User blog comment:Neetaku/A Rewrite of Attack on Titan/@comment-33179739-20180213094152

I agree with this for the most part. Whilst Attack on Titan is a series where I worry for the characters, you know that there’s no real danger of the main characters dying off (except Erwin and Bertholdt).

Isayama didn’t allow enough character development for us to gain a connection with any of the characters they killed off. Yes, you need those "puppets" to show that it is a deadly situation out there, but they need to kill off main characters (as much as it hurts to say that) in order to trigger any intense emotions from the fan base.

Having Thomas and Mina alive is a great idea, I feel they were characters that had great potential. They died after you only just began to get to know them, so you couldn’t really fully relate with them, because you didn’t know enough about them.

Two other characters from the 104th cadet squad that I’d like to be kept alive a little longer would be Hannah and Franz (the couple). Replace Franz's death with someone else’s, and keep them alive until the Trost arc. Having Franz maybe sacrifice himself for Hannah, leaving him as a heroic character, that will trigger many emotions from the fans. Have Hannah being very torn up about his death, and perhaps giving her a mental breakdown later in the series regarding his death. Perhaps her breakdown results in someone else’s death, for example back in Shiganshina, maybe seeing Reiner triggers memories of Franz, and Mina tries to save her from the blast, and then they both end up dying.

Or perhaps have her die earlier, in the arc where Hannes dies (is that still included in the Trost arc??)

Whilst I don’t like to admit it, seeing as Armin is my favourite character in the series, having him die there would make for a good, heart wrenching death. Having a main character die off late in the series would break everyone’s hearts, especially seeing as he had big dreams that he’d left unaccomplished. His reanimation was slightly unrealistic, in terms of him somehow surviving that, although like I said, I’m glad he’s alive.

Also, when he emerges from the Titan, does anyone else notice that he’s wearing pants? Like, where did they come from? Weren’t they burnt off his body? Did the steam from the Colossal Titan somehow burn off everything except his pants? Did Eren and Mikasa go "Hey, before we save his life, why don’t we put some pants on him? They’ll probably cause him even greater pain considering he has severe burns to his legs and he could potentially die at any second, but let’s put some pants on". Or maybe becoming a Titan gives you a free pair of pants? Who knows.

Anyways, I liked this post! I think you have heaps of great ideas, and you should write a fanfic or something!