‘Attack on Titan’ Reveals a Tragic Piece of Erwin’s Past

Ever since his introduction into Attack on Titan, Erwin has been one of the most intriguing characters in the series due to his stoic nature and powerful drive to do what’s right and save his comrades.

As the third season of the series shifts toward a bleaker tone, focusing more on the humanity of its characters, fans were also introduced to Erwin’s tragic past as his father was killed for knowing too much.

The latest episode of the series, “Pain,” explores both Historia and Erwin’s pasts. The two of them share a tragic thread in which both lose parents, but Erwin’s is more of an indicator of why he’s grown into the kind of adult he is. It turns out that his father was a history teacher, and one day Erwin asked a question when some of the government’s texts didn’t make any sense.

His father spoke to him later that night, and revealed that he discovered many holes and inconsistencies in the way the government presented the history of the Titans and the wall. But Erwin’s narration reveals he was too young and naive to know that he was supposed to keep his father’s conspiracy theory a secret and tells all of his friends.

When the military police find out what Erwin’s father was saying, he was killed in an “accident” to cover up the disarray in one of their teachers. It was from then on Erwin realized something strange about the current government, and he reveals that this moment in his past is what’s going to drive him forward.

The third season of the series includes a major conspiracy in which Historia was revealed to be the true heir to the throne, and Erwin’s past factors into this as well. It’s possible his father learned this early on, and was killed to cover it up. Now that the Survey Corps are enemies of the state, it’s only a matter of time before Erwin and the others take the fight directly to the state itself.

Attack on Titan was originally created by Hajime Isayama for Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2009. The series has since been collected into 23 volumes as of 2017, and it’s set in a world where the last remnants of humanity live within a walled city in order to escape the danger of the Titans, a race of giants monsters that eats humans.

The lead character, Eren Yeager, ends up joining the military with his two childhood friends Mikasa and Armin after the Titans break through the wall and attack his hometown. Now Eren, Mikasa, and Armin must survive in a world where they not only have the Titans to fear, but the very humans they are trying to save.