The untapped potential of Hitch and Marlo
Hitch Dreyse and Marlo Freudenburg, two side characters that were done absolutely within the series despite having such a fun and interesting dynamic. They're essentially polar opposites.
One is disgusted by the corruption of their regiment, the other thrives on it. One is hard working and good hearted, the other is lazy. Both of these characters could've had great arcs within the series, so let's start with Marlo.
Marlo Freudenburg. First off, we all know the corruption in the Military Police, which is basically what they're known for. They're essentially greedy, lazy bullies mostly. However, Marlo stood out from the rest. He had a noble goal of one day bringing down the corruption in the Military Police and redeeming their name. I think Marlo greatly stands out from the other side characters because he has an actual goal besides "kill the titans and free humanity". It would've been great to see Marlo somehow rise up the ranks, and at some point, take over in the place of Nile. It's a simple yet obvious thing to do with his character, right? Well, as we all know that never happened and what happened to him instead of that he just left the Military Police to join the Scouts, only to die while accomplishing nothing at all. The character of Marlo was supposed to address the state the Military Police was in, but nothing is done to really change it. It just leaves me to wonder why he was created in the first place if he wasn't going to be of any significance in the long run.
Now we get to Hitch. Hitch, as said before, was the opposite of Marlo in every way. I think we all know her lazy, carefree attitude towards everything, but imagine if she had an arc that had her come out of that. The threat of the titans being a form of a wake up call where she slowly, but surely, exits her little bubble. What if Marlo's goal slowly made more and more sense to her? Imagine if this was due to Marlo's unsatisfying death and she joined in on the Liberio raid, it would've given Marlo's fate SOME kind of reason for happening, but it doesn't. Hitch continues to be a background character who maintains her same lazy personality, not growing as a character one bit. She's so inconsequential to everything around her it just leads me to ask why she even exists. Why create such a fun character that stands out so well if she's not gonna mean anything in the end? There was room for a great arc here and it just never happened. If a useless shoe like Daz can grow a pair, why can't Hitch?
Now you could easily say "they're just side characters, they're not supposed to have big arcs", and for one, that may be true but just because a character is a side character doesn't mean you can't give them an arc. Marlo especially was seemingly set up in a way where he would tackle the MP's wrongdoings somehow. And two, if they're not gonna do anything, why even have them exist? Why have the corruption of the Military Police be a thing if nothing really does anything to change it? And of course when you create 2 fun characters, people are gonna want to see more of them. I'm not asking for them to be in the forefront, but seeing something get done with them would've been nice rather than just killing one of unceremoniously and having the other remain in the same state she's been since her debut.
I may seem overly passionate about this, but I just have a lot to say about these two in particular.
