In an AoT mood again, specifically thinking about Mikasa and Eren.
What I like about Mikasa is that despite her character falling into the typical relationship-centric love interest archetype, many aspects of her character also defy it.
She is allowed to have relationships beyond her love interest – I will not hear any reduction of her friendships with Sasha or Armin and I will not hear any reduction of her backstory (no, the anime didn't make it worse, either, it's the same), which was much more about her losing her parents and gaining her principles than it ever was about Eren saving her.
She isn't traditionally attractive nor is she a doormat to her love interest.
And I like that her relationship with Eren isn't healthy.
It probably is actually somewhere between a familial and romantic relationship, especially at first because of that layered trauma of losing both of her families basically a year apart while being a sheltered 5-6-year-old.
It is the language the world she knew taught her and it is those two families that also taught her to prioritise those she loves the most and it is not healthy.
For all of the bizarre obsession with Eren and Historia the grifters had, Mikasa was sitting right there with all of the toxic potential you could possibly ever have to explore in her relationship with Eren.
But Mikasa didn't catch them because she wasn't actually a demure housewife with no principles of her own like the narrative ended up pushing Historia to be.
(Which still really sucks, no matter how well-intentioned you read it.)
Basically, Mikasa is metal af and I love that. Love should be portrayed with tough characters more often.
(Under the Tree is pretty much perfect in expressing the sentiment Mikasa represents, perhaps edgy and childish, but also very, very genuine.)
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
snowghoul
ellievsbear
origamiaround
theartofmadeline
