headcanons meme : requested by @warche1f
this isn't even a headcanon honestly, but zeke knows far more about erwin in canon than he would ever like to. erwin is mentioned posthumously often as a source of inspiration & as a relevant figure in current events. for that reason, zeke has ever reason to be annoyed by the more glorified version of erwin that he hears from the tropes -- & probably vindicated by the bastardized version that he might hear on the streets.
colossal titan ! au they would play too much chess against one another, even though neither of them has a particular taste for chess. they have a chronic need to one-up one another, though they're not playing the same game. zeke is stuck in his holier-than-thou mentality, & erwin is certain they're both damned.
modern ! they've never seen a vacation day in their lives.
modern ! zeke sends voice memos. erwin doesn't listen to them & usually just calls zeke back so that they can figure out what point they each need to make. zeke says that this was his plan all along. maybe it was. who's to say !
there is no clear guidebook for how to mentor a potential beast candidate. zeke's expertise was never combat, & so the best way he could try to coach colt was just to have him... hover? teach him the genius of wonder boy? it is training for warchief more so than for the beast. as such, colt knows zeke's daily habits too well -- his apprenticeship overlapped easily with work that coincides with personal assistant. he tries to provide meals when zeke neglects the fact -- there often seems to be spells where zeke verges too close to a zealot's mania to remember personal care.
colt has tried to keep each of his girlfriends far away from zeke, largely because he thinks that conversation upon meeting would be disconcerting for all parties involved.
zeke does not have full control of colt service as a warrior candidate. it was not under his jurisdiction that colt served as a foot soldier for marley to prove his aptitude.
zeke has supplied colt with cigarettes when colt was underaged.
colt has tried to recommend pubs with underground music. he doesn't think it worked. he was reprimanded for it. fine.
modern ! one accommodation zeke does give colt as an employee is tending to falco. it's one of the reasons colt doesn't mind it.
modern ! they don't talk politics somehow. it seems to be a mutual agreement, even though they don't think they're in disagreement.
bertolt has always been reticent about asking for help. there are either things that he can address or there are things beyond the scope of his power. as a child, it easily made him eerie to those who knew him as a child. zeke had every reason of thinking of bertolt as a horror film child.
bertolt survives au ! it is not subtle, that zeke gave him to paradis. bertolt neither begrudges him for it nor forgives him for it. they make a fantastic habit of non-conversation together. bertolt continues his role as the horror film child together. they share a smoke together precisely six times. each time, zeke trusts him less than the last.
when bertolt, reiner, & zeke reunited in paradis -- bertolt was not direct enough to argue that they should go back for annie. reiner argued for the pair of them, & that led to the fight between the beast & the armored. it was the only time that bertolt has ever felt that zeke has something on him, that zeke has made him feel less.
modern ! bertolt doesn't understand why zeke's a therapist. this makes him distrust therapy.
ksaver did not give zeke the glasses as a momento. during the cycle of inheritance, the glasses were stowed away as a personal item with ksaver's material possessions. zeke claimed them for himself as a symbol of their connection.
modern ! ksaver knows each weatherman anchor by name. he talks about them as though they were close friends.
nothing specific about zeke ever reminded ksaver of his own son. however, ksaver carries ostracism on him like scar tissue. when he identified zeke as the target to gr**m for the beast, it was not a strategic decision. ksaver does believe he was compelled by the heart & good intention.
baseball was a hobby that ksaver learned like luxury when he was posing as a marleyan.
modern ! ksaver was struggling with a difficult custody battle when he was coaching zeke. his own son struggles to converse with him. he did not treat zeke as a fill in for his own child, but he did imagine that being a 'cooler' coach to zeke would make his own son think him more exciting as a father.
grisha has been stranded in two worlds. the first he was born into. the second was the alternative to a legal sentence that was supposed to be worse than death. restricted movement in marley meant his sisters blood to him, meant the things that he should never have done. paranoia ( mostly justified ) fueled his ambitious & overwrote personhood. he did not understand properly that he was a father. he was young & high on a collective, conspiratorial adrenaline. he imagined that adrenaline could be spread like a contagion. all it did was terrify his son. he had a son ?
the combination of inheritance & the transformation of dina into a pure titan meant the worst had happened. paranoia didn't serve the same purpose in paradis. he recognized he was a father. mostly , memories of marley felt like a noose around his neck. by some sort of fatalistic justice, zeke had been his executioner the first time around. grisha survived. sometimes, he imagines that zeke still might kill him in the end. he can't justify it. because eren starts haunting him. eren is the end of the world.
modern ! if dina set forward some disciplinary action, grisha usually forgot. there's your way out, zeke. for better or for worse.
honest to god just doesn't know how to speak in a way that kids understand. children frighten him a little. he doesn't like who he was when he was a child.
modern ! he has had discussions with dina about what it means that zeke doesn't seem to have friends. grisha doesn't think he seems lonely, but how would he know?
modern ! also doesn't understand why zeke is a therapist. grisha works in public health. he doesn't mind zeke's career choice but he's not entirely sure who zeke's target demographic is. he's very political about everything in a way that could be laudable if it didn't verge so close to doomsday rhetoric. paranoia still lurks on him.
