Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25322628-20160319002309/@comment-24930713-20160320054723

Considering keeping them alive could have resulted in his imprisonment/execution/disappearance, as well as the continuance of the Reiss succession ritual, it makes more sense for him to kill them all. In fact, had he succeeded, Rod would have never shown Eren what happened. And as bad as Eren is with using any portion of the Coordinate, he likely would have never found out. At least, until someone explained how Titan Shifters are created.

I partially agree that he was a bad parent for having Eren eat him so he can be a Titan Shifter, regardless of his reasons. Him trying to kill off the Reiss family doesn't figure in it for me. As I said, had he succeeded, no one would have known. I agree that Alma was a terrible mother. I agree that Kenny was somewhat of a terrible replacement parent, I don't think he should have abandoned Levi. It's hard to say about Armin's parents. The assumption was that they were the couple trying to fly outside the walls in a hot air balloon. But if the translation I saw was right, it might not have been, his parents died after being sent of to reclaim Wall Marie. Though, I guess both scenarios could be true, since no time frame was given for each event, so... And I guess Annie's dad was just doing what he thought was best, that, and we don't know exactly what he has to apologize for. But other than that, parents in the series have seemed pretty okay in my opinion, from what little we get to see of them.