Board Thread:Off topic/@comment-120.152.155.2-20160320012357/@comment-29958651-20161101094320

JinxTheFunhouse wrote: I dislike every ship in this series. One of the things that makes Attack on Titan so great is that it is a serious, depressing, apocalyptic series and there isn't any romance developing. In fact a lot of soldiers refuse to find love because they've sent too many people to their deaths or think they are going to literally be crunched and torn apart in a giants mouth soon.

But then these kids come and try to make it all mushy and take all the seriousness out of the series by saying "ooouu I just wanna see Eren and Levi rolling around in the bed sheets"... what? Anyone like that probably has no real appreciation for the series (or the character development) and only likes to manipulate the characters in their own way. I guess that's the really serious shippers Maybe that overal depressing tone of the series is the reason why weird shipping was even started. Firstly we have to mention the dystopical atmosphere of the manga, where everyone (it doesn't matter how important character you are) is in a constant danger. While facing this type of depression, when your fav character can die anytime, you're trying to find a less negative aspect of the AoT world, in which you have a beam of light that helps to lighten the series' tone. Potentional relationships seems to be a good aspect, that perfectly fits the beam of light category. The love and potentional relationship are in a strong contrast with the cruel reality of Isayama's universe, so it's quite logical that some fans are looking up to shipping. Secondly, we have to say that there are some romantic hints spread throughout the series. Ymir and Historia. Reiner's attraction to Historia. Bertl's worry about Annie's fate. Mikasa and Eren. Although the current tone of the story doesn't provide any conditions for developing this aspect of characters' personality, it doesn't necessary means that love doesn't exist in the world of AoT. Love still exist, although relationships don't. And this type of dysproportion are shippers trying to balance.

Just like you, I'm not a fan of shipping, since it deforms the way how we are looking at the character development. I especially hate the no-evidence-at-all ships like Ereri or Mikannie, since these clearly dehonest the whole series. But in some strange way, I think that shipping (based on some attraction mentioned in the series or at least in the non-canonical material) is reasonable when you consider also their point of view.