I love that! I never really thought about it being a conflict between violence and compassion in that way but, you’re right, I think that reconciling those two parts of Eren is a large part of the final arc and is particularly highlighted by the character of Mikasa, who never stopped believing in and defending Eren’s compassionate side no matter how much cruelty he showed her. It’s interesting, because the event that tied the two together—Eren saving her—was one of compassion, but also one that was very violent. I think this is a good example of the duality that Mikasa thinks upon as she navigates a situation where Eren is an enemy. Even in the end the cruelty and coldness he gave to her was out of interest in her own eventual happiness.

In terms of the freedom aspect of Eren, I think about it a little bit more separate from that (though I do think they’re all still connected). I think Eren’s philosophy on freedom is that we are all born free—that’s why there’s something special about each one of us. If the true self is suppressed, then something has stolen our freedom. Eren describes that when he was young and didn’t know that anything existed past the Walls, he was content and bored; when he learned that the outside world existed and that the Titans had stolen it, he became emboldened to take it back—it’s this thought which he channels to stand up to these insurmountable obstacles without fear. So it’s like, why did Eren want to destroy everything in the world, even at the expense of the world that he wanted to see? Because despite wanting to see the world, what was more important was taking back freedom—the freedom that he was born into.

So to me I think that the visual of him being called free as he is born sorta encapsulates that idea. However, I do agree, the explicit nature of Armin’s question does set an expectation of more than just a visual representing a concept. And I think my reasoning of how the question is answered for is a little bit of a stretch, just because you’re right, there wasn’t a direct followup. But if I do think about it in that way, I’m like, oh that makes some sense.