#part of this is probably reaching but thats my tale🙏

[levmada]

PLEASE tell us about Jesus-Judas / Levi-Zeke comparisons im a sucker for biblical parallels 🧍

(part 1 technically)

UGH THANK U YES!!!!!

this is so interesting to me because there are more parallels than one may initially think - cuz there’s no overt reason for this connection to biblical canon other than connections to other religions in aot guess? (i.e., norse myth and yggdrasil ((the tree of life aka the paths tree)))

there are 3 suggestions why judas betrayed jesus. 1, possessed by demons, 2, money/flattery since jesus was already wanted by roman police (judas was a thief and a conman), and/or 3, difference in belief.

1 - demons aren't relevant, unless we're talking metaphors perhaps.

2 - as long as levi died that was good enough for zeke (the reason he left levi for the mindless titans)😭tho the biggest reason zeke resented him was simply because he kept failing to kill him.

3 - is IT. in biblical canon, the reason judas betrayed jesus was basically because - although they both wanted to make israel an independent kingdom from rome - judas thought jesus was going about it the wrong way by preaching diplomacy/refraining from waging war/not using deceit to orchestrate a coup and such.

it's the same, except neither zeke nor levi wanted to preserve the eldian empire (necessarily). zeke wanted to wipe it out, levi wanted to bring peace - but not by any means necessary. levi didn't agree with the rumbling. zeke on the other hand wanted all eldians to die if not sooner through eren's rumbling, then later.

zeke would betray levi because he found it foolish how he (and the scouts) thought they had any chance of getting peace through diplomacy (a relative to jesus' way); zeke also found all life worthless, while for levi it's the opposite; zeke would commit reprehensible acts of trickery/malice/indiscriminate murder to get peace his way, while levi of course was a “hero” and thought similar to jesus, save for the fact that levi would do those things as long as it contributed towards the peace the scouts sought (see: season 3p1)

the practical reason jesus chose judas to be one of his disciples was to be the treasurer who’d operate their “common purse”. this might be a reach, but you could say zeke played a similar role as a pawn or token for the rumbling (from levi and the scouts' perspective).

and this makes sense, because the reality is jesus chose judas because he knew he’d go on to betray him, and that was fine because it would lead to humanity’s redemption (the crucifixion).

levi didn’t know of course. but it’d be unrealistic to think levi didn't consider betrayal as a possibility knowing he didn't trust zeke to help eldia or the scouts. later on, he was guarding him under the plan of cutting zeke up and feeding him to a titan to preserve his royal blood (after the messengers told levi about eren's escape). aka, an end to the rumbling. aka, humanity's redemption.

but zeke's betrayal would lead to humanity's redemption anyway (the alliance battling eren and ending the titan curse).

zeke betrays levi. except levi doesn't take the betrayal as jesus did and fought to capture him. then took sadistic pleasure in torturing him with plans for zeke to die a slow painful death soaked in his own filth (by getting eaten by a titan).

yelena would go on to rhetorically ask levi much later - as his turn for that reconciliation/sin confession time in the forest the night before - “violence is the one thing you can’t take away from humanity. isn’t that right, captain?”

levi represents many things, including the best of what humanity has to offer (ie, its compassion, its resilience). so yelena is asking that literally in response to the fighting at the harbor, but it should mean in terms of levi's character too.

but, in the world of aot you can’t call levi’s propensity towards violence a sin, in fact it's a huge facet of his strength.

BUT levi began to become everything his old self saw as a weak person with thinking about the past (ie in the forest levi thinking back on his last convo with erwin, which couldn't have been for the first time); giving in to emotion and hesitating (levi hesitated to kill titan varus, seeing varus' face in his titan and generally wondering if all of them were still in there. this almost killed him); in general losing control of his emotions (levi being reckless by torturing zeke in the cart apparently not expecting zeke would do anything to escape, including set off the thunderspear. levi is smart. it's more likely to me he did see the possibility, but he wasn't thinking because he gave into hatred).

and that's exactly the thing. levi's "violence" is to mean his violence used because of blind hatred, violence to be cruel.

BUT THIS IS THE PARALLEL

levi doesn't mirror jesus exactly, he's just a man. BUT levi DOES MIRROR THE LEADER OF THE LEVITES

jacob (levi’s father and the father of the kingdom of israel) said: “Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel!” (genesis 49)

simeon would go on to lead a different tribe, but their sins are the same. simeon is best known for mass-murdering a bunch of a people because the prince of those people raped his sister.

THIS IS SO INTERESTING!!! because this is adjacent to zeke as well. in s3, zeke took pleasure in killing the scouts (w/ erwin's last charge), but he doesn't hate the scouts necessarily; he hates his father, and his father stood for the same thing the scouts do, and a large reason zeke hates his father is because (zeke thinks) he brainwashed eren into the same belief. zeke hates the "prince", thus zeke hates the people of the prince who "raped his sister" - violated his brother's mind.

LEVI REPRESENTS THE SAVIOR FIGURE JESUS IS BUT AS A HUMAN HE SINS AND HIS SIN WAS THE SAME AS LEVI OF THE BIBLE!!!

AND ZEKE REPRESENTS THE THEIF AND BETRAYER JUDAS DOES

THEY SHARE THE SAME BASIC GOAL OF PEACE, AND THOUGH THEY'RE DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED, WHAT MAKES THEIR “BROTHERHOOD” IS THEIR CRUEL VIOLENCE.

it's important yelena of all people asks levi that question whether she knows it or not, because she sees zeke as the savior of the world. whether zeke is the best of humanity or levi is, their violence is impossible to remove. (which, of course, is a major theme of aot.)

in israel, kissing was a way to greet someone (especially someone you know) and to identify jesus to the authorities, judas kissed him. a really treacherous “fuck you” to their brotherhood.

in the same way, zeke would turn levi’s comrades into titans. zeke both didn’t expect levi to survive this (like judas giving jesus to the roman authorities), and this forced levi to kill his comrades.

this in particular is like that kiss because: the meaning of his comrades lives, alive and dead, is what levi cares the most about at this point. zeke not only "imprisons" them but forces levi to kill them or die doing so.

lastly, judas would go on to commit suicide after jesus’ death. he (literally) throws away a large part of what he wanted being his money. being that greed and sin in the name of money defines judas, which is at the same time a necessity, makes me think this represents zeke's reason for fighting (sterilizing the eldians). he still believes in his plan at the end, but he gives it up.

what's different from biblical canon is that "jesus" isn't sacrificed by the enemy for humanity's redemption, but "judas" is killed by "jesus" for humanity's redemption.

furthermore though, because zeke is only human + represents judas, his death not only redeems humanity and its sins in helping to end the titan curse, but redeems himself and his own sins as well.

and who else is more fitting to execute the redemption other than the savior?

#sorry i couldnt shut the fuck up #part of this is probably reaching but thats my tale🙏 #levi ackerman #zeke yeager #zeke aot #levi aot #levi snk #captain levi #zeke jaeger #aot meta #aot canon #snk fandom #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #aot anime #aot zeke #snk zeke #levi rivaille #rivaille ackerman