one prominent thing in the ackerbonds is the stark contradiction of values that the ackermans have with their 'liege'.
there's nothing levi hates more than people dying uselessly, meanwhile erwin is willing to go to these lengths for a gamble of his.
I'm not going to discuss erwin's moral compass but everytime he had put comrades or civilian lives on the line, levi was visibly upset with him and even disgusted. even though they're both fighting for humanity, levi definitely questioned erwin's ways, but he stayed by his side.
likewise, kenny despised the royals and set out to kill them. he wanted to wreck the hierarchy which uri, the "god" of paradise, sat atop of.
kenny believed only privileged people could choose to be peaceful and have faith, and he was critical of uri's ideology.
but for uri, kenny ended up part of that system, and eventually got himself and his squad dead trying to chase that power uri left behind, he didn't even know if he could actually obtain it, but he did everything to see what uri had seen and maybe reunite with him somehow.
and finally, mikasa and eren.
this one's obvious, she killed him to stop the rumbling, but there's something special about these two. i think mikasa broke the "bond" in a way because, despite her deep devotion and love for eren, she didn't stay on his side like the other two.
mikasa accepted how the world worked; the beauty and cruelty of it, and eren set out to destroy everything for his loved ones' freedom.
so mikasa who started out following eren wherever and only caring about her select family, ended up choosing humanity over him.
out of the three, mikasa was the one truly selfless, and thus she saved the world and broke ymir's curse.
in general, there's always a conflict of values between the ackermans and their bonds and it makes for very interesting dynamics that lots of people seem to put aside?
the concept of deep, unhinged, loyalty is attractive. but in reality none of the ackermans were blindly following their lieges. none of them were slaves, it was love and endurance.
















