From the beginning, Armin has always admired Shiro. Obviously Armin does have a military background, so it is very easy for Shiro to fill that sort of trusted leader / squad leader role. The first time they met in person was during that Halloween event, so yeah, Shiro cemented himself in that place pretty quickly by leading and taking care of people during all of that. Which essentially means Armin trusts Shiro, he admires his capability to lead and he'd follow an order Shiro'd give him no problem. He trusts his judgement (though maybe not his judgement towards himself, everyone can see that Shiro does demand more of himself than he ever does of other people).
Which is also making it so awkward to him that Shiro is now getting to a point of complimenting him. Like, he obviously trusts Shiro's judgement. And if Shiro'd say of any other person 'that person is smart / loyal / dependable / dangerous', Armin would take that in pretty heavy consideration. With Shiro complimenting him though, it is complex cause on the one hand, because he admires Shiro, he definitely wants Shiro to be proud of him. But at the same time, because he's always had some issues with self esteem, there is also a clash between his instinct to trust Shiro's judgement and to be his own worse critic.
Armin just doesn't know how to deal with all this parental support, ok.
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From the beginning, Armin has always admired Shiro. Obviously Armin does have a military background, so it is very easy for Shiro to fill that sort of trusted leader / squad leader role. The first time they met in person was during that Halloween event, so yeah, Shiro cemented himself in that place pretty quickly by leading and taking care of people during all of that. Which essentially means Armin trusts Shiro, he admires his capability to lead and he'd follow an order Shiro'd give him no problem. He trusts his judgement (though maybe not his judgement towards himself, everyone can see that Shiro does demand more of himself than he ever does of other people).
Which is also making it so awkward to him that Shiro is now getting to a point of complimenting him. Like, he obviously trusts Shiro's judgement. And if Shiro'd say of any other person 'that person is smart / loyal / dependable / dangerous', Armin would take that in pretty heavy consideration. With Shiro complimenting him though, it is complex cause on the one hand, because he admires Shiro, he definitely wants Shiro to be proud of him. But at the same time, because he's always had some issues with self esteem, there is also a clash between his instinct to trust Shiro's judgement and to be his own worse critic.
Armin just doesn't know how to deal with all this parental support, ok.