I’m sorry Anon, I’m not quite sure what you mean! Are you saying Eren might “sisterzone” Mikasa or that the writing is? I’ll answer both, if that’s okay.
The writing definitely is not “sisterzoning” Mikasa. Mikasa’s feelings I think are abundantly clear after chapter 50, in which it’s entirely possible she was moving to kiss him during the Clash of the Titans Arc. For the record, I didn’t ship it until chapter 50, though I did always think she had feelings for him.
I don’t think it’s a realistic reading to deny that Mikasa canonically has romantic feelings for Eren–it’s kind of blatant. Furthermore, Falco’s feelings for Gabi also clearly have a romantic component; pretending to be siblings doesn’t really change that and I just don’t think that situation is the best comparison as I doubt it’ll have further relevance.
As for how Eren sees Mikasa, that’s a different story all together, and Isayama pointing out Eren sees her as a motherly presence is not the same thing as saying Mikasa sees herself in a maternal sense (but there is some Oedipal-ness there). And it’s true–Mikasa is always trying to protect him as Carla asked her to do, but she would have done that anyways because she pretty clearly sees him as a major part of her identity, even to an unhealthy extent which I’ve talked about before, and that protectiveness is actually pushing Eren away in some sense. I do think the end goal of Mikasa’s arc has to be growing away from Eren; that being said, it’s not unrealistic to imagine that Eren would realize they could have had a happy future if, if, if.
If the circumstances of their world weren’t so cruel.
If they didn’t have to constantly fight to survive.
If Eren didn’t have a time limit on his lifespan.
If he’d decided not to go to Marlay.
Eren’s arc is tragic as hell. Even looking at the symbolism in the scene from chapter 50. Mikasa is essentially telling him she loves him, maybe wants to kiss him, and he focuses on I want to fight to save you. In doing that, he saves her, but he also loses that moment.
Eren will probably help save humanity even if Armin is the actual hero, but the cost is pretty clearly going to be his relationship with his loved ones–though I do absolutely think Mikasa and Armin will love Eren no matter how they disapprove of his actions, and I think he will love them regardless. But the closeness and the future, however short, they might have had, is probably gone.
And Mikasa knows this as she says here:
There isn’t a happy ending for them together like she’d have wanted, but she’s still clinging as we see in recent chapters wherein her clinging almost leads to her and Armin getting blown up.
To save the rest of her loved ones, Mikasa won’t be able to save Eren. I think that’s definitely where the story is going, but I do think it’s also realistic that Eren and Mikasa will have a moment wherein Eren acknowledges what could have been, and that he loves her, regardless of whether there is a romantic component.
I personally think there is likely to be (the set up is obvious, like with Touka and Kaneki in TG or Ochaco and Izuku in BNHA–it’s def a darker story with no hope for a happy ending for them, but main female character + main male character in this kind of story with a scene like chapter 50 that is clearly designed to put romance in the reader’s mind, is almost certainly intended to be romantic, plus we know Mikasa feels romantically). That being said, I also think it doesn’t actually matter whether or not Eren acknowledges romantic feelings for Mikasa. I just want him to acknowledge, and tell her, that he loves her and is grateful to her–because he does and is, regardless of whether that is familial or platonic or romantic, and the exact definition of that love doesn’t matter to the overall tragedy and beauty of their story. But acknowledging Mikasa’s personal romantic feelings would be a beautiful ending, imo, but that’s just my preference.
Hi Anon! I’d be careful when it comes to shipping in the SnK world actually. Without mentioning the discourse and ship wars in the fandom (I’m pretty sure I’m exposing myself by answering you actually), Sensei showed that killing a lot of his characters was totally his thing, which makes it hard to hope for canon romance.
Anyway, I always rooted for Springles but if you’re caught up with SnK, well, you know it’s not happening.
Ymir/Historia always was a pairing I considered to be more or less canon even though Ymir is already dead and Historia has been put in rather… complicated situation with the latest chapter. Even though they will never end up together in the flesh, I tend to think that their feelings for each other are real.
I know there are other popular pairings like Reiner/Bertholdt,Armin/Annie,
Levi/Erwin
but first of all Bert and Erwin are dead so :// and, while I don’t mind these pairings, I kind of doubt that Sensei will ever truly give any of these dynamics a romantic subtone.
My appreciation of Levi/Erwin legally forces me to look at the Zevi pairing critically (especially since I don’t trust Zeke at all) and I’m not sure I will ever want to swim in these waters tbh. Zeke/Yelena is interesting (to me) though, especially from her (almost fanatical?) point of view.
More seriously, Ymir/Historia aside, I think the only pairing that has a slight chance of ever being addressed in canon is obviously EreMika, not that I have high hopes for both of them to survive the ending or that Sensei will give the fans what they want in the first place.
To delve a little more into the subject of Eremika though, first of all I stare deeply at anyone who would read my answer and consider that I should be tried for supporting “incest”.
Let’s get real, folks:
they aren’t blood related, period. So you may or not like the pairing, that’s your right and I don’t mind either way, but using fallacious arguments never makes any point and that’s just sad (Mikasa, play ‘Vogel im Kafig’).
Otherwise, the reason that I think Eremika might eventually get its shot at being given canon romantic subtones is that we’re already halfway there, because Mikasa’s feelings aren’t really a secret to anybody, except to Eren himself.
There again, some fans might be tempted to quote Mikasa blushing and saying that “Eren is just like family”, but you don’t try and kiss your family when you think you’re about to die (ch50), just saying. xD
So it’s not really a question of whether he might even reciprocate her feelings or not when he hardly realizes what everyone else has known for ages.
I know that some fans who don’t like Eremika tend to vouch that Eren is not interested in her in that way, but personally and considering the narrative so far I think it’s way too soon to tell. His reaction to her words in ch50 was clearly not dismissal, on the contrary for me, which is why I think that aging them both can only be a good thing if we’re ever going to address the subject.
Look at the Marley arc, okay Sensei did say that Eren was under the influence of other people’s memories when he caught on Falco’s crush about Gabi, but the same influence could help him realize about Mikasa’s own feelings for him for all we know. That or she’s bound to try and tell him again anyway.
That was from the characters’ point of view. Narratively speaking now, I also think that Eremika makes a lot of sense for different reasons that @aspoonofsugar already explained in this very well-written post!
TL;DR while Ymir and Historia will sadly never come to be together I personally consider them canon, but otherwise the pairing most likely to get canon should be Eremika in my opinion.
Things between Casca and Guts really took a huge step forward after Guts left her and everyone else behind for a while to follow his own goal, which coincidentally led to a series of unfortunate events for their band of mercenaries. And it’s after Casca confronted him on the subject that they ended up realizing their mutual feelings.
I mean, do you see the little parallel there with what Eren’s latest shenanigans? So maybe Isayama-sensei is targeting a similar approach, which is to say that as long as Mikasa doesn’t really confront Eren about leaving everyone and her behind, he can’t possibly address her feelings for him again.
Anyway, the difference between Guts and Eren is that Guts (also being 19 at the time) was
never
dense about love, he just didn’t think Casca could love him back until that moment where they let it all out.
It’s just to share the idea. It may not happen like that, heck it may even not happen at all, but I felt like mentioning it just in case! Enjoy Anon!
yes anon !!! they’re the best pairings honestly, strong girls + striving boys = perfection ahhh if there was ever a world where they met it’ll be like
touka: so are you and eren together yet? mikasa: no… he’s too busy killing titans and saving the world touka: sounds like kaneki but seriously? mika the only way to get his attention is to ask him if he’s a virgin mikasa: touka no- touka: look at where it got me mikasa: ….. *thinks about it but is hesitant* i’ll think about it
Also Annie asking Armin because like. She totally would.
annie: i asked armin and it went well mikasa: wait what? touka: see mikasa, you’ve just gotta give it a shot! mikasa: i know… but- touka: you’re the only virgin here mikasa: ….. you didn’t need to point that out
it’s the only memory he gets from that dream, maybe it’s a sign that
eremika is really going to be plot relevant. Why would he remember
Mikasa in particular (and not Armin for example), assuming these
memories were really about him and Mikasa? I’m so sorry if this doesn’t
make a lot of sense, I love your snk posts so I wanted your opinion.
Have a great weekend!
Hello anon! I am happy you enjoy my posts! And don’t worry, your ask
makes sense, but since my answer is gonna be pretty long I’ll break it
into two parts:
1) Firstly I will address the scene you mentioned and some theories about it.
2) Then I will talk a little bit of Eremika.
1) I agree with you that this scene
and this scene
are
both linked to a common plot point which has to do with some
worldbuilding elements like the paths among Eldians, the origin of the
Founding Titan, the Attack Titan and the truth about Ymir. Until these details remain
unknown it is difficult to come up with a perfect explanation for these
panels.
Commission I did for @taramoline It’s always exciting when other artists ask me to draw stuff for them 💕 and Tara’s art is so pretty, I felt super honored to draw this ;u; Thank you so much for your support!
It’s fine my friend, I wasn’t being too serious in my reply. Canonically speaking I doubt they’ve formed a romantic relationship (despite anything either of them may or may not feel). As far as ships go it’s all different strokes for different folks. There’s lots of angst potential in eremika and many people eat that stuff up like dessert.
To be honest I think that Eren has been very good at hiding his feelings and has been mostly completely stoic since we were reintroduced to him. So it’s not just Mikasa. I think his eyes speak more than anything and to me they looked sad, both when talking to Reiner/Falco and when hearing what Mikasa had to say about his actions. He knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end of this horror, he knows what he’s inflicting on these people.
All other points aside though I think that saying Eren disregards Mikasa and exploits her loyalty really does his character a huge disservice. He has always tried to look out for her in his own ways (pushing her away early on in the series was one of his ways of trying to protect her although yes he was also jealous at the time). It’s clear they definitely have a clashing of ideals, now more than ever, but we have no idea how their relationship has changed over the last four years. He’s always wanted to pursue his goals and he has always given Mikasa the option to either follow him or not. She chooses to follow him because she cares about him. I have never felt that Eren has ever meant to exploit that in any way.
The theme around their relationship has always been about two flawed people trying to navigate their lives together. They argue and disagree a lot but at the end of the day they have love for one another and they protect each other. That there, at least for me, is one of the huge appeals to the pairing.
Here’s the thing like Mikasa still clearly cares about Eren and cares enough about his situation to be there. She doesn’t like what he’s doing but she stays loyal to him anyway. That being said, she has the right to express her feelings on the matter. She’s very upset that Eren has pushed himself this far and it makes her sad. Just because she said that what Eren did was “irredeemable” doesn’t mean that she suddenly thinks he’s a huge sack of shit who’s beyond all hope or anything. She’s concerned about the consequences of his actions. He killed innocent people, including children, who didn’t do anything wrong. It’s a horrifying thing to do and she knows this and wants to make sure that Eren understands this as well (and he does!). I feel like this is just her way of saying, “look you can’t come back from this and there are a lot of people who will never forgive you for this.” It’s not to say she thinks he’s a horrible person, just that he’s done something horrible. She’s clearly upset about the effect that this going to have and has already had. She loves him, she’s always going to, but it pains her to see him come to this point. She has the right to express that.
midnight-in-town 