio internment zone. Kruger silently allowed Grisha and his movement to develop an ideology of support of the Eldian Empire, which denied all its atrocities or justified them. The Restorationists believed that all the actions and imperialism done by Eldia were all right and "corrected the world", and as such, then the world needed to be "corrected" again, implying that the Restorationists desired to repeat the atrocities once again.
- He enabled his extremist group by arming them and allowing them to use a really young child, Zeke Yeager, to join the military and send him to war, making him a murderer, as they planned to steal the power of the Founding Titan from Paradis' Walls to use it to control the other Titans of Marley and start terroristic attacks and war on the country, which would have involved other nations inevitably. In reality, Kruger manipulated all his movement to head towards that direction, while knowing how it would all end, as he actually only planned on keeping Grisha alive for the mission entrusted by Eren Yeager from the future, making all the other Restorationists pawns, Dina also just a mean to bring Zeke into the world. It is possible that it was Kruger himself who secretely gave his comrades of Public Security clues and proofs that exposed the existence of his own movement, as Zeke only ended up betraying his parents as soon as he heard the officers discussing their investigations and how well they were going.
- As part of his job in the Marleyan military, according to his own words to Grisha, he cut off fingers from thousands of his fellow Subjects of Ymir and turned them into Titans, all this including men, women and children, all to keep his identity and motivations hidden by staying loyal to the nation. It should be noted that with the power of the Attack Titan, he could have saved any of those people, but he chose not to to keep his disguise.
- After Grisha Yeager and the other Eldian Restorationists are captured by Public Security, Kruger is seen overseeing the torture of Grisha as the interrogators are cutting off his fingers.
- He and Gross then oversee the Titanization of the Eldian Restorationists. Kruger could have easily saved them if he had just transformed earlier (something even Grisha himself points out) and while he rationalizes his decision not to help them with that they wouldn't survive the long journey towards the Walls either way, there is no way he could have been certain about that. Kruger even hides the fact that Dina has royal blood and when Grisha tries to inform Gross about this to save his wife, Kruger forcefully shuts him up which leads to Dina also being turned into a Titan. This could be seen as a huge betrayal because Kruger was the actual leader of the Eldian Restorationists and instead of giving his men a fighting chance, he just decided to allow them to be turned into Titans.
- He pushes his friend Sergeant Major Gross off the wall to be torn apart by a Titan and then proceeds to kill all the Marleyan soldiers that came with him to Paradis. He is seen picking up one of his comrades - who was previously seen torturing and questioning Grisha - and squeezing him until he explodes. According to Grisha, Kruger killed the other soldiers in the same brutal manner. While they were his enemies, he still shows unnecessary brutality in the way he kills them, especially since some of the soldiers of that group were presumably closer comrades he presumably worked with for years. Nevertheless, he did those actions while saving Grisha. Also, Gross was portrayed as a very sadistic and cruel officer, and out-of-line even by the standards of Public Security in general, although Kruger killed him for pragmatic reasons, not for justice and righteousness, having also shared many cruel acts with Gross for years.
- He commands Grisha Yeager to eat him to inherit the power of the Attack Titan, and then go to the Walls of the remnants of Eldia, find the King of the Walls, who is assumed to possesses the power of the Founder Titan, and take it from them, which means that Grisha would have to kill said person. This makes Kruger indirectly responsible for Grisha killing Rod Reiss' family (although Kruger only told him to strip the King of the Founder) and for a lot of the negative repercussions that took place because of that, finally leading to the Rumbling.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He’s genuinely tragic because he was an Eldian who grew up in Marley which means that he was oppressed by the regime and he also witnessed his fellow Eldians being oppressed as well. His father had joined a revolutionary army guided by members of the Fritz family, but the rebels were all discovered, captured, and burned alive by the Public Security Authorities, including all their families unrelated to the movement, such as Kruger's family. The young Kruger was not found and only survived due to himself hiding in a closet, from which he watched the execution of his family. This had led him to seek revenge against Marley and to liberate his people no matter what, although growing up and spending much of his life as a free Marleyan citizen and staining his hands with the atrocities of the government's laws, he seemingly abandoned his hateful revenge. As an adult, he focused on the freedom of the Eldian people at all coasts, pushing himself to move forward no matter what and what regrets he had for his actions.
- Kruger cares about his family and was horrified when he saw them being burned alive. His family's death is a huge part of what motivated him during his youth. Kruger regretfully stated that all he managed to do in his life, however, was just torturing Eldian criminals, before executing them or turning them into Titans, whilst living outside the internment zones and being surrounded by non-Subjects of Ymir, thanks to having cheated his blood test with the aid of a doctor.
- He is a well-intentioned extremist who cares about his people and wants to liberate them from the rest of humanity and restore Eldia. He gave information to the Eldian Restorationists, while he himself worked for the Marleyan goverment and gathered information. While he himself tortured and turned into Titans a lot of Eldian people, it was done to continue his infiltration in the Marleyan military and hide his true identity. This not only makes him an extremist, but also an Anti-Villain and Grey Zone.
- He feels remorseful about all the bad things his was forced to do to the Eldian prisoners and wants his actions to have some meaning in the end.
- He displays some care for Grisha Yeager despite beating him when Grisha was still a child and cutting off his fingers years later. After the beating, he allowed him to stay with him and watch the airship with him instead of simply sending him back to the internment zone straight away. He also saved his life from Gross and expressed concern when Grisha was grabbing him by the neck and was making his hands worse.
- He shows some moral disgust at Gross' sadism. When he pushes him off the wall, Kruger wonders if Gross finds the experience of being torn apart by a Titan to be as interesting as he found it to be when he was pushing Eldian prisoners off the wall. However, he sees himself as a villain no better than Gross as well due to his own actions, never justifying his own acts, and claims that both he and Grisha also need to get "what is coming for them" at some point, as the price of their actions "must be paid" by themselves.
- While he quietly allowed his fellow Restorationists, especially Grisha, to develop an extreme hatred for Marley and the world, to the point of justifying and loving, or denying, the imperialistic and supremacist acts done by the Fritz family, Kruger himself was against history repeating itself. He said to a defeated Grisha that instead of fighting to restore the past, he would have to fight to prevent the same mistakes done by Eldia and Marley from repeating themselves over and over. Kruger also told Grisha that the idea Ymir Fritz and her family not abusing their powers did not sound like any human being, implying that both Eldian and Marleyan histories are too biased and lack neutrality.
- He posthumously redeems himself by helping the Marleyans and the Survey Corps to stop the Rumbling and save humanity, including Kruger's own people from the internment zones.
External Links[]
- Eren Kruger on the Attack on Titan Wiki
- Eren Kruger on the Villains Wiki
- Eren Kruger on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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Canon Marley Eldian Empire Eldian Restorationists | ||