Attack on Titan: Who is The GOD of Titans?

The giant beings that give Attack on Titan its name are famous around the world, even if their strange origin story isn’t. But there is one question that every viewer of the anime or reader of the manga is guaranteed to ask: who is the God of Titans?

Surprisingly, that question is more complicated than most will assume. After all, the word “god” is thrown around fairly often in a story where towering beings level cities, and a seemingly divine power is passed from generation to generation. But even if the lore of Attack on Titan is built out of just about about every creation myth in human history, there IS one character who could be referred to as ‘The God of Titans’… and it was her who set the entire story into motion.

Further explaining the confusion, the woman who earns the title of the God of Titans began her life as a normal human inhabitant of Eldia. What the Attack manga does confirm is that Ymir Fritz lived as a slave nearly 2,000 years in the past, typically shown as a beautiful young woman with long blonde hair, and defined by her virtue and grace. When she is blamed for a crime she did not commit, she is sent into the woods to be hunted by her tribal leader’s men like an animal. Instead, she stumbles into a mystical pool that connects her with “the source of all living matter,” and bestows upon her the power of the Titans. And while the modern Titans of the series are more monster than angel, the massive and all-powerful Ymir was glorious, and the closest thing people could imagine to a god walking the Earth. Needless to say, the mythology surrounding her was bound to spread.

Sadly, the central theme of Attack on Titan dictates that people in positions of power are typically corrupt, not noble. So when Ymir rose as a god among men, her slave master Fritz made her his weapon, his empire builder, his wife, and eventually, the mother to his children. Unfortunately, the reliance on mythology means that the details, like the true source or purpose of Ymir’s ascension is unknown (some might say the “source of all living matter” itself sounds like the actual ‘God’ of this story). But where the descendants of Eldia came to revere Ymir as God, their enemies deemed her the consort of the Devil himself, having made some evil bargain to attain the power she used to destroy them.

Good or evil, thirteen years of embodying unthinkable power led to Ymir dying in defense of her master, husband, and lord. Ymir allowed herself to die… but her powers did not. As no surprise to fans of the series, Fritz ordered that Ymir’s remains be fed to their daughters (the preferred form of power transmission in Attack on Titan) so that his bloodline might retain the power. The plan worked, and eventually the resulting descendants known as the Subjects of Ymir embodied Nine Titan forms, each possessing a mere portion of that which Ymir had been blessed with: the Attack Titan, the Colossus Titan, the Female Titan, the Armored Titan, the Beast Titan, the Jaw Titan, the Cart Titan, the War Hammer Titan, and the most powerful Founding Titan, possessing the most of Ymir’s essence making them capable of commanding the others.

Fast forward two millennia and over one hundred generations, and the unthinkable power of Ymir–along with the strange mystery of her ascension, her willing subjugation, and eventual surrender–had elevated her to the literal God of Titans, from whom all others descend. Considering the otherworldly destruction and power contained in the Colossus Titan alone, her most powerful descendant, even imagining a more powerful being is to ponder the divine. It has also led to more confusion since the Colossus or Colossal Titan is often referred to in some translations as the ‘God Titan.’

But even if he is the biggest, strongest, and most gifted of the most elevated Nine Titans seen in Attack on Titan, he pales in comparison to the God of Titans… previously known as the young slave girl, Ymir Fritz.

About The Author

Andrew Dyce
(3247 Articles Published)

Screen Rant Editor Andrew Dyce was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Despite calling the vast nothingness of the Canadian prairies home (or perhaps because of it) film and television have been a passion since birth. As a graduate of the University of Manitoba with a degree in English Literature, Andrew has grown to appreciate the story and writing behind everything from blockbuster comic book movies to schlocky B-movie action.

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