Annie Leonhart (Anime)

"I just want the weak who get swept along with the flow to be considered human, too."

- 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 Brigade. 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 shift into a Titan and from an early age she was trained to fight by her father. As the Female Titan, she served as a major antagonist of the series 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 young 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 Training Corps uniform and then the Military Police Brigade uniform after graduation. Though Annie often wears hooded sweatshirts as part of her standard attire, she 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.

Titan Form
Annie's appearance as a Titan changes quite drastically, though her overall physique and facial features remain mostly the same. In the anime, 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. In the manga, she has skin the same as Eren's Titan Form. 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 Brigade 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.

Despite Annie's usual cold and calm demeanor, she has been shown to emote her feelings in various ways. 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 Titan shifter, to the point that she 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. Though she is seemingly indifferent towards her capability as a competent hand-to-hand combat fighter, she remains proud of her skills and even seems to enjoy the very notion of fighting as deduced by Eren.

The Fall of Shiganshina arc
After the destruction of Shiganshina District and subsequent loss of Wall Maria, young Annie is among the refugees to receive her food rations.

Humanity's Comeback arc
Annie later appears as an upcoming member of the 104th Training Corps, watching other trainees to be undergoing 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. Annie continues her training until she successfully graduates at the rank of four.

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 trainees are unable to return due to insufficient gas, much to everyone's despair. In this situation, Annie is suddenly approached by Mikasa, looking for Eren. 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 mysterious Rogue Titan fending off most of the Titans attacking the HQ, Annie and others attempt to get rid of the small Titans inside. After the plan's success, the group witnesses the Rogue Titan being eaten by other Titans. Annie overhears Jean and Reiner arguing about whether to take an action or not and proclaims that the Rogue Titan should be kept alive as it might serve as a powerful ally. At this point, she learns about Eren's Titan shifting ability after Eren emerges from the nape of the Rogue Titan's neck.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the soldiers, Eren ends up being questioned by Kitz Woerman, who then attempts to kill him. Annie and the rest overhear the lightning strike that is caused by Eren's second, albeit half-formed, transformation into his Rogue Titan form to defend Mikasa and Armin from cannon fire. This alarms Reiner enough for him to rush near the vicinity of the lightning strike with Jean, Annie and Bertolt quickly following suit, at which point they witness the scene of Eren's Titan form surrounded by soldiers of the Stationary Guard. They watch as Armin attempts to persuade the soldiers that Eren is strategically important for mankind until Dot Pyxis arrives and stops Woerman. In the aftermath of the Battle of Trost, Annie is seen apologizing to an unknown corpse as she, Reiner, and Bertolt assist in cleaning up the remaining corpses of other soldiers. Later, as they watch the burning corpses, Jean asks Annie and others about their choice of the military branch they want to join as he exclaims that he will enlist into the Scout Regiment.

Eve of the Counterattack arc
Soon after Eren's enlistment into the Scout Regiment, the two Titans captured for research, Sawney and Beane, are killed and the Military Police Brigade checked the vertical maneuvering equipment of the trainees. 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 Brigade, Connie 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. Though Annie had offered Marco Bott's vertical equipment for inspection as her own, unbeknownst to her this prompts Armin to become suspicious of her. Ultimately during the Scout Regiment draft, Annie leaves to join the Military Police.

The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission arc
During the 57th expedition of the Scout Regiment, Annie makes her first appearance in her Female Titan form as she leads a group of Titans to capture Eren, wiping out the majority of the scouts on the right side of the Scout Regiment's formation. 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 aims to capture Eren, realizing that Annie may have acted upon false information as part of Erwin's plan. The three are 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 together 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 hesitation 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. Just as the trio attempts to flee, Annie begins to head in the direction of the Scout Regiment's centre 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, killing them in various brutal ways. Though the formation heads into the Titan Forest, 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 causes 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 are suddenly 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 Ginn, 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 Brigade, 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 vertical maneuvering equipment. 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; further proven by her refusal to enter the passage, where she cannot transform. 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. Overcoming his initial hesitation, Eren transforms into his Rogue Titan form and takes Annie on in her Female Titan form.

Annie takes flight towards the Wall soon after Eren transforms. She is pursued by him, Mikasa and several Scout Regiment squads. The chase continues until Annie reaches a flat land with no buildings. Having nowhere to hook their vertical maneuvering equipment anchors, the Scout Regiment squads and Mikasa are forced to take a long detour, while Eren gives chase alone. Annie uses this opportunity for one last ditch attempt at capturing Eren, a brief struggle between the two of them ensues, but she fails again. After that, she continues to try and escape by scaling the Wall Sina. Not hesitating in the slightest, Mikasa cuts off all of the fingers of Annie's Female Titan form, leaving her struggling to hold on. Mikasa then tells her to fall down and pushes her off by her head. Eren, in his Titan form, holds down the body as both the soldiers, cut into the flesh and try to extract Annie. Upon extracting Annie from the Titan body, they find out Annie is completely enclosed 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 Hange Zoë stops him, thinking that if the crystal is destroyed, it would kill Annie, and tells both the Military Police Brigade and the rest of the Scout Regiment to take her underground and detain her.

Abilities
Out of the 104th Training Corps members, Annie is one of the strongest fighters alongside Mikasa and Eren. She was ranked as one of the top 5 trainees 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.


 * Vertical maneuvering equipment: 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 shifting 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.

Titan shifting
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 second shortest, being rivaled by Ymir, who is 6–7 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 Titan shifters, sporting a variety of presumably learned powers and special abilities not exhibited by any other Titan shifters. Unlike most Titan shifters who tire to the point of collapsing, she is able to preserve stamina and is fit enough to utilize the vertical maneuvering equipment to kill experienced soldiers before transforming for the second time - something that has never been done by any known Titan shifters 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 the human towns once the Colossus and Armored Titans broke through the Walls. She has also shown an ability to attract Titans, as upon hearing her shouts, 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 Coordinate, as stated by Armin and Erwin.

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. Her betrayal deeply shakes Eren.
 * 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 the in a particularly friendly light.
 * Hitch Dreyse - Assigned to the same squad in Stohess District, the two women were also given the same room assignment. As roommates, the two were not particularly close with Hitch teasing Annie in an effort to provoke a reaction. They were in many way opposites, Annie being serious and withdrawn while Hitch was out-going and enjoyed the easy life.

People Killed

 * Luke Cis
 * Dieter Ness
 * Darius Baer Walbrunn
 * Gunther Schultz
 * Eld Gin
 * Petra Rall
 * Oruo Bozad
 * Several unidentified Scout Regiment soldiers

Indirectly

 * Numerous counts of Stohess District citizens

Failed attempts

 * Jean Kirschtein
 * Mikasa Ackermann
 * Levi
 * Armin Arlelt

Uncertain involvement

 * Numerous counts of Shiganshina District citizens

Trivia

 * Her fighting style resembles Muay Thai.
 * Isayama has stated that the Female Titan's three sizes are -  - . If the zeroes are removed, this seems to provide Annie's three sizes as well.
 * In the visual novel Wall Sina, Goodbye, the name of the corpse Annie apologized to was stated to be Ruth D. Kline, a classmate Annie was not close to. However, this is a non-canon story.
 * Isayama revealed in the March issue of Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine that Annie has the habit of sleep talking, sometimes murmuring "whoosh" when she dreams of practicing kicks on trees.
 * 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.
 * She is called "Miss Towering Teenage Queen of Beauty" by Iron Man in Attack on Avengers.

Quotes
"So even if I'm the kind of weak person who gets swept along with the flow, I just want you to think of me as human. That's all."

- Annie to Marlo

"I couldn't become a warrior."

- Annie

"It looks like your gamble paid off for now, but this is where mine begins."

- Annie to Armin