The “Ackerbond”, Mikasa and the Guidebook Interviews
Thank you @ningen-suki, @fuku-shuu, @yusenki and @suniuz for making the new Guidebook translations available to us. I feel like we’ve gotten a backstage pass into Isayama’s thinking. And as a person who spends a lot of time trying to decipher what he’s thinking, the interviews are a gift.
This thing with the Ackermans and their bond is especially fascinating to me. It’s something we’d long speculated about, so it’s nice to have clarification.
In chapter 65 of the manga we learned that the Ackerman clan traditionally served the king. They were “the royal government’s sword and shield” (source). Now, from the interviews, we have confirmation that when an Ackerman meets their special person, their “Liege”, it can trigger an instinctive desire to work with and protect that person. Certain Ackermans can unleash great power in that person’s behalf.
But when Isayama concepted the whole Ackerbond, he may not have been thinking about the real world implications, he may have only been thinking ‘how cool to have this powerful bloodline of knights who bond with their Liege!’.
In the case of Levi and Kenny, it made sense. They were adult men with life experience who made a choice to follow the person they deemed higher than themselves. But what happens when a traumatized 9 year old child makes that same lifelong commitment to another person? How do you develop that person as an individual while still respecting that bond? That’s the corner Isayama has painted himself into. That’s the conundrum he’s facing.
Thinking about this from an in-story perspective, the pre-wall Ackermans probably had measures in place to prevent “ackerbonds” from forming until the child reached a certain stage of development, but with the bloodline decimated and scattered, no such safeguards were in place.
In describing Mikasa’s bonding experience, Isayama said:
“When [her parents] were killed, the world she had believed in utterly crumbled, and Mikasa was awakened under those circumstances – losing all of her innocence in the process. At that time Eren allowed her to discover renewed value again, like that of a newborn bird’s first glimpse at a grown one – it was that kind of admiration and trust. Thus, she swore to follow Eren. However, Eren was actually even more childish than Mikasa.” (source: fuku-shuu).
Isayama now realizes the issues with this. He is considering a separation so Mikasa can develop individually, but knows that is something canon Mikasa wouldn’t want. Nor may the readers.
“I think it is pitiful if Mikasa’s life is only about staying together with Eren. However to Mikasa, it is a wonderful thing to be with Eren forever. Combining what I’ve said, if I were to draw the separation of Eren and Mikasa, I feel like my portrayal likely won’t be satisfactory for readers.” (source: @suniuz )
I want Mikasa to grow as a person. One of my chief complaints with this series has been my frustration with her lack of development.
I love “eremika” as well. And I don’t think anything will permanently shake their bond. Eren has promised “I will wrap this scarf around you again and again forever”, and Mikasa has said she would live to remember him.
But a temporary separation could be a healthy and interesting development for both of them. So I’m very interested to see what route Isayama takes.
A lot of things have changed between them, and a lot of things remain the same.
Levi is the person who is always trying to keep Mikasa balanced and guiding her to become the cardinal soldier in Survey Corps. On her he never applies discipline, the most effective method as he believes. In front of her, he always tries to communicate and to make her follow him. Well, there is a difference between his orders delivered to the subordinates and his efforts to make a subordinate follow. He is not always good at it though, maybe because, just like Mikasa, Levi is not an eloquent person.
So at some point all he can do is to call her to stop before everything is too late, before she does something she’ll regret later, before she loses all her comrades and even her most important family. It has almost become his instinct. Mikasa is young and still learning, but Levi never gives up on her.
So it seems Mikasa’s family branched off from Levi’s before his great grandfather’s generation. So, this confirms they aren’t closely related.
Most of the kanji is too advanced/too blurry for me to read, but the line connecting them is referring to their association with the Survey Corps. If there’s someone out there who could translate this, please do! The Ackerfandom would highly appreciate it.
Top left: Asian Family (down to Mikasa’s mother) Top Right: Ackermans The line between these two: Served the King a long time ago
Above Grandfather Ackerman: Main Family （down to “Grandfather” but he has no name) To the left of Main Family: Branch Family (down to “Mikasa’s father” and he has no name either)
Under the Main Family category: Big Brother “Kenny” and Little Sister “Kuchel”, later down to her son Levi
Text connecting Levi and Mikasa: Into the Survey Corps
It is very clear that the Branch Family breaks away from the Main Family a long time ago, even longer before Grandpa Ackerman (see the “~” sign).
(Will translate more information about the Asian family and Ackerman family if we can find better scans ^ ^;)
Alongside the new Bessatsu Shonen, the ANSWERS fanbook was also released in Japan yesterday. Below I will share some highlights translated from Chinese. More excerpts from myself or reblogged from others will be in my “snk answers fanbook” as well as “snk interviews” tag.
– Regarding Mikasa and Levi’s Ackerman family mystery, we’re also receiving more clarity! Can we say that Mikasa, Levi, Kenny are all part of the same Ackerman bloodline? Isayama: They are all part of the same Ackerman bloodline. However, their reasons for protecting their respective counterparts don’t have anything to do with the bloodline itself – it’s just their nature (laughs). Within the story, Mikasa and Levi almost have the guardian/knight-like roles, right? That’s because they encountered the existence of a “boss”-like individual (T/N: Isayama interestingly uses the exact katakana “ボス” – “boss” here), and the desire to work for that person is very in line with their personalities.
@suniuz noticed the detail that Mikasa reverses her 3DMG blade when Flocke approaches, flipping the sharper edge (The side of the hand pump) towards herself.
She was ready to hit him, but not kill him.
–
With that said, moments before Mikasa does lean the sharper edge of her blade against Levi’s neck. But as soon as he showed less resistance than she anticipated, she backed down and even asked him for the serum formally.
I know this is a long post and I wanted to put it under a “Read More” but that isn’t working for whatever reason -__-
I know I mentioned that ACWNR seemed to be coming full circle in the recent chapter, but there is something in particular that I wanted to talk about, and that is what Levi may be feeling by the end of chapter 83 because of his past. In no way am I stating that Levi will save any certain character with the serum at any point in this post. That isn’t what this post is about. I just want to go over why the decision may not be as simple as some people believe it should be.
The look in Levi’s eyes here:
The way Levi looks at Mikasa in this panel is heartbreaking for me because I honestly believe that in this moment, Levi is getting a glimpse at the pain and desperation in her heart. The same pain and desperation he felt in his heart when he watched his closest friends die because he couldn’t get to them in time.
Levi knows exactly how Mikasa feels in this moment and he most likely fully understands why she would be willing to attack him for the sake of having a chance at saving her friend. Her actions at this point are out of desperation and a plethora of emotions. Hurt, shock, and an extreme need to protect the only family she has left. Much like how Levi felt… Only in Levi’s case; he was already too late to save his family.
Knowing that he was too late still didn’t stop him from behaving violently though, and it didn’t stop him from confronting the one he felt was responsible for the death of his family. The person he believed to be the reason for their demise.
Much like how Eren and Mikasa react to Levi’s stance on not continuing through with saving Armin. Because to them, it feels like a betrayal. Which I imagine, is a lot like how Levi felt back when Isabel and Farlan died. Played for the sake of a game they had no idea they were even pawns in, and it was a game they had no chance of winning from the get go. It obviously hurt Levi deeply, and now he is witnessing the kids in his squad experience that same feeling towards him.
I know everyone wants to hate on Levi right now, but imagine the position this man is in. Being put on the spot to either save the man who he honestly believes is humanities only chance at victory because he was proven to be willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of freedom; himself included.
Or the genius kid in his squad with a family that loves him just as deeply as he loved his friends. Friends that he most likely – to this day – still wishes he could have saved.
Levi is in a very tough spot and this choice will not be an easy one for him. Especially after seeing the pain his choice could cause and the desperation he once felt himself on the face of someone else. No one knows who he will choose, but neither choice will be the right one and I think Levi know’s this.
After all this time, he will finally have to make a very important decision and accept the fact that no matter what, some small part of him will always regret his choice. He will carry that guilt and the weight of that person’s life with him for the rest of his days.
He might also have to deal with his squad, kids he smiled at because they stood by him, may very well hate him forever because of his decision. Or he might have to deal with humanities damnation because he let the one man willing to carve a path to victory in blood and climb a mountain of corpses towards freedom die in order to give his dear subordinates the option he never had.
But either way,
This is the face of a man who knows that he will feel guilty no matter who he chooses. Because in the end, he is keenly aware of the pain his subordinates feel, and he is also aware of the importance Erwin hold as a Commander and as his friend.
No matter who he chooses; he isn’t entirely wrong, but he isn’t entirely right either, and that is a very shitty place to be in.
Back in CH30, Levi adamantly believed Eren was dead and didn’t seem too emotional or eager to attempt a rescue, but as soon as he remembered who Mikasa was he changed his tune entirely…
We can see that his expression and attitude changed entirely once he realized one of Mikasa’s friends was at stake.
In CH83, Levi is once again put in the position to save Mikasa’s friend, but the objective isn’t as clear as “save Mikasa’s friend” because his own friend is on the line too. I wonder if he’ll contradict his above statement and satisfy his own desires, or if he’ll once again put her friend first.
A few panels before this, Levi’s expression seems to go from upset about Erwin to fierce when Eren became hostile, but again his expression changes to a softer one when he sees how distraught Mikasa is. He seems to have a weak spot for her, or at least a subtle interest in her personal relationships, which is why we see him questioning her relationship with Eren, him correcting himself whenever he says something harsh to Eren or Armin in her presence, him eavesdropping on them, etc.
It’s hard to interpret this scene, especially without translations, but I do think he will end up picking Armin in the end. Of course, this is a difficult decision so it might take him a while to settle on that conclusion, though, so this confrontation between him and Mikasa might lead to Ackertalk. -crosses fingers-
There is a reason Isayama had Levi overhear Shiganshina Trio’s conversation about their dreams of going to the ocean before they set off for this battle.
midnight-in-town 