Annie Leonhart (Anime)

"Even if it means being a weakling swept up in the flow, being seen as a person is all I want."

- Annie to Marlo Freudenberg

Annie Leonhart (アニ・レオンハート) is a graduate of the 104th Cadet Corps and former member of the Military Police Regiment. Her exceptional skill with swords and unarmed combat earned her the 4th rank, but she is noted to be a lone wolf that struggles to work with others.

She possesses the ability to transform into a Titan known as the Female Titan. She trained from an early age by her father, and is selected as one of Marley's Warriors. In the year 845, she is sent on a mission to retrieve the Founding Titan, along with her fellow Warriors Reiner Braun, Bertholdt Hoover, and Marcel Galliard. As the Female Titan, she served as a major antagonist prior to being exposed and defeated by the Scout Regiment. After her defeat, she crystallized herself and was left in a comatose state. She is currently being held deep underground under the custody of the Scout Regiment.

Human form
Annie is a teenage girl of considerably short height with a small, yet very muscular build and physique. She has moderately short hair that is often tied at the back with her right fringe mainly draping over the right side of her face (though she tends to push it to the side on occasion; possibly for better visibility). She has an oval-shaped face, blonde hair, blue eyes, a Roman nose, and pale complexion. Her hair color is noticeably paler than most other blonde-haired characters and when untied, her hair reaches down the nape of her neck. Her eyes, although of considerable size and proportion, often have a sullen vibe to their appearance. Annie's casual attire mainly consists of a hooded sweatshirt underneath a jacket accompanied by dark gray pants. She is often seen in the Cadet Corps uniform and then the Military Police Regiment uniform after graduation. Though Annie often wears hooded sweatshirts as part of her standard attire, she also wears her signature white hooded sweatshirt as part of her standard military attire. During her missions as the Female Titan, it is implied that she always wears her ring which has a small, folding blade on her right index finger; using it as her primary source of causing self-injury in order to transform into her Female Titan form at any time.

Female Titan form
Annie's appearance as the Female Titan changes quite drastically, though her overall physique and facial features remain mostly the same. Her body consists mainly of exposed muscle tissue, in which there is a noticeably limited amount of skin coverage across her body, and fingers made out of bone. Along with a massive increase in height, her face is laden with muscle lining, notably underneath her cheeks, giving her the capability to stretch her mouth far more than it seems, along with yellowish teeth. Compared to the majority of other Titans encountered, Annie's Titan form seems much more physically fit and stronger, bearing a lean build with visible muscle definition and a feminine form.

Personality
Annie is considered to be an isolated, exclusionary type; friendships do not come to her easily. She is rarely seen smiling and often has an emotionless expression. She is apathetic and somnolent, with little desire to put in any effort into meaningless disciplines or activities, and instead focuses exclusively on making it into the Military Police Regiment to obtain an easy life. Yet, she somehow does seem to hold a strange fascination and even feelings of respect towards people that have a deep sense of duty and righteousness - in those people who do care and who can devote their lives and even die for causes they believe in.

Annie's sense of humor tends to be mocking, sarcastic, deadpan, and surprising. It also sometimes expresses a partial truth, and it happens mostly in intense situations. For example, when she was cornered by the Scouts in front of an underground passage.

Despite Annie's usual cold and calm demeanor, she has been shown to emote her feelings in various ways. At the times she does lose her composure, she usually reacts with violence. She beats up Reiner Braun for his cowardice after Marcel was eaten and for trying to manipulate her to continue a mission that had, in her view, already failed. She was clearly angered when Reiner teased her about her constant avoidance in hand-to-hand combat training. Despite her seeming callousness, she has expressed a level of guilt and shock, most notably when apologizing to a certain corpse after the battle of Trost District. Annie is also known to be very dedicated in her mission as a Warrior, to the point that she had killed many innocent people to reach her goal (also attempting to kill many of her former comrades), and shed tears when she failed to capture Eren. However, she is not entirely remorseless; while she carried out her duty of disposing of her former comrade Marco, she did so with great distress and shed anguished tears at the sight of him being eaten. This incident would haunt her for some time afterwards. Though she is seemingly indifferent towards her capability as a competent hand-to-hand combat fighter, she remains proud of her skills and even appears to enjoy the very notion of fighting as deduced by Eren.

Annie is highly intelligent, able to think deeply about situations, and has shown considerable problem-solving ability and a quick wit. These personality traits, in conjunction with her calm attitude and analytical skills, make her a good tactician. While undercover as a refugee, and later as a trainee, she does most of the spy work for the Warriors. Annie also realizes the contradictions of the military training system within the Walls and is not fooled by the Marleyan propaganda. However, she is a bad liar, being called out on this by both Eren and Kenny, the former regarding her apathy towards her martial arts prowess, and the latter when she lies about being his daughter, even sarcastically insisting further. On the other hand, she is very good at spotting the lies of other people, seen when she realizes Armin Arlelt's dishonesty far before they had even reached the underground tunnel, as well as Reiner's lie about befriending their fellow cadets as being nothing more than a pragmatic attempt to gain their trust.

She is extremely practical and self-aware, being honest about her strengths and weaknesses, and is rarely ever prone to self-deception or emotional mistakes. Furthermore, she had a casual acceptance of her negative personality traits, freely admitting her faults even to almost-complete strangers such as Marlo Freudenberg, calling herself worthless and evil with no hint of self-loathing. She is nevertheless capable of self-loathing, as seen when she claimed to be as selfish as the Marleyan government.

Nonetheless, what drives Annie more than anything is her desire for a normal life. Though she has no love for Marley itself, the only reason she is so concentrated on her mission is that it because it would allow her to go back home to her father, and she had urged Reiner several times before her eventual capture to return to Marley with the information they had gathered so far; despite her otherwise cynical and realist worldview, Annie managed to convince herself of the false notion that it would be enough to avoid punishment. When she lost Eren due to the actions of both Mikasa and Levi in the Titan Forest, Annie saw the easiest chance to return to her father was gone and she began visibly crying in her Titan form.

History
In her early childhood, Annie Leonhart was relentlessly subjected to combat training in her hometown by her father, who reminded her often of the mission she was born to carry out. At one point during Annie's training, her father pushed her too far during a training session, causing her to snap and attack him, savagely beating him while he was down. At some point, Annie was chosen by the Marleyan government to inherit the power of the Female Titan.

Alongside the rest of her Warrior comrades, the six Titans in Marley's command used their powers to crush Mid East Forces, testing their abilities in the process. The six Warriors proved themselves to be more effective weapons than their predecessors, largely alleviating Marley's concerns about entrusting the upcoming Paradis Island Operation to children.

In the year 845, Annie set out on a mission to exterminate humanity within the Walls and retrieve the Founding Titan, along with her childhood friends, Reiner Braun, Bertholdt Hoover and Marcel Galliard, the wielders of the Armored Titan, Colossal Titan, and Jaw Titan. Before her departure, her father apologized for his actions and asked for her to return home alive, assuring her that her father would always be on her side.

On their journey, the four young Warriors were ambushed by a Titan slumbering in the earth that tried to devour Reiner. As he stood in fear, Reiner was almost killed until Marcel pushed him away but was grabbed and devoured instead while Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie watched in horror. After escaping from the Titan, Annie is able to find Reiner and angrily attacks him for his cowardice. She argues that they should retrieve the Jaw Titan's new wielder and return to Marley, but Reiner attempts to manipulate her into continuing the mission. Annie continues to beat him, saying that she never bought into Marley’s brainwashing propaganda. Reiner manages to win the scuffle and forces Annie and Bertholdt to continue the mission, telling them that Marley would kill them if they flee now and that this was the only way they could ever go home.

The Fall of Shiganshina arc
After Bertholdt and Reiner breached Shiganshina District, Annie regains consciousness in a refugee camp inside Wall Rose with Reiner and Bertholdt. While with the refugees, the three meet a man from a small village in the southeast of Wall Maria that was destroyed by the Titans. The man is later found having apparently killed himself, and the three decide to co-opt his story as their own to cover for their lack of family records and preserve their cover. Annie would later compare the man's behavior to their abandonment of Marcel.

Days after infiltrating Wall Rose, Annie is seen among the refugees accepting rations from the Garrison Regiment.

Humanity's Comeback arc
Annie later appears as an upcoming member of the 104th Cadet Corps, watching other cadets undergo Keith Sadies' "rite of passage." However, the instructor does not speak a word to Annie and many others as their faces prove that they have already been through hell, according to another instructor.

Two years after that, during the hand-to-hand combat training, Annie is seen sneaking away, with Reiner confronting her about it. He has Eren face Annie, much to her apparent anger. However, the latter effortlessly takes the former down and Reiner soon follows, ending up on the ground as well. Eren praises Annie for her technique and even though she reveals that it was her father who taught her the move, as Eren shows interest, she dismisses the thought and claims such training to be useless and continues mocking the entire military system and even her father's ideals. Annie later watches as Eren uses her move to pacify Jean Kirschtein.

She trains with Eren again later. In one exercise, Eren is upset with Annie's use of force, but she insists that she is only returning what strength is being used against her. Eren says that if strength alone decided their battle he would not be the one on the ground and Annie explains that she uses the strength and size of the opponent to her advantage, skills which Eren could afford to learn. She demonstrates her throw against Eren, locking her arms under one of his own and around his head while tripping him from behind.

Nearly five years into their mission, Annie investigates the whereabouts of the Founding Titan in one of the cites at night and finds Kenny Ackermann. Hoping he will lead her to the real king of the Walls, Annie decides to follow him. When Kenny discovers and confronts her about it, Annie attempts to deceive him by telling him that she is his long-lost daughter. Unsuccessful in fooling him, Annie attacks Kenny and flees into the sewers.

The next night, Annie takes part in a meeting with Reiner and Bertholdt. She tells Reiner that Kenny might have seen her face and that she will not be able to do anything in the Interior MPs if he is there. She again proposes going back to Marley with the information they have gathered so far, but Reiner insists that Marley will not be satisfied with their progress after five years. Reiner decides to destroy Wall Rose to hasten their mission and smoke out the King in the capital while chaos would ensue in Trost District. Annie notes that his plan will kill a lot of his new friends from the 104th Cadet Corps, but Reiner replies to her that they are not friends and are just Eldian devils.

Distress
One year after joining the Cadet Corps, Annie takes part in a team navigation exercise in a group led by Thomas Wagner. Part way into the exercise, the group notices its ODM gear had been stolen. In response, they speed up their pace to warn the other group. They find the other group in the midst of a conflict with a gang of thieves. Annie and Mikasa ambush the thieves from a tree, managing to disarm them, and save the other group.

A Sudden Visitor: The Torturous Curse of Adolescence
In 849, Annie and Armin assist Jean in hunting for a wild boar to help in his cook-off against Sasha. Despite leaving beforehand, Jean's team find themselves completely lost, and return empty-handed. Later, Jean suggests the three of them attempt to steal meat from an instructor, however Annie opts out, stating winning the competition is not worth the chance of getting caught.

The Struggle for Trost arc
Shortly after graduation, the Colossal Titan appears in Trost District and breaks through the outer gate, letting Titans into the town.

In spite of the evacuation being finished, the cadets are unable to return due to insufficient gas and are left stranded, much to everyone's despair. Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt discuss what to do next, but are interrupted by Mikasa, who asks them where Eren is. She is then surprised to hear that he, along with most of his squad, were supposedly killed in battle. Trying to keep her cool, Mikasa attempts to shock everyone into action, with Annie and others rushing after her to reach the HQ and replenish their gas. They eventually manage to get there, albeit with casualties.

With the Attack Titan fending off most of the Titans attacking headquarters, Annie and others attempt to get rid of the small Titans inside. During the plan, Conny and Sasha fail to kill their Titans, and Mikasa and Annie are forced to intervene and save them, with Annie killing the Titan that Conny was supposed to.

After the plan's success, Annie, Reiner, Bertholdt, Mikasa, Armin, and Jean stay back to observe the rampaging Titan. As Pure Titans begin to cannibalize the Titan, Annie and Reiner argue that they should help it, claiming that the Titan should be kept alive as it might serve as a powerful ally. They are silenced by the sight of Eren emerging from the Titan's nape, revealing that he is in control of a Titan ability.

As the soldiers carry Eren into Wall Rose they are intercepted by Kitz Woermann who believes Eren to be a threat to humanity. Annie, Reiner, Jean and Bertholdt leave but are ordered not to speak of their discovery while Armin and Mikasa remain to defend Eren. Annie and the rest overhear the lightning strike that is caused by Eren's second, albeit half-formed, transformation into his mysterious Titan form to defend Mikasa and Armin from cannon fire when Woermann tries to have him killed.

This alarms Reiner enough for him to rush near the vicinity of the lightning strike with Jean, Annie and Bertholdt quickly following suit, at which point they witness the scene of Eren's Titan form surrounded by soldiers of the Garrison. They watch as Armin attempts to persuade the soldiers that Eren is strategically important for mankind until Dot Pyxis arrives and stops Woermann.

Shortly after Annie and the other Cadets and Garrison members are gathered and informed of the plan to retake Trost by having Eren seal the hole with a boulder near the gate while the others defend him. Annie subsequently takes part in the battle in a squad with Jean and Conny.

During the battle, Jean's ODM gear breaks, leaving him stranded in the middle of the district. With Marco joining in, Annie and Conny work to keep all nearby Titans distracted while Jean attempts to find a replacement set of gear. He is eventually able to, and all four cadets retreat to the top of the wall, where they watch as Eren seals the breach in Wall Rose.

Later in the battle, Annie comes upon Reiner and Bertholdt as they are preparing to execute Marco, who overheard the two discussing their plans. Reiner insults Annie's conviction as a Warrior, bringing up the fact that she saved Conny's life from a Titan, and demands that she prove her loyalty to the Warriors by taking away Marco's ODM gear, leaving him defenseless. Although reluctant, Annie agrees and disposes of Marco's gear. Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt then retreat to a safe distance and watch woefully as Marco is eaten by a Titan.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Trost, Annie is seen apologizing to an unknown corpse as she, Reiner, and Bertholdt assist in cleaning up the remaining corpses of other soldiers.

Eve of the Counterattack arc
Soon after Eren's enlistment into the Scout Regiment, Annie kills the two Titans captured for research, Sawney and Beane, and the Military Police Regiment checks the omni-directional mobility gear of the cadets. Annie offers Marco Bodt's ODM gear for inspection as her own, which prompts Armin to become suspicious of her. During this time, Armin, Annie, and Conny discuss which military branch they want to join. When Annie reveals that she will go to the Military Police, Conny considers joining them too and asks for her opinion. Annie responds by telling him that it is his decision to make, not hers. When she learns Armin plans to join the Scout Regiment, she asks him what he would do if he was ordered to die. He tells her if the reasons are good, then he will do so. Annie thinks he is weak physically, but yet he is very strong at heart. Ultimately during the draft, Annie leaves to join the Military Police and is assigned to Stohess District.

Wall Sina, Goodbye: Part One
One month later, on the day before the 57th Exterior Scouting Mission, Annie recalls her role in Marco Bodt's death during the struggle for Trost. The guilt of her past actions is further burdened with the anxiety of her upcoming task: infiltrate the 57th Exterior Scouting Mission and capture Eren Jaeger. Annie consults Hitch, her new roommate, asking for her to cover her absence tomorrow. Hitch agrees, but only on the condition that Annie would accept a task Hitch had been assigned. Her duty is to locate a missing girl named Carly Stratmann, daughter of the wealthy merchant Elliot G. Stratmann.

Annie visits the estate of the Stratmann family to question Elliot, who proves to have little information of value about his daughter. During their conversation, a visitor leaves a message for Elliot before taking his leave. Satisfied with the information, Annie leaves the Stratmann residence assuring Elliot that his daughter will be found.

Annie consults with her fellow MP Marlo concerning the history of Elliot's Marleen Company. Marlo informs her that the company once traded prosperously between Wall Maria and Wall Sina until the fall of Wall Maria, which reduced their business to horse-drawn coaches. Annie finds it suspicious that Elliot remains wealthy while his daughter does not work and his business is in decline, and researches Carly's police questioning records. She discovers a connection between Carly and Pit Lidors, a tavern in the poor area of Stohess.

Visiting Pit Lidors, Annie questions the bartender and a trio of rowdy patrons. The patrons become hostile with her, though their attacks are quickly put down with Annie's superior techniques. Discovering the illegal drug coderoin on them, Annie agrees to overlook their substance abuse if they answer her questions. The patrons give her as much information about Carly as they can and warn her of a man with a red glass eye who is searching for Carly as well. Annie blackmails them for further information, but the bartender insists they know nothing more. He suggests she should search South Aachen Street for Kemper Boltz, Carly's lover, who may know her whereabouts.

After a short break in which her guilt over Marco's death once again haunts her, Annie heads to South Aachen Street to search for Kemper. Her driver refuses to wait for her to return, being wary of the bad neighborhood he has taken her to. Coming across a group of ruffians, and one attempts to threaten her. Quickly putting the ruffian down, his friends redirect her to Kemper's residence, Block 225. After a quick search of the apartment, Annie discovers a heavy supply of coderoin in Kemper's room. Furthermore, Annie discovers a corpse beneath Kemper's bed, knocking over a glass of liquor in shock. The noise disrupts Kemper's neighbor, who angrily demands for an apology. Keeping silent, Annie rushes to lock the door as Kemper's neighbor attempts to enter the room.

Wall Sina, Goodbye: Part Two
Annie is able to make it to the door and lock it in time, frustrating the neighbor until they eventually leave. Annie searches the body and finds a license to operate carriages, confirming the man as Kemper.

Returning to her carriage, she is ambushed by two men. As she is restrained, Annie notices that one of the men, Wald, has a glass eye. Lou takes her ring and Wald starts examining her notebook, informing her that they plan to take her to the industrial ward and throw her into a vat of waste to dispose of her. Annie tries to threaten the men to release her by telling them that more Military Police would come looking for them but Wald dismisses her, revealing that Elliot told him she is working alone.

Annie tries to get them to return her ring, but Wald chooses to inspect it himself, finding its hidden blade. As Wald returns the ring to Lou, Annie goads him into stabbing her with the ring, allowing her to transform and destroying the carriage. Annie retrieves her ring and begins interrogating Wald, but is shot in the back by Lou. He takes her ring before shooting Wald and fleeing. Annie heals herself and gets Wald to tell her where Carly is being held.

Annie heads to Wald's office and knocks out everyone, including Lou. After threatening Lou, Annie finds Carly and takes her back to Pit Lidors. Annie asks Carly about her involvement in the coderoin trade and is surprised to learn that Carly produced the drug and that Elliot ran the operation. She learns that Carly made a deal with Elliot to produce coderion on the condition that it would not be dealt in the royal capital and ran away once she discovered that Elliot had broken the deal. Carly requests that Annie reports that she never found her.

Annie forges a Wall Rose travel permit and returns to the Pit Lidors. Carly bids farewell to the patrons and goes outside with Annie, gifting her donuts and limeade. Annie gives her the forged Wall Rose travel permit and Carly bids Annie farewell.

Annie returns to the mansion of the Stratmann family and accuses Elliot of killing Kemper Boltz, theorizing that Kemper was the one who left the note at the Stratmann mansion. The note was a ransom, and Elliot killed Kemper after negotiations failed. Elliot denies the claims, but confesses when Annie shows him a cigarette of the same rare brand Elliot is smoking that she found at Kemper's home. Together, Elliot and Annie dispose of Kemper's corpse in the industrial waste area of Stohess District. Elliot invites Annie to eat at his home some time, but Annie lets him know that such a thing is unlikely if she is able to return to her hometown.

At the Military Police Regiment barracks, Annie files a false report about Carly and Kemper, claiming they had left for the capital under false names three days ago. As she showers, she assures herself that fulfilling her mission is her purpose in life. Thinking back to the time her father apologized to her before she left her hometown, she reminds herself of her current mission: to infiltrate the 57th Exterior Scouting Mission and kidnap Eren Jaeger.

The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission arc
As the Female Titan, Annie attacks the right wing of the Scout Regiment formation during the 57th Exterior Scouting Mission as she tries to capture Eren. Advancing further inside the formation, Annie encounters Armin. Although she corners Armin, recognizing his face under the hood, she decides to spare his life and continues her search for Eren. Armin, Jean, and Reiner join together and deduce that she is an intelligent Titan aims to capture Eren. Realizing that Annie may have acted upon false information as part of Commander Erwin's plan, Armin is able to deduce that it is more likely for Eren to be within the center column, the safest location in the formation.

Armin, Jean, and Reiner coordinate a plan in an attempt to distract Annie and buy the other soldiers some time to regroup. Before they are able to attack her, she is able to outmaneuver them, at which point she manages to incapacitate Armin. Although Jean engages her in combat, her resilience and awareness of a Titan's weakness allowed her to gain the advantage as she is constantly covering the nape of her Titan form's neck. Before Annie is able to kill Jean, a bloodied Armin attempts to distract her by referring to Eren by the nickname of "suicidal bastard" while falsely claiming his death. This causes Annie to hesitate in confusion, allowing Jean the time to escape just as Reiner attempts to attack her.

Annie manages to catch Reiner in mid-air, briefly toying with him before seemingly crushing him. Much to Jean and Armin's surprise, Reiner breaks free by slicing off her fingers and manages to come to Armin's aid leaving Annie as she sits motionless. Unbeknownst to them however Reiner secretly carved Eren's location on Annie's hand before breaking free. Just as the trio attempts to flee, Annie begins to head in the direction of the Scout Regiment's center column formation, in which Armin deduced that Annie may have learned of Eren's position in the formation.

Annie continues to head in the direction of Eren's location, coming across various soldiers of the Scout Regiment, brutally killing them in various ways. Though the formation heads into the Forest of Giant Trees, Annie follows suit and eventually catches up to Eren and the Special Operations Squad as they are attempting to flee on horseback. Annie is eventually lured into a trap in which her movements are halted by the special target restraining weapon.

This causes Annie to temporarily halt her pursuit as Erwin and members of the Scout Regiment attempt to damage her hands in various ways with the intention of pulling her out of her Titan form. Constant provocations by Levi cause her to let out a roar which causes multiple Titans to converge on her position. Much to Erwin's surprise, the roar was intended to provoke the Titans to devour her Female Titan form, thus allowing Annie to escape from her Titan form undetected via the use of her vertical maneuvering equipment. Just as Erwin orders all personnel to retreat, Annie later dons a Scout Regiment cloak as a form of disguise, signaling with a green flare so as to lure Eren and the Special Operations Squad towards her direction.

As Annie meets up with the group, she is initially mistaken for Levi. Quickly it becomes apparent that it is not the captain as Gunther Schultz questions her identity. Annie makes quick work of Gunther, killing him using her blades by slicing out the back of his neck, like a Titan. As Eren and the Special Operations Squad continue to flee, Annie transforms into the Female Titan for a second time, thus continuing her pursuit to capture Eren. Although Eren initially wishes to engage her in his Rogue Titan form, the Special Operations Squad manage to convince him to put his faith in them as they begin to engage Annie in combat. Although seemingly gaining the advantage to the point of injuring her and cornering her against a tree, the Special Operations Squad is outsmarted by Annie as she displays her ability of selective regeneration and her ability to generate a crystalline substance to protect her nape.

Annie systematically kills Eld Gin, Petra Rall and Oruo Bozad, causing Eren to turn back and finally engage her in his Rogue Titan form. The two engage in a brutal fight using hand-to-hand combat techniques, in which Annie succeeds in incapacitating Eren's Rogue Titan form by decapitating it. Tired and exhausted from the battle, Eren is captured by Annie by keeping him inside the mouth of her Female Titan form. Although Annie begins to flee, Mikasa gives chase while continuously attacking her in a fit of rage after having witnessed Eren's capture by Annie's Female Titan form. Mikasa is then joined by Levi, with the two working together to wound Annie as she continues to flee. Although Annie attempts to fight back, she begins to get overwhelmed by the barrage of attacks inflicted by Levi, allowing him to incapacitate her while gaining the chance to slice her Titan form's mouth and rescue Eren from within. As Mikasa and Levi decide to retreat with the unconscious Eren, Levi witnesses Annie's Female Titan form as it sits motionless while crying.

Assault on Stohess arc
Some time later, Annie awakens in her room in the Stohess District of Wall Sina. Her hair is depicted as having the same appearance as the Female Titan's when not tied up in a bun. Upon arrival with other rookie members of the Military Police Regiment, Annie is teased by Hitch Dreyse and Marlo Freudenberg, but Boris Feulner tells them to leave her alone, believing that she has not recovered from battle and is the only one who has real combat experience. The group is then given an assignment in which they are to guard a Scout Regiment convoy with permission to use their omni-directional mobility gear. Soon after departing for her assignment, Armin approaches her and asks for help in hiding Eren until they can convince the King to better protect the Walls. Annie reluctantly agrees while putting on a ring and escorting them to a place where they can hide.

When Eren and Armin attempt to convince her to join them in an underground passageway, she refuses for supposedly feeling frightened, all while expressing her suspicion towards their plan. As Eren and Armin continue to plea for Annie to join them and prove herself innocent, Mikasa, growing tired of their discussion, takes off her hood and draws out her blades while revealing her vertical maneuvering equipment. She openly refers to Annie as the Female Titan, taunting her to fight just as two had fought before.

Their suspicion is confirmed when Annie noticeably smiles in relief and acceptance of their discovery of her identity as the Female Titan. Annie praises Armin for having cornered her but declaring afterward that her gamble has only just begun. After Armin fires a signal, disguised Scout Regiment members come out of their hiding places, and restrain Annie. Seemingly captured and immobile, she still manages to flick her thumb to open a small blade hidden in her ring and wound herself, thereby allowing her to transform into her Female Titan form; thus killing those restraining her in the process. Now, resuming her attempts to capture Eren, Armin and Mikasa realize how desperate she is, and try to get him to fight her.

Before Eren can muster his will to fight, Annie collapses the tunnel above his head and knocks him out. She then engages the Scouts posted around the district, killing numerous in her path. Jean and Armin catch her attention, luring her into a special target restraining weapon trap organized by Hange Zoë. However, Annie quickly escapes the trap, as there had not been time to set it properly. Eventually, Eren transforms into his Titan form and takes on Annie's Female Titan.

Annie is chased by Eren across the district, stopping occasionally to trade blows. Mikasa and several Scout Regiment squads also follow them, but are too far away to join the fight. The battle between the two Titans lays waste to much of the district, but eventually, Eren attempts a rash attack on Annie and is dismembered for his effort. She proceeds to pound his head numerous times, knocking him out. After that, Annie tries to escape to Wall Sina. However, Eren's dismembered Titan rabidly gives chase, and viciously attacks her. Seemingly terrified, Annie begins to escape by scaling the Wall. Not hesitating in the slightest, Mikasa cuts off all of the fingers of Annie's Female Titan form, leaving her to fall. As Annie remembers her father's parting words to her, Eren immediately pounces on her Titan. He is forced to pause his attack when Annie encases herself inside what appears to be an indestructible crystal.

While Annie is trapped inside the crystal, one of the Scout Regiment members, Jean, tries to break the crystal to extract her, but Levi stops him, telling him that it is no use. Shortly afterwards, both the Military Police Brigade and the rest of the Scout Regiment take her underground and detain her.

Clash of the Titans arc
Later, when Eren in Titan form is forced to engage the Armored Titan he recalls the technique that Annie taught him, and uses it against Reiner to temporarily turn the tide of the battle.

Her capture is eventually revealed to her comrades, when Armin bluffs and claims she is being tortured for information, which drives Bertholdt mad, distracting him long enough for Erwin to cut Eren from his bonds that tied him to Bertholdt's back.

Royal Government arc
While Marlo and Hitch are taken prisoners by Levi's squad, Hitch accuses them of getting Annie killed during the fight in Stohess. When she is informed that Annie was one of the Titans responsible for the destruction, she is shocked.

After defeating Reiner's Armored Titan in battle, Zeke proclaims that the trio will worry about saving Annie only after they have retrieved the Coordinate from Eren.

Return to Shiganshina arc
While waiting in Shiganshina for the arrival of the Scout Regiment, Zeke explains his apathy towards Annie's situation, believing that the story Reiner and Bertholdt were told about her torture was a lie.

When Armin confronts Bertholdt, Armin reasserts that Annie is being tortured, but Bertholdt sees through Armin's bluff, claiming to not care about Annie's situation. As Bertholdt is eaten alive by Armin's Pure Titan, he screams for Annie and Reiner to help him.

Marley arc
Shortly after the Scout Regiment returns from its attack on Liberio, Armin visits Annie's crystal to confide in her. He compares the Scouts' assault to the Warriors' attack on the Walls, due to having no choice. Despite Armin asking Annie to answer him with something, she remains asleep within the crystal.

War for Paradis arc
Armin later returns to Annie's underground holding area. After being spotted touching the crystal by Hitch, Armin claims that he was doing so in an attempt to unlock memories from his Titan. Hitch mentions that it is nice that someone comes on a routine basis besides her to check on Annie.

Abilities
Out of the 104th Cadet Corps members, Annie is one of the strongest fighters alongside Mikasa and Eren. She was ranked as one of the top 5 cadets at 4th position, meaning a degree of skill in several military combat forms. Although she is ranked 4th, she is usually portrayed as being as good as Mikasa, but her being placed lower was most likely due to her slacking off and not taking things seriously.


 * Omni-directional mobility gear: As her graduation rank implies, Annie possesses a great amount of skill at controlling the vertical maneuvering equipment. With the use of the equipment's blades only, she was shown to effortlessly kill a Titan inside the Military HQ at Trost District in order to help the soldiers to refill their gas and then proceeded to slay another Titan that Conny failed to dispose of. Later, Annie was also able to utilize the equipment to kill Gunther Schultz even after being considerably exhausted after using her Titan abilities.
 * Martial Arts: Annie is noteworthy for her unique fighting style, with a strong focus on minimizing the advantages of larger, stronger opponents through kicks, throws, and holds. She notes that her father taught her this style, and during their time in training together, she teaches it to Eren. Annie retains the same fighting style in her Titan form, as Eren noticed in his first battle against the Female Titan.

Power of the Titans
Like Eren, Annie displays an ability to transform into a Titan, referred to as the Female Titan (女型の巨人). Her Titan form is 14 meters, the third shortest, being rivaled by Ymir, who is 5 meters in her Titan form, and Pieck, who is 4 meters in her Titan form. As the Female Titan, Annie is able to easily overpower veteran Scout Regiment members, and wipe out several squads in Erwin's specialized scouting formations. It is unknown how Annie acquired her Titan powers or how she became so proficient with using them. She is far more experienced in using her Titan form compared to Eren, who had only discovered his Titan powers recently. She is one of the more skilled Titans, sporting a variety of presumably learned powers and special abilities not exhibited by any other intelligent Titan. Unlike most Titans who tire to the point of collapsing, she is able to preserve stamina and is fit enough to utilize the ODM gear to kill experienced soldiers before transforming for the second time - something that has never been done by any known intelligent Titans thus far.


 * Regeneration: In her Titan form, Annie is capable of healing any injuries and even regenerating any parts of her body that were possibly lost in a battle. However, she takes this ability to a new level, being able to focus this ability on certain parts of her body, healing the chosen injuries at a much faster pace as opposed to the automatic, simultaneous regeneration of all the damaged parts. This has proven to be useful in battle as shown when Annie chose to regenerate only one eye to see the approaching Special Operations Squad and to defeat them, using the moment of surprise.


 * Crystallization: Annie has the ability to harden parts of her skin at will, something that is similar to the ability of the Armored Titan, as stated by Erwin. However, unlike the Armored Titan, Annie's hardened skin cannot be maintained for prolonged periods, as it will chip if struck. Annie employs this ability in various situations for various effects. The armor is hard enough for the soldiers' blades to be unable to cut through it and thus Annie can effectively defend herself against any attacks, even those coming from Eren in his Titan form. She also uses this ability for destructive attacks, being able to heavily damage Eren's Titan body by hardening her fists or legs. This way, she also avoids hurting herself as opposed to Eren, who easily loses even entire limbs after performing attacks in his Titan form. Upon capture and extraction, Annie used this ability to generate a cocoon of incredibly hard and durable crystal, something that no known technology can yet break into, to trap herself in so as to avoid being interrogated.


 * Titan Control: Although the extents and limitations of this power are unknown, Annie was able to lead an army of Titans to destroy the Scout Regiment formation in order to capture Eren. It was also assumed by Armin that Annie was the one to lead Titans into Wall Maria once the Colossal and Armored Titans broke through the Walls. She has also shown an ability to attract Titans, as upon hearing her scream, all nearby Titans ignored any other humans and rushed to her location, devouring her Titan form. This allowed Annie to effectively escape the Scout Regiment's trap in her human form without being detected. This ability is similar to the Founding Titan, as stated by Armin and Erwin.
 * High Mobility and Endurance: In her Titan form, Annie has high mobility and endurance, unlike most human-controlled Titans, who are less fast than her and who tire out to the point of collapsing. During the 57th expedition, she was able to run long distances while fighting against many soldiers and the Attack Titan. Also, after escaping the Scout Regiment's trap, she was able to transform for a second time without an extended recovery period.

Relationships

 * Eren Jaeger - During their time in training, Annie and Eren developed a mutual respect and interest for each other. She lightly trains him in her unique fighting style, however when her mission required it, she ruthlessly pursued him and fought him twice. Annie was surprised as she watches Eren using her move to pacify Jean. Annie was the one who made Eren realized that everyone is training not to fight the Titans, but to run away.  Her betrayal deeply shakes Eren and he is initially unable to transform in order to fight her. Mikasa even suspected Eren held "special feelings" for Annie and Eren has expressed far less malice towards Annie than he ever did with Reiner and Bertholdt.
 * Armin Arlelt - She has a deep respect for Armin, recognizing his strong will and treating him well. This results in her sparing his life during her rampage, which later allows him to discover her true identity. She admits to not being sure why she did not kill him and is seemingly bothered by his willingness to maneuver her into a trap.
 * Mikasa Ackermann - Their interactions suggest some level of rivalry, and this only worsens when Annie's true identity is revealed, with Mikasa aggressively confronting her and later aiding in Annie's defeat with little remorse for her.
 * Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover - The three appear close and are often seen together in groups. However, Annie is usually cold to both of them, particularly Reiner. This shows that while they may be comrades, she does not see either of them in a particularly friendly light. When they trained to become Warriors, Annie seemed indifferent to Galliard harassing Reiner and remained aloof when Bertholdt attempted to involve her in their conversation. After Marcel's death, she saw the mission as being futile and wished to return back to Marley, clashing with Reiner who desired to continue. Eventually, the two fought and Reiner became her leader. After the fall of Wall Maria, it seems that she usually acted as a lone wolf during their mission, and her few interactions with Reiner during this time often resulted in tensions. It was hinted by Reiner that Bertholdt had feelings for her, though it is unknown if she was aware of this. Both Reiner and Bertholdt reacted with shock and anger upon learning of her capture and Reiner was willing to duel with Zeke for the right to rescue her, prioritizing Annie's rescue over capturing the Founding Titan. After returning home alone, Reiner remembers Annie as one of his fellow Warriors and feels immense guilt and responsibility over her fate, driving him to the brink of almost committing suicide.
 * Marcel Galliard - Though the two of them were never shown interacting with one another, as a fellow Warrior candidate and a comrade chosen for the Paradis mission, it can be assumed she shared some sense of camaraderie with him. After he was eaten by Ymir, Annie grieved the loss of the team's leader and beat Reiner, blaming him for Marcel's death.
 * Zeke Jaeger - It is apparent that Zeke is very familiar with Annie and her abilities, particularly her expertise in kicks. When he heard that Armin claimed that the Scout Regiment had captured her, he did not prioritize the need to rescue her from the possibility of capture or torture, believing that her abilities as one with the power of the Titans and a skilled Warrior are enough to save her from such situations.
 * Hitch Dreyse - As roommates, assigned to the same squad in Stohess District, the two were in many ways opposites, Annie being stoic and withdrawn while Hitch is outgoing and enjoys an easy life which was why they were not particularly close. Hitch found Annie to be annoying at times due to her dark and antisocial outlook on life, frequently teasing the latter in an effort to provoke a reaction on which Annie would apathetically respond with sarcasm. However, after Annie's disappearance during the fight in Stohess District, Hitch felt anger towards the Scout Regiment, blaming them for losing the opportunity to get to know Annie better, believing she had died in the conflict. But then Hitch was shocked and vivid after learning Annie's true identity as the Female Titan responsible for the destruction in Wall Sina.
 * Marco Bodt - After Marco heard Reiner and Bertholdt talk about their Titan forms during the struggle for Trost, Annie was pressured to remove his omni-directional mobility gear while Reiner restrained him. Marco pleaded with her to stop and asked her why she did it. He was then seen being eaten by a Titan as Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie watched in horror. Annie woke up from the nightmare and appeared to be traumatized about her role in his death.

People killed

 * Former inheritor of the Female Titan (as a Pure Titan)
 * Luke Cis
 * Dieter Ness
 * Darius Baer Walbrunn
 * Gunther Schultz
 * Eld Gin
 * Petra Rall
 * Oruo Bozad
 * Numerous unidentified Scout Regiment soldiers

Indirectly

 * Marco Bodt
 * At least 11 unnamed Scout Regiment members
 * Numerous Stohess District citizens

Failed attempts

 * Jean Kirschtein
 * Mikasa Ackermann
 * Levi Ackermann
 * Armin Arlelt

Trivia

 * Hajime Isayama based Annie's hairstyle on a photo of.
 * The name "Annie" means "grace".
 * Annie's surname "Leonhart" is derived from the Spanish word león and the Dutch word hart. These words combined literally translate to Lionheart. Lionheart is a nickname that is given to someone who is a great warrior, which is something that Annie strives to be.
 * Annie's fighting style resembles.
 * Annie has a character song in Linked Horizon's Shingeki no Kiseki album. Kanojo wa Tsumetai Hitsugi no Naka de (She Lies in a Cold Coffin).

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