Akuma no Ko: Thematic Perfection

(Originally written on the 9th of January, 2022)

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Flowers are extremely prevalent in Attack on Titan's final ending theme, "Child of Evil." Within the show, they have become the symbol of Mikasa Ackerman's idea of true freedom: one stemming from her roots, her family being the beauty in the cruel world. They first appear in the ending theme stained with the blood from Eren's knife, showing the juxtaposed dichotomy between the world's beauty and cruelty in the eyes of Mikasa. In her coldest moment, he (and his scarf) became her warmth.

Opposing this grounded ideology, Eren looks up to the boundless sky just as the scarf falls off him and turns into the bird. Despite being unable to reach the birds, he still longs to be free, prioritising that selfish unobtainable desire above everything else.

However, the real world was not what he saw in Armin's book. Such boundless freedom could not exist in a world of human nature and the cycle of violence. This idea is illustrated in the ending theme with both the bird and Eren becoming trapped within the birdcage, Eren still standing in the field of flowers.

What made Mikasa different from Eren was her ability to accept the unacceptable truth that the cycle of violence will forever persist. While Eren acknowledged that truth, he still shut his eyes to it, choosing to move forward against his better judgement. In the anime, when Eren protected Mikasa and Armin in Trost, flowers are seen growing even inside of the titan's ribcage (mirroring the imagery of the bird cage).

Eren transformed at that moment to protect his friends, remembering Grisha's words about protecting Mikasa and Armin. The two of them being the last remnants of his home, makes them the beauty that he fights to protect, much like how Mikasa fights to protect her conceived home.

This only makes the next moment in the ending theme more powerful as the cage disappears and the natural landscape becomes far more vibrant. The young boy has his hands outstretched, reminiscent of the iconic "freedom" panel. However, unlike the false freedom in chapter 131, this is portrayed as triumphant, the visuals and swelling music truly conveying the world's sense of beauty.

The lyrics of the chorus stating the ending theme's thesis:

The world is cruel but I still love you.

The audience finally see the beauty in the cage that Mikasa saw: a freedom in and of itself. The scarf that he gave her turning into his idea of freedom is symbolic of that.

Mikasa gives a second meaning to Eren's scarf transforming into the bird. Him wrapping it around her, becoming the beauty in her cruel world, gave her fulfilment. The freedom that he saw as the bird, she saw as the scarf. In what they believed to be their final moments together in chapter 50, his confession of love to her came as a promise to continue wrapping that scarf around her, making sure that her freedom could be attained, no matter what it took.

Despite this resolution, Eren was still unable to change who he was. The lyrics speak of "sacrificing everything," displaying the many sides of Eren. While he did indeed fight for the freedom of his friends, it was always for himself, for the world he saw in Armin's book. The literal translation of the song's title, "devil's child," is in reference to both the title for Eldians, a title that oppressed him and his people all their lives, but also to the inevitable transformation into the demonic culmination of the cycle of violence that had birthed him.

As the lyrics states, the "child of evil" existed within the hearts of everyone. Behind the justice and sacrifice of Eren, the truth was that it was his own insatiable desire moving him forward. Just as his long journey ended while still seeking to obtain that freedom, the ending concludes with him burning to ash, still moving forward, mirroring the words Keith Shadis said to himself regarding Eren all of those years ago.

And you, just like your father wanted, chose to set ablaze your life which will burn to ashes outside the walls.

Despite Eren's ashes being blown into the wind, the flowers still remain. Even if he were to die... even AFTER he were to die, life would continue on, including the beauty that he protected. Mikasa took his life to protect what little beauty was left in the world as well as to ensure that others would still have their own freedom in the cruel world. The fleeting beauty and finite human existence is made even more clear by the shots of key locations in Paradis abandoned and overrun with greenery. The beauty of the natural world overtaking the human world both foreshadows the inevitable fate of Paradis as a result of human nature and is also emblematic of Mikasa's philosophy of beauty still existing within the cruel world.