#ackerbusiness

[whyiloverivamika]

What are your thoughts on the argument "levi n mikasa are cousins"? (I still ship rivamika and i see them as more of sharing the same last name/distantly related than cousins)

2014 called, it wants its anti-shipping argument back.

But really, it depends on what you consider cousins. Sharing a common ancestor is enough to be technically cousins. Did you know that almost every person on Earth is within a certain degree of cousinship to everyone else? I’m pretty sure that if we went back far enough, you and me nonny would be cousins (somewhere in the 20th degrees most likely, unless you are European, then the geography makes us cousins in 10+ degrees).

Manga and official sourcebook both clearly show Mikasa and Levi to be very distantly related. 3rd cousins at the closest and even that’s unlikely. 5th or 6th cousins, once or twice removed (if you want to be technical) is the most likely answer, possibly even 7th.

So yes, they are related. Very, very distantly. Whether or not it weirds someone out is up to them but people trying to say “You can’t ship them because they’re cousins/it’s incest” are just wrong in the practical sense. I’ll take those people seriously when they can tell me who their 7th cousins are.

[canon-rivamika]

What if the first Ackerman is Rivamika’s son?

Since Chapter 121 came out, much speculation has arisen about the temporal paradox. And I quickly saw theories speculating that in reality Eren is really the father of the son of history. And that this son is actually Ymir Fritz. They also pointed out that the appearance of all members of the royal family closely resembles Eren, as can easily be seen by observing Frieda.

Same face, same format eyes…. 

   The same theory also raised that the first Ackerman originated from the last Ackerman, so I started thinking “What if the first Ackerman is Rivamika’s son?” All we know about the Ackermans is that they sprang from experiments with titan science, yet we never saw any samples of such “science” since neither did the existing titan sera they were able to recreate. Then I also began to think that perhaps the first Ackerman is a child of both, as the lineage would return to ground zero, becoming pure again. So, thinking about it, I compared the other Ackermans presented to us and surprisingly they all have Levi facial features. Even Mikasa’s father (you can see more clearly looking at the manga) and Grandpa Ackerman (a closer member of the first Ackerman).

Same face in between Grandpa and Levi. Same format eyes and eyebrow in between Mikasa’s father and Levi.

  It’s also interesting to note that Levi has always been confused with Asian by fandom, even because he really looks like a I wonder if this could be some coincidence? I also always wondered why Isayama would place a man and woman as the last living members of a virtually extinct clan. That could really be just a coincidence if there were no so many parallels between the two. Isayama still bothered to make a family tree to clearly show that the two were not close relatives, at the very least this concern and make clear the relationship between Levi and Mikasa.

Why such a concern to show that they are not close enought to draw a scheme showung this? 

 Many people use this argument “Isayama doesn’t like this submission, so it puts both of them in the same place to break any hope among fans of becoming songs.” However, if Isayma wanted to completely finish or embark, following an incest line, the criteria placed as VERY close relatives. What didn’t happen, making it very clear that they are really distant, why all this worry? Everything leads me to think that it is essential for this story that Levi and Mikasa are the same clans, but the distant ones from their relationship are still absent. I also believe Isayma has not yet shown Levi telling Mikasa that he is an Ackerman, because he is saving at the right time! Mikasa always mirrors Armin and Eren his family, but Eren is on the path she can no longer follow and Armin can also go a different path than Mikasa, making him see a single day. Believing that discovering your relationship with Levi at this time will bring a more intense emotional charge between the two

So and many other things I think that if the paradox turns out to be real and Eren really is the father of Ymir fritz I think there’s a good chance that the first Ackerman would be a son Rivamika.

–

Thank you so much for your contribution @indymbras​! - mod barb

[kyojuuros]

So my bro n I were talking about the Ackerman’s (he is an anime only as I am more of a manga reader so telling him for future events is a struggle) and he observed and hypothetically stated the Ackermans are known to be against the royal family is because they are Marleyans. Like they are not completely Eldian and they are used to be titan tests so due to those tests they are more Marleyan instead of being Eldian. Since he made this observation, he believes Mikasa is the perfect titan creation-

-that can be immune to the subjects of Ymir. When it comes to Levi, my brother observed he can be immune to the Eldian control only because he is an Ackerman. I just thought it was fasinating but how can we know what is really important about the Ackerman bloodline? When the testing was completed do they know to protect what they made a bond to? Is that the flaw of the titan/ Ackerman experiement making bonds? What is so different between Marleans and the Ackerman’s? Isayama must tell us soon!!

I think all the Ackerscience is something that definitely needs to be given some proper exposition rather than just “they bond to a host” and “titan science made it happen.” I think there’s honestly so much more to it, and that Ackermans are somehow tied to the Founding Titan altogether. But it’s just a theory right now. I’m still curious about the nature of the bond and whether it’s something they truly choose (as Isayama has stated in an interview) or if they have no say in the matter at all (as Eren had said to Mikasa), as well as how much it actually affects their autonomy (although I don’t think it affects their autonomy as dramatically as Eren was making it sound like - Mikasa, Levi and Kenny have all exhibited they have their own very unique personalities and ideals). 

I personally don’t subscribe to them originally being Marleyan but I’m not closed off to the possibility either. Either way Levi and Mikasa most definitely have Eldian blood within them (as I doubt the Ackermans only married and reproduced within their own bloodline). 

I hope Isayama gives us the proper information about the nature of the Ackerman bloodline soon! 

[falcon94ssy]

Do you think Mikasa can form a new ackerbond with someone? And if so, who do you think would be the best fit for her new bond?

Well…First.

Since Eren said that he “learns a lot from Zeke” about the Ackerman family in chapter 112, I believe that the information about the Ackermans told by him is not 100% true. I feel the part about “ackerbond” and the “host” thing is kinda fishy. What if Zeke has lied about something like this in order to result in that EMA talk?

Is the ackerbond thing real?

But if it is real, I do wish that Mikasa can live her own life and free from the ackerbond thing.

[mirime-kisarrastine]

When I think back to how my otp tag for Rivamika - keeping it in the family - was chosen because I was thumbing my nose at all those idiots in the tags who were screaming incest at my ship... and yet, two and a half years later, it’s still relevant. Because they may be very distantly related (very, very distantly) but they are also both Ackermans and Ackermans are important to the plot and I’m sorry, the fact that they scared the crap out of Reiner and freaked out Zeke gives me so much joy.

I love my subproducts of Titan science, a.k.a Ackermans. And yes, I hope they will, indeed, keep it in the family ;)

[canon-rivamika]

I'm new to AoT society, I've never been anime fan but my friend 2 months ago recommended AoT to me, and I've fell in love. I've also never been a shipper, but while watching for the first time Aot i've been 100% neutral towards any couple development, but i noticed that suddenly I started hoping in anticipation for any Mikasa/Levi development. I was sure they're gonna end up together as a couple, I loved the chemistry andtension between them and every little look. The way they're almost always

The way they’re almost always portrayed together, standing next to each other, and after every Acker-talk, the way Levi adresses Mikasa made me believe that there will be more of them. I hope there will be more of them, aspecially after newest manga events. And I’m saying this as a neutral viewer, because of all those discreet hints in anime I believed there really is something between them.

Hello anon!! Welcome! You came to the fandom at a certainly interesting time. The manga’s current arc is heading fast to Isayama’s intended ending and Isayama is giving closure to multiple important plot threads. 

The anime had its pros and cons - while Season 3 part 1 did include some filler fanservice, some critical manga panels about Rivamika were left out. Season 3 part 2 was better though, and our Ackerbowl was done beautifully. From your ask I can’t be sure if you’ve caught up with the manga’s most recent arc (this blog is full of spoilers! I always tag them snk spoilers), but Isayama hasn’t dropped the ball on Levi and Mikasa yet. Their connection is once again mentioned and is still an important mystery that I’m sure will be addressed in time, even if in an epilogue. I’ve been reading SNK for a long time and even though I know Isayama likes to build suspense around these two, he didn’t disappoint me every time Rivamika interacted or a new thing was revealed about them. The hype is truly big when it comes to these two (even for non-shippers) and it wouldn’t be like that if Isayama fed us Rivamika interactions all the time, right?

I’m still hopeful for a last ackertalk and that their relationship will develop even more before SNK ends. And as a shipper, I still deep down believe Rivamika will be canon in some way (be it romantic or familial). I’m glad you didn’t give up hope nonnie! ^_^

[kyojuuros]

hi!!!! 😊 about ch112.. so the ackerheadache is caused by : the true self trying to resurface & failure to protect /defies the instinct to protect the host..(and that all applies to mikasa..💔) but the way i understand why levi never had it because he never lost his true self but awakened the power that's why in rts when he chose armin instead of erwin we didn't see any signs of headaches. is it like this? bcos some said he's having them now.😮 i am quite confused with all infos rn..😭😂

Yes, Levi does appear to be having a headache in 112. If the trigger for it is resistance/failure to protect the host, then why would Levi suddenly be having them now? Erwin is no longer around, so protection is a nonissue. So either Eren is incorrect (or lying) about why the headaches occur, or it’s possible that there are different ways that an Ackerbond can form, and that the different types of bonds present different characteristics. 

I have a long thing that goes super in-depth with this that I typed out that I’ll post a bit later, but I found it really curious that Isayama once described the bond as something more of a liege/knight relationship that the Ackerman personally chooses based on their nature, whereas now we have Eren using the word host and inferring that it’s an involuntary, instinctual, parasitic thing. The connotations are way different, and it feels like a really huge detail to retcon, especially this late into the story. 

We’ve seen that Ackermans can awaken their power on their own, and I actually think that Eren is not correct about Mikasa awakening hers because she “recognized him as a host,” but rather due to her instinctual need to preserve her own life (just as Levi and Kenny most likely awakened theirs doing), and that she actually “latched onto” Eren when he gave her the scarf (prior to the scarf-wrapping, she felt lost, cold, aimless, and just wished for somewhere to go - no innate desire to follow Eren just yet). I think for the Ackermans, that power is their own. It’s just that it is amplified in the event that they find someone who they can draw out the power of the titans from. ie: A titan shifter. Perhaps even more specifically, the Founding Titan. A “host.” 

So I’m thinking there are actually different ways that an Ackerman can bond to another person. There is a physical (I suppose more accurately it would be “metaphysical”) bond (host) and there is an interpersonal/emotional bond (knight/liege). I think that the nature of the bond can be one or both of these things. (Alternatively, it’s possible that maybe there are just “complete” and “incomplete” bonds, depending on whether the host/liege has the power of the titans or not.)

For Levi, I think that his bond with Erwin was the emotional bond, so he did not have to suffer the negative side-effects of the physical, host-based bond and therefor, no headaches (because imo no matter how you spin it, if what Eren says is true then Levi should have been driven to protect Erwin from even going on that suicide charge to begin with regardless if it was what Erwin wanted or not). However, if this is the case then we would have to acknowledge the possibility that Levi as formed, at the very least, the “host” type of bond with Eren at some point. Which makes sense if his Ackerman instincts have recognized the power of the titans within Eren.

Alternatively Levi has had the headaches but we just never see him holding his head. But... I think if the headaches have importance on the characters and the bonds they form that Isayama would have (or at least should have) shown Levi having an obvious - and frankly quite painful - one during RtS. 

It can definitely create an interesting dilemma if Eren is trying to shake off Mikasa’s protection only for Levi to come around and be a problem. On the other hand, if Levi can become even more fierce in battle due to his ability to draw from Eren as a host, then a battle with the Ackermans by Eren’s side during the finale could be very dynamic. I find it interesting. (My biggest personal wish has always been to have Levi and Eren finally actively fighting side-by-side, and it’s even better if Mikasa is also there with them, my “power trio.” lol)

Logically it would make sense for an Ackerman to be able to form more than one bond during their lifetime, given the Eldian King had to pass on their power every 13 years. Of course - this doesn’t negate any previous bond that they’ve had. And actually I find the idea of Levi and Erwin having the purely emotional aspects of the Ackerbond to be a good thing and basically in line with their canon relationship anyway - it also makes me wonder if Levi can be put in a position where he becomes conflicted with fulfilling the wishes from his old bond (ie: killing Zeke) if they come into conflict with the needs of his new bond (ie: Eren needing Zeke to accomplish a goal).

In short, I think that Eren has either been fed half-truths, that he’s lying, or simply that the nature of the Ackermans is far more complex than anything they would find in a textbook or passed down story. Zeke did refer to them as “legends” that he didn’t even think existed anymore. So information could easily have been lost over time.

[andreearodriiguez]

Oh! 💜

Anybody else thinkin’ about this parallel

[yaboylevi]

Hi, do you think Eren honestly cares about anyone in the survey corps anymore? I honestly think he doesn't anymore, he seems to just think they are pests in the way of his goals, also I get the impression Levi always cared about Eren more than Eren cared about him (cries into pillow) I do think Eren was bluffing about the things he said to Mikasa and Armin in hopes of protecting them. I hope this question didn't come across as salty or anything. I just wondered what is your opinion on this?

Hi there! Trust me, I've seen salty. This ask? Sounds sweet

Ok, so, my opinion on Eren at the moment is...wide. Meaning, I have some ideas, but I have no clue which one might be the right one. What I am sure of, though, is that the real Eren, deep down, still loves his friends. I have no doubts.

I think that what he knows and says is mostly the truth, but he amped up the cruelty of it all ("You are slaves", "I've always hated you", "You've become useless") in order to distance his friends from himself. I've sensed a certain kind of anger from him during the chapters spent on the 3 years timeskip, and it was always justified, in my opinion. But now he's saying things that are obviously false. He has never hated Mikasa. He gained info about the Ackerbusiness (that might not be the whole truth) and he may have grown to feel like she is indeed enslaved to that power, but he wouldn't hate her for it. He would feel sadness and he would try to break her free.

That's who Eren is, a person who tries to break free and wants the same for the people he cares about. These past months, I felt like Armin was being naive and cautious, maybe because of the new responsibilities on his shoulders, just like Hange. And Mikasa has always been "stronger" for Eren but also..."weak" to Eren. Eren may have realized all this and he's trying to change it. 

So he is lying about feeling free and hating Mikasa and he's certainly not enjoying physically hurting Armin. But there might be a little bit of truth underneath it all.

Also, he may want to put them in a position where Armin would finally choose to fight and Mikasa would go against Eren if the need arises. I have no idea of what Eren's plan is and what's going to happen, but Eren might think his friends will need to go against him in the future.

As for Levi and Eren, yes, I've always felt Levi cared..."more" for Eren. Eren has relied on Levi, opened up to him and let Levi's words guide him, as Levi is someone who has more experience and has Eren's unconditional respect and acceptance. Levi was Eren's mentor, after all. And that's also why Levi might feel a certain kind of responsibility for Eren and his actions. He worried when Eren was feeling uncertain and offered advice, cared about his safety, came to think Eren was their only hope, trusted him with his life on multiple occasions, understood him fully, accepted him. 

I think the difference is, Eren is sure Levi will always be there, he's an experienced soldier and Humanity's Strongest after all...but Levi doesn't, because Eren is always in danger, people - not only titans - want him dead, so he needs to make sure to be there and guide him because he's so young. He makes a bigger effort than Eren.

[julystorms]

Hi ! I read your post about the sexism in SNK world and I find it very interesting ! I just want to know your toughts about the treatment of female characters. I mean Mikasa don t get a propor focus on her for decades, I still think it s a shame that she was not more implicated on the Ackerbusiness while Levi has so much focus... Same goes for Ymir she dies off screen and I m sad about it. Can I have you share your toughs please ?

Sure, I’ll share a few thoughts! Just a head’s up that I won’t include Hange in this post because gender is ambiguous there, but if you choose to interpret/see them as a female character, you can think about the way the canon has treated her for yourself.

My general opinion is that SnK does a decent job of female characters. I don’t think the series deserves praise for being not-shitty, but as several posts have said going around lately, we kind of base our opinions on what’s revolutionary now, not in the future. I mean, hell, I was impressed with Touched by an Angel back in the day because holy shit two female leads!!!! The “main” male character is the angel of death and in many episodes doesn’t show up for very long (or at all). That was big in the 90s, okay, especially for a series that was “family friendly.” The women weren’t sexualized!!! The main actresses were an Irish woman and a black woman. They made the (main) angel of death a WHITE man. (RIP John Dye.) By today’s standards it’s not really a revolutionary series, and in fact, it’s preachy attitude might really annoy most of us (I’d have to rewatch to see if it still gets me or if I get annoyed). But honestly, that show changed my life and if nothing else, it taught kindness and thoughtfulness, and not judging someone based on their current life situation. (I still remember the episode about homelessness, fuck me up.) That was super revolutionary for a Christian tv show on regular TV to be doing, and yes, the show received a lot of criticism for some of its “wilder” approaches to things mainstream Christianity took a hard stance on. Basically what I’m saying is: sometimes something is (or feels) revolutionary because of everything else we’re surrounded by.

But back to our topic: SnK isn’t trying to be revolutionary IMO, but compared to a lot of what we’re exposed to in mainstream media (from any country tbh), it feels like we’re being handed this amazing thing: holy shit, female characters who do their job and aren’t bending over to pick things up and whose boobs aren’t jiggling all over the place with every breath. INCREDIBLE.

The anime has some ass-angle issues but as far as the manga goes, it does give us a lot of female characters who...are honestly just CHARACTERS. They’re not singled out specifically as being female.

That makes me happy as heck!! And I think we’d all be fools not to be pleased with this.

At the same time, it’s just as dumb to bury our faces in the sand and not acknowledge the issues that do exist: our ladies aren’t treated with equal importance in the narrative, and it’s especially grating with Mikasa since she’s a main character. She’s had some character development (and I appreciate the hell out of it!) but she’s treated a lot like our side characters at this point...which is sad. 

Before anyone gets bent out of shape, I wanna say that it’s silly to get up in arms over it at this point: the series isn’t finished and we don’t know what he’ll do with Mikasa. We don’t know what will happen to any of our other girls, either: Rico, Annie, Historia, Sasha, Pieck, Gabi, Zophia, Hitch. It’s possible these characters will actually get or have some kind of major impact on the plot and/or live to the end to give us a cool perspective there. 

But it’s clear that our female characters get much less narrative focus than the males do. That doesn’t mean you should feel bad for liking SnK, or even for liking the male characters. I just personally like to acknowledge that it’s a thing.

As far as Ymir goes, I’m probably the only one in fandom who really liked her death and thought it put some punch back in the series. Killing her off-screen was a HELLA bold move. It also didn’t come out of nowhere like people claimed it did. But I’m not living in ignorance, either: hmm another dead lesbian? GEE WHIZ GOLLY GOSH. I guess at least the ship was all but confirmed canon right in the actual canon--which is more than eruri got. Talk of marriage and stuff. There was an emotional impact with her death, too. Despite all this, and the fact that I thought her death was written well into the narrative, I still think we should be squinting at it. If Annie doesn’t die off-screen, I might even be able to excuse it/accept it as unintentionally awful (but well-done). If Annie also dies off-screen, you better believe we should all be questioning it. Again, it’s okay to like it, and I think Annie dying off-screen makes sense, but then I’m like, why is it always the women dying that get the primary focus (Petra, Nifa, the anime made Nanaba a focus too). I think the only man that gets heavy focus for a death scene is Mike.

Again, it’s worth thinking about! Even if it’s unintentional, why does it keep happening? Why does the narrative continually focus on the male characters while leaving the females out of the loop?

But like I said earlier, it’s just worth keeping an eye on--acknowledging as a thing that is present in the series. After SnK finishes I think we’ll have a better idea of how to address the treatment of female characters--and we can make claims that hold up. Right now the treatment is just moderate imo. We’ll see what the rest of SnK brings us.

[andreearodriiguez]

ARE SO PERFECT! 💜💜

Missing my ackerpeople 😭

[kaekiro]

Damn you eren, he KNOWS that she LOVES him. All of that wasn't because of the "ackerman programming", but because she was the only person to put up with his bs. How could someone ever consider ackermans "slaves"? Already seeing some so called fans saying that things abt her. It was in the past that they had to serve, but now they CHOOSE someone who they think is worth of their trust.

Eren’s problem, it seems, is that he thinks their friendship hasn’t been genuine.

“You only cling to me because of your instincts as an Ackerman... A clan who lost their true selves, created only to follow orders.”

He calls Mikasa and her Ackerman lineage slaves because the clan was originally used to protect Eldia’s king. He may think that he has all the knowledge of the Ackerman history to conclude that they’re slaves, but he’s missing a piece of not only their history, but the Asian’s history as well, a crucial one. Remember that story that Grandpa Ackerman told Kenny in chapter 65? How the king wanted to alter and erase everyone’s memory of the past?

That heavily contradicts the claims Eren is making about Mikasa, because both of her bloodlines were the only ones out of the other minorities who turned their back on the monarchy. They didn’t bend over and obey like everyone else. And for that, they suffered.

Point is, the Ackermans and Asians knew what the king was doing was wrong, and the Ackermans were able to overcome this “instinct” and oppose the people they were supposed to protect. Kenny said that everyone is a slave to something, but Mikasa is not the slave Eren says she is, and neither is her lineage.

Another thing I found interesting, considering all of this, is an interview isayama did about two years ago. This part specifically:

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. (Source)

Does this still hold true even though it was said a while ago? Did Isayama change his mind on the matter? Or did Zeke (if he was the one to tell Eren) twist the truth?

Whatever the case may be, I know for sure that what Mikasa feels for Eren is genuine. And that Eren needs some sense knocked into him lol.

[canon-rivamika]

HIS VOICE WAS SO SOFT.

[canon-rivamika]

I’m 99% sure now that Ackermans can’t be turned into titans at all...

[canon-rivamika]

Do you think ackermans can imprint on each other? From the way the story’s progressing I can tell that Mikasa’s arc will probably be about her finding herself/freedom, but them finding their purpose in each other is also quite beautiful.

Hi nonnie! I don’t think so. Since chapter 112 came out I’m more inclined to believe the true ackerbond (including its headaches) can only be between an Ackerman and someone who hosts the Founding Titan. But we can’t be sure that’s 100% true coming from Eren (the chapter is titled “Ignorance” after all) and there may be more to the ackerbusiness than just that… However, I think Ackermans can devote themselves to others just as fiercely. I also believe the Ackerbond can be broken in other ways… I really want these two to support each other while Mikasa earns her freedom like you say!  (;Д;) Levi-heichou please survive!

[canon-rivamika]

THE MOON IS THE NEW ACKERSYMBOL