Reiner, Annie, Bertholdt: A Villainous Parallel

Originally this was just gonna be a comment on a reblog, but I got a tiiiiiny bit carried away and it became an essay. Oh well. Also, I know this week is SNK Crack Theory Week but I would like to clarify - this is not a (deliberate) crack theory. Okay then folks, brace yourselves.

For me, one of the most striking features about SNK is the humanity of its major antagonists. Typically, even when a story wants its villains to be sympathetic, their redeeming features are usually locked away in a tragic backstory to explain their depravity. But Reiner, Annie and Bertholdt aren’t doing such terrible things from any inner malice or from any defect in their moral fibre. In fact, they behave in a remarkably similar manner to our heroes.

One might even say... a parallel manner *cough*.

That is to say, the three major antagonists of SNK act as parallels to its three protagonists. Reiner parallels Eren, Annie parallels Mikasa, and Bertholdt parallels Armin.

In the case of Eren and Reiner, they are both alphas with an ability to inspire those around them. Both are so completely committed to a cause that they are willing to stake their lives on it, and both are very taken with their duties and responsibilities as soldiers. Furthermore, both are excellent hand-to-hand fighters (we now know Reiner was holding back during training), only surpassed by their female comrades.

(Determination..)

(...and duty.)

Mikasa and Annie are both cold and emotionless to the naked eye, both loners who are deadly in combat, and both especially feared by the rest of the 104th. But on closer inspection it’s clear that they care very deeply and passionately for their loved ones, and that they use this icy demeanour to drown out their emotional trauma. 

(So cold...)

(Aww!)

Armin and Bertholdt are both quite timid and so spend a lot of time around their alpha friend for security. The two have low self-esteem, consider themselves cowards, and are prone to crying in stressful situations, but they have a hidden strength to them.

(Expressing their supposed weakness. Can we also appreciate how in the above panel Eren and Armin are in a mirror position to their parallels? K thx)

(And here, their hidden strength shows, flying directly against their claims about themselves in the first two panels.)

Reiner, Annie and Bertholdt are just like Eren, Mikasa and Armin - childhood friends who would risk life and limb for each other and dream of changing the world. The similarities are remarkable and clearly intentional. But why has Isayama created this parallel? The answer is that the parallels presented by RAB are an integral part of the manga’s main thematic subject - the deconstruction of black-and-white morality. Supposedly they’re the villains of the piece, so…why are they so much like our heroes? Could it be that they are simply the heroes of another story?

This is why I’ve no doubt that the warriors wholly believe that their cause is just, regardless of the bloodshed necessary to achieve it.  After all, the Survey Corps doesn’t exactly have clean hands either, what with the extraordinarily high death tolls, the suicide missions for the sake of reducing the population, and the butchery of the Titans themselves, who we now know to be human. The warriors want to kill every human just like the humans want to kill every Titan.

(Seem familiar? Bertholdt here uses the same logic as his parallel...only for the opposite cause.)

Yet still, RAB’s cause clearly requires more destruction than EMA’s. This is because the parallel aspects of the two trios are more pronounced in RAB, shown explicitly in them so that through the parallel we may see what is show implictly in EMA. The stronger manifestations of these qualities in RAB is perhaps what makes them our antagonists - the very qualities that make EMA heroes could, if only they were a little stronger, make them villains.

Eren’s emotional trauma in trying to reconcile his role as saviour with the number of people he has to let die on his behalf in order to achieve his goal is exaggerated in Reiner, who has literally developed a split personality to deal with the exact same problem. Furthermore, the Armoured Titan is tough as nails and its own incredible endurance despite the amount of punishment it takes (see: the whole Return to Shiganshina arc) reflects not only Reiner’s but Eren’s own tenacity in the face of immense adversity.

(Their minds are pulled between compassion and duty...and Reiner’s has been torn.)

Meanwhile Annie’s crystallisation abilities not only reflect her habit of shutting herself off from the world and numbing herself to pain, but in turn reflect Mikasa’s own such habit. Furthermore, the ruthless abilities of the Female Titan within her foreshadow the supernatural nature of Mikasa’s own ruthless abilities, vis-à-vis her Ackerman bloodline.

(Are these two images all so different? Both brutal killings of another human fighting for a different cause than them, even using the same move. The Female Titan is not the only one called a “monster”.)

Finally, much attention is paid throughout to the series to the fact that, although Armin acts weak on the outside, on the inside he is perhaps the strongest character in the series. As for Bertholdt, although he is meek and reluctant to take charge on the outside, within him is the ability to transform into literally the most powerful creature in the series. The subtle is made explicit, the psychological made physical.

(Appearances can be deceiving.)

It’s no co-incidence that the one who ultimately takes down Bertholdt is Armin; just as it is no co-incidence that Annie was defeated by Mikasa (although both with the help of Eren, with him being the protagonist and whatnot). As for Reiner, I have no doubts that Eren will be the one to take him down for the final time; Jean, Connie and Sasha couldn’t keep him down, Mikasa couldn’t keep him down, Hange couldn’t keep him down - because the villains of the piece can only be truly defeated by the heroes facing them in the mirror.

(Don’t these almost seem to reflect each other? Hmmm...)

Of course, the reflection goes both ways. If Eren, Mikasa or Armin were ever to die, it would have to be at the hands of their doppelgangers. Such is the case with Armin - if he dies, although I don’t think he will.

But RAB are older than EMA. There’s no reason why EMA’s traits can’t amplify over time to reach the level of RAB. And in fact...this process has already begun.

Eren’s consumption of the “Armour” vial in Rod Reiss’ crystal cavern has already made his physical abilities far more like Reiner’s, symbolically reflecting Eren’s own personal development in Reiner’s direction. In fact, it’s looking like the latest chapter, 83, will be the threshold point of EMA’s transformation - Eren is now being tested more than ever between his personal wishes and his duty, and a fully-fledged psychological split akin to Reiner’s is entirely possible. 

(Eren, the second Armoured Titan)

(That dilemma again...tugging, tugging...torn?)

In this latest chapter it is also very likely that Armin will receive the serum, eat Bertholdt and gain his power, symbolically becoming more and more like Bertholdt just as with Eren and Reiner. In terms of personality, Armin may well have a “fuck it” moment like Bert in Chapter 78 wherein he becomes increasingly ruthless, as has been hinted at for ages with his parallels with Erwin, as well as his timeline of deception (chapters 31, 49, 82), being the first of the 104th to kill another human (while knowing that they’re human), and of course his deeply foreboding statement that “They are those who can even abandon their humanity if hard-pressed to outdo monsters”.

(Armin, the second Colossus Titan?)

(Acting as there are no alternatives allows for a ruthless course of action - this goes through both the mind of Armin and of Bertholdt.)

Mikasa is currently the wild card on the table (as ever) and I’m not so clear on her direction as I am with the other two. If she is becoming more like Annie, it is entirely possible that she will actually side with Levi and put her duty above her personal feelings (although how Armin will receive the serum with both Levi and Mikasa against him is a mystery to me); such a decision would make Mikasa more withdrawn than ever, and as lonely as her counterpart as she distances both Armin and Eren. Her Ackerman abilities may be close enough to act as a “power” parallel to Annie - her immunity to memory wipes being similar to the crystallisation which makes Annie immune to damage -  but it is still completely possible that she will somehow gain a new ability with semblance to the Female Titan, although it does not have to be a specifically Titan ability as it currently is with Eren and Armin.

(Annie putting her duty before her feelings...)

(...But where is Mikasa putting her duty?)

The two sides of the same coin are merging. In their efforts to defeat RAB, EMA are becoming increasingly like them. “Ye Who Fight Monsters” indeed. Hopefully this development acts as a mid-story low point for our protagonists, and by the end of the series, they will have recovered enough of their old selves to use their new powers to save humanity.

Hopefully.

But hey, hope is what SNK’s all about.