Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25322628-20170113025521/@comment-25228560-20170404190610

Junior0124 wrote: I don't know I mean Eren did save her life so she may feel indebted to him. In a cruel world that made her witness her parents death, when those bandits or whatever had kidnapped her she had basically given up on life. But there was Eren to save her and give her the will to keep on living. I'm not surprised why she'd want to stay with him especially if she developed romantic feelings for him. But we can't argue on the fact that Mikasa wants to be with Eren I mean she almost gave up on life again when he had apparently "died". I think I'm just one of those guys who always falls into the trap of being on the protagonists side XD. But you are absolutely right, Mikasa's character lacks substance there's not enough development behind her. I think that her background story should have been a bit more gruesome, no offence to her parents dying but it was kind of basic, cliche we've all seen it somewhere before. Yeah Eren saved her but it doesn't equate to the kind of devotion she gives him.

It's really cool how AOT portrays Eren because most mangas develop their protagonists to being strong and independent towards the end, like they all get stronger or are already strong but Eren isn't like that he still has insecurities, he still feels weak and incapable of doing things himself. It's different which is good. Levi is the strongest man and Erens not the only Titan shifter, but he is the trump card with the coordinate so he's got that going for him at least XD.

Yh Jean does appreciate her he realises just how strong she is, and to be honest I'm actually surprised Jean is still alive I thought he'd be one to die at the beginning because he was so pessimistic at first. But maybe you are expecting too much of Mikasa. She is a woman yes and she can have desires but in the world that they live in that desire is limited. It is mostly males in AOT that have the curiosity to actually want to venture outside the walls. Yes there are females in the survey corps but they aren't spearheads of the movement they are foot soldiers (well assuming Hange isn't female). It was because of Armin that Eren found out about the outside world and wanted to explore it, Mikasa wasn't there at the time when Armin showed Eren the book. Mikasa was probably brought up just to be a normal household woman.

But I think they just put Mikasa in there and made her strong just to satisfy female watchers who knows. And the time skip is four years I think as Eren is 15 when he graduates from the cadet corps and 19 after the time skip.

Oh yeah and Mikasa is an Ackerman. Dude, the males in AOT have the curiosity not because of gender. It is a shounen manga. In shounen manga one bad thing is that usually only some key guys, not all guys, have curiosity or power or whatever. I don't think it matters what Mikasa was brought up with because she defied all of that already being number one in her class. And I think you are forgetting Ilse's research spearheaded Hange's. And that the death of one of his female friends made Levi the way he is today. I don't think desires are ever as limited even if our realities are limited. Even if Mikasa was being a household person she would be more be critical of Eren like his mom as Eren is very bad husband material as he is.

I do think Mikasa is an interesting character especially the trauma she faced. Yup. It is cliche how "indebted" she feels that Eren helped her but if she actually showed agency herself - like she did when Eren was thought dead and she actually said I will go on - she can actually be REALLY awesome. In fact, she is awesome already. The bad fact is they are underutilising her awesome and this wouldn't have happened if Mikasa was male. In fact, if Mikasa was a male character she would probably have some antithetical goals than Eren and that would make the plot and even their characters' development great. Oh yeah I know Mikasa and Levi are related.

Also, Eren is typical shounen main lead. Male leads in shounen either start out weak as anything or OP Strong. The former makes them have some "unrivaled power" that makes them useful. Eren has all the qualities of a typical shounen hero - hot tempered and impassionate, oblivious to other people than himself, actually kinda mean to the people who help him, borderline or full on maschismo with none of the "good" and most of the bad associated with it including emotional and mental repression and regressiveness, whining when things don't work out his way or the world is actually not the binary he thought it would be. Yeah, I guess you just like Eren too much. I do like him but I can see in him a need for growing up and being with someone who champions his qualities and also critiques his flaws.

I am not making grand expectations. Even in war, especially in war, people wanna do things or know things. Mikasa is not humanised as enough as she should be. It is actually unfair and wrong. That Armin can get scared, Eren can get angry but Mikasa is most times a blank, impassive person that only panics if Eren will die or not. That is not how people work. Anime sometimes distorts even good things about real life humans. Mikasa having arcs of her own would actually make Eren x Mikasa a good canon ship if it were ever to be well written. Even if Mikasa or Eren didn't choose each other they would have the friendship that makes sense. Jean is actually Isayama's favourite character because I think he is pretty real and I respect that. Jean does a lot too. I think he is just what a regular guy would feel living in the world like that. I can't blame him.

Also, Mikasa also saved Eren that time with the traffickers too. So, yeah her "devotion" to him is a fiction. Many people thank the person and also hold them endearing who did that. But, they also grow in mental and physical strength afterwards. Also, in their world I don't think people even if they want can make a gender divide as concrete as they wanna. Women enlist in military all the time because they need as many able bodied soldiers. Even if people do household chores and all of that I think it's just a given you gotta be active to make money and stay alive.

It would have made sense if Mikasa had more initiatives and Eren and she had supported each other and had conflicts with each other it would make sense why their friendship was so strong and even their relationshio later on. Also, it is unreal that Grisha Jaegar can get mad over Eldian mistreatment by Marleyans but Mikasa won't hold any grudges against the government for hurting her own people. That is where I know maybe the mangaka hadn't thought of Mikasa as he should. If he hasn't it is bad writing on his part. We shouldn't introduce characters of any sex/gender/orientation without giving them meaning or purpose because Mikasa is already more than a caricature. She is strong, physically fit and pretty intelligent and a great battle tactician. I wouldn't be surprised if Zeke actually thought that she would be a good person to inherit Beast Titan and become new warchief of the Eldian people in Marley as she and Zeke have some skill similiarities.

I like characters to have many dimensions. Especially, in animes with so much human commentary as AOT. It seems pretty useless otherwise. If Mikasa had been the main character of AOT it might have been a different story and already interesting as she is alaos of Asiatic origin. She may have desire Titans to go outside of the walls but also to know if they killed her people and that story would have been kinda original as well. Eren's story of wanting revenge is common. Mikasa knowing if she is the last of a race because of Titan fueled genocide would be more original.