Yeah I’ll take a crack at it;
Basically, Ymir’s story is one of victim hood and how, without resources and community and a society that cares, she’s been unable to safe HERSELF and this doomed her lineage for thousands of years.
WE, as a contemporary society, know, realize, and can articulately argue that Ymir’s “love” for Fritz stems from her lifetime of abuse. We can wax poetic about the nature of Stockholm syndrome (which isn’t actually applicable in her situation), about her adapting to a situation suited to her era that no one else could possibly judge her for, if they lived what she lived, we can sit and discuss the psychology of her true feelings for years!
But. Ultimately. SHE cannot.
She never had the language. The basic concept of human decency. She loved her children because they were HERS. She loved her descendants and got years saw through their eyes the world. Thousands of years after her death! And in her mind, always always always, in the hopes of understanding WHY. Looking for someone to EXPLAIN her own life to her.
That’s why she sides w Eren, as he’s the only PERSON in eons to look her in the eyes and say “what happened to you was wrong. You have a right to be angry. Be angry with me.”
She CRIED ANGRY TEARS. Imagine getting that! Hearing that! Even zeke was taught to view her the same as Fritz did - a weapon, nothing more. All the while she’s been trying to UNDERSTAND what no one could explain to her because she herself didn’t grow up learning what her truth was.
That’s why Mikasa mattered so much to her!
Mikasa loved eren bc he actually saved her. Was kind to her. Showed her what it was like to have a positive and healthy love in a world that isn’t any of those things.
In Ymir’s eyes, Mikasa has the same level of devotion towards her “Fritz” figure, but in a vastly different contexts. Mikasa has a devotion that was earned through real love. So when she saw Mikasa still chose to be unselfish. To live her life, no matter how painful, in her own terms, Ymir was able to articulate that what she went through was wrong. And understand what real love was supposed to be. And to see how real freedom of choice is meant to look. As a woman, a mother, a PERSON.
What happened to me was wrong. And I know that know because I see what should happen to be a person who loved right.
Ymir is at peace and fades away because she basically got closure through Mikasa.
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