#{ Granted that I play my Mika differently than the canon but still! }

[yuichiroswife]

what crystal are you ?

Black Tourmaline.

You have a strength to you that has been hard earned. You don't hesitate to cut out the parts of you you despise, you're unafraid to call out others. Your bluntness can off-put people at times, but you're unwilling to compromise your personal code. Once your loyalty has been earned it is not easily shaken. You're a protector and you purge away anything you believe could harm you or those you love. When was the last time you relaxed, though? When was the last time you let down your guard? There is just as much strength in vulnerability.

Tagged by: @crxstallium​​

Tagging: Whoever sees this and wants to do it, just steal it and tag me.

[peachymess]

1/4 I realize this might be a wrong topic for this blog, but I enjoy your mature take on these things, so I thought I’d give it a go. I, once again, just have to wonder out loud how there are still so many snk fans who believe Eren and Mikasa romance? I realize that the ending of s2 left us on a high note for the romance, but literally everything else in the manga speaks against it more or less. In fact, if you really think about it, Isayama pretty much ended it in ch 50, but I guess he didn’t

2/4 say it clear enough. I don’t say this to rile people up, I don’t say this out of spite or something like that. Like, honestly, there just really isn’t anything else that would back Ere//mika up in the manga. Maybe in shonen, but not by Isayama’s standards. People should, by now, now Isayama’s way of storytelling, and still they are seriously speculating about Ere//mika becoming canon at some point, while ignoring the obvious, more relevant stuff around them. I’m not a shipper, or read snk

¾ for romance, but what I do appreciate is well thought, wrote and explored relationships between characters, and if these kinds of relationships end up become romantic ones, then I’m all for it. I see people hoping Mikasa get a character development before the manga ends, and honestly, one of the greatest things Isayama could grant her, is to make her give up on Eren in a sense she can free herself and start living as her own person again. Maybe it’s my age and I’m getting old for cheesy,

4/4 cliche shonen stuff, but snk has maintained its unique and mature touch despite being serialized in a shonen magazine. As for Eren and Armin, since I feel I need to touch this as well, and it’s the theme of this blog. I certainly appreciate for what Isayama has done with them in a story being published in this kind of magazine. I’m storyteller myself, and could probably continue about this topic for ages, but I guess I end it here. Have a nice day.

Hello, anon! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me! I’m honored that you’d want my input! 

(Disclaimer: this got really long, so I’m putting up a “keep reading” - please proceed with the knowledge that I’m not an ere//mika shipper, and that our opinions may differ. I’m not interested in trying to be converted, but once my inbox re-opens, feel free to discuss the topic with me in a mature fashion, if you want my further input on this topic): 

Yes, I realize it’s always a risk of riling people up when someone who doesn’t ship the pair in question, takes on an ask about said ship - but I’ll do my best to give my own personal opinion in a mature and coherent fashion. Just like you, I don’t talk about it to bug people, but obviously I have my own thoughts on the subject - and in my case, I lean towards the same conclusion as you: that ere//mika was not written not be a romance. I’m still on the fence about how much or how little Isayama actually intended for Mikasa to read as in love with Eren, as opposed to motherly protective/childlike dependent on - but I also think it doesn’t matter either way; I don’t believe Eren was meant to reciprocate romantic feelings towards her, even if she was designed to be smitten with him. 

No, I think that Mikasa’s strong feelings for Eren were supposed to be a sign of her being a lost and misguided title girl (and I say this not in a spiteful way, but in the endearing “protect her” kind of way); we know that the Ackerbond and the Ackerawakening are two different things, but for Mikasa, Eren was the one whom she both got her awakening from, and whom she imprinted on. This all in the midst of Mikasa violently losing her parents as a very young child, then instantly being taken in by Eren. It makes sense that a girl who’s overwhelmed with all of these intense shifts at the same time, would start to cling to the safe center of all of this; Eren. He saved her, woke her up, wrapped her in a scarf that would come to be a symbol of this spiritual rescue and more, invited her “home”, and she of course imprinted on him. … Listen, I’d like to add a personal story time digression here: I used to be bullied at school, and none of the boys ever talked to me unless it was to taunt me. Then one day, when I was 12, we got assigned new seats in the classroom, and I ended up next to a boy who actually started talking to me. I was so grateful that he’d have a conversation with me, that I quickly became smitten with him. I thought I was in love with him, but in reality, I was just in love with how good I felt whenever he’d make me feel like an accepted, normal human being. I kept nurturing this idea of love and it grew for months, until one evening when I joined a game of spin the bottle, and I was asked to reveal my crush. I said it, even with him right there, and despite his vague shrug and smile, I felt an intense relief at getting it off my chest. And just like that, the idea of romance left me. I realized that I loved the person he made me feel like I was. And once I realized that, I was able to hold on to that idea, even when he wasn’t there to produce it. … In many ways, I see myself in Mikasa regarding this. I feel like Mikasa’s attachment to Eren can be read very alike my own attachment to this boy. I think Mikasa spent a lot of years nursing her dependency on Eren because even if she didn’t know anything else for certain, she knew one thing: she loved the feeling of safety and belonging that Eren provided, when nobody and nothing else seemed stable in life. I’m also strongly inclined to believe that she, a young teen full of emotions, could have started to mistake her feelings for a standard crush - but if so, I don’t believe the right way to resolve it, would be to indulge her. Of course, you speak of standard shonen love, and I see how ere//mika could become that, if this was meant to be an unproblematic shone story (their grey-are sibling-y bond is nowhere near “out of bounds” if you compare them to a lot of the onii-chan culture you can find in Japan). 

However, SNK isn’t meant to be a regular shonen story; Isayama seems to take not only pride, but also pleasure in avoiding tropes and turn things on its head - of course only to a certain degree, given he’s published through BSM and have a wide YT audience. I am, regardless, very confident that if there’s one department Isayama doesn’t leave unpolished, it’s characters, their dynamics, and their inner workings; I think 3D characters is one of the strongest aspects of his story, and that’s why I’m much more inclined to believe that Eren and Mikasa’s bond is meant to be complex and full of friction. And frankly, I’d say that’s to be preferred; if they became a regular romance, that’s something we’ve all seen many times before, but so far, what I’m seeing, is something significantly more complex - and personally, I feel like it’s deeper this way, too. Look, the incest discourse has been pulled out many times, so I’ll try to make this brief, but I feel like it’s important point to touch upon: we can argue until we’re blue in the face in either direction. It was never stated that the Yeagers ever officially adopted Mikasa, as opposed to just took her in for charity. And either way, there’s a relevant question posed of “does it matter, when she only lived with them for a year?” You can see Mikasa being referred to as “adopted sister” and “motherly” in many Q&As, but then the very same, or other authoritarian sources can do a 180 and produce content that almost explicitly shows Mikasa in love with that very same “adopted brother”. So what are we supposed to believe? I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you my personal take on it: The reason incest is illegal, has to do with biology. If you inbreed, there’s a much bigger risk of genes “malfunctioning” in offsprings. The reason it’s seen as disgusting, is - beyond the biological - that the regular person wouldn’t want to “do it” with a family member, and thus shudders by the thought of someone else finding a situation that they see as uncomfortable, pleasurable. This is why some people can argue that it’s not incest (and/or unnatural) if two adoptive siblings have sex; it doesn’t compromise the offspring, which was the reason the act would be illegal. Now, the people still claiming it’s incest, say it’s so because they realize that there’s more to the act than the physical; you’re not supposed to feel sexually attracted to someone you view as your own flesh and blood - and so, if you truly view an adopted siblings as your sibling, you shouldn’t fancy them. In a sense, both sides of “it’s incest/it’s not incest” are right on paper. But I’d advice against downplaying what role being adopted into a family actually plays; an adopted child is taken into a family with the intention of being a spiritual part of the family just as much as any other biological child - and that’s why, unless otherwise stated, an adopted sibling should be viewed as 100% another member of the family (and thus not an romantic option). But this is generally speaking. Bringing it back to ere//mika, my stance is this: it’s not biologically compromising, so it all comes down to how Eren and Mikasa view each other. The vibe I got from them, personally, was that they were to be seen as family (hence, perhaps, why I did not see the romantic inkling until I heard about it through tumblr and went back to re-read). If they are both comfortable seeing each other as a romantic partner, then I won’t get in their way, but I’m not sure this is the case - and mind you, both of them have to agree on this; if Mikasa waves, it doesn’t matter so long as Eren sees her as family.And welp, I said I’d try to make this brief, but true to my character, I failed horribly at that. No matter; my point is: whether ere//mika is incest or not, is grey-area because their situation is so unique. And I think it may be intentional: this arguing back and forth could very likely be exactly the uncertainty Mikasa is wrestling with in her own approach to her feelings on Eren. Are they siblings, or are they not? Are they family in the traditional sense, or are they family in the expanded sense that all three of them (EMA) belong together? If she feels butterflies towards him that seem different than regular familial love, is it love? Is it ok to be love? Etc., etc.,… On top of this, she seems, as I talked about, to be very deponent on him - which is, mind you, completely understandable. But it makes for a complex conceptions of feelings that are neither here nor there. And that’s why I think resolving it like a regular shonen romance, would be a cop-out on Isayama’s part. Something I don’t expect him to opt for, given what a driven story teller he’s been so far. 

Isayama has spoken of how Mikasa letting go of Eren, would be a return to innocence. And I think I understand that, if what I’m saying is anywhere near what Isayama was thinking when he made these two. Because Mikasa isn’t perfect; she may be strong - she’s and Ackerman after all - but she suffered a lot of trauma, and she’s still a young child in literal war. It would only make sense that she’d be less than master of her inner workings. And this constant nursing of the one beacon she has, wouldn’t be healthy for anyone. That’s why I see her moment in chapter 50 as a level-up in her chemistry with Eren. She managed to put into words some of those feelings that must have been running on repeat in her heart ever since that fateful day with her parents… and she got a response that finally differed from Eren’s usual disgruntled retorts. Because just like Armin obviously didn’t hear from Eren what he thought of him, Mikasa didn’t hear that Eren did care about her despite all the bickering. I’ve spoken about this before, but Eren’s very certain in his feelings, and he doesn’t question them - but he also doesn’t express them because they appear as facts to him, so he doesn’t think to wonder if he needs to confirm them to others (well, he’s gotten better, too, but that’s besides the point). So all this time, Mikasa has been fighting tooth and nail to stay be Eren’s side because he’s given no indication that he’d stick around by choice. Of course, that’s exaggerating it, because obviously EMA love each other and they know it - but to what degree do they know it more than the doubt in their head disputes it? Well, Mikasa finally got her answer in 50, and that alone, helped her grow considerably. I think her feelings became more healthy after that. The way she steps down a little after 50, tells me that she didn’t need romance, she needed love. If the opposite had been the case, Eren’s response would not be a resolve, but rather the trigger event making the beginning of advances and Mikasa’s wish to further expand on what they both meant back there. However, Mikasa leans back and seems more assured of her spot (until Eren pulls back and starts talking more with Historia; I think both Mikasa and Armin are visibly affected by this). I realize it still remains for me to answer why I think people ship ere//mika, though. The simple answer is that romance is often the most appealing relationship, simpler or not. Is a complex and difficult relation more interesting? Maybe? But is it much more appealing to go with the ideal, fluffy, happy solution? For many, definitely! I think ere//mika is a very deep bond, as you can see, but also in the sense that it’s possible to interpret in so many different ways. People love love, and if they love Eren and/or Mikasa and want him/her to be happy, of course a happy romance is much more appealing - especially when it’s backed by so many intense canon moments! I won’t go through the manga to look it up myself, but you’ll definitely find a lot of ere//mika meta here on tumblr that will explain exactly who and how their bond can be read as romantic. Just yesterday, I answered an ask on why people would ship Armin with Annie, so honestly, there doesn’t even need to be a lot of canon to support a ship, for it to be appealing. But for those who think ere//mika will be canon, I thin my guess would be that fiction trains us to expect romance - and most often involving the main character. What more, we expect a straight couple, because that’s what’s most common - and just with those formulas alone, Eren with Mikasa seems like the obvious front runner. That being said, my take is the above rambles. 

All in all, anon, I can definitely understand the popularity of ere//mika, but I don’t think it’s designed to be a regular romance. And although I prefer it as the sibling bond I see it as, if ere//mika is what would genuinely make Eren and MIkasa happy, I’d want that for them. I guess that’s why others ship it too.