Mikasa Ackerman

Mikasa Ackerman (ミカサ・アッカーマン) is the female protagonist of the series and is the adopted sister of Eren, who is fiercely devoted to him ever since he saved her from human slavers. Thus, while she sometimes does not agree with what Eren does, Mikasa will protect Eren from any who tries to harm him. She, along with Armin, joins the Scouting Legion to help Eren retake Wall Maria. Mikasa is considered a military genius and was ranked at the top of her graduating class, the 104th Trainees Squad.

Personality
Mikasa is considerably more withdrawn after the murder of her parents. However, she still loves and cares deeply for her friends, such as Eren and Armin, and sees them as the last remnants of a family she cannot afford to lose again. Mikasa has a strong sense of right and wrong, but will always follow Eren. When he once said that her hair was too long, she immediately had it cut, even though Jean had just commented that it looked beautiful. Yet, for all her blind loyalty, Mikasa is also very level-headed. Even though it was believed that Eren was dead, she concentrated on keeping everyone else alive and not giving in to grief as many of her comrades were doing. But if Eren is in danger, Mikasa will stop at nothing to keep him safe, poised to kill soldiers trying to execute Eren and relentlessly attacking the female type when she captured Eren.

It is implied that Mikasa has feelings for Eren as she blushed when she revealed that, whatever division Eren applies to, Mikasa will do the same; also when Eren was referred to as her love and when Armin quietly smiled at her decision to stay with a bedridden Eren.

History
Mikasa and her mother are the last of their clan and the oriental race. Before her parents' death, she lived peacefully with them in the farmlands of Wall Maria. Mikasa underwent a painful scarring ritual from her mother, whom cut into her skin the mark of their oriental clan. Being the last of their race made them high value targets to human traffickers, who killed Mikasa's parents and kidnapped her when she was only 9 years old. She is rescued by Eren who tricks and kills two of the slavers. He was then overwhelmed by the third trafficker and on the verge of being strangled. Desperately, Eren urges Mikasa to fight to win. Although she was initially frightened, she came to realize that "this world is a callous and merciless place" and dispatched the kidnapper who was trying to kill Eren. This event awakened the fighting instincts and perfect self-control that would later turn her into a formidable soldier. She lived with Eren's family in Wall Maria's Shiganshina District until the beginning of the story.

Transformation Arc
Mikasa upon graduation was ranked first upon graduation and before having the chance to fully apply for in the Scouting Legion so she can keep Eren safe, the Colossal Titan breached Wall Rose the same way it did with Wall Maria. Much to her dismay, Mikasa was assigned rear guard with Annie to help fend off the titans while the civilians to escape into the safety of Wall Shina and made Eren promise her not to do anything reckless. Seeing a mother and daughter being grateful to her, Mikasa for a moment was brought back to the time she lost her own parents and realising that Eren is the only family she has left will do what it takes to protect him.

Thus, with the evacuation of Trost District citizens complete, she heads to the front guard in order to aid their evacuation to the Wall's safety. However, the sole trainee survivors are low on gas making them unable to scale the Wall while the supply team inside HQ has barricaded themselves in against the onslaught of multiple Titans. After hearing of Eren's supposed death, Mikasa calmly regroups the survivors to break through the Titans assaulting the HQ and their way back to safety, remarking, "I'll die...it's just that simple. But if I win...I get to live." This successfully motivates everyone to follow Mikasa's lead and fight to the HQ.

However, it soon becomes clear the Mikasa is not thinking rationally due to Eren's death and she runs out of gas just as two Titans close in on her, trapping her. She contemplates giving up and begins to remember her time with Eren when suddenly she flashbacks to Eren yelling at her to fight. It gives her the strength to fight and retain her memories of Eren. However, as one of the Titans reaches for her and Mikasa prepares to fight it off, the other Titan attacks and kills it.

This Titan, which ignores Mikasa gives Armin enough time to rescue Mikasa and they both continue heading to the supply HQ. As they watch this rogue Titan continue killing other Titans, they hatch a plan to lure it to the HQ and relieve the siege there. With its (unintentional) help, the trainees manage to successfully refill their gas tanks and have clear access to the Wall. However, as they watch the rogue Titan dispose of the last Titans surrounding them, Eren appears out of its spine. Overcome with relief that Eren is alive, Mikasa quickly rescues and embraces him and together, everyone leaves for the Wall.

However, their commander fears Eren is a Titan and attempts to have Mikasa and Armin executed along with him. After a tense standoff, they are saved when Commander Dot Pixis, head administrator of the southern region, intervenes. They are sent on a mission to stopper the breach in the Wall with a rock that only Eren in Titan form can lift.

As the mission commences and Eren goes into Titan form, he attacks Mikasa and eventually knocks himself out. The elite team designated to defend Eren as he carries the rock quarrel among themselves about what to do next. Mikasa was on the verge of attacking them until the team leader orders everyone to continue protecting Eren until he recovers.

Eren eventually snaps out of it and successfully places the rock down. However, he is brought before a military tribunal to decide his future. Despite Mikasa's best efforts to defend him, she is forced to testify against Eren as his reckless actions have frightened many people in the courtroom.

The Female Titan Arc
Sometime later, Mikasa and everyone else were having their Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear(3DMG) inspected and in order to find out which 3DMG was used to kill the two captured titans. Later on, Commander Irvin Smith comes to recruit new members for the Scouting Legion which is scheduling an expedition within a few months. Many left except for Mikasa, Reiner, Armin, Sasha, Christa, Conny, Jean, Berthold and a few others.

Shortly after leaving for Wall Maria, the Female Titan appeared and given her knowledge of military formation, she was able to defeat the Scouting Legion. After kidnapping Eren, Mikasa teamed up with Rivaille and attacked the Female Titan relentlessly until they got Eren back. Following the Scouting Legions' failure, Armin had convinced Annie to help them out until they can gather evidence to prove to the King that the walls need to be protected better. During that time, Mikasa took notice of the lack of diligence and honor in the Military Police. She prepared for battle when she got fed up with Annie's games and excuses. She took off her disguise and drew out her 3DMG to fight her. Mikasa calls her out as the Female Titan who attacked them earlier.

Mikasa learned that Eren in his titan form isn't powerful enough to defeat Annie by himself. Being the strongest and most powerful soldier herself, she decides to take the fight to her. Despite being ordered to pull away from Lt. Hanji, Mikasa manages to make it to Annie as she attempted to climb over Wall Shina to escape to the flat lands. She cuts off all her fingers and pushes her off to fall to the ground. Annie is therefore captured, but encases herself in a crystal to avoid interrogation. However, it was far from over as Mikasa has just taken noticed of a titan hiding behind the wall, similar to the Colossal Titan.

As both the Scouting Legion and Military Police takes an encased Annie underground to detain her, Mikasa realizes the Titan hiding in Wall Shina is breathing, but is too weak to move due to a lack of sunlight. Mikasa remains at Eren's bedside as Armin and Jean head down to a meeting involving Commander Smith and the Military Police.

Breach Arc
Mikasa, Eren and the other members of the Scouting Legion comes to rescue Reiner and the others from the other titans. She was among the others who learned Christa's real name being Historia. Mikasa is outraged when she overhears Reiner confessing that he and Berthold were responsible for the attack on Wall Maria, 5 years ago and wanted Eren to join them. She took them by surprise by attacking them and told him to run. As Eren battles with Reiner, Mikasa faces her own troubles and regretted not cutting off both his and Berthold's heads when she had the chance. During the fight with Reiner, she saw Eren in trouble and tried to fight him off. However due to the thickness of the armor, Mikasa had a hard time slicing the nape of Reiner's neck.

During a flashback, Mikasa asked Annie to teach her a move that she was teaching Eren, which eventually called for a bet with the 104th Training Class to see whom was the stronger fighter. Eventually, Armin saw a weak link in Reiner's line of defense in which his armor is breaking and gives Mikasa extra blades to replace her own. Taking advantage of the information, she cut his at the back of the knee caps and it turned out to be his weak point.

Abilities


Even as a young girl, Mikasa has been a talented fighter, often throwing boys bigger than her with ease. An example of this is when Armin was being bullied and Eren came to his rescue. The boys were preparing to take Eren on when they saw Mikasa behind him and promptly ran away.

Combined with her prodigious skill in 3D maneuver gear, she can easily take down Titans with speed and efficiency. This has lead to her being mentioned as a military genius many times throughout the story and "worth a hundred ordinary soldiers". This has been proven true when she took on Annie in her titan form.

Trivia

 * Mikasa ranked third in the characters popularity poll Misaka-Chara_Design.png
 * The scarf she always wears was given to her by Eren after saving her from the slavers.