Attack on Titan: What Is Eren and Zeke’s Euthanization Plan?

During the start of the final season of Attack on Titan, it became clear that pieces were moving behind the scenes, as Eren and Zeke were hatching a plan that involved using their titan powers. Eren had the Founding Titan, while Zeke’s royal blood would have allowed them to control the Founding Titan’s complete control over the Eldians and their physiology. Their plan involved the euthanization of the Eldians. So, what was the euthanization plan in Attack on Titan?

The euthanization plan involved using the Founding Titan’s powers to start a small Rumbling that would have destroyed the allied forces’ army. Meanwhile, they would have used the Founding Titan’s powers to make all Eldians sterile so they could no longer have kids, and the Power of the Titans would end.

Eren and Zeke had the same goal of erasing the Power of the Titans from the world because this started the entire cycle of hatred involving the Eldians. This plan seemed feasible regarding its effectiveness in erasing the Power of the Titans and the Eldians. But Eren secretly had his plan. Now, let’s talk more about the euthanization plan.

What Was The Euthanization Plan?

While the first three seasons of Attack on Titan focused more on survival and the quest for the truth behind the titans, the final season changed everything about the entire series and the end goal of Eren. Of course, we know that Eren always wanted to eradicate the titans from the face of the earth and to achieve true freedom by destroying his enemies. And he was vocal about that at the end of season 3 when he told Mikasa and Armin that they would never have true freedom because of their enemies beyond the sea.

In that regard, the final season showed that Eren had been working behind the scenes and hatching his schemes with his half-brother, Zeke. While the two were on different sides, as Eren was on the side of Paradis Island while Zeke fought for Marley as an Eldian warrior, they met and corresponded secretly. That was because Zeke thought that Eren would understand what he wanted to happen.

As a child, Zeke understood how poorly the rest of Marley saw the Eldians, as a Marleyan was once disgusted that Eldians continued to breed. It was this incident that allowed Zeke to believe that it was best for the Eldians to stop existing from the world as all of the conflicts of the world stemmed from the fact that the Eldians held the Power of the Titans and that they were seen as devils by the rest of the world because they could turn into titans and wreak havoc throughout the entire world.

That was when Zeke shared his plan with Eren as he thought that his brother was on the same page due to how Eren also suffered losses because of the ill effects of the Power of the Titans. And that was when Eren and Zeke began plotting behind the scenes with the other Yeagerists to restore the Eldian Empire and find a way to fulfill the euthanization plan.

In that regard, Zeke allowed himself to get captured by the Survey Corps in their attack on Liberio during the early part of the final season, as it was important for him to be on the side of Paradis Island when he and Eren needed to hatch their plans. Zeke had royal blood, and Eren had the Founding Titan. And the only way for Eren to use the power of the Founding Titan was for him to contact someone with royal blood because Ymir would only obey someone from the royal lineage of Eldia.

The euthanization plan forced the entire world to band together to create an allied force to oppose Paradis Island after the attack on Marley. This allied force would comprise the armies and navies of all the world’s nations. Meanwhile, Eren and Zeke would contact one another to use the Founding Titan’s power to summon the Wall Titans to create a small-scale Rumbling that would destroy the allied forces.

In that regard, the destruction of the allied forces using a small Rumbling would ensure that the entire world would now be afraid to attack Paradis Island and leave the Eldians in peace for at least a hundred years so that the Eldians could live the rest of their lives without getting bothered by the people of the world.

But the euthanization plan also involved the deaths of all of the Eldians. Zeke always thought that Eldians should never produce more children because that would only allow the Power of the Titans to pass down to the next generation. As such, his plan involved using the Founding Titan’s ability to change the biology of the Eldians so that he could turn all of the Eldians sterile. That means that this is forced euthanasia on the part of the Eldians, as the entire Eldian bloodline would end with the current generation of Eldians because they could no longer reproduce and pass down the Power of the Titans.

So, in short, Zeke wanted to scare the entire world to leave the Eldians alone. Meanwhile, the current Eldians would become sterile and would be the final generation of Eldians to live. And because the world would be afraid of a bigger Rumbling, the final generation of Eldians would be allowed to die of old age in peace.

Would The Euthanization Plan Have Worked?

Of course, while Zeke initially thought that Eren agreed with his euthanization plan, he knew that his younger brother had other plans. Zeke had safeguards for Eren’s betrayal, but the younger Yeager successfully allowed Ymir to lend him the power of the Founding Titan. As a result, Zeke’s euthanization plan was never used, as Eren’s plan was the one that was set into motion. But would the euthanization plan have worked if Zeke had been successful?

Well, for starters, Zeke’s plan would have been the better option for killing count because the plan involved only the deaths of the allied forces and the eventual deaths of the current Eldian generation. That means that only a small portion of the world would have died in his plan.

There’s also the fact that the Eldians would be allowed to live in peace because the rest of the world would have been afraid to attack Paradis Island because of the possibility of another Rumbling. That meant that peace, no matter how artificial it would have been, would have been achieved by the euthanization plan.

But the problem lies in the fact that this was not true freedom as far as Eren was concerned. While it might be true that Zeke’s plan was the better one from a purely objective standpoint, that was not what Eren wanted.

Eren wanted his friends to live and become free from the hatred of the world and for him to be able to eradicate the titans from the face of the planet. While the euthanization plan would have eventually eradicated the titans from the world with the death of all Eldians over the next century, Eren’s friends wouldn’t be completely free because the world would still hate them. On top of that, they weren’t free because they wouldn’t have been able to have their own families and live happy lives with their children.

In short, Zeke’s plan would have worked, but it was a plan that forced the Eldians to surrender to their fate. However, Eren wanted to keep fighting, and his mentality as a man who always wanted to move forward was never in line with Zeke’s plan of surrendering and allowing the Eldians to die off through his euthanization plan eventually.