AteneaAckerman

私達二人だけ

as a person who is both a literature student and someone who took several art history exams in her life and has been taught how to analyze both text and artwork, i find it really strange how some people fiercely deny obvious meanings “hidden” in the paneling of the manga. distribution and composition of the figures on the canvas are crucial if you’re looking for the meaning of a scene pictured on a canvas, just like how literary devices work in a written text.

putting a dark haired character wearing a different expression in the center of a crowd of only light-haired people is done intentionally, from an artistic point of view the author is clearly trying to create a focus on the central character and highlighting it by creating a chromatic contrast with the hair and a physiognomic (dk if it’s the correct word, it sounds maybe a bit too heavy) contrast with the different facial expressions.

you know how in anime the main character is stereotyped to have crazy hair in bright colors? it’s the same concept.

everything is calculated and nothing is put on paper/canvas without a purpose, unless you explicitly say so. if an artist/author wants to convey a really specific message, they’re gonna use very specific ways to do so.

let me do an example: i want to draw fanart of a ship i like, i want the observer to know that they’re meant to look for specific things in the picture that indicate the romantic tone i want to give the scene i’m portraying, so i make use of things that are generally associated with romance, for example i’m drawing my couple holding hands and looking at each other tenderly; this is not enough for me, i want the focus to be on them and what i want to convey might not be highlighted enough. so i draw them surrounded by a crowd of strangers, in a city-like setting. how can i make the observer understand that i want the focus to be on the couple, if they are surrounded by a ton of nameless other characters who might be holding hands as well? i blur the background and i blur the people, easy. that brings the focus on what i want. if i want to do it even more? i’ll just draw the background characters wearing the same clothing and having the same hair color, and i will draw my main couple with bright clothes and fun-colored hair. now THAT’s a focus right? even an exaggerated one i’d say, but i would know that without a fail the observer would understand what they’re supposed to be focusing on.

it works the same in a written text, right? i will use metaphors and allegories and comparisons and other literary devices to do so. if i want to create a parallel, i will fox example make sure to take two characters, put them in similar settings (albeit in different contexts), make them say the same words. that’s gotta mean something right? same thing if i were creating art: i will put them once again in similar settings (and once again, in different contexts) and i will draw them using the same poses. distribution of the elements and construction of a setting are fundamental if i want to make sure the observer knows i want these two elements to be paralleled.

the distribution and construction comes into play when we see two characters in chapter 138 being put in a similar context to other two characters in chapter 126 and 132. unless you’re lazy and recycle panels/trace your own art, it’s likely (read: obvious) that the author is trying to convey a very specific thing if you put these four characters in the same poses (aka: distribution of the elements in the construction of a panel) and make them say the same words (literary device); it also comes into play in chapter 139: a character is seen staring wistfully at a plane (symbol), followed by another character is seen staring wistfully at a bird (symbol). how do we know what these symbols mean? the bird is a bit clearer, as it is meant to be taken as a literal reincarnation. the other is an allegory but a clear one for someone who takes the time to look deeper into things (as you’re supposed to do in a story like this).

and that’s all i have to say on the topic.

oyasumi

hey bebes!!!!!!!! once upon a long time ago, i coloured in this awesome angsty sketch by @/la_crospa on twitter, go check it out so so good <<<< the link

People can ship and not ship whatever they want, but denying the parallels between them and the romantic implications is just willfully being blind.

Especially with this whole thing

As the whole concept of "living together" is a universal sign of romance, as they appear with two other pairs that have romantic backing to them too.

Notice the use of "we" or "us" or "together". It'd be super weird that the one between Levi and Hange is merely platonic when with all the other pairs, there has been implied romantic feelings, two of them even being confirmed to be reciprocated. (With Marlo isnt a bit unclear, but I personally believe he loved Hitch back, he was just clueless about romance). The only logical reasoning for this specific dialogue pattern to be used between Levi and Hange is if Isayama wanted you to see any subtext that's romantic.

So, I'm not saying you HAVE to see their relationship as romantic. But to call LeviHan shippers "delusional" and "reaching for evidence"? Nah, if anything it's the other way around with how people who hate the ship are reaching to disprove anything romantic between Levi and Hange. Parallels like this don't happen on accident. So if people deny the most blatant ones (the EreMika parallels), just pull out the YumiHisu and the Marlo/Hitch ones to prove them wrong. LeviHan is at the very least semi canon

So, since I found out that there are so many parallels between these two Ackermans and Brunettes. One song suddenly plays inside of my mind at 3am in morning I can’t fucking sleep properly because of hypomania and I saw this post from hanjo-love, so I used it as a reference also from Twitter..

So if i’m suffering now, join me. T____T

This is lyrics from One The Got Away by Katy Perry

In another life I would be your girl We’d keep all our promises Be us against the world In another life I would make you stay So I don’t have to say you were The one that got away The one that got away

I should’ve told you what you meant to me

Hello Anon, 

Yes, I know you have answered this a lot, I think fanmoose did answer an ask on this? And I agree with her. Like if I were going to be as objective as possible in the “did they ever fuck?” speculation question, they didn’t. (Or at least they probably didn’t).

I’m just gonna drop some headcanons on the fucking scene in the survey corps and you can take them as you want for a headcanon or inspo or whatever and I’ll leave a little justification behind my own thoughts so you can also spend your time pondering the sexual activity of fictional characters.

Anyway...I believe that sex wise, the survey corps soldiers are literally a congregation of bunnies. Sexual activity is incredibly rampant among soldiers. Maybe there are strict laws yet shitty implementations about who enters barracks, who shares which bathrooms and about catching people in the act. Maybe they do the do in carriages, offices and maybe in the rice fields on the mountains but I think like all other military factions, they probably did have anti-insubordination rules. I mean honestly I really believe that any place with a bunch of horny young adults will have their own flavor of such craziness and I’m pretty sure the military would try to crack down on it but eventually they did realize the survey corps soldiers were probably all gonna die anyway so what’s the point on policing them. 

So even if people were supposed to be reporting catching anyone doing the do? I have this feeling even though people sometimes hear it, and they have more than enough reason to suspect the ‘do,’ they just choose not to catch or report anyone? Cause like they’re all gonna die anyway, might as well die with a few bangs right?

Erurihan were exceptions

Erwin, Levi and Hange were part of the exceptions in my head for the soldiers who don’t engage in this. Probably the cadets too pre time skip because they just got in, they wouldn’t know. Erwin wouldn’t do it because for one he has amazing professionalism skills and he’s married to the truth. 

Hange probably didn’t engage in any of this because she was horny for titans anyway, and I headcanon that Hange probably wouldn’t try it for the risk of it since she wouldn’t wanna get pregnant just like that. And I also headcanon that she would have saved it for someone…

Levi, I have a Levi headcanon that since his mom was a prostitute and his mom died from some disease which I (low key) suspect was one STD, I headcanon Levi had strong negative feelings towards sex growing up? Maybe he noticed his mother coming home tired, maybe he noticed her getting sicker the most nights she was out. I headcanon eventually it did click what his mother was doing and I found Levi to be capable of harboring negative emotions towards the ‘do’ and although he is used to seeing it in the underground, he just doesn’t engage? 

Which brings us to the question… What about post time skip? 

Yeah they’re the only two vets right? Of course they would… Nah, I don’t think so. I think like at the most probably the Jaegerists had their own secret harem or something….But I think even if Hange and Levi were close, like incredibly close, they wouldn’t have done it. 

Their reservations towards sex would at least have stayed though. Maybe Hange doesn’t want to risk and she would have wanted to save it for someone. And for Levi, only someone special could have probably convinced him to do it. Hange would have been able to convince him right? 

But as with all headcanons and even canon, we all know they’re two emotionally constipated fucks. 

Like 126 and 132, I interpret those to have been misinterpretations on their end about what a romantic bond or attraction is and of course, they would think similarly about sex. So if they can’t even confess in a forest by the fire, imagine them just suggesting to each other to have sex given their personalities?

There are certain circumstances were I feel like they would agree to it.

I have a smut fic though I have been working on in my free time to ponder circumstances where Levi and Hange would decide to do it and of course how they would navigate a first time but it’s still simmering in the pot as a half written document. I guess I’ll drop the rest of my headcanons with the fic, one day.

All these years Hange never felt that Erwin made the right decision in choosing her as commander. Always blaming themself and taking responsibility for inevitable mistakes. Feeling depressed and useless and still giving her all to do the right thing, to fulfill her role as a leader.

People always focus on Levi's suffering for choosing Armin and Armin's pain for being the one who lived in Erwin's place, but hardly anyone talks about Hange, as always no one recognizes their hard work...

Hange is giving her whole being to humanity

and I'm so proud of her 😭💔💔

Thank you for the ask anon!

Okay so if I were gonna rank arcs based on Levihan fuel 

1. Forming the Alliance Arc. 

I mean do I need to go into this. They literally confirmed the dam ship with 126 and 132 like anyone else who doesn’t even see how Levihan could have remotely been canon have a really high threshold on what they believe an established relationship to be. Like this ship was literally the closest one to sailing during this whole dam war. And If Hange did not d-word, I am pretty sure Yams would have HAD to make them end up together just for the fact that 126 and 132 fleshed out AT LEAST the bond and a potential for romance in the future if NOT the actual romance. .

2. Introduction (including scenes before the 57th expedition and flashbacks during the expedition) of Survey Corps Arc

Well of course this would have LOTS of Levihan content. They were introducing the whole team and here they establish that Levi and Hange are very much familiar with each other with how Levi wants to leave the room as soon as Eren asks about her titan experiments and how Hange decides to overturn all the garden cleaning plans Levi had for Hange. And yo, the hair grabbing scene?

3. Uprising Arc (Anime)

The only reason I actually put this below the introduction of the survey corps scene is because a lot of the time here Levi and Hange did work separately even when we had the following golden scenes: the torture scene, the cockroach scene and the Hange gets shot scene Also, a lot of their conversations were more about what was happening since a lot of exposition was happening during this arc. There wasn’t much banter to meta unless we go more in depth than I did with the top 1 and 2. Either way, the content in this arc was a pretty strong indication already, it just takes a little more depth to meta analyze them.   

4. Invasion of Marley 

I’ll probably go back to this after the anime animates it but the telepathy scene? The fact that they’re the only people left? I dunno if it’s just a biased view knowing their history but they seemed more... inseparable post retake wall maria arc?

5. Retake Wall Maria

Well, Levi got a little angry about Shadis, Levi and Hange were back to back for a while. Levi looked worried when he thought Hange died. A lot of stuff were happening here though and a lot of exposition was being thrown at us so it was a little difficult to notice those easter eggs and scream Levihan so that’s why I put it as number five. 

But yeah, alliance arc takes the cake by a landslide. 

note: this is a more in-depth version of what I have posted earlier.

This post is an attempt to make sense out of Levi’s nuanced dialogue in chapter 132. But before proceeding please read this tweet first to understand the context of this post: link to original tweet 

Please also read this analysis done by shunkani, explaining the nuance present in the original Japanese text. 

it is important that you read the posts I’ve linked above because what I am about to say here is not gonna make sense if you don’t.

Like always, note that what I am about to say is only my own interpretation of the events and should not be taken as absolute canon confirmation.

In chapter 132, Levi has a line that lost its nuance in the English translation. As explained in the linked posts above, Levi comments on Hanji’s unrequited love for titans but there is an implication that a mutual love shared with someone else.

What if that someone is Levi? When you think about it, it is not farfetched to assume that it was him considering how close he is to Hanji.

Other than that, there is an incident in the chapters prior to 132 that presents a strong case on why Levi could be referring to himself. Yes that’s right—Hanji asking Levi to live with him.

Now I’ve seen people try to dismiss what Hanji said to Levi in the forest and insist that there is nothing possibly romantic with it and that Hanji was simply expressing their want to run away because they are tired so here is my take on it:

After tending to Levi’s wounds, Hanji says,

“Maybe we should just live here together. Right Levi?”

If Isayama only intends to have Hanji express their exhaustion and desire to run away from everything, why didn’t he just make Hanji say something like 《"I want to run away Levi. I am tired.“》 ?

Why did it have to be Hanji expressing their want to live together with Levi? It was like Isayama tried to hit two birds with one stone. He had Hanji say their desire to run away and also to be with Levi.

Another factor in this is Hanji blushing after realizing that Levi heard what they said. Again, some fans have tried to refute this by saying that Hanji blushes all the time.

Yes Hanji blushes a lot but also consider the context of the scene. For second let us pretend tha these two characters are not Levi and Hanji—let’s pretend that they are Character A and B.

Character A is with Character B, and the former thinks the the latter is asleep. Character A then takes this as a chance to voice out their feelings for Character B.

A few moments later, Character B brings up what Character A said. Character A realizes Character B heard their confession and so they blush.

I mean look at it, you could easily pretend that what happened in the forest was something that came out straight from a romance novel or a shoujo manga.

And come on are we going to pretend that the run away and live with someone to start anew isn’t a common trope in romance?

Another argument I’ve seen is that maybe Hanji was just embarrassed that Levi heard them expressing their want to abandon their duties. This one is very easy to debunk.

Remember the beginning of Uprising Arc? Hanji shows their hesitation to Levi in continuing the titan experiments with Eren because they are afraid that the MPs might go after the SC just like what they did to Pastor Nick.

In both situations, Hanji was trying to run away and evade something and Levi was present in both situations. But did Hanji blush after showing their want to run here? No they did not.

Then what else could possibly the reason for Hanji’s blush other than a hint for romantic feelings?

Next let’s talk about Levi’s response to Hanji.

Levi subtly implies to Hanji that he heard what they said by asking,

“If we keep…running and hiding…what will that get us…?”

Some say that this was Levi rejecting Hanji but I disgaree. To me what Levi said sounds more like a We can’t run away yet if we still have things to do.

Levi also said that because he is aware of Hanji’s strong sense of responsibility.

“I know you…you’re not able to stay out of the action…”

He knows Hanji would’t be satisfied in being a bystander.

Another thing to note here is that Hanji is the one who arrives at the conclusion that they can’t.

Levi himself did not really gave a direct answer—and that is expected from someone like Levi who seems to be awkward and inexperienced in romance. It is understandable if he was caught off guard with what Hanji said and thus couldn’t give a proper response.

Now getting back to chapter 132.

After seeing Hanji’s exchange with Pieck, Levi says:

“…So, four eyes. yet another love for a titan gone unrequited, I see.”

So like what had been explained in the posts above, Levi comments on Hanji’s unrequited love for titans but implies that there is mutual love shared with someone.

With what happened in 126 in mind, who would be the most reasonable choice for that someone if not Levi? What if this was Levi’s response or way of acknowledging Hanji’s words back in the forest?

Just think about it. Hanji gives Levi something like a confession and then a few chapters later Levi suddenly implies that Hanji shares a mutual love with someone. The connection between the two events is not really difficult to make.

Like I said earlier, Levi not being able to form a direct answer is expected considering he seems to be the type who would be extremely awkward at love. Maybe he just needed time to sort his feelings first. Another thing to consider is they are both soldiers in duty.

Also can we talk about how Levi suddenly decided to call Hanji “four-eyes” again? It was like Levi is making an effort to go back to those days of normalcy.

Before anyone tries to brush this line off as nothing, I would like to point out that Isayama changed the kanji used in the dialogue in the volume release. This was pointed out in the tweet by @/kasumi_kasa as shown above.

The point I am trying to make here is that if this line is something we should just simply brush off, then why would Isayama bother making changes to it in the volume release?

The kanji in the original chapter release was 片思い but was changed into 片想い in the volume release. Both are read the same way (kataomoi) but just like what @/kasumi_kasa had explained, the kanji used in the volume release which is 想い, is indicative of a deeper form of love.

Also take note that the latter is an unusual way of writing unrequited love in Japanese.

Taking that into consideration and the implication of a mutual feeling with someone, does that mean Levi and Hanji share a deep form of love?

See the lengths Isayama is going through just for this one line? It really feels like the is trying to push something here.

Now onto Hanji’s side. If by any chance we are correct that Levi was indeed confessing his feelings to Hanji, then did the latter caught what Levi was trying to say?

In my observation, it is very likely that Hanji had caught on to it because of their seemingly flustered and hesitant reply towards Levi. The hesistance is present in the pause (the three dots) before Hanji’s dialogue.

“…We"ll be friendly in no time.”

Another thing I would like to point out is how Hanji suddenly diverted the subject.

This is actually kind of ironic if you think about it. In 126 Hanji was the one who is seemingly confessing and Levi was the one who brought up their duties. Here in 132, it was Levi’s turn to confess but Hanji was the one who brought up their duties.

My honest take on here is that it feels like Hanji was on the process of moving on and abadoning whatever feelings they had laid down in the forest so they could focus solely on their cause but then Levi suddenly drops something like this on them.

Hanji would be understandably flustered just like how Levi was in 126. Honestly in the end, both of them are just so awkward at romance.

So this is where I am gonna end this attempt at analyzing what was said in 126 and 132. I hope I was able to convey my thoughts properly. If you have made it this far then thank you.