Hange Zoë

Hange Zoë (ハンジ・ゾエ) is a high standing, veteran member of the Survey Corps and a squad leader (分隊長) in charge of the fourth squad. She is an interim commander and the successor to Erwin Smith if he is forced to abandon or be unable to continue in his position as commander of 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 has the ability to shift into a Titan.

Appearance
Hange has long, dark, unkempt brown hair that is kept tied up in a high pony tail with bangs parted down the middle. She wears square, thick-rimmed glasses that have bands that go around her head to keep them from dislodging during combat. Hange also has wide, brown eyes with a slight golden tint to them. Hange is seen wearing the normal Survey Corps uniform with a yellow button up shirt underneath and when on mission she wears the traditional green Survey Corps cloak.

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 many of her subordinates in the process), instead preoccupied with observing and documenting their subjects. Some misinterpret 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 cover up 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 49th 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 files 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. As Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Hannah Diamant, and Franz Kefka watch the Survey Corps leave, they and many others in the crowd admire Levi Ackerman. Hange teases Levi, saying that his admirers would be disappointed if they knew what a clean freak he was. Hange gleefully awaits the mission departure by the gate, just behind Erwin Smith. Hange states that she hoped to see a Deviant Type Titan this time and how wonderful it would be. Levi tells her that there is already an abnormal titan here and when Hange excitedly looks for it he grabs her head and states that the abnormal is her. After, the Survey Corps leave for their mission. Hange is seen excitedly flying through an abandoned town using her Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear. Hange glides by a Titan, grabbing its attention and then lands on a roof. Hange states that it is okay and she's not going to hurt it and when the titan swings for Hange she easily evades it and congratulates it on trying. Hange then happily states it is their turn and kills the titan then hopes off of it, landing on the ground. She turns to the titan's body and assure it that her attack didn't hurt before it falls to the ground.

The Female Titan arc
is introduced as part of the group assigned to take Eren Yeager 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 Eren's lost tooth grew back.

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 participates in the capture of Annie Leonhart in the Stohess District, along with Eren, Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman. Hange stops Keiji from continuing to try and open the crystal Annie presumably put around herself 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 Bertolt, 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.

The Uprising arc
In the following two weeks, Hange would recover completely and supervise the investigation of Ragako. Aided by Connie Springer, Hange uncovers the horrifying truth that Titans are humans, transformed by some unknown means into mindless beings. Though shaken by this revelation, she is able to complete the investigation and present her findings to Erwin and Dot Pixis.

It is noted that previous experiments had never uncovered anything unusual about the napes of a Titan's neck, suggesting the Titan form absorbs the human pilot completely. All that remains is a fused nervous system, leading Hange to theorize that the true means to slay a Titan is decapitation of what remains of the human.

Shortly afterwards, Hange is present in a meeting with Squad Levi discussing the idea of using Eren's Titan hardening abilities to seal the hole in Wall Maria, and expresses her desire to perform some experiments about it. She then sadly informs them that Pastor Nick had been founded murdered in his room. Immediately suspicious, Hange went to the crime scene and interrogated the two members of the Military Police guarding the site, Djel Sanes and Ralph, while pretending to simply be an old friend of the victim.

Upon observing Nick's corpse, Hange was able to note tell-tale signs of torture on him and wounds on Sanes' hands that suggested he had taken part in the beating. Though pretending to believe the official story that Nick was killed in a robbery, Hange told Sanes that once she finds the culprits, she will inflict them even more pain than what they caused to Nick.

Hange is later seen performing the experiments to Eren's Titan form, which looks heavily deformed and lies unconscious on the ground. Hange screams desperately asking him for answers, but having received none, she and Mikasa intervene and try to free him from the Titan, whose flesh is strongly attached to his face. Seeing this, Hange asks Moblit to make a sketch of it, to which him replies if Hange is even human. Mikasa cuts the Titan's flesh with her blade and Hange declares the experiment is over.

After Eren regains conciousness with no memory of what happened, Hange explains to him the details of the experiment, which during the first hour went good, with Eren showing control of his Titan and response to commands; though being unable to harden and speak.

However, at some point and for no apparent reason, Eren looked in pain and wrote on the ground "my father... to me", which intrigues Hange. After that, Eren left his Titan form and transformed two more times, though in each occasion looking more tired and his Titan being smaller and more deformed, culminating with her and Mikasa having to release him.

Despite these failures, Hange expresses optimism that they were able to get useful information about Eren's versatility and limitations. She states that the Wall Cult should have information about the process of hardening, since they are aware that the Walls are made of hardened Titans, and trusts that Erwin, who is in his way to the capital, can find out something.

After the squad Levi kidnaps Djel Sanes, she is seen alongside Levi preparing to fulfill her promise about torture him.

The Survey Corps begins to conspire to rebel against the monarchy and discover the secrets they are willing to kill for. When Sanes is captured by the Survey Corps, Levi aids her in interrogating him as well as gaining revenge for Nick's murder. Hange reveals a much crueler side during the interrogation, expressing eagerness to learn how to torture humans and asking Sanes' advice while removing his fingernails. This sadistic behavior horrifies the corrupt officer, who begs them to ask questions before torturing him. Instead, they take turns torturing the prisoner with Levi beating him while Hange removes nails and even a tooth. Afterwards, they leave him alone while fetching his comrade, Ralph. They force him at knife-point to read a script outside Sanes' door, making him believe he has been betrayed and is considered a lunatic by his comrades. This causes the man to break, revealing to Hange the secret of the Reiss family -- the true rulers of mankind.

Once they have finished extracting information from him, Sanes is escorted to the same cell as his comrade. Hange becomes angry and mocks him at length, revealing the truth about Ralph's apparent betrayal. Sanes is deeply shaken, but he warns her that someone else will take his place and wishes her luck. Visibly shaken, Hange leaves the dungeon and enters a room, violently kicking over a table. When Eren enters the room, she insists that her actions were based of a cockroach. He shares with her the recollection of Bertolt and Ymir's conversation, which shocks Hange enough that she rushes off to speak to Erwin.

Out of breath upon arriving at headquarters, Hange collapses on the ground before Erwin and warns him their plans may be ruined. Eren's notes lead her to theorize that Titans can absorb the powers of their victims, which allowed Ymir to go from an ordinary Titan to a Titan Shifter after devouring one. She states that Reiner most likely threw Titans at the soldiers in hopes of Eren being devoured, creating a new Shifter in possession of the Coordinate. In the same fashion, Hange believes that the Reiss family are going to feed Eren to a Titan in order to pass the Coordinate on to someone they can control.

Their meeting is interrupted by the arrival of the first Brigade, who accuse the Survey Corps of murdering Dimo Reeves. Preparing to meet them and face their charges, Erwin names Hange as his successor and entrusts the Survey Corps to her. Afterwards, she discovers Flegel hiding in an alleyway and carries him onto a roof top. There, she learns what really happened to his father and attempts to persuade him to continue fighting in his father's stead. When he states they have already lost, Hange reminds him with a smile that the Survey Corps has always had a losing record.

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 and when 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 and the live-action movie on the other hand, have consistently depicted Hange as female.

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