What are your thoughts on people saying Eremika is proof that shonen/seinen writers are incapable of writing a "well-developed romance"? I know that many male writers don't execute romantic storylines well, but in the context of 139 specifically, the two main arguments I see against Isayama are: (1) the strong suggestion of mutual feelings between Eremika from the very start is "bad writing," and (2) the fact that Eren revealed his feelings for Mikasa only at the very end proves that their relationship is "undeveloped"/"underdeveloped."
I always thought comments of that kind were strange even before 139, bc imo Eren and Mikasa's relationship wasn't written solely to serve a romantic storyline, and it encompassed other themes relevant to the story as a whole. Those fans aren't so different from those that devalue the rest of Eren's arc bc they now call him a simp. It frustrates me to no end bc I feel like people are missing out on the really beautiful takeaways from the chapter, and what could have been meaningful discussions with others often come down to pointless arguments. Have you come across those too? Thanks!
I mean I agree with you and don’t have much more to say.
I think those takes are missing the point hard. SnK isn’t a romance. It’s a tragedy. Eremika is the beauty of what could have been, and I say this as someone who doesn’t get a lot of “feels” from the ship and never has (Aruani is where that’s at for me), but who shipped it because of the themes their relationship explored which were absolutely crucial to understanding the story as a whole.
I also think most of these fans are western, and there’s a lot to be said about how the west perceives Mikasa (especially as opposed to Historia, who fits western standards of a heroine far better) and how the Japanese fandom does (from the little I know, Eremika is far more popular there). However, I’m not Japanese, so I want to be careful how I talk here...
