Yep, Levi and Historia. Crazy, right. I bet you never thought of the ship before either, but I’ve been in enough fandoms now to know anything is possible… Rule 34 and all that.
I always feel too scared to openly declare I like this ship (no, love it) even when I say I ship them once Historia reaches 18/19, but now that the manga has officially ended, I feel more comfortable expressing my love for it, and Tumblr seems a safe place.
I feel the manga left so much open-ended, that anything is possible. So take all this with a pinch of salt…
I get some of the qualms with RivaHisu. He is much older (by 16 years at least), and she has the ship and history with Ymir (YumiKuri) However… bear in mind Ymir was even older than Levi after being a titan for 60 years, so Historia has dated someone much older than herself (if they did date, that is). I suppose Ymir was still mentally and physically a teen in some way, but the age gap still applies.
The one qualm I do understand the most: They had no chemistry and barely interact on screen. Yes, on screen… So much was going on behind the scenes, as I said, anything was possible. It’s all up to interpretation and honestly, I don’t think Yams will ever clear anything up, and in a way, I don’t want him to (though still pining for Hooded person to be Levi).
He has given us this amazing gift. You see it with other fandoms such as Harry Potter, people theorize for years to come. An open-ended ending was the best of all in my opinion.
Well, back to that Levi and Hisu never interacting and having no chemistry thing… Well, they did interact for a short time during Uprising. I always thought the reason the anime removed some of Levi’s more violent scenes towards Historia was a sign of the ship becoming canon possibly one day (in about a one in a million chance, but still possible). They also removed the part where he suggested to his soldiers about turning Historia into a titan after she gives birth, but then it turned out nothing came of the ship, and all of my friends marvellous theories concerning the two never came to fruition after all…
Or did they? The ending has been left opened-ended… We even have a brand new time skip where Historia is even older, a full grown woman now at 22 who no longer has ‘teen’ at the end of her age. And then we have a full grown man in his late 30s, two grown people who are only a decade apart (twenties and thirties, respectfully), but we also have no true reveal of the father of Historia’s baby… not really. Farmer-Kun never even had a real name at the end (he will always be known as that farmer who knocked up Historia…allegedly).
People will argue about the real father for years to come, so that is to be expected, but I am going to add a few of my own points as to why Levi may still be the father. Call me crazy. Everything is up to debate and some of this is reaching, but I am biased, so I do admit…
Think of me as serious but not too serious… I don’t mind if you don’t care for this ship, but do so in a polite way (please) if possible.
Reason 1. Historia couldn’t openly declare that Levi was the father because the new fascist Jaergerist government would potentially consider her hostile and create a new revolution, doing away with the monarchy all together… They could have even killed her and her baby if they knew she had a traitor’s child, a man who had a hand in killing Eren Jaeger…
Reason 2. It looked to me as if Historia was still sending the Alliance letters, and was very willing to negotiate peace talks with them. Who is to say she never kept in touch with Levi either. She could have sent coded letters about their child, about her learning her first words, taking her first steps, etc. (don’t make me cry now).
Reason 3. This is reaching a little now. Honestly, all of this is reaching, but hear me out… Since Levi can’t be on Paradis to help raise his daughter with Historia, that for me, personally, amplifies the angst and the romance between them and just leaves so much room for the imagination. Imagine what it will be like when they do reunite again… Fireworks! Yams was never about writing straightforward, easy romances… His HEAs are bittersweet at most (look at EreMika).
Reason 4. Who was Historia married to when Jean mentioned it to the creep Reiner? Farmer-Kun? It never directly says… I know Levi and Historia couldn’t have married after the Battle of Heaven and Earth because of all the points I made above, but maybe they got married in secret before the Scouts departed to Marely in chapter 123… Reaching for the stars again, I know, but I like to let my mind wander… Hisu may have even mentioned she is married in a letter to Armin, but never specified who she was married to, and that was how the Alliance (sans Levi) knew about it on the boat. She may have also performed a sham wedding to the farmer for the benefit of the people of Paradis to keep up the ruse (honestly feeling bad for Farmer-Kun, being used like this 😂).
Reason 5. It looked to me like Levi was returning to Paradis. That was why he was looking at the plane (and not just because it made him think of Hange). He was looking forward to returning to the island he helped protect for many years, the island where he was born…
Maybe he was hoping to finally meet his daughter too.
There is way more to discuss. My friends are much better at theorizing at this stuff than I am, but it’s fun to finally get my own voice out here. I was leading up to it by posting parallels between them, but I wanted to wait until the manga was over until I went public with my love of the ship. I mean, I write fanfic for them, but that’s not enough…
Remember, I ship two consenting adults. Many celeb couples have large age gaps too. Beyoncé & Jay-Z (12 year age difference, for example), and Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriend Camila Morrone was born the same year when Leo starred in Titanic back in 1997 (22 year age gap). Age gaps happen…
It’s really all up to debate, but these are just little RivaHisu headcanons that I am going to hold on to for a while. It may only exist in fanfiction, but I will still take it.
Also, here is a meme I made. Please feel free to use (if you like the ship too that is).
Thank you for reading my dissertation…
gracieabrams
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
tangentwithtanner
