AOT MANGA SPOILERS!
i think what Ymir Fritz was after her whole life (and afterlife) was true love. or at least proof of it.
(read ch122 for her full backstory (which is a masterclass in visual storytelling and storytelling in general) but...)
we don't learn a single thing about Ymir as a person beyond that she seems to long for love from the time she was a child.
also, she more than anyone (in the aot universe) knows endless, merciless suffering. from a very young age she knew the world was cruel.
that’s the reason in my mind that - after getting the power of the Titans - she didn’t rebel against the king. she didn’t run away. she did whatever the king asked of her because for once in her life she was wanted. even in this completely backwards and transactional way, all Ymir knows of love is this, even though it’s just slavery at its core.
so the king got married to her and she had her three daughters, who Ymir doesn't find love in either. it seems her children are more proof of her enslavement. Ymir doesn't even find that true love she wants in her own daughters. she's still miserable.
13 years after she got the power, there’s an attempt on the king’s life, without hesitation she protects him. she, effectively, is willing to face certain death to that end.
so we establish this. to Ymir, love = self-sacrifice.
i feel that Ymir finally reaches the end of her ability to "love" the king. this is her breaking point. her final misery among a thousand other miseries she's accepted from him.
she isn't loved. she was willing to give her life, and yet he doesn't love her.
after this rejection, she doesn’t heal herself. we know that in order to use the Titan powers, you have to have a goal (the way Eren learned to transform in The Spoon Incident and later, Reiner doing something similar to Ymir). but she was finished.
Ymir had the power to manufacture a dimension without life or death. the paths. and would spend 2,000 years there doing what she always did and obeying her “king” - the Eldian with the Founding Titan. she wouldn't serve her king directly anymore, but enslavement is Ymir's only definition of love, so that's what she will continue to do.
until she observes a true display of true love.
now (and this is interesting) this is where the concept of the Ackermans come in. i explain in this, this, and this post the Ackermans and the Ackerbond, which is important for understanding this post.
so first, why Mikasa? why would she specifically be the one to free Ymir?
at the time the chapter came out, people criticized Isayama and Eren not knowing how Mikasa was the key the giving Ymir peace. but think about it. Eren doesn't know the depths of Ymir's heart, true. he also got the same exact omnipotence Ymir had thanks to (1) possessing the Founding Titan and (2) effectively having royal blood thanks to the way he enslaved Zeke. Eren has the same exact knowledge that Uri or Frieda had.
but of course, Eren wasn’t BUILT to be god. he has no right to it. Grisha gave him the Founding Titan and he forced Zeke to use his royal blood. Eren says that he started experiencing the past, present, and future all at the same time. of course he wouldn’t know why it’s Mikasa.
what we do know is that the timeline of aot is linear, and can’t be changed. i talk more about that in my Eren character analysis.
the person to ultimately give Ymir peace was going to be Mikasa no matter what. how?
1: being an Ackerman means possessing Titan powers while being a human. would that not also mean that an Ackerman has a special connection to Ymir?
it's different from being a Titan shifter. the potential to awaken their Titan-like powers are their birthright.
2: I linked above my thoughts on the “Ackerbond”. but in a nutshell, Ackermans have the best of both worlds. made to be obedient “Titan-like” tools to protect the king. to be the strongest slaves. while also possessing the best trait of a human being, and that’s the ability to love (as Isayama conveys in aot). so a major trait in Ackermans, i think, is this enhanced ability and propensity to love one special person.
what’s so striking about this from what would be Ymir’s point of view is that, like her, Ackermans have the traits of a Titan like she did, but Ackermans CHOOSE who they are “enslaved” to. it’s not slavery at all. what a shock that must be to someone like Ymir, I mean right?
Levi and Mikasa have their respective moment of “a display of true love” towards their lieges in the series. i want to compare.
Erwin and Levi.
to be succinct, Levi shouldered the weight of Erwin’s sins. [i talk about it more here and in the second half of this post here]. Erwin puts not his life in Levi’s hands, but what comes after. someone putting their trust in their other even in the face of certain death, certain grief, is a major display of true love. (as Isayama conveys in aot that is.)
then, both despite and because of Levi’s love for Erwin, he was strong enough to end his suffering. to let him rest, even though he had the choice to bring him back. that is a major display of true love.
Erwin and Levi both sacrifice aspects of themselves for the other.
what do Levi’s and Mikasa’s moment both have in common?
the willingness to share the weight of their liege’s sins, their darkness, their shortcomings, their most vulnerable sides. that's unconditional love.
But Mikasa’s moment is even more special to Ymir.
Eren’s sins are obviously much more grievous and unforgivable than Erwin’s. that speaks more to how much value Mikasa’s “display of true love” has objectively. and, Mikasa wasn't able to "bring Eren back". (besides obvious plot reasons).
even though it was certain that Eren wasn’t going to be forgiven, that he would have to die, Mikasa’s love never wavered.
both despite and because of Mikasa’s love for Eren, she would be the one strong enough to end his suffering.
Mikasa and Eren both sacrifice aspects of themselves for the other.
Ymir had no one willing or strong enough to end her suffering.
Ymir believes true love is love enduring even in the face of certain grief through mutual sacrifice.
and that’s why she is seen smiling when Mikasa kills Eren. with that, Ymir is finally at peace.
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On why Levi loves tea:
I’ve seen parts of this before but not all of its so,
The Underground is an incredibly dirty and inhospitable place with few resources including clean water. As the only water ever seen in the underground is literally shit brown.
Even assuming that it did just come from a sewage pipe if it’s leaking all over onto the ground and in exposed canals that are so dirty the water is nearly black,
its going to get into the water table no matter what
So not only are they living in a place filled with disease and probably terrible air quality, from exposed sewage, lack of ventilation, etc. they don’t really have fresh clean water to wash their bodies with or drink.
Therefore boiling would be the best option to kill all the germs and bacteria that would be found in even the cleanest water (because Levi would 100% trek miles for a bucket of the cleanest water the underground had to offer whenever possible)
After boiling they’d either have to wait until it cools or drink plain hot water that still tasted like essence of shit.
But a good strong black tea could do wonders to cover up the repulsive flavor, plus the caffeine helps him stay alert unlike alcoholic beverage alternatives. Coming from above ground his mom may have even introduced the concept to him.
Until he become successful with the ODM gear thefts tea would likely have also been expensive and difficult to obtain underground. Whether he used the ODM gear to steal the tea itself or money to order tea we’ll never know (personally I like to headcanon him stealing tea directly from the MPs)
But because of the scarcity of tea it was a luxury product for most of Levi’s life. So even when he made it above ground and joined the survey core drinking tea stuck with him as a habit as well as a luxury symbolizing the relative stability in his new life and all the above ground amenities he’d dreamed of for 20+ year. Sorta as a comforting “I made it” drink.
and let’s be honest growing up with those kinds of water problems he probably still doesn’t trust water and prefers it boiled and the flavor covered with black tea leaves.
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