Saagar Kote
Netflix’s ‘Leviathan’ is a steampunk anime thriller series that follows an alternate history surrounding World War I. It explores the intertwining lives of an Austro-Hungarian prince named Aleksander von Hohenberg and Deryn Sharp (pretending to be Daryl Sharp), a Scottish Airman, who try to stop the First World War from breaking out. As the two individuals from opposing sides of the conflict, namely the Clankers and the Darwinists, go on a globe-trotting adventure aboard the giant airbeast named Leviathan, they find themselves drawn to each other.
The anime series explores themes of pacifism, war, mistrust, national pride, humanism, technological domination, the cost of weapons of mass destruction, and love. It makes use of real events in history to construct scenarios in which the characters have to survive. As the narrative of the series reaches its conclusion, Aleksdander and Deryn find themselves in a precarious position where they have to give it their all to prevent a major tragedy. Nikola Tesla and the Germans come to loggerheads over the control of the weapon called Goliath, which threatens to escalate the conflict into a full-fledged war capable of destroying humanity. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Leviathan Plot Synopsis
The series begins with a young Austrian prince named Aleksander finding out that his parents have been assassinated by a Serbian in Sarajevo. He is escorted to safety aboard a Stormwalker by his father’s trusted men, named Volger and Klopp. In Edinburgh, a girl named Deryn Sharp pretends to be a male soldier named Daryl Sharp and enlists in the armed forces. While flying a bio-engineered creature called Huxley, she encounters and is captured by the crew of the whale-like bio airbeast, Leviathan. Aleksander and his team go to the neutral country of Switzerland for safety as the risk of war escalates due to the assassination incident. Deryn joins the crew of the Leviathan, who are flying to Paris on the massive beast. A scientist named Nora Barlow in Paris brings in mysterious eggs aboard the Leviathan. The airship is attacked by SMS Kaiser, a German whaling ship, and crashes into the Swiss Alps. Clankers (Germany and its allies) and Darwinists (Great Britain and its allies) go to war.
Aleksander saves Deryn after the crash of the Leviathan, but is taken in as a prisoner. A peace is negotiated between the prince’s team and the Leviathan crew. As German airships attack, the Leviathan counters and escapes to Istanbul. Aleksander reveals his real identity to Deryn, who refuses to do the same. One of the mysterious eggs brought in by Nora Barlow hatches into a creature called ‘Loris,’ a magical creature which falls into Aleksander’s hand. The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed V, refuses to side with the British and prefers Germany instead. The German warship, Goeben, prepares to attack the Leviathan. In the streets of Istanbul, Aleksander is saved from German soldiers by a girl named Lilit, daughter of an Ottoman rebel named Zaven. Captain Hobbes, the commander of Leviathan, orders his soldiers to neutralize the Kraken Defense Nets to allow them to counter the Goeben.
The German Warship is countered by the Leviathan due to Deryn taking down the defence system, allowing the Ottoman rebels to lay siege to the Sultan’s palace. Amidst all the chaos, Deryn and Aleksander’s friendship deepens, despite the latter not knowing Deryn’s real identity. After the Goeben is destroyed, Klopp loses his life while he saves Aleksander. Nora takes the two lead characters to Tunguska in the Siberian region of Russia to examine a mysterious event. George Darwin, Nora’s uncle and son of Charles Darwin, attributes the unusual weather patterns and an explosion in the Tunguska River to the works of Nikola Tesla, while also revealing that such a weapon would have the power to end the war or end humanity as a whole. After learning Deryn’s true identity, Aleksander starts falling for her even more as they fly in the Leviathan to New York City, hoping to reason with Tesla and put an end to the war.
Leviathan Ending Explained: Will Aleksander and Deryn Get Together?
The emotional core of the series is the unlikely bonding between Aleksander and Deryn (pretending to be Dylan). At the end of the series, Aleksander and Deryn bid each other goodbye after dealing with the Tesla situation. They seem to be in love with each other, but their destinies take them on different paths. Hoping to take his place as the rightful ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Aleksander invites Deryn to come with him to his homeland. However, Deryn refuses, because she wants to keep flying and continue her life as an airman for Great Britain. She tells the prince that the sky will always connect their destinies and that they will meet each other soon. Aleksander promises her that he will meet her soon and that he is hopeful about a peaceful future for the world.
In probably the most pivotal moment of the narrative, they kiss each other goodbye and go on their journeys ahead. It can be presumed that the two will definitely see each other again in the future and continue their tale of love. Aleksander will most likely be a good king and achieve greater success for his nation, while Deryn will achieve greater heights as an airman and assist Nora Barlow in scientific breakthroughs. Due to the strong bond created between the two lead characters, it is more likely that their paths will cross again. The geopolitics of the time will also mean that Deryn and Aleksander will have to travel to important parts of the world for various purposes, and the chances are very high that their strategic interests regarding their countries will align again. In a heartwarming scene, Aleksander credits Deryn for being the light who led him out of the darkness and led him on the path towards peace.
His gratitude and undying love for Deryn will also help him be a better leader. Another possibility is that the two will somehow not see each other again, though it seems highly unlikely. Despite their love for each other, Deryn and Aleksander may get busy with their duties and drift away from each other. Aleksander’s position as the Archduke of Austria might also mean that he will have to enter into marriage alliances with other royal families, which would drive him away from Deryn, despite his best intentions. Deryn will also have her own reasons as an independent girl in a patriarchal world for not reuniting with Aleksander. Her life as an airman might make it difficult for her to consider the prospects of marriage or a relationship with a boy from a foreign royal family. Though it is not an easy answer, the reunion between the two is more likely than severance.
Do Aleksander and Deryn Stop World War I?
Aleksander and Deryn attempt to stop World I throughout the series. Their respective journeys boil down to a moment of reckoning when they have to counter Nikola Tesla’s plans and save humanity. Tesla builds the ‘Goliath,’ an electrical weapon as deadly as a nuclear warhead that can erase entire countries off the map. When his invention is threatened by the German ‘U-Boat,’ he attempts to target the German capital city of Berlin and destroy it. He intends only to achieve peace through his deadly weapon, by keeping all nations in fear of being destroyed by its destructive force. Nora Barlow and Deryn plead with him not to launch an attack on Berlin, but he’s not convinced. Aleksander hijacks a German Walker and uses it to run towards Tower 4 of Tesla’s facility, the one that contains the Goliath.
The real tower is located due to the genius ability of the creature Loris, who is named Bovril. The protagonist plans to use the walker as a target marker for the Leviathan to find and then destroy the weapon before the Germans gain possession of it or Tesla destroys Berlin. The Leviathan acquires the target and fires bats as weapons, but before they can strike, the prince is saved by Deryn, who flies Tesla’s wings. This puts an end to the dangerous conflict between Tesla and the Germans. However, as Aleksander told in the series, it’s not an end to the broader war itself. Despite the neutralization of the Goliath and U-Boat threat, World War I still goes on, but the actions of Aleksander and Deryn definitely help prevent the possibility of total destruction.
In the absence of a weapon of mass destruction, it can be assumed that America’s entry into the war will eliminate the German threat and bring peace. In the real world, history tells us that World War I ended due to the fact that the US entered it, siding with Britain and its allies. It is a strong possibility that even in the fictional world of the series, the war will end soon, preventing the deaths of millions of people. Volger explains to Aleksander that America is an important country in the context of the war, and one that is capable of neutralizing the German threat. Due to the conditions created by the actions of Deryn and Aleksander, they connect the narrative closer to reality, which indicates that the war, too, will have an ending similar to real-world history.
What is Happening in Antarctica? What Does it Signify?
At the end of the series, Nora Barlow asks Deryn Sharp to go with her to Antarctica to investigate unusual weather patterns. It can be presumed that the two will fly to the continent on the Leviathan and study the phenomenon from all possible angles. Nikola Tesla’s weapon, the Goliath, is known to produce unusual weather patterns, as seen in the explosion at the Tunguska River in Siberia, and also during the conflict between the German U-Boat and Tesla in New York. This indicates that Tesla either secretly targeted Antarctica earlier or may have built another facility similar to the one in New York that could house another Goliath iteration or a similar weapon. Nora Barlow is trained well enough to conclude that Tesla is the reason behind the threat to Antarctica.
A dangerous possibility that arises from this situation is that Tesla might drag the world back to fear and suspicion. This might lead to an Oppenheimer kind of situation where the threat of a dangerous weapon might actually lead to mass destruction of human lives. Tesla is a brilliant man, both in the series and in real life; therefore, it is not a fantasy to assume that he didn’t risk his glorious invention by allowing it to be destroyed in a single fight. His mind still knows how to develop weapons similar to, and possibly deadlier than, the Goliath.
If there are clues in Antarctica that point towards the genius, Nora Barlow will presumably ask Deryn to spread the news to responsible sections of the British establishment, who will naturally seek the help of the Americans to neutralize the invention. Another possible scenario is that the unusual weather patterns in Antarctica were caused by climate change resulting from high levels of weapons manufacture and pollution during World War I. Though this scenario isn’t as exciting from a narrative standpoint compared to the possibility of Tesla’s actions, it is still possible. It is also the show’s way of connecting present realities like global warming and climate change to themes of destruction associated with war.
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