if marco was still alive, who would have been smarter, him or armin?

not to start a war or anything, but i saw some people debating armin’s and marco’s intelligence on youtube and tiktok; a lot of comments suggested that marco would have been smarter if he had survived. however, i disagree; personally, i think armin would be smarter regardless. marco is intelligent, but we didn’t get to see his full potential; during the trost arc, he couldn’t come up with anything.

armin, on the other hand, formulated a plan using eren’s titan to lead mikasa and connie to the supply room; he devised the strategy to defeat the titans in trost's hq, defended eren from the garrison, and helped plan the retaking of trost with eren's powers. armin suggested using a boulder in the middle of the district to seal the hole while other soldiers lured the titans toward the walls throughout the trost arc; meanwhile, marco seemed relatively ineffective, placing most of his faith in others like jean.

while i acknowledge that marco figured out reiner and bertolt were titans, that was relatively obvious given the circumstances; i like marco a lot, but when it comes to intelligence, it’s clearly armin. like that’s a no-brainer.

(not related, but do you think marco would have become a yeagerist?) i think not!