Oh. My. Gosh. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for my entire! life! *Cracks knuckles* okay, are you ready?

First and foremost, let’s establish the fact that he’s a complex character. There are SO many layers to him….also, spoilers, I guess?

1. He’s neither good, nor bad. And he’s aware of this. I think that this fandom has a habit of painting him as a perfect smol innocent bean, and yeah he may have started out that way, but as the story’s progressed he’s said and done a lot of things that early AoT Armin would’ve been horrified at. (Ex: lied to Bertl about Annie being tortured, destruction of the Marleyan fleet during the raid on Liberio, etc.) In retrospect, all of those actions were necessary to progress towards a main goal, but he’s NOT 100% good. And this! fandom! forgets! that!!! He’s the perfect example of some serious character development (and hey, no one ever said it always had to be positive), but I think it’s just so realistic you know?

2. He’s level headed and willing to make sacrifices. And he’s So. Fucking. Intelligent. I always hoped he became commander and damn am I happy to see that come true. As someone who’s been with AoT since its conception, you have no idea how ecstatic I was to see this last episode animated for that moment only. He’s saved the day countless of times and figured out what shitshow the survey corps were going to walk into even before it happened. When everyone else was panicking, he was one of the few that was calculating what their next step was going to be. Though I imagine now that he’s commander he’s gonna have a helluva time making some hard decisions. (I stopped reading the manga after he became commander okay, so I’ll be going into the anime blind from here on out…don’t judge me lol) Clearly, you can see where my priorities lie 😅

3. I think he’s the most relatable honestly. He’s not afraid to show his emotions or doubts. That branded him as a weakling in the early AoT days by a lot of people, but what the hell would’ve been your reaction to a bunch of man eating titans??? 😒 Or what if you’d been s***ually assaulted and had to face your attacker only MOMENTS later?? Or kill your former commander that you admired very much?? He bawled his eyes out for his predecessor in front of his newly appointed crew only moments after being promoted to commander…he could’ve easily said Hange’s sacrifice was necessary for the sake of keeping up appearances or morale, but he didn’t. *Sigh* I don’t know why he gets shit on for being a normal fucking person.

4. Smol bean. Yeah, I'ma go there because it’s true lol. He’s got the looks of a cinnamon roll that you just wanna protect for no reason. He’s just. Ugh. Fucking gorgeous?? Especially with that time skip glow up! I have a type I guess, and it’s a problem. I would literally fight anyone for him 😤😤

Obviously so many more reasons, but I think these are the ones that I think are important to me. Some of these aren’t really reasons at all tbh, so much as a small analysis of his character, but ajdjekfnejfn I just love him so much, okay?

Thanks so much for the opportunity to blabber on about my one true love, I hope you’re having a lovely day! 💕💕💕