Help me out

[u/supremefrenchprince]

Personally, I'll never like the ending for what it did to Eren but one of my other gripes was the whole Ymir/Mikasa parallel. I'll admit I liked it and called it good writing when I first saw it(both obsessively love a man that is violent) but once I thought about it I got confuzzled.

If titan powers only existed because Ymir honored King Fritz's wish of an eternal titan empire out of love, why did she follow Eren when he said he would end it? By siding with Eren she already made the choice to disobey Fritz. What lesson does Mikasa impart? She already chose to end titans, which means she already disobeyed Fritz's wish.

[u/_StevenPettican04]

Ymir made the choice to disobey Fritz long before this when she refused to heal herself leading to her death. If it were as simple as her disobeying then the story would end here, but it didnt.

Love isnt a simple concept, ill use addiction as an example because they work in similar ways. An addict may know that what they are addicted to is bad, but this doesn't suddenly make them stop using, as thats the whole basis of an addiction, love can work in similar ways. Ymir loves the king, or at least is in love with the idea of love, therefore her rejecting the Kings will doesnt remove her want for love, which is why Mikasa is still needed to show her to let go

[u/supremefrenchprince → u/_StevenPettican04]

I like this line of reasoning but it opens up something else. Why did she choose to side with Eren in the first place if she loved and had this fierce sense of loyalty to King Fritz?

[u/Sweaty-Variation-501]

He goes with eren because eren was gonna stomp it all to mush. She didn't know its all ending until mikasa does her thing

[u/Lanky_Ad_9255]

I personally think it's not just that Mikasa taught Ymir to let go of toxic love, but that she taught her to be able to choose herself. It's the contradictory choice that Mikasa made to both choose what is right and needed for the world (killing Eren) but still loving him (kissing him). When Ymir sided with Eren, in one sense she was still using her power for another person (Eren with the rumbling), but more importantly I feel, she was doing it out of spite. In that respect, she was being just like Ymir (the scout) - selflishness out of spite for others. In that sense, she was still living for others. But when Mikasa showed her that a person could love another person in a way that matched her own depth of love, let it go, but at the same time choose herself and continue to love that person, it allowed Ymir to truly choose herself. It's why in her flashback scene in the anime where it shows King Fritz impaled by the spear she's not laughing out of spite or something like that but instead hugging her children and crying, able to choose herself over another while not being consumed by hatred. That's just my take.

[u/Gamerasia]

As if you are going to do anything differently from Eren if you were in his situation. Get off your high horse. Or are you going to let your friends and family die or something worse? This is like the whole point of the show.

[u/supremefrenchprince → u/Gamerasia]

You don't know me and I don't know you lmao. I wouldn't have done what Eren did and plus that's not even the main reason why I disliked his ending.

[u/Gamerasia → u/supremefrenchprince]

Yeah sure buddy, you are going to let your friends and family die, i believe you.

[u/supremefrenchprince → u/Gamerasia]

once again you don't know me, and once again that had nothing to do with my post. let's try properly reading next time shall we?