Armin is one of the main characters in both the attack on titan manga and the live action movies based on it. While both versions of Armin share some similarities, they are also very different.
The movies’ writers made drastic changes to several characters and the movies were released years before the manga ended, causing many things that affected Armin’s character arc to be left out of the movies.
10 Movie Armin’s father was still alive
Armin’s parents wanted to escape from Paradis and see the outside world in the anime and manga. His interest in the world was what originally made Armin want to become a soldier. Armin’s parents left him behind at a young age, and his grandfather raised him for a few years after they flew off the walls in a hot air balloon.
However, the military killed them, as well as anyone else who tried to learn about the world. This never happened in the movie and Armin’s father was still alive at the beginning of the movie.
9 Movie Armin was an inventor
Armin is one of the smartest characters in every adaptation of attack on titan. While he was a genius in the manga and anime who learned the identities of the armored, female, and colossal titans and came up with many strategies that led to comrades’ victories from him, he was smart for different reasons in the movies.
One of the ways that Armin was smart in the movies and not in the source material is that he was an inventor and could easily fix things. He made things for the children and fixed them when they broke.
8 Movie Armin’s friendship with Mikasa changed
While Armin and Mikasa are friends at the beginning of both the source material and the first film, their friendship changes with each adaptation. Instead of becoming even closer and supporting each other through thick and thin in the manga and anime, Armin and Mikasa went very different paths after they parted ways in the movies.
During that time, Armin believed she was dead when in fact she was being trained to become an incredibly powerful soldier. Once they reunited, she was hesitant to be friends with her again, but they eventually reconnected with her.
7 The movie Armin and the movie Jean didn’t get along
Another of Armin’s closest friends throughout the series was Jean. While Eren and Jean fought with each other a lot throughout the source material, Armin and Jean always got along. However, in the movie, Armin and Jean got off on the wrong foot.
As Armin talked about defeating the titans, like Eren did in the manga and anime, Jean joined the conversation and told him that none of the new soldiers would be useful if the experienced ones died. Jean made it clear that he didn’t think anyone around him had the ability to defeat his enemies, causing everyone to immediately despise him.
6 Movie Sasha was his love interest
Although the source material doesn’t have many canon relationships, many fans felt that Armin and Annie would make a great couple. Seeing that Annie didn’t appear in any of the movies, Armin gained a close connection with Sasha, who became his love interest.
While Sasha and Armin were good friends and great comrades who fought together due to their skill with ranged weapons in the manga and anime, they did not have any romantic feelings for each other.
5 The film Armin was not taken so seriously
Due to how smart Armin is, he was treated with a lot of respect in the anime and manga. He saved the lives of his Garrison friends, found out that Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner were Titan Shifters, and even came up with so many cool strategies that Erwin relied on him for help after only knowing him for a few months.
In the movies, Armin wasn’t treated as respectfully, in part because he didn’t help the military that much.
4 Movie Armin never became a Titan Shifter
While Bertholdt was the heir to the Colossal Titan in the source material, he was eventually eaten by Armin. Bertholdt had almost killed him until Levi injected Armin with Titan serum and ensured that he ate his enemy, taking his place as the Colossal Titan.
In the movies, instead of Bertholdt being the heir to the Colossal Titan, it was Kubal. Armin never ate Kubal, didn’t even transform into a Titan at any point in the movies, and thus didn’t gain the power of the Colossal Titan.
3 Movie Armin did not become the commander of the reconnaissance corps
Towards the end of the manga, Hange sacrificed himself to allow his comrades to reach Eren and fight him. However, before they died, Hange told Armin that he would take his place as commander of the Survey Corps.
Just like he didn’t inherit the Colossal Titan, this is another thing he never got to do in the movies. However, because of how much Armin changed in that adaptation, he didn’t have what it would take to be a commander anyway.
two The movie Armin didn’t end with the rumble
In the source material, Eren used the Rumor to kill most of the people outside of Paradis. His friends felt this was unforgivable and did their best to stop him. When they reached Eren, Armin was taken to the coordinate, where he spoke with Zeke about the meaning of life.
By helping Zeke understand that life did have value, he was able to stop Eren from controlling the previous heirs of the Nine Titans and blew up the Colossal Titans that were inside the walls, ending the Rumbling. Eren never started the Rumbling in the movies so none of this happened.
1 Movie Armin did not fight against Eren
In the manga and anime, Eren and Armin stopped being close friends. Eren had changed a lot and Armin felt like he didn’t even know who he was anymore, especially when he started killing thousands of innocent people. The two fought twice in the source material.
The first time was a small fist fight as humans, while the second was an epic battle between Eren and his former friends, while he and Armin were on their Titans. By the end of the movies, Eren and Armin were closer than ever and had no reason to fight.
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