Levi Ackerman

Lance Corporal Rivaille (リヴァイ) is a corporal in the Scouting Legion, and is said to be humanity's most powerful soldier. He was also the squad leader of the Special Operations Squad.

Personality
Rivaille is known to be a "clean-freak". Moreover, he is often blunt and unapproachable and he has a strong respect for structure and discipline. This makes him uneasy to be around.

Soldier: "W-Was I able... to help humanity? Or will I die, never having been of any use at all?"

Rivaille: "You have done a great deal. And you will continue to do so. The resolve you leave behind will give me strength. I promise you... I will obliterate the Titans!"

— Rivaille (Levi) listening to a soldier's last words

Despite his appearance, he does not undervalue human life; as he did not hesitate to grab a dying team member's blood soaked hand and comfort him in his final moments.

History
He is rumored to have originally participated in underground crime before he became a soldier. He eventually was picked up by the current commander of the Scouting Legion.

Story
After Eren gets out of his Titan body and is surrounded by titans, Rivaille comes back from his tour and rescues the group from them. Later on, after Eren wakes up in a cell, Rivaille insures him that the higher-ups will let him join the Scouting Legion and that he will make sure Eren doesn't get out of hand. During the trial, after Eren gets out of hand with his words, he assaults Eren, much to Mikasa's anger, as he teaches him his place. This was just an act to get the people to think that Rivaille can keep Eren down and that the police force cannot, assuring them that the Scouting Legion will take care of him.

Rivaille then assigns a new elite group that will protect Eren in their next tour. During their stay at the castle, Rivaille makes sure Eren is kept tamed and makes him sleep in the dungeon. Everyone in his special team respects him, and one of them even tries to talk like him, albeit failing at it. Rivaille was one of the only people that weren't afraid of Eren when he started to turn into a Titan, and he took charge quickly by calming the team down.

During the tour to go in and out of the wall, Rivaille and his team lay in the back of the formation, not seeing any danger for a while. It wasn't until they got to the forest that they encountered a Titan. Eren could have defeated the Titan at that time, but Rivaille's team convinced him otherwise. Rivaille gave him the choice, but he didn't. Later on, after capturing the Female Titan, Rivaille and the commander try to cut it open but to no avail. The scouting legion then retreated after the Female Titan screamed and got attacked by a huge group of titans.

After the female titan came back and killed Rivaille's team and kidnapped Eren, Rivaille and Mikasa both joined forces to get Eren back. Rivaille told her not to try to kill it since they probably couldn't, so they decided to cut it up and get Eren out of her mouth. After many simultaneous attacks, Rivaille was able to take Eren out of her mouth and retreat with the others.

Currently Rivaille is recovering from an injury which he sustained while saving Mikasa from Annie's attack. He later is tasked to escort Pastor Nick and obtain information regarding the secrets he knows about his cult.

3D Maneuver Gear
Rivaille is excellent at using the 3D Maneuver Gear, to a point that everyone says he is the best at it. He is also said to be as valuable as 100 men, far outweighing all of the other soldiers. He is said to have been extremely strong even before joining the Scouting Legion.

He has shown the capability of incapacitating Annie Leonhardt in her Titan form (A 15 meter deviant type), something which whole squads and even Eren in his Titan form couldn't accomplish.

Quotes

 * (To Eren) "I don't know which option would you choose. I could never advise you on that... no matter what kind of wisdom dictates you the option you pick, no one will be able to tell if it's right of wrong till you arrive to some sort of outcome from your choice."
 * "The only thing we're allowed to do is to believe that we won't regret the choice we made."

Trivia

 * Rivaille ranked first in the characters popularity pollRivaille_popularity_poll.png.