#mr leonhardt

[darcycrow]

[s1lent-princess]

everyone hating on annie for saying "i'm so tired, i dont want to fight anymore" like girl you just slept four years be so for real, COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT.

Annie Leonhardt. The girl who was raised as a child soilder by her father, her country, and her enemies. She was taught since BIRTH that her only qualities were based on how hard she could punch. She has been fighting since she came out of the womb, physically and psychologically. Hell, abandoned babies still go through trauma even if they can't technically remember it. Just for her to be picked up and thought of only as a weapon, her whole life. She fought and fought and fought, killing things that got in her way because it's the only way she was taught. Because she was only praised when she did. She fought until it almost killed her. She had to protect herself in the only way she could, essentially rendering herself completely helpless for what all she knew was forever. Sentient in her own mind but not her body.

Her only company those years were, presumably, soilders trying to figure a way to get her out only to continue to use her as a weapon, study, interrogate, or just flat out kill her. Armin, speaking to her about his guilt, which she can all but understand. The human qualities that they share, of doing things they know is wrong but feel like they have no choice in the matter, and they both hate themselves for it. Sitting in that crystal listening to him voice her own feelings out to her while she is helpless. And Hitch, complaining about boys. Experiencing the most mundane human emotions that Annie doesn't have the privilege of worrying about. Hitch wondering out loud to her why she had to betray them, and Annie again being unable to respond, apologize, or atone for everything that she did that she regrets.

Four years in a crystal, unable to break out of it herself, not knowing what the scouts know and don't know about the outside world. She had likley come to terms with the fact that she would never see her dad again, and that she would die in that crystal. Then, one day, the crystal melts away. She's free. And then she learns that she's only free because all the titans in the walls have been activated. The very thing her government had been warning her against her entire life. The very thing she was supposed to prevent. She is never going to see her dad again. And oh God she is so tired of fighting.

[moonspirit]

Im sorry if this comes across the wrong why but why is annie obsessed with her dad like in both canon and fanon universe, armin’s love never seems to be enough for her and shes always trying to get her father who abused her to love her, her doing eveything she did just so she could get back to him was a plausible explanation but its like she ignores everyone else for the sake of her father who is so responsible for her trauma. It would of been better for him to die at the end aot, atleast she could’ve moved on and tried to forget about him. I just hate him so much and how he abused poor baby annie and the fact she forgives him so easily??? He needs to be exiled from the earth

Hello anon!

Hmm, I think the crux of this thing really lies in the fact that parent-child relationships and romantic relationships are very different from each other. You can't replace one with the other and both have value at the same time in different standings.

I don't want to make this a super long rambling essay but Annie isn't really "obsessed' with her father as she is simply desperate to gain his affection, love and company. We have to remember that Annie isn't a well adjusted emotionally intelligent person in canon, she was found abandoned and then used as a tool by both her father and Marley. To put it briefly, she went through neglect, horrifying abuse from both sides, a complete lack of love and zero understanding of the value of life and relationships. Being the loner she was, Annie didn't really make friends or socialize; she was pushed instead to perfecting her kicks and fighting techniques, she was most likely also malnourished and exhausted all the time, and forced through the nightmares of titan science experiments and trials. The only thing that was a constant in her life as a kid was that her father would be there, always, for whatever reason. I'm not saying Annie was dumb and didn't understand her father wasn't treating her right - I'm saying she took the abuse but kept hanging on to him because she simply didn't know what real love and care looked or felt like. Also, he was the only person she had to call family.

So when he hugged her, that was her first taste of what a loving father-daughter relationship could be like. Someone was begging her to come back safely. Someone actually wanted her to return. For the first time she saw what it meant to be something other than just a weapon, tool, a means to an end. That someone was her father.

So of course she was dead set on reuniting with her father, anon. He became her sole purpose of carrying out the mission; not that she gave a shit about the mission itself. Her father became the driving force that kept her going.

And Annie is still very much emotionally stunted years later when Armin tells her he loves her and she returns his feelings. Her father is still a huge part of her life. Yes, despite everything. Yes, despite feeling and experiencing what it means to love and care about someone from Armin and the rest of the 104th. Her father is still important, because there, she's still searching for love from a parent. A parent and a friend and a lover are not the same. They can't be swapped out for each other. Love from a mother or a father is vastly different from other kinds of love; it satisfies a different set of feelings and needs (like belonging, a biological connection, being nurtured, being protected, childhood memories, a sense of safety, etc). It makes sense that she'd still be hung on it years after the Rumbling in a post canon setting because father =\= everyone else. Her father's place in her heart, however, could change as time goes by, depending on how their relationship actually develops from this point onward. That is a headcanon tho and different people will have different takes on it.

In that regard I don't really think Annie ignores everyone else for the sake of her dad. I mean... She tries to keep it a priority, yes, but she deeply deeply cares about the others, yknow. And the moment she knows Armin hesitated over her secret (for whatever reason), she derails completely. It matters to her. She destroys her life for four years. But whether in canon or post canon, Armin is Armin---his love is incredibly valuable to her, it changes her, it heals her---but even so, her father is her father and that is different.

Tbh when she has that conversation with Hitch after breaking out of the crystal, she very plainly talks about the kind of life her father put her through. I find this very interesting because while Annie's ability to deal with her own emotions is rather poor, she does understand where she lay as a child in the grand scheme of things from her father's perspective. She openly acknowledges that it was terrible and difficult but still makes it a point to express that she wants to go home to her father. See, this isn't forgiveness. It's just Annie wanting to be hugged by her father once again.

.... Nvm this became a long-ass rambling essay anyway 🥲

[distortedclouds]

Mr Leonhart wasn't redeemed and I refuse to accept him as such

If you’ve been anywhere near my blog, you’ll know that I don’t tolerate that guy in any way, shape, or form, nor accept his apology to Annie

I have multiple reasons to believe his apology wasn’t sincere/well-intentioned.

He had the worst motivation out of all warrior parents

I think the reason I'm angry with Mr Leonhart the most compared to other Warrior Parents, even though they're all shit (I guess with the exception of Pieck’s father) is that the rest of them believed Marley's propaganda

They believed in the whole Eldian sin and Island Devil thing. Most parents of warriors, even kids training to become warriors, believed their kids were giving away their lives for a good and honorable cause. This is still abuse and it’s gross, but really, it’s not out of the “ordinary”

Parents place ridiculously harsh and harmful expectations on their kids all the time. Plus, I don’t think they would’ve straight up abandoned their kids if they didn’t make it as warriors

Mr Leonhart, however, never fell for Marley’s shit version of history nor did he care. He came from abroad and Annie once said he was in the same situation as her (mixed parents), when he took her in as a baby for a purely selfish reasoning

While it’s easy to put some distance since the situation of the warriors is nothing like in the real world, I’ll give you an example:

Someone adopts a puppy and then trains it for underground dog fighting to make money and better their financial situation. If the dog loses/isn’t good enough, he’s gonna throw it out. This also puts the dog at risk of injury, shortened lifespan, and overall reduced quality of life

I don’t feel hesitant using an animal in this example, because Annie was merely a tool, and like all tools, if it’s not doing its job, it gets thrown out

His apology wasn’t for Annie

Annie only miraculously became his daughter that he loves and cares about only after he’d gotten what he wanted: an irrevocable(?) Honorary Marleyan title. Doubt he would’ve had the same “revelation” had Annie failed her candidacy

Two aspects of his apology, in particular, piss me off: the timing and the rootcause/motivation

Timing

If Annie’s 13 years of titan shifting end when she’s 22, that means she got her titan powers when she was 9 years old. But the attack on Wall Maria happened in 845, when Annie was 11

Why the two year gap??

It’s not like military work as a titan shifter is a part-time job or a 9-to-5. She probably went away for days if not weeks at a time during Marley’s countless expansion and invasion efforts. She could’ve died or been captured during all of those and yet that still wasn’t enough for Mr Leonhart to realize his fatherly feelings towards her

I think it’s control

In the Lost Girls manga, Annie says her relationship with her father was “one of absolute obedience.”

And Annie was never a rebellious kid. She only went against him once (when she broke his leg) and never again

While in the military, Annie was being constantly monitored by her commanding officers. She had rules to follow and consequences for disobeying

But leaving for Paradis on a longer mission? She’s free

She’s free from him and from Marley and he knows she won’t care for her mission the same way Reiner, Bert, and Marcel cared, because she doesn’t believe in the Island Devils propaganda in the first place

I highly doubt the Paradis mission was announced to them the morning of their departure. They’ve known for a while, and yet he waited until the morning of her departure to say something

To be fair, it wouldn’t surprise me if he’d gotten somewhat attached to her over the course of 11 years. The other warriors still had families to return to, but once Annie is let go, she’s gone. So that might’ve played a part

Motivation

Another part that pisses me off is that his regret never seemed like he was sorry for Annie, but for himself, for the type of person he'd become

After all, no one likes to believe that they’re evil/the bad guy

Considering that he still lives in the same rundown house as before, I don’t think(?) he’d taken advantage of any/many of the perks and privileges awarded to the parents of warriors during the 10 years Annie’s gone

But this all strikes me as self-flagellation, that he’s more concerned with feeling better about himself and his own past deeds, and not really the entire life he’d ruined and the child he’d mentally, emotionally, verbally, and physically abused since day one

It was always about him, and it's still just him

There’s this shot during the rumbling that MAPPA added, in which we see Annie’s old house right before it’s stomped:

Those are the same padded polls Annie used to train with. He hadn’t removed them

At first glance, this looks like a way for him to not sweep his past/guilt under the rug. To face what he’d done to Annie every time he’d step out of the house or even look out the window.

Shows his remorse, right?

Sure, but what about Annie? What if she had returned with Reiner 4 years ago?

She finally manages to get home to her father, her family, the only reason she kept going, only to find her open-air torture chamber still up, like it’s been waiting for her return all along

I’m not saying he was planning on getting back to his old ways as soon as she got back not at all!

But even with his bad leg, over the course of 10 WHOLE YEARS, he could’ve dug them out. He could’ve asked it as a favor of Reiner and I know Reiner would’ve absolutely done it had they the smallest doubt Annie might come back and see them

But he didn’t because it’s about him feeling like he’s not escaping from his past mistakes, facing them head on like an honorable man

Annie? she doesn’t matter

Her return as his daughter is also another way for him to feel better about himself and that he’s actually making it up for his actions; atoning for his sins

Also, note the difference between how Annie remembers the apology:

vs how Mr Leonhart remembers the apology:

(those two shots are from the same chapter)

It really feels like his perception of that day is completely different from Annie's. She looks at him directly and smiles, while Annie mostly remembers herself still being in shock even as she promises him to come back

Final thoughts

I’m not saying his apology was entirely a manipulation technique. But Annie was and still is a tool to him, this time with the fancy title of “daughter”

If her previous purpose in life was to become a warrior and complete her mission, then her current purpose is to become a good daughter so he could feel like a good father

Post-canon, this would likely take most (if not all) of the verbal and physical abuse out of their relationship, but I can’t say the same for more covert types of mistreatment: mental and emotional

I think it’s important to respect/try to understand Annie’s point of view as well, for still loving him, since he was the reason she survived and come to think of her life as one worth living, even if only to return to him and be his daughter

Still, I wouldn’t really say that Annie has forgiven him. Not really

I doubt she even realizes she was hurt in a way that matters. Simply disassociating from that whole aspect of her life—blocking it out. Especially considering how she was able to tell her story to Hitch

The chance of simply “having a father” and be something more than a tool, was enough for young Annie to not even think about all the harm he’d done to her

It was always about him, and it's still just him

[imarielo]

Learning to be good parents

[vrana-s]

i'm still not sure how to feel about annie's father considering how he treated her as a child, but i'm glad that annie got to see him

[tsukidrama]

what do you think the name of annie's father is? calling him Papa is really cute. but i imagine he has a strong name

i always pictured that he just doesn't really use it that much because it's unpronouncable in the language they speak.

no idea what it could possibly be though... imagine if it just says [REDACTED] on his birth certificate lmao

[aquietjune]

He was going to spend the next days at his girlfriend’s father’s place.

He was terrified.

A fic set in Fort Salta 14 months after the Rumbling.

There is Armin, there is Annie… and there is Mr. Leonhart.

Written for @salepconcept for #AruAniSecretSanta2021!

A Fistful of Latent Images [oneshot, 12.5k words]

Read it on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35981056