the lighter and the princess’ gown 打火机与公主裙

Hi!

I actually completely disagree with your point but im not invalidating your opinions.

Anyone who has read Aot from the beginning knows in the manga, Mikasa is completely different from the anime Mikasa we see in season 1. They replaced a lot of interaction between other scouts saving Eren, to Mikasa doing it. We know Mikasa has seperation anxiety, in chapter 4, she couldn’t handle the thought of Eren being in a different part of the city without her, afraid he’d die. In chapter 30 after the ft arc, she let Levi take the lead on Eren. Same in chapter 57, the debilitating fear that used to tie Mikasa to Eren is gone for good. Mikasa being confronted by things that are more important than being with Eren happens fairly often to her. In contrary to most female leads, she progresses to independence instead of regressing. She always loved him. Although it was tough love. Her love to Eren never disappeared, in chapter 138 she proved that it was selfless. While Erens love was selfish, with selfless intentions. I don’t know if you’ve read Mikasas ova (lost girl novel) but it’s so significant to her story. Mikasas purpose is to persistent with the theme of Aot, after Erens “death” in episode 5, she saw a butterfly. That same butterfly was seen again in season 3 and season 1 episode 14. In official art, Isayama often draws Eren seeing Mikasa with wings. It’s because in his eyes, she’s equivalent to beauty and freedom. In the novel, Eren gifts Mikasa a butterfly. Isayama was genius with it. Mikasa being the freest character in the show, alongside Armin is what makes her well written in my opinion. Her philosophy of living in a cruel world. We already saw that Mikasa is capable of living without Eren. Her memories give her strength, while a person may die, memories live on.

Overall she kept true to her ideology. Finding beauty in a cruel world. She gave up that beauty, for humanity. She’s not a simp, she’s a strong female. Im not talking about Isayama not sexualizing her, no Aot woman has ever seeded validation from men. ”a strong female character has her own identity and trajectory that she follows, as well as her own ambitions and goals outside of her relationship with another person. She has flaws.” Mikasa adapted and learned her ideology from Eren, but they never shared the same point of view, much like 2 sides of the same coin. She’s always followed her instinct, whether Eren liked it or not.

One thing i adore and see as inspirational with Mikasa is how she never fell soft for the male lead. Usually, in beserk, tokyo ghoul manga etc. We see a tough woman lead who at some point in the story succumbs to the male lead and becomes soft. Through-all hardships, Mikasa stayed strong and never grew “uwi” or soft for Eren. She never had that downgrade, she was always tough with it. This quote fits her in the manga “When you can’t do anything but be numb and accept the fate of humanity “

wow this is such a long message, thank you for taking the time to write this down for me.

ah, to be fair, I haven't read the earliest chapters of AOT. I only picked up the manga after season 3 part 2 ended, so I'm not aware of the changes between the anime and the manga. but even when they changed the scenes, i didn't have any problem with that. i don't have problem with season 1 mikasa. it's mikasa in season 4 and the rumbling arc that i have problems with because I expected her to have a major character development (since she's the poster girl after all) but nope, to me, she didn't change at all. i get that she loves him and that she has separation issues, but... i don't know, to me it just comes off as clingy, and sorry to say, even annoying at some point. like she could barely function without him and the world is literally ending and all she could think about was still eren to the point that even armin snapped at her at some point.

mikasa is physically strong thanks to her ackerman genes, yeah, but mentally? she's the weakest (imo anyway). historia (before season 4) is actually the strongest female character in the story, mentally. hell, even eren admired her plenty times because of that (and he's not the type who praises people a lot, unlike armin). it's funny how you said mikasa is the freest character in the show when i think historia (again, before season 4) is the freest character in the show: the way she decided to live for herself, to break the chain, and even killed her father out of her own will to save humanity. her character and the choices she made literally saved eren from the brink of death and his severe depression state. she understood him the way he understood her because they'd gone through the same thing. he trusted her better than any of his friends (including armin and mikasa) and even offered to erase her memories if she couldn't live with the guilt. idk man to me their relationship just makes so much sense but then again, maybe i'm just historia biased lol

i don't read the lost girls novels but i've watched her OVAs. again, it's a matter of perspective. you make some interesting arguments and I'm happy to know that mikasa is a well written character for you. i completely disagree with your points but I can see why you think that way and i respect your opinions.

honestly, i'm impressed that you can still defend your fave after 139 happened. i love my boy eren with all my heart but even i can't find anything to say to protect him when people called him incel or the protagonist who achieved nothing because he really did achieve literally nothing 😭 so, good for you to still be able to love mikasa with the way she is now because us eren stans (well, i mean, me personally) just feel like it's easier to pretend 139 doesn't exist lol