Power of the Titans (Anime)

"What are you? A man? Or a Titan?"

- Kitz Woermann to Eren Jaeger

The Power of the Titans (巨人の力) was the ability which allowed for Subjects of Ymir to transform into intelligent Titans known as the Nine Titans. Unlike Pure Titans, those with the Power of the Titans were able to control their form and retain their human intelligence. If a Pure Titan gained the power of the Titans, that Titan would return to being a human. It was often noted that these Titans were far more powerful than regular Titans and oftentimes displayed appearances and abilities unique to only them. After Ymir's decision to relinquish her power, all the surviving Titans collectively lost their power and reverted back to normal humans.

Transformation


In order to transform, a human with the Titan ability had to suffer an injury that drew blood (often self-inflicted) while having a solid goal or belief in mind at the moment of injury. However, being injured by another person was also sufficient. Once the transformation was initiated, a burst of energy was released (usually a bolt of lightning or an explosion), followed by the generation of the Titan body and a release of hot steam. After transformation, the human body rested within the nape of the Titan's neck, the center of control. The human body was also merged with the Titan's flesh inside to varying extents, most frequently on the area of the cheeks below the eyes or behind the neck, rendering them immobile. If an Intelligent Titan was pushed to its limit, the human would emerge from the nape of its neck, sometimes in a semi-conscious or entirely unconscious state. But if the Titan was not exhausted, then its human form could emerge from the Titan form in full consciousness. In some cases, a human was able to partially emerge from their Titan body without fully leaving the nape. After the Power of the Titans was used, the area around the emerging human's eyes was temporarily marked by dark lines. The design of the marks appeared to vary on some cases depending on which Titan the human was in possession of, as shown by humans who held the power of the Colossal Titan having more striking marks on their face than the others, resembling the Titan in their possession, while in the case of the Cart Titan, lines would appear on the cheeks. The amount of time the human possessed these marks appeared to depend on how long, skilled, or overworked they had used their Titan forms, ranging from several minutes to several hours. It was also possible for an inheritor to become more skilled with their Titan transformation, allowing them to transform more than once in a short time span. This was best shown by Eren Jaeger, who initially had trouble transforming more than once without becoming exhausted and almost absorbed by his Titan form. By the time of the Raid on Liberio, and his battle with the War Hammer Titan, Eren's endurance with his transformations had increased to the point that he could transform three times in succession before he was exhausted, something that shocked Porco Galliard. Even after leaving his Titan for the third time, Eren showed no physical signs of his exhaustion, simply commenting that he couldn't transform again.

The ability to transform into a Titan was hindered by injuries inflicted on the human body. A human could transform into a Titan with injuries as severe as a missing limb, but only if a previous transformation had not occurred recently. If a human emerged from their Titan form and received a severe injury, this person could not transform into a Titan again until said injuries had fully healed.

Those with the power of the Titans appeared to be resistant to the normal absorption that created mindless Pure Titans. However, this did not mean that they were immune to it. In the case of Eren Jaeger, it has been shown that repeated transformations in a short period of time led to decreased control over the Titan form, as well as diminished Titan size and power. As such, it seems that there was a limitation on how long a human could remain in a transformed Titan state before risking absorption. The length of time spent in a controllable transformed Titan depended on how skilled the human was, although even the most experienced could become incredibly fatigued for as long as several days after repetitive use. The exception to this appeared to be the Cart Titan, which was known for its incredible endurance. Pieck was able to stay in her Titan form for at least two months.

A Titan's transformation usually caused the destruction of the area in which they had transformed in. However, the Colossal Titan was the only known Titan capable of increasing the blast radius to a larger scale, in which it usually resembled a nuclear explosion. This power was first seen being used by Bertholdt Hoover during the Battle of Shiganshina District, and later by Armin Arlelt to wipe out Marley's naval forces during the Raid on Liberio. The respective blasts were seen by the full district of Shiganshina and the city of Liberio, and sent massive waves of energy inland.

Physiology and Abilities
The average height among the transforming Titans was 15 meters, but this could vary greatly, ranging from the 4 meters of the Cart Titan to the 60 meters of the Colossal Titan.

While not all of the Titan abilities have been identified, each inheritable Titan possessed a unique power. The Colossal Titan has been shown to possess significant control over its body, able to release devastating bursts of steam to ward off enemies or even completely evaporate in seconds. The Armored Titan possessed hardened, armor-like skin covering all but the key areas of movement. The Female Titan ws able to call upon Pure Titans with a scream, luring dozens towards her position with little time.

It was also shown that these Titans were not safe from regular Titans, and would be attacked even while transformed. This excluded Titans controlled by a royal-blooded Intelligent Titan, a notable case being Zeke's Beast Titan, though they would occasionally disobey his orders.

Annie Leonhart's Female Titan had also been shown to possess the ability to harden her skin to the point of near-indestructibility. She was able to selectively harden regions of her Titan body and even create a hard crystal around her human body, putting her in an apparently-unconscious state with no need for nutrient intake. It seems, however, that not all transformed Titans possessed this hardening ability; the Attack Titan lacked any form of hardening before Eren ingested a hardening bottle at the Reiss chapel.

Regeneration
Humans with the Power of the Titans also gained the Titan ability to regenerate and vastly improved healing abilities, even to the point of regaining lost limbs as long as they had the will to live. However, regeneration from severe injuries, such as lost limbs, could strain their powers and prevent them from transforming for a period of time. It is evident that healing for a human took much longer than that of their Titan form. The time it took to regenerate appears to depend on the extent of the injury and how focused the individual was on healing that area. It was also possible to delay the healing, which Eren used to infiltrate Marley as an injured soldier. The only surefire way to kill a human with the power of the Titans was through severing the brain's connection to the rest of the body, although it was possible to survive even this by transferring the mind to the rest of the nervous system.

Memory Inheritance
Due to the Paths, those who inherited the Nine Titans were able to see the memories of previous inheritors to some extent. Both the Reiss and Tybur families kept their Titans—the Founding Titan and the War Hammer Titan, respectively—within the family, and because of that, they were able to access memories going back by several generations, up to at least the Great Titan War. Other inheritors were shown to be able to see the memories of the previous inheritor at the very least. This process appeared to fail occasionally: Ymir and Armin did not receive any memories upon inheriting their Titans, in contrast to the Reiss family who seemingly gained their memories right away. Porco Galliard was unable to see the memories of his brother Marcel possibly due to Ymir being between them in the inheritance line, although Porco could see Ymir's memories; it would only be physical contact with Reiner that Porco would access his brother's memories before his death. Sometimes, the new inheritor would have dreams of a previous one, such as the case of Armin dreaming of Bertholdt Hoover's final moments.

The Attack Titan was unique in that its inheritors could receive memories from the future as well as the past. The user of the Attack Titan was able to see events that their future self will experience, and even peer into a future inheritor's memories to some degree. Eren Kruger mentioned the names Armin and Mikasa to Grisha Jaeger many years before the two were born, although he admitted that he did not recognize where those two names came from. Grisha would have some insight on the Fall of Wall Maria hours before its occurrence through Eren's memories. Eren had also glimpsed future events multiple times throughout the years.

Like regular memory inheritance, bloodlines enhanced the strength of the inheritance, but a person of royal blood could further enhance its abilities. Eren Jaeger was able to glimpse a cataclysmic event as he kissed Historia Reiss' hand. Years later, he was able to enter his father's memories and influence Grisha; although he had to do this within the Paths and with Zeke's - who possesses royal blood - assistance. Using this opportunity, Eren was able to set many things into motion, the most notable being Grisha's theft of the Founding Titan. In these moments in time, Grisha was able to sense Eren and Zeke's presence, and was even able to hug and talk to Zeke.

Hardening
While it has not been performed by every Titan that has been shown, it is noted in the series that all Titans could harden with enough practice and training. Hardened materials on Titans were shown to be penetrated by Thunder Spears, sheer strength (presumably by another Titan), or the power of the Founding Titan. Titan hardening performed around humans, has only been shown to be broken by the Jaw Titan's jaws, with things such as Thunder Spears merely bouncing off of the crystal. It has been shown that even if the user no longer sustained their Titan form, the hardened fragments from that Titan would not disappear. Moreover, there was a faster method to achieve the hardening skill, which was by ingesting a special serum, like how Eren's Attack Titan did and therefore allowed him to harden almost instantly afterward.

There were three levels of hardening that have been showed. The least durable was the Armored Titan's armor-like skin, mostly because of how it spread across the whole body. The blue-colored hardening, which could be learnt by all Nine Titans theoretically as mentioned above, was stronger and could be applied onto different body parts like hands, feet, or nape at will. Although having a different appearance and color, Wall Titans' hardened "wall" skin was likely at this level, for the Colossal Titan could not kick through it. It was also shown that by focusing the hardening on fewer areas would make those parts even stronger. The strongest was the crystal-like level, which has only been seen being used by Female Titan and War Hammer Titan, and it was used to contain its own user inside, for protecting purposes. Only the Jaw Titan's jaws and claws were seen to be able to penetrate through this crystal-like hardening.

Curse of Ymir
The first Titan, Ymir Fritz, died thirteen years after acquiring the power of the Titans. Because it was impossible for anyone to surpass the Founder, each person who gained the power of the Titans was fated with the "Curse of Ymir" (ユミルの呪い), which limited their remaining lifespan to only 13 years after first acquiring it. During the last years of their life, their body would weaken until they perished. Both Eren Kruger, Uri Reiss, and Tom Xaver were sick and appeared to have aged considerably during their final year, with symptoms including advanced aging, nosebleeds, and coughing.

Transference
The Power of the Titans could be transferred to a new host, should the current host be devoured by a Titan. This allowed an ordinary Titan to become human again and possess the Power of the Titans, and inherit one or more of the Nine Titans' abilities as well as the memories of the previous inheritors.

However, according to Rod Reiss, the power of the Titans resided within a human's spinal fluid, meaning that to gain the Titan's power, it was not necessary to eat the entire human, but rather a Titan could simply bite through the spine and ingest said fluid. Titan serums were, in fact, the spinal fluid of Titans, though study of the serums was difficult due to the serum's rapid rate of evaporation upon contact with air.

If an individual with the power of the Titans died before it could be transferred, the power would be passed on to a baby among the Subjects of Ymir, who was born after the said inheritor's death, regardless of distance or relation to the previous inheritor.

Royal Blood
Royal blood allowed the "full use of the power of the Titans." This was common knowledge in Marley. Only descendants of the royal family could fully utilize the Founding Titan's powers. If someone with the royal blood inherited one of the Nine Titans, excluding the Founding Titan, they could mimic some of the Founder's abilities, such as creating and controlling Pure Titans and even making them move at night using only moonlight. However, unlike the Founding Titan, the control over Titans was not perfect, as they may have not followed orders completely. If someone with the royal blood inherited the Founding Titan, they would be able to access to the Founder's true power, but would be chained by the vow renouncing war. In case the Founding Titan was inherited by someone outside of the royal family, the power could still be used temporarily if the inheritor was in physical contact with a Titan, either Pure or Intelligent, with royal blood. Therefore, the Founding Titan could still be used for war if it was inherited by someone outside of the royal family, and then that person touched a Titan of royal blood, since the vow only applied to the royal family members. If the inheritor touched a human of royal blood who had no Titan power, although the full power of the Founding Titan was still locked, some snippets of the previous inheritors' memories could be realized. However, these memories were erratic and did not always come.

Trivia

 * In Episode 52, the official subs translated 「巨人化能力者たち」 (Kyojin-ka nōryokusha-tachi, lit. "people who possess the ability to transform into giants") as "Titan shifters." That term was a popular fan-made name for humans who have the Power of the Titans before the official subs adopted it.
 * Before Episode 52, the official subs translated it as "human(s) possessing the ability to transform into a Titan."
 * Those who inherited the power of the Titans from someone who they were directly related seemed to exhibit similar traits to the previous holder: Zeke Jaeger's Beast Titan had a barrel-chested physique similar to his father’s Attack Titan, and all three Jaegers' Titan forms possessed pointed ears. Additionally, Porco and Marcel Galliard's Jaw Titans looked almost exactly the same, save for the color of their hair and the shape of their mouths.

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