Analysis: Levi and Desperation
This topic comes from an ask that’s currently in my inbox. The ask has several questions in that ask though, and since I had been wanting to write on this topic anyway, I felt it would best be served to break it out as its own article. So, my anon asks:
I was wondering, what else do you think Levi might suffer from? Illnesses, etc.
Dear Levi is a little ball of pain rolled up in a blanket of trauma with a dash of sass. I think at this time I’ve really covered all of the potential “illnesses” or disorders I think he could possibly be displaying such as OCPD, perhaps some type of anxiety issues that he’s become very good at coping with. I’ve also covered before some specific personality traits he displays that would be a result of his many traumas which include a dismissive-avoidant attachment style and a flattened affect which I’ve mentioned in several places.
Something I’ve noticed about Levi that I haven’t written about yet though is that brosky does not seem to handle distress (or desperation) well, particularly in instances where there is a blocker to his over arching goals of defeating the Titans and he is unable to control the situation. I use the term “distress” to separate it out from general stress. I’m using distress somewhat interchangeably with “desperation” here, to denote moment of particular heightened emotions that a result of facing down potential disastrous failure. This first really occurred me when re-reading this panel a couple of weeks ago:
Now that we’ve spent so much more time with Levi, we can identify that this reaction is extremely out of character for Levi. Many fans have observed how, in general, Levi doesn’t give orders like this. He prefers to give people a choice to follow him, a chance to make their own decisions. Even when he’s about to lead the bait and switch mission against the Reeves company. He says “Do you trust him [Erwin]? Anyone dumb enough to say yes, follow me.”
Another big indicator is also in the Female Titan arc:
There’s that meme floating around (that is pretty funny) of this scene where Erwin is given the caption “I fucked up”. But when I see this scene, I really think its Levi who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Annie’s locked up tighter than Fort Knox. They need her to answer questions, to fill in the gaps of what the hell is going on. And Levi can’t get to her. So he starts running his mouth, partly to intimidate and partly to vent his frustration. (I’ve certainly done it before, I get pissed off and start pacing the floor, running off at the mouth how I’m going to beat the crap out of someone which I then never really do.)
Annie is doing her best to standoff with the Survey Corps, waiting for an opportune moment to break away. Its possible she could have turned to calling the other Titans eventually anyway, but Levi’s frustration driven speech is really what drives her to do it in that moment. Levi is a scary mutherfucker, I mean if I had him threatening to cut off my limbs I’d do everything in my power to get the hell away from him too.
And, of course, there is the infamous Historia scene:
Levi doesn’t wear desperation well. He explains his full view on the matter in that scene: “Of course, if there’s another way… If we could seize control of this world, then a lot of people who would’ve died will live.” By Historia becoming Queen, they’re a HUGE leap closer to ending the terror they currently live. But, just like with Eren shifting into a titan, Levi has to rely on someone else to do it. Historia HAS to agree to become Queen otherwise the best plan they have, the best one they’ve probably come up with in the history of the Survey Corps that will theoretically save the most amount of lives is completely down the drain. And Levi has to rely on Historia to make the right choice.
And he kind of sucks at need to rely on other people to make choices for him. You can’t really blame the guy. He has a history of choices ending poorly for him. And he’s not good at clearly communicating his needs to others. Violence is the best language he knows. So when he’s distressed and pushed to that point of desperation, that’s when he starts cracking and snapping at people in a particularly virulent matter.
There are some other subtle moments that display this too. In Trost for example, when Eren and Annie are fighting: Levi’s injured and can’t join in the fight. His only options are to rely on the fact that the 104 and Hange’s Squad can take care of things.
(I don’t know why, but I just really love this use of subtle characterization. Probably because I’m a theatre kid.)
So, while its not necessarily something he “suffers” from, per say, it is a really interesting facet of his personality that he doesn’t handle these particular types of distressful situations where he needs to rely on others well. Which is why I find this frame of Chapter 66 so hugely profound for him:
He makes the choice to rely on Eren and just have faith that he’ll make the right one without snapping. The page draws a parallel to the forest in the Female Titan Arc, but even then Levi still had a modicum of control. He knew Erwin’s trap was just ahead so if Eren made the choice to transform, he still could have guided Eren to help draw Annie into the trap. Here, he is completely at Eren’s mercy.
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