lostcauses-noregrets:

Hello Anon, yes, I am indeed old as balls.   Fifty years old in fact, which probably makes me older than everyone in the surviving cast apart from Pixis and Zackley. Levi is catching up on me but he has a way to go yet and tbh I’m not sure he’s gonna make it.  And yes, you’re right, I do relate more to the Vets and the other older characters, than to the 104th.  At my age I’m afraid I have limited patience for teenage angst, and I have very little interest in stories where the kids save the day yay! It was the older characters that first hooked me into SnK, and that’s where my interest remains. Creating complex, compelling and ambiguous characters is where Yams real talent lies, and I think this really shines through in the older characters in the series.  And I don’t mean just the Veterans; Kenny, Pastor Nick, Dimo Reeves, Uri Reiss, Eren Kruger, and many others, are all really fascinating characters. One of the things I love about Yam’s older characters is that you can really see the toll that life takes on them.  You can see the impact that Levi’s childhood, and all the loved ones he has lost, has on him as an adult.  You can see the way Erwin’s life is shaped by his father’s dream, the way the guilt of all those lives lost weighs him down. These are characters who have lived, and their lives have shaped them.

But it’s not just that.  These are all interesting characters in their own right, but it’s their relationships that really bring them to life, and it’s no secret that the one relationship that I am concerned with above all others is Levi and Erwin’s. Despite the wildly fantastic setting of the canon story, and the exaggerated tragedy of their lives, Levi and Erwin have an utterly believable adult relationship; one that is based on mutual trust, respect and understanding.  It frustrates me enormously when people deny their canon relationship, despite Yams being at paints to explain it repeatedly in the guidebooks. I want to shake them and ask what the hell they think a relationship looks like when you’re an exhausted 30 + year old war veteran who has spent their entire life fighting for survival.  It looks like this; finding someone who you can trust with your life. If you were to ask me what characterizes a successful adult relationship I would say it’s exactly this; mutual trust, respect and understanding, and when push comes to shove, the willingness to do everything in your power to help the person you hold most dear, even if that means letting them go.  Sorry this has turned into a bit of a rant Anon, but it does frustrate me a little when I see people negating what to me looks like a deeply touching and believable adult relationship. Perhaps that’s just a perspective that comes with age though.