Mikasa Ackerman - how a goodbye can save the world
** SnK 139 predictions **
In the snk chapter 138 we have Mikasa killing Eren and giving him a goodbye kiss.
I think a lot of people misunderstood this panel, so I will discuss here why this was important to Mikasa's character and maybe it can be the key to stop the war in the snk universe.
In this panel we have Ymir watching Mikasa’s good bye to Eren. A similarity between Mikasa and Ymir is that both have difficult to let the other one go, Mikasa with Eren and Armin and Ymir with the world she has lived.
However, Mikasa was finally able to let Eren go, in the same way she did with Armin. First, we have a reluctant Mikasa to let Levi apply the serum in Erwin, as in the snk chapter 136 Mikasa was reluctant to kill Eren. Then, she understand Erwin was the best choice in terms of saving humanity, like she realize there was no options unless kill Eren.
Even the expression is similar when Floch told her she had act like an adult because she gave up in the end.
Through the history, we have a discussion of the adults’ role in the war. Both eldians and non-eldians has recognized hate and intolerance was the reason of so many deaths, cruelty and the Rumbling itself.
Some chapters before, when Mr. Brauss was told by Nicolo Gabi has killed her daughter and had the opportunity to have his vengeance, he chose to be the adult the snk world need.
Still in this chapter, Mikasa, an adult, acted like Mr. Brauss and saved a child, Gabi, from get killed by Kaya. After that, Gabi has finally understood the eldians aren’t like she has been taught before and that she was a victim of the war.
Moments later, Eren arrived and maybe the most tragic scene of snk happened - Eren telling Mikasa he hate her, since he was a child. And this was their last talk.
Back to the snk chapter 138, after the Rumbling stopped temporarily, Gabi, Pieck and Annie reconciled with their families, and Mikasa watched them.
I really like Gabi’s role here, because first Mikasa has gave her the warm she needed, and now it’s Gabi’s turn to show Mikasa, who has Eren as her last family left, to not let the hurt be the winning.
With all this, it has to be Mikasa the one who will stop Eren, because Mikasa’s view is “The world is cruel and merciless, but it is also very beautiful”. Despite all the cruelty Eren has done, he still is the boy who showed her how beautiful the world can be. And Mikasa did her job as a soldier killing Eren, but their last moment wasn’t a painful one. They reconciled in their long dream, shared by Eren and Mikasa, because Eren was her family, after all.
** My theory: Mikasa’s headache is because of this dream, which happened because of the paths. This is the reason it starts with Eren in the begin and finish with Mikasa in the end. **
And why all this is related with the end of the war exactly? Because Ymir, who is still attached to the world she left, saw the goodbye kiss. The kiss is the representation of the end of hate´s cycle. At that moment Mikasa was the adult that didn’t choose the way of the revenge, but of the love. It showed Ymir she can let the other go and this not necessarily can be a bitter thing, even if she only knew the cruelty part until now - Mikasa showed her the beautiful one.
My hypothesis for snk 139 is that Ymir will end with the Rumbling, the war and the Paths - so the Eldians won’t have the titan’s power anymore - and then she will say goodbye to the world she was attached for - just like Mikasa, who left Eren not in a hateful way, but a loving one.
