Pairing AOT characters with Ethel Cain songs
this is a whole lot of bullshit and not proofread but:
Armin - Nettles
“We were in a race to grow up”
“to love me is to suffer me”- self loathing
“I pray the race is worth the fight”
“And they did to me what I wouldn’t do to anyone” - my kind sweet Armin
“I wanna bleed… the way that boys do” idk something about this makes me think of Armin, and him thinking that he’s weak compared to Eren and the other guys like Jean and Reiner.
Eren - Tempest
First of all tempest means a violent windy storm
“You’re too late, I’ll hurt myself if I want, I don’t care” he let himself become a monster
“I am young and naive, I don’t know what I need”
“I still dream of violence” he was constantly thinking of violence from the time he was a boy, it was in his blood.
“Don’t ask me why I hate myself” I think he was constantly consumed by self loathing due to not being able to protect the ones he loved.
“I wanna go home” he just wants to be w Mikasa😔
“I’m gonna regret this… forever”
Bertholdt - strangers
“You devour like smoked bovine hide, how funny, I never considered myself tough” he always thought himself the meeker one compared to Reiner even though he had the colossal.
“I tried to be good, am I no good” Bertholdt really tried to do his duty as a warrior, yet he still failed.
“If I’m turning in your stomach and I’m making you feel sick”
“Don’t think about it too hard or you’ll never sleep a wink at night again”
“Don’t worry about me and these green eyes” when Armin sees him after he first eats him and it’s bertholdt crying in his Titan form but his eyes are so distinct within his titan, idk kind of reminded me of this line.
Levi - Sun bleached flies
“Good luck taking care of yourself… cause that’s how my Daddy Raised me” - Kenny was his only father figure and he abandoned him to figure out how to survive by himself.
“We all know how it goes, the more it hurts, the less it shows”
“But I always knew that in the end no one was coming to save me” I feel like Levi wants to rely on his fellow scouts but it usually ends up as him fighting by himself
“So I met him there and told him I believe… if it’s meant to be then it will be” Levi consistently putting his trust in Erwin
Erwin - Dust Bowl
“You’d be a writer if he didn’t leave all his hell for you” his father’s beliefs about the outside world were what led Erwin to become the man he was.
“Pretty boy consumed by death” Erwin believed this himself, that he was constantly consumed by the death of his comrades, as he was the one responsible for sending them there.
“Natural blood stained blond”
Mikasa - Waco, Texas
“Yeah you’ve changed, but did I ever know you or did I hold you?” She says something of this nature at some point about Eren, as to if he changed or he was always like this.
“I never meant to hurt you, but I knew I would” her having to kill him in the end.
“Yeah my baby acts cool but they all know something ain’t right” yeah cause something is seriously not right w that boy.
“I loved you when it hurt inside to”
“Love is not enough in this world” she loved Eren but that could not save him from his end.
“You know I’d do anything for you” she truly loved him so much.
“Do you hate me?” Ughh
Reiner - Family Tree
“But he cannot escape his mother’s blood… he’ll never escape what he’s made up of” - mothers eldian blood
“The fates already fucked me sideways, swinging by my neck from the family tree”
“Jesus can always reject his father” Reiner’s father’s Marleyan blood means nothing, it’s his mothers eldian blood that takes precedent
“And Christ, forgive these bones I’m hiding”
“These crosses all over my body, remind me of who I used to be” - Reiner had said he’s become a shell of the man he used to be before devolving in Paridis
Annie - Punish
“Whatever’s wrong with me, I’ll take to bed”
“Only God would believe that I was an angel”
Also the creaking of the rusted swing in the background- Annie was only a girl when she was forced to take on a much larger role as the female titan whose body portrayed that of a grown woman
Also the song being about sexual shame, but for Annie shame in what she’s done
“I am punished my love”
She spared Armin during the 57th expedition, it bites her in the ass because he’s the one that figures out it’s her
Jean - everytime
Jeanmarco yeahhhh
“I make believe that you are here”
“I see your face, it’s haunting me” Marco consistently making an appearance in Jean’s mind, also Jean admits himself that Marco would have haunted him had he let the Jaegerists win.
“I guess I need you, baby”
Ymir (of the 104th) - American Teenager
“I do what I want… I don’t need anything from anyone” Ymir doesn’t want to rely on others she wants to be selfish this time around and live the way she wants
“And Jesus, if you’re there, why do I feel alone in this room with you?” I think this is how Ymir might have felt as she was turned into a mindless titan, she had spent so much time presenting as a goddess but at her end she was all alone, with no one to save her.
“I’m doing what I want and, damn, I’m doing it well. For me, for me”
Also! The theme of this song being anti war yet also kind of non-committal, is kind of Ymir as in she cares but doesn’t want to come off as caring.
Sasha - televangelism
Iykyk but fr this instrumental is about Ethel’s transition into the afterlife.
Also Sasha’s to happy to have any other Ethel song connected to her.
Connie - a knock at the door
“Everything I’ve loved, I’ve loved it straight to death” his parents, sasha
“No one should ever see their friend… bite it on the floor”
“I know you by your knock on the door” - their deep connection
Historia - a house in Nebraska
“You and me against the world”
“We had nothing except each other, you were my whole world”
“Then the day came and you were up and gone” Ymir ditching her unexpectedly to save Reiner.
“And I feel so alone without you, I’m so alone out here”
“I’d kill myself to hold you one more time”
“And it hurts to miss you… I’m the reason you won’t come home” - Ymir letting herself die in hopes of protecting Historia