Board Thread:Wiki/@comment-5774380-20151009011502/@comment-24407809-20151009060525

Manuel de la Fuente wrote: How the hell did Reiner manage to survive Levi's attack?

But I can't propose options because I have no idea. :P First, I would like to say that this is not a proposal for a poll (I need to get my priorities staright!), but my impression from Reiner's survival and the possible implications it holds for the Titan Shifting power when compared to what we already know.

1.) Reiner's survival of Levi's attack disproves a theory I had formulated on how to kill a Titan Shifter in human form based on Annie Leonhart's killing of Gunther Schultz. I noticed that she sliced the nape of Gunther's neck when killing him. Now, we know that Annie, Reiner, etc. have more knowledge of the ability than Eren and the Corps does, and Eren did not have any memories of how he gained his shifting abilities until Rod and Historia Reiss unlocked his memories, so I theorized that there might be many Titan Shifters living their lives without knowing of their abilities, which is why Annie sliced Gunther's neck: he is possibly one of those unknowing Titan Shifters, and the only way to kill a Titan Shifter in human form for sure is to kill them the way you would kill a Titan: slice the nape of their neck. Obviously, as I said before, Reiner's survival disproves this.

2.) The only times we've seen someone sucessfully kill a Titan Shifter in human form is when they are devoured by another Titan (Marcel, Mr. Reiss, Uri Reiss, Grisha Yeager, etc.)

3.) We've never seen anyone succeed in slicing the nape of a Titan Shifter (unless you count the time during the Battle for Tross when Armin stabbed Eren's Titan's nape in order to speak to him), soo we don't know if slicing the nape would kill them (we do, however, know that the reason normal Titans can only be killed by having their nape sliced is specifically because their humans are in their necks).

My conclusion? There is only one surefire way to kill a Ttitan Shifter: devour them while they are in human form. However, it remains to be seen if slicing their nape will have the same effect on them as it does on normal Titans.