Just a dreamer

The first check-in has started and we're super excited about all the amazing works people are preparing for the zine! 💖

The contributors list and spotlight will be shared soon, so please stay tuned!!

and because i turned nineteen today, here’s club good taste as a bunch of nineteen year olds crashing in someone’s party 📸

great question. i don't read as much nowadays but boy do i have some bangers for you.

for levi, born at midwinter by slingzarrowz. this fic in particular was the very first aot fic (and rivetra fic) i ever read. i had never read any fanfic like it before and it was truly the inspiration for me to get back into writing. it's one of three fics in slingz's 'book of levi' series, both leviathan rising and answered prayers are magnificent reads (with a heavy levi/petra/erwin love triangle presence) but this one out of three has a special place in my heart. it's set in the canon universe and has an insane plot! i can't recommend this one enough.

without you by @ghostst0ries. i've never read grief and yearning like this... i'm usually a multi-chap reader but this rivetra one shot blew me out of the water. if i could tattoo all the words onto my body i WOULD. it's set in a modern AU where levi deals with the grief of losing petra to a tragic accident. lena is so very talented and skilled at writing despite english being her second language, she's also written some multi-chap bangers such as burnt norton (rivetra college AU set in england) and a light that never goes out (rivetra 'the last of us' AU which can still be read if you haven't played the game!), as well as a few other rivetra one shots that's definitely worth reading!

telomeres by @safire-lupe. basically anything saf writes, you should read it. telomeres is the first in the line up of the telomeres series which, yes, is all rivetra. it's set in the aot canon universe except petra survives! it has it's own little cult following which is SO deserved because she's a fantastic writer. she's given me a hand with some particular lines in HTB that i needed to run by someone and she also makes incredible art as well!

ask the unhappiest man in the room by bby_dirtbag. it's only two chapters in so far, but the style and prose of their writing has me HOOKED. it's another rivetra fic set in a modern au where levi deals with the grief of erwin's suicide. i believe it's a re-write of their original which i hadn't read, but i bet was just as good. i'm so ready for another chapter and i hope the author is doing well!

y'all don't get no sleep cause of me by erros429. lmao this is actually a guilty pleasure of mine because it's not a traditional fic, it's a groupchat fic between the 104th kids, another college AU. i found it in the early days of joining the aot fandom and go back to it from time to time for a laugh. please read this if you love the 104th kids having nonsensical beef with each other as much as i do.

clearly, i lean more towards the rivetra side of aot fics. all of these amazing authors deserve your time if you haven't given it to them already, i'm so grateful they've shared their work with the world and given us art to laugh/cry over.

Hades: Sure love. *walks around Persephone*

Persephone: Why did you walk around me?

Hades: Because you are my world love.

They match!

the things I say are only "negative" if your priority is protecting systems rather than people. its remarkable how well systems ensure that individuals feel connected to and defensive of them even when we are not being well served by them. standing up and saying "hey actually this hurt me. it hurt a lot of people. I can see exactly how and why it hurts people and I can't ignore or justify this" is a positive stance. a positive action. i love us the disposable people.

For what concerns AOT, I support everyone's headcanons. They surely are, tons of times, something personal we want to see in our favorite characters. It's true that sometimes they might be ooc, but depending if they're lore-wise or based on an AU, I would say. You do you.

On the other hand, I noticed that sometimes, when fanfictions or HC are based on the original lore, it lacks that one normalcy that these characters require. They were born and raised in a place like Paradis, where only wealthy people got access to certain luxuries: health, for example. That being said, I see how certain characters are, quite literally, perfect in some people's minds. Not a crooked or missing tooth, no pimple marks, etc.

So, here it is my quick and personal take on this.

- Wearing those sturdy and heavy boots gave soldiers calluses and mycosis. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them had bunions, too.

- Their teeth reflected their social status. Erwin, canonically, was upper middle class and surely had a filling, but overall his teeth were white and well kept. But I'm sorry to burst your bubble: Levi surely missed a molar or two. No access to a decent quality of life for years in the Underground and malnutrition did a lot to his teeth. He surely took better care of them growing up and however he could, but we can't pretend he had a perfect row of straight, pearly white teeth. And it's ok. That's the realness we need. Soldiers like Miche or Keith Shadis, seasoned veterans, surely had more fillings of some metal alloy, and they too would have at least one missing molar due to a bad fall, fighting a titan, or an infection/abscess. On top of that, let's not forget having yellow teeth, some more than others–which is, again, normal. They're not models with teeth straight out of a commercial. The realness of it all is to acknowledge that it happens and not pretending it doesn't.

- The levels of stress made them get either white hair earlier than expected, pimples or acne with scars, dark circles, eyebags, and the habit of biting their nails (I can imagine Connie doing this a lot).

- Their hands would be calloused, but not just in an "attractive" manner. Rough, with damaged knuckles or rough palms.

Adding those details isn't going to make any character uglier, in my honest opinion. It's indeed going to make them more human, and real. A chipped tooth, a nail that's too short, blisters on their feet, broken toenails and so on are part of their lives as soldiers and people who didn't have certain privileges. Surely some of them had indeed more access to healthcare (if there was even one), like Military Police officers, the King and later Historia, citizens from upper classes.

Whenever I see someone ask, “What other options were there besides the Rumbling?” in relation to Attack on Titan, I catch myself wishing we'd all take a huge step back and ask ourselves if that's even the right question to be asking.

Eren didn’t initiate the Rumbling because he saw it as the optimal solution to a political crisis. He did it because he couldn’t see any solution at all. He reached a point many trauma survivors do: the urge to burn everything down and start afresh. And honestly, that's pretty normal; Armin even admits he’d thought about it, too, during their final conversation in the Paths.

The important difference is that Eren acted on it. And, crucially, he didn’t solve anything by doing so. Historia’s letter makes that painfully clear: Eren's actions didn’t bring about lasting peace. They sowed the seeds for future generations to repeat the same descent into fear, war, and destruction. The island survives, but it doesn’t heal.

And that's because Attack on Titan isn’t a story about solving crises.

It’s a story about how humans, collectively, repeat the mistakes of history — only realising too late what the cost was. For example: Kiyomi regrets her political gambit in bringing Eren and Zeke together. Commander Müller begs his soldiers and the survivors assembled at Fort Salta to vow that they’re done with mutual hatred. Everyone only sees the pattern once they’re trapped deep inside it, facing down the consequences.

You could argue that one positive consequence of Eren’s actions – though indirectly, and not through his own agency – was the resolution of the Curse of Ymir. But even that wasn’t really something Eren accomplished. He admits this himself in the Paths: “Ymir had been waiting for someone… and that person was Mikasa.” It was Mikasa’s choice, her refusal to perpetuate the cycle of violence through love in bondage, that finally empowered Ymir to let go.

And we're shown that even that resolution isn’t permanent. The very last scene with the boy and the dog approaching the tree makes it clear that history resets; the cycle begins anew. By that point, everyone who lived through the cataclysm and the children who remember them are long gone — in other words, the people who could have said “never again” with real weight behind it. All that’s left behind then are people like me: history nerds who recognise the warning signs, and try to educate, contextualise, and point out where we’re headed if we don’t change course. And yet… look at the world around you; we’ve ended up there anyway. My efforts, and the efforts of countless others like me, clearly haven’t stopped society from repeating the same patterns of fear, extremism, scapegoating, and dehumanisation.

Which is exactly the point Attack on Titan makes: even when the curse is lifted, even when the cycle should be broken, humanity has an astonishing capacity to recreate the very conditions that destroyed it.

Western storytelling sets us up to misunderstand Attack on Titan

I sincerely think that part of the problem is that popular Western narrative tradition trains us to expect stories to offer a clean resolution with a single moral; something like an Aesop’s fable ending.

Attack on Titan, to put it simply, is not that kind of story. It’s an allegory. It observes human nature, and draws on philosophy, history, theology, and mythology. It illuminates patterns, rather than prescribing solutions. It’s not trying to tell us what should be done; it’s asking us to notice how humans behave, and question what it means for us.

Ergo, a more meaningful question than “What other options were there?” might be,

“Given the world I live in, what can I reasonably do?”

Attack on Titan challenges us to think about the tension between freedom and security — symbolised by going outside the Walls versus staying within them. For some people, the ideal balance leans toward exploration and risk; for others, protection and stability. Attack on Titan isn’t telling us which one is right — it’s asking each of us to consider where our personal threshold is, and at what point we’d stand up and fight if that balance were threatened or taken away.

At the same time, it suggests that things that are outside of our control perhaps matter less than giving thoughtful consideration to the things we can realistically do something about. That meaning and purpose come from staying rooted in the present, seeking understanding rather than fearing the unknown, and valuing small moments of connection we find with others. And, maybe – just maybe – if more of us did that, instead of buying into hatred and culture wars, we’d be a more peaceful society overall.

Tl;dr — the Rumbling isn’t “the solution.” It’s an example of how bad things could get.

Ironically, I think that if Attack on Titan does have a moral, it’s probably nothing more complicated than touch grass. Which is funny to me, considering how often fans and haters alike seem to forget to do exactly that.

The “Eldian problem” framing itself is the issue

When people ask “What other options were there?”, they’re assuming that there was an inherent problem to be solved: “the Eldian problem” requiring a “final solution.” And historically, that kind of language is not only reductive — it's dangerous.

In early 20th‑century Europe, political discourse included talk of “the Jewish question.” Today, similar, dehumanising rhetoric resurfaces in discussions about other marginalised groups (e.g. “the trans debate”). Hitler’s “final solution” was genocide — the Holocaust, literally “sacrifice by fire.” The Rumbling mirrors that logic: annihilation framed as necessity.

This is why I push back on the premise. In Attack on Titan's case, the story isn’t asking us to solve anything. It’s asking us to recognise how extremism frames itself as inevitability.

Thus, Eren’s tragedy is that he became the thing he hated most.

Attack on Titan repeatedly shows that outcomes can’t be predicted

This is another reason I find the “What else could they have done?” debate to be flawed: Attack on Titan is riddled with worked examples of the impossibility of predicting outcomes. I mean, Levi’s guiding philosophy is literally, “Make the choice you think you’ll regret the least.”

In terms of what other options there might have been, to enact a small‑scale Rumbling was meant to be the plan. However, its success depended on Eren's compliance. Of course, when Eren did gain the power to act on it, he chose to enact the full-scale version instead.

But then, throughout the story, every time a best-laid plan gets compromised, it's always down to some unforeseen variable:

Erwin predicts that there are other Titan shifters besides Eren, but not the Female Titan’s ability to call other Titans (creating the diversion that allows Annie to evade capture).

Levi fails to predict Kenny’s involvement in the kidnapping of Eren and Historia.

The Scouts plan to use Eren's hardening ability to seal Wall Maria, but they fail to predict how Zeke will use the terrain and his ability to control Titans to divide and eliminate them.

Hange says something important in the anime (and Historia's letter echoes it): that outcomes affecting groups aren’t determined by any one person’s decisions, but by the collective choices of many. Fandom debates can’t replicate that condition, when they’re really just individual egos sparring.

Then what is the central thesis?

For my two pennies' worth, it's probably not: “How do we stop humans committing atrocities?”

And something more along the lines of: “How can we live, knowing we can’t control everything?”

Attack on Titan asks us to reflect on our individual choices, accept what we can’t control, and to do our best with what we can — while valuing connection, curiosity, and staying grounded in the present. And perhaps, if more people chose to live that way, atrocities like the Rumbling would be far less likely to occur in the first place.

Work by: Cocco

Translation by: Onigiri-blush

Notes: おわり~ The End :)  If you guys find more cute comics, send them my way, and I’ll be happy to take a look (particularly if it’s Rivetra ^_^)