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ellieabbyy

Seattle Day 1 🗺️

losercertified

Dina and Ellie fanart cuz i love them 😓

zombievonmorgen-art

#eruri #1

zombievonmorgen-art

#Eruri moodboard No.2 💚⚜️

madbalalaika

Today I bring you Eruri. Tomorrow? Who knows...

ko-fi ☕💗 | info & commissions

gravesecret

Sundown.

gelleytoast

This is how I think kakashi was with sarada when she was younger ☺️

tsuki-no-ura

I have to say, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t fully understand Eruri. In the first two seasons of the anime, aside from their good working dynamic, I didn’t really see much else. Then came season three — all that drama with Levi trying to convince Erwin not to go to Shiganshina, even threatening him, the fight with the Beast Titan, the rooftop decision, and so on. It’s clear that Levi gets particularly emotional when it comes to Erwin, but the question is: why?

You can’t even say they have one of the closest relationships in the series, and yet, people talk about them constantly. There’s a ton of staff members who seem fascinated by their bond, and then you have magazine articles, Cinema Staff writing two songs inspired by them (one of which even implies romantic love). Plus, Eren’s voice actor once compared their relationship to Enjolras and Grantaire’s. If you’ve read Les Misérables, you know that Grantaire was romantically in love with Enjolras — which makes me wonder, why would Eren’s VA compare Eruri to them?

And I know all this is just interpretation, but it’s still interesting how much their dynamic draws people in.

I used to think I had it figured out. To me, Levi just followed Erwin because of his ideals — he worked under him for the sake of achieving results. In other words, Levi wasn’t devoted to Erwin the person; he followed him and put his faith in him because he saw him as a superior man, someone capable of ending the Titans.

Then I read what you wrote about “high context,” and it reminded me that my impression when I first read that interview was exactly the same as yours. Isayama’s answer to that question should’ve been obvious: “He’ll keep fighting for humanity.” But instead, he said that a part of him felt Levi had fulfilled his duty by being with Erwin in his final moments — and my reaction was basically 🤨.

So, Isayama, are you telling me that Levi was devoted to Erwin the man, and not just Erwin the soldier?

Conclusion: Abstract Eruri.

Hi!

Last point first, about the high context, long time followers of this blog will know that I do actually have a linguistic reason for why I did it read it that way, which is because Isayama had phrased in a way that sounded rather awkward and just a little bit too qualified that didn't really come out in translations which smoothed the phrasing. It was in:

ただエルヴィンを失って空いてしまった組織的穴については、アルミンに求めていくんじゃないかな？

And it actually translates like this :

(the "they" here is Levi, due to a lack of pronouns in the original)

And then he segues off into some adjacent topic XDD

"High context" basically says: so what other aspects are you so very much not talking about and what does it mean for those? XDD Which is why I was indeed laughing my ass off when I read it. Besides the fact the Levi does have unfinished business of course.

Not to mention that I have this comment in my initial pass which predates all of the chapter 136 nonsense (aka going back to argue that all of the translations are wrong), and in hindsight I just didn't know how to explain it :D

I haven't been well, but I've been reflecting on the general question of what is the draw about their relationship, and personally for me, I think it is that acceptance of a person after seeing them at their "ugliest"? certainly truest, with all of their flaws, and deciding after seeing that whole picture still to choose them and to choose to put your faith in their plan, and to accept your role and duty in it. I don't think the "swearing fealty" imagery is accidental here...

an unedited version of this for once XD

Being accepted for who you are after making yourself the most vulnerable to a person, I think this is a greater thing than even romantic love.

I think it's particularly poignant here in this case as well because Erwin is probably the most closed off of the three Ackerman counterparts. I (and the voice actors apparently XD) do think that he was the hardest nut to crack in terms of showing his vulnerability, there really was no leeway for him to show weakness in a situation where a confident leadership was absolutely the difference between life and death in the "backs against the wall" situation with no time to breathe that they were up against in that time period.

But like you said though and I agree, Levi initially did follow Erwin because of his ideals, something he thought was out of his reach, also because Erwin gave him a purpose, but when the cracks started showing, he really had to decide one way or another, although I do feel a sense of a "wait and see" attitude when it came to the outcome of the tussle of wills in the office.

It was a whole journey, it didn't start like this, but this is how it ended, and that I think is also quite beautiful.

But I think that may be precisely also what makes it so interesting to dig into. It's also funny because what the voice actors say isn't always flattering or positive (see "Erwin completely like a psychopath" in the ep 53 discussion XD) if one gets the chance to see whole chunks instead of just the soundbites, but it is insightful.

Not to mention that I believe that Cinema Staff actually wrote 5 songs on the topic XDD

Also Araki's thoughts on the matter.

And finally, I had to try and dig up at least some evidence of Kaji's Les Mis commentary, I've at least found the one that's just referencing Les Misérables in general (youtube video of tiktok live video with time stamp for the start of the relevant discussion (34:07) but the Les Mis comment is at 34:49) but I think I'll leave the other digging up to another day :)

Thank you for your ask and for sharing your thoughts with me! :)

(Usual disclaimers apply :)

tsuki-no-ura

As an offshoot thought to the last ask I'd gotten, it's made me realise that Levi is rude in a way that cannot come across in english because of the different speech levels that english doesn't have or doesn't have an equivalent for, and something that is going to be missed by people looking only for specific words being used and not aware of how the speech hierarchies work.

The closest thing I can think of to explain this is maybe something like "are you going to consume your evening meal?" vs "are you going to eat your dinner?", and there are words with which one can step up with that (keigo or honorific language), but more often, it's less a change of word and more a different form of the same word so it's more like eat(polite form ending), eat(dictionary/plain/casual form) etc.

And that's what make these scenes come across as rude that would not strike a person who isn't aware enough of the intricacies of this or how to do it, because it's not that he's using rude words, but the form of speech he's using to the recipient is talking downwards to them when they are of higher status than him.

Like for example:

[chapter 19]

When speaking to Zackley, Erwin is using polite speech with markers such as -おり -ori being a humble form of "to be", -masu polite form, using Levi's title in full of heishichou rather than heichou (although this one would be par for the situation anyway), もらいます moraimasu "to get/receive", besides the -masu form, not really about the politeness but I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that using this word in compound implies the sense of a favour being received and thus gratitude for it, and so on.

Zackley uses casual/dictionary form, as per his position.

And Levi, Levi uses casual/dictionary form back which is not his position to do so, especially when you consider that he is lower ranked than Erwin and see how Erwin already is talking to Zackley.

And you can see that none of this comes across in english.

And this, I'm thinking may also be part of what makes Eren come to this conclusion:

(Love how 地下街 chikagai got translated because in fairness if you try to look it up you'll get this:

XDD)

And I've done this before, but if I can do the scene in chapter 51 again, because besides just "old man", Levi still slurs his speech making it coarser (足りねぇ tarine- as opposed to 足りない tarinai), uses plain speech throughout, and his question is blunt and nearly confrontational-sounding XDD

Contrast it to Erwin saying お持ちです omochi desu with an honorific prefix to "to have", but in particular Hange saying to Erwin 失礼するよ shitsurei suru yo, plain/causal form for "pardon me" and then just calling him by name without any titles (エルヴィン), but then switching it up to いらしてた irashiteta, abbrieviated form of the honorific いらっしゃる irassharu (いらっしゃっていた) for "(you) are here", polite -desu form (Connie does the same when he speaks) and addressed Pixis with name and title ピクシス司令, Commander Pixis, and using 参りました mairimashita, humble form for "to come" (or "to go")

[chapter 51]

Amusingly, the translation has mistranslated Hange's tone level to Erwin, it's more like "hey sorry to bother you Erwin" XDD

But my personal and irrelevant favourite was checking the next scene out in the past to see how much Levi could brush his speech up to save their lives for a diplomacy run, and, still no change in speech levels, calling out their names without title (yobisute), but at least?? he's thrown in a product upgrade of sorts? in addressing the other side as あんた達 anta tachi?? XDD

[chapter 126]

Contrast with Pieck addressing Hange with "Hanji-san", and the honorific form of "to see" (ご覧になる) in ご覧になられました goran ni nararemashita "did (you) see".

Hange does use casual speech here which is well within their rights as a superior rank to Pieck and an equal to Magath, and same with Magath.

And again and again, this kind of thing doesn't transmit because more often than not there just isn't the language for it in english and the same kind of rules don't hold, and no amount of a "correct" english translation is going to give you this.

But also, this isn't the kind of thing you're going to hear japanese people commenting about because this will come across as unremarkable to them, and on the other hand, you need a japanese learner who's actually gotten up to such a level that they're actually dealing with this kind of thing at all and realise and understand what is happening and understand enough of how The Rules work to be telling you this. But I hope this does shed a bit of light on the crazy amount of additional information that is going on in terms of what is polite and rude that's more than just rude words being used.

(Usual disclaimers apply :)

tsuki-no-ura

@lostcauses-noregrets

I hope it's alright that I pulled your comment out as this is a very good question, and something I was thinking about as well while I was doing the write-up, and I think this is also why that conversation of Petra with Eren fits in so well, and the fact that it almost has to be tied in with Erwin.

Because, my apologies for not pointing out the way that these things do tend to have a duality, and the flip side of "rude" is "cocky", and there's cocky without anything to suport it Oluo XDD, and then there's "This person talks like this because he can afford to".

So Levi is in the military as a maverick, and he behaves outside of the system which implies a possibility that it's because someone brought him in, and the reason that he still remains in the system is that his skills are indeed worth putting up with his rudeness/unconventionality, depending on which way one wanted to look at it.

But also, it's this cockiness that I was thinking about, giving that air of a person who can do anything he wants, that I was thinking contributed to why Eren is surprised to see that Levi was actually obedient to the hierarchy, especially when he speaks in a way that implies that he doesn't respect authority and that he doesn't have to. The thug background and Erwin bringing him in to the Corps I think work perfectly to explain that.

(Also I hate when I don't look too closely at the english translation and it lets me down, Petra says that [Levi] is a 強力な実力者 kyouryokuna jitsuryokusha "powerful big shot" (実力者 jitsuryokusha translates literally to "person with real/actual power/ability"), and Eren's 誰の指図も意に介さない人だと is approximately "(I thought) that (he is) a person who doesn't pay heed to/care about anybody's instructions")

Perhaps Levi being in a role that is outside of/exceptional to the system ticks both of those boxes as well, of skill and of unconventionality. It is a waste of talent to stick him into a box, but it also serves to send out signals to expect unconventionality.

And in a way, what's more interesting to me is perhaps that teething period, where Levi has to prove himself but more likely than not that it's Erwin vouching for the worthwhileness of his own gamble decision and smoothing things over XD

Magath does seem to know about him by reputation already, "apparently with/carrying a strength comparable to the 'Nine Titans'", and thus we're back to the first point XD

And so, my conclusion is that Levi is (still) in the military because he can walk the Talk, and because Erwin is a lunatic gambler XDD

(Usual disclaimers apply XD)

lostcauses-noregrets

Lost, why do people even criticize Erwin for saying, "I don't know and I won't until it does," when Levi asks what he'll do when his dream comes true. This is the most realistic answer to a question like that, because really, how would he know? People make plans as they go, and considering how dedicated Erwin is to his dream, of course, he can't think of something else at the moment. Also, when Levi asks him about his future plans after the basement, he says he'd be eliminating threats beyond the walls, and people take this as him being clueless and blinded by his goal that he hasn't planned anything yet. It's like after he died, they actually did anything else, lol. They literally did exactly what he said he'd do; deal with the threats from outside, those who "wanted them dead," as Erwin said. I'm sorry for the little rant but I see this everywhere, and it's been annoying me to no end.

I feel your pain Anon. This idea that Erwin cared nothing about humanity, and that he would simply have given up after reaching the basement is not only one of the most egregious misrepresentations of his character, it’s also a very bizarre conclusion to draw from the story.

Erwin spent his entire life pursuing his dream of proving his fathers theory that the king had altered the memories of people within the walls, and that other people still existed outside the walls who had hostile intent towards them. The discovery of Grisha’s diaries confirmed that everything Erwin and his father had hypothesised was correct, not only that, they also provided the key that had the potential to free the people of Paradis from the walled world. The idea that Erwin would have just shrugged his shoulders at that point and wandered off into the sunset is just nonsense. That knowledge would have galvanised Erwin and, as you rightly pointed out, he already had a plan - eliminate the threat posed by the people outside the walls and take it from there, which is exactly what Hanji and the others tried to do. Sheesh.

@tsuki-no-ura has written some excellent posts (X, X) about this recently, which I can highly recommend. I particularly like these points:

Erwin wanted more than just to know if what his father said was true. He wanted to know what the “memories of the world” that King Reiss erased from their memories were. This implies an intention not just to know about, but to understand and figure out what was out there, not just sort of know that it existed. “Eliminating threats” speaks directly of bringing the fight out to their enemies instead.

And…

It makes even less sense when one considers what actually lay outside of the walls. What’s outside fits in exactly with Erwin’s hypothesis, whereas it is a crushing of Armin’s dreams because it turns out that it wasn’t an unexplored wilderness that awaited them but a populated world. I just can’t see how Erwin’s dream would die when it would have been the equivalent of hitting the jackpot. On the other hand Armin’s dream did actually die when it turned out to be enemies beyond the sea (but is something that Erwin already knew). He can also no longer imagine and daydream now that the reality of what the world is actually like has hit.

Whether all these careful explanations of the text actually change any minds remains to be seen, but I live in hope!