#whereas my Kenny drawing was just. it’s own thing lol

[plugnuts]

I can’t help but laugh at how much more notes my meme drawings got in comparison to my actual full scale drawing like wth lol

[o-king-of-suns]

To the sweet anon who sent me an ask couple of days ago. I am sorry for not answering you earlier. I have a problem with the reply button, so I will be answering your ask here :D

 1- Let’s be real here; Levi was NEVER going to choose Erwin :D No matter how much we wanted it to happen. No matter how much we thought it is the most reasonable choice, it was just never going to happen and we all know it. Levi was pretty much a slave to the narrative at that point.

Isayama said that he ALREADY had made up his mind that Erwin would die there and then. He also said that the since volume 18, he tried to draw Erwin and Armin as contrasting characters, the past and the future and described Erwin as someone "who is drenched in sth very personal" while Arimn is someone who "is chasing a dream that's pure and fresh”. Isayama intentionally created the serumbowl scene to draw important parallels between Armin & Erwin (as well as to show Levi’s development). I don’t understand how can anyone be blind to this!

  Armin is the future, rightful successor to Erwin. The plot deemed it necessary to show that Armin WAS the right choice and Isayama’s objective was to ensure that neither the characters nor the readers regret this choice by the end of the story. This is what Isayama planned to do all along but I’m going to be honest, it wasn’t well-executed as I wished it to be. Armin’s arc could’ve been handled much better.

2- Both Levi and Erwin agreed that in order for humanity to have a chance in survival and for them to have a chance in winning this battle, Erwin had to march to his death. Did this mean that both of them made a choice to doom humanity?! of course not, because as much as brilliant Erwin was as a commander, he wasn’t the sole key to humanity’s survival, Eren was at that point. I mean if they had to choose to sacrifice Erwin or Eren at that time, they would’ve agreed that it was Erwin is the person to be sacrificed because Eren was more important.

Actually, Levi made the same decision before during the Uprising Arc! He was willing to let everyone in the SC (including Erwin) die in order to find Eren and Historia.

3- Levi’s two most highlighted character traits are his kindness and his perceptive nature. His choice on that rooftop solidifies what I find to be his most important feature: an innate instinct for consideration, for understanding how to best care for someone independent of himself ALONG with his very strong perceptive nature and his ability to read situations and act in the best way accordingly. Taking that into consideration, an important comparison between Levi and Erwin needs to be drawn to also understand why Levi chose Erwin to rest.

Levi admits that he is willing to play the role of the “lunatic who kills people” for the sake of humanity. He chose to take this burden on himself. He understands that he might need to ask his comrades and subordinates to sacrifice themselves and in return he promises them to carry their will. The deaths of his comrades have always been a way to strengthen his will. He uses their will to keep moving..

Erwin, on the other hand, enrolled into the SC to achieve his childhood dream, like Armin and many others (he’s a human after all), but found himself getting up in ranks till he became a commander and a necessary devil. It wasn’t simply a burden he took upon himself, unlike Levi. As Levi said to Floch, it was asked of him. Everyone wanted to see something in or get something from this figure Erwin cut in their tense, desperate world : Erwin the Figurehead giving people direction  and purpose, Erwin the Monster wielding ruthlessness for the sake of  humanity, Erwin the Visionary who sees something no one else can see.  Everyone had something they wanted him to be, and he delivered. Erwin eventually becomes broken. He struggles to find meaning in his comrades’ deaths. He tells Levi that he thought many times that death would have been much easier for him. He never wanted that burden in the first place and it’s a heavy burden indeed.

Levi always thought that Erwin was the same as him but he realized that this wasn’t the case till it was very late. He never “accepted Erwin as a human” until he  watched him drop the mask on that crate in Shiganshina and realized that had an ideal which he projected onto Erwin.

My point here is that Levi deciding to let Erwin rest is very understandable and he would have acted in the same way regardless who the person was - Erwin or someone else- because it has only to do with Levi’s compassionate and understanding nature. It had nothing to do with personal feelings towards Erwin (If it was, we would have had flashbacks of Levi thinking only of Erwin moments in his life and him reminiscing their old days together, right? Lol)

4-  Levi’s decision was a layered and nuanced decision and Levi refers to it multiple times as such, saying he let Erwin rest and ALSO that he doesn't regret the decision and wouldn't let anyone else regret it either and reassures Armin about his abilities. Anyone who intentionally decides to not pay attention to detail within the narrative structure, both visually and textually, know what they are doing (ehm shippers :D)

Isayama: “The scene where Levi decided Erwin’s fate - he was influenced by his interactions with Kenny.”

Levi’s past experiences always helped him in making decisions, especially this one. We can see how Kenny’s final moments, Kenny’s “being drunk on sth to keep going on” speech, and Levi overhearing Armin talk about his dream to go to the ocean influenced his choice.

The answers  to what’s in the basement were the only thing that drove Erwin. Aside from that, his life was empty, thus his longing to die. Erwin admits that he has no idea what he will do afterwards, whereas for Armin, the idea of seeing the ocean is more of a symbolic gesture for appreciating the freedom outside the walls - one of hope for the future itself.

Seeing the basement could never be a positive thing for Erwin’s character, because once he saw it, he would have been overcome with despair because it could never have possibly lived up to his expectations. His goal would be complete, but he would still be a broken man, and upon discovering the secrets of the basement he will have no choice but to see those ghosts all the time.

This is an excerpt from one of the official short stories and it summarizes the whole thing. Erwin’s dream, once fulfilled, would have probably caused his downfall.

 Going forward to ch. 136, Levi specifies that he made his choice with Armin and the future in mind and he doesn't regret entrusting the future to Armin "who had the same look in his eyes as you guys" Levi saw something in Armin that made him entrust their future to him.

This is literally the same chapter in which Armin convinces Zeke to offer to sacrifice himself to stop the Rumbling, showing his potential and skills.

In the official short story, Levi sees an apparition of Erwin, but it’s actually more of his own reflection.

5- At the time of making that decision, none of the characters knew that their enemy was the ENTIRE world. Knowing this might have changed Levi’s choice, but it was never going to happen as I said because this is not how the plot was supposed to work.

6- Last thing, it is very strange that Eruris say that Erwin and Levi share a very deep bond and understanding but then make such claims as though Levi doing that would be a gesture dedication and *love*. It's not just that Levi wouldn't be willing to risk it. It's that it literally would not occur to him as an option because it would not be good for Erwin or any of his comrades who gave their lives for the sake of humanity.

[kyojuuros]

hi!!!! 😊 about ch112.. so the ackerheadache is caused by : the true self trying to resurface & failure to protect /defies the instinct to protect the host..(and that all applies to mikasa..💔) but the way i understand why levi never had it because he never lost his true self but awakened the power that's why in rts when he chose armin instead of erwin we didn't see any signs of headaches. is it like this? bcos some said he's having them now.😮 i am quite confused with all infos rn..😭😂

Yes, Levi does appear to be having a headache in 112. If the trigger for it is resistance/failure to protect the host, then why would Levi suddenly be having them now? Erwin is no longer around, so protection is a nonissue. So either Eren is incorrect (or lying) about why the headaches occur, or it’s possible that there are different ways that an Ackerbond can form, and that the different types of bonds present different characteristics. 

I have a long thing that goes super in-depth with this that I typed out that I’ll post a bit later, but I found it really curious that Isayama once described the bond as something more of a liege/knight relationship that the Ackerman personally chooses based on their nature, whereas now we have Eren using the word host and inferring that it’s an involuntary, instinctual, parasitic thing. The connotations are way different, and it feels like a really huge detail to retcon, especially this late into the story. 

We’ve seen that Ackermans can awaken their power on their own, and I actually think that Eren is not correct about Mikasa awakening hers because she “recognized him as a host,” but rather due to her instinctual need to preserve her own life (just as Levi and Kenny most likely awakened theirs doing), and that she actually “latched onto” Eren when he gave her the scarf (prior to the scarf-wrapping, she felt lost, cold, aimless, and just wished for somewhere to go - no innate desire to follow Eren just yet). I think for the Ackermans, that power is their own. It’s just that it is amplified in the event that they find someone who they can draw out the power of the titans from. ie: A titan shifter. Perhaps even more specifically, the Founding Titan. A “host.” 

So I’m thinking there are actually different ways that an Ackerman can bond to another person. There is a physical (I suppose more accurately it would be “metaphysical”) bond (host) and there is an interpersonal/emotional bond (knight/liege). I think that the nature of the bond can be one or both of these things. (Alternatively, it’s possible that maybe there are just “complete” and “incomplete” bonds, depending on whether the host/liege has the power of the titans or not.)

For Levi, I think that his bond with Erwin was the emotional bond, so he did not have to suffer the negative side-effects of the physical, host-based bond and therefor, no headaches (because imo no matter how you spin it, if what Eren says is true then Levi should have been driven to protect Erwin from even going on that suicide charge to begin with regardless if it was what Erwin wanted or not). However, if this is the case then we would have to acknowledge the possibility that Levi as formed, at the very least, the “host” type of bond with Eren at some point. Which makes sense if his Ackerman instincts have recognized the power of the titans within Eren.

Alternatively Levi has had the headaches but we just never see him holding his head. But... I think if the headaches have importance on the characters and the bonds they form that Isayama would have (or at least should have) shown Levi having an obvious - and frankly quite painful - one during RtS. 

It can definitely create an interesting dilemma if Eren is trying to shake off Mikasa’s protection only for Levi to come around and be a problem. On the other hand, if Levi can become even more fierce in battle due to his ability to draw from Eren as a host, then a battle with the Ackermans by Eren’s side during the finale could be very dynamic. I find it interesting. (My biggest personal wish has always been to have Levi and Eren finally actively fighting side-by-side, and it’s even better if Mikasa is also there with them, my “power trio.” lol)

Logically it would make sense for an Ackerman to be able to form more than one bond during their lifetime, given the Eldian King had to pass on their power every 13 years. Of course - this doesn’t negate any previous bond that they’ve had. And actually I find the idea of Levi and Erwin having the purely emotional aspects of the Ackerbond to be a good thing and basically in line with their canon relationship anyway - it also makes me wonder if Levi can be put in a position where he becomes conflicted with fulfilling the wishes from his old bond (ie: killing Zeke) if they come into conflict with the needs of his new bond (ie: Eren needing Zeke to accomplish a goal).

In short, I think that Eren has either been fed half-truths, that he’s lying, or simply that the nature of the Ackermans is far more complex than anything they would find in a textbook or passed down story. Zeke did refer to them as “legends” that he didn’t even think existed anymore. So information could easily have been lost over time.