Founding Titan (Anime) (2024)

	Frieda's Titan was superior to all other Titans. You could say her Titan had unsurpassable power.
—Rod Reiss claims the Founding Titan is the strongest Titan[1]

The Founding Titan(始祖の巨人Shiso no Kyojin^?, also translated as Progenitor Titan) was one of the Nine Titans and the first of all Titans. Its Scream(叫びSakebi^?) could create and control other Titans and modify the memories and body compositions of the Subjects of Ymir, but this power had historically only been able to be used by members of the royal family.

According to Marley's Titan Biology Research Society , the Founding Titan was the point where the paths connecting all Subjects of Ymir and Titans cross.^[2] Because of this, those who hail from Marley sometimes called it the "Coordinate"(座標Zahyō^?).

Eren's Founding Titan form is known as Doomsday Titan^[3](終尾の巨人Shūbi no Kyojin^?).^[4]

Abilities

The Founding Titan had several abilities that were activated by screaming. The inheritor of the Founding Titan did not have to transform in order to use these abilities; human screams would suffice. Furthermore, the screams did not have to be loud, or even "screams" in the truest sense: Frieda Reiss used the memory-alteration ability by casually talking, although her target was only Historia, who was right in front of her.^[1]

Titan creation

The Founding Titan could transform Subjects of Ymir into Titans and could even make them as massive as the Colossal Titan. Karl Fritz presumably used this ability to create the thousands of Colossal Titans that made up the Walls.^[5]

Zeke Jaeger's Beast Titan could also transform Subjects of Ymir into Titans by screaming after injecting those he wishes to transform with the beast's spinal fluid. For this reason it was said that Zeke's Beast Titan had abilities similar to the Founding Titan.^[6]

Titan control

By screaming, the Founding Titan granted its user the ability to control Titans at will and make them follow virtually any order without question. This was demonstrated by Eren Jaeger, who unintentionally commanded nearby Pure Titans to eat Dina Fritz's Titan and attack the Armored Titan.^[7] It appeared to be only effective on Pure Titans, although those with the power of the Titans can still feel its influence.^[7] It was also used by Karl Fritz to build the Walls, who commanded many Colossal Titans to harden their bodies and confine themselves within the resulting structures. In ancient times, Eldia used to use this ability to command an army of Titans for war; however, once set loose, these Titans became indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction that would slaughter Eldia's enemies.^[2] This ability had no known range, although Karl Fritz used it to command Colossal Titans that span across a large portion of Paradis Island. Rod Reiss claimed the power has the capacity to wipe out all the Titans, if used to its full potential.^[8]

Memory manipulation

The Founding Titan was able to modify the minds and memories of the Subjects of Ymir, even entire populations at once. This ability was related to the Titan control ability: as noted by Erwin Smith, Titans were simply transformed humans (specifically, the Subjects of Ymir); therefore, the screams that controlled the minds of the former should have been able to affect the latter as well. It was used by Karl Fritz to make the Subjects of Ymir inside the Walls forget the history of the world before the Walls' installation. It was also used by Frieda Reiss to remove Historia's memories of her visits. Anyone who was not a Subject of Ymir was unaffected by this ability, such as the Oriental clan along with the Ackermann family who were resistant to this ability despite also being Subjects of Ymir.

Anatomical manipulation

The Founding Titan was capable of changing the body composition of any Subject of Ymir. An Eldian king from 600 years ago once used this power to make the Subjects of Ymir immune to a rampant epidemic.^[9] Zeke Jaeger wanted to use this ability to make all Subjects of Ymir sterile, so they would die out in a generation and rid the world of Titans once and for all.^[9]

Additionally, the Founding Titan was known to have a height similar to that of around 13 m.^[10] However, it was possible that this size restriction is not as definite as it is with the other eight members of the Nine Titans; an example of this can be seen with the body generated by Eren Jaeger after receiving full use of the Founding Titan's power from Ymir Fritz.^[11][12]

Telepathic communication

The Founding Titan could telepathically connect with all of the Subjects of Ymir by way of the paths they were connected to.^[11] Eren used this ability to communicate with every Subject of Ymir when announcing his plans for the Rumbling of the world.^[11]

Clairvoyance

Similar to the Attack Titan's future memory inheritance ability that allows inheritors to receive future memories from future inheritors, the Founding Titan can take things to a much greater scale and directly influence things in the past, although only to preserve history the way it's already played out. It also enables inheritors the ability to perceive time in a non-linear fashion, being able to see the past, present, and future simultaneously. As a drawback, it causes users to think incoherently to a degree and go with the flow of events they have already seen, even if it is something the inheritor would be against doing. Eren goes into depth about the drawbacks about this ability when he converses with Armin in the realm of paths and sorrowfully reveals that he used it to influence Dina Fritz's Pure Titan to ignore Bertolt and head to Shiganshina instead, indirectly causing his mother to be devoured.^[13]

Royal Bloodline Necessity

Only those with royal blood—the Fritz or Reiss royal families—were able to use the true power of the Founding Titan.^[1] However, if the Founding Titan is inherited by someone outside of the royal family, the power can still be used if the inheritor is in physical contact with a Titan with royal blood.^[7][14][15] This is demonstrated when Eren Jaeger temporarily used the Founder's power after striking the hand of Dina Fritz's Pure Titan.^[7] It is implied by Zeke Jaeger that it does not matter if the Titan of royal blood is a Pure Titan or one of the Nine Titans, such as the Beast Titan.^[16]

If the inheritor touched a human of royal blood, some snippets of the previous inheritors' memories could be realized. The touch of Historia Reiss and her father Rod occasionally resurfaced the memories of Grisha Jaeger.^[1][14] However, these memories were erratic and did not always come.^[17]

If a person of royal blood possessed one of the other eight of the Nine Titans and that person comes into contact with an inheritor of the Founding Titan that lacked royal blood, then the royal-blooded person could use the Founding Titan's true potential instead of the actual inheritor.^[18] This is due to the fact that the Founding Titan's true capabilities are used through commanding the soul of Ymir Fritz, the first of the Titans, whose slave mentality was kept intact after her death. As the First Fritz King was her master as well as the father of her children, she remained in submission for millennia, until Eren Jaeger freed her and she complied with his wish to activate the Rumbling.^[11]

Vow renouncing war

Despite having the ability to control the Titans, no Founding Titan of royal blood after the Great Titan War expressed any desire to get rid of the Titans outside the Walls, even if the inheritor had expressed that desire before inheriting the power. This is because these Founding Titans inherited the ideology of Karl Fritz along with his memories.^[8] Even before he inherited the Founding Titan, he believed that the Eldian Empire committed too many atrocities towards the world to be forgiven, and that the Eldians should be locked up inside his "paradise" within the Walls, segregated from the rest of the world;^[5] the Titans sent to Paradis by Marley assist in this goal by preventing the Eldians from leaving the Walls.^[2][15] He made a vow renouncing war(不戦の契りFusen no chigiri^?) to stop Eldia from ever using the Founding Titan again to devastate the world.^[5]

The vow "possesses" the King's successors and greatly changes their personality: They become compassionate, desire to create a "paradise" inside the Walls, and preach about peace and love among mankind.^[19] However, Frieda Reiss called the people inside the Walls "sinners," and used to suffer from fits of depression.^[2][20]

The vow also prevents them from using the Founding Titan's true power for combat, even for self-defense. Karl Fritz knew that the paradise he made for the Eldians would only be temporary, and that one day, Marley or the other nations of the world would invade. He chose to accept any form of retribution the world would decide for the Eldians as punishment for the atrocities of the Eldian Empire, even extermination, and his vow forces any inheritor of royal blood to comply.^[5] No matter what, they will not fight back against any attack against the Eldians, and if the Eldians are slaughtered, so be it.

Circumventing the vow

The vow only applied to members of the royal family; therefore, the vow could be bypassed if the inheritor of the Founding Titan was not related to the royal family and was in physical contact with someone of royal blood.

Despite being a descendant of the royal family, Zeke Jaeger said he was able to learn how to nullify the vow during his time spent within the Paths which he entered without being tainted by the first king's ideology unlike the previous kings of the Walls.^[18]

History

Nearly 2,000 years ago, Ymir Fritz's village was attacked and enslaved by the Eldians, who then cut out their tongues. One day after a pig was released, the tribe's ruler, Fritz, called all of the slaves and asked for the culprit. The slaves all began to point at Ymir, who was then "freed" only to be hunted by dogs and men.

Wounded and desperate, Ymir took shelter in a nearby tree, but as soon as she stepped in, she slipped and fell into an underground body of water. There, she came into contact with a mysterious spine-like creature which attached to her back and triggered the first Titan transformation.

With her newfound power, Ymir returned to serve Fritz and used her Titan to cultivate land, build bridges, and amass wealth for the Eldians. Under his command, she also destroyed the forces of Eldia's rival, Marley. To "reward" Ymir for her service, Fritz took her as his concubine giving her his name and, together the two had three children: Maria, Rose, and Sina.

After these seventeen centuries, the Founding Titan was inherited by Karl Fritz, the 145th Fritz King. King Fritz chose to abandon the conflicts of Eldia and relocated the capital of Eldia to Paradis Island where he used the Founding Titan to create many Colossal Titans in the building of three Walls: Maria, Rose, and Sina. In the absence of the Founding Titan, the Great Titan War continued. Over the course of the war, Eldia lost all its territory on the continental mainland to Marley and its people fled overseas to Paradis Island where they entered into the Walls.

Some time after the people were gathered within the Walls, Karl Fritz used the Founding Titan to erase the memories of the outside world from most of the population's minds, leading them to believe they were the last remnants of humanity in a world overrun by the Titans.

Upon the closing of the gates of Wall Maria, Karl Fritz announced to his relatives who chose to remain across the sea that a pact had been made with the Founding Titan. In order to secure peace for Eldia while simultaneously arranging for the nation's eventual destruction, Karl Fritz ensured that all successors after him would be overcome by his will if they chose to use the Founding Titan for Eldia's sake. Some time afterward, the King passed his power over to his descendants in the royal family, now known as the Reiss family.

For generations, the Reiss family passed the Founding Titan down from successor to successor. Eventually, the Founding Titan was inherited by Uri Reiss from his father. Early in his life with the Founder, Uri protected himself from Kenny Ackermann using his Titan, and he would later become a close friend of his would-be assassin.

Sometime later, in the year 842, Uri Reiss passed on the Founding Titan to his niece Frieda Reiss, daughter of his older brother Rod Reiss. Frieda presumably made little use of the Founding Titan for the next three years, though on occasion she visited her half-sister Historia Reiss and used the Founding Titan to erase her memories of each visit.

Story

The Fall of Shiganshina arc

In the year 845, the fall of Wall Maria began. After hearing of the attack on Shiganshina District, the Reiss family gathered in the underground cavern beneath the chapel where the Founding Titan had been passed on for generations. While in the cavern, they were visited by Grisha Jaeger, who had been tasked by Eren Kruger with taking the Founding Titan thirteen years before.^[2] Grisha identified himself as an Eldian and a Subject of Ymir and begged for Frieda to use the Founding Titan to save the people of the Walls, but his pleas went unanswered.^[1] Seeing no choice but to fulfill his promise to Kruger, Grisha transformed into the Attack Titan and fought with Frieda's Founding Titan. Due to her inexperience, Frieda was quickly overpowered and Grisha stole her power, killing Frieda before turning his attention to the Reiss family and wiping out their line, except for Rod who escaped with his life.^[2]

Grisha returned to Wall Rose shortly afterward and searched for his family. He found his son Eren and adopted daughter Mikasa, but learned that his wife Carla had been killed. Grisha entrusted Kruger's mission to Eren, leading him into the woods alone and injecting him with a Titan serum. Eren would have no memory of the event for the next five years, and as a Pure Titan, he consumed his father, inheriting both the Attack Titan and the Founding Titan.^[2]

Clash of the Titans arc

Before fleeing the Scouts in the Forest of Giant Trees, Reiner states that the connections between the Reiss family and the Order of the Walls make Historia Reiss a valuable asset for the Warriors' mission, and having her with them will make their goal much easier if Eren Jaeger is not the "Coordinate" they are searching for.^[21]

Later that day, the Warriors' suspicions are confirmed when Eren unleashes the Founding Titan, striking the hand of a smiling Titan, screams, and causing all the surrounding Titans to swarm it and tear it to pieces. When Reiner and Bertholdt approach him afterward, Eren's outburst towards them once again triggers the Founding Titan and sends the nearby Titans rushing towards the Warriors, allowing for the Scouts to escape. On the journey back to Wall Rose, all Titans previously encountered ignore the Scouts and instead run in the Warriors' direction under Eren's subconscious orders.^[7]

Royal Government arc

A squadron from the Military Police led by Kenny Ackermann kidnaps Eren Jaeger and Historia Reiss and brings them to Historia's father, Rod Reiss.^[22] After reading a note from Eren on how Ymir got her Titan powers, Hange Zoë theorizes that the government is planning to devour Eren to gain his power.^[23]

Eren awakes, chained up and gagged, in the Reiss family's Underground Chapel, the location where the power has been passed down for generations.^[24] As he slowly wakes up, he has a vision of Frieda Reiss, a former Founding Titan, bushing her hair.^[25]

Later, Rod and Historia Reiss touch Eren's back, triggering a chain of memories: Eren unlocks memories of his father, fighting Frieda and eating her (inheriting the Founding Titan), slaughtering the Reiss family, and then feeding himself to Eren. Historia unlocks memories of Frieda who once used the Founding Titan's power to erase herself from Historia's memories.^[1]

Return to Shiganshina arc

Two months later, the Scout Regiment reclaim Shiganshina District. They come to the Jaeger family's basem*nt where Grisha had kept his secrets for Eren.^[26] In one of three journals hidden within the basem*nt, they read Grisha's story of his childhood and when he learned the nature of the Founding Titan. In Grisha's past, he had joined a group of Restorationists who desired to take the Founding Titan from the king of the Walls in order to restore Eldia to glory.^[27] The organization failed and Grisha alone was given the task of taking the Founding Titan by Eren Kruger, an Eldian spy in the government of Marley.^[2]

When the military of the Walls gathers to discuss the discoveries from the basem*nt, Eren thinks back to the time when the Founding Titan came forth in the presence of the Titan that ate his mother. Recalling his father's memories of his first wife, Dina, Eren realizes that Dina's Titan was responsible for the presence of the Founding Titan. However, Eren decides against revealing his discovery to the military, fearing that the idea of turning a royal into a Titan for Eren to come into contact with may put Historia Reiss' life at risk.^[14]

War for Paradis arc

After realizing that he can use the Founding Titan by coming into contact with Zeke, Eren decides to pretend to go along with his half-brother's plan to sterilize the Subjects of Ymir. After they make contact and enter the Founding Titan, Eren discovers that the Founder's power is used by commanding Ymir Fritz before he reveals his deception and learns that Zeke nullified the vow of renouncing war and that he now controls the power of the Founder.^[18]After viewing their father's memories, Zeke learns of the Attack Titan's ability to see into the future and that a future inheritor can influence one in the past (which Eren uses to convince his father to slaughter the Reiss family, and steal the Founding Titan), Zeke initiates his plan and commands Ymir to sterilize all Subjects of Ymir. Following this, Eren breaks free from the chains Zeke crafted and rushes to stop Ymir.^[20]

Reaching Ymir, Eren embraces her and begs that she give him her strength so that he can end the world. However, he assures her that he is not going to force her to help him. He recognizes that she is neither a slave nor a deity, she is only a human being and she has the right to choose if she wants to remain in the Coordinate forever or help him end it all. As Zeke desperately tries to stop him, Eren asks Ymir if she was the one who led him to the Coordinate, musing that she has been waiting 2,000 years for him to arrive.

Eren uses the Founding Titan's powers to unleash all of the Wall Titans while creating a body for himself that is even larger than the Colossal Titan. He then uses the Founder's power to telepathically communicate with all of the Subjects of Ymir, informing them of his plans to destroy the world outside Paradis Island.^[11]

Later on, Eren uses the Founding Titan to telepathically communicate with his friends individually within the Paths and reveals his true intentions: redirect the world's hatred from Paradis onto himself and have his friends kill him so that they can become heroes in the eyes of the remainder of humanity. He also informs them that the power of the Titans would no longer exist following his death. Eren then temporarily erases their memories to ensure his plan will succeed.

As the Scout Regiment and Warriors begin working to try and disable Eren, many of the previous Nine Titans begin spawning out of the back of the Founding Titan due to the influence of Ymir; Pieck, Reiner and Annie destroy many of them but are eventually overwhelmed. However, some of the previous Nine Titans fight back against the others, buying the Scout Regiment and Warriors time to get away; during this, Jean travels to the head of the Founding Titan and detonates the explosives wrapped around its neck. This completely severs the head off the Titan and the Source of all living matter, in the form of a strange shining centipede, emerges from the neck trying to reconnect with the head, only for the Armored Titan to dive towards it and wrestle it away, as Armin transforms into the Colossal Titan, destroying Eren's Titan in the process.

Using his severed titan head Eren is able to create a new Founding Titan form in the likeness of the Colossal Titan. He then engages in combat with Armin's Colossal Titan after using the Source of all living matter to turn all the Subjects of Ymir that don't possess one of the Nine Titans, into Pure Titans.

After Eren's death, the Founding Titan ceases to exist together with all Titans.^[28]

Former inheritors

Trivia

• The Founding Titan was the only one of the Nine Titans that have a bloodline restriction, as only royals could freely use its abilities.
  • Interestingly, when Zeke Jaeger (a descendant of the Fritz family) inherited the Beast Titan, he gained abilities similar to the Founding Titan.^[29]
• Eldian artwork has on several occasions depicted the Founding Titan with a war horn.^[27] This may be an artistic representation of the "scream" that activates the Founding Titan's power.
• Frieda Reiss normally had blue eyes, but when she transformed into an Intelligent Titan, her eyes glowed purple. When Grisha Jaeger devoured her and obtained the Founding Titan, his normally green eyes turned purple as well.^[1]
• The songs Guren no Zahyou and ERENthe標 both reference the Coordinate in their titles, and Guren no Zahyou also mentions it in its lyrics.
• When members of the Reiss or Fritz family inherited the Founding Titan, they were affected by the First Reiss King's will, and at times, their normally light-colored eyes emitted a purple glow.
• In Japanese "Doomsday Titan"(終尾の巨人Shūbi no Kyojin^?) contains the kanji for "conclusion"(終shū^?) and "tail"(尾bi^?). This could hide a double meaning: "tail" could be intended as both "the conclusion of a story" and an animal tail, referencing the Titan's elongated shape.

References

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