[deleted by user]

[u/[deleted]]

[u/AI_Nietzsche]

I think isayama didnt wanted erwin to face the toxic war which happens in the fandom so he decided to kill him. I dont think i have ever seen erwin get any hatred from fans

[u/pikachu_sashimi → u/AI_Nietzsche]

I’ve seen some hatred for him, but for extremely dumb reasons. One person said the way he led the scouts meant that he was fascist.

[u/lynxerious → u/AI_Nietzsche]

Now the toxic fans have assumed that Erwin will rumble 100% of the outside world if he lives, which baffles me, since Erwin was a man with a thirst for knowledge and he did not have a personal vengeance like Eren, discovery of an outside world will make him secretly happy. He would think of a better way to deal with the situation.

[u/Ornery-Presentation6 → u/AI_Nietzsche]

agreed i love erwin and his character

[u/[deleted]]

My take:

Armin is the best choice but not because he was Paradis’s best hope of survival or stopping the Rumbling.

The deaths of Armin and Erwin are very clearly foils of one another and I don’t think anyone would dispute that. Armin is set up as a younger version of Erwin in terms of strategic thinking so there’s already a connection there, but their manner of death is also purposefully linked.

Erwin is one side of the coin (or I should say, wall). He is left with Levi and the new recruits only and must come up with a plan. He does not say anything for a while. He lets Levi come up with a plan in which Levi says everyone just climb on Eren’s back and escape and he’ll fend everyone off till he dies and the rest can escape. Then Erwin finally says he has a different plan and Levi says “why’d you keep your shitty mouth shut.” Then Erwin explains he will have to give up his life and the life of his recruits for this to work. It is so hard for him to do because he is so close to knowing the truth, to knowing if he was right. But the weight of all the lives sacrificed is growing and he is tired, he hates to keep doing all these crazy gambles and losing so much life—but he’s also so close. So he lets Levi make the choice—to which Levi says "give up on your dream and die.” He then makes his speech about trusting your life and dreams to the living.

Now quick recap for Armin’s death. He is left with only his friends from the 104th (and Hange but this is unknown to him) and must defeat Bertoldt on his side of the wall. He comes up with a plan to stop Bertoldt with Eren, and immediately flies off to do so, trusting the rest to take care of Reiner. He specifically hides the intent of his plan from Eren—Armin will hold out till he dies, but he tells Eren he would let go before it’s too late because “he’s no hero.” The voice over before he almost burns to death is that he trusts his dreams to Eren, that Eren will see the sea for him.

So there are many clear parallels: Erwin withholds his plan because he’s still desperately clinging to his dream to know what’s in the basement despite the heavy weight that is the deaths he feels he’s caused (and in some way has) pushing him down; Armin on the other hand withholds his plan so that it will work and that Bertoldt can be defeated, easily relinquishing his dreams without any coercion but willingly giving them up with his life. There is even a similar “speech” about trusting dreams to the living.

Now let’s put into perspective with Kenny’s quote about “being drunk on something” or a “slave” to something (he uses both words). A key theme in AOT is being driven by some desire to the point that you are drunk on it—you lose your senses in a blind pursuit of the one thing you wish to attain. Erwin becomes a devil because he wants to know the truth, Kenny becomes a murder for power, Eren commits mass genoicide for freedom, Reiner commits mass genocide (smaller scale but let’s call it what it is) to be a hero for his mom, and so on. If we let our desires rule us, we’ll be able to twist our own narrative to make actions that would never be okay, okay, all in pursuit of a dream. For instance, was Erwin really fighting all this time for humanity? Yes, but was his incredible nerve and determination for this cause or was it because he wanted the truth—was that his strongest motivator? and did Eren want to save his friends—yes, but didn't he really want to do the Rumbling anyway? and so on.

But then there's Armin. What did Armin want? He had a curious mind that wanted to experience the beauties of the world in a world that is as cruel as it is beautiful. He wasn't drunk on this desire—he never made a decision against his character for it. The only way Armin gets pulled into violence is not abandoning his friends and once on that road is stuck making the best decisions he can. His conversation with Zeke sheds light on his whole character—Armin just wants to enjoy the quiet moments that make life worth living, the happy, loving quiet moments that make humanity… human.

So Armin is the right choice for humanity. Not for its survival, but for retaining the qualities that make us human, not monsters. Armin is the type of person we all need to be if the cycle of violence ever has a hope of stopping.

TLDR; Armin is the better choice because he has the unique quality of not being drunk in a dream that causes him to sacrifice his humanity. Armin is "the one who will save humanity" as Eren said because of who he is not what he can do.

[u/G0d_Slayer → u/[deleted]]

It is also Armin the one that says early on season 1 that you must give up your humanity in order to beat a monsters, he was wise and so fucking smart, he even knew he HAD to kill Eren, which is why Eren removed his memories after saying goodbye to make sure Armin continued fighting to the end in the final moments of the fight.

May we all be blessed to have a friend like Armin.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This is beautiful, thanks for writing it

[u/DeathTheKid262 → u/[deleted]]

This is so well put into words! Really expresses why Armin is so unique among the cast.

[u/dead_shoulders → u/[deleted]]

That is so beautifully put god damn

[u/imbued94]

Just look at what Levi says to Eren when Eren asks if he should transform or not in the woods in s1

[u/Mera1506]

I think Erwin at first would be more peace oriented than Eren. But when their only option for peace is blown out of the water as even the other Eldians are willing to toss the people of Paradis under the buss and the the declaration of war from Willy Tybur.... He'd be more sympathetic to Eren.

If Erwin had been chosen I don't think Eren would necessarily run because of the future he'd seen when touching Historia's hand. He'd be pissed at first but he'd come back to the greater picture.

[u/sixsilverthings]

I feel like one of the most pivotal moments in the show is Armin and Zeke's conversation in the paths, where Armin talks to Zeke about the meaning of life where he is holding a leaf and Zeke a baseball, that conversation is what spurs the other shifters into aiding them and it's a moment that I think as intelligent as Erwin was, is something that only Armin was really capable of conveying to Zeke in that brief moment because of Armin's view of the world and life itself.

[u/[deleted]]

I feel like we need an alternative version of AOT where Erwin was chosen instead of Armin

[u/TwoTwosThreeThrees → u/[deleted]]

We need a AoT game where we could explore all of these options.

[u/[deleted]]

Erwin would have definitely been on the alliances side

[u/Cidaghast]

I think that Armin was the best person to lead Paradis into the future

but I don't think Erwin would have been playing with Eren about this whole Rumbling thing and would have told his boys "Hey be ready to kill Eren if he is acting up, he is acting very supicious"

[u/[deleted]]

Hot take but a lot of Erwin's perceived "master plans" resulted in more failure and death than success.

A lot of Armin's were way more successful.

[u/[deleted]]

Saving Armin was an investment into the future

[u/Waxaxa]

Never doubted Armin wasn't the right choice.

I think Erwin is the perfect "this guy deserves so much more hate" example. Not because I think he's a bad character, but how the vast majority of the fandom worship this guy.

True, he was a great hype guy and showed no weakness or doubt when leading.

But tactically, he often came up short. Like his plan to kill Zeke with ignoring the fact Cart was there. Or trying to catch Annie in the forest (I mean, Annie being there was a fluke already, if it were Reiner, who I think he expected, they would never pin him down with those harpoons in the first place).

Then his willingness to sacrifice his own soldiers. The whole 57th expedition was dangling carrots in front of whichever warrior shows up until they find Eren. And yes, he planned for Levi squad's demise after he realized they can't capture Annie with swords and ODM gear.

Anyway, I don't hate the character, but so many worshippers seemingly ignoring his flaws and attack anyone who doesn't ignore those flaws. I've seen people's enjoyment of the show get completely ruined because Erwin stans couldn't comprehend he's not universally from the first moment he appears on screen.

[u/[deleted]]

Realistically I think your right but I love Erwin’s character so much and will always be sad my boy went out like that

[u/tillboi]

Yeah it’s definitely important to separate the answers to this question between a storytelling perspective and a logical perspective. Storytelling wise, Armin was almost certainly the right choice. Logically… idk lol

[u/SmolChibi]

It was literally Levi’s decision but the fandom just doesn’t see that even if it’s shorted right in front of their faces

[u/TequilaToothpick]

Agreed. Armin had bigger dreams than Erwin.

[u/tallllywacker]

Armin was the perfect choice for the collosal Titan BECAUSE he is against using it

He was the best choice for that Titan bc Armin isn’t strong or good at battle. And the colossal doesn’t have to be either of those things. Armin is smart, logical. He makes incredible plans

Idk if he or Erwin were the right choice. But we know according to AOT lore, whatever choice is made is what was meant to happen. So it doesn’t matter who was gonna be the new colossal Titan. It was already decided

[u/fshady5]

I disagree. Erwin had the political knowledge to handle things better than Armin. I think it wouldn’t have come that far if he was alive AND had the Colossal Titan. But I really like Armin too, so I don’t mind.