Keith Shadis

Keith Shadis (キース・シャーディス) is the head instructor of 104th Trainees Squad in charge of their training and evaluation to become soldiers.

Appearance
Keith is bald, with a wheatish complexion and has wrinkles on his forehead. His most notable features are dark circles around his eyes which seem imposing and frightening.

Personality
Keith is imposing, strict and frightening because of which the trainees of the 104th Squad remain wary of misbehaving around him. He shouts and commands at the top of his voice, putting the trainees into submission and fear.

He is observant and has the ability to discern the character traits of other people by their expressions, mannerisms, actions and abilities, as shown when he gives a character analysis of some of the trainees of the 104th Squad.

Story
He is first seen addressing the 104th squad and performing the "Rite of Passage" ritual upon the trainees, involving intimidating them, attempting to ruin their self-image and inculcating the qualities required for a soldier through it. He goes around intimidating and frightening trainee after trainee asking them their names and place of origin. He ignores a few trainees like Eren, Mikasa, Annie, Bertholdt and Reiner as he is able to read, from their faces, the terror they had undergone. He roughly turns Armin around with his hand, asking the third line to turn around and watch him as he proceeds. After hearing that Jean wanted to join the Military Police, he gives him a head butt, making him fall down. He attacks Marco telling him how he would be a very good servant for the King. When Conny performs the salute with his left hand, he picks him up, holds his head and stretches his eyes and asks him if his heart was on the right side. He sees Sasha Braus eating a potato and walks over to her demanding to know the reason she was eating it at a time like that. When offered a piece of the potato, Keith asks her either to skip lunch or do rounds until she was on the verge of death. She accepts the latter.

Next day, he supervises and instructs the trainees regarding the basic aptitude test, which involved swinging upright with ropes tied to their waists. If they failed at it, they would be sent back to the landfills. When Eren Jaegar was unable to perform the stunt, he commands him to keep his upper body up. Eren still wasn't able to pull it off, so he gave him a second chance the next day.

On the next day, Eren was momentarily able to remain upright, after which he swings over upside down and hits his head. Keith Shadis notices that something was off and presumes a faulty equipment. He asks Wagner to switch belts with Eren. Eren is easily able to pull it off after that and he praises him for pulling it off even with a broken belt. He tells Grisha, in his mind, that his son had finally become a soldier.

Later, he supervises and instructs the trainees regarding further training involving horse riding, hand-to-hand combat, 3D maneuvering etc. He is seen commanding and critcizing Armin for his lack of Stamina and observes as Reiner helps Armin to carry his load and soon enough, Armin refuses to be helped and proceeds confidently. He keenly observes the characters of each of his trainees and analyses the strength of the squad.

He notes the following regarding some of his Trainees:
 * Armin Arlert: Subpar physical strength by a soldier's standards. But allegedly a genius at theory and strategy.
 * Reiner Braun: Strong-willed with a solid constitution. Adept at gaining trust of his comrades.
 * Annie Leonhardt: Strikes with perfect penetration angle and her blows carve in deep into the target. Solitary type and solidarity doesn't come to her easily.
 * Bertholdt Fubar: Highly proficient in various hand-to-hand combat styles and has great potential. But lacks in self-confidence and tends to leave it to others when it comes to showing assertiveness.
 * Jean Kirschtein: Highly competent and skilled at the three dimensional gear and good at assessing his situation at any given time. But, is too prompt to unsheathe his sword and can spark conflict with his team members.
 * Conny Springer: Good Balance and good at making sharp turns. But slow in assessing the situation and his grasp of strategy is often less than perfect.
 * Sasha Braus: Lightning fast with uncanny intuition. Good at unconventional practices, which makes her unfit for group operations.
 * Mikasa Ackerman: A prodigy who excels even in most difficult courses. An unprecedented genius deserving nothing short of top grades.
 * Eren Yeager: No outstanding talent apart from his excellent close combat skills. He steadily improved his grades with outstanding effort and sense of purpose.