#aot chapter 126 manga spoilers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

elmundodeflor · 5 months

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“What if we lived together?”

The first time they think about it, Levi has made them laugh. Someone had killed Sawney and Bean, and they have been crying all morning. It felt like nobody understood, how important they actually were to get a figment of truth. So many comrades were put through the worst of risks, just to capture them alive, it made them buzz with rage, too.

“Your face looks stupid.”, Levi tells them, instead. And he’s right. Their eyes are puffy, to the point they can barely open them. He would have made a joke, if it wasn’t because he’s only a bit concerned. “Now are you gonna sit around whining like a baby all day or what?”

Hanji cleans their tears off with the sleeves of their jacket. It’s not a nice image; their nose is red, and the fabric ends up stained with a splotch of wetness and snot. Levi has the immediate urge to turn his head the other way, but then hands them his pocket cravat, anyways.

“If you’re not gonna be of help, just go, okay?”, they say, with their tone tired and their voice rough. They’re in their lab, where they’ve locked themselves after hearing the news. The place’s a mess; like a tornado’s turned it on its axis. There are papers ruffled, thrown upon the floor; books taken out of their shelves, piled up on the desk. To Levi, it doesn’t take long to figure out it was them; their wild, seeking for liberation during breakfast time.

“If you want me to help, then move your ass out to the diner.”, he sits down next to them; his back against the wall. Hanji’s knees are flexed, pulled towards their chest, and they’re crying again besides him. “You’re an ugly crier, you know that, right?”, he speaks once more.

They raise a brow at him. There’s a softness that lies within his words that makes them perk their head up, stare deep into his irises. As if he’d wanted to comfort them in that own, unique way of his. It’s not like he’s completely wrong, either, though. They’ve seen it. Petra cries beautifully, like tears are snowflakes melting on their cheeks. But theirs are snowstorms, somewhat similar to acid rain. They’re not careful, or pretty, or delicate. Their heart’s too emotional, and it burns like fire. After all, they have always been too quick to let their impulses show the worst of them.

Levi sighs.

“You’d look less stupid if you smiled.”, he says. And then, he does something that makes Hanji freeze with shock. He inches up closer, like he’s calculating his moves, and places down his fingers at the corners of their mouth. It’s a gesture that’s too intimate, even for a guy that’s stuck-up like him. Still, it gets the job done. “See?”, he adds, when a genuine, whole-hearted laugh bursts out of Hanji. “There you go.”

“What if we lived together?”

The second time, it’s a late autumn night. They have suggested it, though only vaguely. “There’s so much we could do inside…!”, they’d said, on a frantic whim, earlier on that day. It was a gentle vision to latch onto, if they were honest; to play family like that. They would knit mittens for the kids before winter, and Levi’d keep the place warm— brew them his best tea.

“Would you rather…”, they ask him now. They’re lying in bed; his head on their stomach, their hands on his hair. The wooden cabin they’re staying at is small, yet cozy, with enough room for everybody. “Read people’s minds, or… be able to fly…?”

Levi shrugs. The ODM is pretty similar to flying, he guesses. Still, it’s not like he ever enjoyed getting involved in other people’s business, either way.

“Fly.”, he says, short and sweet. And Hanji hums, content. Maybe, because they knew that that would be his answer.

“Hm.”, they tug at black locks; fingers lost amidst his scalp. They’re staring at the ceiling, dressed in his sweatshirt and pajama pants. For a moment, they can pretend that this is all there ever was, if only. They’d tell bed-time stories to the children, about heroes and monsters. But it’d be just fiction, and there’d be no need to make wishes to the stars. “If you could fly somewhere, then, where would you go?”

Levi thinks about it for a second. He’d heard Armin talk, about the content in his books. Lands of fire, where sand would reach beyond sight. Snowed mountains, where earth seemed covered by frozen white. The ocean; an infinite mass of salt-water that touched past the further horizons.

He had always been curious about that one.

“The beach.”

Hanji closes their eyes. They can frame the picture, even when tirelessly awaken. They have a wide, two-floored house near the shore, with a white fence and a porch. They’re not on the run anymore; Titans nothing but a memory that fades with the foam.

It’d be wholesome, they think. They could have rooms for each the kids, let them decorate the walls however they pleased. Levi’d nag them about it, for being too messy or unclean. Then they’d brush it off over home-made lunch, sit outside to watch the waves.

“Aye, idiot.”, they whisper. And they can listen; their voice melting off to the sounds of the sea. Like they’re there already; with sun in their hair and sand on their feet. “Tell me something nice.”

Levi keeps quiet, probably a minute or two. He’d never been a man of word, but he can sense it, too. Sasha’d spend the day fishing, bring in weird creatures to cook. Armin’d collect sea-shells on the shore, maybe keep them between the pages of a book. And he’d sweep the floors while humming, sit by the window to breathe in the view.

“You could put your knitting skills to use.”, he complies, finally. Outside, the word sits silent, only the night to guard this conversation. “It’s getting cold as fuck.”

“What if we lived together?”

The third time, they actually speak it. Fearless. Aloud. Like the words have bloomed out of them before they could choke down the feeling.

Maybe, it’s because Levi sleeps, and there’s no chance he can hear their thoughts. Maybe, it’s because it’s danger— thinking like they do. But there’s some sense of safety in talking truths when no one listens.

“It’d be nice, huh?”, they whisper, more to themselves than anybody. They’d dreamed about it, really. Clutched desire to their heart like it was specs of golden. It was the beach, first. But now it didn’t even matter. It could be the mountains of white snow, the endless sandy dessert. Or right here, at the forest. They’d wear the plaid-shirts Levi hated, then he’d take them off, shut them up between kisses and jokes. He’d make them his in the bed they’d share, too; their mornings filled with the smell of pine and burnt log.

“If we run and hide like this… where would that get us?”, he says, barely minutes after. And he’s right again. He always is, Hanji’s sure. They’re a fierce dreamer, indeed. Someone who’d wish hard, with every fragment of their soul. Yet, they also know, they can’t abandon their wild— the raw nature that’s in them to see light in this world.

“Oh…”, they bit their lip, sharp until it stings. Blood burns in their cheeks, has tinted pink the tip of their nose. “You did hear me, after all…”

Levi nods, and takes a look at the hand that hurts. He’s too tired, or too scared to ever dare talk. So, instead, he stares; his eye clung to Hanji’s, with the intensity of a thousand colored fireworks. Truth is, he does want the same as them, after all. The poppy garden, the greenery, a tea-shop. But isn’t it too late to ask now? Isn’t tranquility a price that soldiers like them can’t afford?

“Hanji…”, his voice cracks at the words. A tear’s falling down their face, followed by one and then another. It’s not the ugly cry from the years before, where their sobs would resemble a loud, broken water-pipe. Now, it’s all hushed, quiet; like tear-tracks are stars against the dark of their lashes.

The realization of it doesn’t make him smile, though.

Isn’t it too late now, to confess such a thing? Isn’t love the worst of curses in times of war?

It is.

It’s too late now.

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tundrainafrica · 3 years

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Hi, i saw some time ago you compared Royai to Levihan, would you mind elaborating more on their similarities? I ship both and looking at they compared blow my mind

YES. Beautiful ask anon! As always, sorry for only getting into this now, my inbox is still a mess I am currently trying to make sense of. But legit, I could talk about this for hours. Cause I’m that fucking simp who just randomly goes on Youtube and watches the Riza breakdown vs. Lust scene just to see some GREATTT acting and some great crumbs.

So anyway, will be moving on now to this really long and--mind you--uncurated rant.

Disclaimer though: Although I have watched all the fullmetal stuff, from the first anime, to brotherhood to the manga and have lurked in the fanfiction sites long before (like fam, this anime is literally my childhood it’s such a big part of my life that when I hear ‘mustang’ I think of roy mustang not the car), but at this point, the main story line for me is a blur and I probably just remember only the Roy scenes and the Royai scenes well.

I was not a big fan of Edwin for multiple reasons.

Warning: Spoilers abound for FMA so read at your own risk. And for people who watch FMA but not AOT, spoilers abound for AOT is well.

So there are a lot of similarities between Levihan and Royai and I think this is the reason why Levihan definitely appealed to me a lot as a couple. Royai after all was my OG ‘I think I wanna be in this type of relationship’ type of couple.

Military Setting

I’ve always found these types of relationships interesting cause I like to think, you’re in such a high stakes and very stringent atmosphere where you could die at any moment and you’re constantly doing such morally grey things. And with that, people have the tendency to either close in on themselves and just keep to themselves or just go crazy over time. Yet you have people who find the time to form CLOSE and almost ROMANTIC bonds with your fellow soldiers

And I just like the process of exploring how this happens. And you know what makes it juicier?

2. The commander to the subordinate dynamic (with a twist)

The boss to the follower dynamic because Royai and Levihan are both incredibly healthy and stable relationships but they both come from something taboo right? A commander to subordinate relationship? So we ask ourselves? How did they both make it work?

Well, what I notice is despite the implied respect Riza and Levi both hold for Roy and Hange respectively, due to their positions in the military, do you notice Hange and Roy still have respect over Levi and Riza’s opinions. I cannot remember all the scenes in both shows but remember that scene where Riza would just stop Roy half way into fighting when it’s raining because sometimes he does forget that he can’t do his fire thing when it’s raining? It shows obviously that Riza could undermine his decisions if she finds them completely idiotic or out of the blue. Or that scene where Roy was curbstomping Envy when he found out Envy killed Hughes?

So, the thing is Levi and Hange worked like this too. Even before Hange became commander, I think there was an already implied hierarchical difference between being ‘squad leader’ and being ‘team captain.’ Squad leader’s are generally in a higher position and command a much larger group and do you see how Levi approaches Hange? Like when telling her off about risking her life when trying to capture the titan?

And even when she was commander, that telepathy scene?? Can we appreciate, that when Hange became commander (compared to when Erwin was commander), Levi took the reins of a lot of the leading in the survey corps, as if he understood his job wasn’t just to follow Hange but to take care of her?

Like I’m sure Riza saw her job more as a caretaker to Roy more than his subordinate and seeing this in Levihan was just fantastic.

And another thing I love about both of them...

3. They were just the two competent level headed people

This is such a trope for me. I cannot handle couples where someone is just not competent or is so obviously underpowered compared to the other. Like I want them to be able to handle themselves without the other. And even when they’re alone they’re doing shit and you just find out later, by the way I have this bf/gf/partner who is equally competent. But when we’re together we just share one brain cell because we can practically melt when we’re safe with the other.

And the thing is since they’re in a military setting we don’t see them ‘practically melt,’ we can usually just pick out the crumbs (ehem 126), and the fact that these crumbs are such rare gems, makes it all the jucier.

And here’s the thing, in animes and in stories, this ‘competent people’ couple is usually supporting cast cause I dunno? Nobody wants to hear about the competent couple who just figured out they like each other and they just like hanging out with each other for some reason?

And most adventure stories are underdog stories where we watch people start of as dead weight and get stronger which is not boring per se but I dunno, these couples usually dont’ appeal to me fsr because I’m all for the power couple dynamic and the protagonists always have something going on making them doubt their strength so yeah. And there’s usually this token love interest who’s not as strong and tries not to be useless but is kinda dead weight.

4. Their special abilities?

Levi and Hange are a power couple the way Roy and Riza are. When these two couples were introduced into their respective stories, they were all well established as bad asses. We have humanity’s strongest, humanity’s smartest then in FMA we have the flame alchemist one of the strongest alchemists and we have Riza who’s crazy good with a gun.

5. They were never that in your face couple

As said above, I really love competent people ships but nobody really likes reading about people being competent and having their level headed shit together so these characters end up with more of supporting character energy who have their ‘big damn heroes’ moments where they swoop in and save the protagonist.

And the thing is, since they’re supporting characters, there’s so much more room to move when contemplating such couples because the crumbs are there? But at the same time they’re not there? And since I like exploring my own headcanons about those ‘boring’ yet incredibly stable and mature relationships, these tend to be my favorite characters to shoehorn into my spotify playlists.

Edwin and Eremika respectively have more ‘in your face’ crumbs and I dunno, their crumbs for me always seemed to be too obviously there where I was like ‘okay cute relationship’ but ‘I wouldn’t wanna be in a relationship like that’ kinda way.

And since main protagonist romantic subplots crumbs are already ‘in my face’ I end up thinking to myself, what’s there to headcanon?

And like they go through so much more problems romance wise since obviously they are the protagonist. But I guess for me, I never liked those couples who were so obviously together and go through problems that bystanders are aware of. Because I dunno, people might not agree with me but it doesn’t sit well with me when EVERYBODY knows about the problems between two certain people in a relationship.

I always liked those couples who just start off as two people hanging out together and then like five years you find out, they live together and have five cats and it turns out they’ve been married for two of those three years.

And power couples just make it work? Because the stories tend to focus on them being competent people more than being in love so when the coupling actually happens it’s like:

“Wow you live together and have five cats, you worked so hard for it, I’m so happy for you.”

Instead of you know, watching people go through like 3456 instances of miscommunication drama just to end up in a still seemingly doubtful relationship.

6. Iconic scenes for Levihan and Royai?

And here’s the beautiful thing about the crumbs of both of these ships, they are incredibly apparent when the stakes are high and this is *chef’s kiss.* This is literally the climax, the peak to such subtle crumbs. Like okay, fine it’s satisfying to see the main protagonist and their main love interest doing shit and loving each other when the stakes are high like in Season 2 of AOT with Mikasa thinking she’s gonna die so she confesses to Eren or maybe that Naruto and HInata scene in the Pain Arc where Hinata just pops in and saves Naruto and kinda dies in the process

But can we all agree that there is something very very very satisfying about seeing two people who are probably not or are probably dating just going crazy for each other when the stakes are high? Like yo, come on.

My favorite scenes for Royai: The Lust fight scene, the Envy fight scene and lastly, the scene where Roy opens the gates to save Riza and goes blind. Can we just appreciate the fact that Roy risked his Colonel dreams to save Riza by going blind??

And for Levihan? I’m sure Levihans are tired of hearing the chapter numbers but 115? That’s fucking iconic, Hange ltierally jumped into the river with Levi and please tell me that is not a parallel to Roy opening the gates for an already half dead Riza. Mind you, Hange did not even know if Levi would make it or not and she probably didn’t know if she would make it or not either. Any of the soldiers could have literally just shot into the river and nicked them with bullets. She just literally abandoned everything and wooshed to the river.

And I had this convo with a few other people and we were thinking about what if it was anyone else who found Levi. And we came to the conclusion that IT HAD TO BE HANGE. Because somehow, I feel like Hange would have been one of the only few, if not the only one who would have gathered up the courage to jump into the river and risk their own life to save Levi.

And for the next part... Disclaimer: This is just my opinion, please let’s not start a ship war.

Like with the war on twitter “Levihan vs. Eruri,” I started to reflect as well on whether or not Erwin would have saved Levi if he was there instead of Hange but I think it is less likely that Erwin would have saved Levi. Erwin probably wouldn’t have agreed with the rumbling definitely but I cannot help but think, Erwin approached his commander position like a chess master and with this, approached Levi as a superior while Hange approached Levi as an equal and a best friend.

So if, saving Erwin was just going to mess with plans let’s say to manipulate the Yaegerists for some greater purpose, would Erwin have just let Levi die?

7. The magic is no one fits Roy or Riza perfectly.

I had these same thoughts with Shikatema vs. Levihan and now Royai vs. Levihan. So comparing their dynamics, I just have to say, that none of them fit each other perfectly. Hange has Riza and Roy crumbs and Levi has Riza and Roy crumbs too.

Like Roy is some ridiculously strong (Levi) superior (Commander Hange) with a seemingly goofy personality (Hange). Riza is the subordinate (Levi) who’s equally reliable but not as overpowered (Hange) with a very strict but very obviously emotionally constipated personality (Levi)

Like if you put Levihan in some of the token Royai moments. Like the Lust fight? I think Levi would have done something similar to Riza. Okay, he wouldn’t have broken down right then but he would have done something similar to what Roy did when he found out Envy killed Hughes.

I’m convinced Hange would have had a breakdown which is more of an in between between what Roy (Envy fight) and Riza (Lust fight) had in their respective fights. I mean 115 is proof enough that Hange ain’t playing when her bebeluvs is in danger.

8. And towards the end of the series?

Okay this is where the comparisons just kinda diverge because this part makes me sad. In the end game, Royai worked together. Riza became the eyes of Roy when he was making shit explode in the final battle coz he was blind.

And Hange and Levi were completing each other towards the of the AOT end right? Not just with the jian bird references with having parallel injuries. In the final battle though when Levi was out of commission due to the explosion, Hange was the one fighting with the crew until 132. And the moment she died, Levi stepped up and fought right?

Like they had something similar going on, where these two were covering for each other and taking care of the kids. It’s just that compared to Royai who were explicitly working together, we have Hange covering for Levi right after he got injured and Levi stepping up to cover for Hange after she died.

AND I can’t help but think, literally post time skip just could not handle Levihan working together huh? Is that how competent Levi and Hange are as soldiers that Yams couldn’t let them work together just one last time? Like he knew it would mess with the story if he lets Levi and Hange lead at full power?

Which brings me to last point, and the point that makes me saddest.

9. About them being endgame?

Okay, so it wasn’t confirmed that Roy and Riza ended up together because Roy still had his fuhrer goals but AT LEAST THEY HAD A CHANCE? Like their last scene in the show was still them together? And Riza still at least got to follow him?

Levihan… They just… shit just happened and we all know what happened and now I’m reading fanfiction and crying over fcitoonal characters to pass the quarantine.

Anyway, if you reached this point, thank you for reading. And thank you for the question anon!

#levihan #meta #royai

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