echo-from-the-void:

If someone would ask me to describe Eren`s views about freedom, I would show them this panel from the beginning of the manga. I think that it represents the few elements that construct Eren`s views about what it is to be free. 

As a few quick side notes, I want to thank @aspoonofsugar who`s comments about how EMA´s desires and wishes differ, made me think deeper about Eren`s views about the world.    

I have read the manga up to vol 22, so I am crafting this post with the information I have in hand at the moment. 

When Eren was little, he had no desires or dreams and was not too interested about the surrounding world. Then Armin showed him the book that made Eren realized that he was trapped in small corner of a much bigger, exciting world. Thus he came to the realization he was not free. The first step to start one`s journey towards being free, is the realization that one is imprisoned, or is lacking in freedom. 

Eren has developed a notion, that they all are free from the day they are born into this world. However, more importantly than that, I think Eren´s views about freedom is intertwined with the idea of an life, where no one restricts and oppresses you. Freedom and free life is one where there is no powerful being that chains you`r actions. 

This idea of a life without an restricting, strong adversary is then linked into the idea of power. Because the Titans and other people have more power, they can restrict and oppress the weaker ones. So to be free, to oppose and defeat those who have stolen you`r freedom, you need to be strong, you need to have power. 

Also during vol 4, Eren talks about that since everyone is born free in the world, it is a crime to reject such a right, even how strong you are. 

Now, going back to that panel, I think these elements are present in it. Let`s start about rejecting the born right of being free. 

I think within Eren´s views, those who are happy and comfy just living inside the walls, and do not try to venture to the outside world, have rejected their freedom. They are like birds happily living in a cage, even thou they know that they are in a cage, and even though they know that there is world outside. 

The Survey Corps are a total opposite of this. They know that they are not free inside the walls, and they have devoted their lives to venture outside. They endorse their birth given right to freedom. With this in mind, I think it is very fitting that when Eren sees the SC Emblem on Levi´s back, he views them as the wings of freedom. The SC represents the endorsement of you`r birth given right to be free. Of course, birds are also a common symbol of freedom.

Next is power and the lack of oppressor. In that scene Levi, the one who is called humanity`s strongest, has taken down a Titan, the one enemy that was viewed as the source humanity`s oppression. In this instance, power translates to freedom. I think this view is also illustrated quite well when Eren spends time with the Levi squad, and is disappointed by the fact that Levi follows orders. 

 I think that Eren thought that with enough power you can be free, that you do not have listen to orders or what other people tell you to do. With enough power you can defeat those who try to control you. 

I think this mindset of power = freedom, and freedom is the absence of opposition is quite understandable, since Eren has lived most of his life in a world, where the strong rule the weak. The nasty, stronger inhabitants of Paradis can restrict the life of others, and the Titans do this as well. 

With possibly views like this, I was not surprised by Eren´s words to Armin and Mikasa at the end of vol 22.   

Because for Eren, the enemy waiting at the other side of the sea, Marley, is just another powerful oppressor, just another “Titan”. Maybe in Eren´s view as long as there is an powerful force that threatens to restrict their position in the world, they cannot be free. One needs get rid of them and in order to do that, one needs power.

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So to sum up, the panel with Levi summarizes Eren´s views about freedom, which I think are these:

– Freedom is a birth given right, and the SC endorses this by venturing outside. Levi, as a member of the SC, represents this. 

– Freedom is the absence of oppressor. In order to be free, the oppressing elements need to be eliminated, and Levi has done just that. 

– In order to get rid of oppression, you need to have enough power to do it. With might, you can free and Levi, “humanity`s strongest”, could be viewed as the freest of them all. 

This last one is modified a bit later by the idea that you cannot accomplish everything on you`r own, and other people are need in order to attain you`r goals. 

Of course once again this is just one possible interpretation.