Wall Titan (Anime)

"If you ever interfere with us, the millions upon millions of Titans in the Walls will flatten the entire world."

- Karl Fritz's threat to other nations

The Wall Titans (壁の巨人) are Abnormal Titans similar in appearance to the Colossal Titan, one of the Nine Titans. They possess the ability of hardening and exist in the order of the millions within the three Walls, before Eren Jaeger freed them in the year 854 via unhardening the Walls.

In the year 743, King Karl Fritz used the power of the Founding Titan to create and command tens of millions of these Titans to create the three Walls (Maria, Rose, and Sina) and protect the last Eldian territory on Paradis Island. The lack of sunlight inside the Walls has rendered them immobile ever since, although King Fritz threatened to release them and use them to flatten the Earth should Paradis Island come under attack.

Their existence was first discovered when the Female Titan tried to climb Wall Sina to escape from the raging Attack Titan and the Scout Regiment.

Appearance
The Wall Titans are similar in appearance to the Colossal Titan in that both their surfaces are covered primarily in muscle tissue and lack skin (although the Colossal has exposed bone over the muscle tissue of its form). They have proportionally small eyes and lip-less mouths which expose their teeth. Their exact heights are unknown- and likely vary somewhat- but they are about the height of the Walls, which were 50 meters tall. Each Wall Titan's faces are different, but they all share the same general physical appearance.

Abilities
Like other Titans, the Wall Titans generate great amounts of heat, enough to emit large plumes of steam like the Colossal Titan. They can use this ability both offensively and defensively, creating smokescreens and flash-boiling seawater hot enough to scorch people to death and lift up countless ships meters above the sea surface. Each of the Wall Titans has the ability to harden not only the top layer of their skin, but much of their body, leaving them deprived of skin and hair, although it was probable that they only did so because they were commanded to by the Founding Titan. Using this method, they linked together to create the Walls as a collective mass of hardened Titan skin both around their bodies and extending down beneath the earth, serving as both protection for Eldians and secrecy for the king. After they were released from the Walls, they ceased any measure of hardening.

Their speed on land was estimated to surpass that of a galloping horse. They were also capable of maintaining this speed in water, as the entire horde crossed the Sea between Paradis Island and the mainland within a few days.

Like the Colossal Titan, their sheer size and mass enabled them the capacity for great destruction; with a single step, a Wall Titan was capable of collapsing buildings and pulverizing humans underfoot. This physical ability, coupled with the sheer number of Wall Titans, was the basis for Paradis' main deterrence, the Rumbling.

History
In the year 743, after King Karl Fritz abandoned the conflicts of Eldia causing the Great Titan War, he fled overseas with most of the Fritz royal family and remnants of the Eldian populace to Paradis Island, Eldia's last remaining undisputed territory. He used the power of the Founding Titan to create and order tens of millions of Colossal Titans to form the three concentric Walls to protect the Eldians. The King sent a message to the people of Marley, demanding that the Eldians on Paradis Island must be left alone or else the Colossal Titans inside the Walls would "flatten the entire world".

Over 80 years later, Dina Fritz explained this story to the Eldian Restorationists.

Assault on Stohess arc
During the battle between Eren Jaeger and Annie Leonhart's Titans in Stohess District, Annie attempts to escape by climbing the Wall but is stopped by Mikasa Ackermann. However, it damages part of the Wall, and after the battle a huge chunk is torn off, revealing the face of a mysterious Titan.

Clash of the Titans arc
The missing chunk of the Wall is later noticed by some Scouts. The Titan within the Wall follows the Scouts' gaze. Pastor Nick then catches up with Hange Zoë and calls for the immediate covering up of the Titan, as the sunlight eventually will enable its movement. After Nick ignores Hange Zoë's questions about it, he is nearly thrown off the Wall by Hange, but still refuses to reveal any details he might know because of the Order of the Walls' forbidden nature to disclose secrets.

Return to Shiganshina arc
During the expedition to Shiganshina District, while thinking about where Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover might be hiding, Armin Arlelt remembers the Wall Titan found inside Wall Sina, which makes him deduce that the Warriors may be hiding in a cavity in the Wall, as this provides a high spot from where they can watch the Scouts' movements while staying out of sight. This is proven to be true after Reiner Braun is found hiding this way.

After the surviving Scouts reach Grisha Jaeger's basement, they learn from his books the story of the formation of the Walls as it was told to the Restorationists by Dina Fritz.

Marley arc
During the festival hosted by the Tybur family, Willy Tybur tells the world of the truth about the Walls, the Great Titan War, and King Karl Fritz. He reveals that due to the King's vow of pacifism which prevents the Founding Titan from being used for war, the Wall Titans were never a true threat. However, due to a coup d'état in recent years, the military of Paradis Island have overthrown the previous royal government and rendered the King's ideology of peace ineffective. Now that the Founding Titan belongs to Eren Jaeger, who is seemingly capable of using its powers despite not having royal blood, and without interference from King Fritz's will, the world is truly in danger of the Wall Titans for the first time. Eren himself admits this to be true.

War for Paradis arc
As the Royal Government discusses Zeke Jaeger's requests which were brought to them by the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers, Eren Jaeger reveals he is able to activate the powers of the Founding Titan by coming into contact with a royal-blooded Titan. He also states that this method can be used to awaken the Titans within the Walls without invoking the vow of renouncing war.

After Kiyomi Azumabito arrives on Paradis Island, she divulges the rest of Zeke's strategy to save Eldia which involves unleashing some of the Titans inside the Walls to demonstrate its destructive power. The island would then need to keep that power in reserve for the next 50 years as Eldia advances technologically.

Following Zeke's encounter with Eren, the latter successfully frees Ymir from her enslavement and invokes the Founder to begin the Rumbling after communicating with subjects of Ymir across the world. The Walls crumble, and the Titans within them begin to march under Eren's command to eradicate all life outside the island. As they make their way towards the outside world, they inflict collateral damage in the areas formerly within the Walls, mindlessly demolishing buildings and killing civilians. Within a few days, the last of these Titans have left the cities of Paradis.

By the time the combined force of the remaining Scout Regiment (Anime) and Warriors reach the harbor, the Titans are long gone from Paradis, their plumes of steam having receded over the horizon. Hange Zoë predicts that the Titans would be able to reach the coast of Marley and annihilate the cities closest to Paradis in the span of a few days. As half a day is required to service the flying boat, they decide to replot their course towards Odiha to buy some time.

The Titans nearing the Marleyan coast eventually encounter a naval blockade: the Global Alliance Fleet. The battleships begin bombarding the horde, who are swimming just below the surface. Few shots land, and fewer still do lasting damage. The Titans easily bypass the blockade, and as they pass under the warships, they unleash bursts of heat, instantly boiling the seawater around them and scorching the ships' crew to death. A thick haze obscures the harbor, hiding the coast from the view of the artillerymen defending the land. As the smoke clears, the Wall Titans rise out from the water and the remains of the naval fleet. Land-based artillery begin their barrage, but to the soldiers' shock, it is ineffective as well. As the artillerymen desert their posts and retreat towards higher ground, they spot Eren's Founding Titan following the phalanx of Wall Titans.

As the Titans march, Eren recalls his mother's death, and the vow he made that day to keep pushing forward until he destroys every last one of his enemies. As he does so, the Wall Titans take their first steps on Marleyan soil, marking the beginning of the prophesied Rumbling.

The Wall Titans make their way further inland, eventually reaching the seaside town infiltrated by the Scout Regiment some months before. Encircling the town via the mountains surrounding it, the Titans annihilate the settlement with the civilians who were unable to escape. As they leave the cratered remnants of the town, a youthful incarnation of Eren reminisces on his childhood: confined by the Walls and inspired by the descriptions of the outside world from Armin Arlelt's book; his thoughts compounded with the spectacle of the Titans' carnage. He then states he has reached freedom, and, turning around, asks Armin's opinion of it through the paths. The Wall Titans continue their long march through the continent's interior, eventually nearing the port city of Odiha. As they lumber closer towards it, a lone soldier flies up to face them. The soldier is able to slay a few Titans, but succumbs to the intense heat of the Titans' bodies. The Titans proceed to crush Odiha underfoot.

As the Rumbling continues, the Wall Titans reach Fort Salta. Far from being defenseless, the airbase sends out airships in response to the Titans' arrival. The airships float high above the Titans, and as the base's commander addresses his men in the craft, the Attack Titan makes a sudden movement. Panicking, the commander orders the bombing to commence, to the protest of the airmen as they are too high to accurately drop their bombs. Consequently, the bombing does little to the advancing Wall Titans, and they continue marching as an apparition of the Beast Titan manifests and shoots the airships down.

Trivia

 * In the second compilation film, the Wall Titan's design is slightly altered to make it look more like its manga counterpart.
 * This change stays in Season 2 of the Attack on Titan anime.
 * Taking Hange's estimate of the Wall Titans traversing 600 km of land in half a day, we can deduce that they are capable of sustaining 50 kph, indeed slightly faster than a horse's gallop.

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