Told myself I wouldn’t write a long ass comment this time but then first line and immediately here we go. Ouch.
“Zeke's pompous and transparently manipulative pseudo-intellectual ramblings while Reiner avoids his gaze” Can’t explain to you how much I hate this man the MOST omg (Zeke not Reiner). ALSO HOW DARE HE THREATEN REINER, HONESTLY. REINER HAS DONE ENOUGH. Let him sleep pls
“that had led them in a great big stupid meaningless circle all the way back to the place where it started.” I love love getting Bertl’s thought process and I love that I deeply agree with your interpretation of him!!!!! Yes!!! He absolutely thinks this!!! AND IT IS HEARTBREAKING!!!
“But HIS Reiner had come back to him for just one night. Not the Warrior. Not the Soldier. Just Reiner. Maybe out of love, maybe out of pity, maybe just because one of them might die today and you might as well squeeze some comfort out of your last night alive. They talked about bathtubs, and books, and their ten days suspended in amber, and how Connie had definitely known but nobody listened, and those times that they scammed people out of their pocket change. And Reiner had kissed his wrist, and kissed his neck, and held him, and told him he was beautiful. He'd gone to sleep with Reiner curled around him. How it's supposed to be. How it's always been. And he'd woken up to a cold bed, and a cold Reiner, wondering if he'd dreamt it.” THIS ENTIRE PARAGRAPH WOW. Ok so first of all Connie is so much smarter than people give him credit for and I agree, thank you for these little lines here and in the last chapter. AND. !!!! I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS, AND THE LOVE BETWEEN THEM, AND THE ANGST AND THE PAIN. NO ONE CAN CONVINCE ME THEY WEREN’T IN LOVE AND THAT THEY WEREN’T FUCKING IN THE TENT IN WALL MARIA. I AM SO GLAD THAT IN BOTH OUR INTERPRETATIONS, EVEN IF WE’RE BOTH DOING FIXITS, WE AGREE THAT THEY DEFINITELY GOT A RESPITE IN THAT TENT AND THAT THEY LOVED EACH OTHER IN THAT TENT, VERY MUCH. YES. HOW IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE AND HOW IT’S ALWAYS BEEN.
“He hadn't been kissed in so long. The last few months have been the loneliest of his life.” NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh ugh ugh
“Accept that you have been replaced by the mission.” I might actually throw myself off this window right now.
“He saved Reiner by driving a pitchfork into a titan's eye. They promised each other they'd go home together.” GENUINELY ONE OF MY FAVORITE SCENES, how Bert is always SO HESITANT (even when kicking in the wall as we see in the manga) BUT HERE HE DOESN’T EVEN HESITATE AND HOW ALL HIS NO-HESITATION MOMENTS ARE ALL RELATED TO SAVING REINER. I WILL THROW MYSELF OFF THE ROOF.
“sat there pie-eyed, simpering over Krista, while Bertolt and Ymir stood next to each other glowering and understanding exactly how the other felt.” (1) this is really lovely writing, like all the rest of your writing, but this language/prose especially, and (2) I AGREE I AGREE THIS IS SO SO FUCKING CANON
“He wishes that he and Ymir had found each other sooner. They would have been friends. Two tired misfits with secrets, consumed to the point of debilitation by doomed love for their respective blondes. He wonders if she's dead yet.” TRUE AND I BELIEVE IN CANON IN PATHS THEY’RE BEST FRIENDS
“It's okay. They have been before. It's how they work best—Bertolt destroying, Reiner defending.” Unrelated but I do love how this clearly contrasts with their human personalities (Reiner is way more destructive and impulsive, and Bertolt is way more defensive. It’s such a fantastic thing to explore in Reibert fics, also part of the reason perhaps why I am SO obsessed with their dynamic specifically (and it parallels Yumihisu’s dynamic a lot, which is ANOTHER dynamic I’m obsessed with), and also something definitely planned by Isayama himself, since he says he created the Colossal Titan first and then thought—what kind of person would be in there? And every time we see the Colossal Titan we’re all like, why does he look like That, and it’s because he’s tortured inside UGH I LOVE HIM AND I LOVE AOT
GENUINELY HEARTBREAKING CONVERSATION I AM ALWAYS IN PAIN IN THAT CONVO
“He turns his eyes away from Bertolt for the very last time and deals the finishing blow.” I will actually throw myself off a skyscraper
“I spent my whole life next to you.” I LOVE THEM, AND I WILL THROW MYSELF OFF THE EIFFEL TOWER
“Numbness seeps out of the chasm inside him like nitrogen gas. It coats his throat, turns his mind and his heart into perfect spheres of ice. He doesn't feel anything. He can't think about feeling anything. He breaks into a sprint and launches himself without looking back as far as he can over the wall's sheer edge. The ground bellows towards him. He lets himself fall much farther than he should before he deploys his hooks and lets them fling him through the air.” INCREDIBLE WRITING GOD ILY AUTHOR BUT I AM ALSO IN SO MUCH PAIN. HOW DARE YOU
I SO agree about the pitchfork scene. And the barrel. If Reiner’s in danger Bertolt goes full tunnel vision every time. Like when Zeke throws his barrel over the wall does he say “Here I go to blow up Shiganshina”? No he does not. He says “Where are you Reiner, I’m coming for you” and the caption says “He has his own reason why he can’t lose!” End chapter. And then he screams Reiner’s name falling hundreds of feet out of the sky, one of the best frames in the entire manga. Like I’m sorry but
Bertolt’s glowing beautiful smile over the pitchfork is tattooed on my soul. 😭
Tbh I also imagine that they did all kinds of fucking in the tent (the art people make. my god, the art 🥵) but it just didn’t fit with the way I wrote the story so instead here they get to feel heartbroken in the tent except for their last night.
Ymir and Bertolt are platonic soulmates 100%. And out of all the billions of aot characters those two feel the realest and most relatable to me and they’re absolutely parallels. And they’re both low-key really intelligent (unless their blondes are in peril, then they’re high-key brainrotted).
That convo on the wall is so hard to watch, it sparked the whole fic, bc it made absolutely no sense to me unless there was some ulterior subtext
OK I AGREE W ALL OF THIS AND ALSO "Ymir and Bertolt are platonic soulmates 100%. And out of all the billions of aot characters those two feel the realest and most relatable to me and they’re absolutely parallels." YES!!!!!!!!!!! MY FAVES
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itskindnessinfinite on Chapter 8 Thu 11 Sep 2025 08:59PM UTC
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string_of_hearts on Chapter 8 Fri 12 Sep 2025 07:56PM UTC
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itskindnessinfinite on Chapter 8 Fri 12 Sep 2025 11:01PM UTC
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