Fritz (Anime)

Fritz (フリッツ) was the king of Eldia around 2,000 years ago. When one of his slaves, Ymir, gained the power of the Titans, he used her to expand Eldia into an empire and destroy his enemies. As a "reward," he made her his concubine and had three daughters with her. He and Ymir are the ancestors of every Subject of Ymir.

Upon Ymir's death, Fritz forced his daughters to eat their mother's body to preserve her power. Upon his own death, he commanded his daughters to continue reproducing and eating each other, so that Ymir's people will never die out and Eldia could rule the world with its Titans forever.

Appearance
Fritz was a bearded older man with brown hair. When Eldia was a small tribe, Fritz was shirtless and wore an animal pelt around his hip. As Ymir began amassing wealth for him, his attire gradually became more and more luxurious. He wore a horned helmet for a period, before transitioning to a crown decorated with five nine-pointed stars.

Personality
Fritz was a man most strongly characterized by his limitless hunger for power and control. His ultimate goal had been world domination, and he was willing to accomplish that goal post-death. He viewed both his family and his people as an extension of himself, declaring that so long as Eldia ruled the world, the world was "his."

To that extent, he personally cared nothing for either his people or his family. To him, they were nothing but tools to affirm and extend his power and authority; when Ymir gained the power of the Titans, he used her to slaughter the Marleyans and gain power for himself. He viewed himself very highly and saw Ymir bearing his children as a "reward" for everything she had done to increase Eldia's empire. After Ymir took a spear for him, instead of thanking her when she was near death, he responded by ordering her to get back up and continue working as his slave, stating that was her only purpose in life. Instead of giving her a burial upon her death, he had his daughters eat her corpse to have them gain her power.

As further examples of his seemingly-limitless cruelty, during his time as a chieftain, he had his tribe slaughter and raid villages, taking the survivors for slaves. He had no qualms about disfiguring, muting, and partially blinding his slaves, willing to gouge out an eye from every slave if someone did not confess to a simple crime of freeing a pig. When Ymir was accused of this crime, he punished her by having her hunted for sport.

History
Fritz was the ruler of the Eldians, who were originally a small tribe. He presumably ordered the attack and enslavement of the village that Ymir originally inhabited. When a pig was set loose, allegedly by one of the slaves, he gathered them to find the culprit and Ymir was singled out by the other slaves. Fritz had his men hunt Ymir in a forest, but Ymir found a tree that contained a pool and a spine-like creature that gave her the power of the Titans. Discovering this, Fritz decided to pardon her and had her continue working for him.

Fritz used Ymir to build bridges and roads and cultivate the wastelands; he also used her power as a weapon of mass destruction against the Marleyans. He made Ymir his concubine and she bore him three daughters: Maria, Rose, and Sheena.

One day, a group of surrendering Marleyan soldiers were brought to bow before him. One of them took out a hidden spear from the ground and attempted to assassinate Fritz; however, Ymir took the spear instead and the Marleyans were swiftly executed. Fritz did not believe that a spear could kill Ymir, so he told her to get back up while insisting she was born to serve him, but she actually died.

Fearful that the power of the Titans might be gone forever, Fritz had Ymir's corpse butchered and served to his daughters. It succeeded in passing down Ymir's power, and upon his deathbed, Fritz told his daughters to reproduce before having their descendants cannibalize their spines upon death, so that Eldia and the Titans could rule for all eternity.