Do you think there's a reason why Bert would ever love Annie? They barely even talked and Bert wasn't that concerned when Reiner forced Annie to strip Marco out of his 3DMG.
I’m not convinced that Isayama determined from chapter one that Bert had a crush on Annie. It felt more to me like something he decided on much later in the series either as what he determined to be a natural character progression or as a way to add extra drama. Or maybe, like in the example above, as a way to portray Reiner as a bit of a douche :P When the one-sided crush became canon, I remember feeling entirely caught off guard by it. I don’t mind Bert having a crush on Annie. I think Annie is very crush worthy. I just hadn’t seen a lot of evidence of it until it was announced.
Thanks for the ask!
















