Attack on Titan season four took a much darker twist, compared to previous seasons of the series. The skirmish to survive in a Titan-infested world and reclaiming their land takes a backseat as the truth of the world is revealed, and politics between nations takes over the center stage.
Eren Jaeger is tossed in the midst of it all, even more so than before, due to his possession of the Founding Titan.
It was one of the Nine Titans and the first of all titans which dated back to around 2000 years ago to Ymir Fritz. The powers manifested by the Founding Titan make it the most powerful among the Titans.
The Founding Titan has six powers/abilities in total. They are titan creation, titan control, memory manipulation, anatomical manipulation, telepathic communication, and clairvoyance.
It was the titan creation ability that Eren used to swiftly manifest numerous past incarnations of the Nine Titans and controlled them to attack his foes simultaneously.
Ymir Fritz was the origin of the Founding Titan who died sacrificing herself for the king. King Fritz was unwilling to lose his favorite war toy so he forced his daughters (Maria, Rose, and Sheena) to eat up all of Ymir until nothing was left so they could inherit all of her power.
Let’s look in detail the Founding Titan’s powers:
The Founding Titan’s powers
1. Titan creation
The Founding Titan can create any Eldian into Titan, unlike the Beast Titan it doesn’t require its spinal fluid to accomplish this insane task.
It can turn the Eldians into as big as the Colossal Titan. Karl Fritz used this ability to create the thousands of Colossus Titans that made up the Wall.
2. Titan control
The Founding Titan can control the pure titans according to its will. Eren unleashed this ability when he ordered all the titans to turn up against Diana Fritz’s titan.
Although the eight other legendary titans are said to be immune from this, they can certainly feel its influence. Thanks to this ability, Karl Fritz could order an army of Colossal Titans to form the walls around the island, thereby protecting it from outside threats.
3. Memory Manipulation
The Founding Titan was able to modify the minds and memories of the Subjects of Ymir, even entire populations at once.
Ever thought why the people living within the walls had no clue about the existence of a world outside the walls?
They were completely unaware of anything and everything that existed before the walls, and neither are these details scripted anywhere.
This is because Karl Fritz used the power of the Founding Titan to make every Eldian inside the Paradis island forget the history of the world before the Walls’ formation.
The same ability was also used by Frieda to make Historia forget about her visits. Though somehow, these lost memories tend to come back in the forms of dreams in bits and pieces.
Only the Ackerman clan and the non Eldians are immune to this technique, and maybe that’s the reason why the royal bloodline feared the Ackermans so much.
4. 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.
This is also the ability around which Zeke’s plan of euthanization revolves. Zeke wanted to use the power of the Founding Titan to take away every Eldian’s ability to give birth.
This way, no more children will be born with the curse of titans in their blood, thereby bringing an end to the endless cycle of hatred.
5. Telepathic communication
The Founding Titan could telepathically connect with all of the Subjects of Ymir by way of the paths they are connected to.
It can telepathically connect will all the subjects of Ymir, no matter how far they are. It can talk with every Eldian whenever it wants to and see or experience everything that the Eldians are going through.
Eren used this ability to communicate with every Subject of Ymir when announcing his plans for the Rumbling of the world.
6. Clayvoirance
The Founding Titan can access time in a nonlinear way, i.e., it can access past, present, and future at the same time.
It 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.
Though this ability drawback is 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 of 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.
What are the Titans on Eren Founding Titan’s back?
The Titans on Eren’s back are many of the previous Nine Titans which began spawning due to the influence of Ymir. It is caused by the Titan creation ability which is passed down to the Founding Titan.
The creation of that many Nine Titans happened very instantly as such though they were created they weren’t all in control. As some of that many Nine Titans fight back against each other.
Who are the current Nine Titans in Attack on Titan?
The Nine Titans in Attack on Titan are the Founding Titan, the Colossal Titan, the Armored Titan, the Attack Titan, the Female Titan, the Beast Titan, the Jaw Titan, the Cart Titan, and the War Hammer Titan.
At this point, we can assume that the Power of the Nine Titans, as we now know them, was stored in Ymir’s daughters. I believe that the Nine Titans were individually created when Maria, Rose, and Sheena, each had three children of their own and made them eat their spinal cord (as King Fritz instructed), splitting the power further and thus, creating the Nine Titans.
1. The Founding Titan
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The Founding Titan is the strongest Titan power of all as it retains the “Coordinate.” It is through the “Coordinate” where all the Eldian Paths converge, it can exploit the Subjects of Ymir (all of them connected to the Coordinate) in almost every way as they act as if they were part of the Founder’s own body itself.
This allows the Founder to change the composition of all Eldian bodies and could have several applications, including but most likely not limited to: memory manipulation, sickness immunity and potentially causing their bodies to be sterile.
The Founder can also cause any Subject of Ymir to become any type of mindless titan the Founder wishes and its control over them is completely absolute.
Though, to control over the Subjects of Ymir the inheritor needs to have royal blood (member of the Fritz/Reiss family) or come into contact with someone who is a Titan and has royal blood.
2. The Colossal Titan
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The Colossal Titan’s most distinctive ability is that its sheer size causes a massive explosion when the inheritor triggers the transformation. This explosion is capable of eradicating all buildings nearby and even sending their foundations flying.
Once transformed, the Colossal Titan (due to its size) emits so much heat that practically burns everything and everyone nearby. It also possesses the ability to amplify that heat if need be, causing all of the targets nearby to be burnt to a crisp in seconds.
The downside of this Power is that, being so huge coupled with the ability to amplify heat causes this Titan Power to lose tremendous amounts of energy, making it unfit for a prolonged fight.
3. The Armored Titan
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The Armored Titan can maintain its whole body hardened in the shape of armored plates that offer excellent protection.
This makes it the Titan Power that can take the most punishment and can even use its heavier and hardened body as a weapon to destroy structures. The downside of this is that once its armor is destroyed is much slower to regenerate and said armor also hinders its full moving capabilities.
4. The Attack Titan
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The Attack Titan can move ahead and foresee future events through the memories of future inheritors via a Path. It has also displayed a berserker rage that put its entire body on fire and could tear apart the Female Titan in seconds (anime only).
After taking the “Armored” serum from Rod Reiss’ bag, Eren learned to harden the Attack Titan’s skin. This is particularly when its fists are hardened it was a tremendous edge in combat (Note: All Titan Powers seem to have the inherent ability to harden their skin).
5. The Female Titan
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The Female Titan has been described as an all-around unit, capable of being deployed in a wide variety of missions. It has an amazing speed and is lightweight, making it the ideal Titan Power to be used in conjunction with martial arts.
It also has amazing stamina, being able to maintain the power for large periods. Most distinctively, the Female Titan can attract mindless Titans with its screams.
Most of the Marleyans didn’t think that the Female Titan had anything special and carried out heavy experiments on it to unveil its unique ability, which is Titan absorption.
The Female can pick up abilities universal to each of the Nine (as well as an implied variation of their respective unique abilities) by eating a fragment of their bodies.
6. The Beast Titan
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Possessing overly long arms, the Beast Titan’s primary function is as an artillery unit, throwing rocks to create a great, devastating effect.
When Zeke Jaeger became the Beast Titan, it gained the ability to create abnormal Titans with its spinal fluid and to command said Titans via screams. (Note: Due to Zeke possessing royal blood)
It seems that the Beast Titan’s unique ability is turning into other animals, with Zeke Jaeger’s ape form being one of many animal forms.
Whether this ability is manifested as a random thing that happens in the process of inheriting the Titan or if the user has some degree of control or choice over the animal form they take, is currently unknown.
7. The Jaw Titan
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The Jaw Titan has been described as an assault unit. It possesses the strongest jaws of all Titan powers and its claws can pierce even hardened material. Coupled with its amazing speed and agility, this Titan is the main attack unit for Marley.
Like all the other Titan Powers, it possesses the ability to harden its skin. Both Galliard brothers keep their Titan face permanently hardened, similar to the Armored Titan.
As a consequence of his mindless Titan is one of the abnormals under Zeke Jaeger’s control, Falco’s Jaw Titan has inherited some of the Beast Titan’s animalistic traits, such as feathers and, presumably, the ability to fly.
8. The Cart Titan
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While it may not seem like much, this power is important for long-term missions, as it is the Titan that possesses the most stamina, with Pieck managing to stay transformed for two months.
Because it goes on all fours it is the fastest of all Titan powers and can be used to carry big weapons or other equipment. This combination makes this Titan ideal for reconnaissance or infiltration missions.
9. The War Hammer Titan
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This is probably the most versatile titan when it comes to combat efficiency as it can create and shape hardened material out of itself or the ground to form just about anything.
Spikes to trap the enemy, a giant hammer to crush them, a crossbow, a giant spike to impale and immobilize an enemy or it can even make the Titan body outside of the inheritor without the need to be in the nape.
This has the disadvantage that the exposed cord that joins the inheritor encased in a hardened carcass with the Titan body can easily be severed if located, but then, the inheritor can create another Titan body if that is the case.
The downside of this, is that all of these abilities consume great amounts of energy and will leave the user exhausted.
About Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. Kodansha publishes it in the Bessatsu Shonen Magazine.
The manga began serialization on September 9th, 2009, and ended on April 9, 2021. It has been compiled into 34 volumes.
Attack on Titan follows humanity settled within three concentric walls to protect themselves from the terrifying titans that prey on them. Eren Yeager is a young boy that believes that a caged life is similar to that of cattle and aspires to go beyond the walls one day, just like his heroes, the Survey Corps. The emergence of a deadly Titan unleashes chaos.
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