WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Chapter #125 of Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama, Dezy Senti and Alex Ko Ransom, available in English from Kodansha now.
In the wake of Eren Jaeger's full-villain turn from righteous avenger to genocidal god, Chapter #125 of the Attack on Titan manga quietly reveals that everyone's favorite cynical captain, Levi, is still alive.
After the explosive nature of his fight with Zeke Jaeger, the possessor of the Beast Titan, in Chapter #115, he should by all rights be dead. And if 'humanity's strongest soldier' had gone out at that moment, it would have been a fitting note to meet his maker on. True to his legendary title, Levi has long been the Survey Corps' trump card. This is partly thanks, as we learned from Zeke, to the rare Ackerman clan blood that flows through his veins -- an enhanced genetic cocktail (which Mikasa also possesses) that came as a result of the Marleyans fiddling with Eldian DNA, producing a modified Eldian bloodline that is immune to the Founding Titan's powers but really good at Titan-killing. As Zeke once said of the Ackermans: "To be frank, I never want to meet them again."
Ever since Zeke, in his Beast Titan form, killed Levi's close friend, Commander Erwin, the Captain has had a personal ax to grind with him. He was later forced to spend a month guarding Zeke when the military came to distrust the supposed Marleyan-villain-turned-Eldian-hero. However, Zeke's true plan came to fruition soon enough. His Beast Titan yell triggered Levi's squad to transform into Titans, having drunk wine spiked with Zeke's Titan-activating spinal fluid.
As Zeke made his escape, Levi proved once and for all how right the treacherous Jeager brother was to be afraid of him, taking down 30 Titans all by himself. (There's a reason why the Attack on Titan Guidebook lists his Combat statistic as being an improbable 11/10, after all.) However, while Levi successfully recaptured Zeke, he doesn't expect his prisoner to be so desperate as to pull the pin on the Thunder Spear that was keeping him from getting away again.
Levi and Zeke were blown to bits, but while Zeke got a new lease of life courtesy of the surprise intervention of the Eldian founder, Ymir, Levi wasn't so lucky. His blood-soaked body was discovered later on by Commander Hange, who was taken prisoner by Eren and Zeke's followers, the Jaegerists. Hange reported to their leader, Floch, that Levi was dead. The reappearance of a fully formed Zeke then served as distraction enough for Hange to slip from her captors' eyes -- along with Levi's body.
It was hard to believe that Isayama would really kill off Levi, his snarky mascot for the series, without a clear ending to the story insight. The last couple of pages of Attack on Titan Chapter #125 confirm this, thankfully, to be the case. As Pieck, the Cart Titan, and General Magath of the Marleyan military watch in despair as the wall Titans -- set loose by Eren -- set a course for the motherland, Hange approaches them. Behind her, we see Levi's bandaged body on a stretcher, and she assures her enemies that she's not armed, while her companion is "nothing more than a harmless man who just refuses to die," affirming that while Levi may look dead, he is still very much alive.
Levi's eventual, full recovery in Attack on Titan will leave him thirstier for revenge on Zeke -- and probably Eren -- than ever before.
