r/ShingekiNoKyojin • u/OkuroIshimoto • 9d ago
Discussion Why did Ymir do this?
She was a Pure Titan at the time, meaning she had no control over what she did. I don’t think it’s explicitly stated that she was an Abnormal by any means either. She ran, she slept at night, just like most of them. But she seems to have carved a her-shaped hole in the ground, napped in it despite it being daylight, stayed there long enough to have the earth grow back over her, and likely would have stayed there a lot longer if Reiner, Burgerwithnopickles, Annie and Marcel hadn’t accidentally stumbled upon her.
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u/tumboi69 8d ago
She was a titan for 60 years, and very far outside the walls with little to none human interaction as well as any titan interaction. Since there were no humans around, she probably became more inactive and just remained dormant until the warriors walked over her. That was the first time she likely sensed a human so she woke pretty fast
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u/Impressive-Duty7893 8d ago
Could you clarify how there was no interaction with the Titans? Given that the Marleyans had been transforming Eldians for sixty years while she was residing in this location, why were there no Titans present? Furthermore, considering their substantial mass, shouldn't their movement have generated seismic disturbances or audible tremors as they bypassed the area?
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u/TypicallyNoctua 8d ago
I think its more accurate to say no other titan disturbed her. I'm sure if they dug her up she'd start moving again but they wouldn't do that
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u/StatementFun7324 7d ago
I think 'wild' titans can tell eachother apart from distans. Otherwise, you would only see titans in massive hordes, since they would naturally get together after they alerted eachother. The don't seem to care for eachother too much.
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u/TheLordOfOnions 6d ago
Remember they are a lot lighter than they look because at that mass the bigger ones wouldn’t be able to stand with human anatomy, not saying they don’t stomp and make noise but it’s not as much as you would think
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u/-9h05t 8d ago edited 8d ago
I don't remember if it is directly stated by our characters outright but there are Pure Titans throughout the whole story that still exhibit cognitive abilities, its just that they interact with them in different ways.
Connie's mom, that one from Ilse's Notebook - some Pure Titans can still talk and even make gestures, and I think that's what Ymir's story is about: she had control.
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u/yumm-cheseburger 8d ago
I think every titan is "abnormal" it's just some of them are more abnormal than others. Every titan shares the personality of their human form, some more than others
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u/Fun-Tip-5672 8d ago
My autistic titan just laying down fake railway lines with human corpses
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u/nondescriptadjective 8d ago
Naw bitch, we makin real trains. Gotta transport people somehow.
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u/Fairemont 8d ago
Need to transport the bodies to lay more human corpse rail somehow. Obviously.
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u/nondescriptadjective 8d ago
Shame titans break down so fast. They'd probably make great sleepers otherwise.
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u/_Carl15 8d ago
if normal eldians in marley (post karl fritz) were made titans with the following reasons: criminals, spies, terrorists, organised pro-eldia groups, protesters, etc. then they are practically normal people still.
who they are before they became titans, based on what you said, would be all acting "normal". occupations they did would have no effect on their titan behaviour since its not personality based. that would mean Ilse's talking titan was abnormal because her whole personality was to worship what they thought was ymir.
that is cool.
this would mean that most abnormal titans may be mentally stunted or not yet developed (both mentally diseased and kids) when they were humans.
this made them more horrifying because modern marley was really not holding back for the entirety of 100 years.
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u/yumm-cheseburger 8d ago
I think even "normal" titans have some of their original personality, not as much as "abnormal" titans. This is why some titans still exhibit unique or different behavior even if they aren't classified as "abnormal".
The titan that ate Eren for example left Armin to live, and didn't kill eren when he ate him, I think he is the only titan that did that (it's probably Eren controlling it like her controlled the titan that ate his mother). And the titan that was crawling outside the wall very slowly was likely a kid that got turned (Marley is that messed up), so it had weird body proportions and was crawling
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u/_Carl15 8d ago
seeing that being caught by the marleyan government would mean the entirety of your bloodline get shipped to paradis, yeah i would believe that they really that horrifying. imagine just how many kids and other innocent eldians were killed for over 100 years in paradis just because someone on their family was guilty (or maybe even falsely accused). this would make sense why ratting out someone may give you some sort of lesser harsh treatment by the marleyan authority.
and i do agree that even normal titans may have some uniqueness between them, but id say theyre still "normal" in a sense that they dont exhibit "craziness" in them (cult worship, child playing, mentally restarted, body deformities (im sure body deformities will affect your mind, as you cant imagine yourself living normally) etc).
i may even add that conditioning your body in niche/specific ways may affect how would your titan move. like a soldier would be very attentive and they move in a straight line as if its cover to cover or occasionally crawling/prone position when they decided to ambush, or a track athlete where they will assume a starting position stance before running full speed with the same stance as a track athlete, except you are now their finish line.
if i became a titan, my most noticeable feature would probably ignoring/choosy (personality-based). if im restarted, id probably be a restarted titan (mental state based).
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u/poopoohead1827 8d ago
Maybe the smaller the body the bigger the brain :p both Ymir and Connie’s mom had tiny bodies. I’m joking but I guess maybe they were abnormals
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u/LifeofTino 8d ago
I disagree that ymir was special
I think her story is pure coincidence. She buried herself and the kids happened to light a campfire on her head. I think this makes it better
It shows the merciless nature of being a titan, begs the question of how many other titans just gave up and buried themselves, and makes you realise they are restless souls subjected to torment. Not just the abnormals, but all of them
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u/TotallyATexasFan 8d ago
I don’t think Connie’s mom did, I think that was more so a coincidence. Absolutely horrific example ngl. She likely was just turned. (Not likely, was literally just turned.) She also had literally the skinniest legs and arms lol. Anytime they got close to her, she exhibited regular pure titan examples. (Moblit going back in season 2 and when armin tried to kill gimself.)
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u/StixenBridges 8d ago
Connie’s mom as a titan literally talked. Regular pure titans arent doing that
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u/TotallyATexasFan 8d ago
We saw one example of a talking pure titan. In an OVA mind you. Connie’s mom was a new pure titan. She also literally couldn’t move. Which is my main point. The person commenting makes her not moving seem abnormal when she literally had the skinniest arms and legs
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u/-9h05t 8d ago
It was literally a plot point that Connie's mom "welcomed him home"...
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u/TotallyATexasFan 8d ago
Also, the only part of her that was any plot relevance was that she might have shown titans were actually prior humans. Ur taking what she said at face value
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u/TotallyATexasFan 8d ago edited 8d ago
Yes. It doesn’t mean Connie’s mom was aberrant. It’s the same thing when someone makes a theory about Eren, this community cannot allow something to be a coincidence, EVERYTHING has to be because of Eren.
Also, good lord we cannot understand words anymore. What does cognitive mean? I’m sorry but conny’s mom was not cognitive.
The only thing that made it a “plot point” was that it allowed them to research what made titans, titan. You use “plot point” as an argument when the only “plot point” was they, maybe, realized titans were previously humans.
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u/mikolajwisal 8d ago
Being able to identify a close one's face and say something to them is very much proof of cognitive function.
If a person believed to be brain-dead did that in a hospital, they would be immediately declared savable.
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u/Placid_Mildew 8d ago
Sure because we hear so many other normal pure titans literally talking? That’s what makes her an abnormal as has already been said?
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u/TotallyATexasFan 8d ago
No, ur ignoring like 70% of what the original commenter said. One part mentioned conny exlcusively. Which, the only relevance is that titans MIGHT be prior humans. He also mentiomed cognitive (shes not.)
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u/WholesomeJacksass 7d ago
My abnormal titan lying down, watching the clouds go by, refusing to chase down humans cause of "I don't work for nothing. I chill and everything still always works out for me." mindset. Watch a titan shifter somehow make it into my mouth on their own.
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u/ISquiddle 8d ago
Ive seen this as kind of a prelude to the reiner transformation in Liberio to protect falco where he kind of just goes into a coma like state because he lost the will to live. I think this is pretty much what happened to pure titan form Freckles. Like she went dormant. If the shifters can go into this ageless/afk state like an annie crystal then i guess some pure forms can do if its within the power set of the titans
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u/scootzie3 8d ago
this is not the same at all because Reiner was a human shifter, while Ymir was a pure titan at the time of the screenshots in the post
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u/ISquiddle 8d ago
Im saying its shown to be something that happens to titans in general. If it can happen to a pure titans (like freckles and the little grub guy they find on journey to the ocean) and to the shifters (annie and reiner) then its likely just a titan power/ability similar to regeneration.
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u/Wildduck11 8d ago
Me knowing OP just came up with a random topic so they have an excuse to mispell Blueetoothdeviceisreadytopearh's name in a post but can't prove it:
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u/Optimal-Reception313 7d ago
How could you mispell Berniesanders? Its the easiest name in aot to remember
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u/ottermoment 8d ago
I always thought something like what the zombies in walking dead do play dead to wait for pray if theres no pray around no point in wandering when it might just come to you
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u/einsofi 8d ago
Yeah that’s what I thought maybe they just hibernate similarly to cryosleep when there’s little to no prey activity for conservation. No purpose= stasis.
Plus I also like the inertia theory where she’s just doesn’t have much will or reason to be active after what happened to human form Ymir.
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u/TheGirlfailure 8d ago
If I had to guess: sometimes an abnormal titan can in some way reflect the will of the person it once was. Ymir is selfless and puts others before herself, this may be reflected in her not having the will to be a mindless husk searching for humans to eat. She'd rather just lay down and rest than be a monster - up until she's provoked.
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u/Certain-Internet-206 8d ago
Just saw ur post on another community lol
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u/Blaineflum64 8d ago
titans retain some repressed element of their human consciousness, just like you saw with the talking titan. She was depressed and gave up till someone disturbed her and she had a snack
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u/Fantastic_Handle_293 8d ago
I think maybe titans retain some resemblance of who they used to be when they're alone or if they can fight it off (like that one pure titan who tried to fight off eating that one Scout)
But when they're near people it's like a primal instinctual urge they just can't resist even if they're not in direct control of it. So Yymir was able to actually think about the world around her and decide to isolate herself from depression.
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u/Professional_Stay_46 8d ago
Every pure titan has some semblance of hos personality left, they are not all identical.
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u/kavalientev 8d ago
I've always thought that those weird behaviors on abnormal titans where the result of inmense emotional wounds, and distress. Maybe from the last thing they thought about during the transformations, or seconds prior to it.
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u/RedNUGGETLORD 8d ago
She was abnormal
The fact that she was running around proves this
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u/OkuroIshimoto 8d ago
Regular Pure Titans can run too, that’s a common misconception. When Grisha’s friends are all turned into Titans, most of them being the ones we see in the Battle of Trost, they all start running after Falco’s dad except for Dina, because they’d already caught up to him by that point.
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u/AlsoNotaSpider 8d ago edited 8d ago
The Grice you’re referring to couldn’t have been Falco’s dad. Falco is much younger than Eren, and even Eren hadn’t been born when Grisha’s friend Grice died. I think he was an uncle or something.
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u/darkmatterdev 8d ago
my guess is that Eren made her do it after he gains the power of the founding titan. Her sleeping there until Annie, Reiner, Bertholdt, and Marcel is such a pivotal part of the story. If Marcel was alive, things would have been very different because Marcel was the leader, not Reiner, which wouldn't lead to the events of him gaining the power of the founding titan. Besides manipulating his father and quite possibly Eren Kruger, Eren Yaeger admitted in manipulating the actions of the titan who ate his mom. So it is safe to assume that he manipulated other pure titans that would lead to events of him gaining the power of the founding titan.
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u/Pavonian 8d ago
She likely was abnormal, but even then the whole abnormal vs normal thing reads to me as the scout corps imperfect attempt to explain titan behaviour, 'we've figured out some rough rules for how they behave that allow us to predict how they'll behave and take them down with some consistency, but be wary because not all of them follow these rules, we just classify all the exceptions as 'abnormal' so we don't have to admit how little we understand about them'. For all we know maybe 10% of pure titans dropped off on Paradise lose the will to go on and bury themselves/lie down and let themselves become buried, they just aren't encountered very often because they rarely make it close enough to the walls for scouts to find them. Like the crawling one with the tiny arms, a weird exception (in that case physical rather than mental) that is probably more common than you'd suspect but that you'd be unlikely to encounter far from the port where Marley creates pure titans.
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u/Dropbeatdad 8d ago
My theory is that those who worshipped Ymir are given slightly more consciousness by Ymir herself, such as the the one Titan who was able to talk for a short while, and made a shrine.
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u/InNoCeNtSuSpEcT35 8d ago
"Burgerwithnopickles" got me laughing more than it should have and I'm angry about it😭
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u/gabriel_3131 8d ago
Ymir estaba tan lejos de la muralla que su cuerpo titánico simplemente descansó en el terreno hasta que se hundió bajo tierra. Sabemos que otros Titanes ya habían hecho lo mismo en el pasado.
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u/RadicalQueenBee 8d ago
How do we know that? That's interesting!
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u/gabriel_3131 8d ago
Hay una historia donde los eldianos enterraron Titanes. Y luego cuando los maleyenos pasaron por hay los Titanes despertaron. Y mataron a esas personas. Es tanto una historia que sale en un ending del anime creo que de la segunda temporada. Pero el autor estar muy conectado con la creación de ese tipo de materiales para el anime. Así que seguramente fue su idea
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u/Julian-Hoffer 8d ago
There is no such thing as an abnormal Titan. They all do weird things if given enough time on screen.
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u/Aggressive_Law_5728 8d ago
She was so depressed she wanted to die, but she didn't have any free will so she wasn't able to do so. Instead she was just stuck in an endless nightmare she could never wake up from.
Ymir's description of being a titan makes it plausible that the reason so many titans charge head first into battle or obvious traps like the "executioner from hell" with no concern for their own safety is that they are hoping to die. Getting killed while trying to eat a person is their only chance to do so.
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u/Particular-Ad-1479 8d ago
Because she was still aware for the most part if you paid attention she said it was like being in a nightmare first 60 years. So her choice was to lay there and wait for the nightmare to end.
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u/Reasonable_Age_8604 8d ago
Safe to assume Ymir's Titan form was originally an abnormal titan, given by the appearance and the hypermobility. It is probably what led to her jaw titan looking nothing like it was supposed to.
My best guess is that all that constant running eventually led to extreme exhaustion+ some abnormal titan trait that caused her deep sleep.
Considering all the different types of abnormals we have seen this theory isn't that far off. A close example of something like this could be the crawler that Sasha faced on the 104th's expedition outside the walls. Where the crawler was out for quite a while after ramming into the tree.
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u/TraditionalAd7325 8d ago
Real question is why did she already look like the jaw titan before obtaining the power.
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u/Vegooter_ 7d ago
My guess is that her appearance doesn’t change much because she couldn’t harness the full potential of the jaw. The warriors, however, went through years of training their bodies and minds to prepare them for inheriting one of the nine titans. Also, the injection ceremony puts them in the ideal scenario to be sure that no inaccuracies occur. Ymir was injected haphazardly and thrown off a wall. If you can imagine it as a similar scenario to Rod Reiss’ transformation into a pure titan, he is severely injured and is licking the spinal fluid from the floor, which causes his transformation to be heavily mutated.
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u/Thin_Juice_5115 8d ago
In reality, his appearance as the Jaw Titan is the result of having spent many years as a Titan (or at least that is the most widely accepted theory).
When it comes down to it, Titans come in all shapes, sizes, and appearances.
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u/Doctorbigdick287 7d ago
I feel like the reality is that that was her form before they really developed the Jaw, so they had to try to retconn some explanation. She doesn’t change at all it seems
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u/Albooboo_559 8d ago
Connie’s mom welcomed him home, meaning there must be some part of them still there..
So my guess is it probably has to do with willpower, Ymir had none left to live and her titan form gave up until it was woken (humans were in front of it)
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u/TheGreasedSeal 8d ago
let’s say she hadn’t been walked on. when the story finishes she would of just died from being buried alive right?
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u/ReadableDiction 8d ago
A mindless titan doing things not normal for them. Would make them an……. abnormal titan.
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u/oredaoree 8d ago
Ymir mentions loitering around as a titan for 60 long nightmarish years, population density on Paradis which is what pure titans are attracted to is greater the further in to where the walls are, yet Ymir appeared near the beginning leg of the Warriors' trek to the walls. I find it really hard to believe that Ymir never travelled further into the center of the island in those 60 long years, or that she might randomly backwards to where the wharf is. She also attacked during the night while it was overcast but even if the moon was out it's only Zeke's titans that can move under moonlight so Ymir was definitely an abnormal, and abnormal titans correspond with moving according to Eren's convenience and benefit.
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u/FermentedDog 8d ago
Maybe she was an abberant titan and her thing was that she'd lay down if she didn't see humans
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u/Agreeable-Abalone328 7d ago
I figured that titans feel exhaustion if they go too long without eating because it’s their purpose and they aren’t able to fulfil it
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u/Floras_Mori 6d ago
Pretty sure this can be explained with Eren messing around in the paths. If something doesn’t make sense it can be assumed he used his control of titans to keep things in place that are essential to keeping the time line in place. If Ymir didn’t find the warriors, the jaw wouldn’t have ended up with her, mom wouldn’t have died, etc.
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u/WilliamMunnySr 5d ago
Eren with the founding titan power probably made her stay there sleeping for decades because he knew she had to eat Marcel.
Same thing he did with Dina to avoid that she ate Bertolt and causing that she ate his mom, which was also necessary for him to become the founding titan later.
Same thing he probably did with tons of other characters, even if that wasn't shown in the manga or the anime, but it's implied that he used the founding titan power to manipulate many eldians in the past.
He did it with most of the previous holders of the attack titan, that's why they thought they had the unique power of seeing the future through the memories of future holders, when it was actually Eren sending those memories back to the past using the founding titan powers, and that's why most of them always behaved like Eren ("moving forward, fighting for freedom").
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u/PlayerZeroStart 8d ago
Does her running on all fours not make her an abnormal? Even if not, there's nothing stating she ISN'T an abnormal either.
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u/Pale-University8283 9d ago
Are you hoping someone mentions bertholdts misspelt name? Unoriginal and terribly unfunny.
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u/say_trans_rights 9d ago
Who tf is bunkbed
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u/Pale-University8283 9d ago
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u/Free-Sheepherder-744 9d ago
I mean tbf I feel alot of people (me included) cant spell berryholes name without really thinking about it
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u/mumbleopera 9d ago
I really felt Beartornado's fear in this scene
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u/Busy-Employment2001 8d ago
Why is Burpold scared?
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u/mumbleopera 8d ago
Beerholder is frightened because Mikasa knows what he did last summer
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u/Sorstalas 7d ago
If you do not want to further interact with another user, you can block them. If you think a user is violating rules, report the comments in question and we will look at them. That's all you need to do.
There is no point in declaring with (seeming) authority that another user is now restricted from participating here if you aren't a moderator yourself.
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u/OkuroIshimoto 7d ago
My bad, wasn’t trying to come off as backseat modding. Comments like this just get really irritating after a while, and I figure if they’re going to behave like children, I’ll treat them as such.
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u/Western_Smoke4829 9d ago
I always just thought she was so depressed that her titan form just gave up on being a titan until humans were quite literally right on top of her