Attack on “existential crisis”

Danisnotonfire

One of my favorite youtubers is Danisnotonfire. His humor and youtube vids are centered around the everyday struggles of being a “decent” human being and strange incidents that we may encounter from time to time. Dan is most relatable in the way that he experiences “existential crisis.” Existential crisis is the deep concern of unanswered questions about the meaning of life and existence. Existential crisis can occur at any time, which results in the disruption of daily activities and moments of apathy and depression. In those dark moments of apathy and depression, sometimes all you can manage to do is stay in one spot and breathe as you spiral into a pit of despair. It can lead to the questioning of why we do what we do when we are all aware of the fact that we’ll ultimately die. This leads me to questioning why Eren does what he does even though he will eventually die someday.

Dan experiencing an existential crisis moment

In the Attack on Titan universe, the military consists of three different divisions: the Garrison, Military Police Brigade, and Survey Corps. Eren is part of the Survey Corps, which is involved in titan combat, titan study, and human expansion. Although the Survey Corps has had little success and is the cause of most soldiers’ deaths, it still symbolizes “the hope of mankind” because it’s the only way that the human race might still have a chance of survival. The Survey Corps studies and comes into contact with titans in order to learn more about their structure and possibly where they came from. The Survey Corps also finds different areas that could possibly become a future area for human expansion. If it’s able to accomplish just a little, it’s proof that the humans aren’t fighting a losing battle. It’s proof that humans still have a chance-even if it’s a miniscule chance-to win against the titans. Even though Eren faces such a deadly threat to his life, he still constantly continues to give his all as a soldier. He doesn’t question the meaning of attempting to defeat all titans. Eren doesn’t care if he dies fighting, as long as he made a beneficial difference towards the survival of mankind.

This connects to existential crisis in the way that when we have discovered our ultimate purpose or passion in life, we continue to live without stressing about what is to come in the future. However, is this really true? Even if you have discovered what you may like to do in life, that doesn’t always take away the curiosity of why we’re here. Existential crisis really devours all of you and can make you question everything you believe in. Even if you have found what you believe to be your purpose in life, is it really your purpose in life? Is there value in your purpose and what you do? What will become of what you strongly stood for in life when you die? These are just some questions that are the result of overthinking everything and being indecisive. Please don’t take this too seriously.

Lucky for Eren, he hasn’t experienced an existential crisis in the show at all. He has found what his passion is in life, which is to kill titans. His determination, motivation, and sureness of what he’s doing allows him to be free of the impeding pressure caused by existential crisis. Hopefully, anyone reading this post has been able to learn a somewhat positive theme about just doing what you want to do without worrying about the obstacles we all go through in life. If this steered you in the right direction towards becoming a motivated, strong-minded individual because you don’t want to be burdened with existential crisis, then that’s great. If not…welcome to the existential crisis club.