I will say one part that I didn't mention. Floch did start to think about how Paradis would probably still fight each other. But that was a lil later. At the beginning he believed that the rumbling would solve all of their problems (see his conversation with Jean about not having to fight anymore for proof). Where Erwin believed from the very beginning that the fighting was never going to stop. So once again it just goes to show that Erwin would be against them. Floch thinking about that fact later only goes to show how their is no person in the right in either the Yeagerists and the Alliance and how their is no "good guy" in this scenario like so many people pretend their are in order to poop on the alliance, blah blah blah. You get it. Just had to try and protect myself from the "Um actually" crowd lol. Hope you liked the video!

Also Erwin had a much better understanding of human nature than Eren, so he wouldn’t be shocked when he saw how humanity outside the walls acted and he’d understand that it doesn’t make them all weak or all bad. So nothing about his mind would change, it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker and Erwin would still want to negotiate with humanity instead of killing them.

THANK YOU. Honestly I'm shocked at how many people didn't see how disillusioned he was with people fighting each other. I only disagree with one small point, and that's that Levi gave Armin the injection not because he believed he was the best choice, but as a selfish decision to let his friend, who was forced to be a "devil" out of necessity, with terrible guilt for the people he led to his death, finally be at peace and released from the hell he lived.

very well made video. i’m sick of people reducing his character to “selfish and cold” when it’s so obviously not true

One of Erwin's dreams, the one from his childhood was the idea and question if people lived outside of the wall. I find it hard to believe that he would choose to destroy all of humanity beyond the wall, because even in his last moment his mind went back to the idea of what if there are people outside of the wall.

We don't exactly know how erwin would be like post basement twist. All of his character motivations, his sacrifice plays were all to just know the truth and see of his or his father's theory was correct. His character motivations stop after that which is why I feel isayama decided to let erwin die there. Going to the outside world was always armin & erens dream.

this is an amazing analysis, not just obvious points about erwin’s character but also lots of stuff from earlier arcs people never bring up and all the connections between the uprising and the rumbling. it’s like people only focus on the mountain of corpses and not what made us love erwin: his selflessness and devotion to saving humanity in all of his best moments plus the music swelling when you show erwin’s final charge was incredible

10:08 i literally got shivers. This is exactly what I thought about Erwin in his final moments. So many expeditions done most of them for his dream but this last one was for HUMANITY. He's being selfless at this part he gave up his dream he spent his ENTIRE LIFE working on even if its so close to reality tangible even. Yet he gave that up for humanity.

I think what's important to note is that most of the survey corps had goals that were about discovering the world outside the walls, apart from eren, and then floch and the newer recruits, who were focused on killing all their enemies and achieving victory. The rumbling is destroying that outside world that they had dreamed of, including Erwin, so I don't see how he would ever support it.

The majority of people who claim that Erwin would have been in favor of the full-scale rumbling, are the same people that support the rumbling themselves. I think it’s mostly because nearly all fans agree that Erwin was the greatest character with the most fervently held principles in AOT. And as such, if they can convince themselves that the the most principled character would be in favor of the genocide of like 99% of humanity, they themselves can more easily justify it.

Erwin wouldn't not let the scouts get torn in fact he would've more then likely kept eren in check . Because erwin was the one people were loyal to . Hange was erwins 2nd in command next to Levi so her beliefs are more then likely the same as erwins .

I personally think that if Erwin had been alive, the situation would not have come to a point where the Rumbling would be necessary. I think he would have a better hold of the politics involved with opening up Paradis to the wider world.

The thing about Erwin that people forget is how he gambles. It's basically the Trolley problem. He gets the smaller number of people killed to save to larger number of people, or for a larger number of people that would be saved in the future due to that decision.

Good pionts! I DO want to point out there's a very, VERY, tiny (and mostly silent) section of fandom who believe there's no way to know whether Erwin would support the Rumbling or not. And they believe NO ONE is an heir to Erwin's legacy: Not Floch, Not Armin, Not Hange, Not Levi, and NOT Eren. No one. They wouldn't believe any of them have any similarities with Erwin either. I don't agree with this, but thought it fair to let it be known of their existence and that there more than two sides to this.

THANK U all I hear is people saying he would but I always completely disagreed. Man I wish isayama would tell us honestly

things would be definitely be better if erwin was alive,he doesn't necessarily have to support the rumbling,would paradis be even divide into two factions? Erwin can definitely hold them together for a common goal

I like your argument but I still might have to disagree. His whole life dream was like you said finding out what was in the basement. After doing that, his new motivation would be preserving the life inside at all cost. Like stated, he stands upon his dead comrades bodies. This was all built on their sacrifice. Now I’m not saying he’d go straight to killing, but I also believe the infighting wouldn’t have been as bad. I don’t think he would’ve fell for Zeke wine plan. But if things still got to the point where everyone gathered together to kill them, he would have to “become the devil “ and do what’s necessary in order to preserve humanity in the wall, as that was built on his comrades sacrifice.

long story short: "Erwin would not support Rumbling but if Eren started the Rumbling, he wouldn't turn the scout into Naruto squad and start going after Eren to stop the rumbling either because he is a logical man and not Naruto Uzumaki.

Erwin could stop the meteorite by just looking at it he could reassure some countries that Eren is not a threat as long as they work with them and unite them against Marley. My paradise an industrial country with modern weapons with the help of the Hisuru plan(or even maybe other new allies) He could have come up with such a brilliant plan that could establish peace for generations without a massive massacre That's what I think

I will admitted that I do not like Armin for seeking peace with Marley despite how much unlikely it is either. But I have always been neutral about whether or not Erwin will support the Rumbling. But I do still believed that had Erwin lived, he will come up with a better plan than Armin and Hange. Their plan is basically just hoping that Marley will listened to what they have to say while also failing to realize that Marley is nothing but a bully. And the only way the bully will listened is to use the aggressive negotiation like pointing a gun at the head to force the bully to comply. This is what Erwin will realized. Well, Eren did realize this as well and even tell Armin about this at one point but he seemed to not think much about it. Plus, Eren was too busy dealing with the fragments of reality he received after he kissed Historia's hand at the ceremony. But back to the point, Erwin will see the Rumbling as the last resort but also knowing that peaceful negotiation with Marley is not possible either. So what will he do? War is the only solution. But what about Yelena said about Marleyan military can deployed like million troops? Well, I take that with a grain of salt and I think Erwin will do the same, especially after he heard how much of praises Yelena is given to Zeke, the one who caused a lot of destruction to his home. But how can Paradis waged a war against Marley and win? This is where my plan, which I called the Heraclius Plan, entered the picture. This plan is named as such because it was inspired by how Emperor Heraclius forced Shah Khosrow II to accept peace on his own terms by launching military campaign into the Iranian heartland and cause damages as much as possible. In order to get the better picture of this plan, I suggested that you go watch a video about the last Roman-Persian War of 602-628 in order to at least roughly get the idea behind this plan. Of course, I wished I can tell you about this plan in details. But I cannot do that because I tried that before a few times but KZfaq does not allowed me. But back to this plan, the dedicing factors depended on timing and execution because it will worked to its fullest potential only when Paradis decided to attack Marley when Marley was preoccupied with the war against the Mid-East Allied Forces. By capturing ports such as Karifa and Liberio and put them under occupations, Paradis troops can launched devastating raids against Marley, destroy supply lines, ravage the countrysides, demolishing key cities that housing the factories that produce foods and weapons for the Marleyan military. And when the news of these attacks reached the troops on the Mid-Eastern front, Zeke will most likely volunteered to come back to deal with them. But when he did arrive, Zeke instead defected and assist Paradis' troops in their rampaging campaign in order to gain Eren's trust. Eventually, wars on two fronts and the secession crisis in Onyankopon's homeland will forced Marley to negotiate with its enemies when the Tybur family is being forced to choose between international humiliation and economic collapse and accept peace on their terms. After the war ended, Marley will not be able to wage a war against anyone for a while due to the need of economic recovery.

Please don’t take this as a backhanded compliment, it’s meant as a regular one: I looked through your channel and given that it seems like you have only been doing videos for about a year, and your sub count is still in the early stages of growth, I am extremely impressed with the level of thought, time, effort and overall interest/passion of this video as well as some of the others I’ve skimmed through. You will definitely go far if you keep providing this quality of content.

Choosing Armin was the start of the downfall of the series

I Agree most of what you had said but the reason i hate armin is because he almost didn't do anything during the event that led to rumbling. Being one of that was chosen instead of erwin. Erwin being alive would make this more you could say more interesting in a story than what it is now. And maybe eren making the decision to do the rumbling wouldn't have come to fruition.

Armin is my favorite character of the entire series and while it hurt to see Erwin miss out on his dream he also deserved to rest after so much death. I'm not sure he'd have taken being revived over Armin as well as some think. He'd have weathered the storm sure, but it would have been so much guilt. It was such a treat to watch Armin over one his insecurities and really come into his own. You could actually see some of that Erwin passion in him at the end. Overall I loved the series from start to finish.

I know this sounds weird but ur videos are really helping me relieve some stress right now cuz I got final exams coming up in june and Im definetly not ready, but these vids kinda put me in my own space for a while where I really just get to reflect on my favourite shows. Also this is one of my favourite vids from you keep up the good work and I can’t wait till the updated aot final chapter thoughts

damn right I don't like flop Armin, Erwin should have gotten the injection even if he didn't support the rumbling he would still keep everything in place, banger video btw.

why doesn’t this have more views? Very well researched, edited, and voiced!!!

This point really doesn't matter that much because Erwin more likely could have come up with a solution that wouldn't make Eren resort to the rumbling in the first place. We saw Eren begging Hange for a better solution and she couldn't Armin couldn't either and wasn't in the position to do so anyway since he wasn't the scouts leader or leader of paradis. I 100% feel Erwin would have had better solutions and would have been closer to a diplomatic solution, he had the charisma, the willingness to dirty his hands, and the brains and charisma is arguably the most important aspect in getting the support of others that Armin lacked

I think it all comes down to whether Erwin would have ventured out into the outside world or stayed in Paradis. All the characters besides Eren who made that trip and actually experienced humanity outside Paradis were not ok with the rumbling, whereas others such as Floch who don't see the outside world until they are at war with them do not have any emotional connection with those living on the outside. I know that this also comes down to their personalities, and that Floch and many Yeagerists are simply more cold hearted, but we see the warriors do basically the same thing to Paradis that the Yeagerists are doing to the world and it's not until they develop deeper connections that they truly start to empathize with those who live there. I believe the same to be for most characters. I mean even Armin was willing to kill at least a few tens of thousands of innocents to save his friends at Liberio even after experiencing the outside world and overall being one of the most empathetic characters in the series. This is also seen in characters such as Daz and Samuel. We don't know nearly as much about them as the main characters but we know they are not cold hearted people, theyre just scared. The only difference between them and Armin or Connie is that they are unable to empathize with faceless 'enemies' that they know near nothing about. Sorry this kinda turned into a Yeagerist apologist rant, but I really do believe that the many of the Yeagerists are simply more morally correct than Erwin, who convinced teenagers to kill themselves without even considering any other option.

Thanks for this, I definitely 100% agree with you that Erwin would never EVER be a Jagerist. I respect that man a lot and I know he cares about people…constant war and death can make you disillusioned and numb but I feel he cares more deeply about his comrades than most people think. If he was truly selfish, he’d prioritise his goal over sacrificing himself as you said. With Eren…I am really unsure what to think about him, he definitely has absolutely horrendous anger issues since he was a kid and he has been selfish a lot of the time, but he’s also shown he cares and feels remorse…I think he’s only doing this because it’s the only way to save his friends. But then how he manipulated his Father was disgusting…honestly I’m unsure if he does actually care for Mikasa and Armin…was he lying to them so that they’d hate him and kill him so he can be the scapegoat to peace between nations or are those his true feelings?Eren is really confusing to me…but there is no way Erwin would partake in a genocide, no matter the reason. Also no idea why people hate Armin, he’s a great guy.

Maybe not for his character, but objectively speaking the choice between Armin and Erwin is a a reflection of the choice for or against Eren. Erwin is also objectively an excceptionally selfish person, and even admitted multiple times, not just to Levi but to his own superiors, that he would sacrifce humanity just for his dream. He's sacrificed so many people that the only way for him to cope with his atroccities is to keep Eren alive no matter the cost to the outside world. Erwin is also a gambler, he was banking on the gamble he'd live and that he couldn't see the truth. Also, he DID know of the outside world, he knew that there was at least one empire outside of the walls working with titans in order to kill everyone on Paradis. Erwin wouldn't want to do the Rumbling, but Erwin also would have acted very quickly, the idea of a full scale rumbling wouldn't even cross their minds. He'd have understood the situation a lot better than Hange did. Also, Erwin purposly drew soldiers from other regiments in order to sacrifice them for his own gains without their consent. He also sacrified hundreds of innocent civilians to capture Annie. The bloodless coup was Erwin manipulating Pyxis and trying to gain popular support, and not a representation of his actions at all. Also, objectively speaking, Eren's plan is one that would work if he succeeded. It's even confirmed in the manga itself, but Erwin would have undoubtedly have found a different way that works with Eren and his goals. Erwin's entire worldview would be traumatically and dramatically changed because he has 13 years left to live, he doesn't have time, and I believe that's a MASSIVE point to give to Erwin supporting Eren and the rumbling or at least a partial rumbling. Also, him dying for mankind is one of his gambles and another selfish action done by itself. He fully believed people existed outside the wall, he's believed that since a kid. To him it is reality even if he doens't fully understand that. It's essentialy a religious zeal he has, so when the outside world was wanting Eldia dead would be a massive shock that would make him a prime subject for Eren manipulating Erwin, at least temporarlity. Eren is a religious core to Erwin. Erwin would support a partial rumbling no question, but he'd fill the same roll Armin did after seeing Eren sent ALL of the titans out. Erwin would have probably acted slower after finding this, and Levi would probably force him back on track if he's not dead. More of humanity would be dead outside the walls, Armin managed to save 20%, I imagine Erwin would have only been able to save maybe 10%, maybe even less outside of Paradis. I also agree that a lot of people just hate Armin and instantly assume the inverse would happen if Erwin was chosen. The fact is, the Rumbling will happen regardless. It's only a question of how much of the outside will be still left, and I believe that Erwin would save less people than Armin did, and that he may even intitially support it, and seek to understand what Eren's true objective is. One he learns for certain that Eren will genocide all of mankind outside the walls he'll likely crack, and cost valuable time. That said, people don't seem to care at all about how important of a role Mikasa will share in this. We've just assumed she'd do nothing, but with the loss of Armin, I genuinly believe that Mikasa would have told Eren she loves him and to run away with her, and that the rumbling would never happen, that they'd live his remaining years out. The reason Armin was chosen, was because Eren wanted to do the rumbling.

I've always thought that if Erwin Smith was alive, he'd try to negotiate Idk some badass mind games probably that he's so good at. Something that neither Armin or Hange wouldn't be able to think of but something only he'd be able to pull off bc idk experience in being a leader and a good chess player at that? (Aot2 game)

Really enjoyed this video, glad I watched it

Erwin was sacrificing people who voluntarily gave their lives to him. Different than a genocide lol

immediate agreement with the title.

People love coping he wouldn't of, we all know he is just as big of a devil like Eren is.

Nice vid! Honestly, I agree The point of Erwin taking risks in the first place was to find out if his dad's theory was right--- that there is still more outside the walls, unexplored territory, new discoveries to be made I mean, his last thoughts before death was answering his dad's question!

Lol if Erwin will not agree with the rumbling them he wouldn't agree with the clown alliance either 🤡😂😂😂😂 he was a Chad

Armin is more useless than sakura

FINALLY! I have been saying this for so long! Erwin could've stopped it one way or another, choosing Armin was a mistake. Erwin would have done everything *humanly* possible to establish peace with the rest of the world. He could have dome it. Erwin is GOAT. Erwin always wanted to know the truth regardless of what it is and wanted to rid the threat of Titans to humanity, Eren and his rumbling was the threat he fought against his whole life despite it being different from his original perspective. As Hange said "we're back to our original mission".

About the idea that the Alliance are "anti-Paradis". Here's a scene from the manga that could well disprove that. SPOILERS. CHAPTER 139 (THE FINAL CHAPTER) . . . . Don't forget that the Alliance's final scene in the manga is them sailing to Paradis to conduct peace talks. Annie and Pieck point out how the Jägerists could kill them all, since they're considered enemies and traitors. Jean and Connie's families live in Historia's protective custody so the Jägerists don't kill them. But they still move forward with the hope of establishing peace...with Paradis! I don't think they're anti-Paradis. Too idealistic? Maybe. But not anti-Paradis.

6:07 I literally forgot about that too Erwin literally says he wants to overthrow the government without spilling blood

yeah people say "all he does is try to talk things out" as if that's not the ideal way to handle things???

Very good video. Thanks for being so thorough. Erwin was an incredible character who always thought about saving the most people with as few deaths as possible. I also agree he would support a small-scale rumbling just like Armin. Personally i think Isayama had to kill Erwin off otherwise the plot would be too imbalanced and boring. Erwin would keep things "stable" but since Armin is still young and learning he couldn't know how to resolve things like how Erwin would, and the plot stays "exciting" as it sets up an epic anti-hero.

My question is what would he have done to defend the outside world then, cause eren did the rumbling cause there was no other alternatives. Erwin literally said eliminate enemy threats, so why would he join the enemy to destroy the island his soldiers died protecting? If he was to join the alliance and kill and betrayed the island he would’ve betrayed everything he said in his final charge. I think you just want him not to defend it cause then he would be against the alliance, and Erwin isn’t foolish enough to trust people who were genociding the island to help him.

You've built a strawman to defeat the argument. I agree it's stupid to think Erwin would become a Jeagerist. They were brutal, xenophobic and all kinds of messed up and Erwin would never tolerate that. But he WOULD support Eren none the less. And that's because Eren, unlike the Jeagerists has seen and experienced the outside world. He heard even the most pro-Eldian political group openly supporting genocide of Eldians within the walls. He heard Willy proclaim a global, genocidal war on Paradis and representatives of all major nations cheering in tears. He saw first hand that the world has been building up hatred for Eldians for thousands of years, and came to detest them so much, they were all happy to join hands with Marley, basically the Nazis of the AoT universe, just to murder them all. He went through all of the peaceful options with all the geniuses he could find, like Zeke and Armin, saw that all of them included Eldians being AT BEST given a little bit more time, but eventually being erased from existance just the same. You are misquoting Erwin over and over when you're trying to show how he chose humanity over himself. Erwin fought to save HIS PEOPLE. "Humanity" in the walls. Just like Eren. The innocent, ignorant people who had their memories stolen and were going to be slowly fed to titans before they inevitably go extinct. People who only wantedtbeir freedom back. This racist, genocidal humanity that lives outside the walls, Erwin never fought for, or cared about. Armin only chose the outside world over the Eldians because the outside world WAS HIS DREAM. His obsession. And in that Erwin and Armin were never the same. That was the whole point of Levi's choice. Not the fact that Armin and Erwin are alike. But that they are fundamentally different in the end. In the end, Erwin cared for humanity in the walls more than anything, while Armin always cared for the outside world more than anything. It doesn't take a genius to know how each of them would see the Rumbling. Armin's plan of "test rumbling" included sacrifising Historia and her children to make them into anither royal family that is cannibalizing each other to hold on to the power. The same royal family Erwin helped to overthrow. It included Eldians accepting their own inevitable demise as titans were becoming obsolete as war weapons by the second. The same Eldians for whom Erwin sacrifised everything to protect. He would NEVER go along with Armin's plan. The very idea is silly.

It's here!

You had me till the first half 100%, still you started saying he is like Armin, don't disgrace him like that ! Armin could never be even 2% as far-sighted as Erwin, period. Armin has proved times and times again that yes he might be able to get them out of the situations currently, but never has been able to predict, plan and think outside the box like his enemies and thus the failures over and over again.

Bro i need to let this out. Im so fuckin pissed at this youtube algorithm. How the fuck are you still at 3k subs with this type pf QUALITY content i just dont get it. I hope the numbers don't discourage you. Please give it your best till the end. I just know that you deeply feel the characters you analyze and thats what makes your videos so entertaining i hope people will catch on sooner rather later.

For some reason, the sequence starting at 10:01 gets me unbelievably hyped.

I mostly agree with this video, just one nit-pick: up until the basement reveal, everyone on Paradis believed they were the last of humanity, which is what Erwin fought for to protect and to prosper. Having learned that humanity is NOT on the brink of extinction, and that there are billions of other humans existing in the outside world, it might change Erwin's outlook on humanity (given the hatred of his people), but not enough to where he'd support omnicide. In order to protect the people of Paradis, he'd try to take the most diplomatic approach while spilling bloodshed where absolutely necessary.

Bold of you to assume Erwin would have ever left Eren’s basement

One thing I never see anybody bring up is how in Shiganshina, Armin wasn't just chosen by Levi. When he lifted Erwin's arm to give him the injection, ERWIN HIMSELF threw his arm up and refused to let Armin die. somehow I never see anyone on either side bring this up.

I understand Erwin wouldn’t be okay with the rumbling, the problem everyone forgets is that the other choices they were left with were horrible. They were the euthanasia plan and historia plan, both being horrible and not a definite solution. I think with all things considered, Erwin would of hated it but knew the rumbling was the only option

Yes You are right Now I am gonna just put the link to this video whenever people mention Erwin siding with Rumbling cause I really agree with this video

Yes, the dude who was selfish to sacrifice many innocent lives to reach the basement, would agree to Eldia to die out. Cope more!

I can understand why you would think that it's well explained but for the reason that erwin sent himself and others to their deaths to let levi have a chance at killing the beast titan. Would in my opinion make him at least side with erens ideals. Besides he was the one who stood up for Erens titans back when everyone wanted to kill him. He wants his goals of the outside and to protect his people.

Thank you for this video I feel good some one sees Armin and Erwin are one in the same

Absolutely love how you articulated and structured your points, you deserve more way more eyes on you.

A lot of point I disagree.... Erwin already knew the real enemy are humans... When asked eren who is the enemy

Hange is key. Chosen by Erwin as his successor, I think they see the world in very similar ways.

Loved this. So much personality. Great points. Subscribed.

It's kinda weird to hear Flock call himself by his name on his own video

Great video! Some excellent points!

Im not gonna trust anyone who says are-min 😭💀

But Erwin would not try to stop the rumbling once it starts. Erwin was VERY morally flexible when making choices, it's impossible for him to choose the world over paradis when it comes to a "them vs us" scenario

THANK YOU

i cant figure out how the title makes sense at all, what does Erwins support of a controversial solution have to do with Armin??

Even so. Eren would destroy the world because the raid in Liberio would be a huge succes since Erwin wouldn't just transform but also help Eren killing every soldier(Including Gabi). With Eren having a supreme form of the Founding Titan the World would be done for.

Erwin is the reverse Eren. Or Eren is reverse Erwin.

If Erwin knew who eren would become Erwin would have HATED eren.

Video idea: why I’m not a yeagerist

Ahh okay so bro is saying Erwin would be willing to not kill but kill sometimes but wouldn’t go along with the rumbling. Just a contradiction on its own.

The point is that erwin would have done something to prevent the situation from needing the rumbling, instead of spendint years doing nothing like the braindead survey corps people and imposter armin

Might just be me, but his final speech was pretty Pro-Rumbling: “My soldiers do not buckle or yield when faced with the cruelty of this world. My soldiers push forward. My soldiers scream out My soldiers RAGE”

A year ago I would have vehemently disagreed but after that ending, I am just happy Erwin was killed off before his character was ruined.

commander erwin was the right choice not armin

erwin was known for his intelligence & capability to critically thing, eren was not, so

Thank you very much for this video. 🙏🏽

Yea I keep hearing this and I never rly understood it. It just sounds like an edge lord fantasy to me. I think a lot of it stems from thinking that the rumbling is a strategic and rational option rather than a violent and extreme option that was made by a violent, extreme, paranoid and irrational man. Erwin himself is a strategic man, I don’t think he goes about anything in a vengeful way. I think he’d go about the situation in a similar fashion to Armin, like a chess game. Eren was never looking to play tho, he just pushed all his pieces towards the enemy and went for a final gambit straight away, mainly because he lacked a strategic mindset, was low on time and is just a violent,aggressive person. None of that applies to Erwin. I can’t imagine him saying with a straight face “yea 80% of these mfs need to go”, there’s nothing to suggest that he’d feel the need to sacrifice that much of humanity for Paradis. I think the closest to that, and the thing that may be making these ppl think that, is him saying that he sacrificed all those soldiers for his dream. But it’s a different situation; he was confessing there that he played the role of a noble commander who wanted to rid the world of titans/save humanity because it lead him to his dream. I think ppl mistake him not particularly caring about saving humanity with not caring about saving humanity at all. He’s not a sociopath. He didn’t just coldly sacrifice ppl for his benefit. He was dishonest sure, but he was filling a pre existing role that needed to be filled and would’ve been filled. It kinda didn’t matter what his end goal was or if he was honest about it or not. He’s making necessary sacrifices that would’ve been made if he truly was that person he was pretending to be or by someone else in his position if he never became commander. That’s not the same thing as Eren’s doing. I think some ppl might also argue that Erwin had a “greater good” or “us or them” mindset but I don’t think there’s anything that suggest that it’s as strong as Eren’s and also if Erwin would consider the rest of the world his enemy. I mean the police in the 1st 3 seasons were against him, did he kill all of them? He was only ever focused on killing titans; he was never trying to kill mankind or make mankind better or prioritising some groups of ppl over others. Idk why in a situation where it’s either side with Eren and let him kill the whole of humanity outside of Paradis or side with the rest of humanity and stop Eren, he’d choose to side with Eren

I am not saying Erwin would support Mass Genocide, BUT I am pretty sure he'd be okay with committing some war crimes, keeping in mind that he was okay with luring Annie to a fairly populated area, leading to a lot of innocent deaths, or sacrificing the Scouts just to see if there are people outside the walls.

for people who think of erwin as this incredibly selfish man he's made out to be, keep that closed mind and consider this: even if erwin was selfish and wanted humanity beyond the walls to die and protect the humanity he was familiar with - do you seriously think he would support eren flattening the world beyond? think about it, erwin was in a sense a vessel for his dad's theory. he saught to prove that and he did everything in his power from the moment his dad was killed to seek his avengement through that medium. should he have been chosen and seen the outside world, he would NOT want the rumbling to take place because all of the evidence, land, history, technological advancements, EVERYTHING his dad would have wanted to see and experience would be erased. it's madness to think he'd be okay with that, he'd devote the rest of his life to learning more, educating himself and coming to understand the people of this outside world, not just kille them off and flatten it all in a blind rage. that man had too much self control and awareness, he was so considerate of every factor. if he'd go mad at anything it'd be seeing his dad's theories being quite literally flattened.👆

FINALLY SOMEONE WITH SOME SENSE. Erwin judges himself as a supremely selfish because he's actually incredibly compassionate.

Armin is a badly written character, that being said Erwin would have totally used the rumbling to make the rest of the world surrender.

Somepeople not only don't have Armin as their favorite character... but actually dislike/hate him??? What the fuck he's the best!

8:03 maybe because that majority wants to destroy his homeland dah :/

10:10 he asks LEVI to make decision for him it was levi choice not erwin choice :)

what a cope... Levi: "But what are we going to do after retaking Wall Maria?" Erwin: "Eliminating threats. There seems to be someone out on the other side of the walls who's determined to see us eaten by titans."

Erwin sacrificed his own ppl to keep moving forward. If he found out the world was HELL BENT on eradicating paradis, there no way he wouldn't side with Eren.

the idea of erwin supporting eren is the biggest blasphemy there is. rofl. there might've been things he's done that appear selfish but selfishness isn't necessarily inherently all 'bad' or negative. considering tons of positive outcome resulted from it.

ERWIN would never ever support the rumbling. The Yeagerists would be a small nursery club if he was alive. They base off their argument by saying that Erwin said he'd kill whoever was against them if there were humans beyond the wall. Which is under his assumption that there's only one group of people against them. Rather than the whole world. We cannot conclude that he would support the rumbling. It can be a headcanon for you but that's just not how Erwin is.

Even if Erwin didn't support the rumbling he would still be more useful than Armin

One thing that people need to know, Erwin is someone who can be objective about other people, but when it comes to describing himself... ...he is the most unreliable narrator of all unreliable narrators This guy believe he is a monster for sacrifing his soldiers, when in reality, scout regiments under his command has the least casualties because of his strategy. He succesfully take over the corrupt government without civilian casualties, gamble his own life, almost get hang for it and what did he do? Let himself be manipulated by that vile Zackley that he is selfish, that perhaps the government is better left untouched. He imagined pile of bodies underneath his feet, blaming him for their death, forgetting the fact that every single one of them has swore to truly dedicate their heart to humanity, not to him. He believe himself selfish for wanting the truth about their world. He totally has this skewed perception of himself. Do you believe that the guy who possess that much guilt, self-loathing, and conscience would support wiping out the entire world?

Yea I also don’t think Erwin would support it either if anything Erwin and armin are so alike even from their childhood both of them wanted to see the world outside the walls and both h their parents were killed for their views of the world outside the walls(sure we didn’t find out what happened to Armin’s parents but I doubt they made it outside the walls and were probably killed by the military police)

EXACTOMONIOUSLY my g plus Erwin likes to gamble, siding with the Jaegerists are the guaranteed win for Eldia a true gamble is going against them, then the fate of Eldia and the rest of the world is truly a 50/50 gamble

Erwin pledged to protect humanity. Humanity. Not Eldia. Not Paradis island. Humanity. That goalpost doesn't move.

Its funny i love both erwin and armin for like pretty similar reasons

It's so cute to think that this is anything other than a zero sum game.

The scouts were always about putting the needs of humanity over their own even if it costs them everything. In the end even the warriors were better scouts than floch and the yaegerists ever could be and saying erwin would support a genocide is simply an insult to his character. He was selfish sure but even when he could have abandoned everyone to fulfill his dreams he stuck by his soldiers to do what was best for humanity.

All I have to say is his name is pronounced like the Hepbern, Eruvin, but 'u' is silent.