Levi Ackerman Character Analysis

Spoiler Alert

This blog will contain spoilers for Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人, Shingeki no Kyojin).

Levi’s Debut

Levi made his first appearance in episode 4. A very short scene where his name and appearance were displayed to the audience. He is quickly claimed to “have the strength of an entire brigade” and we see he tends to be cold and indifferent as was irritated in response to the jolly crowd cheering him and his squad.

Levi really put his impression on the audience when his comrade was in danger as he was getting eaten by a titan, but then Levi came in and killed the titan in one attack. He saved the man quickly, evaluated the current situation, and organized to deal with the situation. He goes on to killing two titans with quick, clean cuts and points out how their indecent blood dirtied his hand. Levi came across as a tough, strong, confident and clean character.

Then right after, we see a different side of him. The soldier he saved was bleeding to death and the soldier wondered if his death contributed to saving humanity or was it just worthless. Levi grabbed the dying man’s bloody hand with no hesitation even though was disgusted by blood dirtying him not too long ago. He assured him that his death will not be meaningless and vowed that he will eliminate all titans. When the soldier dies, Levi asked his other comrade Petra whether the man heard him or not, to ensure the man passed away in peace.

Right from when he was presented to the audience, we see someone who while acted in a cold way, was also very caring and empathetic towards his comrades.

The Concealed Gentleness

Levi is possibly one of the most emotional and empathetic characters from Attack on Titan. His selflessness and compassionate nature really show under his tough, aloof, blunt, clean freak self. He really puts others’ desires into his heart as he fulfils his promise to his dying comrade, because when Eren comes and tells them they need to leave, Levi is the first to shut him down because he believed going back meant his soldier’s sacrifices were for nothing.

Another moment that shows Levi’s underlying compassion for people is from the Female Titan Arc. Eren is kidnapped by the Female Titan and Mikasa goes to save him but is stopped by Levi who came. Mikasa insulted him by stating if Levi had performed his duty to protect Eren, then this would not have happened. Even though Levi seemed unfazed by Mikasa’s aggressive comment, he did not react in a disciplinary tone because he takes accountability that he was partially responsible for Eren being kidnapped. Furthermore, he understood why Mikasa was hostile towards him because he did beat up Eren very badly during the trial that happened a while ago. Rather than holding resentment, Levi instead goes to rescue Eren.

During the process, Mikasa recklessly attempted to kill the Female Titan, not realizing the danger coming, but Levi quickly noticed it and saved her causing him injuring his leg. Levi’s selflessness was well showed in this moment as he put others before himself. He did not want to see more of his comrades die because of his inability to be there to protect them or him choosing the wrong choice.

Eventually, when the Survey Corps were going back as they are being chased by titans, the horses were carrying too much weight on the carts due to the corpses of the soldiers who died in the battle with the Female Titan. One of these corpses was Petra, a soldier in Levi’s squad. For the horses to go faster, they threw the corpses away. When they stopped on the field for a bit, Dieter, a friend of the deceased soldiers who were thrown off was distraught. Levi came to comfort Dieter by giving him his friend’s Survey Corps badge.

Levi is always there to care for others around him and would always be there for them, even if he doesn’t know how to show his feelings well. Little moments like him noticing Eren’s nosebleed or telling Farlan and Isabel not to go on the outing because they were unknown of the titan’s power, these all exhibited Levi’s caring nature.

The Longing of Love and Affection

Way later in Attack on Titan, we learned more about Levi’s past, and we see that he always desired a family. Levi’s mother, Kuchel Ackerman, was a prostitute who lived in the underground. Even though the father was one of her many clients and Kenny’s doubts, Kuchel still tried to raise Levi by herself.

When Levi was born, he felt love from his mother as she held tightly him close to her.

Though a few years later, Levi’s mother died due to an unknown disease. Levi was helpless with no one supporting him in surviving in the rotten underground. Until Levi’s uncle, Kenny, came and took Levi in with him and taught him how to survive in the underground. He taught Levi various things from how to hold a knife to how to greet people. Moving forward in time, Kenny is on the brink of death. When Levi realized Kenny is also an Ackerman like him, he asked Kenny what relationship he had with his mother. Lev hoped that Kenny was his father, but even though Kenny was his mother’s brother and so his uncle, Levi’s expression of gentleness was very rare on him. Eventually, when Levi grew into a teenager, Kenny left him, and Levi was confused and felt lonely. Levi really wished for a family and Kenny, a person who he felt was like a father to him had just left him to live by himself.

Although not shown in the anime, a moment which showed Levi’s yearning for the comfort of a family was when citizens were complaining to Levi about how the Survey Corps weren’t working hard enough, but Levi clearly noticed a mother who held her child close to her chest. Possibly Levi thought of his own mother when he saw that, and again showed that Levi cares about complete strangers, has empathy, he doesn’t like seeing innocents suffer.

Later, the same mother and child came back again. The Survey Corps had overthrown the fake royalty and crowned Historia as queen. When the crowd cheers, Levi spots the mother and child in the crowd. And his expression becomes more soft and less indifferent like his usually look, this could be because he is glad that the mother and child are safe. We can see that Levi is not an emotionless person, and we can recognize that he is only hostile and harsh because he must act as a captain and make the right decisions, even if it means disregarding his emotions.

Tough Decisions

Throughout the show, Levi had to regularly make decisions. He struggled to pick the decision that is right versus the one his empathetic self-chose. Most of the time, the choices he made led to an awful outcome.

The first choice we saw him make would be in the Attack on Titan OVA, No Regrets, where he made the decision of leaving Farlan and Isabel to kill Erwin during their first outing. In the end, this led to the death of his two close friends killed by a Titan.

As Levi was about to regret the choice he made, Erwin told him to not regret. Regretting would lead to the inability of deciding, meaning Levi would not be able to make decisions in the future and will let others decide for him. Levi took that to heart and will never regret the choices he made. Levi doesn’t take vengeance by killing Erwin, but instead followed Erwin’s lead as he trusts Erwin is looking at a bigger picture that he himself cannot see. Still, Levi continued to struggle against making the decision for humanity or for his own selfishness. Although Levi is regarded as humanity’s strongest soldier, his decisions may not always be “correct”. It is because he is so emotional and empathetic at times, that he can’t accept the responsibility of making the “right” choice. Then, when he makes the wrong decision, he always tries to make amends for what he has done wrong, like joining the Survey Corps at the end of the No Regrets OVA. Levi is flawed as a person because he allows his own emotions get in the way in some of the decisions he makes. However, this is what makes Levi ‘human’ as there are flaws in every person.

Levi’s struggle choosing between humanity, or his feelings is especially evident during the Beast Titan arc. During the fight with the Beast Titan, Erwin told Levi about his plan, which would lead to Erwin’s own death. Erwin said his motivation to fight all the way to this point stems from his desire to accomplish his dreams of finding out the truth of humanity and the titans. Erwin had been continuously clashing the responsibilities inside of him with the wish of seeing his dream come true. Seeing this conflict of Erwin, Levi decided to make the choice for him. Rather than saying what he thought of the current situation, Levi told Erwin what he wanted to hear the most at that time.

Levi did not have to say that, but he did since he knew the man he respected the most wanted to throw away his dream and fight the Beast Titan in order to rest. It’s not clear what struggles Levi was thinking or feeling at that time, but it must’ve been agonizing. Throughout the show, Levi has been constantly seeing to all of his friends, family, and comrades die one after another. In the end, he had to let Erwin go because he knew Erwin would be in pain if he didn’t.

This is further reinforced by Levi’s final decision of saving Armin instead of Erwin. When Levi was about to save Armin with the Titan injection, Floch came back with Erwin who was still revivable through the Titan serum. This means that Levi must make another choice, whether to save Commander Erwin or Armin who just sacrificed his life to the brink of death against Bertholdt. Necessarily, the best choice would be to save Erwin with the Titan serum for the sake of humanity. However, rather than choosing humanity, Levi allowed his emotions to take over his decision when he saw Erwin lift his hand up. He allowed Erwin to die instead of him becoming a slave of his own dreams again. It was selfish of Levi to let Erwin pass away since he knew Erwin would be a great contribution to humanity with his leadership, but he couldn’t endure to let the man continue being a ‘devil’ with the responsibility of being the Commander. So, Levi let Erwin pass away with his dreams. This moment truly revealed what Levi was like under his formidable self, just how considering and understanding he is as a character.

Responsibility of the Strongest

Throughout all of Attack on Titan, Levi had so many responsibilities put onto him. The duty of being the strongest, is it a good thing to have? Or are they just chains that ties people and forces them to become slaves of their own duty?

During the earlier stages of Attack on Titan, the existentialist atmosphere surrounds the world. Many characters felt like humanity was coming to an end, but Levi gave people hope because of his extraordinary abilities to kill titans. Still, this strength comes with great responsibilities.

During Kenny’s death, Kenny realized something that explained just about everyone’s motivations in Attack on Titan. He stated, “They all had something they were drunk on...it was what kept them moving...everyone...was a slave to somethin’.”

Kenny understood Uri Reiss’s motivations because of this, as well as Kuchel continuing to have a child, and we the audience can reflect on this quote in regard to Erwin’s dreams. Following, Kenny also asked Levi, “A-And what are you? A hero?!” Levi urging Kenny to tell him the truth about humanity could be due to a subconscious of him implying that what Kenny said was true. Because Levi has exceptional strength, he was a slave to his own powers. He must serve for humanity for as long as possible and must survive because he brings hope to humanity. He can’t regret any of his decisions and keep moving forward. The only thing he can do is to adjust and try to make amends for what he has done wrong.

Levi dealt with situations differently than other higher ranks like Erwin or Hange. When Levi is backed into a corner, he tended to resort to violent methods as he sees it as an effective way of resolving issues. This can be dated back to Eren’s trial, where he beat up Eren so that the Military Police would not kill him. Hanji explained what Levi’s blunt words meant, which shows how bad Levi is at communicating with other people. Without people like Hanji, Levi will resort to harsh words, intimidating and violent actions.

During the Uprising Arc, Levi and the others learn about Historia’s past and that she is from the royal family. The best solution to the problems they were facing at that time was for Historia to become queen.

In the manga, when Historia hesitated, Levi intimidated her by lifting her up. He also forced her to decide at that moment to accept her role as the queen. Although it may not the best method for Levi to frighten Historia like that, he simply did not know what else he could do. Historia gained confidence from this altercation and embraced her role as the queen. Levi’s experience of living in the underground rooted the idea that violence and intimidation are the best form of communication. Like this instance, when a decision had to be made, Levi resorted to choose the way he felt was best. Historia gained confidence from this altercation and embraced the role as the queen.

Levi later confessed to everyone he will continue to fight even if he has to see hell every day. He wants to put an end to this dreadful nightmare and that he will play the role of a lunatic who kills people that oppose him. This is because he would much rather choose the hell where humans kill each other over the hell of getting eaten by titans so in that way, at least all of humanity isn’t entirely doomed. As humanity’s strongest soldier, Levi put a lot of responsibilities onto himself. He is aware that he is powerful and uses that to give importance to people’s deaths and give hope to humanity. He is willing to throw away his own humanity for the sake of all people, which is true heroism. Levi is a hero figure as he is self-sacrificing and uses his power to do as much possible for humanity, even when he doesn’t necessarily have to.

Conclusion

All in all, Hajime Isayama put in a lot of work into creating many complex characters in Attack on Titan, and Levi is at the top of his creations. At first, Levi only seemed to be a clean freak who was very strong. However, as we see throughout the show, Levi was very empathetic towards others and keeps his caring nature hidden so he can fulfill his duty right. He never truly felt love as his friends, comrades and family members passed away one after another. Even so, Levi continued to fight for humanity.

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