#we need more mikasa and hisu friendship

[love4-bunny]

Historia is my Queen, every word is law. I need her to be the protagonist of an old Disney animation movie.

Imagine this: Levi is the royal knight because he is an Ackerman, so Mikasa is a close friend of Historia. Because the two of them live in the Palace.

[sinigangsta-ao3]

(I also feel like they don’t really have any chemistry..? Other than when they insult each other? Lol)

Different anon here, firstly i full heartedly agree with everything yall are saying but this one line you said ^^ omg honest to God that’s exactly what i think too…

I think it also might be an unpopular opinion because a lot of fans generally agree that EH are besties or great friends like theres some unique special bond- but idk i just dont see it. I feel like hes as good on terms with her as he would be with sasha, jean or connie. My general opinion is theres just a lot of love and gratefulness to eachother amongst the 104th, theyre a tight friend group - but yams needed to demonstrate the trust between EH because of its necessity to plot and hisus role as reiss and queen. I just never saw them as placing eachother a little higher than the rest or really anything beyond the love the remaining 104th generally felt for eachother. Idk lol

Also i feel like if were thinking about canon verse, i think the only person who wouldnt be aware of mikasas affection for eren is probably eren. Im pretty sure hisu wouldve known, and for her to ask eren to be her beard aware of mikasas feelings, mikasa her friend, sounds a bit like betrayal to me. Just sounds so messy, and i dont like to think of hisu like that. Idk whenever i think about that happening in canon verse, lmao the first question that goes to my head is why not connie or jean lol

OKAY ANON! I'm so glad you said it!!! Lol! I will never put anyone down for how they interpret the bond between EH — I actually love the stories I have read where they somehow develop some type of friendship. I think it's super sweet 💕 But I feel like, canonically, the foundation of Eren's and Historia's relationship is something like disdain?!?! Lol. Like Eren straight-up tells her to her face that he thinks she's always been fake. And if we talk about ranking bonds between the members of the 104th — I would even say that Eren doesn't even see Historia on the same level of Jean, Sasha, and Connie. More like, as you said, Historia is someone that Eren became tied to because of her royal blood — but that's it...???? Anyways, to your last point: canonically, Historia is one of the biggest EreMika shippers! So agree: nothing would ever happen in canonverse.

[alienheartattack]

Hiii!! Quick question, what is ur otp and brotp for snk? It’s probably rm, but what r ur thoughts on other Mikasa and Levi ships? (Rivetra, levihan, eruri, ereri, rivahisu, rivannie, rivasasha, eremika, arumika, jeankasa, mikahisu, mikahan, Mikannie, erumika, mikasasha) thx so much love u so much :D

Thanks for your message! 💖💖💖

Otp is absolutely Rivamika. No one even comes close. (Although I've def enjoyed some NSFW works of Eruri, Erejean, and the holy grail of gay SNK, Erurimike.)

I have a few brotps. The veteran trio is pretty great as well as the individual relationships therein (Eruri/Eruhan/Levihan), and I like the potential of EMA even though it was squandered in the end. I also loved Sasha and Connie's friendship, and Sasha and Mikasa's friendship even though we didn't get to see it as much.

Gonna rate these ships behind a read more so this post doesn't take up your entire dash.

Rivetra - Don't like it. I headcanon this as one-sided love on Petra's part. (I liked her and Oluo better.) I feel like Rivetra has pretty much disappeared from the SNK fandom landscape, I used to see it a lot more in the dark times between seasons 1 and 2.

Levihan - S-tier friendship, hate it as a romantic pairing. I've seen a lot of otherwise very good Levihan art that makes Hanji more feminine, which I don't like. Plus I feel like even if the two of them got wasted and fell into bed together, Levi would be incredibly turned off by Hanji's bad personal hygiene and nothing would happen.

Eruri - I don't think they ever got sexual in canon, but I do think they genuinely loved and respected each other. Eren and Mikasa take note: THIS is how you do an Ackerbond.

Ereri - Meh. Not a fan.

Rivahisu - Hate it. It feels weirdly gross to me, for some reason? Even though, fun fact, one of my first fic ideas was Hisu domming the shit out of Levi after he roughed her up and yelled at her about becoming queen. Idk, they're both so small. Their babies would be like hamsters.

Rivannie - I can't even imagine this lmao. What a weird pairing.

Rivasasha - Another one that doesn't make sense to me.

Eremika - The worst and most toxic pairing in the series. I hate everything about their dynamic. Eren is cruel to Mikasa and she just accepts his treatment without wavering in her obsessive love. She infantilizes him even though he clearly hates it, although she's right that he usually needs someone to clean up his messes. I hate that Eren claims he loves her even though he had, like, 2 moments in the entire series where he wasn't openly contemptuous of her. I don't see them as a tragic couple, unless the tragedy is that they had great potential as characters but Yams decided to hamper all the development they could have had as individuals in favor of smashing them together at the last minute with no buildup. I don't even think Eren likes Mikasa as a person very much. I'm not against childhood friends to lovers as a trope, but I think Yams did a really bad job of depicting any kind of mutually positive relationship between them.

Arumika - Cute! I have a headcanon that they've fooled around as sort of an exploratory thing out of mutual platonic love rather than being sexually attracted to each other. They have a great friendship and although I don't think they have endgame romantic potential, I could see them trying out dating but deciding that they're better off as friends.

Jeankasa - I go back and forth on this one. It's not bad, but it's no Rivamika. I did ship it initially but then Levi showed up and my interest in JK went out the window entirely. I think Jean would be a good husband to Mikasa, but after the ending of the series I question her love for him. I think she'd agree to marriage more out of the idea that they have a mutual goal of love and family and the knowledge that he'll take good care of her, and then over time maybe she would fall in love with him. I feel bad for Jeanbo because he's Mikasa's second choice both in canon and in my headcanon!

Mikahisu - I haven't really considered them as a pair before; I got the vibe that Mikasa kinda hated Historia for capturing Eren's attention before she was shoved off the page to get pregnant and... whatever she ended up doing. Fascism, I guess. I could see them getting off to a rough start but Hisu wins Mikasa over with her charm and determination.

Mikahan - Another one I haven't really considered. I think Hanji's overzealousness would turn Mikasa off, although they could have a friendship like a less playfully antagonistic Levihan.

Mikannie - I want them to be friends so badly! They could be gym buddies who kiss sometimes. With the right AU you could make this pairing like lesbian Rivamika because those girls do not like each other.

Erumika - I'm into it in theory, but when I think about the pairing I don't really feel anything about it.

Mikasasha - I wish we'd gotten to see more of their friendship. One of you (I forget who lol) also reblogs a lot of romantic Mikasasha and it turns out I'm into that as well. I think Sasha would be a good influence on Mikasa, getting her to loosen up a little, but I guess asking for well-fleshed female friendships in shonen manga is probably a bit much.

[shreddedleopard]

I’ve been wanting to ask. Cause you put slight one sided erehisu, which btw I’m so thankful for any erehisu crumb I enjoy haha, what do you think of that pairing? Especially considering how the manga is right now and there’s a small possibility they might be canon?

Hi Lovely! 

You know what ... I'm somewhat of an SNK ship junkie, in that I do enjoy a wide range of ships and most certainly feel there's a place for every single one in the fandom 💛 

 For Erehisu in particular, I absolutely feel like it is one of the more likely ships to become canon, if Yams does indeed intend to make any ships canon. 

 In my mind, there have been a lot of hints that Eren at least cares a lot about Hisu, and history repeating itself does seem to be a theme. In that sense, Grisha and Dina may indeed foreshadow a relationship between Eren and Hisu. It's also interesting that just before Kruger mentions Armin and Mikasa to Grisha, he says that he needs to love someone within the walls, and when Grisha questions this, Kruger says 'someone down the line may be watching.' I think the message here isn't for Grisha, but for Eren himself, and for me this further hints that in order to save Mikasa and Armin, Eren needs to allow himself to love someone. That someone could very well be Historia. 

 From Hisu's POV ... well, we've not seen it, have we? So that might truly hold the key to this. There have been a few moments where she does seem fond of Eren too, pre-timeskip, but I'm unsure how deep this may go currently. 

 Am I a die hard shipper of the two? Not necessarily. I've never been one to go for the obvious, and in my mind at the moment their pairing feels like a very obvious choice - the hints, to me, are quite plain to see, whereas I love a curveball pairing who, when you look back you can see lots of subtle hints dropped so that it makes sense, but it was never in your face. (Think Severus Snape's unrequited love for Lily Potter in HP.) But that doesn't mean I don't support the idea, or may very well be won over by some clever writing by Isayama. 

 I like Eren and obviously Historia very much, but I need some more shared history for them other than what happened in Uprising to really get excited about the idea of their pairing. I love symbolism (for example, the whole knight/princess, Lancelot/Guinevere idea of Rivahisu - although I'm under no illusion that this is ever likely to become canon) and I just don't get that vibe from these two. So far to me a match up between them just seems more convenient than any poignant love story, and, as you may have guessed, I'm a total sucker for a good love story. 

 HOWEVER.

 A four year timeskip gives Isayama a lovely big window to build in more history between the pair, and one heck of a romance. So perhaps once the blanks are filled in for us, and if/when the pairing becomes canon, I'll feel very differently.

 What I love more than anything though is chatting about ideas and theories, so you may absolutely be able to change my mind on that 😊 perhaps there's something totally symbolic about the ship that I've missed, or some interesting similarities between the two which give them some really significant stuff in common. I'm easily persuaded in this sort of thing, I won't lie! 😂

 I hope this answer is OK; thanks so much for all your support @spacevoltrongirl and for enjoying AQR so much even though Erehisu is your main ship! 

 I hope by the end of the story, I'll have done Eren the justice he deserves and, although it's a Rivahisu story, the deeply important friendship between Historia and Eren will be aptly portrayed! 🤞🏻 

 SR x

[resurrged]

AN ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER DECISIONS THE WARRIORS    /     AND WHY YMIR CHOSE ‘THEIR SIDE’      —

                   first and foremost, let me just address some incredibly important tidbits on my own interpretation of ymir’s characterization,  just because it’ll set the fact that this whole post is pretty ?? against the grain to everything i’ve seen on ymir so far & affects a lot on how i play her.

one :       her death was necessary, and she was likely set to die from the start.

this manga is meant to tug at your heartstrings, and ymir’s death, to me, is probably the best one to hit that bullet.  no one’s getting a truly happy ending, and ymir’s was beautifully forlorn.  the best isa has done in building a character just to crush them in the worst way possible, imo. and i mean, yeah, sure— would it have been NICE to see ymir overcome this and find a happy medium? yeah, totally. BUT THIS ISN’T THAT KIND OF STORY ???? it’s not like she really has the chance to work on it fully & like holy shit y’all we literally watched the main protagonist get EATEN within the first 4 chapters what do you expect ????

two :       ymir leaving does not, in any way,  “go entirely against her character”  by choosing R&B over historia

in fact, it aligns perfectly with every aspect of it —  as per isayama’s given outline / point focuses when it comes to her.

as much as she cherishes, supports, and loves the girl, YMIR IS SO MUCH MORE THAN HER ATTACHMENT TO HISTORIA OH mY GoD

THE WHOLE RELATIONSHIP IS LITERALLY A PRIME EXAMPLE OF WHO SHE IS NOT HOW SHE BECAME THAT WAY.

now back to randy with the news

PERSONALITY     /          ymir had always been looking out for others, with a particular emphasis on historia, sure, more on that later— but we see how someone like reiner was instantly able to clue into how something apparently crass, such as laughing ruthlessly at connie’s “idea”,  had been done to look out for him.  

she’s clearly close to her comrades, and we see her being physically touchy with both connie and eren without either of them twitching away / reacting like this is strange.  even though she’s known to behave boorishly, she has this level of closeness with them, something that wouldn’t be a thing if they were truly on bad terms, as her bluntness would often imply.  they seem to all have a comfortable friendship / understanding, one that recognizes she isn’t inherently looking to shit all over them 24/7.   even when she had the chance to simply save historia alone during the CoT arc, she went out of her way to ensure she got all 4 cadets that were left on the tower.   not to mention she saved erwin despite being right pissed at him at the time, something she honestly had no reason to do.   so no, historia isn’t the only person on her mind 24/7.

as much as ymir has said her goal was to live her new life for herself, she was never able to.  we see time and time again that ymir tries to be crass, tries to be blunt, gives in to being selfless, and then tries to play it off.  she’s trying to force herself to change, but it doesn’t work.  at no point in the series had it ever worked.  nothing about her inherent character changed, she never received ‘character development’ on that end, but guess what? that’s actually an incredibly realistic development. she realizes & succumbs to the fact that she was doomed from the start. i cannot emphasize enough how hard it is to change something so integral about who you are as a person. it takes a lot to do that.  we have an entire section of our brains dedicated to not doing it.  

in fact, no character in snk has gone through dramatic change without struggle or major prompting ( levi had to watch his comrades die, mikasa had to break her superior’s leg, and most importantly in this context, historia had to watch her best friend leave her ) .   and NONE of these happened in a flash, either. we have a 6-year skip to levi’s current behaviour, which is still crass / cold even if it is more selfless.  mikasa needs to be reminded of watching how her attachment plays into her choices during the serum bowl before succumbing, and (listen up this is important) historia only truly listens to ymir’s words of advice when confronting her father.  don’t forget that these two had known each other for years before current events, and ymir had been trying to get historia to stop acting the way she does the entire time.  WHICH MAKES SENSE.  in real life, PEOPLE DON’T JUST CHOOSE TO ‘CHANGE’.  it happens naturally, with a shitton of effort and mistakes, if at all. and i’m convinced isayama knows this.

in the end, ymir succumbs to her own state, a doleful  ‘i guess some things never change’  in giving herself up for reiner & bertolt to take.   she feels indebted to them, and knows she can’t deal with the guilt of it, and she’s done trying.  she got her second shot at life and couldn’t ever complete the one task she set out for herself : to just live for her own sake.  

she is pathetic, and i think that’s what porco was getting at in referencing her memories in the marley arc.  and i think his choice of words are really intriguing here? because he uses “を返し[て]くれ[た]” to refer to ymir giving her his brother’s titan back, with both を返し and くれる being things you typically say about someone who’s doing you a genuine favor, like out of good will.  the way he’s saying this aligns heavily with how ymir felt she was indebted to them, despite how he clearly disagrees with her views by calling her straight up pathetic for them lmao.  

the last things we hear her say are that it “doesn’t feel so bad to be a goddess”, again emphasizing that she does these things because they are, in essence, what makes her feel nice.  she feels genuine happiness in giving herself up.  a feeling that goes unmatched by any selfish deed she could ever do.  she even mentions in her letter that she has no regrets, likely through finally realizing this very fact and being able to put it into words, as before we see she doesn’t quite understand the behaviour herself.  and she mentions she regrets nothing, save for getting to marry historia, as if saying maybe this was the very thing that would have possibly felt just as nice.  

so again, i emphasize— she wanted to live selfishly for the rest of her new life, knows she should be happy that way, like everyone else seems to be — but in the end, she couldn’t.  not because of stupid plot devices, but because she genuinely couldn't live with herself unless she did.  when she apologizes to historia, i’m convinced it’s not just for abandoning her, but for proving she’s been nothing but one huge, fake hypocrite this whole time.   after all, ymir’s just like her ;  she wants to do good, wants to help others, and can’t fathom the thought of ever feeling worthy enough for a shot at true happiness.  really, she was being selfish to the end, as she was chasing what made herself feel good as opposed to what someone like historia might have preferred from her, or what R&B even offered to let her do.

HISTORIA     /          now another point i feel i should bring up is that ymir was actually going to bring historia with her, but only under the pretense that she’d live a better life.  

don’t forget ymir lived lavishly up until she was caught as a false prophet, and she likely assumed that with her royal blood, historia would too.  she thought paradis was done for, but when she realized they weren’t, she made the split-second decision to both sacrifice herself for reiner to have something to bring back with him ( thus preventing him from possibly going after historia in place of eren again ) as well as letting historia continue her life as historia, where she was already happy.  

at this point, ymir had seen historia finally spit back the words she’d spoken for so long, and was likely under the pretense that she would be fine, that they had finally stuck.  she saw no reason to keep herself present in hisu’s life ; she’d finally been able to break through to her.  but no matter what, at that point, she had already chosen to sacrifice herself for historia’s sake, and the more she listened to R&B, the more she solidified this idea.

EMPATHY     /         ymir felt fucking bad for R&B.  we get a ton of cutshots to her expression when eren tries to confront bertholdt’s morality, and practically defends him by telling eren he’s being childish for immediately wishing death on him.  we see her getting quiet when she brings up marcel,  and then again showing empathy for bert’s position in all of this.  this is again emphasized when bertholdt asks why she saved him.  but the last two don’t even matter, because by the time they begin leaving the forest she had practically already cemented the fact that she was going to go with them in believing she would never see historia again. 

of course, we might still get more insight on ymir and her motifs, but for now, this has always been how i interpreted her actions, and i never once questioned them.   yes, it would’ve been nice for her to finally set aside that aspect of herself and return with historia, but as i mention in my paradis verse, doing so wouldn’t have cured the innate guilt she feels towards living.  especially now that she’s spoken to R&B.   she realizes she took this from them and feels undeserving of this second shot at life when she couldn’t even do anything with it.  she was supposed to live for herself, and there she is doing everything in her power to save historia instead.  i’m sure ymir feels like a failure over that, and i’m sure it really fucks with her psyche, and factors into why she’s so willing to literally accept death by going back with them.

so by having ymir choose R&B over historia, she was going against  ‘development’  her character literally never had. every single ymir cut shot / flashback in these chapters literally emphasize just how much she does for others, all while trying to hide it under a mask of false ambiguity for her own sake. 

so yeah.  i love ymir.  she deserved better.   thanks for listening to my TED talk.

[ourmondobongo]

This is why there is also a good part of being in this fandom.

It's a blow of fresh air and heartwarming to be remembered there are people who also see value in the characters you've grown to love that goes beyond the superficiality of the reading.

AOT did a great job in showing how some people can forget an once fav because they couldn't "magically" provide a solution for a planetary problem; how they can praise a mass murderer for doing it "for his friends' sake" and brush off the other reasons he says why he did that; how Mikasa should have had Eren's baby at 19 years old to have some consolation; how Eren should be the father of Hisu's baby for horrible reasons too; and man, a group of people IRL even went as far as doing a funeral for Eren!

Like, LOL, Isayama really did a great job in sparkling all kinds of viewpoints in this fandom. Too bad that his end tried to satisfy everyone instead of being faithful to himself.

As for Hange and Levi's relationship, I think their friendship and fellowship could be so easily read if some people just imagined how it would be getting into their shoes.

As all mentioned above, there are more than enough moments depicted in the manga that can suffice and express the closeness of their bond. And again, it's not even a matter of shipping because AOT isn't a freaking shoujo manga, but rather a matter of honesty. Because despite how beautiful and adored and moving romantic love might be, something as much unforgettable and rich and beautiful is the bonds of another type of family: the one in which you other halves and puzzle-like pieces still grow inside of you and make your heart whole without you noticing until it's kind of too late, but do it in the form of best friends, of protégé and protégée, of brats you would protect with your own life if needed.

And man, that's also something that pains me a lot about the reading of Levi's character above all because there are many reviews that just love to spread the idea he is a simple OP character who was nerfed for the EMA ending sake while we have seen plenty of time how much it had costed each character to reach (or try to reach) their personal dreams, or in haunted words, their fate/destiny. And, damn, Levi is a perfect example of what happens when you reduce characters to something they aren't.

To say the least, some people doesn't even make an effort to connect some dots here and there about his ending too. Though it's obvious that Isayama could have elaborated more Falbi's connections with Levi to have them together at the end, that moment isn't simply pulled out of his ass.

Of course, we readers like too see things developing bit by bit, but it's crystal clear that this last AOT arc had plenty of development problems as well as that chapter 139 was utterly rushed. But even if it's a utter disappointment or displeasure for some readers to fill up some gaps in a writing situation like this, remembering Levi's whole story and the ones who were by his side for years should be just enough to make sense of it.

And by ending along with Onyankopon and Falbi, Levi proved completely the result of his and all his beloved ones' devoted hearts:

He shared a dream of living in a world without Titans with all SC members - he showed it with no more monsters or intermitente zones, given Eldians and others were all mixed in the city;

He wanted to know the freedom outside the Walls - he showed it walking in "London";

He shared Hange's and Mikasa's and Armin's hope of "they fear us (Paradisians) because they don't know us, so let's go and teach them" - and he showed again that it worked through Gabi being openly friendly to him, with Falco;

And as an former soldier, Levi proved by sharing his last panel with Onyankopon that there are unforgettable bonds made with people who devoted their everything to help others; and only they knew the true and deep pain of what they had lost watching the plane; after all, Onyankopon became a person Levi trusted because of their past working together, and with one important link between them - Commander Hange Zoe.

But I doubt people will one day see the importance, congruence and message of Levi's ending if readers keep reducing both his character and Hange's, because they overlap and influence each other. It's a matter of way of thinking, of sharing social circles, of working together for years and years, especially when it turned only they both as the last SC Veterans, when Levi became Hange's inseparable Right Hand.

God, I talk too much lol.

And I could keep going on and on, and this without even arguing about the possible implications of a romantic relationship between Levi and Hange because I still stand to my own belief that in AOT the individual characters matters more rather than in ships. But damn if I can't see their relationship evolving into sincere mutual feelings.

#Vent Time

For real, I think it's incredible how Hange and Levi's relationship is low-key overlooked for... absolutely no real reason?!

And I'm just considering their relationship as friends and the fact that they were the last two SC vets here.

I mean, a fairly known geek website made a post listing the closest people to Levi, and Hans - at their eyes - was placed in fourth, behind Isabel and Furlan.

But, like, I am sorry??? How can a friendship of 10 YEARS be overlooked for the sake of two spin-off characters that Isayama himself hasn't even written??

How can you spend ten years of your life living with someone who considers you the same way you considers them, and fighting beside them, mourning the death of friends with them, saving your people with them, saving the WORLD with them, and this person beside you is barely considered important to you? And also being belittled by people that weren't even mentioned in the main AOT material?

I'm not even questioning the importance of Furlan and Isabel for Levi's backstory. But as I've said above, ACWNR spin-off was not written by Isayama, nor mentioned or foreshadowed anywhere within the AOT main manga. Which is probably the same reason why Isabel and Furlan are not even present in the vision Levi during the SC farewell in chapter 139.

And I saw a lot of people mad because of their absence in the fog, but I think they don't remember that Furlan and Isabel aren't Isayama's characters. In fact, neither are any other non-main-canon characters in this spin-off, nor the light novels that appeared out of the main story too.

So, really - Hange's 10-years-of-best-friend-relationship with Levi doesn't deserve this treatment. Her character doesn't deserve this.

Oh, and some people belittling her pain in chapter 139? That is also so dirty! Either that, or I'm really blind and failing to see other character looking sadder than her...

There are story telling reasons why Petra is smiling, why Erwin wears a serene/knowing expression, why Moblit is sad, and why Hange is undeniably shown suffering the most right there. And you don't even have to think about ships to try see the reasons behind it because the stories that Isayama fleshed out about the relationship of these characters (with Levi and between themselves) should be enough to shed a bit of light into it.

If it's too hard to see, though, then take Connie, Jean, and Sasha's farewell as an easier example. Why is Sasha smiling? Why are the guys crying? What was it that Connie and Jean were feeling? What was Sasha feeling? And what does the word bittersweet mean in the context of this ending?

Still, if people can't get absolutely a grasp of what happened, then I can just say that things do get difficult to see when some characters are simply reduced to things that they aren't. When people rob the relevance of a character, things look unbalanced and do not make much sense.

And that's why, again, Hange's character doesn't deserve this (and many other) treatment.

Sometimes I wish I could unsee so many unfair disregard toward such an intelligent, hard worker, adventurous, brave and devoted character like Hange. They are one of the most brilliant and interesting people in the AOT story. Which makes me glad I followed them in relative peace during 8 years before actively joining the AOT fandom and learning what happens inside of it.

Because, honestly, their erasure and character reducement are just horrible. To say the least.