Ymir Fritz’s Backstory Explains 7 Attack On Titan Mysteries

Digging into the tragic history of Ymir Fritz answers mysteries that have puzzled Attack on Titan followers since the Colossal Titan first peeked its massive head over the top of Wall Maria. When Grisha Jaeger promised the contents of his basement would quench Eren’s curiosity about the outside world, he was not exaggerating. The Survey Corps finally entered his basement in Attack on Titan season 3, only to discover their country was situated on Paradis Island – a nation ostracized from the rest of the world. More importantly, Eren and his friends learned about Ymir – the young girl who first held the Titan power, and whose bloodline is shared by everyone on their island.

Alas, Grisha only knew the history book-approved version of Ymir’s story – a sanitized, almost religious account annoyingly light on firm details. What actually happened to Ymir Fritz is told in Attack on Titan episode 80, where the Jaeger brothers are still bickering over which of them gets to command her fearsome Founding Titan abilities. Zeke’s royal heritage gives him the advantage, but Eren appeals to Ymir’s repressed anger, winning her over. Attack on Titan episode 80’s flashback sequences fill the gaps on how Ymir found herself in this predicament, and why Eren’s pleas resonate so strongly.

Set 2000 years in the past, Ymir Fritz’s backstory also solves a litany of mysteries surrounding Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan mythology. Here are all seven major revelations.

Attack On Titan Finally Reveals Its Titan Origin

From you, 80 episodes ago, a Titan first appeared on our TV screens, leaving audiences across the world wondering how these limb-tastic naked giants came into being. Attack on Titan has avoided answering that all-important mystery ever since, but Ymir Fritz’s backstory finally offers the closest thing to a Titan origin Hajime Isayama is likely to provide. The power of the Titans wasn’t a blessing from above, nor a deal with the devil; it was something dark and biological harbored deep within the Earth – a primordial strand of insectoid DNA that attached to the first living human it made contact with – a young fleeing slave called Ymir. Attack on Titan never addresses precisely what this spiny creature is, but Kruger’s “source of all life” theory isn’t looking too far off.

What The Very First Titan In Attack On Titan Looked Like

Attack on Titan has, until now, only ever shown Ymir’s Founding Titan in crude picture books drawn by Eldians and Marleyans with a loose interpretation of historical accuracy. Thankfully, episode 80 reveals Ymir’s Founder transformation in full, and the design incorporates elements from other Titan-shifters we’ve encountered along the way. Ymir shares the Female Titan’s body shape, but her stature is closer to the Colossal. Her claws are reminiscent of the Jaw Titan, but her muscles are honed like the Attack’s. The sole feature unique to the Founder (and shared with Eren’s own Founding Titan transformation) is a large external rib cage, which mirrors the insect-like spine that started everything.

Ymir Fritz Is Motivated By Love

Attack on Titan never previously attributed any specific motivation to Ymir Fritz. Was she a conqueror? A ruler? Did she act out of loyalty, or was she a misunderstood revolutionary? Attack on Titan episode 80 proves Ymir Fritz was motivated by love – a twisted, tragic, poisonous love, but love all the same. When a young, pre-Titan Ymir watches the king marry, she’s in awe of the couple’s connection, trying to understand this emotion she has never personally been shown. After becoming King Fritz’s one-woman army/child-bearer, Ymir developed warped love for her captor – Stockholm syndrome in the extreme – and these feelings not only prevented her disobeying or fighting back (which she could’ve done at any time), they compelled Ymir to protect King Fritz with her own life. All through Attack on Titan‘s history, Ymir has been led by a misguided sense of love – until Eren Jaeger inspires her to finally break free.

How Ymir Fritz Died (Despite Having The Founding Titan)

Attack on Titan already confirmed Ymir died 13 years after inheriting the Founding Titan, placing the dreaded “Curse of Ymir” upon her descendants. Exactly how such a powerful monster met her doom has puzzled Attack on Titan fans for some time, since the Marleyans weren’t exactly zipping around on 3-D maneuver gear back then. As shown in Ymir’s flashback, she was struck down while protecting her king from an enemy’s spear. Fritz himself points out how this simple blow shouldn’t be enough to thwart the Founding Titan, but Ymir dies anyway… because she chooses to. Though she loved King Fritz, the anger from being oppressed burned within Ymir, and opting not to heal herself represented a means of escaping that terrible existence. The painful irony is how Ymir’s consciousness ends up inside the Paths, where she’s forced to continue serving the Fritz family anyway.

How The Founding Titan’s Powers Were Split

Eldia and Marley’s history books both share a sizable blank spot – how Ymir’s sole Founding Titan split into the Nine Titans. Both sides broadly agree this separation occurred, but both also avoid accurately describing how. Were the Titans reborn in Ymir’s descendants? Did Ymir graciously share her power before dying? Nope, Ymir’s kids ate her corpse. Desperate not to lose his precious Titan strength, King Fritz put Ymir on the children’s menu, and the power of the Titans lived on. Because Ymir Fritz was eaten by all three of her daughters, the Titan powers separated for the first time, then further diluted until becoming the Nine Titans Attack on Titan is famous for – all connected to their predecessor inside the Paths.

Eldia & Marley’s Conflicting Histories Were Both Wrong

Since introducing the warring nations of Eldia and Marley, Attack on Titan has presented two vastly different fictional histories. Either Eldia was a benevolent empire that used Ymir’s Titan powers to develop the modern world, betrayed by the evil Marleyans who sought that power for themselves; or Eldia was a cruel and oppressive regime justifiably overthrown after causing untold bloodshed. Ymir’s flashback in Attack on Titan episode 80 shows grains of truth in both accounts. The Eldians were vile conquerors from the very beginning, and only became worse with Ymir on their side. Though they did lay foundations for modern society (“what have the Eldians ever done for us?”), that power was mostly used for great evil.

On the other side of Attack on Titan‘s historical coin, Ymir was never a devil – she was a pawn acting on behalf of a cruel king, but Marley perpetuated this untruth to stoke fear of an entire race, rather than just its rulers. As we already know, Marley’s intentions weren’t exactly noble either, since they continued the same path of Titan dominance as Eldia.

Ymir Wasn’t Technically An Eldian

In Attack on Titan‘s timeline, Ymir Fritz is hailed as the mother of all Eldians, who literally refer to themselves as “the Subjects of Ymir.” Attack on Titan has often cast doubt over whether Ymir really is the woman her predecessors believe, and sure enough, episode 80 proves Eldian society is based wholly on a lie. Ymir was originally a humble villager, whose unidentified home got ransacked by a violent tribe calling themselves “Eldians.” Only after obtaining the Titan’s power was Ymir forced to carry King Fritz’s children. She might’ve become the “mother” of modern Eldia and the ancestor of its royal line, but as a slave captured from a foreign village, Ymir was never truly considered Eldian during her own era. She was a vessel for the Eldian empire’s future prosperity… but that doesn’t look good in history books.

Attack on Titan streams Sundays on Funimation, Crunchyroll, and Hulu.