Attack on Titan - Speculation & Theories (for first time anime viewers)

[Kairin]

This thread is aimed at first time viewers of Attack on Titan and its purpose is to allow spoiler free speculation and theories to be aired. Having them in a central location may help focus the discussion instead of spreading speculation over the various episode discussion threads. If you are knowledgeable of the manga and wish to speculate or discuss theories, then please do not post in this thread (use the Attack on Titan - Spoilers & Speculation (for experienced Titan Attackers only)) thread and do not give away any spoilers in this thread!

Unacceptable post topics:

• Any form of spoiler from Attack on Titan manga.
• Any form of game spoilers.
• Any form of spoilers from visual novels.

Spoiler Policy

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Magazine previews are an exception to the said rule. You are allowed to discuss those. (Properly labeled spoiler tags required).

[Harangue]

Spoiler for I have a hunch regarding Behemoth:

I'm beginning to think that Erwin, the guy who leads the Survey Corps, is actually the Behemoth Titan. He has roughly the same jawline, and has been all cryptic and oddly pushy as to them reaching Eren's basement. I understand that this is humanity's best chance, but at the same time no other character has been so steadfast and calculating, and has anyone noticed his expression never changes?

I think that perhaps his line about realizing who the real enemy was may have been meant as, "You're one of us." It's obvious he's the one who killed, or ordered the Titans from Episode 15 killed, most likely to keep any information from being discovered. Now, why, you may ask, would some Titan keep the most dangerous soldiers around him at all times? Well, for one, it's a sure way of making sure that so long as he remains incognito, he is well protected. Secondly, as the old saying goes, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." In this way, he is able to keep tabs on all of the most dangerous enemies at any given time, as well as know their tactics and learn of enemy plans they may make and screw up or warn any of his allies accordingly.

[TaquishaJohnson]

Originally Posted by Harangue

Spoiler for I have a hunch regarding Behemoth:

I'm beginning to think that Erwin, the guy who leads the Survey Corps, is actually the Behemoth Titan. He has roughly the same jawline, and has been all cryptic and oddly pushy as to them reaching Eren's basement. I understand that this is humanity's best chance, but at the same time no other character has been so steadfast and calculating, and has anyone noticed his expression never changes?

I think that perhaps his line about realizing who the real enemy was may have been meant as, "You're one of us." It's obvious he's the one who killed, or ordered the Titans from Episode 15 killed, most likely to keep any information from being discovered. Now, why, you may ask, would some Titan keep the most dangerous soldiers around him at all times? Well, for one, it's a sure way of making sure that so long as he remains incognito, he is well protected. Secondly, as the old saying goes, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." In this way, he is able to keep tabs on all of the most dangerous enemies at any given time, as well as know their tactics and learn of enemy plans they may make and screw up or warn any of his allies accordingly.

This is an interesting theory, and I think it's quite plausible. After watching (and re-watching, and re-watching...) episode 17, though, I think this is another possibility:

Spoiler:

Everybody was given conflicting information about Eren's place on the battlefield, which leads me to believe that Erwin didn't want certain people to be able to locate Eren. It's possible that Erwin, should he not be a titan, was referring to those other titan morphers (including the Female Titan, who I believe is Annie, and the Armored Titan, who I believe is Reiner) when he spoke of the "real enemy." Or, should he be suspicious in general, but not of Annie and/or Reiner specifically, Erwin may have been simultaneously trying to protect Eren and smoke out the other titan morphers.

In that case, though, I don't know who the Colossal Titan could be. For a bit, I thought

Spoiler:

it might be Pixis, but he was playing chess when the Colossal Titan appeared back in one of the early episodes

, so that couldn't be it.

[Mairsile]

I agree in regards to the Armored Titan and Female Titan. Considering the Titans look just like their human forms, the Colossal Titan is likely

Spoiler:

Bertholdt Fubar. I say this because he arrived with Reiner and his face looks like that of the Colossal Titan. In episode three, when he and Reiner are talking with Eren and Armin, Reiner insists that Bertholdt is saying too much.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Mairsile

I agree in regards to the Armored Titan and Female Titan. Considering the Titans look just like their human forms, the Colossal Titan is likely

Spoiler:

Bertholdt Fubar. I say this because he arrived with Reiner and his face looks like that of the Colossal Titan. In episode three, when he and Reiner are talking with Eren and Armin, Reiner insists that Bertholdt is saying too much.

Now that you mentioned it I just noticed this:

Spoiler for Armored Titan:

The armored titan looks quite a bit like Reiner or is it just me?

[Dark Faith]

After today's episode, I got a hunch that the second ending hints/flatly states who the other titans are.

Spoiler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjKxEpeew_c <- 0:25 mark
Seeing how some anime like dropping hints on their Opening/Ending sequences, and how some people (myself included) already believe that Annie and Reiner are titans... Dunno. Could be a coincidence, but I don't feel that's the case

[Mairsile]

Originally Posted by Dark Faith

After today's episode, I got a hunch that the second ending hints/flatly states who the other titans are.

Spoiler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjKxEpeew_c <- 0:25 mark
Seeing how some anime like dropping hints on their Opening/Ending sequences, and how some people (myself included) already believe that Annie and Reiner are titans... Dunno. Could be a coincidence, but I don't feel that's the case

Yep. And it seems the

Spoiler:

mural behind each character, or set of characters, likely depicts an event in their past. So if we go by this, then the remaining two pairs featured are Reiner and Bertholdt and Ymir and Christa.

[OTAKU10]

Don't forget that Eren's father also new everything about the titans,how?either he worked for a company that hired him in order to destroy the titans and then they got this idea to destroy the other countries or Eren's father could as well have started all of this,i mean he was crazy enough to insert that thing into his own son even though he knew that he could of had possibly be killed by the titans and the humans,leave the fact that he knew that the attack by those titans was going to happen and he left without warning anyone,neither Eren,i believe that Erwin knows about this military project and he wants to obtain the key to that weapon in order to defend his people,that's what he meant when he said realize who your true enemy is ,he could mean that humans fight other humans so his enemy must of had been humans the ones that created all of this but i do not believe that Erwin is good,he wants to use that power for sure and that's not a good thing.

[zRichard]

The second ending teases heavily towards some war going on between two nations. One of them with soldiers riding white horses and the other brown ones.

[Somnus]

Speculation with the wall separating the "teams" in the second ED is a good point. After watching it again, I noticed that the only people shown fighting alongside Eren's titan are the people on his side of the wall. Very interesting indeed.

[monir]

After sitting through from episode 13-17, two roused my curiosity the most: Erwin and Reiner. Erwin becomes a suspect in the manner he divulged the scout mission in episode 16 in his speech in front of the potential recruits for Recon Corps, about Eren, and then goes on to be more specific about the basement where Eren might discover more secrets. Why is that information pertinent to carry out a high casualty mission? In light of that speech to the new Recon Corps recruits, his prior conversation with the Pixis becomes very intriguing, especially what Pixis had to say to him in episode 15. I now can say without much doubt that Pixis long suspected the demise of humanity is carried out from within humanity's self. There is a mole. More than one, in fact. These group of moles working as a device for some force to carry out humanity's extinction. Titan-Eren's timely entrance finally gives form to Pixis long suspicion as to what these devices are. It's a select group of people that are capable of becoming Titans themselves.

This realization connects the female titan, and most interestingly enough, Reiner. After watching episode 17, I freely admit the identity of the female Titan wasn't as obvious as some people made it out to be at a first glance. I didn't make the connection right away cause to me the clues weren't as obvious. While there might be a few genuine deductive reasoning to reach a certain conclusion, I suspect most of conclusion in the episode 17 discussion thread were made by people who are already spoiled directly (manga reader) or indirectly (by reading threads dedicated to manga, wiki etc.) For me the idea starts to form behind the female titans identity when Armin says, "Jean, avenge my friends who sought to die soon." And those words freezes the female titan midway through a hammer fist directed at Jean. These child soldiers who have already seen their friends die a horrible death in the hands of Titans, those words would tug at their heart string and resonate with anyone that has gone through similar ordeal. Then comes the most important visual clue, the encounter between the female titan and Reiner. What happens after undeniably makes Reiner a suspect and makes female titan's identity clearer. The animators deliberately animates the scene where the female titan squeezes the palm of her hand where she held Reiner. An exaggerated splash of blood comes out in all direction which seemed to signal a horrifying death for Reiner. A second later, Reiner explodes out with no visual damage to himself.

So what exactly is Reiner? is he another titan? If he is, then who is the female titan? Whom did Reiner hung out with during the academy days? And everything (visual clues such as the hair color, intelligent purposeful eyes, the removal of Armin's hood before running away without killing, etc.) just came together about the female titans identity.

It hasn't been verified yet in the anime, so I'll put the following observation in the spoiler just in case the few remaining genuine anime-only people who still may not have reached the same conclusion, or if this conclusion is just plain wrong (which is I highly doubt ):

Spoiler for please don't click if you don't suspect anyone specific yet:

If this is indeed Annie, why is she working against humanity? What compelled her? Her interaction with Eren in the training ground suggested this is someone who has lead a very hard life already. Her exchange of dialogues with Armin in episode 16 was interesting to say the least..... Following is from gg-subs:

Annie: "You are weak, but you've got guts."

Armin: "T-thank you. Annie, you're actually pretty nice, aren't you? It seems like you don't want us to join the Recon Corps. Do you have reason you want to join the military police?"

Annie: "Not really. It's just.... I want to survive."

In light of episode 17, doesn't the above dialogue suggest Annie is being coerced into playing her role against humanity? When the choices were "survival" or "death", Annie chose survival. She is doing what she needs to survive, but still can't bring herself to kill Armin even in her titan form.

So the bigger question is what forces able to coerce people like Annie and why do they want to make humanity extinct?

[White Manju Bun]

^ Perhaps we'll find all that out (Reiner and whats under your spoiler tag) when they get to the basement.

Why is that information pertinent to carry out a high casualty mission?

I thinking since all this time theyve been attacking the titans and killing only a few that they believe whatever is in the basement can only help them in this war. If you want to defeat your enemy you must understand them and they know very little. That information (whatever it is) must contain something useful.

There is a mole. More than one, in fact. These group of moles working as a device for some force to carry out humanity's extinction.

Im thinking the mole(s) also carried out the massacre of the two "pet" titans that whats-her-name (Im so bad with names in this series) was keeping. Again whoever is behind this doesn't want the humans to understand titans.

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

Im thinking the mole(s) also carried out the massacre of the two "pet" titans that whats-her-name (Im so bad with names in this series) was keeping. Again whoever is behind this doesn't want the humans to understand titans.

I've been thinking what If the ones in charge the Government/Royals/Noble Classes have somehow figured out away to control and harness the power of the Titans?

Think about it. What better way to keep the remaining population of humanity under subjugation then with fear.

Say the people inside the walls start to get a little too comfortable and begin to forget who is providing protection for them. Well then what if an "unforeseen" attack happens to befall one of the communities within the walled nation. The rest of the commoners would be more then willing to sacrifice whatever it took for their leaders to grant them more safety even if that meant fare less freedom.

However Eren suddenly goes Titan in the middle of one of these attacks now the guys in charge have a rouge Titan Shifter and to top it all off some of the commoners what to rally round him. Obviously Eren can't be allowed to remain alive but if they killed him out right people will start to get suspicious so why not let the recon corps take him outside the wall where many unfortunate events could befall Eren.

[monir]

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

I thinking since all this time theyve been attacking the titans and killing only a few that they believe whatever is in the basement can only help them in this war. If you want to defeat your enemy you must understand them and they know very little. That information (whatever it is) must contain something useful.

One of the reason why I find some of these plot point fairly easy to predict is Armin. Armin tells me where to look at whenever I'm going "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I'm lost?" So if Armin says, "wait just a minute..." I mimic like a parrot, "wait just a minute...." I don't have the episode right at this moment to quote what Erwin said, but even without Armin's raising an eyebrow over the way Erwin chose to divulge the information, I found it odd. Eren is deemed as the savior of humanity, the first real glimpse at the possibility that humanity might have a way to fight these titans on equal footing. While few people are warming up to Eren, majority still fear what he represents.... A titan. And people in fear do crazy things. On top of that, as we have learned in couple of episodes back, not everyone is also operating under fear. There are people who want to keep the secret behind the titans in a tight wrap. So essentially Eren is facing two type of enemy that wants him dead. A high ranking personal such as Erwin who seems to be the so called brain in the Recon Corps should know that more than anyone.

So why did he need to divulge specific information such as where Eren was heading to solve the titan-mystery? He gave that information out in front of everyone even before the final tally of people were decided who would go on to join Recon Corps. I found that odd. Where Eren was heading, and why he was going there are sensitive need-to-know-basis information. The people that didn't join the Recon Corps certainly didn't need to know those information. The people who joined also don't get a free pass to that information until the last second to increase the success of such mission by minimizing the chance of betrayal in case there is a mole in the Recon Corps who joined to gain information not readily available any where else in the army. What Erwin spouted in his speech essentially announces to those two type of people, "hey guys, Eren is potentially our savior who is about to go to the basement to know a lot more information which may lead to (and not limited to) how to kill titans on the cheap."

[normp571]

Originally Posted by monir

One of the reason why I find some of these plot point fairly easy to predict is Armin. Armin tells me where to look at whenever I'm going "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I'm lost?" So if Armin says, "wait just a minute..." I mimic like a parrot, "wait just a minute...." I don't have the episode right at this moment to quote what Erwin said, but even without Armin's raising an eyebrow over the way Erwin chose to divulge the information, I found it odd. Eren is deemed as the savior of humanity, the first real glimpse at the possibility that humanity might have a way to fight these titans on equal footing. While few people are warming up to Eren, majority still fear what he represents.... A titan. And people in fear do crazy things. On top of that, as we have learned in couple of episodes back, not everyone is also operating under fear. There are people who want to keep the secret behind the titans in a tight wrap. So essentially Eren is facing two type of enemy that wants him dead. A high ranking personal such as Erwin who seems to be the so called brain in the Recon Corps should know that more than anyone.

So why did he need to divulge specific information such as where Eren was heading to solve the titan-mystery? He gave that information out in front of everyone even before the final tally of people were decided who would go on to join Recon Corps. I found that odd. Where Eren was heading, and why he was going there are sensitive need-to-know-basis information. The people that didn't join the Recon Corps certainly didn't need to know those information. The people who joined also don't get a free pass to that information until the last second to increase the success of such mission by minimizing the chance of betrayal in case there is a mole in the Recon Corps who joined to gain information not readily available any where else in the army. What Erwin spouted in his speech essentially announces to those two type of people, "hey guys, Eren is potentially our savior who is about to go to the basement to know a lot more information which may lead to (and not limited to) how to kill titans on the cheap."

I have two plausible ideas:

The first is that Irwin didn't yet know that there was a spy amongst the scouting legion/trainees.

The second is that by telling that he could draw out any potential spies. He probably had a trap set up so if they were to act on Eren, then the mole would be caught.

[monir]

Originally Posted by normp571

I have two plausible ideas:

The first is that Irwin didn't yet know that there was a spy amongst the scouting legion/trainees.

Erwin might not have known specifically who was the spy, but the mere suspicion alone to orchestrate the entire subsequent mission to capture FT tells me Erwin and co knew long ago there are people who are working against the humanity by cohorting with the Titans. How it was being done wasn't clear until they found Eren with his ability to transform as Titans. Once it was clear a human being can transform into a Titan, Erwin knew there could be and should be more people capable of transforming. Moreover, those people are potentially working against humanity.

The second is that by telling that he could draw out any potential spies. He probably had a trap set up so if they were to act on Eren, then the mole would be caught.

I agree. What I, however, found suspicious was the intricate detail Erwin put out about the potential saver of humanity in Eren. Why did Erwin need to tell everyone in there about Eren's going to the basement to discover further secrets about the Titans? If Erwin's intention was to flush out mole from the group of people listening to his speech, then it would have been more than sufficient to let people know Eren was capable of transforming into Titan who is also working for the humanity. Any outside force that are working against humanity would want to eliminate the threat in Eren just from that information alone. There was no need for them to know about the basement.

I just found it suspicious how much Erwin chose to divulge about what they are going to do with Eren. The high casualty mission also makes me suspicious more about Erwin's particular plan. Why did all those Recon Corps need to die? As long as Eren was moving, the FT would have followed where ever. But the explanation given was that the FT would suspect a trap if Recon Corps didn't engage her on those suicidal mission to kill.

I'm thinking what if Erwin doesn't have the humanity's interest at heart?

[Preciize]

People have said this already but it seems like Reiner could be a titan or an ally to Annie since she spared him when he attacked her to save Armin during the expedition. With that being said, I wonder if he's going to risk his own safety and try to save Annie now that she's transformed into a titan inside the walls. Or maybe he's going to stay low and think of another plan?

[monir]

Originally Posted by Preciize

People have said this already but it seems like Reiner could be a titan or an ally to Annie since she spared him when he attacked her to save Armin during the expedition. With that being said, I wonder if he's going to risk his own safety and try to save Annie now that she's transformed into a titan inside the walls. Or maybe he's going to stay low and think of another plan?

Reiner is the other wild card, that's for sure. In their first encounter, it seemed Annie was crushing Reiner, and then he comes out fine without any damage. My theory on Reiner was based on that scenario alone. Then in the next episode, the flashback to the previous episode showed that particular scene differently. It showed Reiner cut FT's fingers before she could close her palm. It's seemed to suggest the animator messed up in the previous episode to how that particular scene should have been animated. So I don't know if Reiner can still be considered as one of them who can transform into Titan. Anime will need to show more on Reiner.

That said, Erwin is still a suspect in my book.

[moncikoma]

Reiner is the armored titans...

Remember when annie crushed him in her hands? And riener come out alive...

There is smoke come out from his back...(that is titan recovery skill)

[monir]

Originally Posted by moncikoma

Reiner is the armored titans...

How did you reach that conclusion?

Remember when annie crushed him in her hands? And riener come out alive...

There is smoke come out from his back...(that is titan recovery skill)

The recap in the beginning of the next episode showed Reiner cut FT's fingers before exploding out of her closing palm. The previous episode goofed on the visual portrayal of that scene. As for the smoke, it seems to have come out from the evaporating titan blood.