Reiner Braun

Reiner Braun (ライナー・ブラウン) is a graduate of the 104th Trainees Squad and graduated in the top ten of his class. He was assigned to the front guard after the second attack of the Colossal Titan.

Personality
Reiner is a passionate person, with a strong sense of duty. He takes his role as a soldier very seriously, and encourages others to do the same. However, he is also noted to have a kind heart and a tendency to always think of others before himself, taking on extra burdens for the sake of his comrades. He is stated to be the "big brother" of the other trainees.

However, he is also revealed to have serious emotional and mental problems as a result of his actions. While still loyal to his cause, he was unable to cope with the guilt and has begun to supress his true memories in an effort to escape. What this means in terms of his personality, and how much of his observed personality is real, remains unclear.

Human Form
As a human, Reiner has blonde hair. Reiner has broad shoulders and is fairly tall giving him an intimidating presence.

Titan Form
The Armored Titan is 15 meters tall. Its skin is completely hardened, save for muscles in its cheeks  that become exposed when it opens its jaw, the muscle tissue behind his knees and elbows, and its feet. Other than that, it does not possess any notable anatomical deformities.It also seems to posess the ability to breath fire.

History
Like many, not much is known about Reiner's early life. Both he and Bertholdt were thought to come from a village in the mountains south-east of Wall Maria. When the Colossal Titan and the other titans attacked, the warning came too late to his village, he and Bertholdt barely made it safely to Wall Sina. This is later found untrue with Reiner's being the Armored Titan and Bertholdt being the Colossal Titan.

During his time training to become a soldier, he was considered to be one of the most adept with the 3D Maneuver Gear. When Eren was having trouble during this training, he asked advice from both he and Bertholdt. As a sort of repayment, Eren worked with him in hand-to-hand combat training.

Transformation Arc
Noting Eren's desire to apply to the Scouting Legion even after witnessing the attack in the Shiganshina District, he reveals that he wants to go back to his home town, knowing that there is likely nothing to return to. He eventually graduated in the top ten of his trainee class, coming in at second, just under Mikasa Ackerman. As part of the defensive effort of the military after the second attack of the Colossal Titan, he eventually found himself with the front guard. However, with the supply team stuck in the headquarters, he was essentailly immobilized with many of his teammates on a rooftop. Joining Jean's group in the rush to the HQ, he was among the survivors. With the subsequent arrival of Armin and Mikasa, by way of rogue titan, he helped to clear and secure the supply room.

Initially skeptical, Reiner suggested they help the rogue titan when it was being overwhelmed by a group. Jean was hesitant and disagreed with his suggestion, stating they barely made it with their own lives and refused to risk it for a titan. However, it turned out not to be necessary when it broke free at the sight of the titan that killed Tomas. He was among the first people to know about Eren's titan form, when he emerged from the giants body. Later this same day, after seeing what appeared to be titan vapor from inside the city, he and a small group scaled the wall to see what was happening. Over the wall they found Eren protecting Mikasa and Armin from cannon fire, with a shield made from the torso of his titan form.

Reiner would later join the Scouting Legion, together with the rest of the top 10 alumni with the exception of Annie. During the first expedition they take part in, he teams up with Jean to save Armin from the female-type titan after his horse runs away.

Breach Arc
After the capture of Annie, Reiner was later seen in an abandoned mansion next to Sasha when Wall Rose supposedly got breached. He was soon dispatched to find all the survivors and tell them the news (without his 3D Maneuver Gear).

After that he and his squad went searching for the gap, though they found nothing. They met up with another team carrying the same orders and also didn't find anything. The 2 squads join together and go to the abandoned Castle Utgard to rest.

Later that night he finds Ymir searching for food and she found a can of tuna. He became suspicious when she was able to identify the label correctly. Before Reiner had the chance to question Ymir about her knowledge on titan language, he was alerted by the others about the titans attacking the castle.

Reiner and Berthold are shocked when they learn that Ymir was the deviant type titan that ate their family members.

As Ymir fights the many titans, Historia almost falls off the tower but is saved by Reiner and Conny, though he doesn't let go of her foot for a few more seconds and apologizes for that.

In the following chapter, Reiner reveals to Eren that he is the Armored Titan that destroyed the gate on Wall Maria five years ago, leading to the destruction of Eren and Mikasa's hometown. He states that the objective was to wipe out mankind, but he also says that it's no longer necessary. He asks Eren to come with him, saying that if he does there will be no need to attack the wall again. When Eren acts as if can't be serious, Reiner becomes disheartened about his sentimentality towards his comrades in the Scouting Legion and declares his commitment to his responsiblity and duty as a "warrior", prompting an enraged Mikasa to attack him and Bertholdt. After he and Bertholdt Fubar, who is revealed to be the Colossal Titan, come under suprise attack by Mikasa and the rest of the Scouting Legion, he and Bertholdt transform and Reiner grabs Eren, while Berthold eats Ymir. His hand is blown off by Eren who, enraged by their betrayal of humanity, transforms in his grip. Eren and Reiner then begin to battle upon Eren's transformation.

As Eren and Reiner continued to fight, he was able to hold off Mikasa when she attempted to slice off nape of his neck in his titan form. Eventually, Armin was able to discover a weak link to his line of defense because as he's protecting the nape of his neck, he suggested that she attack at his knee caps. Reiner was taken by surprise for a 2nd attack by Mikasa, this time he was hit at the back of his knee caps. As the armor continued to break, Berthold sensing that Reiner's in trouble and jumps off the wall to rescue him.

Abilities
As one of the top ten graduates of the 104th squad, Reiner is likely highly competent in the use of 3D Maneuver Gear and respective weapons. He is also one of the best hand-to-hand fighters amongst the recruits, having also trained other skilled fighters such as Eren.

Titan Shifting
As the Armored Titan, its body produces a hardened, armor-like skin that is sturdy enough to completely repel concentrated cannon fire. It also demonstrates incredible strength and speed when it breaks down the inner gate of Wall Maria. However this hardened skin does not manifest on the Titan's joints as to allow it to retain it's high speed and mobility.

The Armored Titan is capable of assuming human form at will, due to the intelligence it demonstrates in appearing to work with the Colossal Titan in breaching Wall Maria. As he retains his human intelligence, he uses his hand-to-hand combat skills against other human-turned-Titans such as Eren, which in conjunction with his armor-like skin, gives him a solid advantage in combat.

Trivia

 * In a blog post on April 17th, the author revealed that Reiner's Titan image (the Armored Titan) were actually based on Brock Lesnar, an American professional wrestler and Mixed Martial Artist.
 * In chapter 38, he suggests in a conversation with Ymir that he might be gay. However, he has also claimed to have a crush on Christa, so the truth is unclear.
 * In chapter 46, it is revealed that Reiner suffers serious mental problems triggered by his attachment to the others and guilt over his crimes. This has caused him to suffer disassociative episodes, where he believes himself to genuinely be a human soldier. It is not yet known when he began to experience them, leaving many of his actions in question. Bertholdt is shown to be the only person capable of bringing him out of these episodes.