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saigethearies · 1 year ago

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saige’s terrortober presents…

offering

unbeknownst to you, zeke has chosen you to be his cult’s next virgin sacrifice. a pining eren knows exactly what he needs to do to save you.

cultist!eren jaeger x fem!reader

contents/warnings: mentions of murder, vaginal fingering, unprotected sex, loss of virginity, praise, corruption kink, breeding, protective and possessive eren, mentions of ‘purity’

wc: 2k

18+ MINORS DNI

eren felt as if time had frozen around him when the name of the chosen sacrifice tumbled from zeke’s lips.

your name.

you, the kind girl from his english lecture.

you, who gives him a pencil when he forgets his own.

you, who explains assignments to him with patient words.

you, who shares whatever snack you’ve brought without hesitation.

you, with your soft smile and sweet laugh, who was going to be cut to death on the altar zeke stood behind this upcoming equinox.

“she’s a virgin?” floch’s grimy voice pulled eren back to reality, and it took every ounce of the self-control that already came scarce to him to refrain from knocking the ginger’s teeth in. “could have had me fooled, way too pretty for her cherry not to be popped.”

zeke chuckled at floch’s remark. “my source is never wrong, she’s completely pure. she probably will be our cutest offer yet, though.”

they were gonna kill you, he was supposed to kill you. eren thinks about you when he falls asleep, when he wakes up, and all the hours in between. his little crush that’s been festering since the beginning of the semester would come to a thrilling conclusion when he hands his brother the dagger.

he couldn’t let it happen.

to hell with the brotherhood, he wouldn’t let them take you away from him.

eren knew the sacrifice always had to be a virgin, that was the one golden rule since the founders first drew blood centuries ago.

ascending up the hidden catacomb’s stairs after zeke adjourned the meeting, eren already had his plan mapped out- he just couldn’t tell if he was thinking more with his brain or his dick.

it was time for him to make you unqualified.

____

“thanks for offering to tutor me, i really need it,” eren said with a smile, opening the door to his room.

“it’s no problem! i needed something to do this afternoon, anyways!”

you had that smile on your face again, a little twinkle in your eye as you looked up at him. damn, you were so beautiful. he hoped he could pull this off.

within a few minutes, the two of you were sitting on his bed, you holding a textbook open in your lap as you pointed to different literary techniques. eren’s gaze kept drifting off of the pages and onto the exposed skin of your legs, little skirt you were wearing riding up as you sat.

you trailed off in your description of a motif when you felt a warm hand on your thigh. blinking, you turned to see eren’s face extremely close.

“...is everything okay?” you asked slowly, face heating up. men were never in your personal space like this, much less one as attractive as eren. the proximity was causing you to become flustered.

you tried to stand, get some distance between the two of you, only to trip and land right on eren’s lap. your startled eyes met his shining sea green ones, and the urge to kiss him surged through you.

eren knew he was about to have you right where he wanted, having enough past flings to know the tells of a woman. he just needed to give you one more little push, one more and then he can put his plan into motion.

bringing a hand to cup your cheek, he spoke to you softly. “can i kiss you?”

“i…”

“we don’t have to do anything if you’re uncomfortable,” he said, stroking your face tenderly as if your life wasn’t currently hanging in the balance.

eren’s care felt genuine to you and your eyelids fluttered shut, leaning your lips up to meet his. the kiss was careful, eren gently applying pressure as if he didn’t want to do too much and scare you away.

you felt a shiver run down your spine when his tongue slid into your mouth, trying not to make your lack of experience obvious as he explored the wet cavern.

a hand going under your skirt, however, had you jolting. grabbing eren’s wrist before he could go further, you broke away from his lips with a pant. “wait!”

“what is it?” he asked, already knowing full well what the answer would be.

“i’ve never…you know…” you trailed off, and something about the look on his face told you that he understood perfectly.

“do you want to?”

please say yes, say yes so he can protect you.

you bit your lip, unsure. you knew nothing about sex, and the unknown was always nerve wracking to you. on the other hand, you had this nice, handsome guy that you were already acquainted with offering to take your virginity.

not many girls get this type of opportunity…

you nodded. “yeah, can we please just go slow?”

“of course, princess, we can go as slow as you want.”

it didn’t matter how you wanted it, all that mattered was that eren’s cock got to split your virgin cunt open.

his fingers resumed their trek up your inner thigh, tracing the outline of your panties.

“i’m gonna prep you first, okay, baby? make it hurt less.”

“okay,” you replied, breath hitching when you felt eren’s thumb slide into your underwear, immediately going to rub circles into your sensitive nub.

the stimulation had you jerking instantly, not familiar with the pleasure that was being inflicted on you.

“oh-oh!”

“that feel good?” he asked, sliding a finger into your pussy that was growing slicker by the second.

“mhm.”

this felt so much different than from when you’d play with yourself, not realizing how electrifying it was to have fingers between your folds that weren’t yours.

he added his index finger into your pussy, dark desire twisting his insides at how tightly you clamped on that one finger. starting to pump in and out slowly, eren cooed at you.

“relax, princess, ‘m gonna take care of you. you’re gonna be okay, yeah?”

you nodded at his words, not knowing the double meaning behind them. eren started to thrust his finger faster, rubbing against your bud with more intent. mewls left your lips at the sensation, humping his hand pathetically.

eren’s eyes were trained on you. the sight of you crumbling and succumbing to a man’s touch for the first time was breathtaking. the brunette was starting to think this could be love.

your thighs were quaking around his hand, slick dripping all over his lap. he relished in the mess, knowing that now you were probably loosened up enough.

“alright, pretty girl,” he kissed underneath your ear. “i think you’re ready for my cock.”

he gently maneuvered you off of his lap and onto his bed, lowering you down with so much care it made your throat feel tight. tugging your panties off before taking his own shirt off, he looked down at you.

“can you show me those pretty titties, princess?”

you blinked up at him dreamily, obeying his command as your shirt joined his on the floor. not even a second had passed after your bra fell from your shoulders when his large hands were cupping your breasts, squeezing at them in a way that had your eyes screwing shut.

“eren!”

he gave you a little kiss on your forehead as he leaned over you, palms leaving your chest as he grabbed a pillow to place under your hips. you took a deep breath, trying to settle your jittery nerves as you observed eren remove the rest of his clothing.

eren stopped you when you tried to take your skirt off.

“leave it.”

he pushed it out of the way, your glossy cunt appearing. the view of you completely naked with just your skirt bunched around your waist had eren’s mind shortcircuiting. he wanted to burn this image into his memory forever, and knowing he would be the first person to ever see you like this was even better.

if he had it his way, he’d be the only.

spreading your thighs open wider, eren slotted himself in between them. he grabbed hold of your hips, bringing them closer in a way that had your whole body being dragged down the bed. you yelped at his display of strength.

“sorry, princess,” he said with a sheepish smile. his tip prodded at your entrance. “deep breath f’ me, okay?”

the way he pierced you open was addicting, every inch of his dick spearing your virgin walls had your toes curling. you didn’t expect penetration to feel this good the first time. all your friends told you it would hurt the first several tries, but leave it to eren jaeger to throw you for yet another loop.

you felt his pubic bone become flush against yours.

“taking all of me your very first go? such a good fucking girl, damn.”

it was done. your virginity was his. zeke could no longer butcher you on that cold, stone altar in front of his whole brotherhood. eren had never felt so proud of himself, the knowledge that his girl was now safe and sound due to his plan had his skin tingling in excitement. he tightened his grip on your hips, trying so hard to keep himself grounded. he had promised you slow.

yet, as always, you proved to be heaven-sent.

“eren,” you babbled to him. “move, please! wan’ you to move.”

the frenzied gleam in his eye made your pussy throb. the brunette wasted no time in listening to your plea, bucking into you like his life depended on it- oh, the irony.

you screamed out, hands flying to fist the sheets beside you as eren kept your pelvis locked in place, subject to thrust after thrust of his cock. the pleasure was already swirling inside you as if it was a tornado, the high that was building from earlier now picking back up its rise.

“feel so good, so good, fuck.”

never had he been in a cunt this warm and tight. eren intended on molding it to the shape of him, ruining it for anyone else. he’d make sure you wouldn’t even want anyone else.

“perfect, princess,” he grit out. “fucking perfect pussy.”

his praise and pace made you feel lightheaded, falling further into the haze of ecstasy he was shrouding you in. you weren’t sure how much more you could take.

“i-i think ‘m close…”

“yeah? me too baby.”

with the way you were gripping him, it was a miracle eren hadn’t already busted. he angled his hips to hit even deeper, adding a finger to your clit again in hopes of finishing the both of you off.

“where do you want me?”

your answer shocked him. “inside!”

fuck, you were gonna be the death of him.

“my princess wants to be filled up, huh?”

who was he to deny you?

one final plunge into your walls timed perfectly with the rub of his thumb had you clenching hard on his dick, muscles spasming as you orgasmed. eren was spurred into his own climax, spilling into you. his eyes were glued to your face, your cockdrunk expression almost enchanting to him as he watched you fall apart.

slowly pulling out, the brunette was in awe at his cum leaking out of you. deciding to worry about his sheets later, he crawled up the bed to see your drooping eyes.

laying down next to you, eren engulfed your frame with his. he held your head against his chest as you drifted off, exhaustion taking over.

____

zeke put his book down as he heard his phone ping, surprised to see he had gotten a text from eren. his brother hardly ever messaged him.

his interest was piqued even more when he saw it was a picture.

opening the image, however, had zeke wanting to chuck the device across the room.

while eren made sure to have the covers pulled up enough, the blonde could still tell it was you from your side profile resting on his brother’s torso.

another ping.

“you might need to pick a new offering, my bad.”

zeke knew the smug bastard didn’t feel guilty in the slightest.

____

saige’s terrortober masterlist

#saige’s terrortober #eren jaeger x reader #eren yeager x reader #eren jaeger smut #eren yeager smut #eren yeager #eren jaeger #eren jaeger x you #eren yeager x y/n #aot x reader #aot smut

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casualaruanienjoyer · 4 months ago

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What do AoT characters do at the beach?

Hello there! This is a great question!! So...

What would these Aot characters do at the beach?

Eren and Jean: They keep bickering and eventually decide to solve their issues like real men: through a surfing competition! By the end of it both of them wash up on the beach half conscious

Mikasa and Annie: Volleyball match TO THE DEATH. The court is on fire and there's a crowd gathered around them. Bets are being made. Who will win??

Historia and Ymir: they are also in this Volleyball match but have not touched the ball even once. They both agree to ditch the game and buy some ice cream.

Connie: He's handling the bets for the Volleyball match. Plans to run away with the profits. Maybe buy a nice retirement house by the sea. (The heat is making him delusional)

Sasha: she's trying to learn how to swim and Hange's giving her a hand. Sasha has a big donut swimming ring. Even so she keeps going underwater. Hange is too fascinated by passing jellyfish to notice.

Levi: sunhat on, sunscreen on, resting under an umbrella OUT OF THE SUN. This is not his happy place. A crab ends up nesting in his shirt.

Yelena: she's jetskiing, dragging Onyakopon with her. He was supposed to be surfing behind her but he's somewhere in the water... being dragged along instead. Floch style.

Reiner: this man got BURNT. Red like a lobster. He's crying somewhere under an umbrella because he's in PAIN.

Zeke: he built a massive monkey out of sand. He's now king of the beach. ALL HAIL THE MONKEY KING!

Pieck, Gabi and Falco: they found Armin sleeping on the beach and decided to bury him in the sand. Armin wakes up hours later with only his head poking out. There's no one else around. "Guys...guys???"

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ghostcatssecretblog · 3 months ago

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Attack On Titan: Modern AU

(Or as I call it the highschool sweet heart au.)

Some of you may have seen my post based on my Attack on Titan Modern AU! But I've only ever posted photos. (I have more on my tiktok. Feel free to check it out)

So I'm gonna share my notes from this AU and my personal take on the characters in a modern universe.

Some starter notes:

I tried to bring elements from the original story over, but obviously, it's not just a complete modern retelling, and to be honest, I mostly focused on Eren bc like...that's my boy. I have some thoughts on the others and they're listed below but I don't touch on everyone bc I just don't have enough thoughts about them.

The modern AU does not take place in our world. It's still theirs, so the setting and map is the same just...modern. You can honestly take this as a reincarnation AU.

So let's go!

Eren:

• Eren's mom died in a car accident when he was nine. He was there to see it but luckily was mostly unharmed. His mom however died due to the impact.

• His father is a doctor, and because of this, he is rarely ever home, so his brother Zeke has to take care of him. Zeke is overly protective and tries to prevent Eren from doing things he considers to be reckless.

• Zeke and Eren have a weird relationship because while Zeke is the one who raised him and took care of him, Eren resents the fact that Zeke mothers him so much, especially as he gets older and tries to have more freedom to do what he wants with his life.

• As kids Armin, Mikasa, and Eren stuck together. Eren defended them from bullies, but the trio always managed to find themself in trouble. Mostly due to Eren always getting into something or starting fights of his own.

• He was already a bit of a trouble maker, but when his mom passed, he seemed to spiral. Zeke, only being 20 when he started taking care of Eren, means having to juggle college, a job, and raising a child. Needless to say, Eren went unsupervised a LOT in middle school.

• During freshman year of high school, Eren started attending Scout High, where he met a lot of his friends. He struggled at first but eventually formed a rag-tag group that only grew. One of those is Arte, who, like Reiner and Berthold, is a year above him. Their friendship was rocky at first, but they eventually came to an understanding.

• During freshman year, he joined the soccer team. By junior year he became captain.

• During sophomore year, the changes slowly began. Zeke became more overbearing, pushing Eren to be sneaky, and his father was around less and less.

• Then the incident happened. It was during a house party At Historia's right after homecoming. Everything was fine at first until Reiner made a foul comment about Eren's mom being dead. A fight broke out between them, resulting in Reiner having to go to the hospital. Because Arte, and a few others vouched for Eren and said that Reiner instigated the fight Eren got left off easy but was made to go to therapy and was put on probation.

• During junior year of high school, Eren becomes more reckless and starts to isolate from his friends more. He hangs out with the wrong sort of kids (Floch and Samuel), gets into fights more often, skips class, and overall stops caring as much. He picks up skateboarding as a hobby.

•

Extra notes:

• While he plays soccer he also does skateboarding as a hobby.

• He's into metal bands such as 5FDP and SOAD.

• His grandparents (dad side) are very conservative. They also don't approve of Grisha divorcing Dina and Marrying Carla (partially bc she was younger than him). They tend to favor Zeke and consider Eren to be nothing more than a trouble maker.

Arte

• In contrast to Eren's more middle class suburban life, Arte grew up your stereotypical white trash sort of home with a neglectful mother and an alcoholic father

• They grew mostly isolated, living too far from the city to make friends and considered too much of an odd kid to make any at school.

• That is until middle school. When they met Winnie.

• Winnie comes from upper class. She's rich but considered the back sheep of the family and because of this her and Arte become close friends. Closer than friends even

• But in 8th grade they split. Winnie wanted to stay in public school to be with Arte but Arte pushed her away, ensuring Winnie would go to boarding school. Art thought she was better off there.

• Arte then attends the same highschool as Eren their freshman year.

• Arte is friends with Annie (both are lower class and have bad parents) and Hitch - designated sunshine and rich girl of the group.

• Absolutely loves automotive and English classes. They help fix Eren's car on the regular.

• Their relationship when they first meet is weird and mostly bickering. Very friend/enemies through Eren's freshman and Sophmore year.

• Around his junior year he's getting in a lot more fights. Arte helps patch his face up in the boy's bathroom. There's a heart to heart and they become actual friends soon after.

• Arte Annie and Hitch start hanging around Eren's friend group more - leads to Armin and Annie dating.

• For the rest of Junior year Arte and Eren end up sneaking out (arte sneaking into his room, going to the skatepark, wandering the neighborhood, late night McDonald's runs)

• Eventually they end up dating but it's a bit of a slow burn bc neither wants to admit they like the other.

• Arte keeps Eren as far away from their home life as possible bc they don't want him seeing how awful it is but also bc they're fairly certain if he were to their dad hitting them Eren would end up in prison for murder

• Eren does find out via seeing the scars and bruises on Arte and loses his shit

• The one time he did catch Arte's dad putting his hands on them Arte had to drag him back into the car to avoid a fight.

Extra notes:

• AAH have matching friendship bracelets

• Likes music like Radiohead, Nirvana, Deftones...

• They go to football games (hitch is a cheer leader) and Eren's soccer games together. As well as Parties, homecoming, prom (Arte asks Eren for their senior year and vise versa for his), haunted houses, carnival, etc.

• Arte stays over at Eren's a lot bc bad home life.

• They also get Eren into smoking weed. Zeke does not approve.

• Arte graduates first but takes a gap year to wait on Eren so they can apply to colleges together (with zekes help)

• During this time Arte temporarily moves in with Zeke and Eren.

• Unfortunately neither knows what they want to do with their life atm

• I really feel like Eren would be the kinda person to go to a lot of protest though. He probably organizes half of them.

• Arte -> Enginering Major

• Eren -> Social Justice Major

• Zeke and Yelena are married. They end up moving to Liberio, Marley and try to take Eren with them.

• Eventually end up getting dog together named Titan. He's a chow and Tibetan mastiff mix

Armin:

• He still lives with his grandpa

• His parents are alive they just travel a lot for work so he doesn't see them very much

• It's part of the reason he wants to see the ocean and travel.

• Ends up a marine biologist

• Armin x Annie !

• Takes a lot of IB classes in High-school.

• Likes softer music. I'm thinking Cavetown vibes.

Mikasa:

• Her parents are alive! Yay!

• Her, Armin and Eren all lived in the same neighborhood. Armin and Eren were friends first and she joined them when her family moved into the neighborhood.

• She almost had a little brother but he didn't make it. Thus, she projects big sister energy onto Eren and Armin.

• Listens to Lana del Rey and Mitski. Unless she's working out, that is.

• Ends up a physical trainer after highschool.

• Jean x Mikasa bc that boy adores her and would actually give her the domestic life she craves.

Friend groups:

1. Eren Armin Mikasa

2. Jean, Sasha, Connie and Marco are all friends.

3. Annie Hitch and Arte

4. Reiner and Bertholdt

5. Historia <3 Ymir

Porco, Piek, Marcel aren't really ever relevant but I imagine they go to a rival school in Libero. Porco is on the boy's soccer team and he and Eren have beef bc of it.

Reiner:

• Reiner's issues in this AU stem from growing up in a conservative household. His mother is reglious and his dad went out for milk...

• He's also a closeted homo. His feelings for Historia are merely him hetero-compensating. Hence, his issues towards Eren, who is very openly Bisexual. (Also idk but there's homoerotic tension there. Have you seen them fight??)

• But by college he figures his shit out. He's a changed man! I like to think he ends up dating Ploam's OC Logan.

• Anyway, just imagine your stereotypical closested football joke but then he grows up, gets him a bf and a shelter dog and LIVES HAPPILY

Annie:

• Kinda already summarized her in the previous notes but

• She's still adopted in this au. Her dad still sucks. Her and Arte have bonds bc of it

• AruAnnie! They get cats when they get older. Colossus the maincoon and sphinx (idk what to name it)

• I like Yama's take on her music taste. She definitely listens to Evanescence and Avil Lavigne.

• Professional MMA fighter after Highschool

I don't really have thoughts on Bertholdt, and I'm sorry I just don't have any thoughts on him :p

Sasha and Connie are still best friends! I think It would be really cute if Niccolo was from the same school as Porco and Piek and Sasha met him during a bake sale and liked his baking so much he went into Culinary after HS and ofc eventually got his own restaurant. Sasha is a food blogger and is constantly posting his dishes on the gram which just brings in most business for him. (Listen I need these two TO BE HAPPY)

Marco doesn't die! For once, omg. He and Jean become good friends. He, just as with the show, that starts Jean's character arc. Instead of dying, he ends up having to move away but it forces Jean to realize he needs to open up and make friends with other people too.

That's all I have so far! But feel free to ask questions about the AU!

#attack on titan #eren jaeger #eren yeager #eren jeager x oc #my oc stuff #aot modern au #aot oc #mikasa ackerman #armin arlert #aruani #jean kirstein #connie springer #annie leonhart #reiner braun #marco bodt

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persephozee · 1 month ago

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basic outline of my AOT Marley-Paradis Swap AU

if you read this whole post i actually love you lets get married NOW

but i've seen this type of AU get done before but i do it in a more unorthodox way

will i ever actually write for this? who knows

Who's in Paradis?

ok so the main difference in my au from other is that the veterans and the ackermann family all have to stay in paradis (veterans is just cuz im lazy, ackermanns is because how would they be important at all in Marley if they cant turn into titans)

Reiner - Reiner pretty much plays the role of Eren just with a difference mindset. also Reiner still has mommy issues (Karina survives the fall unfortunately )!!

Bertholdt - pretty much plays the role of Armin however Reiner is the one who got bullied when they were kids. also Bert's dad dies in the fall unfortunately traumatizing him

Annie - Annie still has daddy issues her father heavily pushes her into the Corps after the fall

Porco - Porco lwk bullied Reiner when they were little BUT he'll tag along w the gang in joining the Corps after the fall because he wants to be just like his big brother

Marcel - Marcel and Pieck and Zeke were all in the same training corps together about 2 years before the fall !! (Marcel and Pieck are 5 years older than RBA + Porco while Zeke is 7 years older)

Pieck - Pieck lwk gonna play a bigger role than Marcel hesgonnadie but she is pretty much everyones big sister and also really badass as a survey corp. also her best friend (Zeke) mysteriously disappeared in 845 (like right before the fall)

Zeke - Zeke mysteriously disappeared in 845 i wonder what could be going on there. his grandparents were pissed at him for joining the Survey Corps despite being told to join the Military Police (he could have easily joined too he was 3rd in his class)

Mikasa - yes Mikasa is still here, and she unfortunately did get sold into trafficking at age 9. she escaped though she's a badass and now she's in the corps (dw Eremikas Eren still saves her just in a different way)

Erwin, Hange, Levi and all the other veterans and higher ups in the Paradis military are in Paradis

Who's in Marley?

Eren - Eren has the Attack Titan because Marley never loses possession of it in this AU!! Also he gets sent to Paradis which is kinda funny cuz his dad by some miracle came from there and told him right before he got sent!! Eren kinda knew that he just assumed Grisha was fucking stupid (this is the one part of my story thats really farfetched BUT the ackermann family told Dina that the outside world is advanced. Dina died on the way there if you cant tell)

Armin - Armin as expected has the Colossal. Him and Eren are inseparable but that will change FAST when they get to the island

Jean - Jean is the armored titan

Marco - Marco is the jaw titan but not for long Ymir eats him yes she's still here

Historia - Historia is the female titan and DOES NOT get sent to Paradis until 850 (and thats where she gets into a forbidden love situation w Ymir). also she has special scream/titan creation powers just like Zeke !!

Connie - Connie is the cart titan

Floch - Floch is the beast titan (he's a fox if you're wondering)

Sasha - Sasha will SUPPOSEDLY inherit the jaw titan

once again if you read this entire post i love you. and if this post gets engagement PLEASE let me know if you wanna hear more.

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sleepy-sham · 4 months ago

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Having a grand time imagining AOT characters in the Olympics:

Obviously Sasha would do archery

I'm picturing Jean & Connie as a famed beach volleyball duo which brings me great joy

Bertholdt's tall ahh could play basketball. Same with Ymir (Freckles) & Yelena

Reiner as a wrestler & Annie as a boxer

Historia in artistic gymnastics. I think balance beam would be her best event. I think Pieck & Petra are also on the team: Petra's best event is uneven bars & Pieck's is vault--she's known for being tiny but still getting great height. Also I can see Marcel & Porco Galliard as male gymnasts. They're a famed duo bc they get very competitive in individual events against each other but always bring home the win for the team event

If Gabi were old enough OBVIOUSLY she'd be a sharpshooter. I think Floch would be too. Specifically Gabi doing air rifle and Floch doing air pistol.

Eren I'm struggling with. I love soccer player Eren but I kinda wanna give him something else? Something more unique since the Olympics feature such a myriad of different sports. Idk please let me know if you have thoughts on this!!!

The Ackermans I also struggle with since they would dominate at essentially anything they competed in. I like Levi as a fencer though. Mikasa I'm still ruminating on (again please tell me your thoughts if you have any). Maybe she could play indoor volleyball?

Erwin is a famed Olympic swimmer who set a lot of records in his youth. Miche was on his relay team. Erwin was the flag bearer for Paradis several years bc he was one of their most famous athletes ever. Then he was in a terrible car accident and lost his arm. Everyone assumed that was it for him but Erwin never quits. He's now the face of the Paralympic games.

Another obvious one is Zeke in baseball (which they don't have in this Olympiad☹️)

I like Nanaba as a long distance runner or triathlete

Oluo, Eld, & Gunther are all equestrians

Colt is a young swimmer. Erwin is his idol. Niccolo is also a swimmer

Idk where it came from but the words "Onyankapon" & "shotput" just popped into my head & I like it. I think he'd look sick af throwing a shotput even if doesn't have the typical build of a shotputter. Maybe a medium distance runner?

Moblit does table tennis. He seems so calm & collected & chill but he gets in a ping pong match & he's like Mose & Dwight in that one episode of The Office

Armin is a cyclist. I can't decide indoor or outdoor. But definitely normal cycling, like, not mountain biking or anything. I think he'd look so cute in a bike helmet with his face all serious & focused:3

I cannot figure out Hange. I want her to do something truly wacky. Comment what you think the craziest summer Olympic sport is

#i put. way too much thought into this #idk theyre my two hyperfixations so it was bound to happen #aot #attack on titan #snk #shingeki no kyojin #olympics #2024 olympics

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strscrossed · 11 months ago

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kiss of death — part i

and here i present the ballerina/mafioso au. it's a slow start but i always like having a setup. anyway, eren's a mafia underboss along with his brother zeke. grisha is the boss and women are kept out of the family business. thanks @likesunsetorange for reading this over and also enabling me! 💕

eremika. 2.5k. explicit.

“And what do you mean you won’t be joining us for dinner?”

Eren glances at his father for a little assistance. His mother’s voice is low, something dangerous stirring behind the calm. At this point, Eren would rather be in enemy territory, without a gun, than deal with Carla Jaeger.

“It’s last minute but a business associate's daughter has a ballet recital and he’s treating us to dinner after. Sorry, mom. Can I take a raincheck?

The key to a good lie is a half-truth. He does, in fact, have to attend a ballet tonight. Not with a business associate but his mother isn’t to know that under any circumstances. He worries for a moment because his mother is quiet. Too quiet, in fact.

“Always with the rainchecks,” she mumbles, shaking her head. She glares at him for two seconds, narrowing her eyes before sighing, conceding defeat.

When he was younger, he had a tell. His ears would turn red and his mother had a habit of pinching them whenever she would catch him in one. But adulthood has turned him into a seasoned liar.

“And you couldn’t handle this because…?” Carla glares at her husband, who sits on the sofa cross-legged, reading a newspaper. Grisha Jaeger is afraid of no one. Except, maybe, his wife.

“I’m close to retirement, dear. The boys are grown now, it’s time they got involved in matters of the family business. If I keep doing it, they’ll never learn anything. And I’m not getting any younger.

Zeke, who stands a few feet away, snorts quietly. Grisha’s “fragile old man” shtick would be laughable to anyone but his wife. Carla shakes her head. Again, a sigh of defeat as her husband gives her those weary eyes. Eren has to bite his tongue to keep the laugh from escaping.

“Eren’s hardly around anymore,” she says, shaking her head. “Can I at least have a meal with my boy once a week?”

He can’t say no to her.

“Of course, mom.”

She sits back in her chair, teacup in hand. She mourns time lost with her son but unbeknownst to her, she is living comfortably because of all this. And to keep all this, he has to break yet another promise to his mother.

“I need to head out now,” he tells everyone, with Grisha and Zeke nodding and Carla sighing.

“Who is going with you?”

“Armin and Floch,” he answers. At the mention of Floch’s name, he sees her face pinch a little. No, he’s not having this conversation again. She’s made her distaste for that young man abundantly clear. He doesn’t want to stick around to hear her ask his father, yet again, why he keeps him around.

“Bye,” he says and he’s out the door before his mother can get another word in.

➽───────────────────❥ ➽───────────────────❥

The fresh air fills his lungs as he closes the door behind him. His mother still doesn’t suspect a thing and that’s how he wants to keep it. It’s a dirty, grimy world that only the men of the family are privy to. If she really knew what the real family business was…

He doesn’t want to even entertain that idea. These are the rules. They exist for a reason. And he stopped feeling bad about lying to her years ago. It’s a lesson that’s been beaten into him since he was sixteen years old.

Eren slides into the front seat of the car. Floch is driving and Armin takes his place in the backseat. Neither man makes an effort to converse with each other and that’s fine. Their bickering is a source of Eren’s frayed nerves too often.

“Ackerman soldiers were spotted frequenting the ballet, huh?” Eren asks. It’s a rhetorical question.

“Quite a few of them actually,” Floch responds, his eyes glued to the road.

“It’s because one of their own is this year’s prima ballerina,” Armin adds. “A large number of them are said to be in attendance this evening.”

“Frequent the ballet, Arlert? How do you even know that?” Floch asks.

Eren stays quiet as he glances at Armin’s unamused expression in the rearview mirror. Thankfully, he’s not the explosive type.

“Well, if you must know, knowing about different things helps me navigate and infiltrate a number of different circles. You might want to culture yourself a little more, Floch.”

Oh, here they go.

“So, one of their own, huh? Old Kenny’s extorting ballet companies now?” Eren snorts. “His niece wanted to become a ballerina so good ole Uncle Kenny made it happen? Never took him to be such a fucking softie.”

No, actually, if that is the case, it’ll be easier to get under the old fucker’s skin.

“Actually, I hear Mikasa Ackerman is a once in a generation talent. And just in case, tonight’s performance is a ballet called Giselle. It’s about a young woman who falls in love with a nobleman and when they can’t be together she dies of heartbreak but that’s not where it ends—”

“I don’t care, Armin,” Eren cuts him off. “I don’t care about ballet or the girl. We’re going there for one reason and one reason only — to watch the Ackerman’s every move. Everything else is worthless and irrelevant.”

He hears Armin sink back into his seat, sighing.

Eren does his best not to twist his face in annoyance. A ballet of all places. He never thought he’d be caught dead at one of those…

➽───────────────────❥ ➽───────────────────❥

Kenny Ackerman is nowhere to be seen. Naturally, his old ass couldn’t be bothered to show up anywhere someone could see him. Levi Ackerman, however, is seated in the very front row. Armin manages to get them balcony seats so they can see everything.

It’s the most boring observation ever because the Ackerman associates and soldiers are just seated there.

This is why soldiers and lower level soldiers are sent to do this crap. Now he has to sit through a two hour long ballet and pretend to know what’s going on.

Occasionally, the man to Levi’s right will lean over and whisper something to his ear. He simply nods, giving nothing away.

“What are they saying?” Floch mutters to himself, squinting as if to read the lips.

Armin, meanwhile, is observing their surroundings. It’s entirely possible that they’ve been spotted.

“None here,” he assures Eren after a while.

Before he can say anything, the theater lights dim.

Eren knows jackshit about ballet. He doesn’t care to know what’s going on. The arts, the gentler things in life, were things he never cared to become acquainted with. So when the lights dim and the sound of violins fill the theater, he groans. He hears a lady gasp and jump behind him and he can’t help but scoff. It’s nothing compared to the sound of gunfire, bones breaking, or knives cutting through skin.

The Ackerman party, however, stops talking. Their eyes are glued to the stage and, unwillingly, Eren turns his attention to the stage. The whole production is colorful. Too colorful. It’s an eyesore.

He has no idea what’s going on. There are several dancers on stage at the beginning and then it’s just two guys. No one’s talking, obviously, it’s a ballet not a play. Armin’s probably watching completely enthralled, but he’s not impressed. He leans back in his chair, bored out of his mind as he watches them prance around the stage.

He’d never willingly show up to these things. But, when his father received word of a large gathering of Ackerman, of course he had to show up for it.

If the Ackerman are here, he needs to keep an eye on all of their activities. They might be here for the girl, but that’s immaterial for Eren.

He doesn’t care about ballet.

He doesn’t care for the girl—

His thoughts come to a screeching halt when a young woman appears on the stage. She looks around, and prances around the stage. And just like that, Eren is drawn right into the performance.

She’s graceful, her movements are so natural, so effortless. It’s like she belongs up there. Whatever she’s doing — whoever she’s playing — she embodies the role perfectly.

If he knows nothing else about ballet, he knows this much.

“That’s Mikasa Ackerman,” Armin leans in to whisper in his ear. “This year’s prima ballerina.”

He doesn’t know what the hell is going on but it gets sad pretty quickly, he assumes. He hears sniffling behind and near him. Floch looks endlessly bored and Armin, as predicted, is really into the performance.

Eren is focused on his dancer.

If he could compare her face to anything, it would be the moon. It is the illuminated beauty in the dark of the night and even from here, her eyes light up like the millions of stars. Only hers are brighter.

It goes on for two hours, which Eren decides is not long enough. He’ll watch her perform all day and night if that’s what it takes.

When the curtains close and everyone stands up to clap, he cannot bring himself to do so. His beautiful dancer is no longer in front of him and he finds no reason to celebrate that.

“Well, that was uneventful,” Floch mutters disappointingly. “I thought they might actually try something. I thought we might actually gain an advantage over them.”

Oh, right, they had a job to do.

“Floch, if you thought they were coming to a ballet, which by the way one of their own is performing at, to try and pull something you’ve set your expectations way too high.”

“Yeah, well if you haven’t noticed, this is our territory—”

“—technically, no it’s not.”

“What? Are you secretly on their side, Arlert? Because it sounds to me like you are.”

“Would you two shut up?” Eren growls, prompting the two of them to shut their mouths. “Armin, is she set to be in any more shows?”

“I can check but if she’s the prima ballerina, you can bet on it.”

Well, he is a betting man. And he always wins.

“Then we’ll keep coming back. Sooner or later, they’ll start conducting business around here. We should watch for that.”

He receives no protest. He does his best to keep a poker face but as he exits the theater, the corners of his turn up slightly…

➽───────────────────❥ ➽───────────────────❥

“So?” Grisha asks, closing the door behind him. Eren and Zeke stand side by side as Grisha walks back to his desk, settling down and making himself comfortable before Eren allows himself to answer.

“Nothing special. The Ackerman girl is part of the ballet, so they were serving as glorified bodyguards. The three of us watched them the whole time and nothing happened.”

Disappointing news to say the least. So much for this being a golden opportunity to strike against the Ackerman. As always, they manage to elude them by doing absolutely nothing.

“Even so, continue to watch the ballet,” Grisha instructs. “One evening will tell us nothing. And if the girl is part of the ballet, well they’ll frequent that theater. Perhaps, old Kenny Ackerman might show up.”

Fat chance.

“And Zeke,” he turns to his eldest son. “Are the girls of any use?”

“Nope,” his brother answers. “The men don’t frequent brothels. In fact, the girls haven’t heard of either of them.”

“Damn it!” his father curses, pounding the table with his fists. The whole thing is a little over dramatic in Eren’s opinion.

Weaker men cower before Grisha Jaeger. He is someone that you don’t want to piss off. In all fairness, the Jaegers in general are people you don’t want to piss off. The two brothers are the only ones immune to their father’s fear tactics. Though, he is certainly not just talk. He wouldn’t be in this position otherwise.

“It is decided then,” Grisha mumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose. “The Reiss and the Tyburs agree that this cannot continue.”

There is a tenuous peace between the families. Initially, each family controlled a third of the island and conflicts broke out through the generations. Eren’s grandfather realized there were more benefits to keeping these families as allies than enemies. Though tenuous is the best way to describe whatever alliance they had going.

“And what does that mean?” Zeke questions.

Grisha responds with a small smile.

“I won’t keep you as you two have more work to do. I have arranged it. Zeke, you are to marry Rod Reiss’ eldest daughter, Frieda. And Eren, you are to marry Willy Tybur’s younger sister, Lara. You are to meet with them, court them, and the official engagement will be two months from today. It is done. You two will honor it.”

What century was this?

“What the fuck, old man?” Eren growls and two pairs of eyes are on him.

“What was that?” his father asks, daring him to repeat it.

“You just sold us to the Reiss and Tyburs? You just want us to go along with it? What the fuck?”

Grisha’s not used to having his authority questioned. Sometimes Eren is going to whine but usually he doesn’t have an issue doing his father’s bidding. Extort the local jeweler? No problem. Take care of a guy and dispose of his corpse? Done. Spy on a couple of low level Ackerman associates? He can do that in his sleep.

Marriage though? Fuck no. That was different. That is something sacred and just for him.

“You don’t have a choice. You’re going to go through with this, Eren. I’ve given you way too much freedom. You’re marrying Lara Tybur. End of discussion. You have dinner reservations tomorrow night at 8 pm. Make sure you’re not late and I’ll know if you two fuck this up. Now get the hell out of my office.”

As the door closes behind the two of them, Eren is prepared to stomp down the hall but Zeke’s hand on his shoulder stops him.

“Careful, Eren,” he warns. “Step out of line and the old man isn’t going to hesitate to give you the kiss of death.”

Eren scowls, “And when did you become the obedient son? ”

“You didn’t seem to have an issue when he decided that you’d join the family business. You don’t have an issue doing his dirty work. But you draw the line at marriage. Interesting. Is there someone?”

“Fuck off, Zeke! It’s entirely fucking different and you know it! Does there have to be someone? And you’re one to talk! Pieck Finger is it?”

“Watch it, Eren,” Zeke warns him, all amusement vanishing from his face.

“Hit a nerve? Does the old man already know? Is that why you’re so okay with going along with it?”

Zeke narrows his eyes, “I suggest you keep your mouth shut and do as you’re told.”

“Whatever. I’m tired.”

He stomps off. Zeke might be okay with this, but he definitely isn’t. He’ll do anything for this family but this was too much! And without even consulting the two of them. Shouldn’t he have a say in who he marries?

As he silently rages, images of Mikasa Ackerman moving gracefully around the stage flood his mind. And all the rage dissipates into thin air…

#ballerina/mafioso au #eremika #fic #em tumblr fic

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ye4gerism · 1 year ago

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THE BACHELORETTE !!! chp one

an: the worst is over😭 i hope you guys don’t hate this chapter as much as i do!

taglist: @katestrophes @taylarxse @invisible-mori @tanakaslastbraincell @mrsharuchiyo @parkerluvsu @conniesbbymama @444ctrl @gabbadabbad00 @cvberidiot @maliagurl @greeniegreengreen @teanica @illgrrl @spoiled2thetop @Ilovesero @haitainiwhor3 @durag_tanaka

Welcome to another season of the Bachelorette!

Unlike the other bachelorette, you weren't pushed to join the show. Single life was getting quite boring and the dating process was getting quite tedious. Sure, a dating show probably isn't the best choice for love but it would be fun. A bunch of guys worshipping you and doing anything it took to be with you and you only? Oh yeah, that sounded great. Music to your ears- literally.

So here you were, standing up outside with the host, Zeke Yeager, waiting on the ten men (that will be cut down to eight tonight). "Tell me something I don't know," you blurt out. You grab Zelle's hand and squeeze your eyes shut out of nervousness. He looks at you for a moment. He looks down at your hand and pauses before opening his mouth, "The whole experience is going to be rainbows and flowers, and finding your dream man will be so easy!" You open your eyes to stare at him, wondering if he's being serious or not. His blue eyes stare back at you and you get your answer. "All jokes aside, only you know what's right and what's wrong. Go with your gut...otherwise, we wouldn't have picked you."

As if on cue, the first limousine pulls up and once it stops, the first individual to walk out of the vehicle is a tall redhead. There's a smile immediately plastered on his face and he begins to make his way toward you. "Hi, Y/N, my name is Floch," he says. Floch puts his arms out for a hug and you move in to give him one. He gives your body a slight squeeze before pulling away. "How are you?" he asks, a smile still on his face. "I'm nervous I won't lie," you reply. "If anything, I'm nervous too." Floch lets a chuckle escape him. "This must be love then, huh? Look at us sharing the same feelings and everything," you joke. He lets out a laugh. "I'll see you inside, Floch, it was nice meeting you!" Floch gives you a nod before heading inside.

The next individual is a brunette. Once he gets closer, you notice his magnetic green eyes. "You're even more beautiful in person," he breathed. You're too stunned to reply. Should a guy be that pretty? He puts a hand out. "Eren." "Y/N." "Y/N...that's kinda pretty," he replies. Kinda? "You look amazing...I can't wait to talk to you more inside." Eren pats your shoulder and moves past you. There was something about him but you really couldn't put your finger on it.

After Eren follows a blonde with hazel eyes. There's a bit of playfulness to them- a good playfulness. Once he reaches you, he takes your hands. "Hi, Y/N! My name is Colt and I just have to say that I'm here for you. Just you." He pauses and his face drops slightly. "Sorry, that came out weird-" "No, no, no, I get it. I think everyone's here for the same reason," you interrupt. He gives you an apologetic smile and continues.

The next individual that emerges from the limousine is much taller than Colt and has an ash-brown mullet. As he approaches you, he puts his arms out. So you take a few steps forward, meet him somewhat halfway and hug him. "Hey," he starts. "Hey," you reply. "My name's Jean. You look absolutely gorgeous tonight and I'm looking forward to getting to know you more throughout the show and, you know, hopefully off camera." His little blurb was really sweet. You put a hand over your heart. "I can't wait to get to know you better too. Hopefully, we can talk more tonight."

As Jean exists, the last male from the limo makes his way toward you. He's a blond with a bowl cut and blue eyes. "Hey, I'm Armin, how are you?" he says once he's getting closer. Once Armin is right in front of you, you hug him. "I'm good," you say pulling away. "I actually have something for you." Armin slips his fingers into his jacket pocket and pulls out a watch. "This watch has been in my family for a good 80 years...an heirloom," he explains. "Armin, I can't take this." You push his cupped hands toward his chest. "I'm playing; I got it from the airport," he reveals, "I just wanted to tell you that I'm worth your time." You let out a laugh and slightly slap your thigh before taking the watch from him. "Thank you so much, Armin, I'll totally remember this! I'll see you inside."

The next vehicle that shows up is a...truck. A truck? Your face recoils in confusion. You look over at Zeke, who had moved away to give you space, for an answer. He shrugs but has a slight smile on his face. For a moment, you stand there because no one was coming out and nothing was happening. Finally, a body arises from the trunk of the truck. "I'm here to have a BALL with you!" a guy with a shaven head exclaims. You cup your face because what the hell? The display was so corny but funny at the same time. The guy hops over the trunk and makes his way toward you. He's laughing as he gets closer. Without asking, he pulls you into a hug. "It's so nice to meet you. I'm Connie," he greets. "Connie," you repeat," what a display." "I know. Though of it myself and everything." He pulls away. "I've probably used up all my time but I will see you later."

The next limousine pulls up and the first guy out it is a tall, dark-skinned male. The first thing you notice is his smile and you're immediately hooked. There was something so kind and welcoming about them. "Hey, Y/N," he starts, "I hope I'm not the only one who's nervous. I'm so choked up right now." Once he gets closer, you cup his cheeks in your hands before letting out a breathy laugh. "It's alright..." Your voice trails off since he didn't introduce himself. "Oyankopon," he answers. "Oyankopon...God in Akan, correct?" Oyankopon nods. "Interesting...I hope to learn more about you as everything progresses." He gives you another smile, with his teeth this time before heading inside.

Another blonde emerges from the limo; the only difference between him and Armin is that he's buffer. "You know there are so many different types of hugs?" he starts. You cock your head to the side, giving him your answer. "Can I show you?" You nod, curious to see where exactly this was going. He puts his arms over your shoulders and his hands rest on your back. You hook your arms under him and once it seems like you know what's happening, he gives you a nice squeeze. He felt like a nice luxury hotel mattress- firm but soft. You pull away with the biggest smile. The mattress dude puts his right hand out. "Reiner." You shake his hand. "That was really nice, Reiner, I'll see you inside."

The following male is a blond with pushed-back hair and a dark undercut. "I'm Porco," he introduces himself. You go in for a hug. "Nice to meet you, Porco," you say as you pull away. "I won't lie to you, these past few weeks have felt like a dream and I thought it'd be over once I saw you in person but...gosh...you're so unreal," Porco admits. You put a hand on your cheek and feel yourself heating up from his compliment. "That's flattering, Porco. I can't wait to talk to you more inside."

Finally, the last male makes his way. He was super duper tall and had an elongated face. However, he had this kind set of eyes on him. "Hey, my name is Bertholdt and, if it isn't obvious, I'm like totally into you right now and I can't wait to see where this goes." You thank him and hug him. "Let's go inside?"

You and Bertholdt walk into the villa in which you and the other nine contestants would reside for the next few weeks.

After the introductions, you got an opportunity to speak with some of the guys in group settings and you go to observe how they interacted with each other.

You were in the middle of a conversation with Colt and Floch. Colt was telling you about his little brother, who was back in Marley. Floch rolled his eyes at the mention of the country and started going off on how Marley was the absolute worst country in the world because of some titan war many many years ago. He wasn't mad about the discrimination put upon the Eldians...he was mad about the titans. We don't even know if they were real like that. You look for Zeke and once you make eye contact, you try to signal for help. It takes him a while to make his way over but once he's near you release a sigh of relief. "Sorry, guys, but I need to pull Ms. L/N away for a moment," Zeke says apologetically. The bickering stops and both males smile at you as you walk away with Zeke. He brings you over to Reiner and Bertholdt, who seem to be deep in conversation, and immediately walks off, leaving you there to end their conversation. "I'm so sorry to interrupt but I don't think I've had an actual conversation with either of you two yet. Tell me about you...family life, whatever," you start. They immediately give their attention to you. "Well, it's really just been me and my dad. With my job as a photographer, I have a really easy schedule, so I spend a lot of time with him," Bertholdt answers. You look at Reiner to hear what he has to say. "My family life is kind of complicated. My mom and I don't get along but we talk. We just aren't close like that. I do have a niece though. I've been raising her for a while. She lost her parents a while back," Reiner replied. Your face dropped slightly and you rub his arm. "I'm so sorry to hear that Reiner," you consoled. "It's alright! She's the most amazing 12-year-old anyone can ask for."

The first night was done. To end it, the Rose Ceremony needed to begin. After conversing with the contestants you knew exactly who you wanted to go home. However, you and Zeke felt that it'd be better to present the specialty roses (the First Impression Rose and Paradis' Favorite Rose) tomorrow morning before the first set of dates.

"I have eight roses that I'll be giving out tonight. I know there's a lot of anticipation about the specialty roses but receiving a rose from tonight should be the biggest honor of all," you explain. "Colt, you are the first to receive a rose."

Colt's face lights up and he comes forward to accept his rose. Oyankopon, Porco, Reiner, Connie, Armin, Jean, and Eren follow. Floch and Bertholdt are left.

"Floch, Bertholdt, you have been eliminated. You're welcome to say your goodbyes or simply leave," Zeke announces. Floch rolls his eyes and storms out of the room. Bertholdt comes up to you, gives you a quick hug, and leaves shortly after.

"Congrats to the rest of you," you cheered. The eight remaining men clap and cheer before stopping to let you finish speaking. "Three of you will be in the first group of dates, four of you will go with the second group, and the individual who impressed me first will go on a solo date!"

here’s the next poll. the next few posts will look a little something like this and this!

until next time ;)

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kzlove · 1 year ago

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love's rage

rage ; to show or have violent uncontrollable anger

when eren witnesses too much, he physically cannot control himself.

warnings : fighting, slight bullying, dick appointment mention, carla is alive, carla and grisha are divorced, not proofread

modern au!eren jaeger x reader

eren jaeger from the football team was a big lover.

everyone understood that when he was seen walking his best friend, mikasa, to class and buying her food.

or even seeing him leave the school because connie ended up passing out while being in the street by himself.

he wasn't as open as he presented himself as, but he definitely did care about some things.

so when a random girl wearing a brown graphic tee began bringing him water when he'd forget during games, he grew a light crush.

he remembers ranting to his mother over the phone the fifth time it happened.

he was at his father's house, laying on his stomach while his mother was working.

carla listened to her boy go on and on about it, ending it off with a hush 'fuck she was just so beautiful. and godsent.'

of course, he got the cursing of his life for using that language towards his mother, but it was worth it.

his team teased him about it, and so did his friends.

even armin, who was still following annie around like a lost puppy.

the news went around almost immediately, and eren even giggled while showing his older brother, zeke.

the captain of the football team is a big lover, and is head over heels for some mysterious girl.

eren made sure to never let anyone know who it was, in case his 'fanclub' goes crazy over it.

sometimes, people think because their captain is such a big lover, the football team would follow behind in his footsteps.

wrong.

the football team was quite the opposite..

"eren did you do the bio worksheet?" mikasa groaned, finally catching up with the boy.

she rode in her uncle's car on mondays, so they didn't get to ride together.

and of course, eren always has his headphones in blaring the neighborhood or whatever song armin has in his playlist.

"nah. gonna ask min during lunch." eren said, turning to mikasa with a cheeky smile.

it wasn't the first time eren had ask armin for the homework, and definitely not the last.

but of course, with armin arlert, there's always a price behind.

and with the amount eren failed to do, he might just have to cover the next hangout's expenses.

loud bangs could be heard, making eren roll his eyes.

they were at it again.

some guys on the football team amuse themselves by taking up one of the girls in the school and making them hate their days of school.

every week, they pick another girl to pick on.

whether it be for her weight, her clothes, or her face. nothing ever mattered when it came to those guys.

eren recalls the time they tried it with mikasa.

eren didn't have to do much at the time, because her uncle promptly failed them that semester.

he still remembers what levi had said to him after that.

'if you get them suspended from five games, i'll make sure you pass my class with flying colors.'

safe to say, everyone came to eren for answers he had no clue about.

"are they ever gonna give that up?" mikasa questioned, and eren knew she was watching again.

eren minded his business, knowing that floch forester was apart of half of it.

he'd gotten into the football team because his daddy had money, and occasionally sleeps with the assistant principal.

no one wanted to get in between the ap and her dick appointments.

so when he was walking past and see a flash of brown, he paused in his steps and looked behind him.

mikasa stumbled into him, annoyed. "what the hell?" she questioned immediately.

he ignored her complaints of her make up smudging even the slightest, squinting his eyes to look at who they were bothering.

and it was her.

wearing that brownish grey shirt that was suddenly stained pink.

you looked horrified, hands up in defense as they tossed baby powder on you.

eren watched as floch laughed, another guy shoved you down, and yet another one held a pair of blue scissors.

they practically slid you across the floor in the sticky mess.

of course they wanted to do it in the empty staircase, where no one really would go.

your cries of 'stop' echoed, making mikasa frown.

before she could open her mouth and say something to eren, he was gone from her side.

he was far ahead of her, stepping in the sticky mess with his fresh converse and ripping his hoodie over his head.

immediately, eren was shoving the boy behind you down the steps, hearing a sickening crack.

eren didn't flinch, just lifting you to your feet with a frown on his face.

you immediately recognized him, who wouldn't?

"here. go to the bathroom and clean up. you can wear this after." eren said softly to you, helping you step away from the sticky mess.

he didn't give you the time of day to speak, already swinging on the boy beside him.

six.

that's how many men it took to rip eren off of floch forester.

of course, he handled everyone else before chasing floch down the hallways of the school.

the students watched it all go down, not believing eren was actually gonna hurt his teammate.

until the boy was caught.

the minute eren caught floch, he began pounding his face in something serious.

nothing about this was a joke.

nothing about this was in the slightest bit funny.

now eren was sitting in the principals office, his parents sitting on either side of their son.

after their divorce, it was rare to see them sit in a room together and agree on something.

but of course, they could agree that their son had some serious anger issues that built up over the years.

it stayed silent, carla and grisha not knowing what to say at all.

the principal walked in, a disappointed frown present on his face.

"i'm surprised to see you here today. where's your sweater mr jaeger?" the principal began, looking him up and down.

yeah, eren used to be a fighter. and he was known for removing his clothes during fights.

students even hung his gorillaz shirt over the school's message board.

"doesn't matter." eren responded, a common response.

carla swatted him immediately, giving him a stink look. 'behave' her eyes yelled.

the principal sighed, leaning back into his chair in annoyance.

"okay. then what happened." the principal asked, raising his eyebrow and holding a pen.

now this, is what eren was so totally ready to get off his chest.

he spilled everything about what these boys have been doing for the past few months.

every video created, everything he's personally witnessed, every girl he's comforted, and every rumor he heard.

some of these girls even began doing blended learning because of how embarrassed they were.

eren had given them multiple warnings as their captain, and they never listened to him.

this was their last straw, even if it meant eren had to do out of school suspension.

the principal listened and made notes, frowning while doing so.

when he finished writing, he looked up at eren with a sour expression.

"are you aware of the alter ego rule, mr. jaeger?" the principal asked, raising his eyebrow.

eren nodded, having it memorized from when mikasa forced him to take intro to law with her during their freshman year.

"when a person can only defend a third party under circumstances and only to the degree that the third party could act." eren recited, crossing his arms.

the principal nodded, slightly impressed. but eren knew exactly where this was going.

and how to come back to it.

"i'm sure that girl could not have put seven football players in the hospital." the principal frowned.

"very aware of that. that's why i did it in place of the twenty five girls they bothered." eren said, flashing him a grin.

carla could only placed her hands together and pray for her boy's future to be bright.

before eren could get into his car with his mother, he heard a voice calling out to him.

he paused, turning around and seeing mikasa and you chasing after him.

"dude! what the hell!" mikasa sighed, leaning over and catching her breath.

eren chuckled and looked over at you, who was now holding the hoodie he'd lent you earlier.

"thank you." you said, giving him the best smile that you could possibly offer after the day you had.

eren nodded, taking the hoodie from you with a smile. "no problem." eren replied, tossing it into his car.

"are you suspended?" mikasa questioned, tilting her head.

eren glanced at his mother, who had tapped her wrist with a frown.

"yeah. three weeks." eren laughed sheepishly, leaning back onto the hood of his car.

carla had nowhere to go but in her house, she'll be alright.

he noticed your expression changed from the corner of his eye, perfect lips beginning to form a pout.

immediately, he squeezed your cheeks and gave you a genuine smile.

"don't be sad. we'll meet again on better terms." eren joked, effectively making you smile back.

before his mother complained, he climbed into the car and smiled.

"give her my number miki!" eren said, pushing his head out of the car window.

carla pulled him back into the car by his hair, smiling warmly at the sight of mikasa.

she pulled off, making sure to let zeke know what his younger brother had done.

"wasn't she gorgeous?" eren dreamily sighed, leaning back into his seat with a cheesy smile.

carla glanced at him, before looking back at the road with a loud laugh.

eren immediately looked at her, ready to defend you with his life against his own mother.

"mm... my boy is in love." carla smiled to herself, turning onto the next street over.

and eren wouldn't have it any other way.

#eren jaeger #eren yeager #aot fanfiction #aot fluff #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #eren fluff #mikasa ackerman #eren jaeger x reader #eren x reader #eren aot #eren jeager

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beatricebat · 3 days ago

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12, 20, and 24 for choose violence ^^

Thank youuuu!!!

12 - The obvious answer here is Floch Forster, but I don’t know if I’d argue that more people should like him. They should examine his character more closely, for sure. I put my finger on why answering a different ask: he isn’t evil beyond comprehension, he’s evil within comprehension. There is no excuse for his actions, but there are explanations.

Too many people consider fascism to be unthinkable, and I mean literally unthinkable. Not just abhorrent (which it is) but as if the idea of anyone or anything being fascist in this day and age was as silly as saying there are dinosaurs or dodos walking around. It isn’t. Fascism is alive and well and on the rise, and it’s terrifying how many people will roll their eyes at you if you say so in front of them.

That’s why I found Floch such a knockout as a character. I’ve seen Nazis in fiction as boogeymen, and as comedic idiots. I’ve seen them be explained away as one-off psychopaths, and as people swept along by bigger forces or circumstances, almost excusing them completely.

Isayama doesn’t excuse Floch. The bigger reasons are there ((like global anti-Eldian bigotry and the plans to invade Paradis), as are the circumstances (Shiganshina), but they aren’t the whole picture by a long shot. Nor is Floch that much of a one-off psychopath. He’s very, very everyday. That’s the core of him: he’s a mediocre young man with deep flaws. He’s any young man you might know whose friends often say “He’s a great guy when you get to know him!” He’s any kid who was coddled when he should have been chastised, who was ignored when he should have been supported, who was rarely made to face consequences but never given a chance to correct his mistakes either.

It’s still not an excuse, any of it. But it is an explanation. And I wish people would understand that.

…anyway, my real answer to “the unpopular character I actually like” is both Annie and Ymir. Neither of them are particularly likeable either, but I think both of them are a lot kinder and more good hearted than they get credit for. I also think they get a disproportionate amount of hate for the bad things they do. They’re both victims of the Skyler White Effect and I love them.

20 - I did not care for the Zeke backstory episode. I can appreciate that we got the Tom Ksaver story, and a bit more of the Warrior lore, and even reiterating how history repeats itself by how similar Zeke and Reiner were, but…eh. It didn’t do all that AND also entertain me.

24 -“What was Eren supposed to do?! Let Paradis be destroyed? They had no other options!!!” UGH they were out of options because Eren and Zeke made sure there were no other options. I just hate how some people act as if Eren was merely reacting to world events, and not actively influencing them too.

#aot #snk #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #floch forster #warning: floch forster #ymir freckles #annie leonhart #choose violence game

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oxygenbefore1775 · 6 days ago

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like to think that Reiner being the silver-tongued devil he is can bullshit his way out of/into anything and the only one who sees through his flowery verbage is Jean but he just chooses to turn a blind eye on his bs because puppy love and how can you look into those amber eyes and say no (your words)

Huh? But thats not true. jean literally beat reiner up, i wouldnt call it closing an eye. in fact i dont see reiner manipulating jean at any point, the most victim of reiner silver tounge is definitely poor connie and eren. but specifically connie

Annie, berthold, porco, zeke however all saw through his lies and indulge him too. annie specifically call out on him but still follows him

Jean did however turn a blind eye on his fellow paradis comrades actions like hange, levi and even flock despite being vocally against it, he was inaction in the end

Turning a blind eye to manipulation: I want to point out jean lets himself be manipulated by floch despite knowing all the words he sprout is bullshit but maybe not because its also partly true I think this mirrors with ererei basement scene where eren isnt really good with words but reiner lets himself be kicked by eren because eren knows reiner best (in that circumstances, foil moment)

Probably side track, my point is both of them shared similar moments were they allowed themselves to be manipulated by an arguably weaker person and i find it interesting. i dont think they have a manipulated/manipulator/enabler dynamic at all

hi, hello

I see what ur saying but i think u've taken the light-hearted spoof that my post was supposed to be way too seriously

this is just one of my headcanon'ed dynamics I envision between rj — with no thought given about their potential prior manupulator-manipulatee interactions with other characters or the ererei dialogue in the basement

Reiner being silver-tongued isn’t about constantly manipulating Jean — it’s about his skill in navigating situations verbally. Jean beating him up doesn’t cancel out moments where he may choose to let things slide, even out of emotion or conflict.

nothing about it is about manipulation, but since u've brought it up:

1) yes, Connie was manipulated by Reiner into thinking he's a comrade

2) the Warriors couldn't see through Reiner's manipulations when there was no manipulation to begin with — it's more about power dynamic. Reiner doesn't manipulate his way to influence, he takes it by force. Then Zeke comes and takes it back — again, not by manipulation but thru sheer force

3) Jean wasn't manipulated by Floch. Jean isn’t "fooled." He’s conflicted. Floch’s rhetoric stirs something in him, which makes him hesitate —not the same as manipulation. Jean makes his own decisions — for crying out loud, he himself justified the genocide of continents that's why he was doing nothing until Hange changed his mind

4) Similarly, the Eren/Reiner basement scene isn’t manipulation; it’s raw guilt and self-destruction on Reiner’s part.

#reijean #jean kirstein #reiner braun

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cosmicjoke · 7 months ago

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I’ve read that in order to have empathy for others, one needs to first believe that people are inherently good. Do you think this is the case for Levi? What’s your own personal opinion on this?

I think Levi probably believes in the general goodness of people, yes. He's also seen the very worst of humanity, though, and is very aware of just how bad people can be. I don't think Levi harbors any idealistic delusions about humanity and its ability to ever be a harmonious and peaceful animal.

But I also think Levi holds empathy even for people who aren't really good, or people who have obvious negative qualities. Like, for example, Dimo Reeves, and the merchants of Trost. Levi wanted to help those people, even though all of them were actually extremely greedy and selfish. He in fact saves the lives of two of the merchants who were badmouthing him and the Survey Corps just moments before, when he pushes them out of the way of an oncoming wagon. And he goes out of his way to broker a deal with Reeves to help the entire city of Trost out of financial ruin and despair. We see this kind of stuff from Levi all the time. Like when he gives Petra's patch to that one soldier, despite the man's own, selfish actions endangering the entire unit, and causing them to have to dump the bodies of Levi's own squad. He gives this man Petra's patch, despite being insulted by him only a short time before, as well. Or the soldier in "No Regrets" that endangered Levi's own life through petty jealousy, Levi ends up saving his life, too. He saves Furlan's life, despite Furlan trying to trick him and force him into joining his gang. He forgives Erwin and chooses to keep believing in him, despite Erwin's duplicity and selfishness. He didn't even hate Kenny, in the end, despite all that he had done to him, and tried to understand why Kenny abandoned him, to see it from his point of view. He tries to help Floch and save him from being cut down by Mikasa, despite his viciousness toward Erwin. He understands the reason Mikasa is so harsh in her criticisms of him and even cruel in her accusations against him is because she loves Eren, which is why he doesn't push back against her or scold her for it. He didn't want either her or Eren to suffer for directly disobeying him in Shinganshina, either, and even threatening his life, letting them out of their holding cells early. He showed compassion for Pastor Nick, even, despite his refusal to help directly endangering lives, and even with Sannes, you could tell Levi wasn't enjoying torturing him and didn't want to take it too far, his horrified expression when Hange rips his tooth out really demonstrating this. There's a reason people call Levi the most empathetic character in the story. They aren't just talking out of their ass when they say so. Levi holds empathy even for bad people, and for people who have done bad things. He even tried to understand Zeke, but Zeke was just too far gone at that point.

So I don't think Levi's empathy hinges on his ability to believe in the goodness of people. He's seen and experienced first hand, probably more than anyone, just how rotten people can be, and he still believes their lives have value and he still wants to help them.

As for myself, I tend to have a pretty negative view of people, if I'm being honest, lol. But if someone is truly empathetic, I think they can acknowledge that people are just as capable of bad and just as prone to doing bad things as they are good, and still think they deserve compassion. Levi is exceptionally compassionate and empathetic. I think he's a better person than most.

#Levi Ackerman #attack on titan #shingkei no kyojin

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mazuwii · 2 years ago

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Would AOT men support Andrew Tate??

I'm bored so why not (unbiased headcannons, feel free to add your opinion)

Levi:

•doesn't even know how to use electronics, in fact he doesn't even know who Andrew Tate is. He overhears everyone talking about him and how outrageous or "masculine" he is. He pictures this huge scary man with millions of scars, Dutch Van Der Linde history and that.

•when he finally hears an explanation from Gabi's phone, he tries to peek over from his wheelchair. Let's just say, he was disappointed. His imagination was crushed at the sight of what seemed like a gay porn actor that talks too much.

Eren:

•At one point in his life, Eren Sasha and Connie cosplayed pitbull at a pitbull convention (cult) , what makes you think he wouldn't use the bald hats again?

•of course he thinks Andrew Tate is a dumb ass but a little bit of trolling never hurt anyone.

•No he doesn't like him but he does quote him ironically

Bertholdt:

•Bertholdt scrolls on tiktok only for gardening and gaming content, and anything that doesn't fit into those genres, he instantly clicks 'not interested', he doesn't even bother listening. At some point the amount of Andrew Tate videos on his fyp began to piss him off so bad he blocked the hashtag, and even that didn't work 💀💀💀

Reiner:

•Reiner throwing on his dad glasses and squinting at he screen, "who's this?"

"Andrew Tate,"

He listens for a few seconds, but the words just aren't wording,"Just block him babe,"

No but seriously he finds the redpill community embarrassing af, especially with the hatred they have for single mothers, since he came from one and his respect for them

Jean:

•Jean would agree with a few points, but will happily take pleasure by trolling his fans with Connie and Sasha

Connie:

•If you ever see Bottom G edits, of random bald men twerking or dancing in an odd manner, labelled "top G spotted at an orgie" that was Connie and Sasha

Armin:

•He’s a literal feminist, with receipts, try him.

Erwin:

•could not give less of a shit, his tiktok is full of those flowery 'goodmorning🌹🌸💐😘’ edits that he downloads and sends to people on WhatsApp

Zeke:

•This is tricky, on one hand he looks like the type of man that redpillers would make an edit of, on the other he looks like he'd bully them

Porco:

•I'm sorry to my Porco stans, as much as I love him he would say "free top G" and no one even knows if he's being serious or not- like if you made fun of him, he’d laugh with you, so maybe not idk

Miche:

•He thinks they're pathetic little boys

Floch:

•Very proud of his mysoginistic beliefs, would defend Andrew to his death , and unlike Porco, very much goes on protests to "free Top G"

#reiner braun #reiner #aot warriors #zeke #levi ackerman #erwin #pieck #aot veterans #reiner x reader #floch #eren #Levi #Bertholdt #porco #armin #Miche #jean kirstein

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annalyticall · 1 year ago

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Thoughts on Attack on Titan

Me being 10 years late to things, I was recently convinced to watch Attack on Titan and I ended up binge-watching the entire anime (and reading the final manga chapters) these last two weeks. I had purposefully been dragging my feet about watching this show since I had heard so much controversy surrounding it; that it was sexist, pro-fascist, pro-nazi, pro-imperialist, pro-propaganda, and heavily anti-Semitic. All pretty good reasons to stay away from something, I think.

But then I saw a video about how the criticisms leveraged against it were not quite so black-and-white, and how the show was more complex than those labels gave it credit for. Admittedly, that piqued my interest. I want to come to my own conclusions about the media I consume, so I decided to watch it with an open mind and a discerning eye.

And boy did I discern... a lot.

I am recording my very very lengthy opinions about Attack on Titan and its manga ending under the cut, mostly so that if anyone asks how I feel about certain things portrayed in the show, I can reference them to this post. Here's a quick table of contents:

The Themes

The Good

The Bad

The Problems

The Characters

Conclusion (and why Jean is the best character you can't change my mind)

Anime and Manga spoilers ahead.

The Themes

Attack on Titan tackles a lot of different themes throughout the course of the story. Possibly too many. Right now, I'm listing the big ones I noticed here because I will be referencing back to them later. Also note I am stating these themes as they are presented in the text, not as my own personal beliefs.

The human desire to create meaning in life and death. Does dying for a cause give life meaning? If the cause is hopeless, would dying for that cause be in vain? Is it enough to know that the living will continue your legacy after death? Does honoring the dead give their life meaning? Is the gift of life itself meaningless if not used to ensure humanity's ongoing survival? Is it enough to simply exist? Characters that most embody this theme: Zeke, Eren, Armin, Jean, Levi, Hange, Erwin, Historia, Ymir (of the Cadets), Marlow.

Everyone is shackled to a dream. Does the desire to fulfill a dream make you a slave to it? Will devoting your life to a dream of freedom make you paradoxically a slave to the very ideal? Will the hope of achieving a dream drive people to do terrible things they never would have otherwise? Is true freedom in the ability to let go of a long-held dream? Characters that most embody this theme: Erwin, Eren, Levi, Kenny, Armin, Jean.

The corrupting power of love and loyalty. Similar to an enslaving dream, will blind devotion to someone (in a romantic, platonic, subordinate, or familial relationship) drive that person to do terrible things just to be with them or make them happy? How far can that love go? Is blind devotion even love? Is it wise to love if it creates fatal weakness? Characters that most embody this theme: Mikasa, Armin, Eren, Zeke, Annie, Reiner, Falco, Historia, Ymir (of the Cadets), Ymir (The Founder).

The cycle of violence is endless. As long as more than one person is alive on Earth, there will always be conflict. Is it worth fighting to break the cycle when the cycle is inevitable? Is it necessary to perpetuate the cycle in order to survive in a world that forces violence? Is humanity worthy of saving if saving it demands the loss of one's own humanity? Characters that most embody this theme: Erwin, Eren, Armin, Reiner, Jean, Floch, Hange, Levi.

The pursuit of truth and wonder are the driving forces behind humanity's ability to work together. Propaganda and the obstruction of truth might work to pacify the populace short-term but will always be defeated once people put in the effort to truly understand others and the world they live in. The promise of discovery and truth are invaluable sources of hope and ingenuity. Characters that most embody this theme: Hange, Armin, Erwin.

People are people. Everyone is capable of great evil or great kindness, regardless of what nation, class, or race they were born into. Everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses. Everyone is influenced by their own hopes and dreams. The recognition of these innate similarities is crucial for forgiveness and acceptance across boundaries. Characters that most embody this theme: Reiner, Jean, Eren, Armin, Sasha, Gabi, Falco.

There is no accurate measure of good and evil. Being a "good person" is subjective, based more on personal goals and cultural ideals than on a base standard for "good." When faced with a difficult decision, perhaps it is best to choose whatever option will cause the least regret, a measure that is unique to everyone depending on an individual's values and on unknown outcomes. Live a life you can be proud of. Characters that most embody this theme: Armin, Annie, Levi, Jean, Eren, Reiner, Gabi, Ymir (of the Cadets), Historia

As you might have noticed, I chose to summarize many of these themes in a list of questions, and for good reason: oftentimes, the theme is raising a question but is almost never interested in giving it a straightforward answer. Instead, AOT will often raise a question, and over the course of the story, you get to come to your own conclusions depending on how the characters act. For example, I listed Jean as a character that embodies "meaning in life and death." Does Jean give Marco's death meaning by honoring his memory and values each time he's faced with a moral dilemma? That's up for the audience (and Jean) to decide.

Compared to other shonen that tackles similar themes and questions, this freedom of interpretation was novel for me, and for the most part, I loved it. Fullmetal Alchemist is the only other shonen I can think of that I've seen that touches on similar subject matter, but the tone of FMA is not nearly as dark, bleak, or ambiguous. While I also love FMA, the world of AOT is much more harrowing to navigate, and I found it exhilarating to have my preconceptions of its world challenged at every turn. Such a thematic approach felt grounded since real life is also not so easy to navigate. Unfortunately, this also has a glaring downside, which I will discuss in my "The Problems" section.

The Good

The first 3 seasons and almost everything that entails. To be quite honest I have very little to criticize about this show before the basement reveal. The pacing is almost perfect and I was always on the edge of my seat wanting to know more. The mysteries are intriguing and, upon slowly getting more and more answers, the narrative either only raised more tantalizing questions or completely recontextualized previous scenes, constantly giving the show new breath. The action is exciting, the stakes are heart-poundingly high, the losses are devastating, and the gore is graphic and stomach-churning but I think it necessary to absorb the horrifying and hopeless nature of the setting, which serves to heighten the few victories the characters actually do get to experience. There also isn't much of The Problems yet in these seasons.

The music. The soundtrack is undoubtedly one of the best aspects of this show and is quality throughout.

Animation. While I prefer the fluid and expressive animation of the first three seasons compared to MAPPA's comparatively stiffer animation of the final season, MAPPA still gave plenty of jaw-dropping sequences for the most impactful moments.

A tragic, queer, CANON romance. The fact that Ymir is canonically lesbian is amazing to me if only because I haven't watched a shonen yet where one of the main cast is actually lesbian, let alone has a significant portion of screen time devoted to establishing her unambiguous feelings for another woman who also reciprocates her feelings. AND THEN their romance ends tragically in-universe not because it's gay but because of narrative circumstances that were simply beyond their control or understanding. "My only regret is not marrying you." How romantic is that?

Female character design. Specifically all the big noses. As a big-nose-haver it makes me happy to see women have big noses and still being seen as pretty. That, paired with the fact that women are hardly ever sexualized and are often portrayed just as strong if not stronger than the men was nice to see after being exposed to so many infantilizing and sexualizing shonen tropes. That said, there could have been more diversity in body shape and skin tone.

The setting (of Paradis). I am going to stress here that I strictly like the world-building of Paradis, which is the main setting of the first three seasons. Marley and the rest of the world after Season 3? I'll get into that later.

Erwin vs. Armin. I consider Levi's decision to save Armin over Erwin to be the true thematic climax of this story, and I thought it was exceptionally well done. I've seen endless arguments about whether or not saving Armin was the right choice, so I'll throw in my two cents: if you think Levi should have saved Erwin, you are Missing The Point. In this moment, Levi, a character who fights for the greater good but is not quite as pragmatic as Erwin and who has a deep hope for humanity's future but is not quite as idealistic as Armin must make an emotional choice here, not a tactical one. Maybe saving Erwin might have been better for the Scouts, but the truth is Erwin was selfish, and Levi had already come to terms with this when he told his old commander to "give up on your dream and charge to your death." Armin, on the other hand, had a pure and selfless dream about the world outside the walls, and that is what Levi decided to value for humanity's future. That is the symbolic meaning of that decision, not whether or not Erwin would have been a tactically better commander.

It is enough to simply exist. Manga spoilers for the final chapters ahead. I said this was a question raised by one of the main themes of the story, "Is it enough to simply exist?", and I was pleasantly surprised that the ending gave it an answer through the conversation Armin has with Zeke. After so much deliberation about genocide, sterilization, war, the inherent and unbreakable cycle of violence, and so many other depressing themes surrounding the depraved nature of humanity, having the main takeaway for the series be "we were put on this Earth simply to enjoy it and to enjoy each other" was a cathartic release. I know I'm probably going to cry when that bit is animated.

The Bad

The frustrating thing that is Eren Yeager. I suppose this is biased but I really do not gel with Eren. Even in his Season 1-3 era I did not like him and his one-track angry boy mind, only ever finding him tolerable during the Uprising arc when he got a healthy dose of humility which he immediately ruined with his pitiful self-flagellation in the midst of a dire titan battle but I digress. This characterization does make a whole lot more sense though when he enters Season 4, when all of his personality traits are only slightly twisted in order to make him the villain, ala Walter White. Didn't make him any less frustrating.

The frustrating thing that is Mikasa Ackerman. She started out great. Then Eren turned into a titan for the first time and things quickly went downhill. After that, it seems like her character was retroactively changed from being the stoic and protective older sister to being the blindingly devoted and fussy love interest. I might have been okay with it if she had ANY other defining character traits, or hell, even any relationships outside of Eren and Armin. Manga spoilers, but she doesn't even have a strong relationship with Jean, who she apparently marries in the epilogue. Between Eren and Mikasa being two of the three main characters, I unfortunately felt very little towards them which was a not-so-small problem in my enjoyment of the series.

The humor is... fine. I get it, a show as dark as Attack on Titan probably shouldn't try to be funny, nor would I expect it to be. Still, the few attempts at humor it did have fell flat for me, especially when a lot of it leaned on Sasha's potato and meat gags (and a really uncomfortable torture gag after the Uprising Arc? Hey, what was that about? That was kinda fucked up, right?) Now that I think about it, the hardest I ever laughed while watching this show was when Reiner nonchalantly tells Eren that he and Bertolt are the Armor and Colossal Titans simply because I wasn't expecting the biggest bombshell reveal of the story thus far to be so casually dropped like that.

The Titan mechanics got so fucking convoluted. Don't get me wrong I love a good mystery and I don't necessarily mind the supernatural time-warping twists that the Titan storyline took up to a point. It's just that the story kept adding so many conditions to Titan powers and lore that it was getting hard to keep track of it all. Okay, so the Colossal Titan will create an unavoidable nuke during transformation even though it clearly didn't do that at the raid on Trost, sure. Okay, so Reiner can survive a fatal injury to his person as long as he manages to transfer his consciousness to the Titan body first, sure. Okay, so Eren can't awaken the Founding Titan's ability unless he's in contact with someone of royal blood, sure. Okay, so the Founding Titan's abilities can alter the biology of all Eldians, and also control all Titans, and also deactivate all Titan hardening, and also impose the will of the king onto all its future royal successors, but it's somehow NOT the Titan with the power to see the future? Sure? Okay, so Falco inherited the Jaw Titan, but because he was originally turned with Zeke's spinal fluid, he ALSO inherited aspects of the Beast Titan even though Zeke is still the Beast Titan and it's never been established that the spinal fluid used for the original Titan transformation affected the inheritance of Titan shifter abilities? Why not, at this point.

Uprising Arc and its overly simplistic military coup. I didn't dislike the arc as a whole, but it was a very lengthy detour from the main objectives the series was already on track for and added to the repetition of Eren getting kidnapped. Additionally, I thought the coup to overthrow the old government was too... easy? It was really only made up of two setups: one to expose the corruption of some random military police guy to the press and turn public opinion in favor of the Scouts, and one to expose the government's selfishness to the military commanders enough to convince them to depose their current leaders and pardon the Scouts. Then the Scouts essentially say "Hey Historia here just killed a Titan and has royal blood (trust us) so she's going to be the queen now. Please ignore the fact she is also a Scout and therefore could easily be a puppet queen for the military branch that was until very recently public enemy number one" and everyone just kinda accepts this. I don't know, it didn't do much to sell me on realism in a world that had done so up until that point.

Wow, the stakes are getting pretty high, I wonder if... WAIT, 80%?! That was kind of my reaction to the whole manga finale. I don't mind high stakes, but when we're talking about the horrific genocide of 80% of humanity at the hands of our main character, uh, that scale is a little hard to grasp. This also feeds into The Problems, which I'll get into later, but all in all, I think after a certain point the story just got too big for me to stay believably invested in what was actually happening.

Endgame plot thread irrelevance (especially for the female characters). Why did Historia get a whole story arc just to be sidelined and pregnant for the whole rest of the story? What happened to Yelena? What happened to Mikasa's relationship with the Azumabito clan? What's the deal with Ymir? So many things were rushed at the end that it was disappointing to see so much setup for very little payoff. Unfortunately, the female characters seemed to get the brunt of this.

The Problems

Okay, so this section is basically why I made this post to begin with. I want to address all of the criticisms I've seen for Attack on Titan and give my honest opinion on them because, yes, I do think it's more complex than I've seen people give it credit for, but neither is it free of harmful interpretations either.

On the topic of being Pro-Imperialist, Pro-Nazi, Pro-Facsist, and Pro-Propaganda: Attack on Titan is positioned against all these things. Just because a media depicts something doesn't mean it's condoning or endorsing it. Imperialism, fascism, and propaganda are all present in the story but are very often forces that the main characters must fight against. It might not go as far as to say "military bad" but it definitely says "war bad, genocide bad, euthanasia bad, blind devotion to one's country bad" and a whole host of other issues that it does not depict in a favorable light. Now, the viewpoints of the mangaka might be in question, and I can't say much about the way he supposedly views Imperialist Japan. I'm just saying, in the context of the show, I don't see an unquestioning approval of imperialism being portrayed here.

On the topic of Sexism: eh, maybe. It feels weird to be so nonchalant about that but to be honest, it's not prevalent enough to stand out compared to other shonen. Female characters might not always see fully fleshed-out arcs, but neither are they handled in a way I would deem sexist other than the very strange exception of Mikasa's one-sided obsession with Eren somehow mirroring the "love" a child bride sex slave had for her abuser 2000 years ago. That said, strong characters like Annie, Ymir (of the Cadets), and Gabi manage to have fairly compelling motivations and growth while also being love interests. There's really no fan service to speak of, and some of them even get to be gay. So, you know, I'll take it.

On the topic of Anti-Semitism (Disclaimer: I am not Jewish): yeahhhhhhh... so, up until the end of Season 3, I was confused about this claim. I mean, there were Titans, mindless man-eating monsters that could resemble the blood libel spread about Jewish people, but I thought it was a bit of a stretch. Besides, while the walled city is evidently based on 19th-century Germany, there isn't really a divide between the people who live there and the people who can turn into Titans; given the right conditions, any human character in the show could potentially turn into a Titan, so I didn't see the problem. If anything, I thought it was just a modified take on the zombie apocalypse genre.

Then the basement reveal happened, where it's revealed the walled city we had been following the last 3 seasons wasn't actually the last bastion of humanity as both the audience and the cast once believed; it is actually an island where distinct people called Eldians fled to escape the persecution they faced for their unique ability to turn into Titans. Turns out the rest of the world is populated by many diverse cultures who all hate the Eldians for their ancient Titan-enabled crimes against humanity. The Eldians who aren't trapped on the island of Paradis live in the gated ghettos of the Nazi-Germany-coded nation of Marley and are forced to wear star-embroidered armbands to denote their subhuman status.

Okay. Yikes, I thought. But I still gave it a chance, because as I mentioned before, just because something is depicted in media doesn't mean it's being supported or condoned. I was hoping that, at some point, the claim that Eldians committed atrocities with the Titans or the claim that only Eldians can turn into Titans would be proven wrong. Neither of these hopes came to fruition. It's revealed that Eldians did a lot of good with their Titan powers, true, but they also waged endless warfare in the name of a King that enslaved them. So, while they weren't really to blame, they certainly did commit the crimes that earned the world's ire.

This is a problem. If the imagery of the armbands and the WW2 ghettos were never involved, perhaps I could give the story the benefit of the doubt and see the Eldians as a fictional race created for the purpose of illustrating the cycle of violence and the need to relate to each other as humans first. But the problem is, they are very explicitly compared to Jewish people, thus insinuating, whether intentionally or not, that Jewish people do have these monstrous qualities and did commit crimes that earned them the oppression they continue to face when in reality, they did nothing to deserve it.

As an additional "yikes," there's also the questionable existence of the Tyber family, the only Eldian family in Marley allowed to have wealth and political influence. It's revealed that the Tybers have essentially been pulling Marley's strings the whole time, which... wow, really doesn't do much for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that Jewish people are actually in control of everything, huh. Thankfully, the Tyber storyline is short-lived, but then there's the Yeagerists, a fascist Eldian party that wants to counter-genocide the entire world before it can genocide Eldians. Triple yikes. Let's throw in Zeke's plan for forced sterilization against his own people for a solid quadruple yikes.

However, there are also important distinctions to make between Eldians and Jewish people that are in the story's favor. While the Eldian people of Marley are mistreated and considered subhuman, Marley still puts in the effort to brainwash them into thinking they are the "good" Eldians in order to earn their unconditional loyalty and turn them into frontline soldiers in their war to conquer other nations and the island of Paradis, something that doesn't really mirror Nazi Germany and gives us a reason to sympathize with the Eldians who were once the "bad guys" of Season 1-3. There's also the fact that 95% of the show's main cast IS Eldian, and up until the basement reveal we've only known them as human. Everything until that point has essentially served to make us identify with Eldians more than anyone else. While the rest of the world may dehumanize them, we the audience react negatively to any mention of them being less than human because we've only ever seen them fight to survive in a world where they thought they were humanity's last hope. We want to see them make it out of this alive.

And here's where my internal conflict with the show lies; it would be so much better if it cut out the WW2 imagery. Sure, there would still be plenty of subtext that could lead people to compare Eldians to Jewish people, but it wouldn't be so distractingly obvious and spur additional real-world comparisons where there aren't any. The sudden jump to 20th-century Germany is also somewhat jarring and I wouldn't have minded if Marley was based more on just another nation of the same era rather than a 100-year jump forward of the same setting (though it does make in-universe sense, what with Paradis being 100 years behind technologically but I digress). Basically, I think a LOT of the story's problems with probably-unintentional-but-still-present anti-semitism could have been avoided if the war and race allegories weren't given the same tact and grace as a David Cage game.

But now that brings me to what I think is Attack on Titan's fatal flaw: thematic ambiguity. "But Anna," you may say, "you said the freedom of interpretation is what you loved about its themes." You're right, I did say that. I still do. But ambiguity is a double-edged sword: it gives the audience freedom to derive unique meaning from the text and connect with it in deep, personal ways, but on the other hand, if a theme is too ambiguous, the author runs the risk of either telling a meaningless story or telling a story that conveys an unintended meaning. I think an author must have SOME intention with a theme if it is to be included, and must provide some sort of guide (usually with a character or two) to point the audience in the right direction. I'll give an example of what I mean for both instances in Attack on Titan.

For an example of a well-executed ambiguous theme, I'll turn to the question "Is humanity worthy of saving if saving it demands the loss of one's own humanity?" that I listed under the "cycle of violence" umbrella. Specifically, this question is raised after the Battle of Stonhess, where Erwin allows a Titan battle to rage in the middle of a populated area for the slim chance he could capture Annie alive and extract information from her. This decision cost hundreds of innocent lives, and worse of all, Annie was of little use to him. Erwin stands behind his decision for the greater good and Armin rationalizes the battle as a net gain, but Jean presents Armin with a counterargument: "If it's that easy to let the fight turn us all into monsters, maybe we don't deserve to win." Still, we aren't given an outright answer to who's right and who's wrong here. Instead, the guide we are given is in the way ideologically-opposed characters like Erwin and Jean are treated by the story: Jean maintains his humanity, minimizes civilian casualties whenever possible, and in the end, is left with few regrets. Erwin, on the other hand, feels the weight of all the lives he callously sacrificed in the name of a "greater good," which we learn was perhaps more selfish than he let on. Upon resigning himself to death, he laments all the innocents who died at his command. It is through these characters that we learn who, ultimately, was in the right, and what that theme is trying to tell us (also coincidentally applying to the theme "live a life you can be proud of.")

For an example of a poorly-executed ambiguous theme, I'll turn to the question "Is it necessary to perpetuate the cycle of violence in order to survive in a world that forces violence?" that I also listed under the "cycle of violence" umbrella. This question is perhaps no more apparent than when the main characters are faced with the terrific power of the Rumbling, basically a Titan-powered WMD Eren uses to preemptively wipe out humanity before it can inevitably attack Paradis. While many characters deliberate the ethics of this, there are two characters who have starkly different viewpoints: we have Floch, a Yeagerist who is in full-hearted support of the attack and is uninterested in saving human lives if they are not Paradis Eldians, and we have Hange, who despite being a Paradis Eldian beats an impassioned fist against a table and delivers the rather on-the-nose line "Genocide is wrong!"

So who's right? Well, anyone with any sort of media literary sense will say "Hange, obviously." Because Hange is portrayed as a good person (usually) and Floch is portrayed as a villain (usually). The problem is both these characters fight valiantly in the name of their cause and incidentally die in the same scene while imparting their wishes to the heroes for how they want the world to be. Anyone watching who harbors even a fraction of Floch's nationalism might see that and say, "Floch was in the right. He righteously died for his country and he almost won against an impossible enemy." There's also the problem that Hange does not give an alternative answer to the Rumbling and even admits they don't have one, they just know the Rumbling is wrong, which doesn't do anything to add to the theme in question. Unfortunately, the Rumbling is presented as the only reliable line of self-defense for Paradis, as it's already established that diplomacy has almost no chance of working and that the only other plan is, of all things, sterilizing the Eldian people to appease the world that wants them dead with as little bloodshed as possible. What would have been the only other recourse, the order of a partial Rumbling to wipe out the world's military bases, is immediately taken off the table when it's revealed Eren never had any intention of doing that. Therefore, the story doesn't give us any answer to this question at all, since the characters never get to find an alternate solution for themselves and are forced to simply stop the Rumbling before it can kill too many people despite the risk of dying in the process or play along with Eren's predetermined plan. For a story so bent on saying "genocide is wrong" it does a weirdly good job of presenting it as a survival tactic.

Now, I wouldn't normally have that much of a problem if a story fumbled a theme or two. Not everything has to land perfectly. That said, Attack on Titan NEEDED to deliver these themes clearer than it did, because of one major reason: it was dealing with questions involving fascism, genocide, war, and eugenics. You should not casually raise these issues as a backdrop to a theme that can't be delivered on, because then you run the risk of attracting people who very much are pro-fascist, pro-genocide, pro-war, and pro-eugenics and will blatantly misinterpret everything in the text in order to warp it and fit their worldview (a risk I think FMA managed to avoid by being very blunt with where it stood on those same issues). On the flip side, you'll also repel people who otherwise might have loved the story because at some point they heard someone say "Oh yeah Attack on Titan is awesome, the Yeagerists are cool and I agree with the main character's plan for genocide," and rightfully be put off from that. Then they'll turn around and tell the next person, "Hey, don't watch that, I heard it's pro-fascist and pro-genocide," and that person will go "Oh thanks I didn't know that, I'll stay away from it," and that person will be me for the last ten years.

The Characters

Eren and Mikasa: I'm lumping these two together because I already talked about them at length, but I will say, for being the two main characters on which the finale hinged, I think they were both too simplistic to fully deliver on any of the complex themes they represented. Hell, when listing all the themes each character embodied, I only listed Mikasa under one of them, which is not great for a deuteragonist. Not only that, but Mikasa didn't even really deliver on her one theme: she broke the Titan curse by "letting go of her enslaving love for Eren," but did she really? She kissed and then absconded with his decapitated head to give him a proper burial, then returned each year to his grave with Jean and her family (who remained faceless) to leave a flower behind for him. I get it, he was important to her as a childhood friend and that alone means she should try to remember him despite the monster he turned into, but the framing of this suggests she never really let go of him and was shackled to his memory even as she tried to move on.

Armin: The thing about Armin is that while I ultimately think he's the heart of the story and the main driving force for good (as evidenced by the fact he's the only character I listed under ALL the themes I mentioned earlier), he also reads more like a symbol than a character. That's fine, a character doesn't need to go through an arc to be good, but for me, personally, a character in this kind of setting needs some form of growth for me to form an attachment to them. I'm not just talking about how Armin steadily grows okay with murder because that still doesn't do much to change his rosy outlook on life. The most excited I ever got about Armin's development was when he manipulated Bertholdt into thinking Annie was being tortured because holy shit that's kinda dark for Armin and I thought maybe his strategic mindset was going to start getting the better of his morals, but then that's never really touched on again. It's because I was never quite sure what the rhyme or reason was behind his actions that I found myself disconnected from him as a character, despite being inspired by him as a symbol.

Jean: My favorite character and a sorely underrated one at that. Won't say anything more about him here because I'm dedicating it to the Conclusion.

Levi: Second favorite character. Back when Attack on Titan's popularity was at its peak, I would see Levi on my dash all the time and I would roll my eyes thinking he was just another brooding anime bad boy the girls were fawning over. But I get it now. Yeah, he can brood, and yeah, he can be a bad boy as an ex-criminal who is no stranger to violence, but most of all he's compassionate. He cares deeply about the lives of his comrades and almost never values the "greater good" when decisions are left up to him. Granted, I think he becomes a little one-note after the Erwin vs Armin choice when he resolves that his only motivation from now on will be killing Zeke, but you know, after everything Zeke put him through, I think he earned it.

Hange: Third favorite character. They injected much-needed energy and sincerity into the story right from the start, and they only became more complex as the story went on and circumstances forced more and more responsibility onto them. I'm also glad that, while they are a good and moral character, they also don't mull over hard decisions that a veteran soldier probably wouldn't mull over. If worse comes to worst, they know they may have to resort to torture or violence to protect their comrades and the pursuit of truth. Still, they almost never push this any further than necessary, unlike Erwin before them.

Reiner: Fourth favorite character. I had basically no opinion on Reiner until Season 2 when he pushed Connie out of the way of a Titan's mouth and I thought "he's kinda cool." And then so so so much happens after that. I almost never knew how to feel about him. Is he the bad guy? He's killed so many people, he has to be. But then, why do I still like him? Why do I feel so bad for him? Season 4 only added to those mixed feelings, showing him to be suicidal and suffering from PTSD after all the violence he inflicted when he was just a child soldier. I think most of the themes about "people are people" is best illustrated in Reiner, and how he is able to overcome the pain of life through his dedication to the next generation and to the former friends he had hurt in the past.

Ymir (of the Cadets): Fifth favorite character. Like Reiner, I didn't really have any opinion on her until Season 2. While her contribution to the story is brief, it did a whole lot. Her backstory is technically our first introduction to a world outside the walls which also introduced a whole new mystery. Also, her love for Historia was probably the most genuine example of romantic love I can point to in the entire story, and the most emotionally touching one at that. She's also the one who introduces the theme "live a life you can be proud of" verbatim, which proves to be important for everyone.

Sasha and Connie: Truth is, I don't really have any favorites after Ymir, and how I feel about everyone else is some variation on neutral (except Floch). As for Sasha and Connie, I'm throwing them in the same bucket of "likable-enough comic-relief characters that have some semblance of a character arc but not nearly enough to justify their screentime." People might hate me for this, but I actually think Sasha contributed more to the narrative when she was dead than she did when she was alive. That doesn't mean I wasn't sad when she died, though.

Erwin: People might hate me for this too, but I think Erwin is overrated. I think many dudebro fans see him as the peak representation of heroic masculinity, as an unflinching and at times ruthless commander who takes charge and shows no weakness. That is not true. It's revealed Erwin does have a weakness, a selfish drive to redeem his father's suspicions about the outside world, a drive that makes him fear his own premature death, in the end. True, that drive has paved the way for the Scouts to clear impossible hurdles but also has it led to many senseless and brutal deaths that the story does not intend to justify. Erwin is flawed, incredibly so, and I wish more people could see that.

Historia: I had no opinion of her in Seasons 1-2, even during the love story she had with Ymir. It wasn't until the Uprising arc that she grew on me, as she started to mature beyond her "Disney princess" persona that had previously seemed so out of place in a story like this. That said, after she got pregnant in Season 4, I was disappointed to see that there wasn't much of a point to her character anymore despite being the literal queen.

Annie: I wanted to like Annie. I wanted so badly to like Annie. That's really only for aesthetic reasons because when the show was at its peak I saw her on my dash and fell in love with her as a fellow short blonde girl with a big nose and a name that starts with Ann. After getting to know her character... well, I don't dislike her. I think she served her role in the story well enough. She's just fairly simple once you learn her motivation, and she's hard to get attached to if you don't like emotionally-constipated characters.

Bertholdt: Oh, Berry. Unfortunately, every feeling I could have had for him I already felt 5x more for Reiner, so Berry became rather redundant. Also, his constant stare unnerved me. I did feel bad when he died though. RIP Berry.

Marlow: He didn't have a huge part in the story, but I think he was significant if only for one moment: the second before his death when he thinks of Hitch. Here we are given an everyman who wanted to rise to his calling and dedicate himself to the greater good, who was so driven by ideals and politics that he bravely gave his life for the cause he believed was right, but just before he meets his end, it's revealed to him that what he really wanted was a life with the girl he only just realized he loved. I think that one moment tragically encapsulated the main message of the story; we are here simply to enjoy life and enjoy each other.

Gabi: Again, people might hate me for this, but I liked Gabi. I think she did a good job of being a mirror of what Eren could have been had he been born in Marley, and/or if he had learned to sympathize enough with the enemy to have given up on his revenge plan. She went through a lot of horrors to get the growth she did, and I don't really understand the vitriol some fans have for her, even considering the fact she killed Sasha since killing Sasha and then learning that doing that was a bad thing through the kindness of Sasha's family was kind of the point. Also, as if Eren wouldn't have done the same thing in her shoes. She's a brainwashed child soldier, come on.

Falco: It was a breath of fresh air to have, like, one genuinely nice good kid for once. He's a necessary addition to Gabi's arc I think, since he's the one that keeps her grounded and helps her realize that the Paradis Eldians are not evil. His Jaw/Beast Titan powers are OP though.

Zeke: Hated him throughout all of Season 3 besides only knowing him as the Beast Titan. Season 4 rolled around and I did start to sympathize with him given his upbringing and the way his brother Eren used him after thinking he finally had a family he could be close with. I still didn't feel all that bad when bad things happened to him though, given the things he's willing to do to impose a sterilization "solution" to his own people.

Pieck: Getting into "they're fine but don't add much to the story" territory here. She's smart and has a sleepy-girl charm about her, I guess. She also has that one cool moment where she points to Eren as the enemy, but as far as her relationship with the main characters goes, she basically has none, which makes it hard for me to get invested in her.

Onyankopon, Yelena, Magath, and Kiyomi: Lumping all these characters together as the notable non-Eldians with their own agendas. I had no strong opinion on any of them. Onyankopon was cool, but I thought Magath changed his stance on Paradis too easily in the end, and Yelena and Kiyomi barely contributed anything that couldn't have been done by some other character. Their true purpose was really just to establish that there were different cultures outside of Paradis.

Floch: Saved the best for last. And by best, I mean worst. He's the anti-Jean, if you will; the everyman who, when faced with dire circumstances, turns to brutality and strength rather than humanity and compassion. It's fitting, I think, that he's the one who not only advocates saving Erwin, Jean's ideological opposite ("We need a devil!") but he's also the one who tempts Jean into a character regression since he's a representation of what Jean could have become if he stayed what he was like early Season 1. Other than that, he's a cupcake-head fascist whose dumb face I got tired of looking at even before he become a fascist. I just fucking hate Floch, man.

Every other character I either don't have anything much to say about, like Grisha, Shaddis, Pixis, Rod Reiss, and Hitch, or they died too early for me to say much about, like Porco, Petra, and Marco (although I did love Marco and I was incredibly sad when he died).

Conclusion (and why Jean is the best character you can't change my mind)

So, to take my thesis-length thoughts and distill them into one coherent sentence, my overall feeling on Attack on Titan is this: it's a well-paced, well-constructed story that is consistently engaging and thought-provoking about real-world issues, but is ultimately held back by its final act where the scale and allegory become too big and clunky for the story to properly handle. Many things that were so well set up in the previous three seasons sadly unravel at the finish line. That said, that doesn't mean there is no meaningful or worthwhile conclusion to be had in Attack on Titan; I think it still had a stronger finish than, say, HBO's Game of Thrones. I connected with it in a deep way that I haven't connected to any other piece of media lately besides maybe when I played Dragon Age last year, another story that raised thought-provoking themes about real-world issues but with admittedly clunky allegory. Most notably, though, I think my enjoyment of Attack on Titan was highly dependent on one character in particular, a character who acted as a reliable anchor point to come back to whenever the bigger ideas got away from the story.

Here's where Jean comes in. While Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are essentially mouthpieces and figureheads for the much-too-big themes they represent and are somewhat washed out as characters because of it, Jean delivers on all his themes perfectly while maintaining his believability as a character. In this world, he is basically just some guy; despite being talented, he's not as driven as Eren, he's not as strong as Mikasa, and he's not as idealistic as Armin. Jean himself recognizes all these things, but he also recognizes how their strengths also come with weaknesses that he can make up for. He sees Eren as cool but also suicidally reckless, he sees Mikasa as capable but also overly-dependent, he sees Armin as brilliant but also in need of a backbone. He then steps up to fill those deficiencies; to answer Eren's recklessness, he does everything he can to preserve his own life so that he can continue to serve others; to answer Mikasa's dependency on Eren, he makes his own decisions and creates strategies to get everyone out of trouble, not just Eren; to answer Armin's cowardice, he steps up and relays Armin's genius plans but with a stronger sense of leadership and authority.

But he wasn't always like this, and that's the most important part; Jean started as a selfish, cowardly, and entitled asshole. Floch says this outright. The only thing early Season 1 Jean cared about was securing his place in the top 10 and choosing a position among the Miltary Police where he could live the rest of his life in peace and luxury, the rest of the cadets be damned. I think this is a pitfall a lot of people in the real world can fall into: in a highly competitive and individualistic society, people have little incentive not to step on others in order to achieve a better life for themselves, and this is the very pitfall Jean nearly falls into. It's a relatable flaw, as little as people might want to admit it.

Yet, among all of Jean's negative pre-Trost qualities, he has two that can be seen as positive: his keen perception and his blunt honesty. Marco tells him as much. After the first battle in Trost, Jean, despite his reluctance to take up responsibility, sees opportunities to get his fellow cadets to safety and uses his insight into their strengths and weaknesses to guide as many of them as he can since he's the only one at the time who can take up leadership. Afterward, Marco tells him he makes a good leader not because he's strong, but because he knows what it means to be weak. He is able to lead because he doesn't delude himself with false hopes or illusions of grandeur; he knows exactly what is at stake and what hurdles everyone needs to overcome in order to have a chance at both winning and surviving. Jean is humbled and inspired by this, realizing that he would better serve in a field where he could potentially save lives instead of wasting his talents in the Military Police where he would have nothing to apply himself for.

But his real call to action is Marco's death. After losing his one true friend, Jean resolves to give up his dream of the Military Police and dedicate himself to the Scouts, where he can live up to the potential Marco always saw in him. If we are to take the theme of "true freedom is the ability to give up a long-held dream" to heart, then Jean is actually one of the first characters to achieve true freedom in this story. That doesn't mean it was easy. Freedom comes with the burden of responsibility, and his decision to join the Scouts isn't framed as triumphant or inspiring but instead as terrifying and traumatic. But that's another aspect of real life I think is captured by Jean's character: the decision to become a better person is not always easy, and it often requires a continual and conscious effort to push comfort zones, overcome bad habits, and step into the terrifying unknown, but you still have to do it.

While Jean does change for the better because of this decision (a change even his fellow cadets take notice of), his battle to grow as a person is never over. When faced with life-or-death situations as a Scout, he overcomes his cowardice to leap into action and save others whenever he knows he can. When faced with the selfishness of the Military Police, he is reassured by the knowledge that his decision not to join them saved him from that ignorant mindset. When faced with the consequences of "the greater good," he questions what it means for humanity if serving a grand purpose means they should turn a blind eye to the innocent. When faced with the prospect of having to kill other humans, he grapples with the morality of murder and what it means if he can't pull the trigger to save his friends. When faced with the crowning of Historia, he voices his concern against authority that they're forcing her into another role after she had just fought to reclaim her own identity from her father. When faced with the temptation to regress, ignore genocide, and settle for the easy life he always wanted in his youth, he resists the urge to fall back onto his dream and continues fighting even when it's the hardest thing he could ever do. When faced with the revelation that Reiner killed his friend Marco, he briefly gives into his resentment and anger but later works past it and admits there are more similarities between them than there are differences. When faced with no other choice but to stop the Rumbling, he's the first to bring Mikasa to the painful but necessary realization that they must kill their friend Eren in order to save countless innocent lives, as much as he doesn't want to do that.

Over and over again, Jean is presented with a moral dilemma, and over and over again, Jean chooses to come out of it as a better person despite it all. Because he achieved the freedom to choose who he wants to be so early in the story, the rest of his arc is a revelation that such freedom comes with constant and painful doubt. Yet, Jean never shies away from exploring the moral ambiguity of his world and the actions it makes him take. Because he is perceptive and honest, he's quick to question everything that is presented to him and never takes any one person's perspective as the only undeniable truth. Questioning life at every turn isn't easy either; it takes effort and courage and vigilance, and even when that way of life wears away at Jean, he does it anyway. If he doesn't, he'll end up just like the pitiful and ignorant Military Police he could have easily become. To me, that arc is so much more relatable than any other arc presented in this story. This is the very real struggle of a regular guy navigating a complicated world of war, eugenics, nationalism, and genocide, and is just trying to make it out as a decent person in the middle of it all. Really, isn't that all any of us are?

I think it's also telling that Floch tempts Jean to join the Yeagerists not with the argument that Eren and his plan for genocide is right, because deep down I think he knows Jean would have never agreed with that. Instead, he tempts him with the promise of comfort and a life free of resistance. I think that's the most revealing truth of all: Jean, the representation of humanity and its struggle with its own morality would never have gone along with genocide just for the sake of it. I think most people are too decent to think genocide is in any way justified when it's framed that way. Instead, Jean is only tempted by how the decision to join the Yeagerists and turn a blind eye would affect him and his own life, reframing the problem as a self-preserving one and retroactively justifying the Rumbling not as what is right but as what is futile for any one person to try to stop. That, I think, reflects the true struggle of humanity, the struggle to sacrifice your own self-interest whenever it conflicts with the need to help others.

While other characters like Mikasa, Eren, and Armin are more or less the same character at the end of the story as they are in the beginning, Jean is in a perpetual state of change, which means he also acts as a terrific mirror and foil for so many characters throughout the story depending on what stage of character development he's in. He starts as a foil to Eren, someone who harbors just as much hot-headed ego as Jean, but unlike Jean has all the conviction to back it up. As Jean grows, he continues to foil Eren by proving conviction can not only be gained but can be reigned in and redirected to be used as a force to do good instead of a force for destructive revenge. He then mirrors Armin, a character who is just as thoughtful and questioning as Jean but isn't as weighed down by selfish desires, but neither does that give much weight to Armin's moral dilemmas when he chooses to do the less moral thing than Jean does in his shoes. Jean and Armin eventually learn to work together, combining their respective strengths and weaknesses to become effective leaders in tandem. Interestingly, I learned that Armin and Jean were originally written to be the same character but were separated to reflect two different sides of humanity, perhaps to illustrate humanity's desire to reach outside the walls through Armin and humanity's struggle to resist the comfort of the walls through Jean. While I think that it was a good decision to separate them in the end, I also think that it robbed Armin of Jean's character development and robbed Jean of Armin's plot relevance. Then, of course, there's Jean's mirror for Floch, but I already touched on that in Floch's character summary so I won't retread it here.

But perhaps my favorite foil of Jean's is Reiner. More than Eren or Armin, Jean is inherently connected to Reiner through the death of Marco. While Reiner is positioned in Season 4 to also be a mirror for Eren, I think Reiner's similar loss of his friend Marcel (a friend who, unlike what Marco did for Jean, did the opposite of inspire Reiner by admitting that Reiner was never actually good enough for the role he got and only earned it by Marcel's intervention to protect his brother) positions Reiner as a more apt foil to Jean instead. Reiner is sent on a trajectory where he only clings harder to his dreams of becoming a hero for Marley, winning the affection of his mother and father, and proving himself worthy of his role, never willing to let those dreams go in the face of Marcel's death unlike Jean had done after losing Marco. Because he clings to this dream so dearly, he kills many innocent people to achieve it, again displaying the polar opposite mindset of Jean who fights instead to save innocent lives. But Reiner isn't without a heart, and eventually, the weight of his sins burdens him. How does he deal with it? Not by questioning or confronting reality like Jean does, but by compartmentalizing himself and rationalizing his actions through the use of multiple personas, essentially denying responsibility for his sins and avoiding the painful self-reflection he must undergo to accept accountability for what he's done.

Reiner is only able to truly self-reflect when he returns to Marley, where the reconciliation of who he is catches up with him and drives him to become suicidal, but neither is he deluded by the dream he once clung to anymore. Now that he's accepted responsibility, he joins up with Jean's group, admits he killed Marco, and accepts the brutal punishment Jean has for him. It's only after this moment that Jean makes the realization that they're the same because they are now. They've both undergone a change and while it took them in many different directions, in the end, they've come to the same point; despite their respective sins or lack thereof, they're both fighting to become better people than who they once were. And in the finale, it is Jean who reassures Reiner that he is and will always be a Scout because he's fighting to save humanity, just like they had sworn to do as youths. Jean never forgot what it was they were fighting for, and because of that, I think Jean earns his place as the true moral compass of the series.

Wow, this really got away from me; Do you love the color of the Attack on Titan thoughts post? Anyways, if you managed to read all of this, I'm flattered you stuck around to entertain all my ramblings on a series that is basically over after a decade-long run that I was too late to jump on. With all my thoughts out of the way, I'm going to go reblog some Jean posts now, because he's the best character and no, you can't change my mind.

#oh this is so long i am so so sorry #it's as my sister called it: do you love the color of the attack on titan thoughts post #just beware when clicking on the read more #anna watches attack on titan

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jeanbie · 2 years ago

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AOT CHARACTERS! GOING TO THE CLUB ★ masterlist.

genre: university au | warnings: mentions of recreational drugs and alcohol | notes: super british coded (as in entirely based off my uni clubbing experiences) but it's not particularly important !! also a big thanks to @ezxpb for putting the idea in my head (and basically giving me the idea) and i'd love to see other people's headcanons since these ended up being more about pre-drinking and not the club...sorry...*pres=pre drinking

⏤ REINER ; hosts the pres at his house off campus. invites the main group but he has a bit of a loud mouth and told his other classmates, who told their friends and now he's not sure who might be coming to his house. tells people the party starts at 9pm (clubs open at 10) but tells the main group to come there for 8. he puts connie on playlist duty. thinks he's macho and drinks whiskey all night (will later regret this). is somehow friends with the bouncers at the club and is probably one of the only 104th members who doesn't need to show his id. takes advantage of the deals at the bar and drinks wayyyyy too much in one go. is that guy who is feeling super hype and then goes to the smoking area and immediately sobers up and wants to go home

⏤ EREN ; brings the most alcohol to pres only to drink very little of it. is probably that disgusting gremlin who drinks vodka straight from the bottle thinking he can handle it (he really cannot). keeps queueing shitty songs during the pre playlist and gets banned from requesting songs. eats a weed brownie from his brother zeke and very nearly whiteys but he's lucky enough to recover before he gets to the club. is a dance machine on the dance-floor, making friends with random people and losing the rest of his friends in the process. almost got dress coded at the door because he was wearing cargo jeans and a hoodie but he's with reiner- and reiner knows the bouncer- so he's somewhat safe. definitely tries to fight someone at some point and keeps forgetting that he can't take his drink to the smoking area and keeps having to buy another one when it's taken away from him (or if he forgets where it is). definitely has the worst hangover the next morning

⏤ CONNIE ; best dressed for the party and gets there super early to help zeke make weed brownies. is probably zooted before anyone even shows up, and is stingy about sharing his weed with people because it's a cost of living crisis my friends and the loan only goes so far. is always moving around, can't sit still at all! he's just having a good ass time! he's pretty boring with his drinks but as soon as someone whips out tequila he can't stop himself. is very good at taking shots (always has a bit dribbling down his chin mmmmm sexy). has the weed giggles for a while and it's what gives him away in the club line. the bouncer is not that stupid and knows that connie is crossfaded – "nice try, kid, go home". tries to break in through the smoking area and gets barred from entry there ("that club is trash anyway" "you literally haven't stopped complaining about it since it happened" "it's just a shitty club like there are way better ones we can go to")

⏤ JEAN ; feels a bit shy at pres because he's not super drunk but then sasha says they should play drinking games and he's like LITERALLY thank god. shits on eren as he borderline whiteys in the bathroom- also shits on floch for buying those cheap ass sourz shots from bnm that are like £2.50 and taste like chemicals (still has one though). likes vodka coke, literally you can't go wrong with it. has like tequila ptsd and immediately feels his blood go cold when ymir whips the bottle out. he has no idea who some of the people at this pre-sesh are but he's happy to chat to them anyway, now that the alcohol has made him feel normal. his phone is like on 30% all night because reiner has one of those janky phone chargers from amazon that needs to be at a certain angle to even work. gets caught out on all his lies during the drinking game therefore he has to drink more to make up for it (he's so tipsy by the time they leave). has the worst id picture that even the bouncer clowns for a second. inside, jean takes advantage of the cheap shots and feels sick for 15 mins afterwards. is a sex magnet and people keep asking him for his instagram and it gets to his head a little bit (a lot). makes out with one of his friends and tries to gaslight himself into believing it wasn't real (but someone has pics to prove it)...

⏤ SASHA ; turns up to pres with the worst combinations of drinks with NO mixers. also is the supplier of the drinking games. sets up a 'ring of fire' game and ends up being the loser each time- she's like "thats so weird why is it always me??" and is oblivious to the fact that they all just cheat and make her the loser by default. will shot everything she finds. has like a tiny section of weed brownie and then gets scared so has no side effects. for some reason sasha finds zeke hot so she's like weirdly giggly around him (thinks nobody has noticed but they have and zeke has too). takes so many photos and cringes super hard when she looks at her camera roll in the morning. once she's at the club she's going to the toilet like every 15 minutes because she's opened the floodgates and just needs to pee constantly. is the girl who is very invested in the drama she hears in the toilets and would probably try and fight men in the club if she thought they were being creepy. falls down an entire flight of stairs at one point but at least she saved the drink

⏤ MIKASA ; is a little soju fiend and cradles that little plum soju bottle like a baby. is the person put on eren duty when he's going through it for a while and there's like 3000 things she'd rather be doing than babysit him as he convinces himself he wont puke. moves away from the speaker because it's so crunchy and actually just takes her seat on annie's leg since she loves her <33 besties. looks beautiful btw. has unintentional rizz and people just wanna keep buying her drinks when she gets to the club. dances exclusively with sasha all night and therefore has to accompany her to the toilet every other minute. feels like she's playing mom a lot & honestly mikasa doesn't love the club too much (she'd rather go to bars than clubs). loves taking photobooth pictures with all her friends though and it's the highlight of the night for her. argues with a bouncer who bans connie from the club and is threatened with her own personal ban (like she cares)

⏤ ARMIN ; honestly would rather be at home studying but he's only here because everybody else is. like it's literally the start of 2nd year and grades count now he can't afford anything less than a 2:1 this semester. contributes one drinking card game called "buzzed" and takes the finest sips of his drinks to avoid being super drunk. like pours the tiniest amounts of alcohol into his cups and it's like literally why bother. actually ends up having a good time despite whining on the way there, but he has more fun at pres than he does at the club. the bouncer thinks his id is fake because he looks literally 13 (this is pre-s4 haircut and one of the main reasons why it all comes off in the next few months). is definitely that guy who wants to take care of drunk people in the toilets. mostly talks (yells over the noise) to bertholdt on the sidelines until he somehow gets drunk enough to join his friends on the dance floor. goes to the smoking area with eren but very quickly says 'fuck that' because it's freezing. refuses to pay £5 to put his coat in the coatroom, he'd rather just wear it or play a game of luck and leave it in a corner somewhere

⏤ ANNIE ; forced to be there by reiner. handles her alcohol well so she's just quite confused as to how some of these guys are out of their minds drunk when she barely even feels tipsy. brought along a weird brand of vodka that tastes like literal acid and literally only she likes drinking it. she takes one of the weird shots that floch brings and instantly feels sick and keeps saying she wants to go home. in the end she stays back while others go to the club because she'd honestly rather be with marcel's cat than at the club rn, stay safe tho. (has to walk to the club with marcel to get reiner and co when they're shitfaced and probably crashes on their couch since their house is like her 2nd home)

⏤ BERTHOLDT ; is only there because he also lives in the house. accidentally eats an entire weed brownie thinking they're normal and is out of it for a while. later though quite likes drinking but he's probably one of those weirdos who mixes vodka with monster energy and claims it has a different taste to vodka red bull (it doesn't). keeps trying to lie during armin's card drinking game and it's so obvious that he's lying but he will not give up on trying to sell the lie. forgets his id for the club but honestly that man looks aged so the bouncer is like "just this once i'll let it slide. not you though armin, i need more proof—". eventually starts having loads of fun at the club until he finds reiner having a crisis in the smoking area and then calls annie to help bring everyone home because he's still a bit out of it and doesn't know if he can get back safely on his wit alone

⏤ HISTORIA ; brings wine to pres? like girl? and is dressed super lovely. is a social magnet and everybody wants to talk to her and she wants to talk to them just as eagerly. knows the words to every song that plays and sings along to all of them. doesn't understand the rules to ring of fire and eventually withdraws from the game because she keeps getting confused and its stressing everyone out. is also a victim to floch's shitty sourz shots and is sick and ymir takes her home. on days where she's not drunk i can see historia being one of those girls who ends up dancing on tables like okkkkk. also runs back and forth to get water for girls who are being sick in the loos. she likes drinking vodka lemonades like the pretty princess that she is xx

⏤ YMIR ; actually buzzing for the party. brings all sorts of shit to the pre-sesh and, hell yeah she wants a brownie. immediately crashes with connie, since they're basically best buds. gets into a weird drinking contest with reiner and eren and wipes the floor with them. calls everyone "mama" or "mamas" and now that she's drunk for some reason her sexual energy is just flowing (even though everybody including historia knows that ymir only has eyes for historia). has the greatest time bullying people during the drinking games and keeps trying to fight jean for the single phone charger in the corner. is definitely the drink spiller of the group but she always blames it on other people and does a really good job at making it look believable. is actually kinda bummed out that she leaves early to take historia home. on days where she does go clubbing she can be found on the dance floor just vibing with connie or other friends. always has a radar for where any of her friends are and if someone is lost then ymir can and WILL find them. likes to interrogate innocent people in the smoking area and always ends up smoking a cigarette despite not entering the club with any on her

⏤ LEVI, HANGE, ERWIN ; final years who came to the party because they're their friends but 1) hange got wayyyy too drunk on tequila and was being sick everywhere, 2) levi was bored and gladly used hange as an excuse to go home and 3) erwin is probably working because he's the only responsible friend

⏤ FLOCH ; is the friend who buys the weirdest and most rank drinks on planet earth. he's the evil mastermind who comes up with criminal concoctions for ring of fire. he has like that weird charm that's unsettling but people always want to be near him because he knows how to have fun. tried to concoct a plan to get connie in the club after he got turned away but *rita skeeter voice* he was unsuccessful….

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