Frieda Reiss

"Leave it to me, Father. I won't give in to our ancestor's ghosts."

- Frieda to Rod Reiss before receiving the Coordinate

Frieda Reiss (フリーダ・レイス) was Rod Reiss' eldest daughter and Historia's oldest half-sister. For three years, she was the true queen of humanity, up until her death. She is known to appear in Eren and Historia's obtained memories.

Human Form
When Eren dreams of her, he first mistakes Frieda for Historia, highlighting the sisters' physical similarity. Unlike the rest of her family, including Historia, she was of average height; nearly the same height as her eldest brother, Ulklin. She had long, smooth, dark hair; stopping well past her shoulders but she later cut it shoulder length before eating her uncle Uri and prior to her death her hair had grown back about half its original length. As well as large eyes, and a rounded face, she appeared to be well dressed, given that she was a member of the royal family, but was usually seen in simple dresses or skirts.

Titan Form
Upon transforming, Frieda's Titan form had light, shoulder length hair; that hung loosely around her face. She had noticeably large eyes with dark loops within them; as well as a somewhat skeletal nose. Her torso had a defined muscle lining, much like the Female Titan's. Like other Titan Shifters she was physically fitter than normal, mindless Titans. With her Titan form standing about 15 meters tall, putting her at an average height among other shifters.

Personality
Frieda tended to be a good and caring person. She liked to walk and look after the peasants. She loved Historia to the point that she deleted her memories in order to protect her. She was brave and believed that her ancestors could not make her change.

After receiving the Coordinate, her personality changed. She suffered from depression and sometimes her behavior changed from her regular self to another much more aggressive. She also thought that humans were all sinners who deserved a punishment. However she fought to the death against Grisha Yeager in order to protect her family. Kenny Ackerman, a Reiss bodyguard, said that Frieda talked about the same things Uri did, like peace and love, but it is unknown if she actually believed in this or if she was saying what was expected of her.

The Uprising arc
She appears in Eren's dream, with him seeing her from her own perspective while she looks into a mirror. However, in Historia's dreams she actually interacts with Historia. She teaches her how to read and tells her to grow up to be "ladylike" and a kind person. Frieda appears moved when Historia claims that she wants to be like her, then proceeds to manipulate Historia's memory. Telling her to forget about her until they see each other again.

While Hange and the new Levi squad attempt to search for Eren and Historia, Hange reads a report commissioned by Erwin on the Reiss family grounds. Rod's eldest daughter Frieda was loved by all in their village for her genuine character. She was even known to visit the fields to thank the farmers for their work. A tragedy struck the Reiss family the night Wall Maria fell. Bandits supposedly raided a chapel in the village, and killed the entire Reiss family save for Rod and Historia.

However, it is revealed through Eren's inherited memories -- triggered by Rod and Historia placing their hands on his back while he is chained up in the cavern -- that the murderer was actually Eren's father Grisha. In his Titan form, Grisha invaded an underground cavern under the Reiss family chapel, where the family had gathered to pray. He battled Frieda and consumed her, thus gaining her powers and memories. He then slaughtered her mother and siblings, and finally destroyed the chapel. When Eren later eats Grisha, Frieda's memories are transferred to him along with Grisha's.

Rod later explains that Grisha entered the chapel seeking Frieda's Titan power, and they fought one another in their Titan forms. Rod says Frieda possessed an invincible power but didn't have the experience to use it to its full potential. Therefore she lost to Grisha, who ate her and thus stole her power.

According to Rod, when Frieda was 15, she injected herself with the Titan serum and transformed for the first time in the same cavern below the chapel. Her uncle Uri Reiss, was chained up so she could devour his upper body. She received not only the Titan powers that Uri had inherited from his father, Frieda's grandfather, but the memories of the world before the Walls. She essentially became the "living book" of humanity and had the power to spread the information if she chose. But like all the others before her, she chose not to.

Rod tells Historia that Frieda isn't really dead, as her memories are still alive, and he asks her if she wants to see her sister again. Before she is about to inject herself and eat Eren, Historia flashes back to her childhood again. Frieda plucked a splinter out of her palm that Historia had gotten while trying to climb over a fence, then screamed at her for trying to do so. Historia recalls that Frieda would sometimes seem possessed, ranting about "sinners", then become deeply depressed afterwards. She wondered if Frieda was troubled by the burden of the world's memories. Rod tells Historia that yes, Frieda had also inherited the ideology of the first Reiss King, which is why she had never chosen to exterminate the Titans. As he continues to press Historia to inject herself, she remembers Ymir telling her to live for herself. And she gains the strength to throw Rod to the ground and rush to Eren's rescue.

After Historia kills her father, she receives some memories from him. In one of them, Frieda was telling him that she will not give in to their ancestors' ghosts.

During Kenny Ackerman's final moments, he recalled after Frieda's uncle Uri, whom he was very close with, had been eaten and had his powers passed onto her. Kenny noted that when he was at a hearing of the royal family and he first saw Frieda as the new leader, he could see Uri in her as soon as he saw her eyes and that she spoke of the same things he did such as love among mankind and peace.

Abilities

 * Memory Manipulation: She is shown to be able to manipulate the memories of a person, she uses it to have Historia forget about her. This is related to the Invincible Power.

Titan Shifting
Other than the regular abilities possessed by Titans and Titan Shifters, nothing especially notable was seen belonging to her Titan form as she was killed rather easily by Grisha's Titan form.
 * Regeneration: Like all Titans, she possessed healing abilities. When punched in the face by Grisha, she started emitting steam from her wounds.
 * Enhanced Strength: She was briefly capable of withstanding Grisha's attacks.
 * "Invincible Power": Briefly mentioned by Rod. He said her Titan form held an invincible power, but she wasn't experienced enough to control it. Rod also goes on to mention it had the potential to exterminate all the Titans.

Relationships

 * Historia Reiss: Historia is Frieda's younger half-sister, whom she loved and cared for when she was little. Frieda was the only member of Historia's family who treated her with love and kindness, teaching her to read and write, taking her horseback riding, etc. Though Historia would have no memory of these interactions with her sister, as she erased her memories in order to protect her. Frieda was also indirectly responsible for Historia's "Krista Lenz" persona, telling her to always be kind so she would have friends to help her since the world is full of hardships. When Historia told Frieda she wanted to be like her, the older sister became distressed (as she was the holder of the Coordinate and the memories of the world and didn't want to put Historia through that) and hugged her little sister, while emotionally telling her she's fine the way she is.


 * Uri Reiss: Uri was Frieda's uncle, the previous holder of the coordinate. Not much interaction is shown between the two, but it can be assumed that Frieda had a close family bond with Uri, as she was crying before she injected herself with the needle, turning into a Titan for the first time and devouring Uri, showing she was saddened by the fact that she had to eat her uncle.

People Killed

 * Uri Reiss

Trivia

 * In mythology, the name Frieda is literally derived from the Goddess Freyja, a central character in many Nordic myths. Her name is likely one of many references of real life Norse mythology alongside such "Ymir" and "Utgard".
 * It should be noted that Freyja is part of a saga involving a war between Vanir and Aesir, where the settlement of the latter is attacked by having their walls destroyed, bearing several similarities to the world of Attack on Titan. The Aesir are the principle deities of the Nordic mythology, such as Tyr, Thor, & Odin. Whereas the Vanir are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, nature, magic, and the ability to see the future. With Freyja being one of the principle Vanir in the conflict, and is traded in a hostage negotiation to become one of the Aesir. They collectively oppose the Frost Giants for the remainder of the Edda's.
 * Freyja is also a Goddess involving Shamanism, which allows transformation by having one's soul seethe out the neck.
 * Frieda is Old High German, (fridu), which stands for "peace".
 * Her name also has an Old English meaning, (þryð), which stands for "force" and "strength".
 * She used to bite her hand in order to trigger the transformation. That explains why Eren used this method without even thinking of it.

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