#stand a little stornger

[peachymess]

I was gone for a quite some time and you're pro AA now? /gen! No hate but all I remember was your posts about how their interactions aren't about AA but about Armin alone and how he could be affected by Bert. What changed? Also glad you're well now awesome!

Hei, anon! A lot does, indeed, happen, over long periods of time. I wasn't a big fan of AA (though, it was never on the NOTP list, or if it was, it was nowhere near the top). And it's still not my cup of tea to actively ship - I just think it's neat. I've gone from finding it boring and a little forced, to loving that it exists. Sure, in the posts where I expressed my disinterest in the past, I'd sometimes tagg it "anti-ship", but this was so pro-shippers didn't have to see unfavorable opinions of something they liked; not because it was active hate. (And I didn’t even talk about it unless I was asked.)

Anyways, I've gone from feeling like Armin can do better - because Annie as a character didn't particularly impress me - to now being grateful for them finding together because it looks healthy and happy and built on mutual respect. I couldn't think of a better match for him now that we look at everything in retrospect. Because as I've always said: in the end, I want what's best for him, I want what makes him happy.

Now, when you say scenes, I'm assuming you mean scene, because I don't think I've talked exessively about their other scenes, just the crystal one. Because I never thought ALL AA scenes were "about Armin alone". No, of course the scenes are there to build on Annie as well. I might have made the point that the scenes weren't romantic in my eyes, but never "about Armin alone". Now, the crystal scene I DID analyze the scene to be about "Armin BEING alone". Almost wonder if you have me confused with someone because I only spoke about that one scene, only when asked, and I did NOT agree with the Bert theory at ALL. I was asked several times on my thoughts about the scene where Armin talks to Annie's crystal, and I felt strongly that in that scene, what Isayama was showing us, was Armin's isolation. Not budding romance. I won't reiterate that whole analysys, but I feel like the first part still stands. That scene, without the shippy aspect, still stands as one that's there explicitly to tell us several more important (imo) and relevant things.

(And for the record, I have always been vocal about my distatse for the Bertolt theory. If you saw me talk about it, I'm sure it was to explore the different possibilities; "either Armin did X because Y, or because of Z - but in that case, then---". I've always expressed how problematic that theory would be to the characters' agency. I actually big time hate that theory, and I'm almost upset you would think I advocated for it. I HATE hate that theory and always have.)

However, the ship part also turned out to be valid! Not only that, but there was so much AA that I flat out didn't hear about! It's only recently that I was even told about it all! See, I stopped reading the manga years ago, because my nerves couldn't take it. For good chunks of the archs ever since 90, I have only read summaries of. Always kept an eye on it, but yeah. I needed to take a big step back for my health. And oh boy, there was actually a (basically) explicit AA confession scene in there! I felt like a big idiot when I learned that, because some time ago, I was asked if I thought "the confession scene" was actually romantic. Like, did it canonize them. And I thought they meant the scene where Armin talks to the crystal, and that the "explicit confession" was when he said: "I wanted to see you" or whatever it was. And I even ended up "arguing" in the notes with someone that no, it hadn't been a very "clear" romantic confession. They meant it was obvious. ... When in reality, there was an actual confession scene and we were talking past each other. If I could re-do my answer, I'd tell the answer this: YES, that confession scene seemed romantic to me! ...I still don't think AA pre-timeskip + cystal scene is enough to make for a thoroughly built interest. They'd need more content for me to go "ok, Isa has established AA enough now that I buy it if they get to together". So me not believing it at the time of the crystal scene,... well, I stil lstand by that.

Over time, more AA content happened, making for stronger and stornger arguments, so I was won over in the end. Though, my dear anon, here's a kicker for you: I might have been less against it o begin with, if you aren’t just basically fed content ONLY from the ships you like. Because you see what you looking for. And, not being the AA community, I didn't come into contact with a lot of content that would have swayed me. I've always been big on canon. I started loving eremin for its canon bond. ... And for the same reason, I struggle to ship it now, based on later canon. For once in fandom history, a shipping community actually did what we ask them to: stick to their lane. Nobody from the AA community ever "bothered me" by showed me the video of Marina talking about Annie being Armin's obvious girlfriend, from way back when. Nobody told me the english translation of "you're actually a sweet person" or whatever it was, was much softer and sweeter in original. Etc. What I'm saying is there's a lot more AA content than I ever thought. And that has a lot of power to sway. ... Yet, I think what sold it for me, anon, was when Mikasa left Armin to die on the battle field (if that has been Eren, just saying...). His "childhood bestie" left him to choke and die... While, upon being told, Annie, said "I'll get him back" and went for it. That was the moment she started growing on me. It's actually... I'm actually obsessed with that moment. I'm so grateful to Annie, I can't stop obsessing over it. Fucking thank you, Annie. THANK you. I'll never not be upset that Mikasa and Levi left him there, and I'm lowkey shocked that not more people in the fandom had a reaction to that. I don't have as much of a need to discuss the manga online anymore. I have my opinion and I don't feel the need to make others agree. So I hesitate to even pop the lid on this can of worms, but yeah... Honestly, there's a lot of EMA salt there for me and Annie stands as the safe haven and someone who actually, *truly* sees Armin in the wake of the ending... so... I'm very glad he has her.

... So, what can I say. I recently learned Armin was a total gentleman when Annie ate pie, they had a sweet goobye, Armin landing in Annie's palm, the way she looked at him when he stepped up at the end, a CONFESSION, and such leveled normal dialogue, etc. There's more reason to accept AA into my heart now than "a long time ago", anon. I was wrong, AA was endgame and I'm happy about it.