#( if this is rlly big spoilers for chapter 97 i apologise isayama dont flame me. )

[armourheld]

                               CHAPTER 17 & REINERS DISSOCIATION.  

             WARNING - THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 90+

Now before I begin, I want to state how I now perceive Reiners dissociation as to have 2 alters, instead of just the simple Warrior & Soldier: the warrior, in my eyes, is NOT the true Reiner, & that’s due to events / responses emitted in chapter 96 ( Reiner is dead... I’ll become Marcel. ) This means this meta will be identifying all 3 different personas should they occur - you can disagree with me on this, & if you still want to read it, then just view Reiners ‘ true ‘ self as the Warrior side, & I think we’ll be chill !

To give some backstory on Chapter 17: this is the chapter where Reiner & Eren combat train together, both of them get their asses kicked by Annie & Jean gets encouraged to actually put effort into training.  This is one of the first chapters in which Reiner gets such a speaking/main part, & god does it hint the early stages of his dissociation. 

We begin the chapter with Eren finally tackling Reiner down, who seems mildly ticked off at the prospect of still being quite weak in comparison to Eren, especially when it comes to battle training. Of course, we’ve seen him as nothing much more than a character who just has ‘ one goal ‘ & doesn’t seem willing to help Eren, in which makes his characterisation here completely normal. Reiner’s obviously in WARRIOR mode at this point, & to me that’s more than exciting ! 

Now, Eren’s responce here is quite important to me: ‘ Run away, of course ! ’, which indeed is natural for someone of their ability to say. Eren’s priorities are fighting the titans, he doesn’t want to get involved in human conflict, but it also sparks something of interest to me. Thinking back to Reiners backstory, can we all remember what exactly happened to Reiner as a kid ? Bingo! You guessed it: Reiner ran away from Ymir when she ate Marcel, something that was, you guessed it, IRRESPONSIBLE of him, just as Annie states back in the day.  It’s so influential, & a causer of old memories that Reiner certainly didn’t want to remember / think about again. 

Now, while Eren’s explaining himself to Reiner, he goes back to thinking about the time he killed those men, meaning that he’s really not paying attention. His expression is seemingly reproachful, but we have no entire clue about how Reiners feeling / thinking... Until...

BOOM. “  It’s not childs play  ” -  Reiners faced with the final words that complete his memories. Something that, to me, seems very obvious with his facial expression. He doesn’t know whats going on, but somethings making him angry, pictures that he’s repressed are suddenly reappearing. This ‘ child’s play ‘ strikes him in the core, he was a kid when he ran away, confronting someone was something he couldn’t do as a kid, Reiner knows exactly what Eren’s talking about, because he went through it with Ymir, but goodness does he want to face that? No. He dissociates, & gives a reaction of a natural soldier, the one who WANTS to be Eren’s friend.

&... if we needed more proof of this. 

HERE COMES OUR VERY OWN REINER SOLDIER SPEECH. Something that’s very important to me about Reiner is his strong sense of duty; whatever alter is in control, he follows the orders. He aims to complete what is set out of him, because thats the only thing that got far in Reiners life. He was devoted to Marley, so they let him in as a warrior, Marcels discussion with the soldiers was probably heavily suggested by his devotion, Reiners dutifulness of wanting to complete the mission even AFTER getting Marcel eaten is the one thing that makes him the leader outside of the titan trio. Reiners devoted, dedicated & , as Shadis puts it, has a strong sense of duty. The only things his alters are certain about our their duties, & goodness doesn’t he say it. 

& suddenly, the speech is cut off, along with another dissociation back to the warrior side of his personality. The most important thing to take note of Reiners position here is the hand upon his head. Where have we seen this before, hm ? The armoured titan revealed scene, & the scene wherein Eren & Ymir are captured - A strong sign of his repeat dissociation is the hand upon the head strategy, for reasons unknown, but there’s obviously something going on. Lecturing him like some “ know-it-all ”, something that proves that whatever happened seemed to out of character to him, he’s scared, he’s confused, but he can’t bring up to Eren. So what does he do ? Change subject. 

( also the whole power comment is ironic, but i’ll use that for my full on dissociation meta later ;) )

Two very important things about dissociation that I want to bring up here is a cause & a symptom of it. First up, people with dissociation can sometimes dissociate to calm down & focus on something; Eren’s opened a tin can of memories here, & Reiner doesn’t know what to do with them - so creating something else is much easier than coping with what it suggests. Just like he does more predominantly in later chapters. 

Now, the most important bit of this bit is the conversational topic: a symptom of people who suffer from dissociation seems to be the common occurrence of not entirely making sense. Reiner starts off by talking about his duty, & then moves on to pointing out Annie for no entire reason. ( there’s ?? no ?? need ?? for ?? it ?? ) But he does it anyway. This bit seems very much like the warrior part of him maintaining control, but there’s hints of the soldiers there. He’s just trying to make the best of both worlds, which is probably not going to plan. 

it’s a smooth recovery, at least. One that helps him stay under the radar. 

Now, tbh this is the scene that brought me to this meta in the process of writing my big one - & that’s the relation of this compared to chapter 96. As we’ve seen in the first few panels, Reiner thinks running away from actual human combat is bad, but Annie avoiding the topic completely is probably something he views as just as bad. He knows they are titan shifters, of course theres going to be moments / issues where they have to tackle things without turning into titans, people may evoke a way where they stop them from shifting - &, anyway, Annies strongest moves come from combat. This is his way of protecting her, even though it’s not as “ nice “ as we’d expect Reiner to be. When you’re not the soldier & want control, just remind your colleague about the time she killed you & when you strangled her just afters !! Great team bonding moment !! 

&, just incase the audience missed it, Eren’s here to help point out how angry Annie is about this, but she makes no move to correct Reiner, or beat him up for his mannerisms, because she does remember & she doesn’t want to have a repeat of that situation. The look on her face, however, intimidates Eren, until he’s brought back to focus on the task at hand by Reiner once more ! Taking note of his facial expression here, he seems to be someone who’s now much more happier, friendlier etc... Which suggests to me he’s gone back to the soldier side, as like previously stated, he’s focusing away from the memories... Making Eren fight Annie in combat training seems more than natural, & that’s just what he does ! 

That is, until the fight begins...

See the main focus of this panel is Annie using only one move to tackle Eren to the ground. It’s obviously effective, but where in fact have we seen this move recently ? Here. The move she uses exactly on Reiner in this clip is the exact same one as the one she uses on Reiner, only that they end up in different positions. However, if we go back to chapter 94 again, something that reiner brings up is how he doesn’t remember why he became a warrior, nor the memories that follow it. Chapters 94 - 96 so far are becoming his recollection, but theres something here thats important to me. 

Reiners expression. The shock on his face, the way he’s looking straight at Annie instead of focusing on Eren, who clearly needs help at this moment in time. Her move, her face - maybe he recollected the past ? The idea that Annie & Reiner trained together as kids is important to me, just as it’s important to him, but honestly ? The expression on his face screams fright, screams remembrance from where he stands. It claims, I know this from the past; the one you killed. 

Now, this bit intrigues me a slight bit more. Annie’s done her duty, she’s asking for dismissal, but Reiners against that. The thing with this scene is that even he refuses to look at her, and it’s influential to me. Is he a soldier ? A warrior ? I can’t tell... The words scream soldier / but the face screams warrior ( especially when you compare it to his & eren’s irresponsible talk. ) Reiner encourages her on, despite Eren’s protests. Part of him wants to see more, even though he’s avoiding it - maybe he’s even in a dreamlike state ? 

But boom, Annie follows his orders once more & tackles Eren to the ground once again ! In one move, at least. Going back to that scene in chapter 94, Eren is now effectively in the same position Reiner found himself in all that time ago. This time, he takes a look at Eren, instead of Annie’s retreating figure, because it’s jinxing him. Annie’s gaze is hard to identify, in this scene, but part of me wonders if she can tell. Reiners remembering the memories of the boy who had simply died the day the walls crashed down. He remembers being in Eren’s position, & he doesn’t like it one bit. 

But then, Annie spurs them on more. “ It’s your turn to fight me. ”

& this is where the original, child reiner pulls through. The warrior who was never strong enough to hold the armoured titan - the kid who died ages ago. He doesn’t want to fight Annie, & it’s obvious by his new way of talking. He stutters in her presence, something unlikely of a LEADER. He stammers, his point doesn’t come across ; an uncommon trait for both the warrior or the soldier to be, & he’s caught. He remembers Annie handing it to him all those years ago, & now he doesn’t want to relive that moment. He’s not supposed to be like this still, & nor does he want people to notice, so he’s stalling - but Annie probably knows, as telling by her darkened facial expression, even if Reiner doesn’t think anything else of it. 

But then, Eren comes to the rescue ! Drawing out his dazed phase of being that kid to bring up the responsibility of becoming a soldier. Something that’s important to Reiners dissociation is the idea that he will repeat what he is in whatever form - & maybe that’s his recovery process. He hears soldier, gains focus, & finally he can remember who he’s supposed to do. The last dissociation we see in this bit has to be Reiner turning into a soldier once more, & it’s seen with very obvious remembrance. Reiner very easily slots into his soldier persona at the idea of “ responsibility “ - linked to his strong sense of duty.  He’s willing to forgo the memories he didn’t want to remember to be someone that the people want - & the soldier will fight. Appeasing Annie, at least. 

& then of course he gets his ass handed to him,  who knows what happens to him after that ? It’s very Annie / Eren centric after this moment. 

But, anyway, in conclusion, this is important to me due to how commonly Reiner probably dissociated in the beginning. They’ve mentioned how it’s possibly happened plenty of times, but to me ? This just takes the icing on the cake. Reiner is not a reliable leader from the start of becoming a soldier, as shown in this chapter the most, but that doesn’t make him a bad leader. His friendships grew within a persona in which wasn’t there completely, but I wonder if stages grew - I do have to praise Isayama for this, though. It’s very well hidden, especially as we ONLY have Erens point of view, & he’s out of the loop. Maybe this scene will be featured in Chapter 97 !!