#bertolt aot

I used to also find this bit of trivia about Bert funny but odd since it was used as a gag throughout the first seasons of the show and in junior high but it wasn't until I thought about it more that I realized that Bert's weird sleeping habit may be a direct cause from being a warrior.

It's interesting and a bit heartbreaking to think about how this may have stemmed from his time and treatment as a child soldier. The stress his body must carry to not even be able to sleep comfortably and from being one of the most lethal titans was probably no joke.

Whether it comes from his body being on auto pilot and his times as a solider being muscle memory or the fear that he can't allow himself to be peaceful in his sleep from being the colossal isn't clear but both are equal contenders.

I figured this may be his body's subconscious way of keeping him from fully dropping his gaurd and maybe even mistreatment or training as a soldier on Marley before I tried researching if this might actually be a thing that happens with war vets, which unsurprisingly is.

I feel like people in general just like to dogpile on Bert for no reason other than to compeltely discredit his character and hate him just cause. For some reason, people just can not wrap their heads around Bertolt and his character and will completely forget about him when other characters have done things that are just as bad.

Using this aspect of him as a running gag downplays the experiences he's had, whether it being a gag by the cadets or showrunners was intentional or not, and makes it that much easier for people to write him off easily. Though I do acknowledge that this had to have been intentional by Isayama, just overlooked by most and not delved into deeper.

Despite Bert physically and mentally showcasing his dilemma throughout the series, people just don't acknowledge these parts of him. I feel that this minor detail is one of those things that goes unnoticed because of that.

Despite all the terrible things Bert has done I think that not being able to sleep in a normal manner should be enough to show that he wasn't always like this, and certainly not of his own volition.

It's also interesting how Reiner would at times join in on poking fun at Bert for this, waking up in the morning and the cadets forming around him to gawk at. I think it really does a good job at showing how much of a hypocrite Reiner was in those earlier days as well. Bert was practically being made a show of and he doesn't even defend him, but when he gets called out on his personality shift, Bert is there to cover for him.

Like sheesh. You'd think the guy that made you do all this would at least ask if you're doing ok or give you a heads up or SOMETHING?!?!?!🤨

I think this is my first actual Berumin art, wherein it’s obvious💀 all of the other ones I’ve made of these two are so all over the place and parts of aus I made, but this one is just something I did for fun a yr ago and left the sketch alone(it was so close to being abandoned fr) until I got back to it two weeks ago and decided to pull through. At first I was just gonna do a simple lineart and got carried away and then had to go all out to make everything match and make sense. It rly was a process doing the limbs and having to change a lot of the posing.

Idk what it was but I added those nails to armin on one hand and had to do it for ALL of them, it just rly played into the demon aspect so well I couldn’t resist. This originally didn’t have all the smaller details and I rly just made a lot of it along the way.

I rly liked thinking of this dynamic where Bert is more gentle/pure? And Armin is more deceptive and controlling? Idrk how to describe how I imagined it in my mind when I first made this but that’s the gist of it. Armin at first had a curious expression than the sly one he has here in the old sketches, and there was even a very rough sketch version where he’s an angel instead but I didn’t find it that appealing as a concept and I remember that sketch being so frustrating to get the wings right and I think that’s why I dropped this drawing at first.

Anyways 🗣️🗣️I LOVE BERT and MIN🗣️🗣️🎀🐢🐚

I actually like how ambiguous I left the context of this because there rly is a lot of possibilities this could go story-wise. Like, does Armin appear to Bertolt physically and everyone can see him but he’s only befriending Bert for demonic(?) purposes or is Armin manifested by Bertolt subconsciously. Is Armin a representation of Bert’s corruption? Who knows? I honestly couldn’t tell you but that’s probably why I was happy to make this more detailed than my usual stuff.

Other than that I do like the idea that perhaps Armin was a fallen angel that was casted out and became a demon? Something like that. Maybe Bert became a man of the cloth as a result of shame and guilt over something he did and that mirrors Armin’s fall from grace in how they both have to mask who they used to be???? Maybe none of this is real and this is Bert’s divine punishment in purgatory? What if there was a universe in which Bert wronged Armin in someway and Bert’s psyche takes a hit because of it?

It’s possible this isn’t even Armin but who knows?

Yall maybe I’m cooking with this actually.🤭👀👩🏽‍🦯🗿

What do you perceive this as and what is your take from just this alone? I kinda wanna know how everyone else would interpret them in this👁️👁️😳🥺🙏🏽🎀

Should I do another version of this but with concepts around demonology or something? Idk.