Don't mind me.

Long long theory, but I've done my homework and I'm hoping I'm on to something here!!

If you love the Ackermans I hope you'll keep reading!

To start with, one day I'll be done analysing the Ackerman family and just what they mean to the overall plot (it's still not been revealed really, and it's such a long-running thread that for it to have no larger meaning at this point would be very strange).

I've had other theories before about the Ackermans: their origin; the scope of their abilities, etc, but I've been mulling over just what it all could mean in terms of the ending of the story.

What we know so far (though some facts can still be taken with a pinch of salt given how often characters lie or are misinformed):

The Ackermans were the the loyal protectors of the Fritz family

The Fritz Kings, presumably through the power of the Founding Titan, genetically altered the Ackermans, giving them titan-esque abilities without them becoming Titans or losing their sense of self.

After the founding of the Walls, the Ackermans protested Karl Fritz's plan to wipe the Eldians' memories.

Following what the King saw as a betrayal the Ackermans were shunned and ostracised, losing all social status. Their business affairs were interfered with, some presumably lost their citizenship (Kuchel), and others were driven to the backwaters (Mikasa's father).

The Ackermans were not killed by the Fritzes though, unlike other dissenters (Armins parents and Erwin's father for example) and were instead allowed to live with their knowledge.

Ackermans cannot become mindless titans - proven beyond doubt given chapter 138.

The above are all interesting and important facts, and they drum up some questions.

Why would the all-powerful King purposefully create a group of individuals to keep he and his family safe, but let them not be influenced by the Founding Titan?

Why were they not wiped out like similar dissenters? Karl Fritz could easily have executed all of them or fed them to Titans before doing the memory wipe and they'd have been erased from history.

Why was Uri so sorry for the treatment inflicted upon the Ackermans to the point of giving Kenny not only amnesty for his crimes, but also a plum job within the interior police, and by extension giving him back the role the Ackermans were created for, ie, protecting the monarch/founding titan.

Why, as well as making them immune to the Founding Titan would the King also make them immune from becoming Titans altogether?

The Founding Titan can do such momentous tasks as reworking Eldian DNA en-masse to create an immune response to a plague, and can also selectively edit memories of hundreds of thousands of individuals simultaneously (Eldians outside of the Walls retained their memories, those within the walls didn't so the Founding Titan screened them), so how come Ackermans were altered *specifically* to be so resistant?

The Fritzes were control-freaks, and their treatment of the Ackermans is honestly quite bizarre when you think about everything else they're guilty of.

The Fritzes have been deliberate in all their actions. All the secrecy and protecting the Founding Titan to give Eldia a hundred years of peace came about due to meticulous planning:

They had to converts hundreds of thousands of Eldians into Wall Titans - I'd reckon these were probably either the lowest ranking Eldian citizens, the ones most devoted to the King who offered themselves up or the zealots (the Jaegerists of their day)

They then had to strip out a lot of technology to ensure no communication with the outside world and to ensure the technology of other nations advanced far past Eldia's rather quickly (we know that technology went backwards because Ymir and Reiner found a can of herring well within the boundaries of the walls - it was probably one of a handful of artefacts of the past to survive a purge given the remoteness of where it was stored)

They had to remove any books or materials with knowledge of the outside world, both to remove knowledge of other peoples but also proof of other written languages.

They had to write fake textbooks to indoctrinate Eldians into their new narrative.

They had to have everything in place and ready for the memory purge or people would have been asking questions from the outset.

They also had to go out of their way to keep their few foreign allies within the walls on-side (giving the "nobles" titles - it's obvious these were other non-Eldians like the Azumabitos)

They also presumably had a hand in establishing the Wall Religion - a fanatical movement who at least in part know the truth, but are so loyal to the King they refuse to talk and exist solely to stop people asking questions about the walls or, more crucially, damaging them in any way. Perhaps the route of this religious devotion is a deep, godly reverence for the individuals who offered themselves up to become Wall Titans?

This planning worked for a hundred years, give or take. In that time the only slip-ups we see are Armin's grandfather's book, that single can of herring...and Grandpa Ackerman being left alive long enough to tell Kenny the truth. The first two are definitely oversights. The Ackermans being allowed to live while knowing the truth? Most definitely not an oversight.

Then - and this is linked - there's the Rumbling itself and what we know:

The Rumbling is a deterrant - more or less Eldia's equivalent of a nuclear arsenal.

The control of The Rumbling rests solely on the will of the Founding Titan.

The Rumbling was never meant to be enacted.

For a family that did so much planning, this seems awfully haphazard. Why?

We're told that each successor Founding Titan is bound by Karl Fritz' will. Why is that? Couldn't another Founding Titan have a stronger will than Fritz's and eventually overcome this?

We know from the Jaw and Colossal titans that Shifters typically inherit only the memories of the most recent Shifter before them. Porco only retains Ymir's memories and Armin only Bertolt's.

The only Titan we know that is different so far is the Attack Titan because it can access paths across time which is why Eren can see Attack Titan holder Kruger's memories but *not* Founding Titan Frieda's as he can only see the Founding Titan's memories back as far as Grisha.

It's wholly conceivable that Frieda only received Uri's will, which would have been informed by his own predecessor's will, rathe than Karl Fritz's directly, meaning that his will could have been diluted through the years.

So there has to be more to it, and I think it comes down to this:

The Ackerman Family were the Fritz Family's true insurance policy.

This is applicable on many levels:

Before the great Titan War, the nine families who possessed the Titans fought among themselves for control and waged war like feudal lords, turning their subjects into Titans to be used as weapons. They also used this methodology to subjugate other nations. This continued until the Tyburs chose to ally with non-Eldians - Marley. (This also basically means out of the nine families it was the Tyburs that won by proxy and used Marleyans - who can't become Titans - to secure that victory).

Fighting using Titans is all well and good, but it's not enough to win, which is why the Tyburs chose non-Eldians allies. They did this because they did not possess a Titan that could rewrite DNA, like the Founding Titan can.

Up until this the Fritzes had the upper hand because they employed human soldiers alongside their Titans - the Ackermans. Ackermans that if caught could only be interrogated or killed, and they were programmed to be loyal so they wouldn't talk. While other Eldian soldiers could technically be caught, turned into an intelligent titan then fed to a mindless titan in order to unlock all their knowledge, Ackermans couldn't.

There was also the gas and the serums. The warring families or indeed the Marleyans could use these to their advantage and just turn these families' subjects into Titans to create carnage.

But the Fritzes with their Ackermans were protected as Ackermans couldn't transform - they would cut down any titans that got near the Fritzes.

So that's why they were initially created.

When the Walls go up however, things become trickier.

The Fritzes always knew there was the potential for the Founding Titan's will to become corrupted or overwritten, therefor making it possible for a fanatic to someday enact the Rumbling.

As a result the Fritzes needed a loyal group who would *not* be bound by the Founding Titan's will in order to stop the Rumbling should it ever occur. I reckon that having already been made immune to turning into Titans, the Ackermans were then set free from the Founder's control and perhaps granted some as-yet unknown power to stop the Rumbling, so long as they remained loyal.

However, the loyalty never lasted. Once the Ackermans discovered the plan to wipe everyones' minds, they couldn't go along with it for whatever reason and when they spoke out, the Fritzes decided that the Ackermans had broken that bond of trust.

But, because the Ackermans were the insurance policy for the Rumbling they couldn't be killed. It would take too long for the Fritzes to engineer another group to take their place.

So instead of being killed, they were made persona non-grata, and the Fritzes banked on the Ackermans' basic humanity being strong enough to make them want to stop the Rumbling should it ever be triggered.

As the decades went by, things changed within the walls. The Fritz family became the Reiss family, and with the Founding Titan aware that the end of Eldia was growing ever closer, the Ackermans were replaced by Military Police rather than another engineered bloodline as there simply wasn't time.

The MPs as we know however, did not do a good job.

Which is why, decades later, when face to face with an Ackerman, Uri gives Kenny amnesty.

It means there's one Ackerman back on-side. One Ackerman to stay close to the Founding Titan. Uri immediately gives him a high ranking role in the police. He seems to realise the Ackerman family's importance, but not the finer details of that - perhaps lost to time as Karl Fritz's will has been eroded.

More time passes, and the existence of the Scouts themselves contradicts the Founding Titan's will - if children can be labelled heretics, and school teachers murdered for the mere suggestion of encouraging questions about the outside world, then why would the Reiss family tolerate the Scouts being set up? They fly in the face of everything else we know about the Walls.

The Scouts are also fairly new - Levi joined shortly before the fall of Wall Maria and his first expedition was the 26th. They're up to the 57th expedition by the time of the Battle of Trost. So I'd reckon that the Scouts were probably only set up in the years immediately preceding Grisha's arrival - indeed he seems shocked to hear of the Scouts - it's obvious Marley never knew they existed and Marley would almost certainly have still been keeping an eye on the Walls.

By the end of season 3, the cracks in the Rumbling plan are starting to show...

The Royal bloodline is still in charge, but it's Historia, completely ignorant to the past who is on the throne

Wall Sina has been damaged - the people now know the walls are made of Titans and the Wall religion that previously stopped any damage occurring is defunct

The Scouts have increasing amounts of power and influence

The truth of the outside world is known, only because a Scout - Keith - went against orders and let Grisha into Shiganshina (If Keith had followed orders he would have left Grisha outside to perish or would have handed him over to the police who would have executed him)

The Ackermans were so badly ostracised that with Kenny's death only 2 of them are left, and one didn't even know he was an Ackerman until his 30s.

The Fritz's own disloyal family members who stayed in Marley to face the music have continued to produce heirs ie. Zeke

The Founder is now in the hands of a xenophobic zealot ie. Eren

This turns the walls essentially into a grenade without a pin. It's a powderkeg.

The only one who might still know the full story is Ymir Fritz.

Perhaps the Ackerman power will finally come into play in this final chapter, with the knowledge being imparted by Ymir herself?

I always noticed how uncannily similar these two scenes where. Both Levi and Historia make open promises to their loved ones in their most desperate moments, so much so they even risk death just to fulfil said promises (well, not in Levi’s case, since he’s Levi). So I have compiled together some screenshots from the anime to showcase their parallels and similarities. One or two clips have been omitted, but the general gist of the scenes are still there.  1. That vapid, shocked expression - pure, total denial that what is transpiring before their weary eyes is actually happening. Levi particularly looks very horrified, like he has seen a ghost or something (and the blood mask doesn’t help either with his look of horror). . 

2. Forcing their bodies to act. We get a close-up shot of Hisu moving in her rather stylish boots (seriously. where she get those), whereas Levi asks himself a question: “Hey. Where are you going?” to shake himself out of his stupor (while still looking very stylish in his Survey Corps cape, might I add). 

3. Hold on moments! Here, they both say “Hold on” to some various degree. Now they’ve both forced their bodies to act, yet all they can do now is blabber like little children that they won’t get to fulfil the promises they made to both Ymir and Erwin, respectively, and boy do they both look and sound so fragile (even Levi with his war paint). 

4. Getting closer to the heart of those sweet promises they made… We get a wider shot of Hisu as she runs to her friend’s aid, reminding her of the deal they made… Whereas we still have a close-up shot of Levi looking like a lost puppy, remembering his vow to Commander Erwin.

5.  The final “I promised!” moments. Both characters openly declare their promises, while sounding so heartfelt and passionate. They both look so emotional and torn, yet they are determined to fulfil their respective vows to Ymir and Erwin, no matter what. Hisu has literal tears in her eyes while Levi is grinding his molars with his pretty face paint, and thus, this concludes my ramblings of how similar these two scenes are… 

It’s crazy how much these two mirror one another. Speaking of those dearest to them, Erwin and Ymir, I’m just gonna leave this here too ...

With both their counterparts gone, is it so crazy to believe they might find comfort in one another?

This is just my opinion. I really do find a lot of parallels between Zeke and Levi.

 Like Zeke, Levi barely received any kind of love or affection as a child. Isayama said in one interview that the scene where Levi decided Erwin’s fate - was influenced by his interactions with Kenny. Levi still had the experience of being separated from Kenny during his childhood. He was constantly troubled by the thought of “Kenny left because I couldn’t fulfill his expectations.” (like Zeke he just wanted to receive approval  and to be accepted)

Due to Levi’s very chaotic and violent past, he never seemed to have any major personal goals but survival (as Kenny taught him) till he meets Erwin.

(same happens when Zeke meets Ksaver).

Isayama said that the reason Levi always operates alongside Erwin is because he interpreted Erwin’s “For Humanity’s Future” as an altruistic intention that Levi never considered himself, so Levi ends up adopting it as his own life’s mission.Zeke was also influenced by Xsaver and that gave him a goal and a life mission. 

After the battle of Shiganshina, the “make the sacrifices of my comrades meaningful and kill Zeke” promise preoccupied Levi’s thoughts to a large extent and he felt extremely frustrated that he was given too many chances to kill Zeke but was not able to. It even gave the readers an impression that Levi stopped seeing the bigger picture because he was so bent on revenge. 

Similarly, Zeke feels overwhelmed and frustrated when he was betrayed by Eren. Ymir sided with Eren and the rumbling got activated and he succumbed deeper in his nihilistic nature and did not seem to be motivated to stop the rumbling.

 In ch. 136, Levi realizes (in his inner monologue) that this farce is not what his fallen comrades sacrificed their lives for.

“when you guys devoted yourselves… was that in order to trample the hearts and lives of others?”

 Thus, he fully realizes that avenging his comrades by killing Zeke falls short in comparison to the goal of stopping the rumbling and saving humanity. 

Same realization happens for Zeke after his talk with Armin in ch. 137, he understands that life is worth the small happy moments and eventually understands the bigger picture and sacrifices himself to stop the rumbling. 

That’s why I believe that Levi understood Zeke’s sacrifice. His face while killing Zeke was one that we have never seen of him in the manga. There was no anger, no gloating, no relief. It was just weird and very hard to read.

This again links back to Isayama’s idea of father figures in the manga, and the idea of surpassing the father.

We already know that Xavier was the father for Zeke that Grisha had never been - he found someone who seemed to really care about him as a person, rather than using him for his own ends (I do have mixed feelings about this, but that’s for another post!) Thus, he put his own belief into a dream of Xavier’s, and moved forward carrying out his plan.

Let’s consider Levi and Erwin in the same way. While Erwin may not have been a literal father figure for Levi, he did represent a man who Levi found he could look up to - Erwin was a leader and a figure of authority and strength that Levi had been searching for ever since Kenny walked away from him as a child. So we could say that Kenny and Grisha represented the same thing to Levi and Zeke - the men that failed to live up to expectations as fathers, prompting them both to seek another to fulfil that role.

Levi’s whole life has been spent searching for family, and most notably, a strong male presence that he was denied as a child, his own father having never been present. Even in the Uprising arc, Levi still hasn’t moved past this.

Kenny himself points this out for us. Levi, inwardly, is still the same little kid he always was, desperately seeking someone he deems greater than himself to latch on to and follow faithfully. At this moment, it’s Erwin - a man who’s dreams for saving humanity seem to Levi like a good cause to dedicate his life to. This exactly mirrors Zeke’s feelings about Xavier.

Of course, we later find that this ‘dream’ of Erwin’s was not what it appeared to be at all - in fact, Erwin was merely chasing the dream of his own father, which was a more selfish idea of truth and proving a theory, rather than a desire to act for the greater good of humanity. This shakes Levi’s idea of what he’s been fighting for all this time, but his reaction when he begins to discover this side of Erwin only proves the idea that it is not Erwin’s dream that Levi is attached to, but the man himself and what he represents to Levi personally - this paternal presence. Thus, Levi swears to continue on this fight for humanity that they began together.

Similarly, Zeke learns that Xavier never really wanted to save humanity at all when he became a Warrior - he just wanted to find an extravagant way to kill himself following the death of his own family and the guilt he felt about it. We now have a moment where Zeke is confronted by a harsh truth about the man he looked up to - just as Levi was with Erwin. And like Levi with Erwin, Zeke does not reject Xavier. Similar to Levi’s actions with Erwin, Zeke allows Xavier to rest and picks up the mantle for him and continues onwards - adopting Xavier’s beliefs not only because he feels it’s the right thing to do, but also because of what Xavier himself represents to Zeke.

This isn’t to say that both Levi and Zeke don’t ultimately wish to save humanity as a whole - both have shown that they are willing to get their hands dirty for the ‘greater good’ - their ideologies clash, but ultimately their goal is the same: end the ceaseless fighting, find a way to end the reign of the Titans. However, both have also spent their lives chasing validation from others because they never received it as children. They put their all into becoming warriors/ fighters, attempting to please their original parental figures, only to never receive the love they sought. And so, their lives have become this constant chase to find self worth, acceptance and belonging, too.

In Xavier and in Erwin themselves, they will not find it. It’s testament to their need to please their respective paternal figures that they both carry on the wishes of Xavier and Erwin even after the characters’ deaths. There’s this idea that if they can just fulfil what has been asked of them both by these men, then finally, they may find the validation they so desperately seek.

But we as the reader know this will not be the case, and we see Levi and Zeke come to realise this in recent chapters, too.

There is another figure who shares such parallels with both these men, too, who’s destiny is intertwined with theirs throughout the narrative: Historia.

Devoid of a strong father figure during her childhood, manipulated and then abandoned by those who are supposed to love her, finding what she believes to finally be the father figure she’s sought as a teenager, only to realise he is not the man she wished him to be and, like with Levi and Zeke’s experiences, he falls short of her expectations.

When you lay the cards out, this is where we’re at:

Levi, promises to slay the Beast Titan at the wish of Erwin.

Historia, promises to inherit the Beast Titan in order to continue her own family’s possession of power.

Zeke, fights as the Beast Titan to realise the dream of Xavier.

These three characters have all been hurtling towards one another, their narratives destined to converge as their goals intertwine through this symbol of the Beast Titan.

And yet, Historia and Zeke do not have to realise the ill-advised dreams of their predecessors. The euthanasia plan does not succeed and Historia does not inherit the Beast Titan.

Because of Levi (and Eren, too, but that is also another post).

Levi fulfills Erwin’s dying wish, but in the end, not for Erwin. I think he does it for Zeke and Historia, and also for himself.

Zeke finally realises in PATHs with Armin that, while he cannot let go completely of Xavier’s purpose, as he does believe that ending the reign of the Titans is the right course of action (don’t we all!), his version of Euthanasia perhaps wasn’t the best solution. And Historia? People have assumed that while she may not inherit the Beast due to her pregnancy, surely the child will?

I don’t think so. Because Levi didn’t save Historia by killing Zeke. He saved Historia by giving her a child with his Ackerman genes.

This is just my opinion. I really do find a lot of parallels between Zeke and Levi.

 Like Zeke, Levi barely received any kind of love or affection as a child. Isayama said in one interview that the scene where Levi decided Erwin’s fate - was influenced by his interactions with Kenny. Levi still had the experience of being separated from Kenny during his childhood. He was constantly troubled by the thought of “Kenny left because I couldn’t fulfill his expectations.” (like Zeke he just wanted to receive approval  and to be accepted)

Due to Levi’s very chaotic and violent past, he never seemed to have any major personal goals but survival (as Kenny taught him) till he meets Erwin.

(same happens when Zeke meets Ksaver).

Isayama said that the reason Levi always operates alongside Erwin is because he interpreted Erwin’s “For Humanity’s Future” as an altruistic intention that Levi never considered himself, so Levi ends up adopting it as his own life’s mission.Zeke was also influenced by Xsaver and that gave him a goal and a life mission. 

After the battle of Shiganshina, the “make the sacrifices of my comrades meaningful and kill Zeke” promise preoccupied Levi’s thoughts to a large extent and he felt extremely frustrated that he was given too many chances to kill Zeke but was not able to. It even gave the readers an impression that Levi stopped seeing the bigger picture because he was so bent on revenge. 

Similarly, Zeke feels overwhelmed and frustrated when he was betrayed by Eren. Ymir sided with Eren and the rumbling got activated and he succumbed deeper in his nihilistic nature and did not seem to be motivated to stop the rumbling.

 In ch. 136, Levi realizes (in his inner monologue) that this farce is not what his fallen comrades sacrificed their lives for.

“when you guys devoted yourselves… was that in order to trample the hearts and lives of others?”

 Thus, he fully realizes that avenging his comrades by killing Zeke falls short in comparison to the goal of stopping the rumbling and saving humanity. 

Same realization happens for Zeke after his talk with Armin in ch. 137, he understands that life is worth the small happy moments and eventually understands the bigger picture and sacrifices himself to stop the rumbling. 

That’s why I believe that Levi understood Zeke’s sacrifice. His face while killing Zeke was one that we have never seen of him in the manga. There was no anger, no gloating, no relief. It was just weird and very hard to read.

This again links back to Isayama’s idea of father figures in the manga, and the idea of surpassing the father.

We already know that Xavier was the father for Zeke that Grisha had never been - he found someone who seemed to really care about him as a person, rather than using him for his own ends (I do have mixed feelings about this, but that’s for another post!) Thus, he put his own belief into a dream of Xavier’s, and moved forward carrying out his plan.

Let’s consider Levi and Erwin in the same way. While Erwin may not have been a literal father figure for Levi, he did represent a man who Levi found he could look up to - Erwin was a leader and a figure of authority and strength that Levi had been searching for ever since Kenny walked away from him as a child. So we could say that Kenny and Grisha represented the same thing to Levi and Zeke - the men that failed to live up to expectations as fathers, prompting them both to seek another to fulfil that role.

Levi’s whole life has been spent searching for family, and most notably, a strong male presence that he was denied as a child, his own father having never been present. Even in the Uprising arc, Levi still hasn’t moved past this.

Kenny himself points this out for us. Levi, inwardly, is still the same little kid he always was, desperately seeking someone he deems greater than himself to latch on to and follow faithfully. At this moment, it’s Erwin - a man who’s dreams for saving humanity seem to Levi like a good cause to dedicate his life to. This exactly mirrors Zeke’s feelings about Xavier.

Of course, we later find that this ‘dream’ of Erwin’s was not what it appeared to be at all - in fact, Erwin was merely chasing the dream of his own father, which was a more selfish idea of truth and proving a theory, rather than a desire to act for the greater good of humanity. This shakes Levi’s idea of what he’s been fighting for all this time, but his reaction when he begins to discover this side of Erwin only proves the idea that it is not Erwin’s dream that Levi is attached to, but the man himself and what he represents to Levi personally - this paternal presence. Thus, Levi swears to continue on this fight for humanity that they began together.

Similarly, Zeke learns that Xavier never really wanted to save humanity at all when he became a Warrior - he just wanted to find an extravagant way to kill himself following the death of his own family and the guilt he felt about it. We now have a moment where Zeke is confronted by a harsh truth about the man he looked up to - just as Levi was with Erwin. And like Levi with Erwin, Zeke does not reject Xavier. Similar to Levi’s actions with Erwin, Zeke allows Xavier to rest and picks up the mantle for him and continues onwards - adopting Xavier’s beliefs not only because he feels it’s the right thing to do, but also because of what Xavier himself represents to Zeke.

This isn’t to say that both Levi and Zeke don’t ultimately wish to save humanity as a whole - both have shown that they are willing to get their hands dirty for the ‘greater good’ - their ideologies clash, but ultimately their goal is the same: end the ceaseless fighting, find a way to end the reign of the Titans. However, both have also spent their lives chasing validation from others because they never received it as children. They put their all into becoming warriors/ fighters, attempting to please their original parental figures, only to never receive the love they sought. And so, their lives have become this constant chase to find self worth, acceptance and belonging, too.

In Xavier and in Erwin themselves, they will not find it. It’s testament to their need to please their respective paternal figures that they both carry on the wishes of Xavier and Erwin even after the characters’ deaths. There’s this idea that if they can just fulfil what has been asked of them both by these men, then finally, they may find the validation they so desperately seek.

But we as the reader know this will not be the case, and we see Levi and Zeke come to realise this in recent chapters, too.

There is another figure who shares such parallels with both these men, too, who’s destiny is intertwined with theirs throughout the narrative: Historia.

Devoid of a strong father figure during her childhood, manipulated and then abandoned by those who are supposed to love her, finding what she believes to finally be the father figure she’s sought as a teenager, only to realise he is not the man she wished him to be and, like with Levi and Zeke’s experiences, he falls short of her expectations.

When you lay the cards out, this is where we’re at:

Levi, promises to slay the Beast Titan at the wish of Erwin.

Historia, promises to inherit the Beast Titan in order to continue her own family’s possession of power.

Zeke, fights as the Beast Titan to realise the dream of Xavier.

These three characters have all been hurtling towards one another, their narratives destined to converge as their goals intertwine through this symbol of the Beast Titan.

And yet, Historia and Zeke do not have to realise the ill-advised dreams of their predecessors. The euthanasia plan does not succeed and Historia does not inherit the Beast Titan.

Because of Levi (and Eren, too, but that is also another post).

Levi fulfills Erwin’s dying wish, but in the end, not for Erwin. I think he does it for Zeke and Historia, and also for himself.

Zeke finally realises in PATHs with Armin that, while he cannot let go completely of Xavier’s purpose, as he does believe that ending the reign of the Titans is the right course of action (don’t we all!), his version of Euthanasia perhaps wasn’t the best solution. And Historia? People have assumed that while she may not inherit the Beast due to her pregnancy, surely the child will?

I don’t think so. Because Levi didn’t save Historia by killing Zeke. He saved Historia by giving her a child with his Ackerman genes.

~~~

Actually I didn't realised that the cart is moving in this scene when Levi was listening to Zeke's plan.

So he actually stopped the cart, and looked over when Zeke mentioned the Euthanization plan. He's pissed off for sure.

and his face in this scene..

Sorry Zeke, you got the wrong guy to share your view with. Levi survived living Underground, with the love of his mother (though briefly). He helped with the Orphanage. He helped kids like Isabel. (or he's got one on the way.. ahem) He is not happy with Zeke's plan. I dont think anyone would.

(and the lives of the children they would bear, will be in good hands, Zeke.)

Let’s play the game again of pretending that Levi is responsible for Historia’s unplanned pregnancy. Do his reactions fit and make sense?

Absolutely.

Levi is triggered by the idea of Zeke’s euthanasia plan for two reasons.

1. Levi loves kids, we’ve seen this over and over, but most importantly, he now has a personal connection with an unborn child. A child that, according to Zeke’s prosposed plan in black and white, should never get to be born.

2. This is a bit more of a grey take, but ... We can also focus on the ‘cruel world’ element of Zeke’s phrasing here to possibly understand the terribly conflicted feelings that might arise in Levi from the unplanned nature of the pregnancy.

Levi’s face for a brief moment here doesn’t look to me like one of anger or hatred, but more of pain, sorrow, and perhaps, dare I say it, even a little bit of regret. I think this is because, while he doesn’t agree with Zeke’s methods, Levi can actually at least understand what Zeke means by wanting to save children from the horrors of a cruel world.

Paradis right now is one of the most hated places on Earth; the world’s forces are all pointing their weapons in the direction of the island, while it’s inhabitants are stuck in a cycle of transforming into man eating giants which they still don’t understand fully. On top of this, the current government has just been overthrown by a rebel faction with the power to wage terrible destruction if they get their hands on Zeke. Contrary to it’s namesake, it really is hell.

And what has Levi done? Through selfish actions, he has accidentally put a child - his own child - right in the middle of this hell. It’s almost as though Zeke’s words are a double slap in the face for him - essentially, he is saying: ‘at least the future children of your comrades will be spared such a wretched existence, unlike your own child, who you’ve accidentally subjected to the pain and horror of an existence in this current, dreadful state of affairs.’

Ouch. Zeke believes he is the saviour, while Levi is completely selfish. And for once, Levi probably agrees with the latter part. It was never his intention to start a family at the epicentre of a brewing world war. The timing is dreadful.

—

Dostoyevsky’s Demons (alternatively The Devils)

If that isn’t Eren Jaeger…

The main theme of Dostoyevsky’s Demons is that valuing an idea over basic decency and morality makes devils out of the best of men and parodies out of the most virtuous ideals. 

I know there’s been quite the debate about whether Eren is free or not, and I think that this quote from Dostoyevsky’s novel encapsulates the point: if Eren follows his ideals at the expense of morality and compassion, he’s a slave of those ideals–even if that ideal is freedom, because he’s sacrificing everything else for it. Freedom thus becomes a parody of itself, as Armin notes: 

If he follows compassion and basic morality, though, is that true freedom? Is it true freedom if you are encumbered by your bonds with others? 

The story thus far seems to suggest that the latter is a better option than whatever Eren’s doing, but we’ll see in the final chapter. 

Eren’s essentially isolated himself from his closest friends, keeping only an elder family member close, and as a result the same thing happened to Mikasa: he’s forcing her to have nothing but an ideal (genocide is wrong). But whereas Eren forced Zeke to help him, Levi encourages Mikasa. Eren even asks Mikasa to forget about him, isolate herself. But Mikasa refuses, even if she has to kill him. She wraps the scarf around herself, because she will hold onto his memory and her love for him even if she is isolated. Her ideal is love, but it doesn’t have to make her a slave. 

Also fun fact (it’s obviously probably not a direct allusion but it is cool): the title of Demons/The Devils is taken from the epigraph of Luke 8:32-37, in which Jesus casts demons out of a man and into a herd of pigs, which then stampede down a slope and into a lake where they drown. 

(Chapter 126)

I've noticed quite a bit of scrutiny for this panel, but more than anything else that bothers me when it comes to the discussion around it, as seems to be more and more of a trend these days, is that people rarely actually seem to talk about the context around it.

Because just two chapters after this, in chapter 128, the most straight-forward, heroic interpretation of everyone going to "save the world" is kind of broken down:

I see people compare the chapter 126 cliffhanger to specifically something in one of the Avengers movies. I have zero idea of the context because the little contact I've had with those movies really did nothing to compel me to consume more of them and anyone else more familiar with the movies correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that none of the heroes in those movies had to kill people they cared about or at least knew to save the world.

Connie is specifically even a focus in this little skirmish. He is basically immediately proven wrong about the heroic nature of them "going to save the world".

Once more, AoT pulls back a bit and explores what "saving the world" here actually means: the story loops back to its idea that no matter what the reason for a war is, it's horrific.

In this case, the characters wanting to stop Eren have to kill people they knew: Connie is forced to kill people he cares about for what he believes is right.

As such, I think the view of the chapter 126 ending is often extremely reductive.

Even if you criticise the story for making this point with extremely minor characters, it still firmly establishes that these are not heroes saving the world, but soldiers fighting in a horrible war.

This is why the claims about this story's ending being won by the "power of friendship" are really strange to me.

A big portion of the cast has had to die for everyone to even make it to the point where they are now.

Eren still killed a lot of people.

Mikasa had to kill the person she loved the most.

The entire situation has more complexity to it than it is usually given in my eyes.