EreMika

EreMika is the het ship between Mikasa Ackerman and Eren Jaeger from the Attack on Titan fandom.

Canon
Eren and Mikasa are childhood friends, step-siblings and former comrades. The two were exceptionally close and arguably the closest person in each other’s lives. Mikasa, in particular, is exceptionally fond of Eren and overtly protective of him to the point of being willing to attack or kill others if they were to harm him, even her superiors. Her feelings appear to show that she is in love with him but this has yet to be confirmed. However, Mikasa’s feelings as of late have diminished due to Eren’s betrayal and subsequent actions.

The two first met after Mikasa’s family were massacred by slave traders when she was only 9 years old and was about to be sent off into slavery. Fortunately, Eren arrived at her family’s home with his father, who was the doctor for Mikasa’s family, and found her parents’ dead bodies. Knowing something was afoot, Eren’s father went to get help whilst Eren, himself, tracked down where Mikasa was and attempted to save her. The two of them ultimately succeeded in killing the slavers and Mikasa was adopted into Eren’s family. Many years later, their town was attacked and overrun by Titans which killed their family and left them both orphaned alongside Armin. They all decided to join the military as a result.

The two of them developed a deep bond that was mostly one sided, on Mikasa’s part. Whilst Eren loved her as his step-sibling and valued her as one of his closest friends, Mikasa’s bond went much deeper. She sees Eren as the sole entity she wishes to dedicate herself to, joining the Scouts simply to stay by his side, and it was Eren who allowed her to unlock her powers as a member of the Ackerman clan, which grants her superior physical abilities. Allegedly, this also comes with forming a bond with someone, and in the case of Mikasa, that someone is Eren. As such, she is fiercely protective of him and will not hesitate to attack anyone who tries to hurt him, this has included Berthold, Reiner, the Female Titan and even Levi. Mikasa, if allowed to, can become ruthless in her quest to save Eren if he has been taken away from her. Without hesitation, she tried to kill both Reiner and Berthtold immediately after it became apparent that they were threatening Eren. The scarf that Mikasa wears was given to her by Eren when they first met after she felt traumatised from the experience she had with the slave traders. Eren gifting her this scarf and wrapping it around her further deepened her bond with him and she has come to value it as her one and only possession. However, she has since parted with it after Eren’s betrayal and cruel words to her.

Eren treats Mikasa as one of his closest friends and sees her as one of the people he has the most cherished memories with, the other being Armin. However, he is often irritated by her excessive protective nature of him and can often be seen getting annoyed at her. On top of this, he develops an inferiority complex because Mikasa is physically superior to him. He loathes that he has to be saved or protected by her and tries to discourage her from him effectively babysitting him. Despite all this, however, Eren does care for Mikasa and will protect her whenever he needs to. When he transformed into the Attack Titan for the first time he arrived just in time to save her from being attacked by another Titan. Subsequently, when he was cornered by members of the military, as they feared his Titan ability, he protected her, as well as Armin, when they fired at the them. As he and Mikasa were surrounded by Titans, her emotional words to him impacted him enough that he decided to fight back against the Smiling Titan by meeting its punch, despite its much greater size, just to protect her. It is here that he unlocks The Coordinate and starts controlling Titans. He then carries her on his back as they flee from Reiner and Bertholdt. Even after his betrayal and joining Zeke’s side, he admitted to his older brother that he only broke off his relationship with both Mikasa and Armin so he could protect them from what was to come.

The nature of Mikasa’s feelings for Eren have been the subject of much curiosity to other people. Many people interpret her as being romantically interested in Eren. For example, Ian Dietrich commanded her to “defend your boyfriend”, which caused a usually stoic Mikasa to blush and quietly state they’re just family. Levi has also assessed the nature of her feelings for Eren and seems to believe she loves him. Annie, herself, believe Mikasa could not kill Eren, nor allow him to be killed, even after his betrayal. Even Zeke told Eren that Mikasa’s protective nature of him comes out of love and has nothing to do with her being a member of the Ackerman clan, something that Eren acknowledged. After his betrayal, she reflects on where it all went wrong and pondered if everything between them was decided from the start or if she made mistakes at some point and could have done things differently. In particular, she wonders, when Eren asked her, “What am I to you?”, if she had said something different to “Family”, that things might have turned out for the better.

When Mikasa believed that both she and Eren would die, and seeing him fall into despair at the loss of Hannes, she thanks him for being with her, and for teaching her how to live, as her eyes fill with tears. She then thanks him for wrapping her scarf around him and seemingly leans in to kiss him but Eren becomes motivated by her words and stands back up to face the Smiling Titan. Above all else, Mikasa values Eren’s well-being. When she believed he had died she was prepared to let herself be killed until she starts to remember him, she resolves never to give up again because if she dies so would her memories of him. Upon seeing that he is actually alive as he emerged from his Titan’s corpse, unconscious, she holds onto him tightly and openly cries. When he had been taken by the Female Titan she scolds Levi for her failure to protect him, as was his job, and ultimately works with him to save Eren. After successfully retrieving him from both Reiner and Berthold she can be seen clutching onto him as they ride away on a horse.

Eren is very much aware of how much Mikasa thinks of him, which is partly what annoys him. Nonetheless, he is sympathetic to her feelings and even asked Mikasa what he is to her, but is seemingly disappointed when a flustered Mikasa says “family”. When she thanked him for always wrapping her scarf he stands up to protect her and promises that he will always wrap her scarf, as many times as she needs, forever. Following his betrayal, he cruelly insults Mikasa, claiming that her Ackerman blood is why she is protective of him, and calls her a “slave” because of this. His words anger Armin who goes to attack him but Mikasa instinctively protects Eren, which proves his point. Eren officially breaks his relationship with her. However, it is later revealed that Eren may not have truly believed what he had said, as he explained to Zeke that he needed to break his relationship with his friends and conceded to his older brother that Mikasa’s devotion to him comes out of genuine love, not because of her Ackerman blood.

Fanon
As of May 2018, Eremika as a ship often comes into conflict with other ships. Primary examples include Eremin and Ereri, which are often topics of debate in forums and videos. As far as canon is concerned, Eremika and Eremin are often seen as displaying the majority of on-screen canon. Both ships involving fairly large fanbases, Eremika being the most popular in Japan. Though Ereri currently has the larger fanbase in the United States.

A certain theory that has evolved from Mikasa's scarf being changed from grey to red for the anime and live action. Fans speculate that this could be a reference to the red string of fate, a piece of Japanese folklore often described as a force that connects soulmates or lovers. This is still widely debated but is still a very popular fan theory.

On AO3, it is the fourth most written romantic ship (and 5th most written overall ship) for Eren and the second most written ship for Mikasa. It is the most popular het ship for both characters on the website.

Though it remains to be seen how the two characters feel towards each other as of the recent manga chapters. However, in the past, it has been openly stated by the author Hajime Isayama that Mikasa's presence to Eren is more of a mother figure rather than a lover to him, and that they will both grow independent from one another in the future. This interview thus has been interpreted in many different ways by the shippers.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Mikasa/Eren tag on FanFiction.net
 * Mikasa/Eren tag on FanFiction.net

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Trivia

 * Mikasa's character theme song, No Matter Where You Are, is sung from Mikasa to Eren. In the song, she begs Eren to not go, not to leave her cold, and that he is her home to return to, no matter where he is.