ERURI rambling

The past week I have been thinking about eruri 24/7.

I still feel amazed by the strenght of this ship in my life, since I have had many ships on my 13 years of being an active fujoshi on the web, and there is a few that have captured me in this way.

In general, I have a lot of strong feelings for OTPs that become dormant whenever a new obsession comes up, but when I revisit my old ships, the feelings are still there.

The point with eruri is that even though I don’t care much about the whole snk series (plotwise), this pairing still shakes me to my core….I still don’t know why or how I got this in love with a ship.

I’m not good writing analysis of the stuff I like, I’m a mess at writing, I’m better drawing….I feel more than I think...I’m a dumb bitch I know…

Recently I found a tungle meta on the ship and I was moved to tears (it was pretty complete and well written) and felt even dumber because I doubt I will write something like that (scholarly level writing, like a thesis or something!) BUT I can sure make lists of points I like...or make lists of headcanons or stuff that has happened with the ship (or at least the stuff I know about) So if you’re reading this, sorry if I got stuff wrong, as I said, I don’t consume snk since years ago, and all I know is from ggle searches and random screencaps. I may be lacking a lot of context and content.

A short list of Eruri events I want to cover, be it with words or drawings in the future:

-The meeting

-Choice with no regrets (Part I)

-From enemies to equals

-The ackerbond

-Trust

-Levi

-Erwin

-Death (Choice with no regrets Part 2)

-The promise.

-Future + a very personal wish.

But some hard facts that I love about this ship:

Their excellent contrast, physical and personality wise. Tall, blonde, blue eyed and small, dark haired and dark eyes. Erwin being a gentleman and charismatic and Levi being bad mouthed and grumpy. What’s not to love? 

The ackerbond. It’s canon, what can I say to that??? it’s right there. I don’t care that they don’t kiss, that they don’t show romance, their bond of trust plus the ackerman magic is enough for me. This ackerbond stuff can be read as soulmates but I prefer to compare it to A/B/O. yeah, don’t @ me. ABO minus the whole stuff, but more in the similarities of ‘finding a mate you give your best and would do anything for them’. You get bonded to a single person, and you act like they were your master, your king, and the ackerman is like a loyal servant/guardian dog/knight to their special someone. I feel like I’m talking and thinking with my ass when I try to explain the ackerbond with my own words and feelings, because there are pretty neat analysis out there that are a better read than this elmao. 

How do I explain this love I have for this in a few words without sounding stupid?...mmmm

I love how Erwin is Levi’s everything, Erwin gives him orders, he fulfills them without fail. They are equals, they trust each other. A man and his right hand. Spice this relationship with a mysterious element; ackerbond, that makes the ackerman show a kind of potential they didn’t know they had, this potencial reaches the maximum when they find a person to motivate them, to spark in them the will to serve their every whim….ahhhhhhhh I just love this…. I can keep being redundant without saying anything clear about what this thing is…

I love the tragedy of Eruri, the conditions of their meeting, Levi’s loses and pain, Erwin still being a mystery to Levi, Erwin’s role in most part of the series as a savior figure and Levi wanting to protect the ideal he represented…until everything ends going even more to shit when Erwin loses his arm, ending in the ultimate tragedy that is Erwin’s death by the (indirect) choice of Levi. I love that we can speculate if Levi wants to revive him for personal reasons or for ‘humanity’s sake’. He ends up choosing his death, “let him rest”. Die before you get (more) corrupted by your dream….Levi liberates Erwin...but at what cost?

I love how their last exchange is “Forget your dream and go to your death, I promise to kill the beast titan” Erwin thanks him. Levi fails to fulfill the last promise he made to Erwin. Imagine that Erwin died, he fulfilled his part, but Levi couldn’t, like his death was in vain. The power of this promise makes my stomach flutter because 4 years passed since then and they got to know the secrets of the basement (which Erwin was so obsessed with that it didn’t matter if he died if he could get closer to it, to his and his father dream) and Levi is still thinking of his promise, 4 years thinking how he failed, “humanity’s stronger’’, I like to imagine what could have been of Levi if he fulfilled Erwin’s promise back then, would he still be fighting for humanity when his motivator is dead? what would be the point? A part of the analysis I read said that Levi was on the corps because Erwin wanted him there, and indeed, he was there for Erwin, before that he didn’t give two shits about ideals, he was all about surviving in a shit world...I haven’t read the manga parts where they find the other side of the island they are in and all that, but I love that Levi is full of hatred towards Zeke, he couldn’t kill him, he is the reminder of how he failed Erwin. The part where he almost dies trying to kill Zeke must have hurt like a motherfucker for Levi...feels like “you had one job”, and from some screenshots it sure is what he thinks. I love that panel where he thinks how he could fulfill each and every single order of Erwin but not his last one. Ahhh beautiful pain.

There are many paralels of Eruri with the other ackermans and I love it, because it shows how ‘canon’ they are. Mikasa and Eren, being the romantic ackerbond, to say something, and Uri and Kenny, the master/servant part of the ackerbond….I love how ‘romantic’ the nature of the ackerbond is, not the romantic lovey dobey, but romantic in the ‘this is the ideal of how things work, if tragic as well’. It’s tragic because even tho there is trust and commitment between the parts involved in the bond, there’s something their counterparts can’t grasp, Kenny still couldn’t understand Uri, Mikasa wanting to protect Eren at all costs, even bothering him with her behavior, and Erwin not telling Levi his true motivation for ‘saving humanity’. It’s tragic, it’s romantic.

As for aspects of the characters, in their appeareance, I love that Erwin got his arm bit off, I love how Levi almost dies, lost an eye and his right hand fingers and also got his leg chewed...such a powerful character being turn to pulp makes my kokoro go doki, makes me feel the same as when Leon (RE4) gets tortured (There’s something special when you want to see your faves suffer….)

I love that the characters changed, I still hope Levi dies, because something I have come to hate so much in storytelling, let it be movies, series, cartoons or anime, that the protagonists, most of the time if not always, have to be intact, they have to win. Most of this is of course influenced to appeal to the masses and to sell. SELL. And Levi is a character that sells. I’m waiting for the final result on his character, if the author chooses his narrative or what sells better. IDK what will happen, everything dictates that Levi has to die, but who knows!! I just hope that he thinks of Erwin, dead or not. 

Okay I have rambled a lot tonight, I might continue this in a more logical way some day...