Parallels R Us

Yo, I’m about to rock. Someone needs to salute me.

Eren and Historia have come full circle with their friendship arc. …Yes, it’s totally an arc all on its own. In the beginning, there was darkness. Now, there is light.

Actually, it’s more like different shade of darkness–grey, perhaps, and there are many more shades where that comes from–but epically enough, it all rounds out because the characters’ and their most lamentable relationships with their friends bring good tidings of great joy.

For me.

The conversation Eren and Historia have about Eren’s desires mirrors the one they have way back in 54, when they’re just getting to know one another. Then, they discussed Historia’s motivations.



“Ymir… you want to rescue her now, right?”

“Rescue… I feel like it wouldn’t be… a rescue anymore. It’s like you said. Back then, Ymir chose what life she would lead. I’ve got no right to interfere, and she doesn’t need me to.”

[…]

“So… What do… you want to do?”

“…I don’t know.”

–Eren and Historia, 54



Come 70, Eren has his own conflicts about what he wants, but his place in the world makes his actual desires irrelevant in the same way that Historia’s interest in being by Ymir’s side has no bearing in determining what she’ll be doing.



“What do you want to do? What’s going to happen if you ever meet Reiner and Bertolt again…?”

“…I… Have to kill them.”

“…You want to kill them?”

“…I have to.”

–Eren and Historia, 70

Adding to the mosaic of symmetry is how they both previously responded to their relationships with the people their decisions could potentially affect.



“Traitor… I’ll never forgive her…”

–Historia, 51 “Reiner… Bertolt… you… TRAITORS!”

[…]

“All I can do now… is work. Work hard… to make sure that you two die… the most painful death possible.”

–Eren, 42 and 46

Bertolt and Reiner’s betrayal and Ymir’s departure are inexorably linked, and Historia and Eren have always been on opposite sides of the same coin.The reason I’m bringing it up in the yumikuri tag is because Historia wants to know what her counterpart plans to do with the people who hurt him.

More specifically, she wants to know what he wants.

Not what his position compels him to do; what he actually wants.

It’s a topic change, but the next words out of Historia’s mouth are, “I hope we figure it out soon…”

Roles are complicated. Wants are hard. What their interaction means can be downright dizzying–and somewhere out in the world, hanging out with humanity’s traitors after leaving her, is the girl that the Queen loves.

What’s going to happen if they meet again?

