Ocean eyes
“Private Armin talked about his pure desire of peace, and expressed it so well he received the Nobel Peace Prize, the King and Savior of Paths and the title of Commander of the Survey Corps. ”
3 years ago, was published on Tumblr a post of the same caliber… Some people probably took it a bit too personally, the OP probably clowned themselves upon learning that maybe it wasn’t true and maybe it was all a ruse, maybe Armin becoming a loser would lead to a more realistic approach, but 137 still happened anyway.
And thus comes the 2021 edition in fruition.
First of all, we’re gonna put the dots over the ‘i’. What exactly
is a Gary Stu?
Gary Stu is the
male version of a Mary Sue. A Mary Sue is a fictional character that is commonly referred as a self-insert, especially for fanfic authors. Its name comes from the character Mary Sue from the Star Trek fanfic, “A Trekkie's Tale”, which was meant to be used as a self-insert, but not any kind of self-insert: it had to be really, really special, with a remarkable design, unmatched skills (despite the self-insert’s age), and a growing harem of male characters. For non Gen-Xers, Ebony from My Immortal is another example.
Times have evolved and fortunately most of us can distinguish a blatant self-insert monopolizing half-the story in-between poorly-written chapters from actual characters. In fact, according to the TvTropes page,
nobody can really apply a cookie-cutter definition to this term. People may even wonder if professional authors are capable of such, since they’re exchanging their story for money. These characters are referred to as
Canon Sues. As such, for simplicity, I will use Mary Sue/Gary Stu/Canon Sue interchangeably.
What if I told you it was entirely possible? After all, even in the history of manga, some people already questioned it with a certain fan clan member from a manga with ninjas using magic.
Many people use the definition of Mary Sue/Gary Stu vaguely, often for characters they don’t like. Characters can have qualities, they can be strong, they can be beautiful, they can have multiple love-interests, but there’s something… deeply unsettling with the way they’re written. As if you felt the author wanting you to like the very essence of this character. As if they were meant to be a massive weight and other characters were paling in comparison because they didn’t embrace the perfect vision of the author…
Gabi is often accused of being a Mary Sue for instance. But I have to ask, is that really the case? Or is it because she has many haters to boot, who will nitpick every single writing flaw?
Like I said before, Mary Sues provoke a certain discomfort when they’re written, as if the author wanted praise and admiration through proxy.
Is Gabi beautiful? She’s certainly cute but she’s 12 and that doesn’t elevate her above canon beautiful female characters like Historia. Besides, beauty in SnK hardly ever matters and this is coming from an author who wanted to cancel the anime’s sex appeal.
Does Gabi have flaws? Yeah, plenty and she suffered from them. She later admits her desire to impress her superiors wasn’t good in the worst way possible with her view shattered.
Is Gabi strong? Her aimbot is sometimes as ridiculous as the Ackerman stuff Mikasa and Levi pull, but she’s canonically a well-trained child-soldier, so her skills aren’t anything exceptional and sometimes pretty tame when her friends draw power titans.
Does Gabi suffer consequences? Yes and unnecessarily so sometimes. She was attacked by people out of nowhere and her beliefs and attitude are presented as fanatical and hysterical. We’re far from being the perfect girl to self-insert to.
Is Gabi a self-insert? No, because Isayama isn’t a girl first and foremost.
Speaking of strength, how come nobody questions Falkopon who can successfully avoid projectiles? Sounds like another case of Abby from TLOU2 syndrome for me.
Mind you, he was just getting tonguefucked with the cast saving his skin, and just before that sleeping in the harbor battle after being shot in the face by a redshirt. And he was trying to feed himself to a middle-aged woman too.
SO HOW DOES THAT WORK FOR ARMIN?
I’m sure this panel made several people cringe, me too I have to admit. But what exactly makes this character so unnerving, and more so than Gabi?
A Mary Sue / Gary Stu is, to put it simply, a character who seems to be surreal in contrast to the story. Or worse, the story bends around them. Characters in My Immortal after all ended up as nothing more than glorifying props for Ebony.
Wesley Crusher, this time an official character from Star Trek, is often branded as such. Created by Gene “Eugene Wesley” Roddenberry, he bears heavy traits of self-inserting. He’s an hyper-competent engineer despite being just a teen and saves the day more times than necessary despite being the least experienced member aboard. Sounds familiar?
Presentation from the Author
First of all, the biggest red flag for being a Gary Stu is how the author relates to the character. Armin at the moment is presented as an idealist who is physically weak but makes it up for his wits. He is the wisdom of EMA and the one whose character is the second most vocal of the manga after Eren.
How does he relate to Isayama? During the final exposition he led an interview in which he openly declared he saw himself as Armin initially, but then shifted to Eren and wanted to express the dark side he didn’t want to see. Another piece of evidence supporting this is Isayama complexing a lot about his physique and struggling with feelings of inferiority.
Speaking of Eren’s dark side, does that mean that Armin was initially representing his dark side as well, since part of Armin’s arc and the expectations people had of him was to become a dictator like Erwin, like Araki from WIT wanted? Or was it the light to Eren’s heart, which implies Armin is morally purer than him, and probably than most characters too. When EMA reached the ocean, Isayama wrote this blog post 4 years ago, essentially saying Armin is sinless and pure, in contrast to his jaded-self (Eren). The latter stands out.
From these elements we can deduce there’s a link of self-insertion. Sure, every single author self-insert into a character at some point, but if it’s handled in the most narcissistic way, this is where we can pinpoint “Gary Stu”!
Morality of the character
A common tactic authors like Isayama use generally is creating an escape fantasy where their self-insert, who is small and physically weak, gets the upper hand for expressing X value none of those dumb jocks can ever understand. A lot of young adult novels express their author’s regret during teenagehood. Isayama himself stated that SnK was initially meant to be a bully/victim story, with the titans being the oppressors. You can see this theme constantly in the manga, with each party inverting roles, but still keeping a human vs titan theme.
Eren is the perfect embodiment of this. Presented as a victim, Isayama is setting him up as the biggest bully in the manga. Also he’s the character who spoke the most, has a Chosen One style fate, and timeline events do bend to him. Furthermore, as stated earlier, he represents Isayama’s dark side and thus possesses author representation.
However, Eren, as presented now, isn’t a gary-stu. When he’s portrayed as a bully, the narrative doesn’t make you encourage him. By pursuing “freedom” on his own, he severed relationships with every single one of his friends and family members. When it comes to abilities, his titan was at first uncontrollable and powerless, and needed a couple of upgrades for it to properly fight. He also can’t keep up with battles without some support. The fact that he represents Isayama’s dark side means he’s not a character with the author’s ideal morality.
Meanwhile Armin is in the same situation: he started off as a bully victim but with a strong conviction before becoming the lord of the Paths, Alliance holder, convictor of the ghosts, 15th Commander of Destruction with a team of superheroes doing his bidding in the most Marvel-esque setting. His morality was in constant opposition with Eren’s, from the pure character enjoying simple things (like going to the ocean with his friends) to his globalism, clashing with Eren’s fatalism and individualism.
When you read SnK it almost feels like Isayama wants to tell you how Armin is much better on a moral scale than his dark side Eren. And not just Eren either, no. He has to be much better than other characters.
The logic behind the story of a Gary-Stu goes like this: if you agree with him, you’re spared, if you disagree go screw yourself. Right now, in this context of Alliance vs Eren, I’m here to remind you that Eren was always looking at Armin with envy the day he saw the light in his eyes and how, unlike him, he was always pent up with rage and violence in his heart. But too bad for him, Eren is evil, Eren is in the wrong, this is not the kind of world Armin wanted, and Armin will prove it to you.
That kind of idealism swooned other characters on the side, sometimes to make crucial decisions that would allow Armin to take over, like Eren prioritizing Armin during the serumbowl, Levi making that decision and more recently, Annie and Zeke having a change of mind. His ideals are so awe-inspiring nobody questions them up. Wanting to see the sea and playing with your friends is seen as pure and worth changing your mind in a manga where humans vs monsters, wars and tragedies demand much better. If Armin gets called childish, that’s on the character’s tab, as they will either die or be miserable forever.
Storyline
Exaggerated skills
When you think about it, in a story where every single “normal” character can live or die, Armin gets a lot of rewards for doing the bare minimum. His feats of intelligence are grandiose regular observations or deeply exaggerated coincidences he pointed out. Here’s some examples:
- Him proposing to plug a big hole with a boulder with Eren’s titan
- Him calling an adult (Hannes) to pick the children up (Mikasa and Eren)
- Him proposing to the titan scientist Hange to organize night expeditions when they observed no titan moved under the sunlight
- Him realizing Annie was the FT because she was in the 104th, had the same features and used Marco’s damaged gear
- Him remembering BRA was a trio and using this information to distract Bertolt and Reiner, freeing Eren in the process
- Him noticing 3 cups on the wall, thus making the deduction there was 3 titans
- Him noticing the CT was losing steam and using a mediocre distraction plan to defeat him
- Him leading a blimp at night to escape
Notice something common? These feats aren’t particularly impressive on their own. Anybody could come up with them, but only Armin can voice them up and be praised for them and excessively, as “brilliant strategies only Armin can devise''. Annie thought Armin cornering her was smart, Hange thought Erwin’s spirit inhabited Armin for the blimp and before that beamed when he proposed night expeditions, Erwin praised Armin for finding cups up to the point of promoting him as a squad leader, even when Eren is bashing Armin in 112 he still acts as if he was disappointed in his brilliant mind. Other characters who are depicted as smart never get that kind of praise or treatment, not even Pieck who coincidentally keeps it quiet in the alliance to not outshine Armin too much.
Plot-armor
Every major character so far has been rewarded with copious amounts of plot-armor, but with Armin there were some moments that took the cake. It’s even worse considering he always raises back stronger from the dead with a genius plan and a reward.
The first major offense was during the serumbowl. It came after Armin’s epic sacrifice and managed to undo everything. From Armin’s improbable survival to him getting the serum and killing two characters with a good potential post-timeskip. He not only came back in a single piece but with a given power up and being shown in the most obnoxious imagery possible.
The start of the drama
And this is just for doing what any “brave” soldier would’ve done. What are we supposed to learn from this? That Marlowe and the others’ lives weren’t worth it because they weren’t Armin’s?
His penultimate reward for that was seeing the sea whereas many characters had to die before seeing their dreams come true, thus making it look like that only Armin and his dream matters in this series.
The second time it ever happened is in this chapter and the similarities with RTS are all there:
- Armin is praised as the next messiah before the battle
- Armin goes in a near-death state
- Armin wakes up from that near death state and calls the shots that flip the situation away
- Armin has some annoying godlike pose
- Armin feels bad about his self-esteem but does a 180° after
In the second case I’d argue this is even worse. In the serumbowl, as flimsy as it was, Armin at least came up with tactics. There he did absolutely nothing during 4 years aside from promoting the same naive mindset and talking to a crystallized Annie. And out of nowhere he’s getting rewarded for… sharing the same mindset as the SC?
In both cases, the shilling is disproportionate. It doesn’t help that the story paints him as “the future” in comparison to more seasoned vets who had their share of battle and some history as a soldier, but then a teenager with “potential” comes in and every vet is easily swayed.
But what might be the worst is Floch pointing up the issue of the serumbowl, which served as a meta commentary, but as he got harpooned, his statement feels more like ironic writing that is never fixed in-story. Nevermind it’s Floch aka the baddie saying it, and baddies aren’t meant To be sympathized with.
Skills
As stated above, Armin’s main skill is his intelligence, often exaggerated, to make him seem more clever than he really is. But alongside them came his combat and leadership skills, elements he stole from two main characters who died for him in the serumbowl. First the Colossal Titan, who was canonically stolen from Bertolt, and the title of Commander of the SC, which was unfairly given.
Combat
As stated in canon, Armin has no physical prowess. He has been stated as being the weakest of the bunch multiple times. He doesn’t shoot accurately, doesn’t have as much stamina as the other and looks like a lanklet on HRT.
Yet he’s been stated as essential because who cares about these things, he’s a genius and a titan!
Speaking of his titan, how come he manages to use its main ability almost as efficiently as Bertolt’s? How come nobody in the main cast notice the difference of level between Armin, who is unfit to be a fighter on the battlefield, and Bertolt, who was told at multiple occasions that he was a natural when it comes to skills and titans? How come everybody praises Armin as something essential for his titan but not the other way around?
It feels like a huge cope out on Bertolt’s end when Ymir’s titan wasn’t as great as Porco’s. The nuke is definitely the main asset of the CT and yet Armin masters it effortlessly without any payout and once again, there’s no solid explanation for this. Absolutely nothing in canon implies the difference in terms of strength except its physical appearance, leaving some ribs and his nape exposed. He just does that thing and it’s awesome, because he’s the Colossal Titan after all. He’s as competent as a warrior from an imperialist country with more resources than his own.
In terms of timing too, Bert is demonstrated to be a natural who was labelled as the god of destruction by his general only for Armin to do the same later.
Leadership
So far, leadership is probably one of Armin’s consistent traits, but this one doesn’t come up without its iffy parts.
First of all, the consistent part with Armin’s character is him making tactics for his teams, which implies having a level of command. During RTS he somehow becomes Erwin’s protégé… who automatically assigns him as a squad leader for finding cups at just 15 and only 2 months of experience in the corps.
Right after the serumbowl he got his position as an advisor of Eldia and mostly exists to make look Hange, his superior and new commander of the Survey Corps, quite incompetent in comparison, as seen with the blimp plan. During the alliance chapters, Hange passes the title of Commander to the Survey Corps to Armin, thus making him not only the 15th commander, but the de facto leader of Paradis’ military, with only Historia left as the Queen of the island.
When he took his commander position, no one contested his authority, not Levi who was blindly following orders, not even Reiner or Pieck who were passively waiting for his instructions despite Pieck being the other smart one.
Personality
The way Armin is presented as a character in terms of personality and emotions varies from the setting, and the variations are always appropriate at the right time up to the point it feels unnatural. Let me explain:
- At first he’s presented as a bully victim, soft, lacks confidence in himself, and believes violence isn’t the solution to everything
- Then, during the battle of Trost, he’s still the wimpy boy who hates on himself and wants to throw his life away because he thinks he’s worthless
- Then he’s presented later as a self-sacrificing soldier in the FT arc who believes someone must sacrifice something to change something else
- He uses that line of thought for sadistic tactics against Bertolt and suggests taking over the government in Uprising arc
- And we have the pure dreamer part, where he talks about his dream to discover the world and what’s outside
- Post-timeskip we have the jolly tourist staring at the rest of the world in amazement but can’t think of any diplomatic tactic at all
- He also has a heavy Eren bias that prevents him from thinking straight which played a part in the current arc
- His determination is also unbreakable, and he embraces the spirit of the SC like Hange said
- He also wants to avoid conflict as much as possible
The more I ponder over his character as a whole, the more I’m seeing inconsistencies with how he is presented. Even before timeskip and before the Bertmin theory, I have no real clue over what his character is supposed to be. On one hand we have this idealistic dreamer who wants nothing but a beautiful world with the sea, the discoveries, the ice cream and running over the hill, on the other a pathetic wimp who’s incapable to live up to his expectations and his friend, who thinks he deserves to die, and on the third but now abandoned axe, the scumbag willing to play dirty to achieve victory.
It’s as if the author needs to make Armin do something, but always displays the right trait at the right moment in a way that will make him save the day, get praise and/or get rewarded. His dreamy nature was used for him to revive and get the CT at the price of two lives, having Zeke and the rest of the ghosts on his side. The scummy one was used against Bert to retrieve Eren from Reiner and Bertolt. And the weak one was used to win characters like Connie or Mikasa at his side (after a heated argument).
But what about his flaws?
With every trait that has been listed earlier, Armin is definitely flawed. But part of what makes a Stu is their flaws having little or no impact on the story after, whereas other characters paid for them dearly.
- Armin lacks confidence in himself: it’s counterbalanced by his friends and superiors giving him a pep talk, or putting themselves first, or Armin pausing for a minute and forgetting his problems ever happened.
- Armin is blinded by his friendship with Eren: this leads him to put all his trust into him, even when he triggers the Rumbling, but no character calls him out for that, puts his leadership skills in doubt for that, or judge him unable to lead. Even worse, they’re all too easily swayed at his side.
- Armin was inactive: once again, no callout from any parties. His inaction at the harbor led to Magath and Shadis’ deaths, and absolutely no one blames him for his failed strategies or his poor attempts.
- Armin is a monster: also serves as an informative flaw. Armin is conscious he’s no saint and even claims actions he didn’t commit, so the author can make him look good when he’s being self-aware
Self awareness
Well, there were characters who pointed out Armin’s flaws like Floch, Eren, Ymir, Bertolt… notice something in common? Yeah they’re either dead or against Armin so… serves them right?
Relationships
In terms of relationships with other characters, Armin is depicted as someone gaining sympathy from almost everybody. He’s a character everybody at some point took a liking in, which makes sense considering his personality.
The problem is how other characters act when it’s time for Armin to shine. Because usually the characters are showing two types of reactions:
- Overwhelming praise for his intellect. Armin can never think wrong. Everybody is in awe when he presents a smart plan and never questions it. Even his enemies are praising his wits when they’re beating him or roasting him to death (hi Bertolt).
- Physical humiliation towards him, which makes said characters look bad and not him. The ones who have bullied or damaged him in the past are on Eren’s side or dead (the bullies, Bertolt, Samuel, Okapi titan).
There’s some unnatural focus whenever Armin is involved. Fierce leader types are powerless when he’s around, seasoned adults in military can’t put two and two when he’s together and every character with some fighting skill defer to him like mindless drones. Even Eren in particular is obsessed with him.
Paths
Part of the failure in maintaining peace on Paradis is due to Armin’s inaction and bias towards Eren, but the treatment is unfair towards him as he got the majority of titles served on a silver platter, when a shifter and nearly all the vets died instead of him. Bertolt who lost everything to him just… accepts to help him and that’s it.
Next I want to give a special mention about aruani since it’s a ship that has been controversial among SnK fans.
Now I said before I disagreed with the Bertmin theory since at no point of the story neither the story or Armin himself mentioned something about feelings inheritance, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with Armin and Annie hooking up, but there lies the biggest problem: it’s still less presented in a
realistic manner and more as a
wish fulfillment. Up until now there’s been no clear cuts of romantic signs between Armin and Annie. There’s just been one-sided conversations from Armin to Annie while she was in the crystal, and Armin just grabs her attention straight away.
There’s absolutely no tension in the building of this relationship and no obstacles either. Both Armin and Annie have done terrible things to each other’s party that’s far past the point of forgiveness (slaughtering the SC and nuking Liberio), and I don’t really grasp why none of them mentions Bertolt, who is the one who made Armin live a little longer. Armin straight up admitted her killed him, stole his power and violated his intimacy by probably trying to discover more about Annie and it’s never brought up. Instead, Bertolt’s treatment is entirely blamed on Eren to make Armin look better, and it’s even implied Armin “cured” Annie from her nihilism.
Story recap
In summary, Armin is the third member of EMA who has no backstory in contrast to Eren and Mikasa, gets praised for figuring out the obvious and wanting to see the sea, lacks in physical abilities but makes up for his intelligence that doesn’t look as good on paper as it would’ve seemed, outsmarts literal adults with the obvious and gets praised for it, gets quickly notices by the Survey Corps’ superiors, can take the hard decisions like killing someone else but is still an idealist at heart, gets an epic sacrifice leading to the defeat of the main antagonist pre-ts, gets praised and rewarded as being unique with a revival syringe, the CT power and his dream to see the sea with Eren.
Post-timeskip he’s crowned as an advisor of Eldia, does absolutely nothing of note in the political scheme, visits Annie but doesn’t get questioned by the authorities for that, effortlessly nukes Liberio’s harbor without suffering the consequences, supports Eren in reaching Zeke with Yelena’s approval and nobody really questions it, gets the alliance as he wanted, wins Annie’s heart, gets Reiner’s approval, doesn’t suffer consequences from Bert’s death, becomes the commander of the SC, listened by everyone, gets off scot-free from a death situation, wins Zeke by his side, wins the ghosts with a name by his side and mostly finishes up Erensaurus without any consequences for his 4-year long inaction and doubts over Eren.
But at least he feels bad, right?
