How would you feel if isayama sisterzoned mikasa?I saw you compare falco and Gabi’s relationship to mikasa and Eren’s and in 109they pretend to be siblings and it reminded me of mikasa getting jealous over historia and eren, kaya deemed Gabi’s jealousy was for stealing her brother-her jealousy was sisterly.I never understood how mikasa felt for eren it can be maternal as much as it can be romantic, isayama said eren saw her as a mother figure but I’m pretty sure she took some steps back since

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.

Do you think Eren deserves to get redemption/does it seem like narrative will give him a chance?

Sooo I think redemption is not about deserve, but rather whether or not it works for the characters arcs and the themes of the story that the character’s arc ties into. Redemption in a gray story like SnK looks very very different than it does in a story like, say, ATLA, where the evil and good are very clearly different sides.

So for example, Reiner. Is Reiner getting a redemption arc? I am going to argue he is, and then take this back to Eren, but it’s complex. Reiner’s redemption will not likely look like him switching sides.

Bertolt is right here. There is no way for them to make amends for all the people they killed. You can’t resurrect the dead. They cannot restore what they took. Neither, now, can Eren.

The first step in redemption arcs is usually regret. Reiner experiences that in copious amounts in the Marlay Arc, but he is still not considering switching sides really. Rather that switching sides, though, what I think redemption would look like for Reiner is saving Falco and Gabi from their fates instead of telling Falco to basically do what Marcel did and sacrifice someone else for someone he cares about (and it didn’t work out for Marcel or Porco). Reiner was always about working for Marlay, for glory, for ideals, and therefore I suspect for him it would mean choosing to save individuals (because SnK explores this choice as a theme quite in-depth).

For Annie specifically, it might look like switching sides should she ever get out of that crystal (and she better), because she was pretty clearly set up for some kind of redemption and her focus was always on wanting to save her own skin, and she hated that about herself and admired Eren and Marlowe and Armin specifically because they did not do that, because they clung to their ideals no matter what. For Annie, if she chooses to help the walled people (even with the aim of getting back to her dad), I think that would qualify.

For Eren… yes, I expect a kind of redemption. I don’t know if it will look like him doing anything good for the world. It very well may not. That may fall to Armin. But who knows. For Eren, I think it would look like reconciling with his loved ones, especially Mikasa, as the person who has been there for everything with him. I do expect things to get way, way worse before any kind of reconciling happens, and no, I’m not expecting happiness, but a moment in which he acknowledges her and how badly he’s hurt her would count as the narrative framing him redemptively for me.

eren is not a hero hes more flawed than you think thats what mikasa is realizing i do believe he has remorse for sashes death. and that fatal flaw would only have him killed one day

Yep, Eren is not a hero. Armin is: Eren’s even said so. I agree with you that that is what Mikasa is realizing, and it’s heartbreaking for her.

I love Eren as a character because he is so flawed and so messed up, and there is no happy ending for him after he killed children which Mikasa even realized and said to him. Like, Eren’s one of my favorite characters, but it’s because he’s so angry, bitter, prone to lashing out, prone to rushing ahead, and yet desperately loves his loved ones with a heart that’s bigger than his brain sometimes, and he makes terrible decisions as a result more often than not. I think that makes him a fascinating character, because most protagonists are much more like Armin or like Mikasa or even Levi. Eren is very, very different, and I appreciate that.

I agree with you Eren feels despair over Sasha’s death, and I do think he is going to die. His chances of a happy ending are nonexistent and that’s without even the titan time limit coming into play. But I think he will have a role in freeing Eldia–but it won’t be the role of hero, like he’d envisioned as a child, which is a tragedy unto itself. 😦

Do you think Eren is gonna get eaten by someone in the SC and the story will continue on without him or do you think he’s gonna find a way to avoid being eaten even if it’s by force?

I’ll just say bluntly is a 0% chance Eren gets eaten and the story continues without him, don’t worry! He doesn’t have to be the hero (that’s Armin) to be the protagonist, and he definitely isn’t going to be eaten or die before the last chapters.

I do think the conversation with Armin and Mikasa will end poorly, but I don’t think eating Eren as a plan will go anywhere. It was more a “here’s how we raise the stakes for this conversation coming up” than foreshadowing, and it emphasized again how Eren’s decision to attack Marlay was Bad and undermined his ultimate goals: protecting the people he loves. He said he didn’t want them to take on his titan form, and now they might have to, and that was emphasized this most recent chapter so it’s probably not going to go much further.

There’s no way Zeke hasn’t factored this into his plan given all we know about Zeke and his craftiness, and Eren himself said he could escape any time he wanted. I am very, very concerned about that plan of Zeke’s, but yeah, he needs Eren for that. He’ll be fine.

I’m glad we’re finally getting to see the impact Erwin’s death has had recently since we never got a funeral or anything like that. Levi’s practically stuck in the past. Armin will still obviously feel extremely burdened by the fact that he was chosen over Erwin which I hope gets dived into a little more. And Hanji’s cracking under the pressure of her new role as commander. I strongly believe there is not a single character in the series who could’ve filled Erwin’s shoes as commander.

Indeed. No one else can grow eyebrows like that.

But yeah. I think this arc (quite possibly the last) is about, in part, overcoming the past and breaking out of the cycles, or the inability to do it in some cases. Armin I do think will be most likely to break the cycle, as the hero, but I think he may have to choose at some point whether or not to repeat the choices Erwin made like sacrificing himself/others, etc.–which he may be expected to do–or make new ones. He was already saved last time he tried to sacrifice himself, so suffice to say that’s a theme in his arc (as well as in Historia’s and Erwin’s) so I expect it to come up again. The most likely thing he’ll have to sacrifice imo is his close friendship with Eren, though that doesn’t mean I think they’ll hate each other–on the contrary, I think they will always deeply love each other even if they make choices that lead them away from the other one.

Hange finally getting an arc, I’m here for this. I think they are also trying to be Erwin when really they should be thinking outside of the box/ island they’ve been trapped on (the metaphor isn’t subtle) and the old strategist are not necessarily going to benefit them now. I also think they will overcome this.

And Levi. It’s funny, because I think I wrote a year or two ago how I really wanted to see Levi fulfill his promise to Erwin by killing Zeke. But in reality, I think it’s a far more character/thematically interesting–and far more hopeful–path for Levi to take if he has to choose between killing Zeke and… something else important in terms of freeing humanity (since Erwin wanted that too) and/or saving someone he loves, since Levi is and has always been motivated by the people he cares about most. I think it’s far better if Levi has to choose to leave his revenge for a better world even if he won’t be able to survive to live in it, and I do have confidence Levi would make the right choice. I also think that would make Erwin proud.

The point is exactly that there is no one who could fulfill Erwin’s role as commander, and also that that isn’t necessarily a bad thing if Paradis truly wants freedom and to be a part of the world.

I think I remember you saying that you expect Eremika feelings to atleast be acknowledged as mutual by the end of the series. Since Eren and Jean’s dynamic is practically identical to Erwin and Nile’s I could definitely see it playing out exactly like that. I’d love a little conversation like the one they had in the carriage about Marie except with Eren and J, where Eren just like Erwin tells J that he had feelings for Mikasa himself. I think E-M-J might end up exactly like E-M-N

I do, yeah. Eremika strongly parallels the other canonically romantic relationships set up by the narrative–Yumikuri and Galco–so I would expect Eremika to get the acknowledgement at the very least that Yumikuri got, and Galco to actually be the one that ends up canon and alive by the end.

That’s a very interesting comparison to Erwin and Nile’s dynamic. I can definitely see that parallel. If Jean and Mikasa do end up together in an epilogue (like I don’t expect a declaration of love, but an epilogue is entirely possible) I really hope we get to see some of their dynamic this arc (if indeed it is the last one, or the penultimate one). I can see something like you suggest happening.

I think an overarching theme in SnK is that each generation does a little better at embracing the beauty in the world (instead of letting cruelty reign) than the last. So I really still doubt a nihilistic ending because of that. I don’t believe Erwin ever told Marie his feelings, but I think Eren will tell Mikasa his feelings like Ymir did tell Historia her feelings (even if it was too late at that time), and Falco will tell Gabi his feelings (or vice versa) but they will have the chance to actually act on them in ways the other canonically romantic couples simply did not thanks to the world’s cruelty. I think Falco and Gabi, and their relationship, are about finding a balance of beauty and cruelty in the world. While cruelty kinda has a tendency to win out and cut the beauty short in the past, I think they will be able to live in a better world, and Jean and Mikasa (since they are both strong Falco parallels as well lol) will be able to live in that world as well, whether or not they end up together. (But the fact that Jean’s crush is established means, narratively, something should come of it at some point even if it is never returned, so yeah.)

Do you think Annie’s gonna come out of that crystal? And if so what role do you think she’ll play? She’s not loyal to Marley but she doesn’t care another fighting for the ‘good’ side or anything like that either. Her only motivation was/is to see her father again.

If Annie doesn’t get out of that crystal I’m going to personally mail myself to Isayama so we can talk.

Yes, I do think she will. I gotta think she will. And soon…ish. Because we’ve had numerous callbacks to Annie lately, from her father’s conversation with Karina and his professed faith in her, to Armin asking her to please come out. Logically it should be building somewhere.

Honestly, while the SC has more titan serums, they need the jaw titan to break through Annie’s crystal–unless the War Hammer Titan’s abilities allow Eren to do just that which is possible. But I still really do not see Annie being eaten and will bitch incessantly if it does happen, though I can see a plan for that formulating.

What I think would happen is Annie would want to see her father again, and I think there is one person who might be willing to help her because going to Marlay to negotiate would also work for his goals of ending the conflict: Armin. Look, my shipping feelings aside and again I’ll say I don’t have canon expectations, but it’s clear Isayama wants us to be focusing on that dynamic as of 106. I can see Armin and Annie working out a deal wherein if she helps him get to Marlay and negotiate he’ll help her see her father. But we will see.

Historia and Ymir’s Shared Paths

Oh, Historia. 😦

As sad as this development makes me for her (and I totally get why people don’t like it), I do believe it makes narrative sense for Historia’s arc and fits with the cruel aspect of SnK’s world (really not much different than our own). Also, I do not believe this dooms Historia to tragedy.

It’s no secret that the one piece of Isayama’s writing that I’ve thus far hated completely is Ymir’s death. It didn’t seem to fit with what we knew about Ymir, and left a lot unresolved between her and Historia, especially in terms of how they affected each other. Her death was confirmed way too late to have any real thematic impact since the characters were already used to living without her.

But with 107, we see that Historia is not cured and has in fact regressed. Historia is still trapped in the same dangerous cycle that killed Ymir: sacrificing herself and her own desires to be a figurehead for her people, and allowing her children to suffer the same fate. This flaw killed Ymir twice (firstly when she was turned into a Titan, secondly when she was too kind to leave Bertolt and Reiner), and Historia is currently heading down a path that will kill her and kill her children.

The irony of the situation is palpable: Historia is deliberately having a child to sacrifice them for a cause. That’s what Grisha did with Zeke.

It also carries parallels to what happened to Ymir–hopeless people used a street child to fulfill their own desires, to give themselves hope.

Eren just sacrificed children for a cause too (to somehow break with this plan and thereby protect Historia presumably), narratively showing Historia the horrors of just what she is planning to do.

This development gives Ymir’s death resonance, rather than her death being just a letter way too late in the game with no real impact. Because of her own and also directly because of Ymir’s martyr complex driven decisions, Historia has sunk into a similar place: allowing herself to be a figurehead, endangering her life and her child’s for the sake of a cause.

No, Historia, that is not all. Because someone still has Ymir’s memories:

I think we’ve all thought Ymir’s memories would be relevant at some point, but this development is giving me hope that it’s going to be not just a sweet heartwarming moment, but instead a powerful one. If Porco does share certain memories of Ymir’s with Historia, including how she actually felt about her and how she felt about her own decisions (this is surely not what Ymir would have wanted for Historia), I have hope that might jumpstart Historia’s development in a positive direction again.

Bit of a weird question but where do you see Eren’s character going from this point forwards in the story? Disregarding his almost inevitable death since its just too depressing to think about do you have any other ideas as to what’s to come for his character aswell as his relationships with others?

Yes, I do. I’ve been talking a lot about this with @aspoonofsugar and well, both of us are side-eyeing Zeke and his foiling of Levi and their relationships with Eren. Much of what I’m writing is their ideas from our conversations.

I mean, look at Levi’s desperate sorrow at what Eren’s done here. Levi has been a mentor figure for Eren, a paternal/fraternal figure.

And then there’s Zeke, whom Gabi and Falco viewed as a mentor, but who betrayed them:

Suffice to say, Zeke’s plan is really bizarre with Yelena and the other inconsistencies, and I just don’t see how there wasn’t another option besides Eren going Titan. But I can see Zeke making it seem like there was not another option.

While I do believe Zeke truly cares for Eren, I don’t know if Zeke is healthy enough of an individual to know what truly caring for someone looks like, since his entire life has been people using him. His parents, the Warrior program, etc. We’ve only ever seen Zeke refer to people in similar utilitarian terms: Mike, for example, mowing the people in Shiganshina as if it were a baseball game, Gabi and Falco are “miscalculations.” And how interesting that of all the Warriors in this arc, Zeke is the only one for whom his motives remain shrouded. I doubt they’ll be shrouded forever, as @aspoonofsugar said to me earlier today.

I think Zeke may very well be using Eren for his own goals and plan to betray him is Eren no longer fits into those goals (I definitely believe he plans to betray the Survey Corps), just like he ditched Gabi and Falco when they no longer mattered. What Zeke’s plans exactly are, I don’t know. Aspoonofsugar also pointed out that It’s eerie that Zeke’s words echo Floche’s, and I do wonder if they might team up at some point. Zeke and Levi’s foiling will continue and Eren may have to choose who he considers to be his real family: Zeke, or Mikasa, Armin, and Levi. Both Zeke and Levi care about Eren, but nothing about the current situation looks good for Zeke and Eren’s relationship long term.