Attack On Titan Finally Explains the Origin of Its Titans

Attack on Titan has finally explained the origin of the Titans that have been the scourge of the entire series. Bit by bit, Attack on Titan has been reframing the story of the Titans from the horrific first episode, which saw Eren Jaeger’s entire village get destroyed and his mother brutally slaughtered. Now, Attack on Titan episode 80 has pulled the curtain fully back to expose the full truth of how the Titans were created, and it fully changes our perception of this story, all over again! 

(WARNING: Attack on Titan Episode 80 SPOILERS Follow!)

The title of Attack on Titan Episode 80 “From You, 2,000 Years Ago” is a direct reference to Episode 1 “To You Who Lives 2,000 Years Later” and it sees Eren and his brother Zeke war for control of Paths dimension and the source of the Titans, Ymir. That battle isn’t a physical one, but rather a philosophical one in which Zeke has the edge, able to command Ymir through his royal blood. To turn the tide and break millennia of tradition, Eren reaches out to Ymir and touche her memories,

As it turns out, Ymir was a girl from a small rural village 2,000 – a village that was invaded and conquered by King Fritz. Ymir and her people had their tongues removed and were taken as Fritz’s slaves; the girl’s life gets even worse when some of Fritz’s pigs escape their fence, and Ymir is pointed out as the scapegoat. In his sadism, Fritz has his men hunt Ymir for sport as punishment for her crime; that mad chase leads Ymir into a large tree, where she falls into a deep underground pool. It’s in that water that the entity known as the Source of All Living Matter finds Ymir and attaches itself to her body, transforming her into the first Titan. 

 King Fritz used Ymir’s transformation as the ultimate weapon and/or deterrent, to establish his tribe, the Eldians, as the dominating world power over Marley. Ymir’s titan also helped the Eldians advance their technology well beyond any other kingdom, and Fritz decided to preserve the power in his own bloodline by fathering three daughters with Ymir: Maria, Rose, and Sheena (the names of Paradis Island’s walls). 

Ymir died her physical death protecting King Fritz from a would-be assassin’s spear; Ymir’s spirit was transported to the Paths dimension, while Fritz forced her daughters to eat her spine, and inherit the Titan power from their mother. As Ymir’s daughters birthed new children and mixed with Eldian tribe, the Titan power spread through the cannibalistic ritual, while the spirit of Ymir used the Path dimension to fashion the Nine Special Titans her descendants would inherit. 

The key twist was that Ymir was forever enslaved to do as she was commanded by King Fritz’s line in the royal family – until Eren came along. While Zeke commands Ymir to euthanize all Eldians and end the Titan threat forever, Eren figures out that it was Ymir who brought him to the Paths dimension at the moment of his death, for a reason: Eren is the one who finally realizes that Ymir is tired of being a slave, and he is the key to her freedom.  

The origin of the Titans reveals that Attack on Titans‘ monsters haven’t ever really been monsters at all. The Titans are an accident born out of cruelty and tragedy – a poor, vulnerable girl (Ymir) who was used by a terrible man to boost his own power. It seems it’s always the people around the Titan users who have the ill intent for the giants – but now it’s Eren carrying out Ymir’s will, and it looks like the world may suffer the consequence of 2,000 years of mistreatment. 

Attack on Titan is now streaming on Funimation and Hulu.