Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27938131-20200308191509/@comment-8458738-20200608155141

Eden Ushinatta wrote: Jumbernaut wrote: I never understood Mikasa as a character. What's the point of having her in the story? Is she's just supposed to be a love interest on reverse, as she spends the entire story in love with the protagonist just to "surprise" us at the end by rejecting him? I just feel it's not enough. In other stories, like One Piece, the supporting characters each have their own story that drives them to walk the same path as the protagonist while they are walking their own paths.

Mikasa just feels too empty, and the excuse that it's because she's bound by the Ackerman bloodline is not enough. Had the author given her some other paths to choose from, becoming a captain, another love interest genuinely pressuring her to be with him instead of Eren who for all purposes is like a brother and they openly say they are not dating, or to have her own opinions about what's right or wrong in some mission, some that diverged from Erens, only to have her end up choosing to support Eren, all of that would have made her feel more conflicted to be following Eren all this time why neglecting her own wishes and Life, it would make the revelation that her love for Eren is fabricated by the bloodbound all that more relevant.

Right now she should be like "Who am I?", and she needs to realize that the only way she will find out is if she faces Eren.

Anyway, I really don't know what was the story that the author wanted to tell with Mikasa, if there ever was one. Mikasa's role in the sotry is highly symbolic. She is the character who best represents one of the most central themes of the story "The world is cruel and yet so beautiful". In the final arc, she is like the physical manifestation of the concept  of free will vs being a slave. Eren is supposed to be free and she is supposed to be a slave. Her going up against him is thematically important for that reason. And who knows? Maybe in the end, she is the free one and not Eren.

Plot wise, i think her role in the Final arc, despite most liekely being the one to defeat Eren, is to act as his link to his humanity. As the physical representation of Eren's humanity that he absolutely needs to leave behind, if he wants to accomplish his mission. It's not about realizing that she is not in love with him and that all her feelings were just a product of her Ackerman bloodline, but the exact opposite. It's about realizing that despite everything, she is in love with him and that she still has to fight him and that she can go on without him.

The moments that you want, like "who i am" have been there. You can see them in chapters 118, 125 and there will be more when she learns the truth about the Ackerman clan and how Eren lied to her. Wow didn't think of it like that. Good analysis.