User blog comment:Neetaku/A Rewrite of Attack on Titan/@comment-33179739-20180213094152/@comment-24407809-20180213160934

You know, I actually thought about keeping Franz and Hannah alive too, but I decided to keep them dead, at least in this blog, for practicality purposes. If I had kept too many characters alive, I would have ended up making the blog twice as long, having to more extensively rewrite the series in order to accomodate for the fact that they were still alive.

But... not that you've mentioned it, it's given me an even better idea of how to utilize both their characters, and Thomas and Mina's characters. If Franz and Hannah were still alive, I'd rewrite the series even, more and have Connie die during the Survey Corps' mission to rescue Eren from Reiner and Bertolt. From there, I'd have Franz, Hannah, and Mina join Squad Levi with the rest of the 104th recruits, in order to take over the roles that Connie and Sasha have left behind.

During the Uprising arc, I'd have Franz die during Squad Levi's first battle with the anti-personnel control squad, which leaves Hannah traumatized (and also can act as an extra motivator for Armin when he makes the decision to shoot the soldier that is threatening to kill Jean). Hannah dealing with the emotional fallout of Franz's death would be something that is a part of her character all the way to the Return to Shiganshina.

After the Return to Shiganshina (where I'd still kill off Mina), Hannah would basically take over both Connie and Sasha's roles in the Survey Corps' attack on Marley.

Yeah, I've thought for a long time that Armin was given the perfect death for his character, so it's a real shame that Isayama decided to keep him alive. And yeah, I completely agree that it's unrealistic, the way he survived all of those horrible burn injuries, and that fall.