SnK meta: Morality, immorality, amorality
(How the hell did that subject header get edited?)
Ghostmartyr:Armin is more conscious of morality than nearly every other character in the series.
At the same time, that does not mean that he prioritizes it.
...If it came down to preserving personal scruples or making a tangible differen[ce] in the world, I think Armin would go for the latter every time. But he’d recognize that as a conscious decision. He would not happily go about his business. He would acknowledge how monstrous that makes him - and go for it anyway.
Armin pays so much attention to right and wrong that calling him immoral doesn’t feel quite right. Armin does have morals, he just doesn’t see them as the best tools for bettering the world.
GM is responding to an anon ask about whether Armin will develop into an immoral character. I don't think I've seen anyone call Armin "immoral" other than that. "Amoral" might be a better term... except that it misses the mark as well, for reasons outlined in GM's third paragraph quoted above. Compare Armin with Levi, who is perfectly fine with acting monstrously if he believes it's necessary - a much clearer, nearly platonic, example of amorality.
Commander Pixis, Reebs, and Hitch are certainly also amoral. Nile Dawk as well. The way he runs the Military Police is quite immoral, and his conversation in the carriage with Erwin gives me something of a "banality of evil" feel off him. That said, he might have sincerely considered Eren dangerous enough to merit killing, in addition to being what we might call politically inconvenient for the MPs. I don't know with him, tbh.
The three moral centers of the canon are, of course, Jean, Sasha, and Connie. I think Carla Jaeger qualified as a fourth. Marlo, the MP, appears to be a fifth, although it's possible that Isayama introduced him as a righteous character in order to later show that he has feet of clay. Or to have him killed, because that's what tends to happen to moral minor characters in this 'verse.
As it stands, the only characters who appear strictly immoral to me at this point are Mikasa's kidnappers, Annie Leonhardt (who in titan form went out of her way to make her victims' deaths much more frightening and painful), Rod Reis, [spoilers for ch. 56]the unnamed puppet king, and Captain Ackerman. However, for all we know Isayama will give one or more of the still-living characters among them more-complex motivations in terms of morality as the manga continues. He's good at that.
Erwin skates right on the line of amorality, closer to it than Armin does. I perceive him as a fanatic, akin to a religious one, who will sacrifice everything for "the greater glory" - including that which is not, strictly speaking, morally his to sacrifice. That's certainly not moral. In the real world I'd call it immoral. In this canon... I don't know. I find it harder to judge.
Everyone else, to me, is even harder to classify in terms of morality. They're all deeply flawed in one way or another. They want to be good people, they might even believe they're good people - except for Armin, who if nothing else is honest enough to recognize and state that if they once were such people, they're not anymore. And Ymir, who states bluntly that she's not a good person, but who has done quite a few altruistic things at this point. Even if her motivations were mixed.
It's complicated. That's one big reason this canon has gotten its hooks into me. Writing the characters accurately is immensely challenging, and it's gratifying when I seem to get them right.
Ghostmartyr:Armin is more conscious of morality than nearly every other character in the series.
At the same time, that does not mean that he prioritizes it.
...If it came down to preserving personal scruples or making a tangible differen[ce] in the world, I think Armin would go for the latter every time. But he’d recognize that as a conscious decision. He would not happily go about his business. He would acknowledge how monstrous that makes him - and go for it anyway.
Armin pays so much attention to right and wrong that calling him immoral doesn’t feel quite right. Armin does have morals, he just doesn’t see them as the best tools for bettering the world.
GM is responding to an anon ask about whether Armin will develop into an immoral character. I don't think I've seen anyone call Armin "immoral" other than that. "Amoral" might be a better term... except that it misses the mark as well, for reasons outlined in GM's third paragraph quoted above. Compare Armin with Levi, who is perfectly fine with acting monstrously if he believes it's necessary - a much clearer, nearly platonic, example of amorality.
Commander Pixis, Reebs, and Hitch are certainly also amoral. Nile Dawk as well. The way he runs the Military Police is quite immoral, and his conversation in the carriage with Erwin gives me something of a "banality of evil" feel off him. That said, he might have sincerely considered Eren dangerous enough to merit killing, in addition to being what we might call politically inconvenient for the MPs. I don't know with him, tbh.
The three moral centers of the canon are, of course, Jean, Sasha, and Connie. I think Carla Jaeger qualified as a fourth. Marlo, the MP, appears to be a fifth, although it's possible that Isayama introduced him as a righteous character in order to later show that he has feet of clay. Or to have him killed, because that's what tends to happen to moral minor characters in this 'verse.
As it stands, the only characters who appear strictly immoral to me at this point are Mikasa's kidnappers, Annie Leonhardt (who in titan form went out of her way to make her victims' deaths much more frightening and painful), Rod Reis, [spoilers for ch. 56]the unnamed puppet king, and Captain Ackerman. However, for all we know Isayama will give one or more of the still-living characters among them more-complex motivations in terms of morality as the manga continues. He's good at that.
Erwin skates right on the line of amorality, closer to it than Armin does. I perceive him as a fanatic, akin to a religious one, who will sacrifice everything for "the greater glory" - including that which is not, strictly speaking, morally his to sacrifice. That's certainly not moral. In the real world I'd call it immoral. In this canon... I don't know. I find it harder to judge.
Everyone else, to me, is even harder to classify in terms of morality. They're all deeply flawed in one way or another. They want to be good people, they might even believe they're good people - except for Armin, who if nothing else is honest enough to recognize and state that if they once were such people, they're not anymore. And Ymir, who states bluntly that she's not a good person, but who has done quite a few altruistic things at this point. Even if her motivations were mixed.
It's complicated. That's one big reason this canon has gotten its hooks into me. Writing the characters accurately is immensely challenging, and it's gratifying when I seem to get them right.