When it comes to people drawing their last breath, Attack on Titan is to Game of Thrones what war is to a retirement home: In one there’s the occasional loss to mourn, but in the other, bodies drop faster than you can remember their names. Set in a world where gigantic, human-like monsters routinely swallow normal folks for breakfast, this anime quickly racks up one of the highest death counts in TV history.
With new people arriving and departing on a daily basis, both in the Survey Corps and life itself, protagonist Eren Yeager constantly struggles with his choices. Who can blame him? When the stakes are life and death at every turn, and you only have seconds to decide, how can anyone pick right, let alone do so consistently?
At one point, Eren and his squad are fleeing from a 15-meter titan chasing them through the woods. Their orders are to escape, but dammit, with so many lives already lost to the monstrous woman without skin, perhaps Eren should turn around and fight? The rest of his team can see the struggle on his face.
As Eren breaks into a sweat, Corporal Levi, who’s leading the charge, offers some counterintuitive, surprisingly honest advice:
“You aren’t wrong, you know? If you want to do it, do it. Eren, the difference between your decision and ours is experience. But you don’t have to rely on that. Decide. Do you trust yourself? Or them and me, the Survey Corps? I don’t know what you should do. No one knows. Whether I trust my instincts or the decisions of my trustworthy comrades, it doesn’t matter. In the end, there’s no guarantee.”
The best thing we can do? Make the decision we’ll regret the least later, Levi thinks. But of course that, too, does not come with any guarantees — and if the only choice you have is about which one of your friends, colleagues, or comrades might not see tomorrow’s sunrise, then what kind of regret-minimization framework is that to begin with? Still, sooner or later, we must choose. We must all, always choose. And while Eren will revisit the particular choice he makes in the forest many times later on, eventually, Levi’s lesson will finally sink in.
Pick as best as you can, but when in doubt, just pick. Choose and walk — for good or bad, right or wrong, life or death, there is no guarantee for our decisions — and all we can do is give our best in each moment as it unfolds.