Lara Not Eating Eren: Why Not? (All the Info)

Lara Not Eating Eren: Why Not?

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Here’s why Lara doesn’t eat Eren when she has the chance:

There are a few possible motivations.

It might be that she thought that killing Eren and destroying his power was the best way to further her brother’s plan.

It could be that she was in a blind rage and just wanted to smash him.

It’s also possible that she thought killing him was a safer strategy than eating him.

So if you want to learn all about the reasons behind Lara’s decision not to eat Eren, then you’re in the right place.

Let’s get into it!

Lara Not Eating Eren: Why Not? (All the Info)

What Is Attack on Titan?

Today, we’re discussing one specific moment in the rather long and winding story of Attack on Titan.

In order to do that, I have to cover a bit of background information.

That’s going to require that I reveal some plot points, so before we do anything else, here is your spoiler warning.

If you haven’t read or watched Attack on Titan but might want to at some point, stop reading.

There are spoilers ahead.

With that covered, let’s talk about Attack on Titan.

It’s a manga that was released in 2009 and ran until 2021.

If you’re not familiar, manga is like a Japanese comic book.

The stories are told in panel form with illustrations in each panel.

They are also released in a serialized form.

There is also an Attack on Titan anime that was adapted from the manga.

Anime, of course, is a type of Japanese cartoon.

Attack on Titan is a story that takes place in a fictional world where there are titans.

These are giant human-like creatures that actually eat people.

There are different kinds of titans, and there are even a handful of people who have the power to transform into titans.

It’s a whole thing, but what you really need to know is that the titans are dangerous, and there are essentially two factions fighting over the power to control the titans: Marley and Eldia.

Who Is Eren?

This brings us to Eren Yeager.

He’s an Eldian, and he actually has the power of the Attack Titan.

This means that he can transform into a titan more or less at will, and he uses that power to fight for his people.

He also ended up with the power of the founding titan.

To keep this on the simple side of things, the founding titan’s power allows him to control all of the titans (except for the nine that are actually people transformed into titans).

It’s actually pretty complicated, but that’s enough to get you through this conversation.

Eren is able to help his people eradicate the titans on his home of Paradis Island.

After doing that, he learns about Marley and how the Marleyans are more or less the sworn enemies of Eldia.

So he comes up with a plan to attack Marley.

He sneaks into the country, and when the time is right, he attacks the people.

The moment of that attack is when this whole exchange we’re discussing takes place, and I’ll get into that a little more later.

Who Is Lara?

We also need to know a little bit about Lara.

Her full name is Lara Tybur.

She’s a noble among the Marleyans, and she has the power of the Warhammer Titan.

With this power, she can make weapons out of her titan transformation.

It’s quite powerful.

The status of the Tyburs is a bit complicated.

They’re actually Eldians, but many generations ago, they sided with the Marleyans in the ongoing conflict.

As such, they were made nobles, and they were able to retain control over the Warhammer Titan’s power, and this is an important thing to understand.

I mentioned that there are nine titans that are actually people who can transform at will.

The power of each titan can be passed down from one person to the next (but they have to have Eldian blood).

The way this is done is that the person inheriting the power has to eat the person who had it before.

It’s brutal, but it also means that if Lara eats Eren, she inherits his power.

That’s an important thing to remember throughout this.

Regardless, when Eren attacks Marley, it’s only natural that Lara will rise to fight back, which is exactly what happens.

What Happened During Eren’s Attack on Marley?

Now that you have all of the background information, let’s talk about what actually happened.

This takes place in Chapter 101: The Warhammer Titan. 

At the start of the chapter, Eren has transformed into the Attack Titan in order to declare war on Marley.

He immediately kills many people in the crowd, and he actually eats Willy Tybur.

In the crowd, we see Lara watching.

As Eren eats her brother, she comments that he (meaning her brother) has done a good job.

She then transforms into the Warhammer Titan.

She and Eren fight, and during the fight between titans, one of the Marleyan officers comments that she isn’t trying to eat Eren.

It seems like an out-of-place comment, seeing as how they’re both titans at the time.

But, that comment is made.

As the fight progresses, Lara is able to break Eren’s titan form, and he’s left as a vulnerable human, still trying to survive her onslaught.

At this point, she realistically could have tried to eat him, but she doesn’t.

Instead, she tries to kill him with her hammer.

She even makes this clear by asking if he has any last words while swinging the hammer in what she thinks will be a fatal blow.

Ultimately, Eren is saved by the arrival of Eldian forces, but as far as Lara’s decision-making goes, she didn’t know that was going to happen.

She clearly tried to kill Eren without eating him.

Why Didn’t Lara Try to Eat Eren? (4 Possibilities)

Knowing all of that, we can ask the more important question: why?

Why doesn’t she try to eat him?

Clearly, he has titan powers, and the Eldians at that point already suspect that he has the founding titan’s power.

Absorbing all of that for herself would improve her position and give her the ability to control the war, politics, and events moving forward.

Despite that, she does not really even consider eating Eren.

So, what’s up with that?

We don’t ever get to know her true motivations.

It’s a moment that happens pretty quickly in the overall story, so we can only speculate as to a few of the most likely reasons behind her decision.

#1 Politics

The first thing to consider is politics.

Her brother, Willy, had a plan to try to get Eldians to an equal standing in the world.

Lara was fully aware of his plan and committed to helping him progress it.

That’s why she comments on how well he did when she sees his demise.

Willy’s plan was more or less built on the fear of the devils of Paradis.

Willy used the Eldians on Paradis as a scapegoat to channel fear and manipulate the Marleyans.

His plans were fortified when Eren led a direct attack on Marley.

Even though Willy died in the process, the attack pretty much clinched his plans moving forward (even though the Yeagers eventually thwarted Willy’s plan with their own).

Because Lara knows all of this, she is aware that if she eats the founding titan and absorbs its power, the fear of Paradis will diminish.

They won’t need to go and conquer Paradis because Marley can control the founding titan moving forward.

The threat would be alleviated.

If she didn’t eat Eren, then even though the power of the founding titan would be lost, Paradis would still be a threat.

Willy’s plan could continue.

So, she made the political decision to kill Eren without eating him.

#2 Rage

On the other hand, she just watched Eren murder her brother.

It’s possible that she wasn’t in the clearest state of mind.

Instead of thinking shrewdly about politics, she might have just been angry.

In a rage, she might have found it more satisfying to crush Eren with her hammer rather than eat him.

After all, that’s the form of fighting that she did best as the Warhammer Titan.

Throwing away the hammer to eat the person would disrupt the flow of the moment.

She wanted to kill Eren more than anything, and the most obvious way for her to do that was to smash him with a hammer.

I’m not inclined to believe that she was operating in pure rage because of how calmly she addressed her brother’s final moment, but it’s still possible.

#3 Prudence

I actually think that this is the most likely answer.

While politics might have been in her mind, and she was clearly angry, I think she was just trying to win the fight.

She’s very familiar with transforming titans, and she knows well how to fight them.

She’s fully aware that even though she just broke the Attack Titan, she hasn’t really shut Eren down yet.

She knows that he’s fully capable of transforming again (as evidenced by the fact that he does exactly that shortly after).

If she tried to eat him, he would have a chance to transform and bring the fight close to her, and that’s exactly what she doesn’t want.

When she first transformed in the fight, Eren closed on her and nearly defeated her before her transformation completed.

She narrowly reset the fight, and after that, she beat Eren by using her weapons and keeping her distance.

In order to eat Eren, she would have to close that distance, and it’s a risky prospect.

So, she takes the safest and most reliable option and tries to smash him with the hammer.

It’s worth noting that this probably would have worked if Eren had been fighting alone, and up until that point, she was unaware of the other Eldians sneaking into the area.

She was just trying to win the fight, and eating Eren was too risky of a prospect.

#4 Inheritance

This ties back into the politics of her decision, but it’s not entirely political.

Killing Eren without eating him definitely worked better for Willy’s plan, but she might have made this decision even if Willy had no plan at all.

After all, if she eats Eren, she becomes the founding titan.

There are consequences that come with that decision.

For more reasons than I could possibly try to relay, she might not have wanted to be the founding titan.

So, her better option was to destroy the founding titan.

If she killed Eren (without eating him), then no one would inherit his power, and it would be lost forever (as far as they knew).

This means that her life wouldn’t be dictated by having the founding powers.

And, over time, it might be possible to relinquish the power of the other titans, ending the whole cycle of hate and violence anyway.

It’s hard to say if her thinking was broad or narrow in this respect, but if she really wasn’t in a blind rage, then destroying the power of the founding titan probably seemed like the best option—on top of it being the best way to win the fight.