Board Thread:Theories/@comment-29978021-20160915234054/@comment-29958651-20160916152919

Well, at first, I'm really sorry for the lenght of my comment below.

Now let's talk about the narrator. Currently, I'm browsing back in Volume 1, and there is no clear clue that the narrator have to be Armin. To me, it looks more like the third-person narration, but who knows. Maybe it's really just a coincidence based on the same voice actor, maybe not. I'm quite sure, that the potentional identity of the narrator would be revealed at the very end of the series (on the other hand, as for now I can't even think of any manga written in first-person narration. The majority of them are written in third-person narration, because it's more comfortable for the mangaka to change the locations or characters. Even the series like Death Note, which are strongly surrounded by their main character, usually contain material typical for the third-person narration).

Then the question about Eren. In literature, the narrator of the story shouldn't be necessary also the main character. Just look at the Great Gatsby (narrated by Nick Carraway), Sherlock Holmes' Adventures (narrated by Dr. Watson) or The Name of the Rose (narrated by the monk Adso). On the other hand, I agree that nowadays it's more often to see the main character being also the narrator.

2000 from now seems to me more like a effusive warning than reliable setting. I can't see why would Isayama use that large amount of time (maybe biblical alusion???)

Well, that thing with Armin being ,,Carried''. I think it's clearly just a matter of symbolism. Armin being covered by blood can symbolise many things -

1. The huge amount of deaths, that took the Trost district defense. Remember that the new intro is meant to celebrate the ,,Humanity's First Victory''

2. The changes in cadets' view of the world. As was said, the world is kill or to be killed , and this was shown during the Trost Arch very often. Armin, as the most ,,innocent'' one, accepts this by his very disturbing smile.

3. The new tone of the series. After the Trost Arch (I'm not considering the short Eve of Countterack) we are going to enter the Female Titan Arch. Why is this one more cruel than the Trost Arch? Well, at Trost, it seemed like Humans vs Titans, BUT after the revelation of the Female Titan we discovered, that the things are far more complicated. Jean, Reiner, the whole Special Operations Squad and even the whole Survey Corps were attacked by someone intelligent, who KNEW them, someone, who was till the moment of revelation trusted as a member of the Millitary. So the deaths of Petra, Oluo or Eld are way different that the previous ones. Humanity vs Dumb Titans changed to Humanity vs Intelligent Human Traitor with Ability to become a Skilled Titan. That's even scarier than the Shiganshina or Trost Archs.

4. Maybe they just tried to add some gore. Like ,,Let's make Armin looking like Alucard''

5. Resemblance with previously mentioned Carrie (Stephen King). After Carrie was covered by the pig blood, she began her own revenge and started killing her enemies in vendetta style. As for this opinion, Humanity is compared to Carrie (underfoot by Titans). Humanity (thanks to the Trost victory) are from that moment going to revenge all the suffering, they must previously accepted.

As for the issue with Armin being the New Colossal Titan, I would agree that this is not going to happen. As for now, we don't know how exactly the devouring of the Shifters affect on the new Shifter's appearence (well, we just must wait for this to be shown), but I personally think, that Armin in his Titan Form shouldn't necessary copy the original design of Bertold. Honestly, I hope we will see him as a new type of Titan :-)