The Attack on Titan fandom won’t be complete without the many fans who compete for their respective “ships” or pairings. It’s a delicious exercise to ship two characters of an anime, who didn’t have much screen time together.
Among these popular pairings, the Eren X Mikasa is one of the most popular and this ship didn’t materialise out of thin air either. However, one often ignored ship or pairing is the Levi X Petra, which has slowly gained a greater following in recent years.
Petra was a part of the renowned Levi Squad or the Special Operations Squad, which included Oluo, Gunther, Eld, Levi, and Eren. They were a small group within the Survey Corps whose members were incredibly adept at combat skills.
All of them except Levi and Eren were murdered by the Female Titan (aka Annie Leonhart) in cold blood. Though Petra and Levi had very little screen time together, there were a little too many hints suggesting the possibility of a romance between them.
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Let’s go over all those hints that Hajime Isayama left in the Shingeki No Kyojin Anime and fill our hearts with tales of tragic love. Hajime Isayama can be a bitch when it comes to killing off all our favorite characters and ultimately our ships too.
Levi’s Expression When He Saw Petra’s Dead Body
Along with her other squad members’ deaths, Petra’s death is one of the most disturbing scenes in Attack on Titan. However, our reaction is nothing compared to Levi’s when he saw Petra’s dead body. Levi usually doesn’t even react much but in the anime, his face goes dark suggesting that he’s filled with rage and despair.
The scene distinctly zooms in on his reaction when he sees Petra dead and not his other members. Is there some subtle messaging that’s going on here? We think there is.
Levi Keeping Petra’s Badge As Remembrance
When they’re collecting all the dead bodies of fallen Survey Corps members, Levi stumbles onto Petra’s body and decides to keep her badge. This is proof that there was some romantic angle to their comradeship and friendship.
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Dumping Petra’s Body To Get To Safety
When the entire Survey Corps retreats back to the Walls in Season 1 Episode 23, they’re suddenly attacked by a horde of titans. As the titans catch up, they realize that the corpses are slowing them down.
Upon Levi’s orders to dump their bodies, they reluctantly do so. But we can see Levi traumatised and raging on seeing Petra’s body get thrown away. So, for Levi to have made that decision must’ve been a cause for him to have sleepless nights. Levi and Petra must’ve shared some special bond and there are plenty of instances that clearly hint at that.
That Tragic Encounter With Petra’s Father
If anyone who watched Attack on Titan didn’t tear up when they saw Petra’s father, their hearts are made of stone. He followed Levi and went on and on about how Petra used to write letters to him telling him about how she’s decided to devote her life to Levi and the squad.
When Petra’s dad tells him that he used to tell her it’s too early for her to marry, Levi’s face goes dark with pain and remorse. He doesn’t know how to tell him the reality of his daughter’s death because he clearly thinks his daughter made it back alive.
Petra must’ve doted on Levi and written about him so much, which gives some evidence that she had a crush on him. However, we can never be sure about how intense her crush was.
Petra and Levi seemed to share a bond of love and trust with strong hints of romance. However, since it’s Attack on Titan and the world is a dystopian one, it’d have been hard to have a relationship. The LevixPetra ship (or Rivetra) wasn’t concocted out of thin air because the anime goes through a lot of trouble to show that there was something more.
Here are some fan-made MVs for you to enjoy and soothe your soul.
