I think Levi's promise and prioritizing Erwin and feeling so strongly about Erwin (and Levi being romantically attached to someone in general in canon) genuinely rubs people the wrong way because Levi has become this SYMBOL of a selfless defender of humanity, and the idea +

of Levi being so selfish as to prioritize someone he loves (over the lofty ideals Levi has come to represent) really doesn't sit right with people. Levi is "above" such things because he's "concerned with higher principles" like truth, justice, & freedom and though Levi cares +

for people, it's in this paternal or brotherly way rather than the personal, intimate way people expect from a romantic love. But that's the thing about Levi's character, and the thing about Levi's weaknesses as an individual: If Levi were to have any true weakness, it would +

most likely involve the Achilles' heel of being unable to sacrifice the life of someone he cared for personally in spite of the cause he had supposedly devote himself to. But it just makes sense for Levi's weakness in general to be his sentimentality - Levi has a soft spot for +

the people around him despite his hardy defenses against emotional attachment, because he is accustomed to loss. But the relationship Levi has with Erwin is one that is more intimate and of greater value to Levi than probably any other rship he has been demonstrated having - +

to Levi, he has this really close, sentimental rship with Erwin, Erwin knows him intimately, & if Levi were to draw the line at anyone and sacrifice those "principles" for them? It would be someone he feels KNOWS him better than anyone & who he feels a great passion for

Levi gives me this vibe of someone who has never truly known love and so he finds it easy to live without it. He's afraid to love and lose when loss is largely all he's ever known, so of course when he finds love in the last place he expects to find it, and once he's known +

its sweet, sweet embrace (), he can't let go of it. And, in the end, this is what he was trying to avoid and what he feared he would not be able to do - to know someone intimately, love them deeply & freely, and then someday have to bear the loss of that person whom he loved.

I see Erwin & Levi's rship as being one where they feel so comfortable as to be completely honest with each other (& otherwise just afraid of the pain of intimacy, like the way Erwin fears Levi's rejection over his "lie") and deeply connected on some mental/emotional level.

To me, Erwin perfectly fills this maybe subconscious need Levi has where he craves the unconditional love/acceptance he lost when his mom died (and from then on in the world he lacks that cradle of affection/safety) & he finds that kind of love again in Erwin, but I see them as +

being able to be their truest selves around each other and characterize them - in their most vulnerable states in each other's presence - as being "allowed" to be boyish & innocent in a way, so they both see each other as this heroic source of strength & guidance +

but they also are able to reveal to each other their innocence, and so Erwin is this grand, almost paternal figure to Levi, but simultaneously just a man, and in his most profound moments of weakness, a little boy.

So in this way, to each other they are both simultaneously something precious, innocent, & in need of protection, as well as a source of strength, inspiration, & emotional security. They have a very sweet relationship and it affords them all the things they might have imagined +

were to be denied to men like them - softness, vulnerability, love - things that, by personal history & social position (& "higher principles" like duty to humanity), they are supposed to be cut off from & deny themselves. But you can't stop love of course, & that's the tragedy

Like this is exactly how it reads to me - they can't help but fall in love despite their circumstances & only realize how deeply their feelings run when it's too late to climb back out - but honestly I can't expect every reader/viewer to see it when they're heroic male archetypes

But this kind of concept fits with Levi's char perfectly (and it fits Erwin pretty well too - he intended to die without really knowing love & abandoned the ideal of a heterosexual family in favor of his ideas wrt the SC); I can only imagine love for Levi in canon being tragic

also the fact after ALL of the gay ass shit Levi does in Shiganshina over Erwin, he picks those flowers & puts them next to Erwin? And then he apparently goes back to COLLECT HIS BONES & he CARRIES THEM on a personal journey??? That's as gay as you can get without being explicit