Erwin Smith

Irvin Smith (エルヴィン・スミス), sometimes known as Chief Irvin, is the 13th commander of the Scouting Legion. Far-thinking, intelligent, respected, Irvin is an able commander and while he cares as deeply for his men, he would not hesitate to sacrifice them for the future of mankind (and soldiers of Scouting Legion seem to be aware of this. Despite this knowledge they are still extremely loyal to him). He developed the "Formation for Long Distance Enemy Detection."

Personality
Irvin is portrayed as serious, calculating, seeing and planning far for the future. While he trusts his men, he is the first to realize that there is a spy interfering with the Scouting Legion and arranged for his/her capture. He is an eloquent speaker, able to sway many people, such as the war tribunal held to judge Eren and the trainees choosing recruitment branches to join.

Irvin is very grim. He accepts all news, good or bad, mockery or praise, with the same attitude because he knows his objectives and will follow through with them.

He shares this unique stoic quality with men such as Head Administrator Dot Pixis, squad leader Ian Dietrich and Generalissimo Dallis Zacklay. As Armin puts it, Irvin, like the aforementioned three men, has the ability to send his men to die if it will further the cause of humanity. He and they will sacrifice their own humanity in order to bring change to a world where those who cannot sacrifice the important things in life will not change anything.

Story
Irvin is first introduced taking part in the latest Scouting expedition before the fall of Wall Maria.

He is later formally introduced when the Scouting Legion is clearing a town inside Wall Maria. They discover Titans are moving north, towards the Trost District of Wall Rose. Fearing a breach, they head to Trost District and narrowly save a trapped Eren, Armin, and Mikasa after their mission to block the hole is complete.

Irvin later on explains the upheaval Eren has caused in the politics of humanity. Later, he successfully gets Eren recruited into the Scouting Legion and arranges for his study by Hanji Zoe, a Titan scientist and squad leader.

At the recruitment drive, his speech about the future of humanity convinces most of the top 10 trainees from Eren's unit to join the Scouting Legion.

After the death of the Titan research subjects, Bean and Sawney, he tests everyone in the Scouting Legion by asking them a direct, but confusing question to gauge their reactions. When this turns everyone innocent, he begins planning the next expedition to capture the spy, guessing they have abilities similar to Eren and are intent on sabotaging the expedition.

However the plan fails as the Female-type titan manages to escape but only after inflicting massive casualties on the Scouting Legion party. Irvin is forced to call a retreat back to the Wall's safety.

For the costly failure of this mission, Irvin is blamed for the fiasco and summoned to the imperial capital to explain. However, he trusts Armin's gamble that Annie Leonhardt is the titan and orders her covert capture en route to the meeting. He briefly explains this to Nile Dawk.

She is eventually apprehended and Irvin goes into an emergency meeting held to sort out the day's events. He manages to convince the council that despite the expedition failure and subsequent death of some civilians in the inner city, they finally catch the female-type titan successfully and this indicates that there must be more of her kinds hiding among them.

He is still there when Wall Rose is breached. Irvin helps coordinate the effort to locate the breach with the Stationary Guard, but is unable to have it located.

He is too late to save Eren from being captured by Reiner and Bertholdt who reveal themselves as the Armored and Colossal Titan, respectively. However, Irvin quickly assembles a combined force of all branches of the military to rescue Eren.

Upon sight that Eren has been captured by Reiner, Bertholdt and Ymir he orders all squads to go ahead with him and letting the Titans follow them, much to the dismay of the fellow Soldiers who call him a Monster believing he uses them as Decoy. Irvin assures that is not his intention, that the Military Police fights admirably and that his men should fulfill their duty as Soldiers.

As the Graduates were reunited they along with Hannes watch in shock as Irvin leads a pack of Titans right to them. This desperate ploy is successful, slowing down the advance of the Armored Titan while allowing the human forces to regroup. Irvin sees an opportunity to reclaim Eren, and orders all forces to charge into swarm of Titans pinning down the Armored Titan.

However, a Titan crawling on all fours manages to seize him as he rides past and yanks Irvin from his horse by his right arm. Mikasa and the others react with horror, but he orders them to continue their attack even as he is being carried away by the Titan. Several soldiers break off from the group to engage the Titan, while Mikasa and the others continue with the primary mission to rescue Eren.

A short time later, Irvin is revealed to be alive when he launches a sneak attack on Bertolt while he is distracted by Armin. This not only wounds the traitor, but allows Eren to finally be rescued and carried away by Mikasa. However, the previous attack by a Titan cost Irvin his right arm and a makeshift tourniquet has been secured around the stump to slow the bleeding. Even while badly wounded, he leads the surviving forces in a retreat -- only for their path to be cut off when the Armored Titan begins to throw Titans into their path to prevent their escape.

Trivia

 * The story is heavily influenced by the Norse, and as other characters Irvin can be regarded as the Manga Version of Odin. Odin is associated with the Wild Hunt, a special group of Huntsmen in mad pursuit on Horses. The fact that Odin is stated as cunning, tricky as well as deceptive further adds into it along with that the God welcomes the dead.


 * Irvin's motif was based on Adrian Alexander Veidt/Ozymandias, a character from Watchmen.