How Does Armin X Eren Explore Friendship And Trust In Fanfiction?

Look, I gotta be real, the friendship and trust between Armin and Eren in the series is already so charged—it’ s the foundation. So when fanfic writers dig into it, they’ re often pulling that foundation apart to see what’ s holding it up. They love putting that trust through the absolute wringer. I read this one post-Rumbling fic where Armin has to piece together Eren’ s real motives from fragmented memories, and it’ s all about him grappling with trusting the ghost of his best friend over the monster the world saw. The trust isn’ t presented as unbreakable; it’ s this fragile, painful thing Armin has to consciously choose to uphold, even when all evidence says he shouldn’ t. It makes the friendship feel earned, not just destined.

A lot of authors also use the shared dream of the outside world as a vehicle. In canon, that’ s their joint motivation. In fanfiction, that shared trust often gets inverted—maybe one of them abandons the dream, and the other has to question if they ever really knew the person they trusted with their life’ s goal. It becomes less about blind faith and more about understanding that trust can evolve, or even dissolve, without completely erasing the history of the friendship. Those stories hurt in a good way.

Honestly? Sometimes I think the fandom focuses too much on the epic, world-breaking conflict when it comes to these two. The best explorations of their friendship I’ ve seen are in the quiet, missing-scene type fics. The ones set during training or in the early days in the Scouts barracks, where the trust is shown through small actions—covering for each other, sharing a book, a silent look that says everything. It’ s in those mundane moments that you see the bedrock of it all.

That kind of trust isn’ t really about the big, fate-of-humanity decisions. It’ s about knowing someone will listen when you have a stupid thought at 3 AM, or that they’ ll remember how you take your tea. When a fic captures that daily, grind-level loyalty, it makes the eventual betrayals or ideological rifts hit so much harder because you’ ve felt the weight of what’ s being broken. It’ s not just strategic trust; it’ s deeply personal.

I tend to prefer fics that challenge the premise. Not every story needs to be about preserving their bond; some of the most interesting ones examine the brutal failure of trust. What happens when Armin can’ t forgive, or when Eren’ s actions make it impossible for Armin to stand by him? Exploring the collapse of that friendship, the toxic dependency and the resentment, feels just as true to their characters as stories about unwavering loyalty. It asks if some bonds are meant to be outgrown, even when it destroys a part of you.