Thread by @whofavoredfire

Levi Ackerman & "No Regrets"

A deep dive into the "no regrets" speech - how the motif of choice is core to Levi's character, his dynamics, and the story as a whole

#aotmangaspoilers

The no regrets speech is core to Levi's character & the series as a whole because it stresses the importance of choice, making hard calls in impossible circumstances, and living with the consequences of your actions as well as pushing forward rather than dwelling on the past

"No Regrets"

Levi very quickly is used to establish this motif of choice in AoT; it permeates his entire arc and it's something he uses to mentor many major characters to facilitate their growth.

This aspect is first emphasized during the famous "no regrets" speech to Eren

Levi tells him you can't know a choice's result so you must make decisions that you can reflect on as the best choice you could have made

Make peace with the inability to know the outcome before to stop torturing yourself on the road not taken, what-could-have-been's & if-only's

Moreover, that different experiences/POVs can lead people to arrive at completely different conclusions on the right path forward

Your choices define you in that they're a product of who you are, how you live your life, but claiming to know the "right answer" is also wrong

Levi's Character

This motif of choice permeates Levi's arc & interactions with others

A great example of this is Levi's dealings with Dimo Reeves; Levi decouples Reeves the man from his persona (“merchant") asks how Reeves chooses to live his life, what choices he'll make

Levi reiterates he doesn’t know the right answer, it’s up to Reeves what he'll do

Levi can't be the one to tell him what's right- Reeves is "free to choose" for himself, so the question is who does Reeves choose to be?

This is part of how he earns Reeves' trust and agreement

Another key example is how Levi helps form the Alliance

Magath is set to attack, ending it all before it begins, but Levi's frank words about the situation, how Magath can "shoot or listen, it's up to [him]" disarms Magath before things can escalate

These moments also tie into the importance of understanding and communication to resolve conflict and come together because by letting his "enemies" make their own decisions after presenting his argument, he's opening the dialogue, deescalating the situation, and fostering trust

Testing the Mindset

But Levi's also repeatedly tested on this as he's forced into sadistic choices seemingly designed to hurt him with no good answers

1. Erwin's charge
2. Who to use the serum on (Erwin or Armin)
3. Kill or be killed with his titanized squad

With these horrible situations, the narrative also makes sure to establish that Levi has an element of guilt, it's his own choices that led him here

Like the emphasis on the fact that if only Levi had denied his squad the wine, a well-meaning choice before ultimately doomed them

Or when Levi tells Erwin he's making the choice to help relieve Erwin's burden and inner turmoil

Emphasis is placed on Levi's anguish, with his expression when hidden from Erwin visibly pained before he schools it

And he apologizes to the recruits during but then fails his part

Serumbowl is similar- lots of emphasis is placed on Levi's choice before & after

And almost immediately following, they find out they're in far more danger than they knew & Armin says "if anyone could get us out of this" it'd be Erwin

Which Eren argues with Levi's own words

These choices are framed as impossible to win and coming at great personal cost; he has to make a choice and there's no decent option available, someone's dying. Moreover, there are things at play he didn't know when he makes his choices

The story invites him to have regrets

This guilt the story keeps giving him, as the sole survivor, the one who bears responsibility as "Humanity's Strongest", his enslavement to being a hero, tests this mentality and invites Levi to fixate on his past choices and failures, to succumb to regret

But living with "no regrets" doesn't mean making perfect choices, it means Levi knows he has to make "tough decisions in worst-case scenarios" & live with them, keep moving forward, focused on what can still be changed rather than live stuck in the past

We see this forward focus all the time with Levi; he suffers devastating losses and injuries but never dwells on thoughts like "I should have done this"

He even wakes up realizing he lost fingers, the Rumbling started because he let Zeke escape and quickly turns to what's next

Mentorship & Interactions

Levi imparts this mentality to many characters, telling Armin to make regrets impossible going forward with how he lives & to accept who he becomes, telling Jean "that was then & there", encouraging Mikasa not to make the same mistakes, etc.

This is crucial because the series as a whole is something of a cautionary tale on living in the past- from dwelling on conflicts no one was alive for to fixating on (childhood) trauma and mistakes to the point that you can't move forward and progress

But the biggest example of Levi's influence here is Eren, who remembers & discusses this moment many times

Eren parrots back Levi’s words to him from the the Female Titan arc as late as chapter 90 (one of the last chapters where the reader is given Eren’s open POV/thoughts)

Which makes sense given the weight of Eren's choices (like enacting the Rumbling) for AoT as a whole & because what is freedom if not the ability to make unhindered choices for yourself?

Choice (& not letting the past hold you down) is crucial to Eren, Mikasa & Ymir's stories

Ymir is the extreme manifestation of this inability to move on from a past that haunts you, trapped in Paths - with her first step toward freedom linked to Eren's push for her to choose for herself and her final one hinging on Mikasa's choice, one she herself couldn't make

Which is why Eren rallies Ymir with how she gets to choose, is free to choose, because her lack of freedom is tied to her lack of ability to choose for herself despite having all the power to do so- she's beholden to Fritz’s will & therefore incapable of making her own choices

And beyond the "choose for yourself" allusion with Ymir-Eren, Levi is also depicted as supporting Mikasa's choice in the end- and Levi's lack of regrets over his choice to save Armin is contrasted with Armin's own feelings own inadequacy in 136

That's the meaning of Levi's words of choice and no regrets

Many characters get stuck on what-if's but are pushed to focus on the future instead. Because Grisha did go out, Armin was chosen, not Erwin, Mikasa didn't confess

Where it all started matters less than what's ahead

Which is partially why Levi's plays a crucial role in many characters' arcs, AoT's themes, & the "no regrets" speech is so influential for the story

Levi owns his choices, won't dwell on the road not taken despite all the pressure to succumb to regret, and focuses forward