#unresolved plotlines

As the story moves on, there are two major red flags that Yelena did not have any type of discussion with Historia. 

First, in Chapter 116, we can see that during Yelena’s explanation of the euthanasia plan that she refers to Historia’s pregnancy as a blessing. One could argue that she really did tell her to get pregnant and that she’s just being wily here and didn’t want to get into the details with the Corps, but there is some strange logic here. Why would the one who is dead set on doing euthanasia want to make sure yet another Eldian child is born into the world? Doesn’t that run counterproductive to the idea that Eldians need to die off? And as for this actual plan and the oddity surrounding how this is supposed to protect the island for several decades, we will need to discuss this in a later chapter. It’s much bigger than you may think.

Second, in Chapter 130, in the memory that takes place the night of the banquet ten months back, Yelena is meeting with Eren and Floch in secret and discusses the euthanasia plan. See here that she ensures that the wine works as insurance to ensure Zeke’s safety. All Zeke would have to do if they tried taking him to Historia would be to scream, and the MPs would be screwed. Sure, it might be rather chaotic, but it would work. 

Would it put the lives of many in the surrounding area in danger? Yes. But when Eren carries out his own Rumbling plan, think about how many people from behind the other two walls end up dying or getting injured because of the Wall Titans being let loose. Oh, and he sure doesn’t turn back the MPs to human form.

Also, keep in mind that Yelena has no idea what Eren’s true intentions are. 

Here, let’s turn to the other candidate who warned Historia: Eren. Eren makes it clear he does not really follow this plan because he wants his people on the island to live on and just wants to kill off the rest of the world population. And he also did not want to have to keep up the cycle of royal family members turning and eating each other every thirteen years. So, would he warn Historia to get pregnant? Let’s see.

Well, Eren does tell her, but it turns out that Historia has long been informed about this plan. In fact, she has no need to run or fight. Even more so, she does not seem to be scared to have to take on the Beast Titan. 

And then we have the rest of the conversation where Eren more or less intimidates her into going along with the plan- or was she going along with it? We don’t know after the story has ended what really happened. And then, suddenly, Historia pops the infamous question.

Historia brings up the idea herself! Why? We may never know. At least in this chapter of the series here. So, Eren did more or less warn her, but he certainly didn’t advise her to get pregnant either. 

An objection I can tell one might have would be that this conversation with Eren could have taken place the day after the banquet, so it would line up with the pregnancy ending during the Rumbling ten months later, so if either Yelena had warned Historia beforehand and advised her to get pregnant, or if Historia decided to go get pregnant after this conversation with Eren, she was in on this and got pregnant for her own sake to participate in either of the plans or simply to save herself.

Nope! There is yet another unanswered question. It is claimed here that Historia will give birth in a few months. But in stories, pregnancies, unless otherwise made clear by the characters that a woman is having a premature birth, are always concluded after exactly nine or ten months, depending on how one’s culture times it.

And why would Historia have to lie about her pregnancy due date if there was nothing off about it?

Ah. You may be just as confused as me when I was first trying to follow all of these pregnancy theories. If you read the introduction post where I linked to the person who figured out the identity of the Armored Titan, the way a character looks can give a lot of things away.

What does this mean for the Hooded Figure? I never would have been able to figure this one out if it weren’t for a brilliant observation made. Besides, Yelena is very tall. She wouldn’t fit the figure well here.

What would Levi be doing here watching them for? This is where things will get absolutely bonkers. Stay tuned. Next time, we will explore the unexplored banquet and jump right ahead to Liberio.

There was this lovely banquet that happened ten months prior to the Rumbling in the story. There must have been music, food, some exquisite Marleyan wine served to the top brass of the military, and everybody attended, including Yelena and the volunteers. Oh, and the personal guard that Yelena had? There was a last minute change to Floch Forster, Eren’s right hand man. Due to this, he was able to sneak off and meet with her at her lodgings to discuss some plans she had.

We have seen the memory shards of when Yelena, Eren, and Floch conspired together that night, but we have never seen the banquet event happen in the manga. Oh man, whoever was supposed to be guarding Yelena but had to be replaced at the last second must be in deep trouble. How could this have happened? We never see who did, so it must not have mattered-

What’s this, Levi? You are never letting her near Eren? I mean, it seems that Hange and Levi were not letting him near the volunteers again anyways in prior chapters too, but he’s absolutely certain he is not going to let this happen under any circumstances. But uh, Eren did slip away. 

So, where exactly was Levi that night? In all fairness, this is a rather hard point to argue since we never saw this happen in the story, but there is a good chance here that if we are right in light of other evidence, Levi and Historia snuck off and, well... got close. A bit too close. 

Ah, and back on Yelena for a minute with her wine plan. The top brass of the military got the wine- so that presumably includes Levi the tea drinker, but he’s not against drinking as a whole, so yeah. Let’s remember this for a future chapter. But speaking of wine, wine is everywhere in the first half of the War arc. One of the funniest images out of this is back in Marley where a naked Reiner is woken up to Porco holding a wine bottle and stating that what has happened is not a bad dream. Funny thing is that this panel is positioned RIGHT before the panel where it is revealed Historia is pregnant. Check out Chapter 107 if you don’t believe me.

So yeah. The Queen is pregnant now with a kid who is not even supposed to be happening. And the father is a top soldier who is now emotionally involved is in the worst possible position in that he is going to have to be willing to turn his lover into a Titan and kill their child in the process unless something else can be figured out. There so has to be a cover up, so why not choose the farmer who used to bully Historia but reformed himself? He’s nice enough to be with, but he’s not the man she wants to marry... until she does? Maybe? The last chapter never explicitly states if she married the farmer or not, but sorry, nameless characters and figures who don’t have consistent faces don’t count as actual characters in my eyes. 

Now what? Before the railroad was completed, Hange suggested a trip to Marley to negotiate further with Hizuru and attend a forum with the Corps. We’re going to assume that this trip happened some time after the banquet when according to the timeline I’m presenting, Historia is already pregnant.

Ah, while everyone else is running off eating ice cream, Levi encounters a clown, even scarier than a Titan. Is this a height joke?

Poor Levi and Historia are prone to height jokes. But this time, look at Levi’s face. He looks really upset, almost ready to cry. Take a closer look at what the clown says.

“Hey there, kid!” 

“Are you a gang of little children?” 

Oh my. Something about children is setting him off. 

And as the Corps walks together, Levi has his eye on young children playing before he notices the pickpocket Ramzi, and in a dad moment, saves the little brat and lets him keep the money he stole from him. What a softie. 

Now, the actual meeting with Kiyomi does not give good results. Diplomacy is much more difficult than the idealistic Survey Corps wants to acknowledge. Unless the conference goes to their favor, Historia is extra screwed. Here we need to look at facial expressions closely. Levi looks very heartbroken for some reason but nobody else does. In fact, they’re all glancing in his direction, frowning! Why else would he look so upset? He’s the one who has put Historia in her current predicament: because he made her Queen in the first place, and now she is carrying their child who is not supposed to be happening. And unfortunately, Paradis is still full of island devils to the rest of the world, so Eren sets off on his own for his own purposes. 

You may still be confused as to why this pregnancy is accidental. My dear readers, it is all about reading in between the lines and seeking the subtext. See the example above about wine. And we’re about to get into it with our first example. 

In month nine of ten of the pregnancy, Eren drags the Corps into a terroristic and staged attack on Liberio to get Zeke to the island to conduct their “experiment” to save the island. Levi and Eren do not have the happiest of reunions, and this is our first moment where something is really off. We saw Eren send several letters to the Corps to explain his motives, and here, he gives Levi a sharp glance as to whether it was enough to earn his understanding. Oh, is he taken aback- and I highly recommend watching the moment in the anime. 

And hurray, Levi gets to meet his enemy and roommate, Zeke. Everything in the staged attack went mostly smooth, except for a few... *drumroll* miscalculations. These miscalculations being two children unexpected to be a part of the whole plan, Gabi and Falco. 

Why is Zeke saying everything so pointedly to Hange and Levi? What, do you think Eren kept everything about Historia’s pregnancy a secret despite how it’s messing up the island’s security due to it being completely unexpected? Remember, he seemed equally surprised at Historia asking about her having a child. I’ve seen a lot of debate about the original Japanese wording, so it’s unclear if she was already pregnant when speaking to Eren, but let’s assume she was. 

Keep in mind that Zeke inherited the memories of Tom Ksaver, who knew much about Titans and the Ackerman clan, which Eren asked about in relation to his question about Mikasa’s headaches as a means of trying to push her away. Could talking about the Ackermans also be linked to Historia’s pregnancy? But don’t you believe for one moment that Zeke and Yelena are not going to make what they can of it, which will be explained later.

Yelena is coolly explaining the logistics of Zeke and Eren’s secret plan to the Corps. With sterilization, the Jaeger brothers will save the world from the curse of the Subjects of Ymir by taking out their reproductive abilities. Unfortunately, this is met with complete disgust- and mockery on Armin’s part- from the Corps. But how exactly will this plan protect Paradis from invasion until the last of the people die out? Let’s let Yelena explain with a cameo from Historia:

To compare to the fifty year plan:

Both involve using a partial Rumbling as a deterrent force.

Both involve maintaining the Founder.

Both need the royal family. 

The problem is... on repeat readings, Yelena is not making much sense here, and the euthanasia plan has a huge plot hole. Why? Let’s do a breakdown. 

“Both the Founder and the royal family must be maintained.” 

Problem one. Assuming euthanasia succeeds, there will be no more possibility of Historia having more royal blood children, but she will have one child- and from the reader’s perspective, this is her child who is assumed to be born of her and of the normal, humble farmer. Sounds good so far, right? But what is Yelena saying here? The Founder can only be used as a deterrent if possessed by either 1. a person of royal blood or 2. a non-royal blood user of the Founder and a royal blood Titan. And Yelena is saying that these must be maintained separately. Huh? And what happened to Historia inheriting the Beast Titan? It could still be part of the plan, but that leads to problem two. 

“So long as a few Subjects of Ymir inherit the Founding Titan until that child passes from the world.”

See? Nothing about the two remaining members of the royal family inheriting the Titan Shifters. Only a few non-royal Subjects of Ymir are going to be getting the Founder. Even assuming the Beast Titan would be inherited by Historia and then her child, their life spans would only be totaled twenty-six years. This is not enough time to wait for all the Subjects of Ymir to die off. Besides, Yelena only mentions the child. It seems that the royal family would have been spared turning into Titan Shifters. 

The problem is: How is a child of royal blood, who is not going to be given a Titan Shifter to inherit, going to protect the island for at least fifty or so years until the population dies off by working together with the non-royal Founder users?

I’m sorry, dear readers, but I will just say here. If you still think that this child is supposed to be the child of a nameless, faceless farmer at this point, then you are fools. Yes, Historia doesn’t have to love somebody who has special abilities that could be passed on to her children, but with a plot hole like this, there has to be something bigger going on. You do not have to be special to be born into the world, but clearly there is something special about this child that could be easily exploited by Yelena and the like. 

...

Alright, time to travel back to Clash of the Titans arc! Wait, what? Why here? It features a huge moment with the main couple of the manga. Remember, Eren thinks back to this time during the time skip when he realizes just how he activated the Coordinate for the first time. 

As he and Mikasa were about to die and he promised to always wrap that scarf around her, Eren, unknowingly possessing the Founder along with the Attack Titan, got the strength to punch back the Titan who later turned out to be Dina Fritz, the royal blooded mother of Zeke, and activated the Coordinate to control the Titans and get revenge for Hannes’ death. We all know that now, correct?

The Corps is making its getaway, but then they have Reiner and Bertholdt to deal with as well. Reiner correctly predicts to us readers that Eren is the most dangerous person to possess the Founder. And then Eren uses its power again. 

What’s going on here? Eren activated the Coordinate again without being in contact with a Titan of royal blood! The only person he is in physical contact with is Mikasa Ackerman.

Ackerman. 

We all know Eren lied about the Ackerman slave thing, but he mixed in some lies with the truth about Ackermans. This is what else he had to say based on his conversations with Zeke, who has all these memories of Tom Ksaver’s work with the Titan Research Society with all kinds of info about Titans and the Ackerman clan.

“A bloodline that could partly manifest the strength of a Titan while in human form.”

Oh! So that explains why Mikasa and Levi are so strong and heal faster than normal Eldians and why they are also immune to memory wipes. Okay, they’re Titans in human form, so how could Mikasa activate the Coordinate at least partially?

Well. In Chapter 107, the same chapter that Historia is revealed to be pregnant under unusual circumstances, we have a flashback and visit from Hizuru, the land of some of Mikasa’s lineage on her mother’s side. And what do we learn from Kiyomi? Mikasa is the descendent of the shogun- the royal family- who was left behind and lost on Paradis for at least a century! A lost princess! 

Dear readers, Mikasa has been the key this whole time. She, a person of Ackerman, normal Eldian, and royal blood of Hizuru, managed to activate the Coordinate by being in contact with Eren, even if it was only a partial activation. 

This here is the answer to the euthanasia plothole. This is also almost absolute proof that this child was intended to be Levi and Historia’s child. An Ackerman with Eldian royal blood would have the ability to manifest the strength and powers of a Titan without having to turn into a Titan. And when in contact with the Founder, they would be able to use the Coordinate to defend the island. And the child would be able to live out a full life, so no worries about Titan shifting. 

But unfortunately, this would mean using the child as a tool, used for causing mass destruction no matter if one is pro-euthanasia or pro-Rumbling. The parents of the child would likely be opposed to this, and Eren himself has qualms with using children. It’s no wonder that Yelena and Floch were more than happy to get their number one threat, Levi, out of the way, and Hange as well.

Oh. Oh oh oh. And if you want to see some classic Isayama trolling, check out this Q & A from the August 2018 magazine- you know, the magazine with Chapter 107, the pregnancy plot reveal. 

Um, yeah, so it seems that this was what Isayama was going for all along with the pregnancy subplot. 

Unfortunately, it never amounted to anything really, not even symbolically. We still don’t have all our answers for it explicitly made. It’s rather too bad, because there is potentially further proof I found- and a plothole- that connects to this, also about Ackermans.

...

Chapter 126 opens with Hange killing off several Jaegerists while protecting a comatose Levi. She tends to his wounds and delivers some exposition about Ackermans which fits with the previous chapter about euthanasia and the child. 

What is the problem here? In story, we never find out the reason how Hange even knows this. In Chapter 108, the Corps was discussing inheriting the Founder, and Jean mentioned that at the time about a year before the Rumbling, they didn’t even understand what the Ackerman clan was. 

So, how does Hange know this, and why is it so important to know that Ackermans can’t turn into Titans? Sure, the two known members of the clan were the only two people who were left to kill Eren because they were immune to the centipede which just vanished for unknown reasons after Eren died, but I am asking how Hange knew this in the first place. Why?

“Everyone was turned into Titans, but only you survived.”

Hange hadn’t seen Levi in at least a month. There is no way that Hange could have asked him if he drank the tainted wine or seen him drink it and then go on to conclude that Ackermans can’t turn into Titans without affirming the former was done while he was unconscious. 

One thing about Hange post time skip is that the focus is on her being commander without much for the Titan science aspect. There is one obscure moment from Chapter 109 that got me thinking. While she is having a moment of frustration, she suddenly collects herself and states:

What does she need to study? Is she trying to find more solutions to the problem at hand? I don’t know if books will really help them in the situation of, “What to do when the Queen is pregnant and can’t become a Titan Shifter to guarantee the island’s safety while trying to prepare for a global strike because Eren was an idiot and acted alone”, but I do have to wonder here. Could Hange have been trying to study something about the Ackerman clan, something about a potential child with mixed genes? 

The above is more of a guess from me than anything, but it’s the only thing I could find that would explain how Hange would make such a bold statement without seeing the evidence- that would make her a bad scientist. 

Funny enough, as readers, believe it or not, we might have proof that at some point, even if not in the forest, that Levi did drink tainted wine. It’s blink and you miss it. 

A few chapters back, I speculated about the banquet and Levi being counted as top brass, the only section of the military permitted to drink the wine. Again, without seeing the banquet ever, this point is hard to prove, but it’s not impossible to think that it would happen. It’s in Chapter 112 when Zeke’s plan goes into action that we can see something happen to Levi’s body.

There is a twitch effect surrounding his body going through his hair and clothes. The brass from many miles away felt a reaction go through their bodies too akin to a shock or a twitch. And to see what the anime staff did, check out this blink and you miss it GIF.

Furthermore, check out this dialogue.

“When’d he start tainting it?” 

Oh dear. He really screwed up in many ways this arc. But he is one of the lucky ones indeed. If he weren’t an Ackerman, he’d be long dead in the story. 

...

That was a lot of ground to cover in this chapter, but perhaps we have struck through the surface of the mystery of the Ackerman clan in the most unexpected ways. 

The first leg of the journey to the forest is by military carriage through streets full of people celebrating the victory of Eren Jaeger in Liberio, but they can’t see how ignorant they are according to Zeke. Levi is not impressed to have to be working with Zeke to maintain island security- he can’t stop glaring at him! He’s not too keen on this “secret plan” either, but he’s more than willing to listen. Remember, Hange has been desperately looking for solutions all this time as well. And it’s not really helping that the Queen is pregnant, so she’s not able to take on the Beast Titan in her condition, which Levi is to blame for as well. 

Anyways, after a change of clothes, they arrive at their destination. Oh, what’s this, our second conversation involving children? 

“So, you’re worried about those brats?”

What’s with that look, Zeke? Are you so embarrassed about your miscalculation that you have to remind Levi of his? This is going to be a long month in the forest if they can’t even outright mention the reason they have been brought together. Hmm, and Zeke ironically wants to bring Gabi and Falco “into the forest”.

Compare this to the anime. This very line has been cut, but Levi is even more pissed than he is in the manga. We’ll see a lot of that.

Nothing much here to say, except how interesting that like Historia, Levi is having to sit face to face with the rock throwing bully from not long ago. I like the sun/moon motifs in the anime, by the way. The sun was always with Historia, but the moon with Levi was an added detail. 

Jump to a month later- ten months into the pregnancy according to the timeline-, and this is one of the many times Levi is asking Zeke about Ragako village and why he did what he did. Why, he had to prove his loyalty to Marley despite how horrific the bloodshed was. Levi shouldn’t be so judgmental; he shouldn’t assume what others are thinking. He must not have been popular with the ladies. 

Wait. What? We were just talking about the ethics of slaughtering people to prove yourself loyal to someone or something. What does Levi’s love life have to do with this? Well, we now know that he was popular at one time. Just enough. Oh dear. He really doesn’t want to talk about this with “worrying about those brats”. 

The anime in both the sub and dub has perfect line delivery. Plus he looks extra embarrassed and can’t even look at Zeke when answering the question. 

Levi can’t do anything about when Zeke and Eren can do their “experiment”, it’s not his call. For once, they aren’t at each other’s necks because they agree that they are “running out of time”. The broader picture is that the world is going to strike back some time. But with that kind of look on his face, why else could Levi be worried about running out of time? Hold that thought.

Uh oh. Darius Zackley has been assassinated, and they can’t really trust Eren anymore because Zeke could be controlling him. But no, Levi’s Survey Corps idealism is getting the better of him. He put his trust in Eren many times before, so how could this farce be happening? So his idea is not to feed Eren to somebody else but instead to feed Zeke to a Jaegerist. And then, here comes the panel that I believe has been the simultaneously most taken out of context, misunderstood, and overlooked panel in this whole mystery. And it is also the key to resolving the plotline as picture perfect proof.

There are so many people who take this panel to mean, based on the dialogue, that 

1. Levi is a cruel bastard who is more than happy to slaughter Historia.

 2. Levi is relaying false information that was told secondhand about Historia’s due date- which has NOT been helped by Chapter 134 taking place just days later in story. It is more than high time to debunk all of this. 

If you read Chapter 2 of my theory, we saw that back in Marley, Levi was absolutely heartbroken about diplomacy being more difficult to pursue than it seemed. Hange never wanted to sacrifice Historia either. They have been trying everything to find a peaceful solution that doesn’t involve the Rumbling or using Historia. It’s a messed up situation for sure, and there are few options due to Eren’s actions in Liberio left.

But remember, Historia was the one who said at the Hizuru meeting that she would take on the Beast Titan if needed for the survival of the island, and she reiterated this to Eren outright in Chapter 130 of the manga. So, it was ultimately her choice, her freedom to choose. Let’s break down the dialogue.

“Then, if Historia’s prepared like she says she is, we’ll feed the Titan to her next.”

Notice the language I highlighted. Levi is trying to do this on Historia’s terms- her words to him back in Uprising must still bite him to this day- in fact, she repeated his words of “there’s no need to run or fight” back to EREN. Only IF she is ready to take on the Titan. This sure doesn’t sound like somebody who wants to turn her by force, ready or not. 

“We just need to wait a few months for her to give birth.”

See? Levi does not want to hurt a pregnant woman and her child- his child as well. Of course, when discussing this point about the pregnancy timing with others, I have had so many come back at me with, “Levi can’t be the father he got the timing wrong”. 

Sigh. Duh. Of course he's giving the wrong due date. He’s not going to give the REAL DUE DATE, which is ANY DAY NOW. He’s buying her all the time he can. And do you think he’s going to give away the fact that he’s the father of this child who shouldn’t even be happening to two messengers of the top brass? What do you think would happen if he did?

Yes, that’s right. Levi is willing to compromise national security so Historia and their child don’t suffer during the Titanizing process even if she is willing to take on the Titan when she’s ready after giving birth. And I just want to point out a great irony. Those who think Eren is the father because he doesn’t want to turn Historia and her children into Titans believe he is doing a great favor by bursting out and getting angry every time this is brought up. But he disregards Historia’s own feelings twice. Does this sound like somebody who really cares about what the other wants?

And here, I want to do an artistic analysis. This is another big one where us readers have missed the forest for the trees. We focus so much on the dialogue that we ignore the picture. I couldn’t believe it when I actually looked for the first time. The way Historia is drawn made my jaw drop. She looks like a perfect, glowing angel from the most high key maternity shoot ever done in the mind of Levi, who himself is cleaned up and all glowy as well, not to mention that this is the first time since Chapter 69 at this point that he had a slight smile on his face. Why would Isayama make this artistic decision? Levi never has any moments where he thinks about Erwin like this in his mind, or Hange. Let’s compare this to two instances where Isayama has drawn couples in the manga. 

See? They are all pretty and cleaned up. There is no other reason why Levi would be thinking about Historia in this manner. Nobody else in the story, not Eren nor the farmer, has any moment where they think about Historia like this. In fact, it’s the only time we see her during her pregnancy that she looks vaguely at peace. 

Hold the phone. Levi snaps back from his fantasy because the messengers cannot believe how illogical and stupid his idea is. If they don’t feed Zeke to another with royal blood, the island is screwed! And they may lose Historia to birthing complications! 

Er... are you okay there, Levi? You look terrified of birthing complications. 

And they don’t sound too confident in your plan of “just strike back”. You have absolutely no resources to do so in your position. And here, we need to compare this to the anime. 

Unfortunately, the dialogue surrounding Historia and the “few months” comment is cut- but that’s only a sign that something truly did happen ten months ago. And look at the way that the production compensated. Instead of talking about making sure Pixis gets his shit together, there is this added dialogue that makes Levi sound even angrier. 

He’s not talking about ripping off Zeke’s limbs here. He’s talking about ripping off Pixis’ limbs! If any of the original manga stuff was animated, it would have been a huge giveaway. 

A month has passed already- uh oh; time is running out- but Levi, while keeping the government plan in mind, is desperate to fulfill his vow to Erwin. Along with whatever was just going on in his mind, he is deeply distracted and wants to give his comrades’ deaths meaning. Unfortunately, he is repeating his same mistake as at the banquet and not paying attention to those he is supposed to be watching, and the wine plan goes into action. 

Zeke didn’t think he would be willing to slaughter his way through his comrades, but Levi succeeds and gets to him. It’s cruel, but Levi had to prove his loyalty to his nation- including Historia. If he lets Zeke get to her, she and their child are done for. 

There is this other bit of dialogue too.  

They were your downfall. Zeke is talking about the global scale conflict about to happen. But what else could this mean for the panel we read in Chapter 112? Levi thought he could work a way around to protect Paradis without sacrificing Historia and their child, but nope. They've managed to screw up national security.

Levi tortures Zeke on a cart ride out of the forest to bring him to be fed to another Titan. Levi is not going easy on him. And then we see Zeke's tragic backstory and how he came to support euthanasia via Tom Ksaver.

Note here. This is some M6 text that has never properly been revisited. I wonder why it was emphasized.

Anyways, Levi learns of this secret plan, and he sure is pissed. It's what Zeke shouts next that triggers him into wanting to further torture him. It's Levi's fault that this child is going to be born into a cruel world, but he can't be against children being born. He helped set up an orphanage with Historia, by the Walls! There has to be a way to get children out of the forest of violence while letting them still exist.

Sadly, that will never happen in this story, and these two will never properly reconcile.

And uh, the animators snuck in a subliminal message here. Levi ended up losing a pair of fingers, but fortunately not a pair of something else!

...

Here, I want to address a possible objection by comparing the "saved those children" comment with Levi and the moment Eren in Paths runs to stop Ymir from euthanasia to disprove I am reading too much into this.

This scene is a common argument used on Team Eren to prove he is having an emotional reaction to euthanasia because he is thinking about Historia and supposedly his child. No.

Eren was already well aware of Zeke's plan; he pretended to go along with it! Eren had his own plan because of the memories from Ymir received from touching Historia. His real intention was the Rumbling. Why? Because he wanted to protect life on the island and nowhere else. So of course he doesn't want euthanasia. The reason he panics is because Ymir has started moving forward to listen to the royal-blooded Zeke's command. But Eren is able to reach her in time because she wanted a connection to the world this whole time, something he gave her, something Zeke could never do because of his worldview.

Compare to Levi when he learns of the plan in context of the current arc. He had no idea what this plan was, unlike Eren, so he could not expect Zeke to say this.

One may argue that Levi is thinking of his slain comrades and just wants to torture Zeke more and be the hero. But he already chopped Zeke up in the forest and in the cart. So, why would bringing up children trigger Levi? Unless we had a scene of Levi listening to a conversation by two comrades about their families at home in the pages prior, there is no other reason than the idea that he himself is bringing a child into the cruel world.

...