Warning: The following article contains spoilers for part three of Attack on Titan‘s final season, as well as its ending.
Set in a world where being eaten alive by a titan is a very real threat, Attack on Titan has never had romantic relationships at the forefront of its narrative. Granted, love has been present in the series but romance in general tends to be overshadowed by more pressing matters, which given the state of the world is very understandable.
When the story does focus on love, however, it’s usually the platonic kind — the love characters have for family, friends, comrades, and in some cases, humanity itself. That said, being a series that doesn’t shy away from tackling emotions realistically or humanizing its antagonists, Attack on Titan does portray romantic attachments. Of course, the most obvious example is Mikasa and Eren, but Armin and Annie are another great one.
Annie might have been out of commission for most of the series, stuck in a crystal prison of her own making, but that didn’t deter Armin’s feelings. Although some consider his love to be merely a result of inheriting Bertholdt’s memories, four years is a lot of time to be holding one-sided conversations, and Armin’s romantic interest has only grown stronger during that time. From the moment that Armin’s feelings became obvious, fans started to speculate about how this pairing would end up, and with both the manga and its anime adaptation now officially concluded, we have an answer.
Warning: Spoilers to follow.
Do Annie and Armin become a couple in Attack on Titan?
In chapter 131 of the Attack on Titan manga, “Rumbling,” which was adapted in season 4’s part 3, Armin and Annie share a bonding moment. Annie thanks her friend for keeping her company for years and questions his motivations for doing so. Armin indirectly confesses his feelings by claiming he wanted to see her, and although Annie attempts to brush that off as him simply being a good person, it’s clear she is affected by the words.
Later, even Mikasa puts together that Annie returns Armin’s feelings, but unfortunately, their romantic storyline is left at that. This means that despite Armin and Annie’s feelings for one another being hinted at enough times, neither the manga nor the anime ever offer confirmation of these characters’ relationship status. Some fans consider that the story implies that Armin and Annie are together after the Rumbling, when the two are seen heading for Paradis Island alongside Reiner, Jean, Connie, and Pieck, but there’s no hard evidence to back that up.
Because the anime sometimes differs from the source material, there was hope that it would give us a definitive answer to the question of whether or not these two become a couple, but we got nothing other than Annie standing close to Armin. Thus, without explicit confirmation, it’s impossible to consider this a canonical relationship. This is far from the most controversial aspect of Attack on Titan‘s ending, but it’s definitely something not everyone is satisfied with.