Board Thread:Manga/@comment-26056057-20160509020829/@comment-27702860-20160518033712

I believe it would--baring Main Character Armor: "'Tis but a Scratch!"--though I do not think the subject has been directly addressed. The reason I say "yes" is for a couple of reasons:

1. Shifters Age : why the Head of the Reiss Family gets eaten? He gets old and it is implied he could die and the "Powers" lost. Otherwise, why not just eat him after he dies? Saute him in a nice wine reduction and [Get on with it!--Ed.] Right.

2. Eren ' s Kidnappers Protect Him : Obviously, the various "Powers" like Coordinate must be passed by consuming a living carrier--or finding a good drug dealer who has distilled the CSF in a certain way. Better call Saul. Otherwise, Annie and then B and R could just kill him and carry his carcass back "home." Fine. But if he was indestructable or "Nigh Invulnerable" to quote The Tick--Spoon!--Annie, in particular, would not worry about protecting his soft squishy bits. Hell, she could drop-kick him a few miles then pick him up later, B and R could just beat him into unconsciousness and not worry about him as they try to drag his ass "home." But also:

3. Moving the Control of the Shifter : I do not fully understand this, and I do not think the author explains it. Leave aside that AoT "violates the Laws of Physics, Captain!" Under a threat, R somehow shifts "himself" a bit more caudal so damage to "him" does not kill him. This, methinks, implies that you can kill a Shifter Titan by killing the Shifter who resides in basically the region of the cervical spine. Obviously, Annie and others try to guard that region. So if they can be killed in that state then I would argue they can be killed in their non-transformed state.

Now, the Shifters do seem "hard to kill." I do not expect AoT to be accurate biologically and physically else we have no story. We can bitch about the physics of 3D maneuvers and the creation of Titan "mass" and Mikasa's ability to wear a scarf in hot weather on other threads. However, I would expect that the author would know that when you cut off the limbs of someone they die. Like, really fast. Makes me wonder how a Titan can "eat" a shifter, but that is another thread.

Even Levy sort of grimly suggests that in cutting out Eren he might remove Eren's limbs. You all probably recall that he and Ymir--when we last really see her--have to wait quite a long time for their limbs to regenerate. That being written, I think if you shoot a Shifter in the head, you destroy his brain/spinal cord, or otherwise dice him up, you do, indeed, kill him.

--J.D.