► application : route 29

[corporal]

Player
Name: Ophelia
Personal Journal: 616
E-mail: ozymandisauce [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.: aim: bigass trees | plurk: mutants
Timezone: PST!
Current Characters in Route: None currently!

Character
Name: Levi Ackerman
Series: Attack on Titan (or Shingeki no Kyojin)
Timeline: Chapter 62 of the manga (ongoing).
Canon Resource Links:
Attack on Titan (Wikipedia) | Levi Ackerman (Canon-Specific Wikia) | Survey Corps (Canon-Specific Wikia)

Personality:

Levi is one of those characters who is introduced in his canon as a hardened badass with a famous reputation for, well, being such a badass. (Read: he's a pretty A+ Gary Stu.) He has a mysterious past that is eventually (mostly) revealed, although the nature of his canon is such that small and shocking tidbits of information are slowly fed to us and then promptly forgotten for several chapters while everyone theorizes about "what the hell happened to _____ being a thing?" His last name is one of those things, for example. Essentially, much of Levi's character build and motivations for his behavior are revealed retroactively, leaving the reader to take their new knowledge and go back through to re-analyze situations that have already occurred with a new lens of information. The reason for my prefacing with this is that it's likely more information will be expanded upon in future chapters of the manga that may lead to entirely different conclusions being drawn about his actions in particular situations.

Hailed as "Humanity's Strongest Soldier", Levi is immensely skilled with killing titans—the primary plot point of his canon. He is a soldier and squad leader in the Survey Corps, a military division designed to venture outside the walls in which humanity is kept trapped and seek out titans deliberately. He is viewed initially through the eyes of our canon protagonist, Eren, as a badass and flawless hero with an impressive titan kill count. However, it is soon revealed that Levi is not 100% the way he'd been previously envisioned (go figure). He is physically short, high-strung, rude, irritable, and tactless. He is not abject to violence against people he knows marginally well, although only when absolutely necessary to achieve a particular goal. When Eren has truly met him and is placed under his supervision, there is a scene in which Petra—a member of Levi's squad—talks to Eren on the subject of Levi. She notes that Eren seems disappointed with having truly met the man and comments that he is much different in person than his fame has made him out to be. Eren explains that it's not those details that surprise him—instead it's his willingness to obey the orders of his higher-ups that Eren had not expected. Petra informs him that it is mostly just Erwin, Levi's commanding officer, that he obeys and implicitly trusts, and hints about Levi's past wherein "it's rumored he behaved like you thought he might" back then.

Having been raised in poverty in the underground (a quasi-city underneath the wealthy capital), Levi developed both the skills and attitude necessary for self-preservation. He was a thug and a thief, both stealing and fighting for his own survival, and in turn developing a personality immensely lacking in social skills and graces. It is revealed in the more recent chapters that Levi was living with and essentially raised by a man named Kenny Ackerman—a notorious serial killer and vigilante—while he was young and living in the underground. He acquired much of his combat skill and escape artist skill from this guy's tutelage; and, assumedly, his behaviors as well. Acting in one's own self-interest with very little regard for the survival of others unless they can be 100% trusted, and Levi does not trust easily. Once Levi is essentially drafted into the Survey Corps via making a deal with Erwin Smith (initially with the intent to kill Erwin, although he convinces Levi otherwise) he is invigorated by the freedom granted to him as a soldier outside the walls. When he does try to kill Erwin, the man reveals to Levi that there are more important things to consider—Erwin opens Levi's eyes to the fact that titans are their major source of oppression and they are the reason that he's felt trapped within the walls without hope of a future. Levi is obviously moved by this as it dawns on him that there are grander goals to pursue in his life than his own self-preservation. It seems that Erwin's ability to draw Levi's attention internally to his own feelings of oppression is what begins to foster his trust.

While Levi is a ruthless and skilled killer of titans, it is important to note that he's not heartless, nor devoid of emotion. In one of his earliest canon appearances he's grieving over the death of a soldier; it is apparent that he does grieve on the deaths of those close to him and those who fight beside him, although he does not dwell on them due to the inevitability of death in his canon. An important turning point in the manga happens when a village is discovered to have been ransacked by titans but no bodies are found. Hange shares with Levi the theory that everyone in the village had actually become titans, and that there was a high probability that more titans that had been killed by their efforts could very well have been human beings. Levi struggles visibly with this information and comments with incredulousness and obvious sadness—he has no desire to kill humans and the knowledge that he could have done so upsets him. Further on, there is a point at which it becomes necessary for the Survey Corps to take part in a coup d'etat, wherein they very much need to kill other humans. Levi still struggles with this even then, although when it becomes abundantly clear that it's necessary for the advancement of humanity and the survival of his squad, he goes through with the command.

Levi, while abrasive with his compatriots, rude to everyone, and generally socially inept, is still a compassionate person. He's hardened by the nature of events in his past (deaths of many of his friends, self-preservation) and emboldened by his eventual "adoption" into the Survey Corps. It is clear that he truly believes in the strength of humanity against titans and is motivated by the goals of the Survey Corps to put their lives on the line for the dangerous but not-impossible advancement of society. All in all, he is a powerful soldier, though not without flaws as he's initially believed to be. He is strong-willed and capable of overcoming his own moral convictions in the face of what he believes to be the greater good, although he's still kind of an asshole.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Strengths:
Quick-footed: He's agile and pretty short, which makes doing sweet shonen animanga air flips assumedly simpler for him. He's quick with maneuvering in fights and dangerous situations as they may call for it, with a strong combat readiness and reaction time in crises.
Intelligence: Levi is in the range of above-average intelligence. Supplementary canon ranks him at an 8/10 in the category—he's quick-thinking and able to make life or death decisions in an instant. It should be noted, however, that this is perhaps easier for him due to abiding by a personal code of ensuring that whatever decision is made is "the one [he'll] regret the least", and accepting that one cannot control all possible outcomes of such decisions. In addition, the maneuver gear weaponry that's used in his canon is something learned through military training—Levi, however, is self-taught without military instruction (one of his many charming shonen power fantasy skills!!).
Cleaning: Real talk this is pretty much a gag addition to his personality in canon but it does affect him—he's a stickler for cleanliness and demonstrably high-strung about dust/dirt/blood/etc. Oftentimes others aren't able to clean to his satisfaction.
Weaknesses:
Teamwork: He is headstrong and stubborn; without a clear figure of authority that he respects (of which there is only one, canonically) he is not likely to obey authority unless it is in the interest of his own survival (this is evolving slowly with his character development, however). For example: in the first episode of a 3-part OVA, when Hange endangers his squad by attempting to chase a titan down herself and Levi kills it, he blatantly disregards her status as his superior officer, grabs the collar of her shirt and vehemently berates her--something that's unlikely for another soldier to do to their superior officer.

This doesn't mean that he doesn't care about his teammates and their survival; but it is clear that he considers himself his primary leader. He relies on his own instinct and intelligence to get a job done and is willing to work alone more often than in a team. He doesn't view working with others as a necessity.
Attitude: He is rude and abrasive. He doesn't engage in small talk and he respects and trusts few people unquestionably. He is essentially emotionally stunted; leading to an attitude of superiority that is not something he explicitly states at any time (he doesn't boast publicly about his skills) but it is clear that he thinks very highly of himself. His confidence has spilled into overconfidence once before and lead to the deaths of two of his close friends, a turning point of sorts whereby Levi began to re-evaluate his headstrong methods.
Ego: Levi thinks highly of himself (although this is not vocalized as much as it's implied) and that is reinforced by his fame as "Humanity's Strongest Soldier". This exacerbates his stubbornness; while he is intelligent, he is not as calculating as his superior officers, which he does not seem to realize. Levi very much considers himself an authority over himself and his peers, his soldiers, and even a few of his superior officers -- he abides by his own rules when he can. There are few canon repercussions for this flaw, although it's doubtful that will last long either.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder
Starter: Purrloin
Password: Spring Rolls

Samples
First Person Sample:

[ When Levi appears on the screen, his expression is dead-serious and displeased; inappropriate, perhaps, given the festively green headband that he has obviously opted to wear. If one looks slightly closer, he's definitely wearing the apron, too. ]

I don't know what's happened, and I don't particularly care to ask. [ While he speaks, he's seated on a small sofa, where his newly-acquainted Purrloin—yet unnamed—can be seen only by the tips of her ears in the lower half of the frame. ] This shit has lasted far too long for me to be dumb enough to assume it's some kind of dream.

[ Purrloin here does not seem pleased without equal representation in the frame and she climbs up onto the back of the sofa, in full view of the camera, and curls up—watching it with one lidded eye open, almost skeptical. Levi slowly turns and looks at her, displeased expression unwavering, then back at the camera. ] This animal seems to think that it knows me. I can't go anywhere without it following. That's "normal", yes?

Regardless, I'm not about to let it starve or some shit. But please—tell me it's clean.

[ When he's about to turn off the feed, his expression of displeasure has turned into a frown as he struggles with the new technology. Toasters are off the hook to this guy, okay, how is he supposed to handle all of these features in one damn thing? The fuck happened to pens and paper?

In the second it takes him to find the option to end his transmission, Purrloin can be seen stretching out and sitting up with a momentary expression of mimicking disgust, directed at Levi. Of course she's clean. Who even asks such a question! ]

Third Person Sample: Once Levi finds himself left to his own devices after a grueling series of nauseatingly strange social interactions, his first instinct is to find a place to sit down and investigate exactly what supplies have been bestowed upon him. He trusts precisely none of the people he's so-far encountered; all of them much too chipper, which is something he has very rarely seen. Even when he had, there was always an air of desperation or sadness alongside it; a transparent and forced optimism in the face of a world too cruel for most minds to tolerate. The behavior of those he'd encountered here, though, was different. It was unsettling because that subtle fear was not there. Could this place—whatever the fuck it really was—actually be a world without a constant threat of destruction at the hands of titans? The impossibility of it all served only to aggravate Levi in that moment, while his mind was busy dissecting all of the information he'd thus far been given. The music, although faint, was not helping.

Helping even less, as it were, was the unnaturally furred cat-animal ("Pokémon?" What sort of naming convention was that?) that had seemingly pledged its allegiance to him in some way and was watching him dig through his backpack. For a brief second, as Levi pulls out and sorts everything in his pack, he wonders if he'd maybe been poisoned. That could result in such a surreal experience, couldn't it? The thought crossed his mind that he could very well be hallucinating—what if he were really out in the fucking forest looking like a dumbass, surrounded by titans with their heat and their stench prickling against his skin while he was busy mentally deciding whether or not this animal was enough like a cat to be called a cat at all? No, he decides, he'd have felt ill if it were the effects of a poison. His stomach feels fine enough. Letting his focus drift to the supplies he's laid out to investigate, Levi's eyes narrow. "No gloves? Nothing to keep clean with?" he mutters under his breath, before he's beginning to pick up what he's sorted.

As though she'd been listening to him, Purrloin seems to perk up at the words. He was reaching to open the backpack when the creature knocked it over—much to Levi's obvious annoyance. As he was about to snatch the backpack away from her, she pawed out the matching apron and headband from deep within its depths. He must have been too engrossed in his thoughts to reach in far enough to find them. It takes him a second to realize that she's just acted in direct correlation with his words (aprons are for cleaning!!) and when the realization hits, his eyes widen ever so slightly.

This animal was far too fucking smart to be a god damn cat.