{"id":12535,"date":"2026-09-12T15:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T15:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/im-a-collector.com\/?p=12535"},"modified":"2026-09-12T17:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T17:07:19","slug":"reiner-braun-eldian-identity-attack-on-titan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/im-a-collector.com\/en\/memory-legacy\/reiner-braun-eldian-identity-attack-on-titan\/","title":{"rendered":"[feature] Why does Reiner want to become a \u201cgood Eldian\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"Attack on Titan: How Can Hatred Lead to Genocide?<\/a> \u2014 episode 3 of 10<\/span>\n\n

As a child, Reiner Braun believes he has found the answer to almost every problem his family faces: becoming a Warrior for Marley. His mother, Karina, is Eldian; his father is Marleyan, and in the society they live in, that difference alone is enough to prevent them from living as a normal family. Reiner therefore grows up with his mother in the Liberio internment zone. Far from a man he barely knows, he holds on to the hope that things might one day change. If he is selected as a Warrior candidate and inherits one of the Titans, he and his mother could gain the privileged status granted to Warrior families. In Reiner\u2019s mind, that promotion will finally allow his father to join them. At least, that is how it looks on paper\u2026<\/p>\n\n

There is something deeply unsettling about this idea once you stop to consider it: Reiner has committed no crime, has never met anyone from Paradis, and obviously bears no responsibility for what the former Eldian Empire may have done generations before he was born. Yet he has already learned that there is something wrong with his very existence, and that it is his job to make up for it.<\/p>\n\n

The armband he wears, the district he lives in, his father\u2019s absence and the way his mother talks about their \u201cblood\u201d quickly teach him that being Eldian is not simply a matter of family origin. It shapes the place he is allowed to occupy in society, even determining whether he can live with the people he loves. Marley nevertheless offers him what looks like a way out. Eldians remain a discriminated population, but some can receive special treatment if they become useful enough to the state. The Warrior program therefore turns military service into a possible route to social advancement for Reiner and, through him, for his entire family.<\/p>\n\n

That is what makes Reiner a more complex and interesting character than a child who has simply been indoctrinated. The society he grows up in does not only teach him why his people should be ashamed of their past. It also teaches him that there is a way to be a more acceptable Eldian than the others.<\/p>\n\n

In this article, I therefore wanted to understand why someone who experiences discrimination might seek the approval of people who regard them as inferior. But can we still call it acceptance when it requires us to distance ourselves from people who resemble us?<\/p>\n\n

When a society teaches you that your birth is already a problem<\/h2>\n\n

Chapters 94 and 95 return to Reiner\u2019s childhood and reveal a great deal about his past. Karina, his mother, tells him that Eldians are confined because \u201cdevil blood\u201d runs through their veins. She also explains that their situation is the fault of the Eldians who followed King Fritz to Paradis, portrayed as the people who abandoned those left behind on the continent. At the same time, Reiner knows that his father is Marleyan and understands that this is precisely what prevents him from living with them.<\/p>\n\n

To Reiner as a child, Eldian identity explains both the segregation he sees every day and the absence of his father. A history stretching back generations provides an explanation for the most intimate problem in his own life. The history of these two peoples becomes entangled with his before he is even born, and it will follow him for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n\n

To Reiner, the Warrior program appears to offer a way to change his circumstances without having to imagine society itself changing. Marley recruits Eldian children to inherit the Nine Titans and serve in its military. The families of those who are selected can receive honorary status and benefits unavailable to other residents of the internment zones. Reiner therefore learns that an Eldian who proves useful enough may hope to live differently from most of his people.<\/p>\n\n

His reaction is entirely understandable: he will do everything he can to use the rules of the world he grew up in to get what he wants. The tragedy is that this strategy is fundamentally unfair, because the problem he is trying to solve was created by those very rules.<\/p>\n\n

\"A
On the verge of suicide, Reiner Braun embodies the collapse of a man crushed by shame, guilt and the consequences of the choices he made in Marley\u2019s service. \u00a9 Hajime Isayama, Kodansha \/ Attack on Titan: The Final Season Production Committee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The \u201cgood\u201d Eldians and the others<\/h2>\n\n

I did not invent the phrase \u201cgood Eldian\u201d: that distinction genuinely exists in Attack on Titan. In chapter 91, Gabi says she wants to show the world that there are still Eldians worthy of trust by helping destroy the people of Paradis. A few chapters later, Reiner\u2019s mother draws a similar line between the loyal Eldians living on the continent and the \u201cdevils of the island.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This specific expression describes a moral standard: the acceptable Eldian acknowledges the guilt assigned to their people, remains loyal to Marley and helps fight those on Paradis. The status granted to Warrior families operates on a different level: it offers real privileges without erasing the Eldian identity of those who receive them. The system therefore rewards certain individuals while leaving intact the hierarchy imposed on the group as a whole.<\/p>\n\n

A similar logic has been studied in far less violent contexts through the idea of the \u201cmodel minority.\u201d In the United States, the stereotype applied to Asian Americans has sometimes framed academic or economic success as proof that a minority can find its place if it works hard enough and integrates successfully. Such comparisons have also been used to downplay the constraints faced by other groups, as though the success of some were enough to prove that everyone had the same opportunities.<\/p>\n\n

This mechanism helps explain what the Warrior program represents: a small number of Eldians can improve their own situation without the broader condition of their people changing at all.<\/p>\n\n

As a child, Reiner wants only one thing: for his mother and himself to live differently, and for their new status to finally allow his father to come back to them. Nothing more. The promise of greater social status speaks to an extremely simple desire: to have a family. That is why it has such power over him.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Serving the system does not necessarily mean believing in it In Code Geass, the Honorary Britannians and the populations of conquered territories illustrate another form of conditional integration: some people can gain greater rights or recognition by serving the Empire without the hierarchy between Britannians and the peoples they dominate disappearing. The comparison goes no further than that, but the mechanism helps explain why individual advancement does not always erase a collective boundary.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"Pre-color
This pre-color artwork for Volume 23 of Attack on Titan brings together Reiner Braun and Marley\u2019s Eldian Warriors. Reiner\u2019s expression particularly conveys the sadness and burden carried by these characters. Illustration: Hajime Isayama.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Why seek the approval of people who see you as inferior?<\/h2>\n\n

For some Eldian children, the Warrior program is therefore one of the few available ways to improve their circumstances, even if it means learning to set themselves apart from part of their own people.<\/p>\n\n

Henri Tajfel and John Turner\u2019s work on social identity offers one way of understanding this. When a group occupies a disadvantaged position, its members may try to change the hierarchy collectively, or seek individual improvement when the boundary appears permeable for a select few. The latter strategy is often described as a form of individual mobility. It does not require believing that the social order is fair. It is enough for collective change to seem almost impossible while a personal route upward genuinely exists.<\/p>\n\n

That is exactly the kind of environment in which Reiner grows up. Nothing gives him reason to believe that a child could challenge Marley\u2019s power or secure equality for all Eldians. The Warrior program, by contrast, is real and can bring concrete benefits to those who are selected. And this possibility touches several parts of his personal story at once: success could improve his mother\u2019s situation, make his father accessible at last, and give Reiner a sense of worth that he struggles to find among the other candidates.<\/p>\n\n

Indoctrination also works because it attaches itself to desires that are not political to begin with. The boy simply wants his father to love him, his mother to be proud of him, and to become someone whose importance can no longer be questioned. Marley gradually teaches him that all of those aspirations lead through the same path.<\/p>\n\n

But it is also important to understand what that path actually demands of him. A candidate who inherits one of the Nine Titans knows that the Curse of Ymir will leave them only thirteen years to live. Bertolt reminds Reiner of that limit when they are children, yet Reiner does not abandon his plan. He believes those years will be enough to become a hero, fight the people of Paradis and do what is expected of him.<\/p>\n\n

The scene shows how powerful this ambition has already become: while still a child, Reiner accepts a shortened life because he believes it will mean more if it allows him to save his family and become someone whose value Marley will recognize.<\/p>\n\n

This is where Marleyan society becomes particularly insidious: it has not merely taught him to accept the cost of the program. It has managed to convince a child that a shorter life could still be worth living if it finally gave him what he wanted.<\/p>\n\n

\"A
For Reiner, joining the Warrior program initially represents a concrete opportunity to change his status and finally gain the recognition he longs for. \u00a9 Hajime Isayama \/ Kodansha.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

When belonging is not enough<\/h2>\n\n

The need to keep proving yourself in order to have your place recognized exists in different forms in our own societies.<\/p>\n\n

Research on identity denial has shown, among other things, that people can feel fully part of a country while still having that belonging questioned by others. Sapna Cheryan and Beno\u00eet Monin observed this among Asian Americans, who were more likely to face situations in which their Americanness was doubted. When participants were pushed back toward an assumed foreign origin, some responded by more strongly asserting knowledge or practices associated with American culture.<\/p>\n\n

France provides an even clearer example of this gap. According to the Trajectories and Origins 2 survey, 94% of respondents born to two immigrant parents say they feel French. Yet 29% of descendants of immigrants from Asian or African backgrounds say that others do not \u201csee them as French,\u201d compared with fewer than 8% among those of European origin. A person can therefore hold French nationality, feel entirely French, and still sense that this belonging is recognized less readily than it is for others.<\/p>\n\n

Luxembourg, a country where diversity and multilingualism are structural features of society, offers another example. Research among Portuguese families there has documented experiences of cultural identity denial among some descendants. A national survey by LISER and CEFIS also found that 48.8% of respondents regarded a lack of knowledge of Luxembourgish as a characteristic likely to trigger discrimination.<\/p>\n\n

If I did not know the country, I might have concluded that speaking Luxembourgish was ultimately the main barrier to integration. But having personally experienced language-related discrimination, I know how strongly that marker can shape the way someone is perceived. And it can go much further: people from Portuguese, Italian or Cape Verdean families may be referred back to their origins or their skin colour from a very young age, even when they speak Luxembourgish perfectly. Language and origin can both become markers used to decide who appears to truly belong to the country.<\/p>\n\n

These situations are in no way comparable to the segregation imposed on Eldians. They simply show that legal status, a personal sense of belonging and the way society sees us do not always line up.<\/p>\n\n

For Reiner, however, that logic takes on a far more violent form. The proof demanded of him is not mastery of a language or a display of cultural attachment to Marley. His only route to improving his family\u2019s life is through combat and the inheritance of a power that will unquestionably shorten his own life.<\/p>\n\n

When belonging means becoming someone elseIn Fullmetal Alchemist, the Ishvalans also live in a society where their identity sets them apart, yet some still choose to serve in the Amestrian military. <\/strong>The manga is not telling the same story as Attack on Titan, but it raises a related question: how far can someone go in seeking a place within a system that continues to view their group as different or dangerous?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"Genga
In Attack on Titan, Reiner\u2019s uniform represents a form of belonging that must constantly be proven through combat and sacrifice. Genga and final frame: MAPPA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Can serving a country become proof of loyalty?<\/h2>\n\n

Military service occupies a particular place because it turns loyalty into sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n

During the Second World War, more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed and incarcerated in the United States. At the same time, Japanese American soldiers served in the US Army, notably in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Some veterans later explained that they had wanted to demonstrate their loyalty as citizens even while members of their families were confined. Their reasons for serving were, of course, not all the same: some volunteered, others served after conscription was reinstated, while some refused to fight until their own civil rights and those of their families were restored.<\/p>\n\n

The Alsatian and Mosellan \u201cMalgr\u00e9-nous\u201d provide an even starker example of why wearing a uniform tells us little, by itself, about the convictions of the person inside it. After Nazi Germany annexed Alsace and Moselle, around 130,000 men were forcibly conscripted into various German units, while refusal or desertion could bring severe consequences both for them and for their families.<\/p>\n\n

Of course, none of these histories is identical in nature or function to Reiner\u2019s. They simply remind us that military service can take very different forms: a claim to belonging, a family strategy, an obligation or a form of coercion, depending on the circumstances.<\/p>\n\n

In Attack on Titan, Reiner\u2019s reasons for enlisting are clear: his commitment as a child is shaped by Marley and by his mother Karina, but it is also rooted in a deeply personal desire to put his family back together.<\/p>\n\n

Can serving a country become proof of loyalty?During the First World War, around 100,000 German Jews served in the Imperial German Army, and nearly 12,000 were killed in combat. Yet this demonstration of loyalty did not later protect them from antisemitism or, after 1933, from Nazi policies. Their history shows that someone may try to prove their belonging through service without the dominant group ever ceasing to see them as different.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"Alsatian
The history of the \u201cMalgr\u00e9-nous\u201d reminds us that wearing a uniform does not necessarily reflect genuine allegiance or a freely chosen identity. Photo: Epson Opaque, royalty-free.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Karina Braun: when the family also passes on the rules of the system<\/h2>\n\n

Without his mother, Reiner would probably never have imagined his future in quite this way. She teaches him very early how the world around them works, and continues to reinforce that lesson for years.<\/p>\n\n

Her character becomes much more complex once we understand that she is herself subject to the rules she passes on. Karina lives in the internment zone. Her relationship with a Marleyan cannot be lived openly or normally, and the man with whom she had a child does not share their life. When she encourages Reiner to enter the Warrior program, she also believes she is using the system as a way out of the situation that same system has imposed on them.<\/p>\n\n

This ambiguity has been documented, in obviously very different forms, in research on family socialization among minority groups. Parents who experience discrimination may teach their children to anticipate certain treatment, to be especially cautious, or to adopt behaviours that reduce the risk of being associated with a stereotype. Such advice can be a strategy of protection while also conveying the idea that the child may sometimes have to be more faultless than others to receive the same consideration.<\/p>\n\n

Karina takes that logic much further, because the path she offers Reiner runs through Marley\u2019s military program. She genuinely hopes to improve their family situation, but she also passes on a worldview in which the people of Paradis become responsible for part of their suffering.<\/p>\n\n

In chapter 134, Karina admits that she turned her son into an instrument of her own revenge. She then understands that she placed a burden on him that she did more than simply pass down; she continued to feed it over the years.<\/p>\n\n

Some of the system\u2019s categories are therefore repeated and transmitted by a mother who believes she is acting to give her child a better life.<\/p>\n\n

\"Karina
Karina Braun expresses her pride when Reiner becomes one of Marley\u2019s Warriors. To her, her son\u2019s success also represents the hope that their family might finally gain recognition and status. \u00a9 Hajime Isayama, Kodansha \/ Attack on Titan: The Final Season Production Committee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Becoming a Warrior to prove he deserved his place<\/h2>\n\n

Another important feature of the military program is that it gives Reiner a form of validation at a time when he is regarded as one of the least convincing candidates. Porco Galliard never stops reminding him of that. Reiner performs less well than several of the other children, and loyalty to Marley is one of the few areas in which he can truly distinguish himself.<\/p>\n\n

When Reiner is finally chosen to inherit the Armored Titan, the state gives him something he can use as proof against both Porco\u2019s humiliations and his own doubts. He and his mother also gain the status that should finally allow them to fulfil their family plan. Reiner goes to find his father carrying the information that is supposed to change everything: he has become a Warrior, the Braun family will be treated differently, and the obstacle separating his parents should finally disappear. His father reacts with fear instead. The existence of this Eldian child, and of his relationship with Karina, could endanger his Marleyan family if it were discovered. He does not see Reiner as the son whose success will finally bring everyone together, but as evidence of a relationship he would rather erase.<\/p>\n\n

This new status is already failing to deliver what Reiner had imagined it would as a child.<\/p>\n\n

And it does not stop there. Marcel reveals that he deliberately influenced the evaluations to prevent Porco from being chosen. Reiner discovers that his selection is not even the proof of superiority he thought he had earned.<\/p>\n\n

Some time later, Marcel dies saving him. The sequence matters enormously for what follows. By the time Reiner actually reaches Paradis, his father has rejected him, and the selection that was supposed to confirm his worth has itself been undermined. The mission therefore begins after much of the ideal he had chosen to fight for has already collapsed.<\/p>\n\n

\"A
This scene shows how, from childhood onward, the recognition Reiner seeks is tied to effort, discipline and his willingness to conform to the very system that excludes him. \u00a9 Hajime Isayama, Kodansha \/ Attack on Titan: The Final Season Production Committee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Why keep going when the original reasons have already disappeared?<\/h2>\n\n

After Marcel\u2019s death, Annie wants only one thing: to go home. Their group has just lost its leader and, with him, the Jaw Titan, even though the operation has barely begun. Reiner also knows perfectly well that returning could have serious consequences for his own future and for their families. He refuses to give up. This whole passage takes on a different meaning when placed against what has just happened. Going back would also mean returning to a father who does not want him and accepting that the selection he was so proud of did not prove what he thought it did. Reiner then declares that if the group needs a Marcel, he will become Marcel.<\/p>\n\n

That decision helps us better understand the teenager we later meet within the 104th Training Corps. Marcel was the one who protected the others and seemed naturally able to hold the group together. Reiner gradually adopts a similar role among the cadets on Paradis, becoming a reliable and protective comrade. I cannot say that he consciously behaves this way because he needs to give meaning to Marcel\u2019s death, but the sequence of events suggests that completing the mission remains one of the few ways Reiner can still make his own selection, and with it his life, feel legitimate.<\/p>\n\n

Years later, his meeting with Eren in the basement at Liberio gives a much clearer explanation for that decision. Eren reminds Reiner that he was a child who grew up in an environment where the people of Paradis were presented to him as devils. He fully understands the weight of that conditioning. Reiner nevertheless refuses to treat it as a sufficient excuse. After Marcel\u2019s death, Annie and Bertolt could have returned home, and he admits that he was the one who insisted on continuing the operation. He also admits that he wanted to become a hero and earn respect.<\/p>\n\n

His environment therefore explains part of what he was able to imagine. Reiner also knows that he made certain decisions within that very specific framework. This is what prevents his story from being reduced to an overly simple explanation: understanding how a child was shaped by discrimination and propaganda does not mean that every action he later takes was beyond his control. His environment helps explain his choices; it does not erase them.<\/p>\n\n

\"Two
For Reiner, this confrontation marks a point of no return. After the betrayal, the war and the choices he has already made, there is no going back. \u00a9 Hajime Isayama, Kodansha \/ Attack on Titan Production Committee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

On Paradis, the \u201cdevils\u201d become Reiner\u2019s comrades<\/h2>\n\n

Reiner and Gabi both discover that the people of Paradis do not really match the devils they had been told about. Their paths, however, are not the same.<\/p>\n\n

Gabi gradually meets the people hidden behind the category she was taught. Reiner, by contrast, spends several years living among them. In chapter 39, when he takes a major risk to protect Connie, he describes his behaviour as perfectly normal because he is a \u201csoldier.\u201d A few chapters later, Bertolt has to remind him that he is not a soldier of the Walls, but a Warrior.<\/p>\n\n

That difference in vocabulary matters because it reveals part of what happened during the infiltration. Reiner trained with Eren, Jean, Sasha, Connie, Historia and the others. He shared their daily lives and became someone they genuinely believed they could rely on. The people he was supposed merely to observe and regard as enemies eventually became part of his own social world.<\/p>\n\n

Marco\u2019s death shows how far this contradiction can go. When Marco understands who Reiner, Annie and Bertolt really are, Reiner takes part in restraining him and thereby helps create the situation that leads to his death. Yet when he later sees Marco being eaten, he reacts with the horror of a soldier witnessing the death of a comrade. Reiner acts according to what his role as a Warrior demands, then suffers over the death of someone he had genuinely come to regard as one of his companions. The contradiction is no longer only ideological. It now exists within the relationships he has built.<\/p>\n\n

When memories no longer look like \u201cdevils\u201d<\/h2>\n\n

After his return to Marley, dinner with the Braun family shows this change with striking simplicity. Reiner talks about what he experienced on Paradis. His family naturally expects stories about an island populated by the descendants of terrible, demonic Eldians whom they have always regarded as responsible for their situation. Instead, Reiner starts talking about individuals, their habits, their flaws and their sometimes ridiculous behaviour. His account sounds far more like the ordinary memories of someone who spent years with a group of people his own age than a description of a monstrous population.<\/p>\n\n

Gabi quickly notices that something does not add up. If Reiner met all kinds of people there, were they really all bad?<\/p>\n\n

Reiner\u2019s mother responds by restoring the framework she already knows: the islanders are still devils, and the loyal Eldians on the continent must continue to fight them.<\/p>\n\n

Reiner does not need to offer any theory of propaganda. That is one of the strengths of Attack on Titan\u2019s storytelling. His memories contain too many differences for the category alone to describe what he actually lived through. Annie confronts him with the same contradiction when she refers to the cadets as their friends. Reiner rejects the word and continues to call them devils, even though his own behaviour has already shown how deeply attached he became to them. Reiner\u2019s personal experience no longer matches what Marley and his family taught him.<\/p>\n\n

\"Eren
Screenshot from Season 1, Episode 3, during the 104th Training Corps period. At this point, they can still be seen simply as comrades, before their paths ultimately diverge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Doing everything asked of you without ever making the boundary disappear<\/h2>\n\n

Reiner continues to serve Marley after his return. He remains connected to the other Warriors, but his relationship with Gabi and Falco shows how profoundly his view of the military program has changed. Gabi resembles the child he once was. She wants to become a Warrior, inherit the Armored Titan and prove to the world that there are \u201cgood Eldians\u201d capable of deserving a different future.<\/p>\n\n

Reiner already knows where that path leads. When he pushes Falco to surpass Gabi, he is simply trying to prevent her from inheriting the Armored Titan. The career he once longed for has become a future from which he now wants to protect another child, not a destiny he wants to pass on to her.<\/p>\n\n

By his own original standards, Reiner has succeeded. He became a Warrior, inherited the Armored Titan, served Marley for years and enabled his family to receive privileged treatment. Yet the wider condition of the Eldians has not changed. The people of Liberio still live apart, and the advantages granted to Warrior families have never removed the hierarchy on which those advantages depend. Pieck states that limit far more clearly when she tells Gabi that continuing to prove they are \u201cgood Eldians\u201d will not necessarily lead to their liberation.<\/p>\n\n

Reiner secured a better place within the system without his success ever challenging the very condition that had made him want to escape it.<\/p>\n\n

Is acceptance still a form of integration when it requires condemning people like you?<\/h2>\n\n

The question matters particularly in Reiner\u2019s case because his childhood ambition is far from absurd. Wanting to improve your own situation or your family\u2019s position in a discriminatory society is entirely understandable, especially for a child. Research on individual mobility and distancing from a stigmatized group shows that such behaviours can be used to gain greater security, protect a career or avoid certain forms of discrimination without necessarily expressing contempt for one\u2019s own group. The situation changes when that improvement depends on how clearly a person distinguishes themselves from those with whom they are associated.<\/p>\n\n

Reiner therefore does not simply have to be useful to Marley. The definition of the \u201cgood Eldian\u201d passed on by his own environment is also built in opposition to the people of Paradis. To prove his loyalty, he must fight people with whom he shares an origin and, through his own behaviour, reinforce the moral boundary that allows them to be treated differently.<\/p>\n\n

There is an important difference between condemning someone because they actually committed a crime and having to prove your own loyalty by distancing yourself from an entire group. Reiner\u2019s story shows how far the second logic can go once it becomes fully institutionalized. He accepts a shortened life, becomes a military weapon and takes part in the destruction of people he will later come to regard as his comrades, all because of a promise that was initially supposed to secure better treatment for his family.<\/p>\n\n

The existence of a few privileged Eldians therefore does not remove discrimination. It mainly creates a route through which some people can hope to experience its consequences less directly.<\/p>\n\n

\"Karina
After encouraging Reiner as a child to become a Warrior in order to gain recognition and status, Karina finally understands the tragic consequences of the path she set him on. \u00a9 Hajime Isayama, Kodansha \/ Attack on Titan: The Final Season Production Committee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

In the end, Karina only wants her son<\/h2>\n\n

Chapter 134 offers a moving echo of everything that began in Reiner\u2019s childhood. His mother admits that she used her son as an instrument of her own revenge and regrets the path onto which she pushed him. Then the disappearance of Titan power wipes away the very function that had once given Reiner his place in Marleyan society.<\/p>\n\n

The child he once was would probably have experienced that loss as a catastrophe. Inheriting the Armored Titan had been his only way to improve his mother\u2019s life, find his father again and finally become someone his family could be proud of. Yet, against all expectations, Karina receives the loss with relief. After spending much of her life seeing her son through what he could achieve for them, she can finally want something simple: for him to be there, alive, nothing more.<\/p>\n\n

This scene erases nothing, of course. Reiner took part in the destruction of Wall Maria and accepts that he chose to continue the mission after Marcel\u2019s death. Karina also played a role in teaching him to see the people of Paradis as enemies. Yet their story inevitably returns us to the original question, the one that came before all those crimes: Reiner grew up believing that he had to accomplish something extraordinary in order to obtain something ordinary, namely the right to live with his family without his origin being treated as a problem.<\/p>\n\n

That is what fundamentally separates his story from Gabi\u2019s. Gabi shows how someone can be taught to judge people they have never met. Reiner shows what happens when you belong to the devalued group yourself and come to believe that your only way out is to become the exception the system is willing to tolerate.<\/p>\n\n

His story raises a fundamental question that this article has only touched on: why are children born generations after the fall of the Eldian Empire still held responsible for its history? The answer lies in the way the past is narrated, and that is precisely the subject of the next article.<\/p>\n\n

Reiner remains one of the most tragic characters in Shingeki no Kyojin. Even after sacrificing his childhood, his life and his humanity, he remains an outsider everywhere. Marley will never fully accept him, because however useful his Eldian identity may be, it cannot erase the original stain attached to his blood. Paradis, which he betrayed, can never simply offer him redemption either. His story reveals a cruel truth: in an oppressive system, individual mobility does not liberate. It can isolate instead. Reiner believed that becoming an exception would give him a place. He discovered too late that this place was another trap, a gilded cage in which he would never stop having to prove his worth.<\/p>\n\n

That is the bitterest irony of his fate: he spent his life clearing obstacles without realizing that the problem was not his ability to overcome them, but the fact that those obstacles existed at all. His story reminds us that genuine liberation does not come from becoming the exception. It comes from breaking the system. Reiner, like Gabi after him, internalized the idea that he had to earn his humanity by setting himself apart from his own people.<\/p>\n\n

True justice, however, does not lie in the rise of a privileged few, but in dismantling the hierarchies that make such advancement necessary.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Sources<\/h2>\n\n

Attack on Titan \/ Shingeki no Kyojin<\/h3>\n\n

Hajime Isayama \u2014 Attack on Titan \/ Shingeki no Kyojin, Kodansha<\/strong> : source primaire – chapitres particuli\u00e8rement utilis\u00e9s : 39, 77, 88, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100, 116, 134 et 139.<\/p>\n\n

Pika \u00c9dition \u2014 L\u2019Attaqu<\/a>e des Titan<\/a>s<\/a><\/strong> : \u00e9dition fran\u00e7aise officielle utilis\u00e9e pour v\u00e9rifier les chapitres, les titres et la terminologie fran\u00e7aise.<\/p>\n\n

Site officiel japonais de Attack on Titan \u2013 The Final Seaso<\/a>n<\/strong> : informations officielles concernant Reiner Braun, les Guerriers de Mahr, les Eldiens de Revelio et le contexte de la derni\u00e8re partie de l\u2019\u0153uvre<\/p>\n\n

Social identity, individual mobility and belonging<\/h3>\n\n

Henri Tajfel & John C. Turner \u2014 \u201cAn Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict\u201d (1979)<\/a><\/strong> : texte fondateur de la th\u00e9orie de l\u2019identit\u00e9 sociale. Il permet notamment de comprendre comment l\u2019appartenance \u00e0 un groupe et sa position sociale influencent les strat\u00e9gies adopt\u00e9es par ses membres.<\/p>\n\n

Naomi Ellemers, Ad van Knippenberg & Henk Wilke \u2014 \u201cThe Influence of Permeability of Group Boundaries and Stability of Group Status on Strategies of Individual Mobility and Social Change\u201d (1990)<\/a><\/strong> : \u00e9tude des strat\u00e9gies de mobilit\u00e9 individuelle lorsqu\u2019une personne appartenant \u00e0 un groupe d\u00e9favoris\u00e9 estime qu\u2019elle peut am\u00e9liorer personnellement sa position sans modifier celle de l\u2019ensemble du groupe.<\/p>\n\n

Sapna Cheryan & Beno\u00eet Monin \u2014 \u201c\u2018Where Are You Really From?\u2019: Asian Americans and Identity Denial\u201d, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2005)<\/a><\/strong> : \u00e9tude du cultural identity denial et de la mani\u00e8re dont des personnes peuvent voir leur appartenance nationale remise en cause par les autres malgr\u00e9 leur propre sentiment d\u2019int\u00e9gration.<\/p>\n\n

The model minority, discrimination and conditional acceptance<\/h3>\n\n

OiYan Poon et al. \u2014 \u201cA Critical Review of the Model Minority Myth in Selected Literature on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Higher Education\u201d, Review of Educational Research (2016)<\/a><\/strong> : analyse critique du st\u00e9r\u00e9otype de la \u00ab minorit\u00e9 mod\u00e8le \u00bb et de la mani\u00e8re dont la r\u00e9ussite de certains membres d\u2019un groupe minoritaire peut \u00eatre utilis\u00e9e pour minimiser les discriminations structurelles ou opposer diff\u00e9rentes minorit\u00e9s entre elles.<\/p>\n\n

Pew Research Center \u2014 \u201cAsian Americans and the \u2018Model Minority\u2019 Stereotype\u201d (2023)<\/a><\/strong> : synth\u00e8se consacr\u00e9e au st\u00e9r\u00e9otype de la minorit\u00e9 mod\u00e8le, \u00e0 sa perception par les Am\u00e9ricains d\u2019origine asiatique et \u00e0 son utilisation dans les comparaisons entre groupes minoritaires.<\/p>\n\n

France: sense of belonging and how others see you<\/h3>\n\n

INED \/ Insee \u2014 enqu\u00eate Trajectoires et Origines 2 (TeO2)<\/a><\/strong> : enqu\u00eate consacr\u00e9e \u00e0 la diversit\u00e9 des populations en France, aux trajectoires sociales, au sentiment d\u2019appartenance et aux exp\u00e9riences de discrimination. Elle rel\u00e8ve notamment que 94 % des descendants de deux parents immigr\u00e9s interrog\u00e9s d\u00e9clarent se sentir fran\u00e7ais.<\/p>\n\n

Insee \u2014 \u201cLe sentiment de discrimination persiste \u00e0 la deuxi\u00e8me g\u00e9n\u00e9ration\u201d<\/a><\/strong> : donn\u00e9es relatives au d\u00e9calage entre sentiment d\u2019appartenance \u00e0 la France et reconnaissance de cette appartenance par les autres. Parmi les descendants d\u2019immigr\u00e9s non europ\u00e9ens, 29 % d\u00e9clarent notamment ne pas \u00eatre vus comme fran\u00e7ais, contre moins de 8 % parmi les descendants d\u2019immigr\u00e9s europ\u00e9ens.<\/p>\n\n

Luxembourg: language, origin and cultural identity denial<\/h3>\n\n

Stephanie Barros Coimbra & Isabelle Albert \u2014 \u201c\u2018I Feel More Luxembourgish, but Portuguese Too\u2019: Cultural Identities in a Multicultural Society\u201d, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science (2020)<\/a><\/strong> : \u00e9tude men\u00e9e aupr\u00e8s de familles portugaises au Luxembourg et consacr\u00e9e notamment aux identit\u00e9s culturelles, \u00e0 la transmission interg\u00e9n\u00e9rationnelle et aux exp\u00e9riences de cultural identity denial chez certains descendants.<\/p>\n\n

LISER & CEFIS \u2014 Le racisme et les discriminations ethno-raciales au Luxembourg (2022)<\/a><\/strong> : enqu\u00eate nationale sur les perceptions et exp\u00e9riences de discrimination au Luxembourg. Elle rel\u00e8ve notamment que 48,8 % des r\u00e9sidents interrog\u00e9s consid\u00e8rent que la discrimination fond\u00e9e sur la m\u00e9connaissance du luxembourgeois est r\u00e9pandue.<\/p>\n\n

Gouvernement du Grand-Duch\u00e9 de Luxembourg \u2014 pr\u00e9sentation de l\u2019\u00e9tude sur le racisme et les discriminations ethno-raciales<\/a><\/strong> : pr\u00e9sentation institutionnelle de l\u2019enqu\u00eate r\u00e9alis\u00e9e par le LISER et le CEFIS.<\/p>\n\n

Family socialization and preparation for discrimination<\/h3>\n\n

Diane Hughes, James Rodriguez, Emilie P. Smith, Deborah J. Johnson, Howard C. Stevenson & Paul Spicer \u2014 \u201cParents\u2019 Ethnic-Racial Socialization Practices: A Review of Research and Directions for Future Study\u201d, Developmental Psychology (2006)<\/a><\/strong> : synth\u00e8se des travaux sur la socialisation ethno-raciale familiale, notamment la mani\u00e8re dont certains parents pr\u00e9parent leurs enfants \u00e0 reconna\u00eetre, anticiper ou g\u00e9rer les pr\u00e9jug\u00e9s et discriminations auxquels ils pourraient \u00eatre confront\u00e9s.<\/p>\n\n

Japanese Americans, incarceration and military service during the Second World War<\/h3>\n\n

National Park Service \u2014 Japanese American Incarceration<\/a><\/strong> : documentation institutionnelle sur le d\u00e9placement et l\u2019incarc\u00e9ration de plus de 120 000 personnes d\u2019ascendance japonaise aux \u00c9tats-Unis pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.<\/p>\n\n

National Park Service \u2014 Nisei Military Service during World War II<\/a><\/strong> : histoire des soldats nippo-am\u00e9ricains ayant servi dans l\u2019arm\u00e9e am\u00e9ricaine, notamment au sein du 442nd Regimental Combat Team, et diversit\u00e9 des motivations li\u00e9es au patriotisme, \u00e0 la loyaut\u00e9, \u00e0 la famille ou \u00e0 la volont\u00e9 de d\u00e9fendre leurs droits.<\/p>\n\n

National Archives \u2014 Japanese American Internment and Resistance at Heart Mountain<\/a><\/strong> : documentation consacr\u00e9e aux r\u00e9sistants \u00e0 la conscription qui refus\u00e8rent de servir tant que leurs droits civiques et ceux de leurs familles n\u2019\u00e9taient pas restaur\u00e9s.<\/p>\n\n

Alsace-Moselle and the \u201cMalgr\u00e9-nous\u201d<\/h3>\n\n

FranceArchives \u2014 \u201cAo\u00fbt 1942 : l\u2019incorporation de force des Alsaciens et des Mosellans\u201d<\/a><\/strong> : documentation historique sur l\u2019incorporation forc\u00e9e d\u2019environ 130 000 Alsaciens et Mosellans dans les forces arm\u00e9es allemandes pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.<\/p>\n\n

M\u00e9morial Alsace-Moselle \/ Chemins de m\u00e9moire \u2014 dossier consacr\u00e9 \u00e0 l\u2019Alsace et la Moselle pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale<\/a><\/strong> : documentation sur l\u2019incorporation de force, les r\u00e9fractaires, les d\u00e9sertions et les cons\u00e9quences que ces refus pouvaient entra\u00eener pour les individus et leurs familles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why does Reiner want to become a \u201cgood Eldian\u201d? Through his childhood, his family and his path as a Warrior, Attack on Titan shows how a society can push a child to internalize shame about his own identity and constantly feel the need to prove that he deserves acceptance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[319,247,309],"series":[],"personnage":[],"type_objet":[],"univers":[],"artiste":[],"porteur_de_licence":[],"editeur_fabricant":[],"class_list":["post-12535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-memory-legacy","tag-a-la-une","tag-analysis","tag-in-depth-series"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReiner Braun: why does he want to become a \u201cgood Eldian\u201d? | imacollector\u00ae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why does Reiner Braun want to become a \u201cgood Eldian\u201d? 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