Titans (Attack on Titan)
Titans are a species that feature in Attack on Titan.
Contents |
History
The Titans (巨人 Kyojin?, lit. "Giant(s)") were a race of giant humanoids that emerged on Earth and began attacking humanity. Their origins were largely unknown though it was held that around 2,000 years ago Ymir Fritz had gained the Power of the Titans around 1,800 years ago at a large tree while fleeing from her masters, the Eldians. It was believed that she had either by found the source of all organic material or through a deal with the Devil. The tree had an entrance that led to a pit full of water. Unaware of the water, Ymir entered the tree and immediately fell into the pit. As she sank, a mysterious, spine-like entity attached itself to her back, and she transformed into the very first Titan. With her new power, she returned to the Eldians and served under Fritz, eventually bearing him three daughters. With this power, she used the Titans to build bridges, roads and had the lands cultivated for her people who became the Subjects of Ymir (ユミルの民 Yumiru no Tami?) that had the power to turn into Titans. Such was the state of affairs until her death 13 years later where it was held that she split her 'soul' among nine inheritors. When Ymir died, Fritz ordered his daughters to eat Ymir to retain her power, an action that split Ymir's power among her daughters. Eventually, it was split into nine—the Nine Titans—which Eldia used to conquer Marley and establish the Eldian Empire. The Nine Titans were distributed among Eldian noble houses. The Fritz family maintained order over the other eight houses, who were locked in constant conflict, using the Founding Titan.[30] During times of war, Pure Titans were created by the Founding Titan and often used as weapons for Eldia in the past. Her people used to conquer the old nation of Marley and established the empire of Eldia. This was until a period known as the Great Titan War (巨人大戦 Kyojin Taisen?) where the conquered subjects of Marley sought to resurrect their nation. In Year 743, they first began to appear and started to devour mankind. It was during this time when the First King emerged who used the Coordinate ability to control the giants where he had them build concentric walls as a safe haven for humans. A large number of humans managed to arrive at this settlement where they were safe from the predatory Titans though some scattered groups managed to continue to live outside the Walls. Around this time, the Eldian King decided to move the capital of the empire to Paradis Island which he sealed behind the walls and lived an isolated existence thinking that the rest of the world was overrun by Titans. Any Eldians that remained behind on the continent were placed in internment zones and treated cruelly by the people of Marley with them only being spared due to their ability to become Titans which was used for war. Marley had long sought to acquire the power of the Founding Titan on Paradis Island but feared provoking the Eldians who could use its Coordinate ability against them. Thus, they worked in secret to dispatch specially trained warriors to infiltrate past the Wall in order to steal the power for themselves. This saw them converting Eldians into mindless Titans who were then forced to travel across the ocean to the island where they preyed on the few humans on that landmass.
For many years, humanity managed to live in relative peace behind the Wall without being preyed upon by the Titans. This changed in the year 845 when the Colossal Titan suddenly emerged behind Wall Maria. The massive creature used its strength to break a large hole in the Wall allowing the Titans to enter the Shiganshina district en mass where they began to devour humans in their path. As a result, the humans in Shiganshina were forced to flee deeper into another district behind the safety of the inner Wall as the Titans took control of this area.
Overview
In appearance, these creatures resembled that of humans but gigantic in size with them having a similar number of limbs namely two legs and arms. These giants came in a variety of sizes ranging from 3 meters to 15 meters with some rare being larger. Each of their features were distorted and deformed when compared to humans. Despite their large size, their bodies were actually quite light that allowed them to move at high speeds. The vast majority of Titans had a masculine body type, although all of them lacked reproductive organs.
The body of Titans appeared to violate several known laws of science, spontaneously generating both energy and mass. Their bodies were incredibly light,[19] granting them human levels of manoeuvrability. Their extremely high level of activity and body temperature indicates the need for a massive intake of energy to fuel them, yet they apparently never needed to eat at all, though most Titans killed their victims by appearing to do so. They possessed and use vocal organs, but they did not need to breathe for survival. Titans drew their primary source of energy from the sun, as they became inactive when deprived of sunlight. The absence of sunlight affected individual Titans differently. Titans possessed incredible regenerative abilities. Although the capacity varied from Titan to Titan, all could regenerate lost body parts in a period of time ranging from seconds to minutes, even severed heads.
A lack of digestive system also meant that the Titans did not defecate. At the same time, the lack of a digestive system meant that the food devoured did not get digested but rather remained in the stomach. Eventually, at some point, the Titan had to expel the food by regurgitation once the stomach was full. The contents of the stomach were then spat out into a large ball of crushed and broken human remains.
Unlike other species, Titans did not mate, and their interactions were non-existent with organisms other than humans; their sole purpose in life was to seek out and devour humans. They did not derive any real sustenance from humans either, as many of them did not taste human flesh for a century after the Walls were raised; but it did not affect their activity or decrease their numbers.
One weakness, however, of the Titans resided in the neck where there as a soft tissue by the nape that, if severed, led to the instant death of the creature. This was one of the sure-fire ways to kill them which was by slicing an area one meter long and 10 centimetres wide on their nape. Once cut, the creature did not regenerate from the wound and simply died. Upon being killed, the body of a Titan rapidly decomposed to skeletal remains whereupon even that disappeared leaving nothing behind. This was the location of the central nervous system of the Titan. In Pure Titans, it was only a spine of the human that was absorbed. Without a functioning nervous system to control it, the Titan would die. After death, Titan corpses rapidly evaporated to skeletal remains, then to nothing at all.
Among regular Titans, they demonstrated no behavior beyond the express desire to eat humans. They completely ignored all other forms of animals and instead reacted to the presence of humans. However, they did not apparently derive any form of nourishment from devouring humans as they drew nourishment from sunlight. Once mankind went behind the Wall, Titans did not appear to suffer malnourishment or a drop in their numbers.
One type of Titans demonstrated different characteristics and personality traits from others of their kind with these being called Abnormal Titans. Such creatures were shown to hold unpredictable behavior where they targeted specific individuals or strategic locations causing them to ignore prey. These Titans were shown to also be different physicals as some walked speedily or ran, others performed great jumps and some even had the capacity to speak the human language. Another type of Titan were humans that had the ability to morph their bodies into giant Titans. Those humans able to shift to a Titan form were able to exert greater control over their abilities as they were able to focus their traits whilst normal Titans relied on instinct. As such, these Titan shifters were able to control the level of regeneration and prioritize the healing of certain damaged portions of their bodies. More advanced traits was the capacity to harden portion's of their body giving it a diamond hard density making such locations more resistant to damage. This was a useful ability as it allowed an intelligent Titan to protect vulnerable spots such as the nape of the neck from bladed weapons which shatter against the hardened area.
It was possible to forcibly transforming a human into one of the creatures by the use of a special injection that contained the spinal fluid of a Titan.
Members
- Eren Yeager :
- Annie Leonhart :
- Ymir :
- Bertolt Hoover :
- Reiner Braun :
- Zeke Yeager :
- Grisha Yeager :
Notes
- The Titans were created by Hajime Isayama and featured in the setting of Attack on Titan.
- In Attack on Avengers v1 #1 (2014), the Titans featured in a non-canon story in Marvel Comics where they fought against the Avengers.
In other media
Television
Films
- In Attack on Titan, the Titans featured as antagonists in the 2015 live-action Japanese movie. This incarnation were created roughly a century ago when governments of rival countries aiming to create supersoldiers for use in war. However, this backfired and spread a deadly virus called Wraith (レイス Reisu?) amongst the global populace which turned some people into Titans. These giant mindless creatures wreaked havoc on the world and on humanity, sowing distrust between people out of fear that the person next to them could become one. This eventually led to a war attempting to exterminate the Titans, the Great Titan War, which, however, did little to decrease the numbers of Titans. Instead, humanity suffered immeasurable losses and were driven to the point of near extinction. At some point during or after the conflict, three massive Walls were raised in Japan to protect the populace from the hordes of Titans spreading outside, and to create a peaceful society separate from all the chaos. A hundred years later, humanity within the Walls was prospering and the citizens of the Walls are living mundane lives, only knowing of the Titans through old legends passed down from generation to generation. The initial Wall breach in the town of Monzen was also different; the Colossal Titan's attack took multiple kicks to breach the outer Wall, rather than a single, precise kick to a gate in an outer district as seen in the source material. After the invasion, the Titans exhibited an unusual behavior not seen in the anime or manga: the remaining Titans, after sustaining heavy losses from Eren's Titan form, actually retreated. A unique Titan character referred to as a 'baby Titan' was also introduced that communicated through cries and appeared to be a new addition to the Titan types. Furthermore, General Director Kubal, the head of the military forces was the one who transformed into the Colossal Titan during the final battle. This final confrontation involved Captain Shikishima, who was also a Titan shfter and ultimately sacrificed himself by transforming into a Titan to lodge an undetonated bomb into the Colossal Titan's mouth, successfully sealing the wall's breach.
Video games
- In Attack on Titan, the Titans featured as antagonists in the 2016 Japanese video game.
Appearances
- Attack on Titan:
External Links
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