WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Chapter #130 of Attack on Titan, by Hajime Isayama, Dezi Sienty and Alex Ko Ransom, now available in English from Kodansha.

Since the series' debut in 2009, Attack on Titan's Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman have been flying the flag for complicated sibling relationships in manga/anime. Being not as convoluted as Vampire Knight's or as icky as The Irregular at Magic High School's central romances (Eren and Mikasa are adopted brother and sister, after all), their "will they, won't they?" dynamic has fuelled intense shipping within the franchise's community for years. The source material itself has long played this relationship as tragically one-sided, to the point that the Season 2 finale of the anime had Eren somehow miss Mikasa's painfully obvious attempt at a pre-certain-death kiss.

Chapter #130 gives what might be the clearest indication yet that Eren is unmistakably aware of her feelings. However, this revelation comes with an Historia-sized "but" attached.

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Mikasa's deep-seated feelings for Eren stem from him saving her from an abusive home as a child. Placing a scarf around her neck, he welcomed her into his own family and she's been slavishly devoted to him ever since. So intense are her feelings for him that Hajime Isayama even went so far as to make this a genetic trait of the Ackerman clan. The result of experimentation on Eldian blood, the Ackermans are an enhanced group that doesn't have the potential to turn into Titans but can still access a portion of their strength, speed and durability. In Chapter #112, Eren drops a sizeable bombshell on Mikasa pertaining to her kind, revealing that her feelings are nothing more than her being bred to protect the Eldian King -- an instinct she's transferred onto Eren. He ends this tirade by telling his adopted sister that he's grown to "hate" her for it.

Mikasa is shellshocked. In a previous chapter, during the Scouts' infiltration of Liberio, the pair shared an intimate moment in which Eren queried what exactly her feelings toward him were. The phrasing wasn't so much suspicious probing but a genuine need to solidify their bond -- whatever that bond was. After a night of drinking, the two fell asleep practically holding hands. That scene is a far cry away from the cold and cruel Eren in Chapter #112, and even further from the vindictive monster he's become now. Mikasa stopped wearing the scarf shortly after Eren's apparent betrayal to side with Zeke, his half-brother by blood, and is now faced with the eventuality that the only way to stop the man she's spent most of her life protecting from harm from destroying the world is by killing him.

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But while Mikasa may be starting to move on from Eren, this latest chapter shows, through flashbacks, that his hateful words didn't have any bite to them. In a complete 180, it turns out that what Eren told Mikasa about her protective instincts may have been a lie. While connecting with Zeke prior to the raid on Liberio, the holder of the Beast Titan dismissed the idea, suggesting that, look bro, maybe she just really likes you. Apparently, all of Eren's experiences have rendered him nearly incapable of recognizing what actual love even is, which gives even more context to his epic slide from heroism to villainy.

Attack on Titan 130

Attack on Titan 130

But no sooner does the chapter dangle an Eren-Mikasa reconciliation in front of readers, it throws an Historia spanner into the works. In order to keep the royal bloodline going, Queen Historia is currently pregnant by way of a commoner whom she shared some past affection for. Or... is she? On one page of Chapter #130, Eren contemplates having children of his own, thinking about continuing his own legacy after his four years are up (thanks to the Curse of Ymir). The text just so happens to be over a panel with Historia's face in it.

Attack on Titan 130

We also know, through more flashbacks, that Eren divulged his genocidal plan to a shocked -- and complicit -- Historia prior to her pregnancy (or so it looks). He even offered to wipe her memory of the horrific event using the Founding Titan's power. One could surmise from this that Eren's plan is to kill all of Eldia's enemies, then erase Paradis Island's memories of the event as a whole -- just as King Reiss did a century ago -- and live out his remaining years in happiness with an heir to the throne, and his family, secured. Or, the idea of Historia conceiving a child merely triggered a similar desire in him.

It's really too hard to tell at this point what Isayama is suggesting. However, whether or not Eren has already fathered a child with Historia is a smaller hurdle for a potential, last-minute romance with Mikasa considering the pair are now on opposite sides of the hero/villain dichotomy in Attack on Titan.

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