Absolutely, all opinions should always be welcomed!
Well, I’ll just start off by addressing what you said about the theme of characters not getting to realize their dreams that ran throughout SnK. You’re right, that’s a definite theme. But I’d counter that, in regards to Levi, by pointing out that Levi isn’t, thematically, really like any other character IN SnK. The real, key difference between Levi and every, other single character in the story is that Levi doesn’t actually harbor any, personal dream. There’s nothing he wants for himself. Every other character you mentioned had some personal drive, something they wanted to achieve for themselves. It’s a repeated refrain with Levi that he’s the most selfless character in SnK, and that’s meant literally, in a lot of ways. There’s nothing he’s aiming for, for himself. So right there, it kind of nixes that theme in relation to Levi. There’s no dream for him to achieve that he, personally, has to let go of, or sacrifice. There’s nothing he would personally be letting go by giving his life. The only thing Levi is working towards is helping others. That’s it. And he manages to accomplish it, with the help of everyone else too.
I’ve never heard Isayama say that about Levi, but I’ll just take your word for it. But honestly, I think it only further affirms why it was the right choice to let Levi live. Levi dying would have been irrelevant to the plot, and wouldn’t have accomplished anything personally for Levi himself, as a character. Everyone else who died, did so while carrying in many ways an unbearable burden. Erwin, Shadis, Magath, and yes, I’ll even say Hange. There’s a few characters who died for plot convenience, or character development of others. Sasha is one. She died to symbolize how Eren’s compulsive drive towards freedom would, in the end, cost the very lives of the people he was determined to set free. I’ve seen people criticize the story for failing to follow through on this supposed foreshadowing by allowing everyone from the 104th to survive in the end. And that’s a valid criticism. But for the most part, for the characters who died, there was a reason relevant to them personally for their deaths. I talked about this in my post for chapter 132 in regards to Hange. I think Hange’s death was totally set up, and had been for several chapters. Hange’s struggle with taking over the Commandership from Erwin was something that was highlighted again and again, with their dubious feelings towards the decisions they had to make, their deep sense of failure and regret over Erwin’s choice to make them Commander, their sense of failure in averting the Rumbling, in getting through to Eren, etc… Hange was really, deeply burdened by a sense of guilt by the time chapter 132 came around, really struggling with whether what they’d been doing up to that point was really for the greater good, or if they’d just been deluding themselves. You can trace these feelings of Hange’s all the way back to the Uprising arc, and their agonizing over having tortured that MP (I can’t recall his name at the moment). And for Hange, the burden of that guilt, of having to compromise their morals more and more frequently as the story went on, only grew. So I feel like, by the time chapter 132 came around, Hange was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to give meaning to all of their decisions leading up to that point. They tell Levi “It feels like… it’s finally here. Ya know? My big moment.”. What that says to me is that Hange was ready to die, and was okay with it, because to them, it was like an absolution from all they’d held themselves accountable for. I’m talking about Hange’s PERSONAL perception here. Objectively speaking, I don’t think anyone would ever blame Hange for anything that went wrong leading up to the Rumbling. But Hange blames themselves. And that’s important to understand. I think Levi let Hange go because he understood, in the same way he understood with Erwin, that they needed to do this thing in order to fine peace for themselves. In order for Hange to accept and feel okay with everything they’d had to do, leading up to that moment. The same way Erwin needed to step into the role of Commander, at the expense of his own, personal dream, Hange too needed to step into the role and forgo their own. Hange’s dream was to run away. They wanted to forsake the entire war and live in the forest with Levi. And they let that dream go in order to fulfill their duty and live up to the memory and expectations of her comrades. Levi even says to Hange, right before their decision, “Don’t you start talking like him, too…”. Levi saw the same, fatalistic mindset in Hange in that moment that he saw in Erwin. He saw a need for relief in them from the burden of their own guilt, and a need to finally rise to the role of Commander that Erwin had entrusted them with. Hange, up to that point, had never felt as if they were able to live up to that role, but in sacrificing themselves the way they did, they at last accomplished it, I think.
As for Levi, going back to this idea of him having no dreams of his own, and how his death would have accomplished nothing narratively or personally, it makes sense then, for him to be the last, surviving member of the veteran Corps. Because Levi was the most selfless character all throughout the series, never doing anything for himself, never taking anything for himself, it’s then a bit of poetic justice, that it’s him, of all people, who is rewarded for his selflessness, by getting to see and experience peace for the first time in his life. He’s the one character who never asked for anything, and his reward for that is being given what everyone else was denied. He gets to live a long, contented life, gets to experience moments of happiness and peace and freedom, gets to have a new, found family in Gabi and Falco. To kill Levi would have been pointless, because it would have been taking away the chance for a good life from the one character who had earned it above all others. It wouldn’t have said anything about Levi himself, it wouldn’t have advanced his character in any way, made him a better person, or a more fully realized version of himself. Levi was already an incredibly kind, selfless person. He was already someone who had forfeited his own happiness in order to serve a greater cause. There was no great sacrifice he needed to make in order to become a more complete or actualized version of himself, no shortcoming in himself that he felt the need to rectify, beyond carrying out his duty to Erwin and his other fallen comrades. And it wouldn’t have advanced the plot, or had any, deeper meaning in terms of the other characters development. Isayama saying he didn’t kill Levi because he couldn’t find a meaningful way to kill him off says it all, basically. There wouldn’t have been any POINT in killing Levi, other then to make the audience feel sad, and that would have been stupid as hell. Not to mention it would have been unnecessarily cruel, once again, to rob the one character who never asked for anything, of the last thing he had, which was his life. There wouldn’t have been any meaning in that, just shock value.
Anyway, that’s just my take. Nobody has to agree, of course.
kianamaiart
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
discoholicmusic
stormborns
2087
yousharknotpass
areudirty
origamiaround
blakekathryn
gamechangershow
