I wouldn’t be surprised if Annie were to come out from her crystal after Armin manages to successfully exchange memories and feelings with her. If this happens, then Annie’s crystal will be broken in a way opposite to the one Eren used to destroy Miss Tybur’s.
In this way we will have two opposite approaches on how to overcome a person’s physical, but also emotional defenses (after all, Annie enclosing herself into a crystal is symbolic of her coping mechanism which is to isolate herself).
I think it would be a nice parallel and would underline once more the different POVs Eren and Armin have and which will create conflict between them.
1) Armin Arlert. He’s my favorite character because of his complexity and relatability, and I love how his flaws are still present, and how he’s basically a covert hero for the entire story. His flaws are that he underestimates himself and has major insecurity and a lack of self-worth, as shown in his heroic sacrifice. He really doesn’t value himself completely because, like Erwin, a foil of him, he values ideas over individuals in some ways–however, he still struggles to reconcile that with a very real and very present compassionate side, as shown in how he understands that empathy and talking to Marlay is the best way forward, not bam bam kill them.
2) Eren Jaeger. He’s such a unique protagonist, and despite his anger issues and the things he’s doing now, he’s compelling, sympathetic even if you can’t excuse his actions, and just really intriguing. I think Eren’s current spiral is completely understandable but also not excusable, obviously, and I love his foiling with Mikasa, Armin, and Hisoria. He’s desperate and scared, and he’s a child who was forced to grow up too fast and now he’s an adult who is repeating the same mistakes adults made with him. It’s tragic to the core.
3) Annie Leonhart. I love Annie and if she doesn’t come back to the plot soon I’mma cry. I love her contrast with Mikasa, Eren, and Armin–all of them really–and how she really, really wanted to be a kind person and wanted to save individuals (like how she saved Armin during the Female Titan Arc) and get back to her father even though he was abusive because at least he loved her. Despite her cold personality, she wanted to be liked and loved, and I really want her to have that chance for however brief a time.
4) Ymir. I love Ymir and her relationship with Historia, and I’m still bitter about her ending lol. But her compassion and the way in which she foils Historia is excellent, and I do not believe her role is over in the story just yet even if she is dead.
5) Reiner Braun. Reiner’s development over the Marlay Arc has been amazing. I always liked him but this really made him grow in my eyes. I desperately want him to have the chance to redeem himself by saving Gabi and Falco–which does not mean letting either of them take over his titan.
6) Bertolt Hoover. I loved Bertolt. I really do still love him, and I think his ending should have been better written in terms of what it meant for his character because I think the ball got dropped a bit there. His “Somebody” speech from the Clash of the Titans Arc is exactly why that arc is my favorite arc, and that speech moves me to tears with how visceral and raw the emotions are every single time I read it. He just wanted somebody to find them and see them and save them. And, no one did for him.
7) Zeke Jaeger. I actually don’t like Zeke but I think he is a fascinating, compelling character and a fantastic villain (yes, I do think he is the final antagonist). He foils Levi in that he and Levi are both mentor figures for Eren. I don’t believe his “I was always on Paradis’s side!” spiel at all, but I do utterly sympathize with the role his father forced on him.
8) Pieck. She’s just cool, man. And I’m terrified for her.
10) Porco. I actually quite like Porco, though he’s kind of a brat. But I think he made the exact same mistake he accused Reiner of making during the most recent battle and messed things up for everyone, and I hope that jumpstarts some development for him.
11) Eren Kruger. Again, I quite like him, but he was only around for a few chapters. I am curious if we will access his memories again as well.
12) Grisha Jaeger. Grisha, you are a bad dad. I know he tried to do better and largely did with Eren, but he still cursed his kid and I just. I have a hard time with that. And poor Zeke.
Oh, I’m counting Marcel with Lady Tybur. They’re cool but just kinda there.
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.
While I get that Mikasa’s arc is very different than most female characters’ arcs, I honestly feel sad when people reduce her arc to not having developed (she’s developed as much as Armin has; they’re both still clinging to their flaws but are starting to see that they’ll have to overcome them–Armin’s flaw is not fear of battle, for the record: it’s self-hatred and a lack of confidence in his decisions, which sacrificing himself for everyone didn’t exactly fix).
But onto Mikasa’s arc. I have a bit of a pet peeve about this notion that Mikasa loves Eren out of an “Ackerbond” (which Isayama has said doesn’t exist) rather than out of a complex character trait that is both a flaw and strength. Way to diminish a female character’s choices and character arc, fandom.
Sorry, I needed to salt a little. Back to the main point. Mikasa is not fighting against a random worldbuilding element. She’s fighting against choices inflicted on her by an early childhood trauma, and her arc is deliberately set up to parallel Armin’s and Eren’s. All of the main three’s arcs are about expanding their ideals to include a complex world, not just Mikasa’s. Mikasa’s arc is literally about learning that there is more to her world than just Eren. It’s not about realizing her love for Eren is wrong (though again, I expect Eren to die 100% and Mikasa 100% to survive so I’m not expecting a happy ending for Eremika) but realizing that there is more to her world that is beautiful than just Eren. It’s about seeing cruelty and beauty coexisting, gray instead of just black and white.
Mikasa’s love for Eren is just this: beautiful and yet a flaw. She reached this realization, and then regressed. Because it’s almost as if regression in an arc is also a motif in SnK (cough Historia cough).
In some ways Mikasa’s role is literally a deconstruction of the stereotype that a female deuteragonist love interest will be able to save the main male character (please can this misogynistic trope disguised as female empowerment die). That’s pretty damn feminist imo. In fact, Isayama shows that he understands that romantic love in general cannot save you, though it can help you save yourself, even more with how Ymir cannot save Historia yet her influence can inspire Historia (and I expect it to again thanks to Porco’s memories).
Like Ymir couldn’t save Historia by encouraging her to live her life for herself but sacrificing her own life for Historia, and like Mikasa can’t save Eren by being his sword, Falco can’t save Gabi by being stronger than she is, because even if nothing had happened and they had stayed in Marlay, Gabi’s personality is such that she will do what she wants to do, and Falco is constantly chasing her and trying to rescue her from herself like Mikasa is trying to rescue Eren from himself. Gabi is the only one who can save Gabi from herself. The story can’t make that clearer.
Historia is the only one who can save Historia, and Eren is the only one who can save Eren. Mikasa is starting to realize that, but it’s slow.
Someday I will write a full fledged meta on how Yumikuri and Eremika parallel each other and both reinforce this theme, and Galco as well (since it’s the only one of these three I expect to have a happy ending) but for now have my rant since I’m grumpy after seeing complaints about Mikasa everywhere after each episode and seeing no one saying the same thing about Ymir or about Falco when they have such deliberately parallel flaws.
**To clarify since I got a message about it, this meta is not about a specific post at all! Just the general way the fandom seems to read Mikasa. Most meta writers give her a great analysis and I didn’t mean to imply otherwise**
I adore it. It’s my favorite one visually and symbolically. It brought me to tears. Musically it’s nice but not my fave.
For my very brief, rushed analysis of it (I’m not gonna cover every shot I don’t have time but):
We open with Eren with his eyes closed.
And then Eren awake, with his eyes open, jumping into action.
The camera then pulls back, symbolic of how his world is going to open up this season with the discovery of Marley. It’s also a part of growing up and maturation, a major theme in the Uprising and Shiganshina arc: learning to expand your worldview.
They cast larger shadows, symbolizing among other things, again, groiwng up, and also what they have to overcome:
The still images are fascinating, because they are of them as children, because they can’t change their past no matter what happens in the future.
We then have adorable baby Levi stumbling around between street walls #symbolism.
Levi flipping a knife and looking at an angle that appears to match Kenny’s angle next, showing again, that Kenny is his father figure.
And also Kenny’s original shot of him with his face covered and then flipping his hat up so we see his face: a literal unmasking.
If this Erwin shot of him watching his father and his child self does not break your heart I don’t know if you have one. Erwin’s face is also resolute, signifying how he was driven by his childhood trauma to the very end.
Baby Historia, initially appearing alone, only then to be revealed to be with Frieda, opening her hands and releasing into the wider world.
Eren appears and then we see his hand reaching for himself, but he can’t grab hold. He also then reaches for Mikasa, who stares away from him up at the sky, clutching her scarf (a symbol of something that saved her during her moment of trauma, and of her love for Eren that anchors her).
The hand then reaches for Armin, looking down, and Armin vanishes and hte hand is left with blood, and if you’ve read the manga you’ll know what this is referring to. It’s also interesting that Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are all looking in different directions, which is again symbolic of growing up and forming your own individual place in the world.
More still images of Carla and Grisha and baby Eren, and then we see Shiganshina again, the childhood home, and Eren then gets to his feet to look out at the larger world, but with his back turned towards the audience. I don’t want to speculate too much but you can clearly see this as a reference to what’s going on in the manga right now, with Eren going rogue from everyone who cares about him, and not even listening to his child self who keeps trying to get his attention before giving up. This is my favorite part, and I cry.
Then we see them running as kids, but not the destination. We see the Warrior babies trying to find their way through a dark, confusing forest with a lamp, looking lost.
Historia at the fence, refusing to looking out and away, rocking as if she can’t decide whether to step forward or not, Erwin and Levi passing each other and Levi watching Erwin.
The Shinganshina trio are running and they lose a shoe, and it’s left behind, the key and then a still shot of them laughing together. The key of course is the thing that will unlock the larger world they’re a part of, a world that they all need to find their way in, and they have to keep running forward, keep fighting for that beauty in the middle of a cruel world. It doesn’t lessen the beauty of the relationships they’ve shared, but it does make it impossible for them to go back to those days. Their love for each other will never lessen, that I believe, but they won’t be able to return to the simplicity of those childhood days, and their dreams will be realized but with a cost.
*2 if he did this for paradis, i would be not this mad,(bcs at least sasha died as hero(to help paradis), not died for this foolish man’s egoistical action). i’ll be forever salty about this. sorry for this salt. WhyShouldSashaPayforHisSelfishReason #justiceforudo #justiceforzofia #JUSTICEFORSASHA
I don’t think Eren has romantic feelings for Historia. Eren forms close bonds with people easily as has been shown with Historia, Mikasa, Annie, Armin, Levi’s squad, etc. aaaaand it’s an important motivator for him.
See, whereas Armin puts the good of the majority first to a fault sometimes, Eren puts the good of someone he cares about first to a fault. Mikasa is more in the middle, seeing the world as cruel and beautiful. Armin is too accepting of the world’s cruelties and Eren is too focused on the world’s beauty, but ironically, in these visions Armin is probably going to help save the world somehow via empathy (a beautiful thing), and Eren has contributed to the world’s cruelty.
Anyways, Eren and Historia shared a lot together, so of course they care deeply about one another, and it pains Eren as it would pain anyone to see a friend regressing and slipping back into old, unhealthy habits–to see Historia choose to sacrifice herself after all is terrifying for Eren. Eren firmly believes in freedom, but seeing Historia’s choice not to sacrifice herself be mitigated by the world’s circumstances makes him feel as if he has no choices, as he tells Hange.
He will not stand by and let a person he cares for suffer; that’s a part of Eren’s characterization that has been consistent from the beginning.
Another important part of Eren’s character is that he cannot endure other people being treated wrongly especially when it comes to having their freedom inhibited (one of the series’ main themes is freedom, after all!). Eren at nine years old became a murderer to save a girl he’d never met before (Mikasa). That’s not much different than what Eren is doing now except the stakes are higher, so the consequences are higher (now it’s not human traffickers who are dead, but innocent kids). In trying to protect a friend in Historia he lost one in Sasha, and it is a narrative consequence indeed.
It is certainly not fair 😦 we are in a series where nothing is fair (like tbh the world today). It isn’t fair Sasha died. It also isn’t fair Gabi is in a position like this or Eren’s dad gave him the titan ability or Historia is forcing herself through a pregnancy. The world is cruel, but–there is beauty, and I still believe beauty will still exist in the end.
I do want to quibble with the notion that Eren laughed at Sasha’s death–I mean, he did, but it is certainly not a laugh of callousness. Laughing is actually a genuine psychological response to shock, grief, and horror that can’t be controlled sometimes. Sounds strange right? But it’s also really a thing. Eren wasn’t not caring, and the text clearly shows that he does care. The laugh was likely also a response to Sasha’s last words being meat, and Eren probably realizes the irony of trying to save a friend=losing a friend.
I think his laugh was one of despair. Because, as he tells Hange, he doesn’t know what else to do. Choices, freedom, the things he’s always clung to, been fighting for, are not simple at all, and he does not feel like he has any.
So, first of all
let’s consider that in these last two chapters Eren is characterized in a
way which hides his thoughts. Isayama hasn’t let us inside his head,
exactly like we aren’t let inside Zeke’s head.
However, in
chapters 106 and 107 we are given flashbacks of two different characters
(Armin and Hange) reguarding Eren and thanks to those two flashbacks we
can start putting together several pieces that are progressively
explaining Eren’s behaviour.
Let’s see what these two flashbacks tell us about Eren’s evolution during the three years of time-skip.
hamliet 