“Levi is teaming up with Annie to kill Eren…he truly forgot about his squad” if you think Petra Ral would not slap Eren Jaeger directly across the face for the pain he’s caused you’re dead wrong bud
Hello everyone! Since the official translation of chapter 139 has been released and has cleared some misconceptions from the bad korean scanlation it’s time to post my thoughts regarding Rivamika and the ending of Shingeki no Kyojin. I stronglyrecommend rereading the chapter with the official (Kodansha’s) translation (it’s easy to find).
Here goes…
While every shipper’s dream is to see obvious signs of canon for their pairing, I believe the Rivamika fandom will come out of this relatively healthy, and Rivamika fanworks will definitely thrive.
For one thing, both Levi and Mikasa are alive, Levi is well, and they’re going to meet. Isayama left things open-ended, but left us a few hints such as Armin implying Mikasa will find a nice man in the future, Pieck pestering Jean about his appearance, etc., that give us a little fuel for post-canon Rivamika. I won’t go into detail about Mikasa’s sorry state (that will go into another post where I will post my personal opinion about SNK’s ending as a whole), but it can be an amazing plot hook for any ship involving Mikasa - especiallyRivamika.
I have been preparing for this day ever since I created this blog in 2014, and as someone who is fandom!oldI have seen many OTPs of mine become officially canon - but no ship has ever gripped me like Rivamika. And Rivamika wouldn’t have been such an entrancing ship if Shingeki no Kyojin wasn’t a good quality manga. Only Rivamika was able to make me pour so many hours of work on a blog like this, and I do not regret one second of the time I spent on it. That’s why I hope the controversial ending of SNK doesn’t change your enjoyment of Rivamika, or detract you from the manga’s overall quality. An open ending with both Levi and Mikasa as one of the few survivors is one of the best things that could’ve happened to our fandom considering how dark Shingeki no Kyojin has always been. We have a bright future ahead of us, and in some ways a bittersweet ending can be an extremely effective kind of fuel for fanworks.
Finally, despite this blog’s name being canon-rivamika, please remember that canon isn’t the be-all and end-all to shipping. Rather, the purpose of this blog has always been to help gather the canon moments of development between Levi and Mikasa and the parallels between them in order to enrich our shipping experience. And so, rest assured that this blog will maintain its purpose as the Shingeki no Kyojin fandom enters a new era of fanworks. A final Rivamika timeline is slowly on the way. We also have merchandise, possible spinoffs, and the final season of the anime to entertain us for a while.
That’s it. A big and warm thank you to the 5k shippers who are following this blog! It has been, and still is, a pleasure to ship Rivamika with you all. :’)
Iwill post chapter 139 spoilers if they’re of interest to us (ahem), but be reminded that I always tag them snk spoilers . If you don’t wish to be tempted to peek at this blog and get spoiled, don’t visit the desktop version, block the snk spoilers tag and disable notifications. Stay away from tumblr or the internet if needed! Many people may forget to tag their spoilers after all.
I owe everything to @dr-chiroptera for inspiring me with this post of hers to be able to make mine, thank you very much.
In@dr-chiroptera post, she explained that Mikasa and Levi gave some vibes to Líf and Lífþrasir. In Norse mythology, Líf and Lífþrasir are the only human couple who will survive Ragnarök (meaning, “fate of the gods” is the battle of the end of the world) and repopulate the world.
And why do I think @dr-chiroptera post is right in that Isayama may have been inspired by these mythological figures for Mikasa and Levi’s fate? Because one of the most important figures in Shingeki is Ymir, “the founder” and in Norse mythology there is a character with that same name, and he is the founder of the race of giants, Hmm…. founders of the giants/titans doesn’t it sound a bit obvious to you? ;D♡
And to make more sense of it all:
“They created a man named Ask and a woman named Embla (they are the first humans created according to Norse mythology, they are the equivalent of Adam and Eve). With Ymir’s eyebrows, they created a fortress to protect the race of men from the giants.” Doesn’t this sound similar to the walls surrounding Paradis that were created and within them contained colossal titans, creations of Ymir…?. The curious thing about all this, is that the character of Ymir from Norse mythology was a male giant, so the name “Ymir” is considered a boy’s name, and this makes me have my suspicions and beliefs that Historia’s child will be a boy and not a girl as 99% of the fandom believes, since being born a boy, he will be able to use the name Ymir just the same and it also corresponds to him perfectly, since after all, it is a name for the male sex. And I think it’s something Isayama would do, because he loves to break the most famous theories in the fandom and the theory that Historia will have a girl is one of the most famous ones XD.
(Ymir feeding on Auðumbla, the primordial cow, also known as The Great Cosmic Cow.)
Okay, now let’s continue with the references to Mikasa and Levi representing Líf and Lífþrasir.
“Two humans will also escape the destruction of the world by hiding deep within the wood of the Yggdrasil - some say in the Forest of Hodmímir - where Surt’s sword has no power of destruction. They will call them Líf and Lífthrasir (in Old Norse, Líf ok Lífþrasir). Emerging from their refuge, Líf (or liv, ‘life’) and her husband Lífþrasir ('one who desires or seeks life’, defined by Lexicon Poëticum as "Livæ amator, vitæ amans, vitæ cupidus” “Líf’s lover, lover of life, zest for life”) will live in the morning dew and repopulate the human world. They will worship their new pantheon of gods, ruled by Baldr".
Interestingly, both Líf and Lífþrasir sound similar to the pronunciation of the name “Levi”. In Japanese the same thing happens, they are even written almost the same: Líf -> リーヴ (“Rīvu”), Lífþrasir -> リーヴスラシル (“Rīvusurashiru”), Levi -> リヴァイ (“Rivai”).
It wouldn’t be strange if Isayama decided to make a pun here. Also, the word “life” is something important in Levi’s character, let’s remember that he has always lost everything and it seems that’s why he doesn’t understand the real meaning his life has if in the end he can’t seem to protect those he cherishes, Kenny himself once asked him what he intends to be in his life, since we all need to get “drunk” on something to move on:
A hero? No, I’d say that’s what most of the fandom thought and even Levi himself of himself, he believed that his destiny in life was to avenge his comrades, to become the hero who would deliver the final blow to the casuator of one of his greatest misfortunes: Zeke.
But chapter 137, proved to most of the fandom and to Levi himself that that was not his reason for living, because in the end it did not give him the happiness and satisfaction that everyone believed:
So what? What is the reason for living and what does he need to “get drunk” (as Kenny says) to keep going?
And this is where I highlight these two panels that Isayama illustrated in Kenny’s monologue, most people only insist on highlighting that the author only shows desperation, desire for power and strength in his work, and these people have never bothered to appreciate those little winks that Isayama makes that not everything in the world of Shingeki has to revolve around negative desires, that characters can also be “get drunk” with the desire for a family and children in order to move on, and I think in Levi’s character, maybe his desire, that wonderful desire that will help him want to move on, to keep on living, is the same as his mother’s: a children.
Now we continue with Mikasa, in her childhood, Mikasa has always been surrounded by the wild, by vegetation, away from human civilization and chapter 138 showed us that this is what she longs to have again, to have a home again, a family surrounded by forests, quiet and away from the noisy crowd and curiously it is said in Norse mythology that the children of Líf and Lífþrasir will inhabit Midgard after Ragnarök is over:
“After all, in this new world, evil and misery will exist no more, gods and men will live together in peace and harmony. The descendants of Lif and Lifthrasir will inhabit Midgard.” What am I getting at with this? It is because of the meaning of the word “Midgard”:
“In Norse mythology, Midgard (in Old Norse Miðgarðr) is the world of men created by the gods Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve after the battle with the primordial giant Ymir. The etymology of the name derives from mið/mid ("middle, center”) and garðr/gard (“settlement, rural residence”). The Norse word garð is related to two modern Scandinavian words: gård (“yard”, “farm”, “isolated rural residence”) and gärd (“farmyard”, “cultivated field surrounded by fence or hedge”).
“Midgard” makes a direct reference to what Mikasa longs for, a home, an isolated rural residence with a cultivated field like the one she and her parents had in their childhood, so to me this makes me think that her dream will indeed come true and her children will inhabit that quiet home away from the crowd along with her and her dear husband (wink, wink) just like Líf and Lífþrasir’s children.
Last, but not least, is this very interesting fact, in which, it is said in some stories that when Ragnarök was happening, Líf and Lífþrasir hid in the forest of Hodmímir, and don’t you find it curious that the first “direct” meeting between Mikasa and Levi happened in a forest?
Líf and Lífþrasir, Casca and Guts… I wonder if at some point we will meet again other couples that make such a direct reference to our beloved Mikasa and Levi. Who knows, I hope you liked my post, I thank you again for inspiring me @dr-chiroptera!
How ironic that Levi and Mikasa were the “last of their kind” (Ackermans) and now that most of humanity has been killed or titanized by Eren, Mikasa and Levi might be the few or last pure humans left. Also I find it very convenient of Isayamathat Levi and Mikasa are now the only remaining male and female of their “species.” (Also, even though fair-haired Ackermans have existed, it’s interesting that Levi’s designed with a hair color that is closer to Mikasa’s pure black hair, which makes her a rare beauty by Eldian standards. Maybe her all her children will be more likely to have pure black hair if they have a dark-haired father.) Not saying Mikasa owes Levi anything because of said circumstances, but I am getting major Líf and Lífþrasir vibes from them. If you don’t who they are, they’re the only humans to survive Ragnarök, the end of the world. If the character Ymir Fritz is Ymir the jotunn from Norse myths (with arguably her daughters being Odin, Vili, and Ve who slew Ymir), then it wouldn’t surprise me if Isayama was inspired by other Norse myths. Also this description of Líf and Lífþrasir sounds very similar to any children of Levi and Mikasa: “ Líf and Lífþrasir, will lie hid in Hoddmímis Holt (perhaps the Titan Forest where Levi and Mikasa fought the Female Titan?) during “Surt’s fire (Eren’s Rumbling?) ”, and that “from these people there will be descended such a great progeny that the world will be inhabited (since Ackerman’s are stronger than the average human).”
It has been a while since I made Rivamika predictions, but it’s now or never right? It doesn’t hurt to write this down… no matter what Isayama decides next chapter, it has been a fun ride shipping Rivamika with y'all.
- Mikasa will probably break down while Eren’s colossal titan collapses around her. Levi will go for her rescue while shaking some sense into her.
- When they’re both safe, Levi will end up being the one to comfort her while Annie and Armin have their own moment.
Epilogue - I’d be happy with either one of these:
- Familial Rivamika: Mikasa marries someone else and has their baby, but Levi is present in her life and the baby’s, in a sort of happier Kenny - Kuchel - Levi parallel.
- Romantic Rivamika: Do I even need to describe it? Ackerbabies. Bonus points if Levi opens up a tea shop. Staying in Paradis or fleeing to rebuild Hizuru is also fine.
Some Rivamika Shippers started to ship Levi and Mikasa knowing that maybe they won’t be canon, just for fun, or yes, for all the motifs that we have to ship them. But nobody of us thought that the Ship will stay alive until the end of the manga. I don’t know if it’s lucky, destiny or coincidence, nevertheless because of this, we have all the right to feel proud and happy.
It’s so weird to me how people are comparing Eren to Sasuke? When did Sasuke ever commit mass murder? Man never even killed any non-combatants. And he wasn’t the one causing the destruction of the world, he was one of the people who helped stop it.
Yeah S1 Eren and Sasuke may be similar in the sense that they were both obsessed with revenge but S4 Eren was much more similar to Itachi since they both thought “mass murder for the greater good” was a good idea and the other characters treated them like heroes for it.
This is just so dumb, it’s been 7 years and I still can’t get over how dumb people’s takes on Sasuke’s character are
the snk ending was sort of a shitshow ngl but unlike everyone else i thought the quality of the writing had been steadily declining since the uprising arc so i didn’t have high expectations anyway. i get to enjoy yet another ending shitstorm though and that’s always pretty fun.
also i’m glad we didn’t get anr cos i fucking hated that theory and all the incels who supported it
Levi finally gets to move forward, and find a new purpose in life, and some semblance of peace in life just like he’s always deserved, and just like I always wanted for him. I’m so proud of him and all he’s accomplished, and he will always sit at the top of my list as my all time favorite character.
