I think the reason I'm angry with Mr Leonhart the most compared to other Warrior Parents, even though they're all shit (jury's still out on Pieck's) is that the rest of them believed Marley's propaganda
They believed their kids were giving away their lives to a good cause. That kind of abuse is gross, but it's nothing out of the "ordinary", parents place harsh expectations on their kids all the time. Plus, I don't think they would've abandoned them if they didn't make it as warriors
Mr Leonhart, however, never fell for Marley's shit and still was the worst to Annie out of pure selfish reasoning. The best irl example I can give is someone adopting a puppy and then training them for underground dog fighting to better their financial situation. I'm not even hesitant of using an animal in the example
Annie only miraculously became his daughter after she'd got him what he'd wanted. Before that, she wasn't worth anything to him
Another part that pisses me off is his regret never seemed to me like he was sorry for Annie, but for himself, for the type of person he'd found himself to be, because no one likes to believe that they're actually bad/evil
All his act of waiting for Annie for 10 years and not(?) really taking advantage of the perks awarded to him as a warrior parent feel to me a lot like self-flagellation, like he's only concerned about feeling better about his past and not really about the life he'd ruined and the child he'd abused day in and day out
It was always about him, and it's still just him
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careful fear and dead devotion
"Just look at me," she says, framing his face in her hands. "Nowhere else." [eremika, ch 138]
a/n: tumblr keeps devouring the formatting. you can also find this fic on ao3 or ffnet.
The cabin, he must have built with his hands. There is a ford, and a well from which he draws water. Beyond the mountains there's just the horizon.
She follows him inside when he bids her. He keeps closer than usual to her, as he fixes dinner—rice and the mushrooms he'd picked. When she looks at his face, boyish, there's unbroken skin.
He smells of sweat and dirt and when his arms encircle her waist, pulling her to him, he presses his nose into her hair and hums. This world is theirs. Anything is possible.
It used to bother him, when they were trainees and she would shadow him during ODM gear sessions. She was simply following the instructor's techniques, she'd say. If he were serious about joining any military branch, he had to practice until he stopped making mistakes. She offered to help him, but he'd always find Armin or Annie or someone else who did not ever hold him as he woke up, trembling.
At fifteen, all he had was his boyish pride, and her and Armin. He'd never be too cruel. There were words and deeds, and those you couldn't undo with an apology or years of silence and patience. At fifteen, she had nothing to her name but the clothes on her back, and his mother's promise. If he injured himself, she'd do whatever it took to get him medicine. Her score was high enough. She'd join the Military Police and send money back to him, and even if he complained about it he'd have no choice but to understand.
Each time he bursts from the Titan's nape, covered in blood, all that matters is his safety. He turns away from her, the way he used to when Corporal Levi visited his holding cell, but he doesn't speak of nightmares as he used to. She's always been here for him, the same as Armin has.
Now, buried in the throat of this Titan, he leads this death march to the ends of the earth, and it is still Eren, no longer the boy she loved. From his corpse, facsimiles of old comrades and enemies are begotten and destroyed. An endless well of creation, blurring the lines between order and fantasy.
Nothing will stay her hand.
They eat in silence, and when he stands, his eyes glint in the twilight. There is a weight in his eyes, and ever since the Queen's coronation he has become unreachable, a stranger with Eren's eyes and smell and voice. Eradicating the titans, to their enemy on the other side of the ocean.
He's trembling, on the cusp of whatever has been eroding him during those ten months abroad. He stands, walks over as if to take her plate, hesitates. "I'm sorry, Mikasa. I wanted to keep you safe but I couldn't."
She reaches out and touches his wrist, warm and solid. He does not snap, or push her away. His eyes narrow, looking at a point beyond her shoulder, and there's a set to his jaw that he's kept since ten years old. Tears spring to her eyes but do not fall.
"Whatever it is you have to do," he says quietly, brushing her hand away, taking her plate, "I don't hate you for it."
He maintains distance, moving to the kitchen counter. He stops in-place.
"I've been such a piece of shit to you." A catch enters his voice, corrodes his composure. "I should've been taking care of you, and—"
"—Eren."
The chair squeaks against hardwood. On her feet, she closes the distance between them in uncertain strides, until she's able to reach out and touch his naked forearm. He flinches, spins around. His face crumples, as if he's about to cry. She looks into his eyes, past the agony within to the same boy, covered in blood, grasping the hilt of the knife.
Her wrist prickles.
"You don't have to fight anymore." She wraps her arm around his broad back. "I'm here."
In Marley, he smelt like beer and his lips parted on a slow intake of breath as she pressed her mouth over his. He'd groped for her wrists, didn't push her away but didn't kiss back, just breathing slowly against her lips. Her heart in her throat, she broke away first. Shut her eyes against the hot sting of tears, because what had she expected? He'd never called her sister, or asked why she referred to his mother as Aunt Karla. He would protect her with his life, but not beg for her exoneration, the way he did Annie's.
This tenuous thread of trust between them, she'd had to rebuild since reaching the basement of his childhood home, since losing Hannes, Reiner and Bertholdt, each loss in his stead widened the rift between them. Her stomach twisted at the thought of the day where no affection could reach him, when he'd shut out the world and engulf himself within that unknowable burden of his father's inheritance.
She wasn't Annie, or Historia or his half-brother. She could kill a hundred Titans but she couldn't defend him from despair.
Maybe he wasn't the only one who was tired. It would be nice sometimes, if he stopped to notice her and Armin and be a little considerate. She could wait, for him she would always wait, but not forever.
He stared, hazy and indolent. "You don't have to be strong all the time," he said, a slow-dawning smile. "Not for me. I would never ask you to be."
No matter what his Titan is capable of, there are limitations to a mortal body. Despite his heart's inclinations, despite her Ackerman genes, neither can move mountains for the other. It's just a figure of speech, a child's wishful hyperbole.
They lie together on the small bed, and it's enough just to look at him as he is, not entombed within hemic tissue, burning alive. He cups her face. His thumb brushes the scar along her cheek, and he's present, unwavering, in a way he has not been since Shiganshina.
He doesn't tense up when she presses her hand to his nape. The shape of his mouth thins, fighting against whatever self-imposed transgression kept him company. His eyes glimmer in the crimson light beyond the window.
Mikasa does not look. She has seen sunset many times before. She will only see him once.
The Titan's mouth hangs open, inert.
His hair falls limply into his face, caked with dry blood. His body has melted away from the neck down, leaving only the spinal cord. The Founder's bloody tissue wraps around what remains like a cord of rope, lacerations hewn into his jaw and temples. His nostrils flare at her approach. His eyelids flicker, as though sleeping.
She raises the blade.
"Just look at me," she says, framing his face in her hands. "Nowhere else."
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Okay, the ACKERTALK.....
Mikasa and Levi Ackerman, humanity's strongest warriors. The sole survivors of a powerful bloodline that's all but extinct on Paradis.
Well the results of my most recent poll have confirmed my belief that the Ackertalk, or Ackerbond, whatever you prefer to call it is still a major point of contention among us AOT Fans.....And Ex-Fans. We all know that the Ackerman bloodline is unique in the Titanverse and that they're immune to the effects of Titanization. Still, for something that was set up to be a major plot point in solving the mystery of the Titans, it seemed to become an afterthought the longer the story dragged out. Unfortunately a pattern that is undeniably prevalent in this faux pas that's been mistaken for a masterpiece.
Mikasa and Levi, we know they're distantly related somehow, so it was natural to expect there'd be more development between the two that further clarified their unique position in this fucked up world they're trying to salvage. Yet somehow that relationship only got surface level acknowledgement, and I think we can safely say never came into full circle........Neither did really any aspect of Mikasa's heritage in regards to Hizuru and the Azumabitos (Did the Azumabitos even ONCE acknowledge Levi either in any of that btw?)
Since this is the clear winner in the poll, one simple question:
What did you guys hope to see from this Ackertalk had it taken place as was long anticipated? What questions were you hoping to be answered had it come to pass?
Please, don't like or reblog this post unless you intend to answer. I think we all agree Isayama owes us something on this front.
I genuinely have to know, what did you guys hope for most from this?
Oh yeah ,and if you happen to be a Rivamika fan, NO you can't bring that discussion here. Thank you.
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How much do you think will change from the manga ending? Mikasa's (assumed) husband not having Jeans hair color? Historia's daughter have emerald green eyes like Eren? Eren killing and injuring Mikasa to which Armin punches him in the face while Eren mockingly pretends he doesn't want her with another man?
GYAHHHH why are you anon I want to talk to you about AOE!!! LOL
AOE is always tough for me to talk about publicly because again, there are certain scenes and moments for RM that my soul needs to see animated. This ship, for me, was built and solidified on the fact that both Levi and Mikasa survive and live a peaceful life after!! So if AOE happens, especially the way ANR predicts, that all kinda gets wiped away. So with that, I want to be clear that I don't wish for it, but I am highly convinced that it's... probable. I'm fascinated by how much foreshadow and hinting there potentially is set up throughout the entire decade of AOT.
It's honestly hard to say what exactly might happen in an AOE, but I think the big points of the ANR theories is that anime-Eren will be revealed to be aware of his memories of manga-Eren and how that timeline ended, which is pushing anime-Eren to make the anime timeline end differently -- this is believed to be a full-scale rumbling in which Eren/Paradis wins. Maybe I'll write in bulletpoints:
100% Rumbling instead of 80%
Eren lives instead of killed
Eren kills Mikasa instead of Mikasa killing Eren
Paradis Island is abandoned (they leave to occupy the world) instead of Paradis Island destroyed
Alliance (besides Armin) dies instead of Alliance lives
Eren sacrificing friends instead of sacrificing himself to make them heroes as he said
Eren being willing to sacrifice
...We might not even reach a 'Mikasa husband' scene tbh if she gets killed in the rumbling
.......Reiner not being a creep instead of sniffing Hisu's letter..... pls
Eren not being a whiny jealous lil bish
That's just some stuff I think that could actually potentially happen, but hey, let's brighten things up and think about what my happy ideal changes could be made (let's veer away from the morbid stuff LOL) and I like some of what you said!!! Historia's child with freakin GREEN EYES!!!!! The panel people assume to be Grisha/baby Eren "You are free" scene ending up being Eren/baby!!!! Or if Mikasa and gang lives??? YES give that Mikasa-husbando freakin black hair and an undercut PLS LOL.
Anyway, I'm delulu WHO FREAKING KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN
And if we get the regular manga ending, I'll be selfishly happy to get my fave scenes even if it means the story truly is butchered. We'll get 'Stay with me' and 'Got it... Mikasa.' We'll get Levi and Mikasa living happy life after war, readying to reunite again. We'll get the epic Levi + Scouts ghosts salute scene, crying and smiling Levi. ;-; We'll get wheelchair Levi living in London and drinking the best tea ever. pls
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