Attack On Titan's Final Season Part 2 Confirms What We Suspected About Eren's Hatred Toward Mikasa

"Attack on Titan" is a classic revenge story about a young boy named Eren Yeager who loses his mother after his city is attacked by massive, war-mongering, human-eating creatures called Titans. The city is destroyed, and his mother is eaten alive. Devastated by her loss, he makes it his mission in life to slowly and systematically make himself powerful enough to wipe out the Titans and all the dark corners of humanity responsible for that fateful attack that changed his life.

As with many manga-turned-anime stories like "Attack on Titan," things get a little messy during Eren's journey to gain power and achieve his ambitions. And one of the messiest situations is the relationship between him and his foster sister, Mikasa. So far in the series, Eren has gone to great lengths to keep Mikasa at arm's length, even though there are some not-so-subtle signs (as pointed out by Reddit user Mediator2) that the two are actually quite close. But a recent flashback in the Season 4, Part 2 finale makes it abundantly clear why Eren has gone out of his way to make it seem like he has nothing but contempt for the girl.

CBR.com noted that In the flashback, we see an injured Eren talking to his half-brother Zeke about what exactly triggers people's innate Titan powers. Eren wants to believe that it's a form of slavery, where those who have Titan powers are compelled to protect their hosts at all costs. But Zeke shoots down that theory just about as quickly as the words come out of Eren's mouth. According to Zeke, especially with regard to Eren and Mikasa, her love for him is what triggered her powers. But Eren shirks talking about his own feelings, instead robotically emphasizing that he only has four years left to live, and how he wants everyone who cares about him to be at peace with his death once he's gone.

He doubles down on this in the present, going into a tirade in which he so fiercely proclaims a (false) hatred for Mikasa that peaceful little Armin physically assaults him. But between the flashback with Zeke and the scene in Episode 28 where Mikasa calls him "family," the audience knows that he's in deep denial about his feelings for her. On Reddit, FawFawtyFaw added some much-needed context for anime fans who don't understand much about Japanese culture or speak the language. In that post, they wrote that talking about romantic love before marriage is taboo, but "any mention of being family is pretty much open flirting." So, yeah, they're in love; but Eren is so hell-bent on revenge that he refuses to accept it.