I’ve had this in my drafts for about 5 months because I’ve been too afraid of stirring the pot if my takes are hot, but I also really just enjoy character analysis so… this is my opinion!
Levi would not be a rough, mean dom in bed, and he wouldn’t have a high sex drive.
(CW: sex, prostitution, trafficking, all the Levi childhood things)
To start, if we look at his childhood, his mother was a prostitute in the Underground. And he was the direct product of this. While it was never specified exactly how Kuchel died — just that she was sick — I'd wager that it was almost definitely from an untreated STD; and even if not, it was precisely her dire circumstances that would've prevented her from receiving adequate treatment for any other illness. This lifestyle killed his mother, and we can see how deeply her death impacted Levi through even the smallest behaviors in his adult life; in the way he treats life as valuable, how he looks out for the young teenagers who end up on his squad, even in the way he holds his teacups. Kuchel loved him, and she was a kind person, but it didn’t matter—the world was too cruel of a place.
In Bad Boy, we see young Levi being threatened with the prospect of being sold into the same life as his mother — one of the men says, "We should make him do the same job as his mother. He might have inherited her talents." That's not something he'd easily forget, and, unfortunately, would likely be an experience that shaped his perception of self-worth, what sex is, and how the world works. This is not to say anyone is defined or shaped by their traumas, but our childhoods are very often where many of all our behaviors lead back to.
I'd imagine that if this is the life he grew up with, it would make his viewpoint on sex that it's something harmful, cruel, and unforgiving; it's a transactional means to an end, something taken with brutality, not an act of care, love, and intimacy.
There likely wasn’t anything in his life in the Underground to shown him otherwise, and he was there for all of his key, formative years. Even aside from his own personal experiences, we know that prostitution and trafficking ran rampant in the Underground—Mikasa and her mother were intended to be sold into it.
His abandonment by Kenny (who he almost definitely thought was his father at the time), only would've compounded his negative views regarding self-worth and the dysfunction/unreliability of relationships that are supposed to be caring, comforting, and nurturing. It took him decades to find out who Kenny really was or why he was abandoned—that's plenty of time for these emotional scars to cement themselves deep within him, even if subconsciously.
He'd then go on to lose basically anyone he'd ever dared to care about from that point forward—from Furlan and Isabel to the original Levi Squad to almost the entire Scout Regiment to Erwin to Hange to Sasha and Eren. Because of all of that emotional turmoil and the loss of all of his relationships that had mattered to him (despite his best efforts to keep them), I don't think emotional or physical intimacy would come easily to him or be something that he'd go out of his way to find, because why risk it? Why take the chances of getting attached to someone if your life is full of loss?
For that reason, I don't think he'd seek out sex just for the pure physical release. I think that for sex to even interest him at all, there'd have to first be a level of emotional connection and trust. With the right person, I'd reckon that over time, he'd develop a desire/need for it—it feels good physically, he'd see that it does foster intimacy, it would likely soothe some of his emotional wounds, and he'd want to please his partner. It’s also not to say he’d be overly gentle or timid or meek; but there’s a difference between passion and being rough with someone to the point of harm.
I just don’t envision him being particularly rough or dominating about it. He's not a violent or aggressive person at heart—only by necessity and circumstance. Honestly, I think, to some degree, he likely struggles internally with the super-human physical strength and fighting skills he's inherited. In my mind, it's not a far stretch to think that Levi has viewed himself as more of a tool/weapon/killer than a person, and I don't see him wanting to bring that into sex (or a relationship at all for that matter).
Levi didn’t choose to be an Ackerman/fighter — it was a perfect storm of his bloodline, Kenny’s influence, and the survival instinct necessary to live in the Underground that turned him into one. But that doesn’t mean that it’s his true nature. (Yes, he can at times reach a breaking point and lash out because he’s human, and almost no one constantly acts in line with their true nature and morality when put into dangerous, pressurized situations.)
I feel that Levi would want to avoid being violent or aggressive in an intimate setting, toward someone he deeply cares for, at all costs. Underneath his stoic exterior, crudeness, and the hardened mask he's often had to wear, he's shown to be a deeply caring, protective, and empathetic person.
Not to mention, I could genuinely see him being wary of his own sheer strength and not wanting to hurt his partner in any way or potentially scare them off, which would lead to yet another loss/abandonment.
Again, none of this is to say that a person’s trauma has to define them or shape their actions, feelings, and behaviors; but Levi is a deeply empathetic person, and I don’t see him easily shaking off seeing his mother’s tragic life, being abandoned, the loss he’s experienced, and the violence he has committed. Sure, it’s possible that after he gets into a relationship, or feels truly comfortable enough with someone, he’d be more open to different types of sex and not be as wary, but he’s just not a violent person in my eyes.
But mostly… I think, after a life of fighting and violence and aggression, he’d be eager to leave that behind when he can.
He’s not a violent dog, he doesn’t know why he bites.
This is not to discount anyone’s versions of Levi that they write/enjoy in fics/smut, I don’t really care what other people do and this isn’t about that. I’d never tell anyone what to do in regards to that. At the end of the day, we are really all just having fun here and living out our little fantasies as our our collective favorite character (I mean, I mostly write fluff pieces, so it's really not all that serious…). This just happens to be my take on Levi, it doesn’t have to be anyone else’s by any means, and I think character analysis is interesting! Pls don’t come for me, I won’t come for you!
You know I've gotten to thinking again, we all love and adore Hange. Aside from Eren, Mikasa, Levi, Armin and Commander Erwin, she's undeniably the most consequential member of the Scout Regiment.
Shocking, isn't it then, that we really don't know all that much about her or her past.
We've had our share of glimpses into her life as a scout, but ONLY as a scout. What was Hange's life before she became the eccentric genius we know and love? WHO was Hange Zoe before she took flight in her ODM gear for the first time?
Was her life a struggle like it had been for Levi? Was she lucky enough to avoid the traumas experienced by the main trio? We've never had so much as an OVA dedicated to her. Which is utterly insane when you think about it.
She was Erwin's hand-picked successor. I think she warrants that much. And we were owed that much.
What headcanons do you have about Hange and her life before the Scouts? What sides of her remain unexplored behind her infectious enthusiasm when studying and killing Titans?
Please share your thoughts here, absolutely anything.
There will be a poll coming up later that also ties into this so stay tuned.
on mikasa’s gender expression and the theme of duality
tldr: mikasa being both a highly skilled, powerful and efficient solider is contrasted to her domestic wishes of simply being with her loved ones: much like her philosophy of the world being cruel and beautiful, she embodies that duality because she is traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine in her appearance and trait wise. however, the main issue is that the world doesn’t allow her to present feminine (i.e. long hair & being “soft”) she must take arms (act “masculine” via short hair and violence) to protect her loved ones and this is at the “cost” of her femininity. for other characters like hange, freckles ymir and yelena they like presenting masc even without “practical” reason for it- but in mikasa’s case, conflict robbed her of her choice of gender expression, personality and family.
disclaimer: i want to begin by saying that i love masc / gnc takes on mikasa but this is just my take on how isayama presents her throughout the story and why that might be. and i’ll be discussing very stereotypes of femininity and masculinity, i.e., skirts / long hair / pink = feminine. but it’s my personal option that characterising traits or expression into masculine or feminine is simply fucking stupid. for example men in my culture wear lungis, when my english friend came over she made fun of my dad for wearing a “long skirt”- different cultures will have different standards for masculine and feminine presentation, so im just gonna try and go by snk’s standards for genders.
let’s look at mikasa’s hair throughout the series first.
throughout her childhood, mikasa keeps her hair long, both in her original household and the jaegers:
she keeps it long even in her cadet days, until eren tells her to cut it then she asks him to tell her the length too:
the reason i point this out is to show that mikasa’s short hair is done out of practicality NOT out of a desire to have short hair. it isn’t her desired length, it is eren’s (the one who led her into battle in the first place.)
post s3, she then tries growing it out, but an accident makes her cut it again leading to the s4 hair cut:
Q: Why did Mikasa cut her hair short?
A: She used to keep it long and make a ponytail. Due to some unexpected accident, the knot part was chopped off.
again, this is an example of her wanting long hair, yet circumstances lead her to having short hair- it isn’t her choice.
in their eremika’s paths timeline, we see mikasa grow her hair out:
once the whole war situation is over, she again chooses to grow out her hair, she kept it long for the rest of her life:
so yes, mikasa did have short / “masculine” hair for most of the series, but the most important bit for me is her feelings on the matter the way and her (limited) choice of gender presentation. it is made obvious that she wants to have long hair, yet she is forced to keep it short, being a solider gets in the way of her wishes, much like how she’d prefer not to do battle yet she needs to. the fact that eren, again the person leading her into battle, decides the shortness of her hair is significant.
lets move onto her outfits:
mikasa has anime character disease so her non-solider outfit is the same as her childhood clothing, a long skirt, eren’s scarf and cardigan. she usually wears pink, either in the skirt or cardigan.
in the snk universe, this is standard clothes for women as you see other feminine characters like historia and sasha wearing the same combo:
by contrast, here’s freckles ymir’s non solider outfit:
mikasa does wear a lovely new outfit during the marely expedition:
by contrast again, here’s hansi:
you can clearly see that they wear a much more masculine clothing, hansi (like freckles ymir & yelana) exclusively presents masc (isayama even told translators to use gender neutral or at least equal parts masculine and feminine pronouns for hansi!!!) whereas mikasa chooses to present feminine where she can.
(there’s also (idk if this counts) a blue dress thing (?) mid timeskip too:
idk it might be odm uniform ???)
moving on, she again wears pink + her long skirt + long hair in the cabin timeline & after the war is over:
whilst majority of her screen time is her wearing the scout’s uniform, when mikasa feels safe, when she is able to, she chooses to dress feminine.
so her masculinity defined by her short hair and battle prowess is much liked her solider uniform -> she wears it when it is necessary, not out of desire though. it is the world that mikasa is in that makes “masculinity” in the form of gender expression (short hair, trousers) necessary.
The system is at fault, and so is Eren - A systemic look into Attack on Titan and Eren’s trauma, and the solution to it all.
I think that one of the points the series makes about Eren’s character is that the rumbling and the subsequent genocide it caused was his fault, but also the world’s. Attack on Titan denounces humanity’s cruelty, but it doesn’t absolve responsibility from Eren either, and I think that’s a genius way of looking at the morality of our protagonist’s actions.
Understanding Eren’s Trauma
The driving force for Eren's character is his wish to be free because he was “born into this world”, though if you allow me to go deeper into the WHY he thinks that way, I’d argue it’s not only in his nature as many often argue; it was also boosted by the fact that he lived surrounded by walls to protect humanity from titans (and I’d say both the titans and the walls represent the antithesis of freedom to Eren) in one of the poorer districts of the city, in which everyone craved security and stability over the risks that came with venturing out, which Eren considers the behavior of cattle. Everything around Eren is telling him that he isn't free.
And of course, the defining moment that turns this desire for freedom into obsession is his mother’s death, which could have been prevented if the symbols of Eren’s lack of freedom were gone. Rather than just sources of frustration, the walls, the titans and Eren's own lack of ability become reminders of the loss and suffering inherent to being trampled by the strong—the pain that comes with not being free.
To understand his subconscious thought process more, I picture it like this:
“If humanity ventured outside the walls, exercising their freedom and killing the titans, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“If we didn’t live in Shiganshina, a dangerous district where the poor live due to being so close to the outermost wall, this wouldn’t have happened.”
And coupled with this, comes his own lack of exercising his freedom:
“If I had been strong enough to do what I wanted, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Eren's trauma is reaffirmed again and again, by failing to save Hannes, then failing to save Armin, and so on, and it all builds up to make him become who he is in the final act of the story.
Later on, it's revealed that Marley, actual humans, just like them, are the real villains behind Eren's opression. And that's when our protagonist snaps. It's no coincidence that the whole point of his genocide is to end civilization as we know it—he can't stomach a world in which everything that happened was by the hands of humans, one in which the monsters have families and insecurities just like him—it's just too nuanced, and that's too much to handle for Eren. It's easier to trample over everything and restart, than to face his inferiority complex, one that has its roots in the symbols that trample over his freedom, rather than solely on his nature.
From Personal to Systemic (and viceversa)
However, if we look even further than Marley to point towards someone to blame for these symbols, Marley became the way it is because human civilization was responsible for the divides that now can be seen not only inside, but outside the walls.
To put it in a simpler way, why did Attack on Titan start? Because King Fritz enslaved Ymir, someone with the power to become a titan. But we should go into the why, shouldn’t we? And it’s because that’s how human civilization works. The ones in power use it to their advantage and leave a wave of trauma that lasts generations, all to make up for their own weaknesses and fears. It’s about how the personal becomes systemic, and viceversa; and that’s exactly what happens with Eren. He represents the ultimate way in which you can trample over someone's freedom, which is met with retribution (and at the same time being an attempt at making up for his horrible trauma.)
I’d have to get into a whole rant about systemic issues and the feudalism that laid the basis for capitalism for this to become more understandable, but in the end, I’m saying all of this to prove a pretty simple point: it’s all about the cycle of hatred, which isn’t simply about revenge. It’s years and years of systemic oppression, combined with circumstance, combined with nature, and how all of it is processed by Eren’s self-esteem and ego, that led Eren to become who he is.
The line between the outside and the inside blurries, and black and white thinking become shallow in comparison to the nuance of the world—just like Eren's worldview.
Of course, I’m not saying that Eren realized all this. Dude was probably angry with the titans because they killed his mom and that was it. But a lot of it was probably part of his subconscious, and even if all of it wasn’t, all of these horrible circumstances were a vital factor in what is what the Marleyan general calls out for what it is:
Except this time, it’s not just by the Marleyan's hands. Nor is it even present humanity's.
It’s everything.
Eren is to Blame
All of what I showcased explains Eren’s insecurities, trauma and subsequent decisions. It’s because of his nature, coupled with the terrible circumstances he was born into, that shaped him into someone willing to wipe out humanity—it isn’t as simple as just because “it was in his nature”, and I’d argue that’s an excuse Eren himself would use to try and rationalize his horrible actions.
That’s actually what Eren does the most with his all-seeing power: he uses it as an excuse not to take matters into his own hands.
What I feel AOT is criticizing here is that whether it was his nature, or his environment, or the generations of systemic abuse, how Eren dealt with his trauma was his decision. Eren perpetuating the cycle of trauma and hatred, of civilization and war, was his decision.
We later learn that Eren was the one who killed his mother, but I’d argue that rather than to only highlight that it’s in Eren’s nature to be free even if it’s a destructive goal, this scene also shows that trauma is self perpetuated—in the end, Eren literally caused part of his own trauma and led himself to a destructive path, though instead of being due to a decision that will have consequences in the future, it’s one that had consequences in his own past. Speaking of which, I think the mind-boggling past-present-future coexistence ability Eren attains due to the Attack Titan isn’t a coincidence, and perfectly complements his character: it’s the ultimate way to reinforce that he’s the one furthering his trauma through his pursuit of freedom, and that no matter where or why it started, he’s the one responsible for not dealing with it and harming everyone and himself so much.
This isn’t to diminish the fact that it was the world that shaped Eren to become that way, or to fall into a “good-victim” and “bad-victim” debacle. Putting it in the frame of the present day, I’d say that saying that your trauma is caused by yourself sounds extremely wrong and it’s not the point I’m trying to make. Yes, Eren causes his trauma, but only a part of it. Eren causes his suffering, but only a part of it. Whatever the case, it’s up to Eren to continue perpetuating that suffering for himself and others, or stop it, and unfortunately, what he ends up doing is continuing it.
Of course, asking for severely traumatized people to deal with their own trauma on their own is not realistic, is it? Asking for severely traumatized people to know how to not take it out in a violent way, without even being taught other ways, is unreasonable. For a quick view on my thoughts, even though I completely agree that Eren should be held accountable for his actions, in the end, the solution to his suffering isn’t to demand him to somehow know how to deal with it: that’s why others are key in helping heal that trauma.
So why didn’t Armin and Mikasa help Eren with his trauma, you ask?
Dude, they’re on like, the AOT equivalent to the 19th century. They probably don’t even know what trauma is, and they have their own to deal with.
Though the real reason is that Eren isolated himself from them, refusing to talk to them about his weakness—refusing to be vulnerable. They weren't allowed to be by his side, and that ultimately spells Eren's downfall.
But we know better now, don’t we?
In the end, I think that what the precious bond between the main trio highlights, whether they're conscious or not, is their ability to stand for each other no matter what kind of crueltry they experience. That’s what the Alliance’s last stand, and their ability to forgive and understand each other in the final arc showcases, too. That even if traumatized, we can make an attempt to connect with one another, and perhaps it will reach those who can’t even think of a way out.
I've seen people push back hard on the idea of referring to Mikasa as "selfish," but I'll argue that referring her in such a way isn't entirely antithetical to her character.
I think a better way to frame it is that a lot of her actions are tinted by individualistic desires. At the start she's determined to protect her family. And even some of her actions within Trost can be framed as her following orders and not being pushed forward by an innate sense of heroism.
IMO, her individualistic desires are embodied in how she disobeys Levi's orders to save Eren from the Female Titan, which immediately leads to her Captain getting hurt.
But she learns from her experiences though and come the next few seasons she doesn't freak out and break away from her squad when Eren is inevitably pulled into danger yet again. Her arc is subtle, but it's there.
And keep in mind that I'm a Mikasa girlie too! I love her to pieces. But I'm the kind of person who wants their favs to be flawed because that's usually how I relate to them, so I feel like erasing said flaws or filing off their edges to make them more palatable feels unfair.
I bring this up because Jean is also a character who people can easily call selfish, as a lot of his goals pre-Trost are rooted in individualistic desires. He wants to live a comfortable life in an increasingly uncomfortable world, and who could blame him?
But I notice that people praise Jean for giving up his individualistic desires, wherein he kisses every prospect of a cushy life goodbye for the greater good, letting that little fantasy coping mechanism dream of his fade away as he re-enters the world he actually lives in.
And yet people aren't as quick to give that praise to Mikasa, who also sees her fantasy hallucinationship dream fade away as she comes back into reality.
Is it because her arc is less succinct than Jean's? Is it because Jean's a man and Mikasa's a woman and life isn't fair? Or is it because some people can't process the nuance of Eren being both someone she loved and someone she gave up for the greater good? Who knows?
I've been wanting to talk about this since forever since Bert is one of my faves and I feel like no one has really ever paid much attention to this detail (as far as I can tell).
I used to also find this bit of trivia about Bert funny but odd since it was used as a gag throughout the first seasons of the show and in junior high but it wasn't until I thought about it more that I realized that Bert's weird sleeping habit may be a direct cause from being a warrior.
It's interesting and a bit heartbreaking to think about how this may have stemmed from his time and treatment as a child soldier. The stress his body must carry to not even be able to sleep comfortably and from being one of the most lethal titans was probably no joke.
Whether it comes from his body being on auto pilot and his times as a solider being muscle memory or the fear that he can't allow himself to be peaceful in his sleep from being the colossal isn't clear but both are equal contenders.
I figured this may be his body's subconscious way of keeping him from fully dropping his gaurd and maybe even mistreatment or training as a soldier on Marley before I tried researching if this might actually be a thing that happens with war vets, which unsurprisingly is.
I feel like people in general just like to dogpile on Bert for no reason other than to compeltely discredit his character and hate him just cause. For some reason, people just can not wrap their heads around Bertolt and his character and will completely forget about him when other characters have done things that are just as bad.
Using this aspect of him as a running gag downplays the experiences he's had, whether it being a gag by the cadets or showrunners was intentional or not, and makes it that much easier for people to write him off easily. Though I do acknowledge that this had to have been intentional by Isayama, just overlooked by most and not delved into deeper.
Despite Bert physically and mentally showcasing his dilemma throughout the series, people just don't acknowledge these parts of him. I feel that this minor detail is one of those things that goes unnoticed because of that.
Despite all the terrible things Bert has done I think that not being able to sleep in a normal manner should be enough to show that he wasn't always like this, and certainly not of his own volition.
It's also interesting how Reiner would at times join in on poking fun at Bert for this, waking up in the morning and the cadets forming around him to gawk at. I think it really does a good job at showing how much of a hypocrite Reiner was in those earlier days as well. Bert was practically being made a show of and he doesn't even defend him, but when he gets called out on his personality shift, Bert is there to cover for him.
Like sheesh. You'd think the guy that made you do all this would at least ask if you're doing ok or give you a heads up or SOMETHING?!?!?!🤨
But anyways that's all I had to say on his lil sleeping habits😔
Of course, upon general viewing of SNK and its characters, it's clear that they have established Erwin, Levi, and Hange as the leading trio of the Survey Corps. They represent this faction of the military and in interesting ways, mirror the main protagonists of the series.
While there is a lot to be said and appreciated about Levi's relationships with Erwin and Hange, I have come to find that the character who humanizes him is the lovely (albeit forgettable) Petra Ral.
Early in the series, we are introduced to Levi as Humanity's Strongest Soldier. Erwin makes use of his abilities in this sense, and Hange often relies on his strength in combat as well. That is not to say this is the extent of their relationships: we have Levi's iconic "Give up on your dreams and die" scene with Erwin (S3 E16) and the infamous "Maybe we should just live here [away from my responsibilities] together" request from Hange (S4.2 E8). However, something to note with both scenes is that while they give depth to Levi's relationship with both characters, he essentially serves to highlight others. In the former, Levi's response directly challenges Erwin's dream, and allows this commander a defining moment of growth. Similarly in the latter, Levi is used as a means for Hange to express and eventually overcome their fears and insecurities about the deal they've been dealt as the new Commander of the Survey Corps (which at the time was rapidly disbanding under the Jaegerist movement).
In other words, Levi is the "subplot character" to Erwin's and Hange's individual arcs. (According to John Truby, 'The subplot character… provides another opportunity to define the hero through comparison and advance the plot.')
Which begs the question… at what point in the series, if any, is Levi defined as a character in and of himself?
Two prominent scenes from season 1 come to mind, which are namely: 1) The dying soldier scene (S1 E9), and 2) Petra's conversation with Eren in headquarters (S1 E15).
In the first, Levi comforts a dying soldier and vows to carry on their will and exterminate all Titans. When the soldier passes before he can reply to Levi's words, Levi turns to his fellow soldier Petra and asks her if he was heard. Petra provides confirmation, emphasizing the peaceful expression on the soldier's face.
In the second, Petra confronts a gloomy-looking Eren, who has been tasked to clean headquarters along with the rest of the Special Operations Squad (aka the Levi Squad). She specifically points out how Levi is 'not the hero he's expected to be' in the sense that he has a terrible personality, though she does so while smiling almost fondly, as though it doesn't matter what his personality is because they can always put faith in him as their Captain. It seems she wants Eren to understand this - or a notion similar.
It is in both moments that we are able to clearly see Levi beyond being a powerful soldier. Always, he is a threat. When he enters the scene we expect the shift in the dynamic of the battle - we expect him to win. He's a trump card. Erwin's last words to him are an order (S3 E16), and Hange's last words about him is "he's [Armin's] underling now, so really put him to work" (S4.3.1). Levi acknowledges Erwin's and Hange's humanity, bolsters it even, with the conviction of "dedicating your heart". In SNK he is the symbolism, the embodiment, of a soldier. That's all he really ever gets to be. Even his softest moments with - heck, anyone in the series - are meant to deeply reflect on the guilt, the burden, the purpose of getting the job done. ("So… you're telling me… I've spent all this time and energy running around killing people?" (S2 E12) / "Just think, if your hands were still clean... Jean wouldn't be here right now." (S3 E2) / "If we just run away and keep on hiding, what will we have left?" (S4.2 E8))
But for those singular moments in season one, he's more than just the threat. We see him as a human not only with (personality) flaws, but also with dreams and convictions, tied so seamlessly with his comrades' cause that we are reminded painfully, at the end of the series, that it was Levi who carried them all to the end. Throughout the story we see Levi lament fallen soldiers; we are exposed to how much he empathizes with his comrades and their deaths, to the point where it can be said that no one keeps us more aware of the lives that have been lost throughout the show more than Levi himself.
In this manner, Petra was the subplot character to Levi's hero. She gave the audience a (subconscious) glimpse of the Humanity within "Humanity's Strongest" and built the bridge that would lead us to compelling and important revelations about Levi's thoughts and actions as the show progressed. It's Petra whom he finds tending to a dying soldier; Petra whom he asks for confirmation that the soldier heard; Petra who, against all expectation, asks Eren to see past the station, the status, the soldier, to the person himself.
"He's not quite the great, perfect hero society makes him out to be, huh? The real Captain Levi is shorter than you'd expect, temperamental, crude, and unsociable. (…) You thought that because he's skilled, he doesn’t have to follow the rules like everyone else?" (S1 E15)
It's even Petra who, despite her rank, asks Levi to step aside when Eren becomes a half-baked Titan. Here, Levi's robust intuition and split-second decision making skills are shown even away from the battlefield. It's Petra who leads the Special Operations Squad in their apology to Eren (S1E19 "Bite"), who first instills in us (narratively) the notion of trusting your fellow comrades. More specifically, she is who convinces Eren to place his life in their hands. It's this notion that Levi carries with him even until the final arc - "I've saved Eren countless times over - each time, more comrades dying. All because I believed he was the hope of humanity." (S4.1 E13) In the manga (Ch112), it's Petra we see at the forefront of this belief.
"Do you, Eren? Do you find it that hard to trust us?" It's Petra who dies, her words the final say in convincing Eren: "I believe my squad will be victorious." (S1 E21)
"It's like some awful joke," Levi reflects later on, as his comrades' dying hopes and dreams flash by in the canopy of the forest. "What the hell was the hope that we saw? Such bullshit. It's not even funny." (S4.1 E13) "We" here could definitely mean the soldiers who've given their hearts, but the metaphorical representative of this heart is Petra herself... "Eren! Trust us." (S1 E19)
And in the end, it's Petra in the forefront alongside Erwin and Hange, representative of her fellow soldiers, the one (experienced/veteran) Scout we've seen and interacted with in the entire series to have professed the values of hope, of trust, of belief, which is henceforth carried on by Levi himself, his own convictions, his own dreams. They are, in the entire series, the glimpse we get into the Scout Regiment beyond the series' titular character and his comrades in the 104th, and a thorough dive into what makes Levi Humanity's, not simply its strongest.
Her character song, "The Light of Dual Wings", can literally be taken as an allegory of the dreams the Scouts have entrusted to Levi. That's how prominent she is as a Scout; how coded her devotion to Levi is, whether interpreted platonically, romantically, or narratively, as the dedication of hearts.
So, yes, I love them together. I love their scenes, the implications of them narratively, the values Petra professes so effortlessly in the air, washed away by the higher tides of the Female Titan arc. I love that it's still Petra at the forefront, in all of Levi's reflections moving forward, because she is our first glimpse into Levi's character, the real him.
In the end this is just a ship post struggling to keep from delving too much into the symbolism of Levi and the Scouts (how Levi is the face of the Scouts more so than Erwin himself, really), the truest depiction of humanity's collective fight for freedom in this entire series. In his early days, Eren wanted to be a Scout, after all. It is Levi and Petra who push him forward into 'that hell' - for better and worse, respectively.
zeke isn't a womanizer or a flirt, anything surrounding those things; he isn't. i'll happily die on this hill but i want to go more into depth.
first, we know zeke's backstory. we know he was an awkward kid and in one of my other analyses i said something along the lines of "zeke's awkwardness comes from isolation as a kid".
but, let's slow down. zeke in a romantic relationship depends on a lot of things, but mostly when that person meets him is obviously important. to make it easy lets just talk about adulthood.
zeke wouldn't approach anyone first, i highly doubt he would even know he found someone attractive until he's alone and it hits him; "hey, they're really cute." of course, for zeke it'll depend a lot more on emotional and mental aspects rather than physical ones.
zeke's self esteem is up for interpretation, at least imo. since he was raised to be a savior, but also i'm semi-sure he knows that people only want him because he is a savior, because he is a titan shifter, because he has status. zeke is never "zeke" in people's eyes. (i went more into depth on that on another analysis)
the way zeke acts is also a factor, a partner may think he's too brash or that he doesn't really have a filter with all his odd jokes. 💀
a potential partner will may also find zeke to be emotionally neglectful, why? because i really doubt zeke could be emotionally available after all the shit he's been through. he'd have to warm up and open up first before all that. which would probably take a good chuck on time.
i don't wanna ramble on inconsistently so i'll end this here.
