what do you think Bertholt meant with "Somebody, please find us" in chap 48?

That no one’s looking.

Bertolt’s surrounded by people he’s come to care for as friends. He’s spent more minutes going through the motions of fighting by their side than he has actively sabotaging them.

They demand explanations, and for the first time, the necessity of the mission breaks down under the weight of Bertolt’s emotional strain. He’s a murderer. Their worst enemy. He never wanted to be, but he is.

It’s awful. The whole mission is awful. He’s awful.

However.

“So even if I’m… the kind of weak person who gets swept along with the flow, I just want you to think of me as human… That’s all.”

–Annie Leonhart, 31

No one sees Bertolt and Reiner as human. Not the government that sent them to slaughter people, and not the friends they made along the way.



That doesn’t kill the need to be recognized as a person.



In the end, Bertolt’s hope is answered. Ymir goes back for the two boys who accidentally saved her by coming to commit genocide, and part of it is because she can’t tune out Bertolt’s plea.

Until then, there’s no proof of any sympathy in any corner of his world, and he’s desperate for it.

Thank you very much for the ask! It’s been a while since I’ve looked through those chapters. :)

