No jimmy, I'm not out of ideas...
I'm just really horrible at planning when to do lore videos.
Please don't crush me under the giant foot of internet hate. Speaking of Giants, Attack on Titan
The concept of Attack on Titan has always fascinated me
Not particularly everything about the manga and anime
But the world that the story is set in.
Questions like:
"why is all of humanity inside this incredibly large City, the walls that block
everyone in, and everything out?
Why is technology so backwards? What led to this?"
How did we get to a society that had to be protected by three walls?
Now, I'm not a huge fan of long stretches of inner dialogue, but the setting itself is what keeps my attention.
Imagining how humanity can, for lack of better words, live their entire lives in just,
fear of being consumed by
Giant humanoid ~things~.
This video is really for people who are interested in the concept itself, the world building
But don't really want to invest so much of the time into the anime. Because it gets complex,
very
unnecessarily
complex.
That said there will of course be spoilers.
Because some things discussed in this may be important revelations from the manga that might come up later.
So first the world itself.
The known world of Attack on Titan
doesn't resemble our own in any way, the main story is set in the tiny island called
Paradis next to a much larger continent nobody knows the name of.
Wait, wait a second
What's that down there? If we just take the map and turn it up right then...
Oh!
It's Earth(!)
The large landmass where our story begins
2,000 years ago before you know, ~this~ happened
Is actually, Africa, and so that would mean, Attack on Titan is in part alternate history fiction
Huh, and that the city is actually on
Madagascar.
Huh.
We don't know how this came to be or where in the actual history of Earth this takes place
But our story begins in Africa, where there is a conflict between two different ethnic groups:
Eldians And Marleyans.
Now both groups aren't in any way descendants of actual Africans
And that's not in any way ominous -___-.
The Marleyans in ancient times ruled the entire known world in a vast empire.
From Europe to the Americas down to Africa. That power wouldn't last however.
A shift, because of one single Royal Family - the Fritz Dynasty.
A woman from the royal family - Ymir - as the legend goes, gained an
extraordinary power: she made a deal with the Devil...or source of organic life,
It's the Devil look at him, o_O
and in return for something she gained Incredible Godlike abilities
This was the very first "Titan shifter":
a human with the ability to become a titan. She not only had immense size and
incredible powers, but she could turn other people
unwillingly into mindless smaller Titans. An army of giant idiots constantly in pain.
Because of her power Ymir and the Fritz family harnessed this ability to wage war against the dominant Marleyan Empire.
The Marleyans became subjects while the Fritz ethnic group - the Eldians - created their own nation:
An Empire spanning much of the world as well.
Ymir died thirteen years later after gaining her abilities and her soul/powers
were split between nine different people. This was to be called the Power of the Titans.
It was unique because the nine people now had the ability to turn into a Titan at will, but also
harnessed unique abilities for themselves alone - all while being conscious in such a form,
something the mindless drones don't have the liberty of
Conveniently the feudal society of Eldia was ruled over by family houses. "Like Game of Thrones?" you ask.
Yes Jimmy,
just like your Game of Thrones -
but instead of dragons,
wolves, wealth or pointlessness,
Each house has a member who could transform into a Titan, and this often meant
disagreements turned into titans duking it out with enemy houses.
This by all accounts has proved well for stability.
That was a joke.
As the smaller houses squabbled, the Fritz Royal Family rulers of the Eldia Empire
maintained order over Africa Europe the Middle East and South America for two whole Millenia
The Fritz always maintaining absolute control,
because only somebody of the Fritz bloodline could possess the main ability to turn into the Founding Titan.
The Founding Titan was the WMD of this world:
it had the ability to really do ~anything~, and wipe out anyone.
So the fritz and Eldians in return, always stayed in power.
That surely meant everyone was happy with this forever!
The Eldians were pretty much Nazis, really into Eugenics and the superiority of their people.
Genocides and systematic oppression of "inferior" ethnicities was all the rage at this time which might explain why there are no
Africans... Oh...
Eldians were the only Ethnicity which could possess the power to turn into a Titan,
and when a group can basically turn into ~gods~ who could do anything?
So Marleyans and other groups came to understandably hate the Eldians. All this went fine and dandy until
a hundred years ago in the main story.
The 145th King of the Fritz Dynasty
grew tired of the Game of Thrones fighting between the lower houses. He pretty much decided:
"We need to move the capital to that nice island out to the East called Paradis", or as we know it
Madagascar.
Removing the Founding Titan -
that thing that maintained stability by fear for millennia
- off of the continent and
onto an Island. The main power of the Empire
just left. So the Eldians had their political head chopped off,
and so what would any of the very oppressed,
genocided Marleyans do while their enemy was in complete turmoil?
Race War of course!
And Race War they did. the Marleyans rebelled against their rulers
Beginning the Great Titan War - a civil war which crumbled the rule of the giant empire the Eldians had for centuries.
Long story short, the Marleyans captured seven of the nine Strongest titans and used them against Eldia.
This is where the lore gets really dark. Where do the lumbering stupid Titans come into this?
We have smart Titans, but what about the freakish monstrosities that consume people?
Where do they come from?
Marley.
Remember how I said only Eldians could turn into titans? Well, the Marley used this to their advantage,
kidnapping Eldians,
injecting them with Titan spinal fluid,
and then watching as they mutated - into not smart Titans, but lumbering
horrific eating machines. Yes, that's right
most Titans are not natural - they were once innocent people or
criminals turned medical experiments. These Titans were then sent out against the retreating Eldian civilians.
In the aftermath of the war the Fritz King had a plan. The Eldians should all flee to the island of Paradis as
the Titan onslaught grew. Using the founding Titan
he constructed three vast walls, using literal Titan bodies to forever keep out any outsiders.
The Eldians in the end, turn Madagascar into a hermit kingdom. The Asian minority of the island were seen as
outsiders and were exterminated inside The Walls,
which is why Mikasa is the only one.
The king used the power of the founding titan to manipulate the memories of every citizen on the island,
so that they would believe that their society was now the last bastion in a post-apocalyptic world.
The royal family retreated to the shadows while a puppet regime took their place,
creating a society at a standstill for the last century.
Eldians still survive on the mainland of Africa, however the tables have turned.
They now live in isolated ghettoes, used by the Marley Empire
only for their Titan abilities if need be, and this is how it was for a century.
The Fritz King threatened that if they were ever attacked, the Founding Titan would end the world.
And so nobody bothered the Eldians on their island of Madagascar for over a century,
Until well, you know.
The thing I find fascinating about this lore is that, yes while it can be about killing giant monsters and fighting
There is so much of it still left unexplored. If this is Earth,
then when does it take place? Is it in some alternate steampunk past?
Or is this the far future, and The Titans are some apocalyptic disaster
that destroyed a past civilization? Have titans always existed, and this is some alternate timeline?
Where are the lemurs if this is Madagascar?
It's a world where because humans can be weapons.
Humans are treated as weapons. And honestly, that to me is more fascinating than just character development.
What do you think? This is Cody, of AlternateHistoryHub.
This video was sponsored by VRV. VRV is an app which allows you access to content from multiple different channels such as
Mondo, Roosterteeth, Seeso,
and even anime providers like Funimation, and Crunchyroll. All these and more in one convenient app
Download it on your phone,
IOS or Android, and even console devices like
Xbox and PlayStation. There are absolutely no ads and everything is in HD
So no worries on that front. VRV is actually having an offer that allows you a seven day free trial,
using this link. With that you have free access to absolutely everything, so there's a few things
I think you should check out. One, I would recommend diving deeper into Attack on Titan if you find this video interesting.
Not only that but Harmon Quest as well,
Where Dan Harmon (creator of Rick and Morty, and Community) plays Dungeons & Dragons with his friends, and Guest stars and it's
Probably one of my favorite things that come out in a while
Anyway click on the link in the description to begin your free trial to the VRV app. This is Cody, of AlternateHistoryHub.