#cross marian is arguably one of the loneliest characters in the series so far

[cinammonelles]

Regardless of what his relationship was with the twins, this whole arc made me realise how truly painful the whole ordeal had been for Cross.

He's known them since they were kids. And then Nea died in a horribly awful way and left a message that merely said "Find and protect Allen", and Mana lost his mind and memories and morphed into someone who was barely a shell of himself and Cross had to witness his downward spiral till he drew his last breath.

It must've been so deja vu for Cross. We don't know for sure if he was there when Nea and Mana were on the run from the previous gen of Noahs but Cross was Nea's ally. And at the very least he definitely knows how they struggled.

And then Nea died and Mana kept running alone. With Nea's last words reverberating in his head that was otherwise empty of most of the other memories they shared. Cross at the very least had Tim. Even though he served as an painful reminder of the relationship he shared with the twins(and Nea in particular).

But Mana was alone till he met Allen(the dog). And then even Allen died and he couldn't even mourn him. It somehow led to him befriending Red, the real "Allen", which again, ultimately resulted in....

And Cross had to witness all of that. He had to witness all of that and continue like nothing happened while also raising Allen and making sure he didn't find out any of it.

Its just so irrevocably sad

(Translation creds to Kougeki scans)