#ch138

chapter 138 | duel 79 - page 14

To translate Natsu’s face into words:

“Bitch, you’re not allowed to be this cool in front of me. Now I can’t even be mad that you’re a suicidal piece of shit.”

Honestly, I find this quite a funny contrast to Natsu’s moment with Erza in Fantasia, when she promises him to stay alive when she deals with Thunder Palace. It was development back then for her, a response to him protecting her from risking herself in TOH last time. 

But for Natsu and Gray, whose relationship is a little more chaotic, Natsu dryly realizes here that Gray is a dumbass that did not in fact learn the same lesson. It’s a sort of ‘you’re joking, right? You’re joking, RIGHT? You better be joking!’ that he’s dismissing for later. This isn’t the time, and he also understands that it’s the heat of the moment, and they’re both desperate to save Erza. Which outweighs anything else. 

And we see in later moments that Gray hasn’t, in fact, learned that lesson. We needed more Iced Shell moments before we drove that point in fully. 

FIRST, LOOK AT LEVI CALLING MIKASA OUT ABOUT HER HEADACHE AND WHAT’S HAPPENING TO HER HSJSJS

AND HELLO HE WAS SOOOOO WORRIED

NEXT, SHE MADE A DECISION AAAAAA

THEY ATTACKED TOGETHER

LEVI WITH THUNDER SPEAR (TO OPEN EREN’S MOUTH)

AAAAAAND MIKASA COMING IIIINNN

(i’m not gonna include mikasa kissing eren’s head bcos it’s JUST)

THIS IS A HEARTBREAKING CHAPTER BUT LOOK AT PIECK WHEN SHE WAS FORCED TO LEAVE 😭😭😭😭 (WITH JEAN OFC)

I've been reading AoT for the past 6 years.

6 years...

and I thought I've seen it all.

But this chapter literally gave me tears of joy for 10 seconds and then had me tearing my heart out the next.

It's devastating.. was heart fucking breaking.

It's 8 in the morning when I read it and I feel like I've been emotionally drained for the next two months.

I thought I've seen enough. Attack on Titan has been a part of my life afterall.

But hell no, Isayama went 100x no 200x more crazy in this chapter.

I don't think I'll ever be as invested as I am to AoT to any other manga out there.

SPOLIER WARNING ENDING FOR CHAPTER 138!: Farewell, the young man who seeks freedom. Is Eren finally dead now before the final chapter (April 9th official release date Japan time)?

As I understood it - Mikasa was just daydreaming about (as she thinks) possible AU where she and Eren would actually flee together and live happily until his death in 4 years. We already saw her questioning herself if she would answer differently to Eren’s question “What am I to you?”. Probably that’s what she thinks could happen if she didn’t get too scared to tell the truth.

However, it was indicated several times in the manga that Mikasa fails tremendously to understand Eren. Like that time back in cadet years she was sure that Eren was happy to finally be able to use the OPM - because this way they would be together. Whereas in fact he was happy that then he had a chance to fulfill his dream and go beyond the walls and kill all the Titans. There were many other instances where it was shown that she never actually understood Eren.

Hence this (day)dream was never meant to happen. Eren was always resolved to move forward, eloping and hiding with Mikasa was never in his plans. So no, EreMika is not canon and will never be one.

Is Eren dead? I don’t know yet. Tbh it would be logical as we only have 1 chapter left. But I feel like we still might hear something from him. Maybe he is alive in the paths and we will finally see his full POV which was hidden. I still hope we at least will see Hisu’s perspective and possible EH confirmation, although it’s probably gonna be sloppy, because it’s hard to fit such a thing in one chapter. Still hope that it’s Eren on the last panel, holding his child, even if it’s more like his own daydream as he dwells in the paths.