User blog comment:Yawyawyaw/Chapter 56 predictions/@comment-179280-20140402210604/@comment-10733658-20140404045723

Ah, the great debate concerning morality and the trio.

What I think is a very interesting narrative element is Annie's killing of Squad Levi. While we empathize so much with them over the nameless mooks, her killing of them is handled very differently when you remove emotion from the equation. With the nameless mooks, we see her engaging in some pretty cruel killings and killing when it wasn't necessary. With Squad Levi, while we're more emotionally invested in that battle.......that battle is clearly presented as one where only one side was going to survive. And Annie clearly takes it more seriously, being pressed to the point of having to reveal several unique abilities to survive.

I definitely disagree with labeling the Titan Trio as evil, since even without knowing their side of the story we have enough evidence within the narrative to show they aren't evil characters. All three either outright express remorse over their actions, or exhibit major signs of trauma over everything that happened. Though it is true that Annie doesn't have as much focus compared to the several chapters used to illustrate Reiner and Bertolt as sympathetic anatagonists. But Isayama has outright described Annie as not being evil, but a "normal girl" with the added laughter scene in the anime meant to show her conflicting emotions. Ultimately, we don't have enough information to really know where the trio stands. I tend to err on side of considering them sympathetic, because we know from the Volume 12 epilogue that Ymir (the only one with a full grasp of the bigger picture and no alliances besides Krista) empathizes with their situation.