List of Attack on Titan characters

Attack on Titan series feature an extensive cast of fictional characters created by Hajime Isayama. The story is set in a world where humanity lives in cities surrounded by enormous walls; a defense against the Titans, gigantic humanoids that eat humans seemingly without reason. The story initially centers on Eren Yeager with his childhood friends Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert who join the defense force to fight the Titans after their home town is invaded and Eren's mother is eaten. They are part of the [|104th Training Corps], whose graduates assume different positions in the Military, including the [|Garrison Regiment], the [|Survey Corps] and the [|Military Police Brigade]. It is later revealed that the area where the Walls are located is an island called Paradis and that it is the last territory of Eldia. There are other nations outside the island, namely Marley, a nation on the mainland which declared war on Paradis.

Main characters

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Mikasa is Eren's childhood friend, who was taken in by his family after seeing her parents brutally murdered by human traffickers. She is shown to feel a strong sense of gratitude toward them, especially Eren, who had saved her life and given her his scarf. Her parents' tragic deaths had an overwhelming influence on her, causing her to lose her innocence and realize the world's cruelty. This caused her personality to become quieter and withdrawn, maintaining a stoic expression except when it comes to Eren and her friends. Mikasa joins Eren in the Survey Corps, determined to ensure his safety. She graduates from the Training Corps at the top of her class, and is regarded by officers as an unprecedented genius and prodigy. As later revealed, this is due to Mikasa's father being a descendant of the Ackerman clan, an Eldian bloodline that was genetically modified to create super soldiers equal to a Titan in strength, originally designed to protect Eldia's king. When under duress, these genetically inherited abilities may allow a descendant access to their ancestors' battle experience. Mikasa's instincts were first awakened in the aftermath of her parents' deaths when Eren urged her to 'fight' back against her kidnappers. Though technically half-blooded, she is also the last known person of Asian descent residing in the Walls. A wrist tattoo inherited from her mother indicates that she is descended from the prominent Azumabito family, a cadet Shogun branch from the Oriental nation of Hizuru, whose ancestors migrated from their native land to Paradis as honoured ambassadors. While investigating Marley's volunteer soldiers with the Survey Corps, Eren lies to Mikasa that he has always hated her for being a slave to her Ackermann blood and being "forced" to protect him. In turn, she becomes despondent and removes her scarf from her neck. While still caring for Eren, Mikasa decides to join the alliance to stop Eren's planned genocide on the world. In the climax against Eren's forces, Mikasa is brought into Paths by Eren, showing her an alternate scenario where she and Eren ran away together following their conversation in Marley. Eren comforts her, but asks she forget about him once he is dead. Returning to reality, Mikasa refuses, and ultimately kills him to save humanity. She collects his head and returns it to Shiganshina to bury it under the tree. She continues to visit his grave until her own death many years later. In the author's blog, her name is noted to come from the Mikasa, a famous pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
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Paradis Island

Paradis is a massive island on which the three Walls are located. It became the last territory of the Empire of Eldia after the Great Titan War and hosts refugees mainly consisting of ethnic Eldians. The island is modeled after Madagascar.
The military within the Walls is divided into three divisions: the Garrison Regiment, the Survey Corps, and the Military Police Brigade. It is commanded by Darius Zachary, the premier of the government. Applicants into the Military are first required to enter the Training Corps, after which they are allowed to join one of the three divisions.
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104th Training Corps

The Training Corps is the branch of the military dedicated to training and educating new recruits to become members of the three military branches. Only the top ten graduates are permitted the privilege of applying to the Military Police Brigade and living within the Inner District. The other graduates can only choose between joining the Survey Corps or the Garrison Regiment. The Training Corps insignia is a crossing pair of swords.
The 104th Training Corps is the only graduating class introduced in the series and the southern division contains nearly all of the central characters. It was active during 847 through 850 when the remaining recruits graduated. In the manga, the top ten cadets were listed by their individual ranks, but in the anime, the top ten are recognized as a group, along with Armin and Ymir.
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Survey Corps

The Survey Corps is composed of expeditionary soldiers that venture outside the Walls. Their goal is to discover more about the origins and source of the Titans, their motives, and weaknesses; ultimately how to fight and defeat them. They are an integral component in the military's campaign to recapture Wall Maria. Due to this, the division suffers from a much larger casualty rate than the Military police or the Garrison Regiment; those that survive are some of the most elite veterans in the entire military. The Survey Corps's insignia is an overlapping pair of wings known as the "Wings of Freedom".
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Special Operations Squad

The Survey Corps Special Operations Squad, also known as Squad Levi, is a squad of four elite soldiers with impressive combat records hand-picked by Captain Levi. The squad takes Eren under their wing as both his bodyguards and potential executors if he goes berserk. All the original members of the squad, except for Levi and Eren, are killed by the Female Titan during the 57th expedition to Wall Maria. Later on, the squad is reformed with the six remaining recruits from the 104th Training Corps.
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Garrison Regiment

The Garrison Regiment are the soldiers that protect the towns and reinforce the Walls. They are the first line of defense against the Titans, maintaining a defensive stance. They are the largest force in the military due to the small exclusive number of members in the Military Police Brigade and the high death rate of the Survey Corps. The Garrison Regiment's insignia is a pair of red roses.
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Military Police Brigade

The Military police is a gendarmerie assigned to maintain law enforcement, supervise the Training Corps, surveil the Garrison Regiment, control the fire departments, and arrest and detain political criminals and dissidents. The top ten of each training class are eligible to join, although some experienced veterans from the Garrison can also transfer. As their tasks mainly involve urban patrols and administrative work, they do not experience front-line combat with Titans and often reside in the comfort and safety of the innermost wall. The Military Police Brigade's insignia is a white-haired green unicorn.
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First Interior Squad

The First Interior Squad, also known as the Interior Police, is a secret police division that, despite being under the Military Police organization in name, operates completely independently from the main body of the Military Police Brigade. They have been shown to be far more skilled and disciplined than the rest of the Military Police, though their main specialties are in fighting other humans rather than Titans. No one is officially overseeing their activities and they operate as if above the law; even Nile Dok is often unaware of their actions until he was informed by someone else. That person turned out to be Rod Reiss. Shrouded in mystery, the Interior Squad is involved in numerous conspiracies involving torture and assassinations to maintain order within the Walls and is rarely seen outside the capitol. While most of the operatives are dead during the conflict with Rod Reiss, the rest of them are restrained by the soldiers on the side of Dot Pyxis and Dhalis Zachary.
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Ruling family

Royal Government

The Royal Government is the ruling system of the Walls that work for the Royal Family and enforce their rules. Most of the Royal Government are loyal to Rod Reiss and his puppet ruler King Fritz. After a coup d'état that resulted in the arrest of King Fritz and those loyal to Rod Reiss as well as the death of Rod Reiss, the Royal Government was reorganized with them now working for Historia Reiss.
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Civilians

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Titans

The Titans are the antagonists of the series. They are giant humanoid creatures that resemble nude male humans in form, although lacking reproductive organs. They can range in height from. Despite their enormous strength and toughness, their bodies are unnaturally light for their size. Their primary instinct is to eat humans, as they show no interest in attacking other animals. However, they seem to operate on sunlight and do not require food or drink to survive, and would typically later vomit up the remains of those they devoured. The Titans have hard skin and regenerative abilities, and can only be killed by inflicting a deep incision at the nape of the neck. They have high body temperatures, causing them to emit steam. Most Titans, known as Pure Titans, are slow and clumsy, show no signs of intelligence and act like mindless beasts with a compulsion to eat any human they come across. But some Pure Titans, referred to as "Abnormals", are fast-moving and intelligent enough to ignore nearby humans for larger populations.
The Fritz royal family, who inherited the Founding Titan power from Ymir Fritz, have the ability to create and control Pure Titans using a special serum created from the spinal fluid of Titans. It was later revealed that the Titans originate from a unique race of people known as Subjects of Ymir, who are the only humans known to be reactive to Titan serum. These people once used the Titan power to establish a glorious empire named Eldia, and are hence called the Eldians. The Eldians conquered the continent and subjugated the nation of Marley for 1,700 years, and have been addressed as the "spawn of the Devil" by the Marleyans. The Power of the Titans is revealed to be product of Ymir Fritz coming in contact with a parasitic organism that is referred by others as the Source of all living matter, which resides within the Founding Titan.
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