Hange Zoë

Hange Zoë (ハンジ・ゾエ) is a Squad Leader (分隊長) from the Survey Corps. Hange conducts research on Titans to the point of being obsessed with them, and, as such, is deeply interested in Eren Yeager, who can turn into a Titan.

Personality
Hange is very passionate and driven in pursuit of new knowledge. She can be seen as very hyperactive, often diving into projects without thought for personal safety (and frightening lots of her subordinates in the process), instead preoccupied with observing and documenting their subjects. Some misunderstands these acts of hers as eccentric and having more than a few screws loose in her head. She also enjoys discussing this research, but as the lectures can be very long and detail-oriented, not many fellow soldiers find them interesting.

Hange is often excited by Titans and is always eager to experiment with them, coming off as extremely emotional regarding Titans. For example, she cried at the amount of pain being caused to a Titan during experimentation.

She explained this sympathetic reaction to Eren as a result of the drive to see Titans from a different perspective and learn new insights that would normally be overlooked from the traditional view of rage.

However, she still cares deeply for humanity, and takes threats to comrades very seriously, as seen when Pastor Nick is confronted for his coverup of the Wall. When he refused to talk, Hange grabbed him and held him over the side of Wall Sina, explaining that lives were lost because of him and his religious faction and stating an utter contempt for the priest.

Story
Hange is first seen leaving Trost District on the 39th expedition outside the walls. As a Deviant Type Titan appears, Hange goes after it hoping to capture it. Erwin orders Levi and his squad to assist Hange, but they end up killing the Titan. This leads to them finding Ilse Langnar's body and notebook. After studying the contents of the notebook, Hange fills a petition for Erwin to authorize the capture and study of Titans.

Battle of Trost District arc
Hange is later seen leaving Trost District on an expedition. She kills an Titan while gleefully screaming.

The Female Titan arc
is introduced as part of the group assigned to take Eren to his military hearing in front of the leaders of the military. She is present with the rest of the Survey Corps as Levi beats up Eren and checks on his condition after the tribunal is over, noting that the gap where Eren lost his tooth earlier is disappearing quickly.

Though in charge of experimenting with captured Titans Sonny and Bean, no conclusive evidence was obtained. As such, she's excited by the prospect of working with Eren.

Later, when Eren and the Special Operations Squad are at the former Survey Corps HQ, Hange begins to prep Eren on previous experiments, but ends up talking until morning when the conversation is interrupted. She was about to talk about the curious precedent involving Ilse Langner when it was discovered that Bean and Sonny were murdered.

Although devastated by the loss of the test subjects, she moves forward with the experiments on Eren. When it turns out Eren cannot turn into a Titan at will, Hange is a little disheartened. However, seeing Eren's Titan hand later on earned an overly-excited response, breaking the tension between Eren and the Special Operations Squad.

She discovered that Eren's Titan powers are only awakened when he has a clear objective in mind, such as defending against the cannonball. She also theorized that this switch must have a good reason as well as being connected to the Titan's nature.

Hange stops Keiji from continuing to try and open the crystal Annie Leonhart put around themself to avoid capture. She ordered the crystal containing Annie to be removed to safety when they notice the Titan within Wall Sina.

Before Hange can react, Pastor Nick hurries over and begs the soldiers to stop sunlight from hitting the Titan's face. After this, Hange tries to question the Pastor about what they had just seen, but he roughly states that they do not need to know anything about it and even threatens to demand compensation for damages done to his church.

Furious at his attitude, she grabs hold of Nick and dangles him over the side of the wall in a threat, demanding that Nick explain why there are Titans inside the Wall. She comes to the conclusion that his religion has been so opposed to Wall modifications because of what they know is inside the Wall. She explains that the people of the Survey Corps sacrifice their lives hoping that one day it will mean something, and that because of this they have the right to know what they saw inside the wall and why it's there.

Pastor Nick would rather die in order to maintain his secrets, but Hange decides to let him live.

Clash of the Titans arc
He finally tells her and the other members of the Survey Corps about Historia knowing more about the walls having Titans in them. She went under an assumed name after she was caught in the middle of her relatives' dispute, and will tell them more about it, if she chooses to.

After Hange's squad rescue the Scouts trapped at Castle Utgard, she tells everyone that it's time to go. The Scouts begin to leave. After seeing Mikasa try and kill Reiner and Berthold, Hange proceeds to attack the Colossal Titan and held up well until the Titan began to emanate burning gas.

Unable to continue the attack, she instead leads an effort to back up Eren in his battle against the Armored Titan. Remembering ancient history concerning armor, Hange is able to accurately deduct that the seemingly-invulnerable Armored Titan has unprotected areas at the joints to allow freedom of movement. This allows Eren and Mikasa to bring him down, but the Colossal Titan drops from the Wall and knocks almost unconscious in the resulting explosion.

Hange is later shown to be among the wounded, and has to be left behind when the main forces begin their pursuit. However, she is able to correctly predict that the enemy will require a place to rest until sunset, and advises them to head for the Forest of Giant Trees.

Relationships

 * Levi Ackerman - They work well together as senior members of the Survey Corps, and Hange appears to enjoy teasing him on occasion. Levi often uses insulting terms to refer to her and seems annoyed by her eccentric behavior.
 * Eren Yeager - Hange is one of the first to welcome him into the Survey Corps, and is put in charge of studying him. She takes to this with great enthusiasm and becomes one of his most ardent supporters.
 * Ilse Langnar - While a close relationship was not shown, Hange recognized Ilse's Armband knowing she had died where she did. Hange was also said to have inherited Ilse's will as it was from Ilse's notes that she took up trying to communicate with Titans. It was later shown as well that it was from her notes that Hange recognized the name of Ymir.

Trivia

 * The author, Hajime Isayama, has left Hange's gender open to interpretation as he told his editor that 'either one is fine' and instructed Kodansha USA not to confirm any gender in their translation. Since then, Kodansha has removed gendered pronouns for Hange in their translation, and clarified that indeed, Hange's gender is up to the reader's interpretation. The anime on the other hand, has consistently depicted Hange as female.

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