So believe it or not, I actually wrote this in June of last year.
It was during one of my (many) attempts to rewatch and dissect the entire AoT series, before I got disgusted and turned the tv off.
Given the great promotion we’ve been getting from MAPPA lately and the possibility of an Anime Original Ending, I am actually somewhat hopeful for the first time since last April.
As such, I finally found the loose pieces of paper I wrote this story on to finally upload it. I thought about just ignoring it, but I don’t want to have any regrets concerning my coverage of this series…so here goes:
How Isayama Could Have Written the Farmer into Season 3 of Attack on Titan Properly – a what-if fanfiction story
For starters, we could have the Farmer introduced in a similar fashion as Floch or Marlo in Season 3, part 2.
I would start his introduction during the Uprising/Royal Government Arc, and have Farmer-kun introduced when the scouts visit Historia at the orphanage farm, after she has successfully claimed the throne.
I believe the manga does introduce the farmer as a nameless bully during this time period, but let’s see if we can flesh him out even further.
Scene Set Up
Historia has set up the first of many orphanages for children from the underground like Levi, or those who lost their parents like Kaya in the Marley Warrior attack and has been dubbed the “Cattle Farming Goddess”, just like in the anime and manga series.
While Jean, Sasha, and Connie get into shenanigans on the farm with Armin regulating, Eren and Historia attempt to have a serious talk.
(Think of the Season 4 railroad on Paradis scene where Armin tries to stop Sasha from drinking all of the water in the background. That sort of scenario.)
Connie could say something about not many cattle being in Ragako, as they were primarily a wheat and farming village (judging by the flashback of a windmill in the background during Zeke’s attack).
Sasha could then start drooling and mention that skewered cow’s meat is tasty. Jean could then say not as tasty as chicken, and the two could argue over that.
Armin sees what is going on and breaks away from Eren, Mikasa, and Historia – the latter’s presence now garnering the attention of the local farmhands and orphans.
Scene Play – This takes place during SnK Chapter 70 – “A Dream I Once Had”
(Note: I wrote this in a traditional screenplay format, but decided to try and switch it to a narrative tone. Sorry if the transition makes it seem a bit clunky.)
As Armin stalks off with hands raised to defend Jean, Sasha, and Connie from the wrath of an angry cow, Eren, Mikasa and Historia come into the forefront of our screen.
Eren notices someone watching them in the distance, but their face remains obscured in the natural hustle and bustle of the farm.
In the foreground, shouting can be heard from a commotion surrounding Armin, Sasha, Jean, and Connie as they run away from a cow, while an orphan trails along after them holding a pitchfork in the distance.
Levi Ackerman and Hanji arrive on the scene.
Levi quickly reprimands the foursome by shouting.
“Oi! Stop causing a nuisance to the people of this farm”
His brow furrows before he pauses after a knowing look from Hange and in a softer tone, exclaims to his squad that “it’s time to go”.
Four carriages with horses on either side have slowly trotted up to accommodate the visiting scouts.
On the far side of the farm, Armin quickly disengaged himself from the evolving cow situation and turns to scan the space for Mikasa and Eren.
“Has Eren changed?”
Armin quietly reflects on their evolving relationships as he searches for his childhood friends.
Before he can fully raise his arm and call out, Mikasa has silently taken a sack of grain from Eren. Armin rests a hand at his side, voice still caught in his throat after observing an inquisitive exchange between Historia and Eren.
“Do Mikasa and I still know him well?”
Armin thinks as he rounds a structure of hay in the yard, heading toward Captain Levi and the carriages. Out of the corner of his eye, Armin takes note of Sasha, Jean, and Connie.
Sasha has chicken feathers in her hair, and Jean is seemingly soaking wet, while Connie is Connie.
Armin glances back once more at Eren and Historia, who have not moved from their spots. Mikasa was positioned closer to Eren now, taking note of Histora’s continued smile in Eren’s presence.
Armin wondered when he had last saw Historia smile like that.
“Had it been since Ymir?” Armin thought to himself, feeling a nervous tension creeping up over him.
Armin felt like he was missing something, and that was a sensation he rarely enjoyed.
After all, he had always been useful to Eren and Mikasa – even when the ambiguity of his self-confidence refused to allow Armin clear insight into situations at crucial times. Something had changed in the Reiss Family cave while Eren and Historia were alone, that was for certain.
But Armin couldn’t figure out what it was.
He scanned Mikasa’s darkening expression once more, and realized that she felt it, too.
“But if things really had changed…Eren would tell us, right?”
Armin felt his lips allow a small smile uplift his cheeks.
“That’s right” he said breathlessly “Eren would let us know if something was wrong” Armin muttered now aloud confidently.
Raising his head for the first time in a league of steps, Armin was greeted with an inquisitive look on Captain Levi’s face.
“Who would let us know if something was wrong, Armin?”
Levi prodded him, causing Armin to feel like fresh dough recoiling from the heat of a furnace’s blaze.
“N-nothing, heichou” Armin said quickly, feeling the feet beneath him walk a bit faster.
Armin reaches the farm gates and enters the street, feeling the captain’s gaze on him the entire way. He reserved the second carriage just before the orphanage’s gate for himself, Eren, and Mikasa.
Connie, Jean, and Sasha followed suit to the third mode behind him, a soft clucking sound coming from beneath Sasha’s ruffled and artificially elongated uniform blouse.
Levi watched his cadets enter the carriages, before subtly shifting his eyes toward Eren.
“What is he doing?” Levi thought, observing his interaction with the Queen for a moment. Hange, as if reading his mind, put a hand on his far shoulder and peered her face sickeningly close to his.
“Our young titan seems to have made a friend” she exclaimed in a chipper voice that did not match the grim expression on her face.
“Unhand me” Levi exclaimed flatly, unlinking her arm from around his shoulder.
“You never washed up after pulling turnips with those kids” Levi continued on lightly.
Hanje grinned and stepped back with hands raised, ignoring the chide remarks from Levi.
“Levi” Hanje exclaimed overenthusiastically, towering over the admittedly short middle-aged man and placing two hands firmly on either side of his shoulders, eyes wild as her hair blew in the chilly spring breeze.
“He is at that age.”
Hanje had deliberately whispered that phrase dramatically so often over the course of the last several days that Levi simply chose to swat her away rather than respond to her incessant waxing on a theorized link between adolescence and dormancy in titans.
Levi turned to shoot Eren a final parting glance before heading for his shared carriage with Hange at the head of the procession.
“Oi Eren, hurry on back” he shouted while in stride toward the carriages.
“The Queen has other things to do today”
Levi did not look over his shoulder to see if Eren had begun to follow, already knowing that he had been trained to do so.
In the distance, Eren was now alert and aware of his surroundings. Time seemed to pass slowly whenever he and Historia had the opportunity to chat.
Wrenching Mikasa’s grip away from attempting to steer his back, the pair began to move toward the carriages.
Eren wanted to shoot Mikasa a disgusted glance for always treating him like a child, but couldn’t help but soften once he saw her face. It face was bright red, partially buried beneath her old tattered scarf.
“She’s just trying to protect me, after all… That is what family does” Eren silently thought to himself.
He glanced at Mikasa as she carried four bags of grain neatly stacked and balanced on her shoulder. Feeling a slight tinge of annoyance at his own inadequacy, Eren grabbed two of the bags and ran toward the storage room to drop them off first.
Mikasa ran after him, purposefully trailing behind and allowing Eren to win this race.
***
A cold wind blew against the back of Historia’s neck, causing her to shiver as she watched all of her friends go. She inhaled deeply before belting out an enthusiastic goodbye to all of her comrades.
In the distance, Historia could make out the figure of Captain Levi standing in front of a carriage and reprimanding Connie, who seemed to be bashfully lowering what looked to be an egg from his palm down onto the ground. Historia watched the captain then question Sasha, who stepped out of the carriage and puts five eggs down after pulling them from various hidden compartments in her garments.
Despite her best efforts, the wind had carried away Historia’s voice, and within the void her fellow corps members could not hear her goodbyes.
Historia watched Eren and Mikasa walk closer toward the carriages now, never letting the smile on her face fade away.
To do so in public would be unladylike.
For a moment, Historia’s older sister Frieda flashed in her mind.
The vivid memory of her occasionally distant blue-grey eyes fighting something below the surface stirred deeply within Historia’s soul…
***
Toward the gate. Eren and Mikasa looked wide-eyed at Jean, who was now smacking his forehead in embarrassment over his two friends’ actions.
“What did we miss?” Eren asked, Armin shifting to the side as they filtered into the carriage.
“Not much” he replied nonchalantly, hesitating slightly before resting his eyes on Mikasa.
Mikasa, still agitated, shuffled into the carriage while an argument over eggs between the secondary trio roared even louder.
“Mika-” Armin outstretches a hand to grab her attention, only for Eren to intervene first.
“What is your problem?” Eren asked, slightly annoyed while turning toward Mikasa.
The two glared at each other in the cramped confines of the interior carriage. Mikasa folded her arms to her chest before looking the other way. With Mikasa’s gaze fixated steadily on the space somewhere outside their prison, Eren in protest decided to stare at the nearest interior wall.
Feeling the tension, Armin puts his hand down and tries to defuse the situation, only to be interrupted by a sharp thwack at the side of their carriage. Jumping from the sudden noise, Armin looks to his friends who remain unbudged.
Questioning his own strength, Armin sits back and tries to follow Mikasa’s gaze outside the window.
“We’re pulling off -” Levi announced sternly.
All three of the friends sat in silence, their backs against the firm cushions of the coach seats.
Faintly, the captain could be heard shouting at Sasha to “drop the chicken”. A soft clucking noise followed, quickly encapsulated by Jean and Connie snickering.
As the carriages begin to move, Historia received an almost coordinated barrage of waves – complete with a chicken popping gingerly out of Sasha’s undershirt before she hastily peer around and tucked it back in.
Historia smiled and waved, bursting out into polite laughter as one of the orphans beside her wondered where “little old Huhn” had gone.
As the carriage was almost engulfed by the surrounding trees and out of sight, Historia finally let her arms rest.
Eren met her gaze the entire time, only falling back within the confines of the carriage once Historia stopped waving. She caught the faint glimpse of an outline leaning toward him, before Squad Levi was completely out of view.
Despite the warm and sunny day, Historia felt quite cold.
She signed and put on her “strong regal resolve”, walking past the older orphans and farmers who bowed in her wake.
“Hey, where’s Küken?” one passing orphan said, before another child swiftly asked “what’s a Küken?”
“Küken is Huhn’s baby, dummy!” the somewhat older boy in the blue shirt answered indignantly. He folded his arms with a smug look on his face.
“Children are precious” Historia silently thought to herself.
“I’m glad that if nothing else, I could at least do this…”
Suddenly feeling self-conscious at over her thoughts, Historia couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, which caused a passing farmer to blush.
Catching the change in atmosphere, Historia paused for a brief moment – studying the Farmer’s face. The man bowed ever more deeply, as if to feign modesty by adverting his face from her grace.
Historia continued on past the masses and toward the main building of the orphanage, where she was allotted her own personal chambers for rest.
As she ascends the stairwell, a central window cast an almost angelic light across the cattle goddess’ face. Below, the nameless farmer watched as the doors creaked to a close.
Two military police ascended in the foyer to close the security gap.
“What?”
The soldiers frayed voices grew louder.
“ – that last name sounds familiar”
“He’s a local noble’s son from the interior of Wall Sina.”
Historia continued up the stairs, straining her ears to hear what the guards had to say.
“He apparently insulted the queen in her younger days, and wanted to atone for his sins”
One of the MPs sighed, leaning against the chair of a nearby table.
“That sounds like complete and utter nonsense. Why do the higher ups -” the conversation was cut short as Historia was finally out of ear shot.
If she walked slowed, would she have been able to hear the rest?
Historia shook her head and kept moving forward.
Reaching her quarters and shutting the door behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief- feeling victorious to be alone with herself once more.
Fin.
So, obviously this is a very rough draft, but I fear if I leave it to marinate before polish it may be another six months before it sees the light of day. So….I’ll just leave this here. ☺
I may end up re-editing this in the morning, but for now I’ll post this as is.
In Conclusion…
It would have been great if Isayama showed us more of Historia playing up her perceived “powerless” figurehead role and taking care of the orphans and farm in lieu of idly sitting in a rocking chair pregnant and miserable.
Hell, I would have even taken an extended and fully fleshed-out conclusion to the “what do you think about me having a child” conversation Historia had with Eren.
Just anything…other than Historia getting plowed by her childhood bully who relished in throwing rocks at her. Because my gosh is that dumb and lazy writing – not to mention a complete regression from Historia the Queen to the suicidal Krista who has no agency.
Anyway, I think I’ll leave this one here.
Tell me your thoughts? Was I lame for writing this? ☺
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