“lover slowly forgetting the face of their deceased lover” cannot apply to reibert because bertholdt is quite literally immortalized into reiner’s soul, his face haunts him both in dreams and wake, inescapable hallucinations,, bertholdt has tasted his flesh and blood… soulmates
bertholdt is literally isayama’s perfect colossal titan… he designed bertholdt FOR the colossal, no one would have embodied the juxtaposition between monstrosity and helpless youth/stolen agency central to aot’s core themes as much as him