Since it was first aired, Attack on Titan has mesmerized audiences with its dark and bleak world; especially when the Titans threaten to devour the entire human population. For years, fans have wondered why the Titans eat humans when they don’t even have digestive organs.
The Titans get all their energy from sunlight, and what’s even more mysterious, they never attack animals. Humans seem to be the only living things they attack. The reason why titans eat humans is so mysterious.
Origin of Titans
The ancestor of the Eldians, Ymir Fritz, made a pact with the devil which later gave him the powers of a titan.
When Ymir died, this titan’s power split into nine titans: Attack Titans, Female Titan, Armored Titan, Colossal Titan, Dancing Titan, Beast Titan, Jaw Titan, And Quadrupedal Titan.
These nine Titans and the ability to become a Titan were continuously passed down among the Eldians.
Titan was initially used to build bridges, buildings, and so on. However, the Eldians later used the Titans as a military force.
From here, because of the outbreak of various wars, Titan from the Eldian nation began to commit acts of genocide against other nations, especially Marley. In revenge, the Marley people stole 7 of the 9 Titans belonging to the Eldians.
King Fritz, the king of the Eldians at the time, fled to Paradise Island and protected his city by building 3 walls made of Titan.
King Fritz threatens that if anyone dares to disturb Paradise Island, he will awaken the Titan within the walls and destroy everything on Earth.
Why Do Titans Eat Humans?
The reason for this strange behavior was finally revealed in Attack on Titan season three, although hints of it have been raised since season two.
The real truth is horrific and deeply tragic: Titans eat humans because they subconsciously hope that one of their victims will have the power of a Titan shifter. This power allows them to transform back into a human.
The first clue to why titans eat humans is when Ymir reveals his true identity. According to Ymir, he was a wandering and mindless Titan for decades until he ate Marcel, a Titan shifter, and Reiner’s friends Annie and Bertoldt.
He quickly regained his human form after eating Marcel purely by instinct alone. Ymir describes her memories of being a Titan as a “long nightmare.”
Since that reveal, fans have theorized that the Titans eat humans following a subconscious desire to regain their human form and, thus, wake up from their painful state.
With this new information, the Titans become sympathetic and tragic creatures, unlike the sinister image they gave in the first season of the hit anime when fans didn’t realize that the Titans were once normal humans.
This theory of why Titans eat humans was fully confirmed in the first part of the third season when Rod Reiss became the biggest Titan seen in the anime.
How Do Titans See Humans?
Following Rod’s transformation, the episode also gave fans a glimpse into how the Titans see humans. When the camera takes Rod’s perspective, it reveals a vision that only sees concentrations of glowing dots in the distance.
The giant Titan obsessively moves toward the alluring light source, like a moth toward a flame, oblivious and oblivious to the fact that the lights are alive, breathing like humans.
This revelation also explains why the Titans are attracted to largely populated cities and why they don’t completely eat humans but only eat the portion containing their spinal fluid.
After the brainless Titan finally finds and eats the Titan’s spinal fluid shifters Titan as seen when Armin eats Bertoldt, who will turn back into a human and regain consciousness.
Apart from that, this case of titan-eating humans also inherits the power of the shifter, as seen in the practice of the Reiss family, which inherits the power of the Founding Titan through cannibalism.
All Attack on Titan Answers Will Be Present in the Final Season
While season 3 did reveal a lot, it didn’t reveal everything. The question remains about why humans appear to be a shining light for the Titans.
Some theorize that it is due to a pathway that invisibly connects all Eldians, the only race capable of becoming the Titans.
But that theory has problems, as it doesn’t explain why the Titans also eat non-Eldians, like Marley’s sergeant-major Gross, which happened in the second part of the third season.
It could be that the non-Eldians were also connected, but that was impossible, considering they couldn’t transform into Titans as the Eldia could. Whatever the answer, all will finally be revealed in the fourth and final season of Attack on Titan.
