Why did Reiner’s story of Paradis Island shock his parents?
Season 4 episode 2 mini spoilers
The first impactful thing Reiner says after coming home is what he endured during his mission on Paradis Island.
To our quiet discomfort, he describes all Levi Squad members he was close in a twisted and negative way.
Just like how Marleyans would like to think of them.
And yet, the next shot shows his mother shocked beyond belief.
Why was that?
The twist lies in the stories he used to describe the Paradis Islanders.
He uses the story of Sasha stealing a potatoe and breaking it in slightly uneven pieces, and says they have no sense of fairness. The fact that she stole it shows how they don’t fear anything, rules or otherwise, says Reiner.
Then he talks about Eren, Mikasa and Armin, saying they would go head first into danger without thinking.
Reiner even tried to describe how a character came to the washroom and forgot what he came for.
He tried to twist these incidents as much as possible by framing them in extreme views, but really, how far can you twist incidents like that? Some are even funny.
This is what shocked Reiner’s parents.
They were indoctrinate their entire lives that Eldians on Paradis Island are monsters and everything they heard Reiner say, no matter how much he tried to twist them, sounds very much like human behavior.
This was against the very foundation of what brainwashed Eldians in Marley have in their minds.
Reiner’s parents couldn’t, and certainly didn’t, want to process that information. Instead they justified their established belief, saying Paradis Eldians are monsters who abandoned them in Marley and fled to Paradis Island.
This scene can be confusing at first watch because Reiner himself doesn’t say anything that goes against the established Marleyan belief. He is portraying Paradis Eldians in the worst light he can. His parents’ reaction therefore takes a moment to make sense.
It’s not about Reiner’s conclusions that shock them, it’s the stories he uses, which are all normal and human stories.
