r/AttackOnRetards

It's been made pretty clear that the titans working the way they do, the 13 year curse and only the royal family being the only ones capable of using the Founder's ability are all arbitrary limitations unconsciously set up by Ymir herself. This begs the question: What kind of power would a rational, mature and well-adjusted individual wield if they came in contact with the Hallucigenia?

It seems to me that you basically become a biological god with the Hallu power. You become immortal, with a healing factor, and even if you do die, you just incarnate in an alternate dimension where you could build yourself a new body. Most Importantly though, you're capable of creating and controlling a seemingly infinite amount of biological material, shaping it to your will with no limit to its structure or appearance. You're also able to completely control the body and mind of any of your descendants, even being able to grant them superhuman abilities similar to yours.

Man, imagine if a genuinely good and smart person got their hands on this power. I'm of the belief that absolute power corrupts absolutely and that no one person is capable of wielding so much power; but still, just imagine all the good that could be done with it if the holder of the titan power wasn't a traumatized 9 year old that didn't let themselves die and become a mindless slave just 13 years after getting that power.

https://preview.redd.it/cffrjojj2cth1.jpg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=75e8fdc5da4fc377b22527fffc456fe155895745

https://preview.redd.it/2u6gl5wj2cth1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c98cecbb8a3322949bae03e64b0a7d011f282b63

On one hand:

• They were child soldiers who couldn't know that the island devils were actually innocent people
• They had no other choice but to obey Marley's orders (any defiance would put their lives and maybe even their families' lives at risk)
• Reiner was heavily indoctrinated both into hating the island devils and his hero complex. Annie was conditioned into nihilism and not caring about life. This is what turned them into killers.
• Reiner and Annie were friends with the Scouts before. Even after the lies, betrayal, and death, that friendship was real, and it is heartwarming for Isayama to emphasise that even though they were enemies, they were also friends once, and can be friends again after all this. Them and the Scouts reconciling is exactly the type of radical acceptance that is needed to end the cycle of hatred**.**

On the other hand:

• Despite their reasons/motives, they both murdered or indirectly killed a lot of innocent people on Paradis. This includes multiple friends and family members of the surviving Scout members. Even though after Eren starts the Rumbling, these 2 are no longer actively threats, there's always a bit of unease with these guys knowing they were the villains. After what they did in Season 1, Season 2 and RTS, it's jarring to see the Scouts being friendly with these two.
• Despite having no real other options, both Reiner and Annie were ultimately driven by self-serving objectives (Reiner to be a hero to Marley and the world, and Annie to return to her father). They both rationalized their heinous actions through narcissitic, selfish means.
• Reiner and Annie don't have redemption arcs. Reiner's arc is all about accepting his guilt, and Annie's arc is unlearning her nihilism and learning to care about life. Both of these are personal arcs that are not really centered around atoning for what they did. They never have to change their actions, they're still fighting on the side of Marley against Eren. The story even constantly points out while the Scouts are giving up everything to oppose Eren, the Warriors are sort of just doing the same thing they've been doing. If anything, for most of the Final Season, if thrusted into the same situation, both of them would probably do the same thing again (Annie states this, Reiner shows this after the Battle of Liberio. His guilt evaporates and he goes "we must attack Paradis Island immediately"). Unlike someone like Zuko, Reiner and Annie honestly didn't change much morally. They just showed regret/self-awareness that what they did was wrong, and overcame their personal shortcomings. Therefore, it's hard to see them as "fully redeemed"

My thoughts

I think Reiner and Annie do deserve to be forgiven from a logical standpoint given their situation. And their backstories do make it easier to like them. But Isayama should've done a better job at making the audience be able to forgive them from an emotional standpoint. They should have had more redeeming actions. Gabi of all people has more redeeming actions, despite her crimes being far less overall. She shows remorse, she constantly apologizes, and she saves Kaya from Nile Titan.

I think a consequence of immediately going from the War for Paradis to the Rumbling is that the Warriors sort of get by easy, morally speaking. Unlike the Scouts, they never have to make a difficult decision to do the right thing that would disadvantage them.

My fix for this would be having Jean and maybe Connie face the Armored Titan in the battle leading up to the Rumbling, and have it so that Reiner intentionally spares their lives, leaving them to survive. Not a full betrayal of Marley, but it would show some character growth from Reiner. Killing Jean and Connie would undoubtedly help Marley in the long run, but Reiner chooses not to because his goal here isn't to help Marley, it's to actually save the world this time, from whatever Eren is plotting. I love this change, because Reiner has intrinsically always known that Eren would probably go nuclear if given the power to do so. Making Reiner's motives more altruistic before the Alliance helps us better stomach said alliance.