Levi

Reputed to be worth an entire brigade, Levi is humanity's strongest soldier: short, blunt, obsessive about cleanliness and utterly ruthless in combat. He takes custody of Eren after the military tribunal, judging that fear and discipline are kinder than false hope. Beneath the cold exterior lies a commander who carries every dead subordinate with him, a weight made brutally clear during the mission against the Female Titan.

Unusually short and wiry, Levi is built from compact muscle rather than bulk, and his physique is easy to underestimate until he moves. He keeps his black hair in a neat undercut with a straight fringe, and his narrow, steel-grey eyes sit above permanent dark shadows that make him look perpetually tired and unimpressed. His skin is pale and his expression rarely shifts. He wears the standard Survey Corps uniform with a crisp white cravat, the harness straps of the vertical maneuvering gear, and the green hooded cloak bearing the Wings of Freedom. He is often shown gripping a teacup by the rim rather than the handle.

Levi is blunt to the point of cruelty, foul-mouthed, and allergic to wasted words. He enforces obsessive standards of cleanliness on himself and everyone near him, scrubbing headquarters with a cloth tied over his face, and he judges people partly by how they handle filth and fear. Beneath the icy sarcasm lies a soldier who takes the deaths of his subordinates personally and who insists that no one can know in advance which choice is correct, only that one must choose and live with it. He respects courage and clear thinking over rank or reputation, gives credit where it is earned, and uses deliberate brutality when a display of force will save lives later. He almost never raises his voice.

Levi's past is deliberately withheld during this series; he arrives already famous as humanity's strongest soldier, a man whose combat record is treated as a strategic asset in itself. Supplementary canon establishes that he was born and raised in the squalid underground city beneath the capital, orphaned young and taught to fight by a criminal relative, and that he survived as a thug and gang leader in the city's black-market underbelly, mastering the maneuvering gear without formal training. Erwin Smith caught him and offered him a place in the Survey Corps instead of prison, and Levi accepted, eventually giving Erwin his complete loyalty. By the time the Wall falls, he leads his own hand-picked squad and answers directly to the Commander.

1. Return of the Scouts and the Fall of Shiganshina

   Levi appears only in glimpses at first, riding back through the gate with the battered Survey Corps while civilians question the cost of the expeditions. To Eren, who watches from the crowd, he is already a legend, and the reputation of the corps' strongest soldier is what fixes the boy's ambition long before the two ever meet.

2. Eren's Military Tribunal

   When Eren is dragged before a court that intends to dissect or execute him, Levi supports Erwin's bid for custody by brutally beating the chained boy in front of the assembly. The performance persuades the judges that Eren can be physically controlled, and Levi later admits the assault was calculated rather than personal, asking whether Eren resents him for it.

3. Special Operations Squad and Preparation

   Levi assembles a veteran squad around Eren at the abandoned castle headquarters, drills them relentlessly, and puts everyone to work scouring the building. He refuses to tell Eren how to make decisions, insisting instead that the boy trust his own judgment, and quietly builds a working trust with a subordinate who could kill them all if he loses control.

4. 57th Exterior Scouting Mission

   During the expedition the Female Titan tears through Levi's squad while he is separated from them, and he returns to find every one of his veterans dead. He carves into the Titan's limbs with astonishing speed, forces it to release Eren, injures his ankle in the process, and abandons the recovered bodies to save the living.

Erwin Smith

Commander and the man who recruited him

Levi gives Erwin unconditional obedience, carrying out orders he privately dislikes because he trusts the commander's judgment over his own. He speaks to Erwin with a bluntness no other soldier risks, and Erwin values that honesty.

Eren Yeager

Subordinate under his custody

Levi wins responsibility for Eren in court by beating him, then becomes the boy's commanding officer and the person authorized to kill him if he loses control. He pushes Eren to make his own choices rather than seeking permission.

Mikasa Ackerman

Fellow soldier and distant kin

Their first meeting is hostile, since Mikasa watched him assault Eren. During the pursuit of the Female Titan they fight side by side, and Levi orders her to protect herself rather than chase revenge.

Petra Ral and the Special Operations Squad

Hand-picked subordinates

Levi trusts these veterans enough to leave Eren in their care, and their deaths at the hands of the Female Titan hit him harder than he lets show. He carries their loss without allowing it to paralyze him.

Hange Zoe

Fellow officer

Levi tolerates Hange's enthusiasm with dry exasperation, criticizing their hygiene and their attachment to captured Titans, yet he respects their competence and works alongside them on Eren's supervision and the corps' planning.

• He beats the chained Eren in open court to convince the judges that a Titan-shifter can be physically controlled.
• He forces his squad and Eren to scour the old castle headquarters until it satisfies his standards of cleanliness.
• He tells Eren that no one can know which choice is right and that a soldier must simply choose and accept the consequences.
• He carves through the Female Titan's limbs at astonishing speed to recover Eren after his squad is wiped out.
• He drops the recovered bodies of his fallen soldiers so that the survivors can outrun the pursuing Titans.

• He is one of the shortest soldiers in the Survey Corps yet is called humanity's strongest.
• He habitually holds a teacup by the rim instead of the handle.
• His obsession with cleanliness leads him to tie a cloth over his hair and face while cleaning.
• His backstory is left almost entirely unexplained during this series.
• His Japanese voice actor, Hiroshi Kamiya, also narrates several of the series' interlude segments in later seasons.

• Eren Yeager
• Mikasa Ackerman
• Armin Arlert
• Erwin Smith
• Hange Zoë
• Jean Kirstein

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