Did Levi basically have Eren right the first time he met him? Their first meeting he told Erwin that Eren was unhinged and could never be caged. He obviously changed his mind but in the end, he ended up being right and he immediately knew Eren better than anyone right off the bat
I honestly cannot tell if this was asked as bait, or if it is genuine, but I’ll answer as if this was a legit question.
I don’t remember Levi ever saying Eren is unhinged. And actually, no part of the story suggests that. (Just in case, could you tell me when Levi said that? Like, the number of the chapter you meant?)
However, sure, Levi did understand Eren right off the bat. Eren’s spirit, that is, Eren’s will cannot be caged. It is a fact that only Levi has acknowledged (and maybe Shadis).
In the visual novel Burning Bright, we can read this from Levi’s pov:
“Yet, that violence and any other form of pain will never break the boy’s [Eren] spirit.”
I once thought he meant that Eren’s soul, too, couldn’t be crushed, and that’s why, in chapter 105, Levi was so surprised and saddened by Eren’s eyes losing the brightness they always had. The eyes are the mirror of the soul, and all that.
However, Levi always knew very well that Eren’s soul could be damaged, and that’s one of the reasons why I believe he has always put enough care into uplifting Eren whenever he was going through some second-guessing, guilt, or painful, self-deprecating realizations. He knew how fragile one’s heart is, especially in situations where one has great powers and yet couldn’t protect loved ones - because it is way too familiar to what Levi often experiences.
“This had happened countless times.
Making a choice, and having the results thrust at oneself.
He looks at the boy he’s holding.
He too had faced the results today.
The raging, cold regret freezes in the heart, and it will never melt for this lifetime.”
So he nurtures Eren’s heart, offers him comfort, but without coddling him. He never lies to Eren about the truth of a situation, but at the same time he soften the blows.
He always understood whenever Eren needed help, a voice of reason or reassurance to bring him back up, and Levi gladly did that for him, every time.
Anyway, I thought maybe you meant the time Levi called Eren a monster...?
In the visual novel, we find out it is something that Levi was thinking even before saying it out loud to Petra and his squad. It’s something, as portrayed above, Levi realized during their first meeting in the underground prison.
“A monster since birth.
Not because of the titan power, but because his soul itself is a monster.
Nothing can be done to control this monster.
Not violence, power, words.
Nor danger, fear, peace.
And, most likely – not even love.”
And yet, that desire to kill titans - a desire that Levi shared at the time - has Levi in awe. What he feels towards it is... “Not bad.”
In the visual novel, when Eren’s pain is channelled into desire to kill (titans), Levi thinks:
“The boy’s soul is refined into something purer.
Into a monster with perfect, fearsome beauty.”
Levi is impressed. He doesn’t attach negative or positive qualities to it. Or maybe he does a bit, he attaches both of them, because it is fearsome, but it is also beautiful, and as such it is perfect, and there is no judgement, just awe.
Eren’s spirit cannot be changed, bound, or controlled. This is all that Levi meant with that “monster” comment.
It is something Levi, I feel, look up to, and respect. That is why he always left Eren a choice, always watched him and guided him without truly forcing his hand. When he did, in Return to Shiganshina arc, he failed. He probably thinks he should’ve known better.
In any case, what Levi thought of this realization about Eren’s character is as such:
“He still does not know what that truth will bring.
No, he will probably never know.
Yes, he doesn’t know anything.
Even if he believes in his own strength.
Or in the choices of trustworthy comrades.
All he can do is accept the results.
And after that, he can only move on.”
Because for Levi, Eren being a “monster” that won’t submit, a “monster” that might eventually grow to be farther away from people who reject his nature, is fine. He accepts it. Levi accepts Eren. Accepts the uncertainty it brings because he doesn’t think it is wrong, or even that Eren’s will, or spirit, must be contained.
And even though he was proven wrong when Eren held back for love, for trust, for the acceptance of his comrades right there in the forest, Levi wasn’t wrong in the grand scheme of things. Eren can’t submit and lay there, waiting for death to come. But it’s worth noting that this is also what experiences taught Eren. It isn’t all just him.
Levi hasn’t exactly changed his mind about Eren, I feel, in the way that you seem to mean. That first assessment is still there, has always been. But that opinion of Eren understandably got broader and gained depth, because Levi himself gained more perspective, got to know Eren better, deeper, to witness that Eren’s “self” isn’t as black and white as he thought. He also “caught feelings” in the sense that he grew fond of Eren quite fast, so he’s become biased toward him and has failed to see, actually see, that Eren had pushed himself over “the edge” mentioned in the novel: loss after loss, still moving forward, what is left in his heart is emptiness, and he’s become a monster that just won’t stop for anything and anyone.
But as the novel says, there used to be a light in Eren’s heart, underneath it all. It’s probably there, still. That hope, in the novel, was symbolized by the inseparable pair that is Levi-Freedom, and I thought Levi could’ve been the one to pierce through Eren’s walls first. But alas...
Levi has avoided the truth - a truth that he already knew once. He just couldn’t, emotionally, bring himself to acknowledge the monster that Eren has painted himself to be. And I feel it’s for the best, because Eren is so much more than just a monster. Levi knows.
So yes, you are technically right, Levi probably understands Eren better than anyone else currently facing him, on a basic level.
Hello there! I was just wondering if you could tell us if there is any added nuance in the Japanese version of what Levi said about what he wanted to tell Eren in chapter 136.
I’m feeling kind of desperate over this ereri crumb
Hii~
In japanese it’s “あのバカに言ってやりたいことはごまんとあったが、クソ”
which is literally how it was translated in English, but just to add a bit more spice: ごまんとある that was translated as “a whole lot” implies an extreme quantity, so much that it is impossible to count. It literally means “five thousands” but it stands for “countless”.
Also the curse is literally “shit”, but I think “dammit” works just as well. Not really worth mentioning.
Levi’s indecisiveness aside, have you considered the conversation he’d have with Eren given the chance? 🤔
Yes, vaguely. I’ve always thought they had talked, if not 2, at least 1 time, so I thought about it before this chapter already.
And like, THIS IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THAT SCENE WITH HISTORIA AND YMIR WHEN HISTORIA THOUGHT YMIR WAS GONNA DIE, BUT THE SENTIMENT IS CLOSE ENOUGH, so y’know I do have Thoughts™️
But what is the point of sharing or putting it into words. What is the point of fantasizing too much about something that now I know will never happen because the author doesn’t care 😳 I’ll leave that to fanfic writers and their readers.
If it was any other story I was following, my mind would be going crazy with ideas, but I’m too disappointed at the moment to even think of Levi as a consistent character.
Levi has acted so out of character in never approaching Eren that I don’t even know anymore what would be in character for him to say. I’m at a loss.
Feel free to share your ideas, though, I would love to hear them and think if it could be in character or not on the spinning wheel that is levi’s personality post time skip.
I love your theories about Ereri, greetings from Mexico.🇲🇽✨
I'm doing this through the translator, haha. I apologize.
What I wanted to ask you is: If Eren and Levi were given the opportunity to talk, what would that conversation be like? What would they talk about?
Hi!! It makes me so happy that you wrote to me even with the language barrier! Thank you!!
I received a similar question the day before, here. I was still reeling from bitterness, so I didn’t even want to think about it.
But now I’ve calmed down, analyzed Levi’s scenes a bit more and the Japanese text also helped. Overall, I feel like I have understood something new about Levi and it has helped with feeling a bit less disappointed in Levi’s “character arc”, though I still have a thousand complaints about how it was written. So I’m a bit more...not exactly positive, because I am still annoyed at Isayama’s choices and I think this is it with regards to E&L, but I gotta admit that the angst is delicious, and it partially validated my reading of Eren and Levi’s relationship as one that is defined by their talks. Which I have spent a million words on:
On Eren & Levi’s Relationship during the TimeSkip (predictions, mostly)
On their Talks in the Past
On the Lack of a Talk
On How A Couple of Talks Were Foreshadowed (but I knew I was gonna get disappointed)
Etc, etc.
So, as for what they would talk about I had some ideas. For a while now. But if it’s only Levi who wants to tell “countless things” to Eren...well. I AM SO SURPRISED?!
I guess he would want to apologize for not treating Eren properly, for not noticing, for not understanding, because I sense a great deal of regret.
He would want to ask Eren for an explanation, for sure, because there is hurt and confusion in Levi.
Maybe yell at him, tell him how disappointed he is, how he can still come back to them for real, because he cared and still does and doesn’t really want to kill him.
Aaand who knows what else... I repeat, my askbox is open to suggestions about this topic!
Why did Eren ask Zeke about Mikasa in chapter 130?
Read chapter 123 and 112.
He wanted to know why Mikasa cares so much about him. Isn’t it sad, that in his mind it’s impossible that someone might love and care for him for no other reason that he exists?
He thought it might have been the Ackerman clan’s instincts, something that he may have thought he “activated” by accident when they were kids, making Mikasa a “slave”, following him around, always trying to protect him. It seems to me Eren would’ve hated himself for it, if that was the case. So he asks Zeke.*
That’s why he asked her what she thought of him, why she cared that much, if she considered him family or her savior (“or if she’s brainwashed by the Ackergenes”, was between the lines imo).
I kind of want to know how he came into possession of all this information about Ackermans so that he ended up worrying this much about it. I think there is a bit of truth there, also confirmed by Grampa Ackerman (but Eren doesn’t know that), so he may have seen it in past (or future) memories.
But he must not have had conclusive proofs, so he asked Zeke, because Zeke might have known more about it, since he was never subjected to the hiding of knowledge the way people in Paradis instead were.
*As for why, exactly, he wants to know, it’s a mix of a couple of things, in my opinion:
1. if it was an Ackergenes thing that forced Mikasa to act certain ways, Mikasa’s will wouldn’t be free, which Eren would hate and probably feel guilt about.
2. furthermore, it may be that he was trying at the same time to find a way to break his bond (not “acker”, because it’s just a fandom legend) with Mikasa so that she wouldn’t follow him in his downfall or prevent others from taking him down when the time comes. I have a feeling it won’t fully go as Eren wishes, though, because Mikasa will never hate him.
why do you think there are irregularities related to eren-levi interactions in the anime adaptation?
I hope I understood this correctly, because I don’t wanna make a manga-anime comparison post to be honest, so if you’re asking for the reason why certain choices were made, well,
I am just a normal fan and I have no insider knowledge. My best guess is that Isayama didn’t think the relationship was important anymore or most likely didn’t plan on expanding on it / have it be relevant in future developments, so he decided it was expendable, just like Dimo Reeves was.
So when the anime S3 script writer rearranged everything, they decided Eren and Levi’s relationship wasn’t particularly needed.
What I hate the most is that they kept making merch or official art for them, often together, as promotion, which means it was all bait because then the anime never delivered.
I think it might have been Isayama’s decision because if you follow the manga, aside from Levi feeling conflicted over Eren once every 20 chapters for 3 seconds, in the last 2 arcs there isn’t anything else there anymore. Not the themes, not the understanding, or the trust, the care, the conversations, the depth. So if Isayama started dismantling everything he had done plot and themes-wise surrounding Eren wrt Levi and Levi wrt Eren, then the last 2 arcs in the anime won’t end up feeling as jarring and weird and lacking as they do in the manga for those who pay attention, i.e. like he discarded the whole relationship at the last minute.
This is what I started feeling when S3 was airing. I thought it was a WIT-problem too, because they’ve been known to have a penchant for pushing for certain relationships instead of the canon ones. But seeing how everything this chapter/episode was kept the same, except for Levi’s pain and disappointment, erased to just keep the anger, I feel like MAPPA just did what Isayama has already done, to keep it consistent. This way it will be more in line with the absolutely one dimentional character Levi has been in the manga for the majority of the final arcs.
Maybe I'm dumb, i didn't get why did erer/i die for a moment in that post...the way i read it levi is confirming that all of them weren't thinking straight. He's not saying they were never concerned about him, he said they were not under the circumstances to be this concerned with eren from the beginning but they kept at it despite the genocide and despite all their comrades giving their lives for the opposite of what eren is causing so i see both as good, antis always said he didn't care for him and he's admitting that he did, too much
Reading back on the chapter, I think that part was him making the tough call like he always does, in a cold, detached way, except it is immediately revealed that it’s at the cost of his feeling for Eren and everything he wanted to tell him. There is a not so small part of regret in there. Plus what you said.
But I think that post you’re referring to was made by ereris for ereris, because I would lie if I said that I didn’t feel like slapping my phone out of the window when I saw Isayama made Levi be the first one to say to give up on Eren. It was just a split-second where I thought “well you did done it now, fuck you”.
Then it got immediately marginally better with Jean (or Connie?) acknowledging as an extension of Levi’s own feelings, that of course they wish they could save Eren and stop him without killing him. But. [inserts reasons he explained - in general it’s too late now] Which brings us to the panel where ereri flourished once again, because Levi, at the idea that it’s too late, expresses regrets that he hasn’t said all he wanted to say to Eren. Wow.
It hurts. But it explains that what he said previously - that they couldn’t be concerned about Eren anymore - didn’t mean he isn’t concerned, that he doesn’t care. It means that he does, quite a lot, and has cared, for a long time, and that’s why he hasn’t acknowledged what was happening properly for the longest time, and it’s probably also part of his reason for hyperfixating with killing Zeke. But now they should give up even if it hurts, and isn’t it quite the coincidence that the moment he reluctantly and painfully gives up on saving Eren, he also gives up on killing Zeke?
It wasn’t about antis. I don’t know what they think about this, they probably rejoiced and then got hit in the face with Levi’s pain over Eren 😂 Which is plain weird, because it’s been unequivocally canon for years now that Levi cares for Eren.
It was a post about instant reactions, not analytical understanding of the context.
