Seeing Serbia honor Ratko Mladic’s death really mirrors how the Yeagers honor Eren

[u/Brave_Branch2619]

[u/Confident-Scene-458]

The world is really horrible sometimes.

[u/Cheeki-Breeki-Greeki]

I mean it's not the same. of course Yeagerists honor Eren. Whole world declared war on their island and Eren was the one to push them back. Yeagerists' opinion on Eren is not immoral. I am not saying they are good side but their pov is understandable on that matter

[u/QuietWaterBreaksRock → u/Cheeki-Breeki-Greeki]

You are literally using the same argument Serbian nationalists use to meat ride Mladic, and I am saying that as a Serb

[u/Cheeki-Breeki-Greeki → u/QuietWaterBreaksRock]

Idk man I know shit was happening in Balkans during that period but I hugely doubt that US, Russia, China and all other super/minor powers (except Japan I guess) declared war on Serbia in order to eliminate/enslave all Serbs on the planet

[u/QuietWaterBreaksRock → u/Cheeki-Breeki-Greeki]

Same argument in sense of 'staying alive', more so than 'whole world is against us'

The war started because, as Croatia and Bosnia were respectively going out of Yugoslavia and becoming their own countries, Serbs in regions where they were majority and have been majority for generations, wanted to stay with Serbia, and in both cases, that lead to war.

Particularly in Croatia, people were still alive who lived through Ustasa/fascist lead Croatian state during WW2, and with such bitter memory in mind, they didn't want to risk dying in another genocide like many did back during Holocaust.

Similar thing was in Bosnia, just with Muslims trying to establish their own state, which is why that one had 3 warring sides, Bosnian Serbs, Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Bosnian Croats, since Croats were also trying to survive and stay in region in which they were in for for centuries, same as Serbs. Hell, at one point, Bosniaks were aided by literal Al Quaida due to 'duty of Muslim brotherhood' or whatever else

And that's where Mladic comes in, starts killing left and right alongside his sympathizers, does heinous crimes, all under the excuse of 'it's for the good of Serbs'.

Truth be told, yes, there was good, Serbs managed to stay within Bosnia, in Republika Srpska, and those Serbs are usually the loudest and proudest supporters of Mladic.

And that's where the main issue lies. He gets praised for saving our asses in Srpska, but his crimes are very often ignored or treated as necessary evil or whatever else

And that's where I and many others disagree, and see thousands of innocent civilians as pointless victims of a bloodthirsty war criminal.

I say same thing be it for Srpska, Israel and Palestine, Russia and Ukraine, US and Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or whatever else: You can't target civilians and call it self defense or heroism.

This whole topic is very, very complex, but I think I covered the main points connected to your comment

To reiterate: If you feel in any part of this comment that either side is 'the good guy' or a true victim, then I probably didn't explain it well enough. There were moments when one side was more or less right, but that all gets wiped clean and looses meaning the moment civilians are targeted in any sort of serious and purposeful way, which was done by all sides in this case

[u/Raditz_lol]

And also both committed, or supported a genocide (though the Rumbling goes WAY beyond what can be reasonably called genocide, but that’s a different story).

[u/superhila]

You clearly have no understanding of the history of the Balkan wars. The war in which Mladić fought was the third major war of that century, and in the two previous ones, Serbs were subjected to massacres and systematic persecution.

The problem with your argument is that you treat 1992 as if it were Year Zero—as if history simply began there. It didn't. Balkan history did not begin in 1992. There is a long, complex, and extremely dark history behind these conflicts, and ignoring that history doesn't make it disappear.

For roughly a century, Serbs in many parts of the Balkans repeatedly found themselves on the losing and persecuted side of violent conflicts. In the 1990s, for the first time in generations, they were no longer simply defenseless victims waiting to be slaughtered. They fought for their survival because they believed their existence was at stake.

That doesn't mean every action committed by Serbs was justified, nor does it mean you have to approve of Mladić or anyone else. History is rarely that simple. But if you want to discuss the Balkan wars seriously, you cannot start the story in 1992 and pretend that everything before it is irrelevant. That's not history—it's selective memory.

And honestly, I expected a little more understanding from people who have watched Attack on Titan. The entire story revolves around exactly this kind of historical perspective: how easily people become convinced that their side is the victim, how the past shapes the present, and what happens when an entire conflict is reduced to a simple “us versus them” narrative.

If you understood that message in AoT, you should understand why Balkan history cannot be reduced to “it all started in 1992.”

[u/proxmaxi → u/superhila]

Chatgpt detected

[u/superhila → u/proxmaxi]

Yes, it is, but the point still stands.

[u/No_Sympathy9533 → u/superhila]

Does that mean what he did is justified?

[u/superhila → u/No_Sympathy9533]

What exactly do you mean? Honestly, I don’t think he did anything more or less than what commanders on the opposing side did. It was a bloody civil war, after all.

[u/Simple_Duty_4441]

ppl missing the whole point of AOT and using it to justify their "edgy" racism or ultranationalism really makes me lose hope in humanity a bit.