i personally like aot’s upending of the “monstrous other.” that twist is at the heart of it, including in terms of the zombie apocalypse premise and fiction’s reliance on externalizing evil. the whole thing gets gradually taken apart (clash, uprising) and then culminates with the basement reveal and the marley arc (and ymir’s backstory!), and it also cannot really be extricated from the ultimate trajectory of eren and the critique of his logic. it is also y i find it pretty integral for the story to understand that with the end to the "system" that is titans things are not all resolved and modern military weapons can fulfill their part in the equation

a character being a perpetrator does not negate their victimhood and neither does their victimhood negate being a perpetrator. u can accept and reckon w both dimensions in ur analysis

when such characters occupy this role in a narrative it should not be taken as some omni-applicable assertion that “they are a bad person because they are *insert*”, as much as it is a depiction and criticism of the forces that victimized them as well, hence emphatically they dont do what they do and are not what they are in a vacuum

they're a problematic character TO YOU. they're problematic to me as well but I'm being weird and horny about it so it's different