marcobutt:

I really love Armin’s development and show of growth and change in the entire Female Type arc and I feel as if people ignore that he’s been shown to be a pretty relativistic person morally, very goal-oriented and less sentimental and emotional. He seems to really know how to compartmentalize in a situation and put his emotions on the backburner. It doesn’t mean they aren’t strong emotions or he is not passionate or a very kind and caring person, but he knows to put all of that away on a shelf for a more appropriate time.

(via zoehange)

angerliz:

like i think the main mistake a lot of people make w/snk is assuming that you are supposed to really be behind Eren Jaeger, that you are supposed to believe in his motives and cause, and therefore take issue w/him being a big dumb shonen hero—but i think that’s honestly wrong.

i think we are supposed to be terrified of Eren Jaeger.

i mean Eren certainly is sympathetic at many junctures (his mother’s death, his frustration with the corrupt system he lives under, his genuine grief and regret over the loss of Levi’s squad, etc.) but overall his philosophies and attitudes toward the world are REALLY UNSETTLING.  like you can chalk a lot of his problems up to really terrible trauma but he also committed premeditated murder when he was 9 years old before any of the shit we see in the story happens to him.  he killed two men and convinced Mikasa to kill another and he felt absolutely no remorse or unease about it.  of course we know that overall this saved Mikasa’s life and his own, but the narrative doesn’t really let it pass as a “good” thing—Mikasa was obviously hugely traumatized in that moment, and later when Eren is being examined in his trial, the murders are brought up as a sign of him being mentally unstable, which is REALLY REASONABLE given the context that he suddenly can turn into a giant monster.

his complete unflinching desire to EXTERMINATE ALL TITANS is a driving force in the series but i think we are almost to the point where that is really going to be flipped over on him—to the audience, it already has.  titans are obviously linked with humans in an as-yet unspecified way, so we know that it’s very possible and likely that Eren’s rage against these monsters is probably going to come back to bite him—has he been killing transformed people who simply can’t control themselves?  like Eren’s ultra-violence and the other titan-shifters point to a bigger and in my opinion pretty obvious plot arc of “who is the real monster” that is being woven throughout the series.  all the titan-shifters are shown to have really complicated morality systems (Annie’s father issues and her inability to kill Armin, Ymir’s devotion to Christa, Reiner’s dissociation due to his extreme guilt, Bertholt’s…well ok Bert hasn’t had as much exploration but his falsely timid nature suggests there’s a lot going on there.)  Eren’s black-and-white morality sets him apart and is almost certainly a set-up for him to take a fall, so honestly i think interpreting him as just a jerk-ass shonen hero of the narrative is incorrect.  he’s not the “hero” in the sense that he’s always right and the story follows and agrees with him.  i honestly think he’s being set up as a more classical hero who’s going to have his big tragic flaw come back and bite him straight in the ass.

alittleliar:

I think part of the reason I like Shingeki no Kyojin so much (other than awesome plot, awesome female characters, and beautiful anime adaptation) is the fact that the main characters, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin…

…all have issues.

I’m not gonna lie, Eren as a kid scared the shit out of me. Without fear or remorse he murdered two adults as a 9 year old embodiment of rage. What was even more scary was that immediately afterwards he was normal and nice as he freed and helped Mikasa. Because in his point of view his actions weren’t of a murderer, but of someone disposing of vermin. Now I don’t like throwing around terms I’m not an expert of, but I’m very tempted to use the word ‘psychopathic’ here.

Mikasa shows quite early on that if anyone hurts Eren (and probably Armin and her other friends too, but Eren’s more likely to get into deep shit), she won’t care who you are she will kill you without remorse. She wasn’t acting when she threatened the guy blocking the gate with his enormous cart in Ep 6, I believe she was fully prepared to kill him.

Armin is a bit more subtle, and I really wouldn’t say he has issues per say, but during (and probably due to) his life in the military he gains the rather ruthless but efficient mindset of a commander - in that he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his soldiers for the good of the people. (seriously I think he’s becoming Commander Irvin 2). What he said to Jean during the Female Titan Arc chilled me; that commanders of a military with such high death rates must be willing to through away their humanity.

Like holy shit these kids are 15. 

And really, I love this manga because these kids have gone through so much shit, and all this has changed them into these characters who at times can be legitimately frightening and monstrous. They aren’t the typical shounen heroes who fight for the greater good and hope. Eren’s primary objective is revenge (the fighting for humanity thing is pretty much just a consequence of this), Mikasa went with him to make sure Eren doesn’t kill himself, and Armin may have initially joined the military to stick with his friends and see wtf kind of system ordered the death of 1/5 of the human population, but the military changed him into someone who I actually find more frightening than Mikasa or Eren. 

Actually if you think about it, if you placed these characteristics in a typical shounen manga or anime; these kids would undoubtedly be villains.

And I like this. This crapsack world they live in would have indeed changed and affected them, even before the Titans broke through the wall. I honestly think Eren’s upbringing might’ve been a bit strange because - well, he killed 2 fully grown men without remorse at the age of 9 - and he has the mindset: If you win you live, if you lose you die. (Grisha wtf did you teach to your son). Mikasa’s ‘awakening’ isn’t brought on by new information or shock, but something she’s known for a long time and simply never thought about - the world is cruel and merciless, and is ruled by the concept of the strong oppressing the weak. And Armin was a very thoughtful child whose wisdom and curiosity just made him depressed as he realised that days of peace and prosperity never last, and that something must change eventually.

This is even before the goddamn Wall Maria gets broken through.

However Eren and Armin also have hopes to see the outside world, and Mikasa wants to stay with Eren, her last family. As frightening and dark at times these characters may be, they’re not one dimensional characters with single motivations or facets to their character. They’re also kind and caring, and are willing to place their lives on the line to protect humanity. This crapsack world hasn’t fully taken away their hopes and dreams and turned them into heartless killers.

And I think that’s the main thing about humanity really. You can be one of the kindest people in the world, and yet be willing to kill without remorse. Something which Armin said once struck a chord in me, that good or evil are terms people used to call those whom are convenient to them, and that therefore you could be a good person to some people but a bad person to others.

tl;dr : Eren, Mikasa and Armin scare the shit out of me. They’re chilling characters who are also kind and willing to fight for humanity; and these ‘good’ and ‘bad’ traits should be considered together, instead of one being ignored in favor of the other.

I don’t know if I made any sense because I literally just threw up my thoughts without any coherency but yeah. Here you go.

(via zoehange)

rainglazed:

empath-eia replied to your post: On the downside, there is only one Attack on Titan…

I really want to like this series and normally I don’t scare easily but WOW I can’t handle the titans at all, and everyone else seems to

be okay with them? somehow? .__.

It’s totally alright to be squicked by the Titans’ body horror — I’m a bio major and have dissected my share of dead bodies (although none human yet.  I’m still waiting!) so I’m kind of immune to seeing muscles and bones and skin.  That being said, THIS SERIES STILL FREAKS ME THE FUCK OUT.  Like not only do the Titans have uncanny slasher smiles and grotesque, troll like proportions, but just the sight of them eating humans as they scream to death makes these giants utterly horrifying.  Holy shit, the Titan that Hannes faced in the first episode was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen animated.

That being said, THIS MANGA IS REALLY GOOD, and the anime is promising to be even better — it smooths over rough transitions, adds some nice foreshadowing, and so far has better pacing than the original (the anime only has two episodes out though so these are early impressions).

I’ve heard it said again and again in Teen Wolf fandom — a society’s monsters reveals its deepest fears and exposes current anxieties.  Vampires have always been linked to sensuality, although the non-con, deflowering element of it has been interpreted differently in different narratives.  Zombies became popular right around the time mad cow disease, bird flu, and biological warfare emerged in the public consciousness.  

 

Shingeki no kyojin has the obvious, though provoking fears of being eaten alive, of man losing his place at the top of the foodchain, but beyond that it has a lot to say about the nature of sacrifice and what it really means to live one’s life with purpose in a seemingly futile, stagnant time.  The people in Shingeki live in walls.  They are compared to cattle, ready for the Titans to eat on whim.  This might be venturing into spoiler territory, but I’m going to say it because I feel like it helps illustrate my point. [spoiler] Titans don’t really need to eat humans.  The rip them apart alive, ingest them, and spit their corpses back up again.  No one knows why. [end spoiler]  Characters repeatedly express a sort of desperation for a meaningful death, but more often than not their lives end quickly, brutally, and without purpose.  

 

While on the surface Titans reflect human’s primal fear of being prey, I think they also represent our fear of sacrifice having no meaning, of not only dying in grotesque, agonizing ways, but also doing it for no reason.  The real enemy of the Scout Corps is the claustrophobic helplessness of their situation, the feeling of throwing one’s self into the void for lack of a better option, in the hope that something will work.  Anime, as a specific kind of Japanese narrative, often idealizes the principle of ‘ganbatte!’ or ‘Try your best!”  But here there is no guaranteed payoff for hard effort — trainees work hard for years only to be eviscerated in before using their first sword.  There is no red shirt army — more than half of the named characters are dead within the first ten chapters.  The narrative strikes at the heart of our choking fear, of living futile lives and dying futile deaths fighting against giants we cannot win against and who could care less about us.  With a side of vivid gore, of course.

 

“So what’s so great about this series???” you cry.  The greatness of this series lies in its diverse cast of characters and they different ways they respond to the situation at hand.  Eren survives it through sheer rage and Mikasa.  Yes, you heard that right, the only reason we still have a manga at all is because Mikasa is making sure our stupid shonen protagonist doesn’t get eaten or shot or stabbed and gets his three meals a day.  Mikasa and Eren are fucking terrifying, by the way.  They have that tenacious ‘ganbatte!’ that you would expect from our heroes, but its driven by the fact that they recognize their world is cruel and capricious, where only the strong survive.  Their friend, Armin, is the real heart of this series and serves as the brain to their brawn, and even he isn’t quite the moral compass — to him, the survival of Eren and Mikasa are his first priority and while he doesn’t like it, he’s been shown to doubt, turn on, and trap other members of their squad if he deems it necessary.

 

Uh, this got a lot longer than I meant it to, and I’m not even sure I responded to what you were trying to say, but here it is.  A few jumbled up reason why Attack on Titan is HIGHLY ADVISABLE to those whose interest is piqued by it.  

(via zoehange)

zoehange:

imnotkakarot:

p1cup923:

what a great series 

THEY WERE 9 YEARS OLD

THIS IS WHAT I LOVE SO MUCH ABOUT THE SERIES.

THIS BIT RIGHT HERE.

BECAUSE IT MAKES SO MUCH FUCKING SENSE. BECAUSE IT BOTH REVEALS AND SHAPES THE COMPLEX PERSONALITIES, PHILOSOPHIES, AND MOTIVATIONS OF TWO CHARACTERS WHO VERY EASILY COULD HAVE BEEN FLAT AND CLICHED. I MEAN, HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE SEEN THE HOT-HEADED SHONEN PROTAGONIST? HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE SEEN THE DETACHED, EMOTIONLESS ACTION GIRL? HUNDREDS. BUT ISAYAMA ACTUALLY TAKES THE TIME TO EXAMINE AND DECONSTRUCT THOSE ARCHETYPES.

LET’S START WITH EREN. HE’S IMPULSIVE, HE’S IDEALISTIC, HE WANTS TO SAVE HUMANITY. fuck i probably shouldn’t have done all this in caps lock. whoops. go big or go home. THESE ARE ALL TRAITS THAT ARE STANDARD TO SHONEN PROTAGONISTS. BUT EREN? EREN IS DIFFERENT. HE’S VIOLENT. BLOODTHIRSTY. AT THE AGE OF NINE, HE KILLS TWO GROWN MEN WITHOUT EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT. IT’S HIS COOL COMPOSURE WHEN HE TELLS HIS FATHER WHAT HE DID THAT REALLY EMPHASIZES HIS SLIGHTLY DISTURBING, IF JUSTIFIED, ATTITUDE TOWARDS MURDER. BECAUSE EREN’S THE GOOD GUY. A NICE GUY, EVEN. HE PROTECTS HIS FRIENDS, LOVES HIS FAMILY, AND DESPISES INJUSTICE. BUT HIS WORLDVIEW IS SO BLACK AND WHITE THAT HE IS CAPABLE OF THIS KIND OF VIOLENCE WITHOUT ANY ANGST OR REMORSE. AND THAT IS WHAT MAKES EREN SO INTERESTING. HIS COMPLETE WILLINGNESS, EVEN EAGERNESS, TO GET HIS HANDS DIRTY. IT’S UNCLEAR IF HE ACTUALLY ENJOYS KILLING, BUT THIS IS A GUY WHOSE MANTRA IS “KILL THEM ALL.” YOU COULD ARGUE THAT TITANS ARE ONE THING, BUT IN THIS FLASHBACK EREN SHOWS THAT HE’S FULLY CAPABLE OF SEEING HUMAN BEINGS—HORRIBLE ONES, BUT STILL HUMAN BEINGS—AS NOTHING MORE THAN ANIMALS. THAT IS SO RARE. IT IS SO RARE TO HAVE A PROTAGONIST WHO KILLS SO CALLOUSLY, AND IT MAKES MORE AN INCREDIBLY INTERESTING CHARACTER.

AND THEN THERE’S MIKASA. GOD, I LOVE MIKASA. AND A BIG PART OF WHY I LOVE HER IS HOW HER EXPERIENCES HAVE REALISTICALLY SHAPED HER WORLDVIEW. I MEAN, SHE STARTS OFF AS A CUTE, HAPPY KID, RIGHT? BUT WITHIN HOURS, BOTH HER PARENTS ARE DEAD. KILLED RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER. SHE’S BEEN KIDNAPPED, ABOUT TO BE SOLD INTO WHAT IS HEAVILY IMPLIED TO BE SEXUAL SLAVERY. SHE’S A LITTLE KID FORCED INTO AN INCREDIBLY TRAUMATIC SITUATION RIGHT AFTER AN INCREDIBLY TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE. IT’S NO WONDER SHE SHUTS DOWN. AND JUST AFTER THAT, A BOY HER AGE KILLS 2 OF HER CAPTORS AND EXPECTS HER TO DO THE SAME. JESUS. TRAUMA CONGA LINE DOESN’T EVEN CUT IT. MIKASA WAS PUT INTO SUCH A HORRIFIC SITUATION THAT SHE HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO SEE THE WORLD AS CRUEL AND MERCILESS. AND THAT’S WHEN SHE SNAPS. SHE KILLS THE MAN, AND SHE SURVIVES. MIKASA LEARNS EARLY THAT ONLY THE STRONG ARE ALLOWED TO KEEP LIVING, BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ONES WHO WIN. THIS IS A MASSIVE FACTOR IN HER DETACHED, EVEN COLD NATURE. SHE HAS WORKED HARD TO NUMBER AMONG THE STRONG, AND THAT GIVES HER POWER. SHE KNOWS IT, AND SHE DOESN’T TAKE IT LIGHTLY BECAUSE SHE LIVES IN A WORLD WHERE EVEN THE STRONGEST ARE JUST BUYING TIME. IT’S ALSO WHY SHE’S SO PROTECTIVE OF EREN—HE SAVED HER LIFE. HE ENCOURAGED HER TO FIGHT. BECAUSE OF HIM, SHE WAS ABLE TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE CRUELTY OF THE WORLD AND WIN. AND ON SOME LEVEL, THIS IS GREAT, BECAUSE LORD KNOWS THOSE TWO NEED SOMEONE WHO CARES ABOUT THEM. BUT IT’S ALSO INDICATIVE OF THE REALLY FUCKED-UP SIDE OF MIKASA, THE SIDE THAT PLACES SO MUCH OF HER SELF-WORTH ON BEING ABLE TO PROTECT PEOPLE—NAMELY, EREN. WHEN SHE THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD, SHE DAMN NEAR GAVE UP. HER DEVOTION TO HIM IS DANGEROUS FOR THAT REASON. JUST AS EREN IS OBSESSED WITH KILLING ALL THE TITANS TO SAVE HUMANITY, MIKASA IS OBSESSED WITH KILLING ALL THE TITANS TO KEEP THE PEOPLE SHE CARES ABOUT SAFE.

BASICALLY BOTH EREN AND MIKASA ARE REALLY INTERESTING AND WELL-WRITTEN CHARACTERS THAT I’M DYING TO SEE DEVELOP AND THIS SCENE IS A MAJOR REASON WHY.

(Source: genericbrandgroceries)

snazzysnafu:

It’s not like you really want not to die… You always think in what way you could die so that you get praised for it, am I wrong? Do you really want the bastards who treated you as a nuisance to be happy that you died, huh!?

#i think it’s pretty deliberate that volume 10 focuses on ymir and krista #at the same time that it focuses on reiner and bertolt #because everything that’s great about ymir/krista can be directly compared to everything that’s twisted and awful about r/b #like one of the biggest things is that ymir and krista have never been afraid to call each other on their shit #and that goes way back to the second volume of the manga even #whereas reiner and bertolt don’t have nearly that level of honesty with each other #and it’s not just because they’re undercover and can’t communicate openly with each other #it’s because bertolt has seen reiner’s breakdown coming from miles away for a long time #but the only thing that he can bring himself to do about it is make ONE comment in chapter 38 #which he immediately backs down from #and given reiner’s reaction it’s pretty clear that he’s not used to bertolt talking back to him #like open honest dialogue is not a thing he can do without making a terrifying yandere face #whereas ymir and krista are completely the opposite of that #krista isn’t afraid to tell ymir to back the fuck down and ymir isn’t afraid to openly criticize krista’s scary martyr complex #and even though they keep secrets from each other #even their agreement to keep secrets from each other is a sign of their trust in each other #and even though their relationship is far from perfect #(like ymir not being open about the whole lesbian thing and krista being insecure about the reasons why ymir is attracted to her) #theirs is still one of the best and deepest and truest relationships in the series

(tag meta via papermoon2)

(Source: boltonlinbo)

fatpinkcast:

Critics’ Reactions to the Final Season 3 Scene in Game of Thrones

Surfed Google News looking for what reviewers thought about the White Lady Jesus scene.

“It’s kind of weird that the show decides to rely on the slightly racist, definitely cliche stereotype of hordes of adoring brown slaves worshipping their white liberator.” - Kate Walsh, Indiewire

“…the messianic tint to Danaerys’ brief appearance takes on a weirdly racist and pro-colonial overtone (look at those poor, dark savages and how much they love their blond savior!)” - Todd Brown, Twitchfilm

“…her being surrounded by a worshipful mass of people she’s saved who are decidedly, er, browner than her is really frakking weird. I’m not saying there’s malicious, racist intent or anything, and some of the slaves are probably just tanned white people. But as an image, I found it really offputting.” - Rebecca Pahle, The Mary Sue

“I think we’re supposed to feel tense and apprehensive awaiting their response to her setting them free, but I’m just kind of bored. No surprise – they accept her, calling her “mother.” She crowd surfs while her dragons fly above the crowd. Also, she’s very white and all the slaves definitely aren’t and so maybe this is racist? I’d call for discussion but this is the internet so better not.” - Dr. Improbable, The OutHousers

“During Game of Thrones‘ first season, the show faced criticism that it was racially… not super sensitive when it came to portraying the Dothraki, who were largely treated as Klingons noble savages…Now, Dany has become a straight-up conqueror—an outsider who swoops in with her dragons and eunuchs to show other societies how they’re doing things wrong. Which is where things start to feel a little dodgy: The final shots of this season were supposed to be rousing, but they felt weird.

There was Dany, seriously the Whitest Woman Ever, crowd-surfing on a bunch of heretofore unseen and uncharacterized brown people, all of whom had been enslaved and helpless before she showed up? And they’re lovingly calling her “Mother”?” - Erik Henriksen, Wired.com

“Yes, this is problematic. The optics on this scene are really bad, which I can see you have noticed, because you have eyes. Problem one is that there aren’t very many people of color people on this show to begin with, and problem two is that when there are, they tend to be acting out “tribal” stereotypes and/or cast in the role of slaves. And this final scene featured largest crowd of brown faces we’ve ever seen, lifting the world’s blondest woman up as their messiah and praising her for saving them from bondage. It’s like George W. Bush’s secret fantasy of how he thought the invasion of Iraq would go for him (including the blond wig).

“If you’ve never heard of the White Savior phenomenon in media, wherein a fictional white outsider appears to heroically save fictional people of color from problems they can’t solve on their own, there’s more information here. Or you can just take a screenshot at any point in the last minute of the show, since it’s pretty much textbook. And that’s another problem, while we’re counting problems: I feel like I’ve seen this trope so many times before that it feels emotionally flat and boring, especially in comparison to her astonishingly badass siege of Astapor.” - Laura Hudson, Wired.com

“Also, I can’t even express how uncomfortable her last scene (the last scene of the season) made me feel. This show has always had issues with race and unfortunately, by having hundreds of faceless brown people lifting up a young, white blonde woman and calling her “mother,” showrunners are far from correcting them. It was Greyworm (and friends) who liberated the city. Can’t he get some love?”- Madeleine Davies, Jezebel.com

The Khaleesi of previous seasons, and even previous season three episodes, seemed to care little for titles that others were so eager to attach to her. But it’s that blissful smile, that obvious Christ pose while being hoisted above the crowd, her blonde hair and pearly whiteness shining upon a sea of trodden-upon brown people that lead one to wonder if all this savior stuff is finally going to her head. - Gabriel Ruzin, Screen Invasion

“The final image is still that of a white woman being embraced by the poor slaves she set free, and on a show that has been validly criticized for its lack of diversity in its main cast, ending a season with that scene was a questionable choice. We understand why the writers thought it was a good direction to go — viewers needed some real hope after the Red Wedding — but there were probably ways to direct it that would have taken the sting out of the visual.” - Rebecca Martin, Wetpaint

“So, um, did anyone else think it was a little weird to have a bunch of dusky brown people reaching out to the blonde white lady and proclaiming her their savior? Dany’s crusade to free slaves and whatnot is admirable, sure, but that scene seemed to say “Hooray! The nice white lady saved us!” Kinda got a weird vibe. Was anyone else made ever so slightly uncomfortable?”  - Joe Streckert, Portland Mercury

It’s an image that many commentators found troubling, given Game of Thrones‘ overwhelming whiteness, and the presentation of many non-white people as barbarians, deceptive slavers, or mindless slaves.  - Alyssa Rosenberg, Think Progress

“And not to end on a sour note — because I did think “Mhysa” was a tight, elegant episode — but did anyone else watch the final scene outside Yunkai and think, ‘Hmmm, am I really looking at a pretty white lady being worshiped by thousands upon thousands of adoring brown people?’” - Nina Shen Rastogi, New York Magazine

“The show’s previously been careful to maintain a heterogeneous look for most of the cultures Daenerys encounters in her travels through the eastern continent of Essos, so the uniformly brown skin tone of the freed slaves worshipping the blondest possible savior figure was surprising and disconcerting – doubly so since, in the books, much is made of just how many different kinds of people had been forced into slavery by Yunkai and then freed by Dany when she took the city. This uncomfortable contrast kneecapped what could otherwise have been the most purely uplifting and cathartic moment in the series so far. Plus it gave the episode its title and was, you know, the final shot of the season – a rough one to go out on. “ Sean T. Collins, Rolling Stone

(via gothambat)

creatureintheflask:

Am I analyzing Eren and Mikasa when I should be studying for my bio final tomorrow? Fuck it I am

Read More

hanjizoe:

i think what i like so much about eren is that he’s kind of an inversion of the typical shonen protagonist.

like most shonen heroes love to fight but rarely (if ever) kill, and if they do, have all the angst and conflicted feelings about it. and this can be written really well! edward elric, maybe my favorite male character ever, fits that trope exactly.

but what’s interesting about eren is that he’s really quite violent and bloodthirsty. he doesn’t seem to enjoy fighting as anything more than a means to an end—killing the titans. every last one of them. i mean, this is a guy who’s mantra, what he says to himself to keep going, is “kill them all.”

it’s really atypical to show a nine year old child kill two people without much thought. it makes so much sense with his character, though, because he’s incredibly idealistic and really sees the world in black and white. bad people deserve to die. it’s that simple to him, and it’s always been that simple. seeing his mother get eaten just emphasizes it.

(Source: zoehange)

hanjizoe:

so i don’t talk about armin a whole lot, which is a shame because he’s actually really great. i mean, he fulfills the snk requirement of initially seeming cliche before CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT and EXPOSITION take place (other notable examples: mikasa, eren, jean, sasha, krista, etc). but once you actually start thinking about who he is and why, it’s like HOLY SHIT THIS KID IS TERRIFYING and i also want to hug him because wow what a sweetie

basically i love how him not being a very skilled fighter and having more intelligence/interpersonal based talents is never disparaged by the narrative. it’s made clear that he’s valuable—he saves eren’s ass almost as much as mikasa does by simply talking people down (this happens on a good 2-3 separate occasions). he uses his intelligence to actually DO stuff—he’s the one to figure out the identities of the various titans, and to come up with plans to catch them. in other words, a smart guy who’s actually smart.

but in-universe, he has 0 self esteem and constantly beats himself up for his weakness. which also really makes sense! in case you weren’t clear on this, the world is a cruel place. only the strong can survive (seriously this was really subtle and you might have missed it. you’re lucky i’m here to hold your hand). it makes sense for him to feel so worthless because in his world, it is very likely that if you can’t physically fight off your enemy it will eat you. there’s no reasoning with titans—it’s kill or be killed. and as someone who isn’t so great with that whole business, and constantly runs the risk of being dismembered and ingested because of that fact, the whole angst about being useless kind of makes a whole lot of sense.

but then character development. once he saves mikasa and eren’s lives using that very skill set he thought made him weak, he realizes that they don’t view him as a burden. it’s a touching scene! armin gains some self confidence, he starts to come out of his shell. cake for everyone.

but that’s when we really start seeing that armin is morally ambiguous as fuck. he has the same kind of issues as eren, your friendly neighborhood nine year old psychopath, or mikasa “why is the corpse talking?” ackerman. seriously, this kid starts talking about moral relativism and the necessity of sacrificing individuals so the many can survive and it’s like… holy shit. he’s not all sweet and innocent. not completely. his life didn’t just make him feel worthless, it also forced him to harden.

obviously armin isn’t bad. he remains one of the kindest guys in the series, but you can just see the wheels turning in his head—“this is the reality of my world. this is what i have to do.” what i love so much about snk is the complexity and ambiguity of its characters, and armin is no exception.

(Source: zoehange)