Levi’s awakening didn’t happen when we thought.
Summary:
- Bad Boy features the moment of Levi’s awakening.
- Fans previously thought that it happened because of Erwin.
- Turns out, it happened in Levi’s childhood.
Bad Boy is an extra Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) chapter that came out on May 1, 2024. It features a short backstory of Levi and gives us another glimpse into his childhood.
Although the chapter was rather short, it is quite eventful. The most interesting thing about Bad Boy is that it explains Levi’s weird cup-holding habit. Turns out, he broke a cup that was left from his dead mother while holding it by the handle, so he vowed to never hold a cup or a mug this way again.
But it’s not the only important thing that we learned from Bad Boy, it’s also Levi’s awakening.
Ackermans’ Abilities
Ackermans are a special clan in Attack on Titan, these are not regular people. It’s an Eldian family of warriors that protected Eldia's king. It’s said that they’re not mere humans and are the result of titan experiments. That’s why they are practically unbeatable by a regular person.
Every Ackerman has awakening. This is the moment when they unlock their full power and turn into a killing machine, difficult to stop. This is what happened to Mikasa when her family was attacked and Eren was trying to save her.
Levi Had His Awakening Before Erwin
There was a theory that Levi’s awakening happened somewhere during A Choice With No Regrets extra chapter. Moreover, some fans thought that Ackermans have to have a “master”, a person they’re bound to protect. For Mikasa it was always Eren, and there was an idea that Levi’s “master” was Erwin.
Fans were confident: something about Erwin’s speech in A Choice With No Regrets triggered Levi’s awakening and bound him to Erwin. It was a major argument for all the Eruri () shippers, and they cherished this theory and truly believed it.
The story previously hinted that there wasn’t such a thing as a “master” for Ackermans, when Zeke revealed that Mikasa was just in love with Eren, and it had nothing to do with her blood.
And now Bad Boy ruins even more things for Eruri shippers by saying that Levi’s awakening didn’t happen because of his history with Erwin, it happened when he was trying to retrieve his mother’s possessions from a couple of merchants.
Meeting Erwin was indeed impactful for Levi, there’s no doubt about that, but the sacred bond that shippers saw between them turned out to be fake. Levi was already powerful before meeting Erwin, the man just taught him how to deal with his strength.