Eren Yeager and Mikasa Ackerman are two of the main characters in one of the greatest manga of all time, Attack on Titan. The series began with the two of them, along with their friend, Armin, witnessing the Titans break into their home. The three of them trained in the 104th Cadet Corps, along with a lot of their other friends, before they became soldiers in the Survey Corps.
Eren and Mikasa have been two of the best soldiers in the Survey Corps, with Eren's Titan abilities giving people hope that the military branch could finally defeat their enemies while Mikasa is one of the strongest characters in Paradis. However, throughout the anime, Mikasa has proven to be better than Eren in many ways.
10 Mikasa Followed Levi's Orders More Than Eren Did
Eren always admired Captain Levi, even before he became a soldier. He wanted to be just like him. However, when they finally met, Levi attacked Eren in front of Mikasa and many other soldiers to prove that he could be given the responsibility of making sure Eren wouldn't use his abilities to hurt them.
Though his intentions were good, this caused Mikasa to despise Levi, not knowing that the two were related at the time. Regardless, she followed the orders he gave to her. One example of this is when the Female Titan captured Eren. Knowing that Levi would help her get him back, Mikasa listened to what he said, while Eren was talking back and second-guessing the captain moments prior to this.
9 Mikasa Didn't Hesitate To Fight Annie
When the Female Titan was revealed to be Annie, another soldier that was in the 104th Cadet Corps, Eren and Mikasa fought her. Eren hesitated to fight her, despite seeing her transform with his own eyes. Though it could be due to her rivalry with Annie going on since they were training, Mikasa was ready to fight the Female Titan, not holding anything back while it took Eren a while to transform into his Titan.
Luckily, he was able to and the two Survey Corps soldiers defeated her. However, Annie used her hardening abilities to form a crystal around her body that protected her from being tortured, interrogated, or killed.
8 Mikasa Was The First To Attack Reiner & Bertholdt Even Though Eren Was Closer To Them
It wouldn't take long after Annie's identity was discovered for the Colossal and Armored Titans to be revealed as well. They were also soldiers from the 104th Cadet Corps, Bertholdt and Reiner, who pretended to be close friends with their comrades. Not thinking properly, Reiner told Eren the truth of who they were and asked him to join them.
Despite already hearing that Reiner being the Armored Titan was a possibility, he was still shocked to hear this and didn't do anything at first. Mikasa attacked both Reiner and Bertholdt but wasn't able to kill them. Luckily, Eren's hesitation didn't last as long as it did when fighting Annie and he was able to fight back before being captured, as usual.
7 Eren Was Willing To Give His Titan Abilities To The Reiss Family
When Eren learned that his father, Grisha, was a Titan shifter and that he killed Frieda Reiss, as well as her relatives, in order to inherit the Founding Titan before passing it to his son, Eren felt like he wasn't worthy of having his powers and was willing to give them to Historia, Frieda's younger sister.
Frieda and Historia's father, Rod, was the king of Paradis at the time, with the Military Police Brigade being loyal to him. Due to the Survey Corps finding out about Rod's secrets, the two military branches began fighting each other. If Eren had given up his powers, he would've helped the Survey Corps' enemy.
6 Mikasa Didn't Send The Survey Corps Into A Dangerous Situation
After learning that the world beyond the walls was full of people that hated and feared Eldians, Eren went to Marley, the country that Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie were from. He pretended to be a patient in the hospital named Kruger and met a warrior candidate named Falco.
Eren tricked Falco into sending a letter to the Survey Corps, telling them to help him fight the Marleyans so that he could inherit the War Hammer Titan and go home with his brother, Zeke. By doing this, he sent the Survey Corps on a dangerous mission for his own benefit, losing their trust.
5 Eren Betrayed The Survey Corps While Mikasa Remained Loyal
Eren sending the Survey Corps to Marley was just the beginning of his betrayal. Once he and Zeke returned to Paradis, the Survey Corps learned that Eren formed a group known as the Yeagerists, that saw him as Paradis' rightful ruler. Since a lot of the Yeagerists were soldiers, they were able to overthrow the entire military.
Eren turned against all of the people that cared about him, including Mikasa, and put them behind bars until Marley invaded Paradis, seeking revenge. Mikasa would never do something like this and continued being on the Survey Corps' side even though she cared more about Eren than anyone else.
4 Eren Killed Members Of The Survey Corps To Get His Freedom
Due to Eren inheriting the Founding Titan and Zeke being a member of the Fritz family, the two of them could control all of the Eldians in any way that they wanted if they made contact. Eren pretended to be on Zeke's side to make this happen until he was able to begin the Rumbling.
He unhardened all of the Colossal Titans inside of Paradis' walls and used them to stomp on people all over the world. Knowing that they couldn't let innocent people die, the Survey Corps fought Eren, with some of the members, such as Hange, and former Commander Keith, dying in the process.
3 Mikasa Has Killed A Lot More Titans Than Eren Has
The reason why Eren is so powerful is because of his Titan powers. He may have been one of the strongest soldiers in the 104th Cadet Corps, but that doesn't mean he's one of the strongest characters in the series while in his human form.
In fact, it wasn't until the Clash of the Titans arc when Eren would get his first kill while using ODM gear, as he was trained to all the way back in the 104th Training Corps arc. At this point, Mikasa had already killed many Titans and doesn't have any Titan powers.
2 Mikasa Didn't Live In Her Own Fantasy
With the exception of a couple of times throughout the series, Mikasa has been more of a realist than Eren has. Until he was able to make his fantasy a reality by starting the Rumbling, this was one of his greatest weaknesses.
In fact, he even started thinking that he was more important than other soldiers because he could turn into a Titan and thought it was okay for people to die while saving him. If he didn't build such a big ego and was able to see things as they were, he and other soldiers would've had a better advantage in some of their situations.
1 Eren Didn't Spend His Whole Life Protecting Mikasa
Throughout the majority of the series, Mikasa would do anything she needed to in order to protect Eren, while he has only helped her a few times. When they first met, Eren helped her kill the human traffickers that murdered her parents and saved her from being sold by them.
Ever since, she has done anything to keep him safe, even when he put her, and their comrades, into danger. Though this isn't a reason why she's a great soldier, as she doesn't do this for all of her comrades, it proves that she is better than him.