Discussion Clearing the misconception about Levi being an 'oriental'

[TheOwl]

Because of the last chapter implying (and quite heavily at that) that Levi's last name is Ackerman, people have been going crazy about how Mikasa and he are related and both orientals. Small eyes, black hair, short stature (not really in Mikasa's case), and awesome skills at fighting Titans. Well, unless the author makes a total ass-pull, I daresay that this is wrong. They may be indeed related, but Levi is not oriental.

Let me start with what I know of the last Ackerman. It is a Germanic last name, that can be 'divided' in two parts 'Acker' which means field, and 'Man(n)' which means, obviously, man. As you might have guessed the last name means literally fieldman, or (since the word does not exist as far as I know) farmer. It is a common last name among the sub-group of Jews from which Einstein and Anne Frank came from. We can conclude that the last name has nothing to do with Japan.

Levi, as many of us know is a Jewish name, so having the name of Levi Ackerman would make (from an ethnic point of view) sense, not only in the SNK-universe, but in our own too.
Also, we know that Mikasa is not a 'pure' oriental as her father was Germanic, at least from the look of it. Her mother was Asian, and we do not know her last name, but I'm sure that it was not Ackerman. Also, in the SNK-universe, as in our own children take their father's last name, not their mother's.

To conclude, if Levi and Mikasa are related, they would be related from Mikasa's father's side. Thus Levi is not 'oriental' and small eyes and black hair are not proof of being one, much less superhuman fighting skills.

 

[teiran]

also none of mikasa's parents had to belong to the ackerman clan by birth; it's possible one of them was adopted and yes i'm gonna insist it's the mother. she was... more suspicious. imho. we don't even know how that clan thing works; maybe it's more like ermm an organization of skilled fighters; perhaps at this point born ackermans are actually rare. if mikasa's mother was adopted by that clan, i think it'd be quite natural for her whole family to have her surname as it indicates importance... or maybe mikasa's mother wasn't the one who was given the surname, perhaps it was given to one of her own parents. it's possible mikasa's parents were killed because of their connections or because of their knowledge... i just can't shake how weird it is that an ackerman would decide to live in shiganshina; mikasa's ancestors must have escaped/rebelled just like levi and hid themselves in the outermost part of the Walls.
okay, anyway the point remains; levi's not an oriental, if he was, everybody'd have a 'wait what' moment cause orientals are a rare sight.sorry, i just wanted to thank you for talking sense and i ended up rambling about my headcanons. anyway, good post.

 

[TheOwl]

also none of mikasa's parents had to belong to the ackerman clan by birth; it's possible one of them was adopted and yes i'm gonna insist it's the mother. she was... more suspicious. imho. we don't even know how that clan thing works; maybe it's more like ermm an organization of skilled fighters; perhaps at this point born ackermans are actually rare. if mikasa's mother was adopted by that clan, i think it'd be quite natural for her whole family to have her surname as it indicates importance... or maybe mikasa's mother wasn't the one who was given the surname, perhaps it was given to one of her own parents. it's possible mikasa's parents were killed because of their connections or because of their knowledge... i just can't shake how weird it is that an ackerman would decide to live in shiganshina; mikasa's ancestors must have escaped/rebelled just like levi and hid themselves in the outermost part of the Walls.
okay, anyway the point remains; levi's not an oriental, if he was, everybody'd have a 'wait what' moment cause orientals are a rare sight.sorry, i just wanted to thank you for talking sense and i ended up rambling about my headcanons. anyway, good post.

If the Mikasa's mother was adopted by the supposed Ackerman clan as you said, her marrying an actual Ackerman (taking in consideration that there is only one Ackerman family in-universe, and I believe there is) would be incestuous, not biologically, but morally. It makes no matter, Mikasa would've taken her father's last name no matter what her mother was called, unless her parents divorced. Even then it would depend on the circumstances of the divorce.

If you look carefully into the revelation that Historia's mother's killer is named Ackerman, you will notice that there is a very subtle plot twist. Everyone has been thinking that Mikasa is special because of her oriental heritage. Or because of the tattoo she has (and nobody has seen yet), that is characteristic of her clan. Nobody has thought much of her father, and now we get the revelation that he was related to a very dangerous and important person within the walls. It makes me wonder if the killing of Mikasa's parents and the kidnapping of Mikasa was more than it seemed.

 

[LiarsParadox]

Hi, new member to this forum. [waves at everyone]

[USER]What does the user tag do, btw?[/USER]

If you look carefully into the revelation that Historia's mother's killer is named Ackerman, you will notice that there is a very subtle plot twist. Everyone has been thinking that Mikasa is special because of her oriental heritage. Or because of the tattoo she has (and nobody has seen yet), that is characteristic of her clan. Nobody has thought much of her father, and now we get the revelation that he was related to a very dangerous and important person within the walls. It makes me wonder if the killing of Mikasa's parents and the kidnapping of Mikasa was more than it seemed.

Yeah, that's what I thought as well. I think that Mikasa's father might have been involved in some shady business before he meet Mikasa's mother. Wanting to start a new life with his Japanese wife and daughter, he moved his family to a secluded area of the mountains that only Dr. Grisha Jaeger knew about.

It's all just conjecture at this point, but maybe Dr. Jager was the one who gave their location away?

 

[teiran]

If the Mikasa's mother was adopted by the supposed Ackerman clan as you said, her marrying an actual Ackerman (taking in consideration that there is only one Ackerman family in-universe, and I believe there is) would be incestuous, not biologically, but morally. It makes no matter, Mikasa would've taken her father's last name no matter what her mother was called, unless her parents divorced. Even then it would depend on the circumstances of the divorce.

If you look carefully into the revelation that Historia's mother's killer is named Ackerman, you will notice that there is a very subtle plot twist. Everyone has been thinking that Mikasa is special because of her oriental heritage. Or because of the tattoo she has (and nobody has seen yet), that is characteristic of her clan. Nobody has thought much of her father, and now we get the revelation that he was related to a very dangerous and important person within the walls. It makes me wonder if the killing of Mikasa's parents and the kidnapping of Mikasa was more than it seemed.

same, i suppose those men were hired, by ackermans, maybe.
bureaucracy doesn't seem to work too well in the walled city. although traditionally families adapt a man's surname, it doesn't mean that's a necessity. their society gives off that 'do whatever you want as long as it isn't against the monarchy' vibe, it's not like anyone'd give a shit what surname a family decides to live under, i think.

or perhaps mikasa's father is an ackerman as you insist, her mother comes from another continent and may have her own ties, which would make mikasa double special~
anyway, it's pointless. let's just wait to see what'll unfold ;>
(it was fun tho)

 

[gnut]

why is it that people are so surprised levi could be ackerman....doesn't sound oriental to me
maybe,it was mikasa's family who took the name or was given it by the ackermans/yaegers?
to keep them "safe"....
is it possible they were attacked because they were using this name?

Spoiler

i think we need to hear some more backstory on this captian ackerman...
he trained levi...but mikasa's ability/killing instinct looks an awful lot like "CAP ACK" in the recent chapter

 

[TheOwl]

why is it that people are so surprised levi could be ackerman....doesn't sound oriental to me
maybe,it was mikasa's family who took the name or was given it by the ackermans/yaegers?
to keep them "safe"....
is it possible they were attacked because they were using this name?

Levi could be Ackerman, but that way he would be related to Mikasa by her non-oriental, clearly Germanic, blue-eyed blonde father. However this thread was made before the latest chapter. It is implied in there the Levi was adopted by Kayne Ackerman, who is very probably related to Mikasa. He could very well be an oriental by blood and an Ackerman by name, but that still does not make him related to Mikasa.

 

[kkck]

Well, if levi is adopted then he would have that guys last name but would not be related to the ackermans by blood. In other words mikasa and levy do not have a blood relationship. There is no reason whatsoever for us to think levi is asian though.