Most of the female characters of attack on Titan have been written respectfully. Except one.
I don't care what ending Isayama writes at this point, actually, Mikasa Ackerman fucking deserved better.
We're in the last arc now.
It's too fucking late for Levi to train her or teach her or really do anything that could potentially develop her or him.
It's too fucking late to really give her a relationship with...anyone really?
We all thought Mikasa and Annie had a cool rivalry, and where did that go?
Into the ground with Annie's story and development.
We thought hey Jean has a crush on her maybe they'll have some kind of trust? Make some kind of friendship or at least some bond?
Nope. Not really. Hanji hugged her once.
Anyone else in the squad?
A little bit with Christa, maybe a little bit of drama with the others when it came to Titan betrayals, but ultimately she's always just been on Eren's side.
No new relationships or learning to form her own friendships or anything.
She's still the same girl that protects Eren and says his name a lot.
Well what about Armin, Kira, you say.
Well they've had a strong relationship from the start...but it's a static one.
They've been friends since they were kids and nothing has changed.
She's as protective of him as she's always been.
There's nothing new there.
The way I see it, Mikasa Ackerman has been robbed.
She was a wonderful character at the beginning.
Calm, even tempered, somewhat cold girl with a softer side for her two remaining family members.
That's fine. That's great. I loved Mikasa.
That's a great way to INTRODUCE a main character, I thought to myself.
Surely she will develop somehow, in someway.
I thought god she's a female lead that's so different from all those stereotypical anime girls. I can't wait to see her grow and develop outside of just wanting to defend her little family.
Six years went by. In real life.
I aged six fucking years.
There was a time skip in the manga too and all the original characters got scrapped for screentime by a bunch of weird half baked new kids.
And then I realized fuck it's almost over and what?
Mikasa only just now said well Eren is a dick and maybe I am a slave?
Those are her two options.
I guess that's it. Leading woman has two modes: slave, not slave. Gotcha.
I'll go fuck myself for thinking maybe she'd do something like develop her Ackerman powers or something. Anything.
Oh hell, guys, I just realized ymir fritz has had more of a fucking character arc than mikasa and she's only officially been in two chapters- for fucks sake.
If this is really the last arc, even if she has some huge dramatic role, it won't erase the fact that for the majority of this manga, her role has been Eren's bodyguard. And she barely did that job right. Dude got kidnapped...so many times.
She has like three options, as far as I can see.
Marry Eren and have his kids so we get that naruto ending snk was clearly aiming for since the beginning. This ending, no matter how it's obtained, whether he's alive or not, whether he's saved the world from titans or destroyed the majority of it, leaves Mikasa with...yup, no real development.
She's been in love with him since they were kids.
Eremika fans will rejoice I guess, but. But like. Did Mikasa ever get a character outside of longing for Eren or ... or I guess for most people, Guy Gets Girl, what other development does a girl need?
Die dramatically for drama. Not a likely ending, but hey. You could kill Mikasa off. Maybe she'll take a proverbial bullet for Eren and be his dramatic sacrifice. Maybe she'll die fighting him. Maybe she'll die trying to do some other complicated time travel Titan mighty morphing power rangers shit, I dunno.
In any scenario, Mikasa dies?
Still no development. Even if she miraculously gained some semblance of a character change in her death, it still doesn't erase the fact that the whole rest of the manga she just spent pining for Eren. It doesn't change that for ten years, Mikasa was a Joss Whedon esque fighter girl archetype who's just there to be both Tough Fighter and Audience's Dream Girl.
Don't die, but tragically mourn Eren/ contemplate whatever stupid bullshit he's about to do, whether that's kill a ton of people or save a ton of people or change history whatever. Maybe move on with someone else, maybe Armin or Jean or idk, maybe just get married to some fuck we didn't even know.
She didn't get her own arc, or even an arc where she figured prominently.
She didn't get any arc where she got to be anything other than badass chick who punches people (and I know for some people that's all it takes to be a strong female character. Strong?? Strong??? That means lady punch, right??? Right, Hugo. Go back to bed, it's late).
I think it's criminal that we never had any arc where Levi and Mikasa at least tried the mentor shit???
You don't have to have an entire Ackerman arc. Or even a Mikasa arc.
But at least have an arc like rts that develops Mikasa the way it developed Armin AND bertolt AND Erwin.
Just give her some focus?? Any focus??? At all???
The only focus she's had that DIDNT have to do with her feelings for Eren...
Was her fighting for Armin in rts.
Everything else has been her doing whatever Eren needs or whatever will get him what he wants. Her life revolves around Eren's.
Isayama told us all oh ackerbonds are kind of like slave bonds, they're bad, slavery bad.
But like it's funny you say that because you yourself chained Mikasa to that slave role and didn't bother having her even shake it for ten whole years?
Well Kira, you say, maybe the idea was that she doesn't wasnt going to shake the slave bond until the end, when the ultimate message has been made, that people are free and shouldn't be slaves.
To which I answer: that's lazy writing.
And we didn't need to develop the marleyan kids at the expense of the OG cast.
That argument goes out the window because everyone and their mother knew the eldians weren't demons.
"there's two sides to every story-" yeah and no one I know really gives a shit about the new fucking kids.
No one on this fucking planet can say to my face, without telling a blatant lie, that they prefer the new kids OVER the original characters we came to know and love.
Yeah, tell me Porco is more loved than Levi. Tell me Pieck is more loved and more known than Hanji. Or that Falco is cooler than Erwin.
None of these new kids are better or even close to as interesting or unique as the original cast we had.
They are not more memorable or interesting. In fact some of them have fucking died and we as a fandom just said huh that's weird...anyway is Eren dead yet??? Where's Levi??
So going back to my original point. If there is one, and I'm not just trying to piss off snk fans.
Instead of focusing on the cast we had...we decided Gabi deserves more development than Mikasa and is a better character.
You didn't even have to have Mikasa training with Levi if you didn't want!
Come up with some other story! Some other facet.
Have MIKASA be a double agent scoping out Marley.
Or even hell, going to the other nations trying to make alliances with eldia and being rejected.
Or have Mikasa gain some new ackerman power up.
Anything, something, please?
Instead we're probably just gonna have yet another Eren power up somewhere.
And Mikasa will most likely be relegated to the task of either going against Eren or giving him some heartwarming hug/kiss to make him realize huh I'm done being a murderer now.
A criminal misuse of a female character who was built up to be a badass and someone who would be a major player in a story.
Well I would cry over it if snk still had the capacity to make me cry but instead I'll just blink tiredly at it like I've done for six years.
And dream of all the ways I would've treated Mikasa the way she fucking deserved.
