Ymir Fritz (Anime)

"Under Marley's authority, she's a pawn of the devil. During the Eldian Empire era, she was a miracle of God. Some say she touched the source of all living matter. Who's to say they're wrong?"

- Eren Kruger wonders about the Founder's mysterious nature

Ymir Fritz (ユミル・フリッツ) was the progenitor of the Eldians. When she was a young girl, she awakened the power of the Titans and became the first Titan, the Founding Titan. After she died, her spirit was split into the Nine Titans.

Human form
Ymir Fritz was small in stature with light hair. She had straight cut bangs with shoulder-length hair that later grew down to her shoulder blades with age. As a slave, she wore tattered clothing with a cloth headband, sash belt, and leather sandals laced above her ankles. After entering the favor of Fritz in adolescence and adulthood, Ymir wore a sleeveless dress with thin decorative bands around each arm. Like all slaves of the Eldian tribe, her tongue was cut out when she was captured, though it may have regenerated after acquiring the power of the Titans.

In posthumous illustrations, Ymir Fritz had long, thick, blonde hair and was often shown holding an apple. She was usually depicted in wearing a flowing dress with loose bell sleeves and a tie around the waist, along with a pair of basic flat shoes.

Titan form
Ymir Fritz's Titan form was enormous in size with light hair, a typically female figure, and long, protruding ribs. Her Titan's face possessed no apparent skin, musculature or eyes, leaving only a visible skull. In posthumous illustrations, Ymir's Titan form is highly romanticized with more human features.

Personality
Being a subject of ancient history, little is known about who Ymir truly was as a person. When reading about her story to Historia, Frieda describes her as a kind girl who is always thinking of others, as well as lady-like. Additionally, Eldians such as Grisha Jaeger speak of Ymir with great reverence, praising her accomplishments for their people. On the other hand, the Marleyan propaganda maintains that Ymir was a pawn of the Devil, whom she had made a deal with and caused her and all her subjects to be despised by much of the world.

In reality, she was a slave with no will of her own. She submitted to Fritz in life, building him his empire, brutally destroying his enemies, and bearing his children as he commanded. Ymir even went so far as to sacrifice her own life for his. Even in death, her soul remained blindly obedient to the Eldian royal family, creating Titans by hand for about 2,000 years in the unknown land surrounding the Coordinate.

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One night a group of pigs escaped from their pens and Ymir was blamed for it. As punishment Fritz, the tribe's leader, released her into the wild in order to hunt her for sport.

Wounded and desperate, Ymir found an unusually large tree with a chasm at its base. Seeking shelter, she stepped inside and, not knowing of the sinkhole beneath, fell down into a pool of liquid. There, a mysterious spine-like creature fused with her and turned her into the first Titan.

With her newfound power, Ymir returned to serve Fritz and used her Titan to cultivate the land, build bridges, and amass wealth for the Eldians. Under his command, she also vanquished the armies of Eldia's rival, Marley. To "reward" Ymir for her service, Fritz took her as his concubine and together, they had three children: Maria, Rose, and Sina.

Thirteen years after acquiring the power of the Titans, Ymir died while thwarting an assassination attempt on Fritz, but then found herself in a mysterious, barren land. King Fritz then forced his daughters to eat their mother's corpse in an attempt to preserve the power of the Titans. He commanded his daughters to continuously reproduce, to have their children eat their spines upon their deaths and perpetuate this ritual from child to child so that Ymir's blood would not die out and Eldia could rule forever with its Titans.

Ymir's power was divided into the Nine Titans; and she continued to serve her descendants, building them Titans whenever they invoked the power of the Titans.

Mythology
The Eldians hail as a god-given miracle. Many would claim that as the Founding Titan, she used her Titan power to cultivate barren lands, build roads across the lands, and raise bridges through the mountains of the world, though these claims could never be supported. On the other hand, after the fall of the Eldian Empire in the Great Titan War, the new Marley government would spread slanderous legends that Ymir's power was derived from the "Devil of All Earth."

In her childhood, Historia used to read about the story of Ymir with Frieda; however, in this story Ymir is named "Christa." When Historia asked Frieda what is it like to be "ladylike," Frieda replied to be like "Christa" from the story.

Return to Shiganshina arc
Some years later, when the Scout Regiment discovers Grisha Jaeger's basement, they find three journals. Within Grisha's writings, he recounts his childhood when he was told the story of Ymir and her people by his father. Grisha writes of joining the Restorationists in the nation of Marley several years afterward, learning of the supposed great accomplishments achieved in Ymir's time. Together with the resistance, Grisha declares that they must venture to Paradis Island, where Ymir's descendants had fled eighty years ago, in order to retrieve the Founding Titan and bring back the nation of Eldia.

War for Paradis arc
While on the verge of death after using a Thunder Spear on himself that Levi Ackermann placed on him, Zeke Jaeger would awaken in an unknown land to discover Ymir resculpting his damaged body with earth. Shortly after, he is found by Jaegerists led by Floch; he states that he was in the Paths.

During the assault on Shiganshina, Zeke and his younger half-brother Eren are able to make contact with each other and activate the Founder before awakening in the Paths. As Ymir approaches, Eren notices her presence. Zeke explains that she is in fact the Founder herself. He then asks Eren to go ahead with the euthanasia plan. Eren refuses and demands that Ymir lend him her strength, but his pleas are ignored. Zeke subsequently reveals he has nullified the vow to renounce war through Ymir, who obeys only the royal family, her descendants. Under Zeke's order, Ymir promptly restrains Eren with chains.

After Zeke shows Eren the memories of their father Grisha, Zeke realizes that Eren was responsible for Grisha's actions against the Reiss family and that his ultimate goal is inevitable. In a panic, Zeke orders Ymir to sterilize the Subjects of Ymir; and Ymir approaches the Coordinate of converging paths to fulfill Zeke's will.

Eren manages to break free from his chains and reach Ymir before Zeke. Realizing that Ymir has a will of her own, Eren embraces her and asks her to help him rather than try to order her. As Zeke desperately tries to stop them, Eren asks Ymir if she was the one who called him to the Coordinate, musing that she has been waiting 2000 years for him to arrive. Ymir begins crying.

Back in Shiganshina, Eren's head is reconnected to his body. As everyone looks on in shock, the Wall crumbles, releasing a horde of Colossus Titans as Eren forms a new Titan body.

Power of the Titans
Ymir was the very first Titan and the only one to ever possess the complete power of the Titans; all who come after her merely possess fragments of her power. It is said that nobody can surpass Ymir and that because Ymir died 13 years after awakening her powers, no one is allowed to live beyond that; this phenomenon is known as the "Curse of Ymir."

Trivia

 * Ymir/"Christa" is on the cover of the book Historia Reiss used to read when she was a child.
 * Ymir can be seen at the beginning of Season 2's Ending Theme, Yuugure no Tori, and briefly in Season 3's second Opening Theme, Shoukei to Shikabane no Michi.

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