Attack on Titan’s Season 4 Episode 1 premiere left some disturbing questions for viewers about the fate of Ymir. If you’re wondering if Ymir is dead or alive, the prevailing theories are not good. AoT Season 4 Episode 1 gave us a pretty good idea of what happened.
This article has spoilers for Season 3 and Season 4 Episode 1. It does not contain manga-spoilers. Please try to keep the comments manga-spoilers-free too.
One of the New Titans Might Be Ymir’s Titan
In the premiere of Season 4 Episode 1, there was no sign of Historia’s beloved Ymir. (It’s worth noting that we are talking about Christa’s Ymir and her Titan, not Ymir Fritz the Founding Titan.) With Ymir playing such an important role in previous seasons, it’s still a bit jarring to realize that she’s just gone without any explanation. But Attack on Titan delves deeply into the realism of war, and this is a sad truth in battle. Sometimes people are killed in action or taken hostage, and we don’t find out their fates until much, much later.
Ymir didn’t have an easy life, and that’s putting it mildly. She hid her true identity until she needed to protect Christa, and after that she risked her life over and over again for her. But in the end, she chose to leave with Reiner and Bertholdt and not return with Eren and Christa. She made this decision once she knew Christa’s (aka Historia’s) would likely be safe. And while Ymir’s motives were a little murky, the general idea is that she felt guilty for eating Reiner and Bertholdt’s friend and didn’t want them to return to Marley empty-handed. But in doing so, she sealed her own fate, as she herself had already been punished once by the people of Marley and left to die.
Ymir’s titan is smaller than the other titans and has a very large head, thus the nickname “Jaw” titan. But her titan also moves very quickly — much faster than most titans — and she can speak somewhat through her titan form. Ymir obtained the powers of the “Jaw titan” (one of the nine) by eating Marcel, Reiner and Bertholdt’s friend. But now we haven’t seen Ymir in a while and another titan looks suspiciously like it has her powers.
This titan was seen in Season 4 Episode 1 and was working with the Marley combatants. He had nails much like Ymir’s, a powerful jaw, and was similarly shaped, able to run on all fours and attack quickly.
Most fans believe that Galliard has taken Ymir’s titan, which means that unless there was another titan (or two) in between, Galliard might have eaten Ymir. So yes, all signs point to the “lion looking” titan in Season 4 Episode 1 having Ymir’s powers. Ymir is most likely dead.
Historia’s Memory Indicated Ymir Might Have Died
Although Ymir’s fate was never clearly spelled out, a memory of Historia’s hinted that Ymir was likely eaten by another titan. But the memory was so fast during Season 3 that you might have missed it. I missed it at first myself. Here’s the video, which occurred when Historia was reading Ymir’s letter to her and then saw Ymir’s memories.
And here are the two screenshots indicating Ymir’s likely fate:
As you can see, those memories show Ymir tied up just like Eren was when Christa was asked to eat him. In this case, it looks like Ymir actually was eaten. We aren’t shown the moment, but are left to guess based on Galliard now having Titan powers very similar to her own.
It makes sense that Ymir would be dead. Reiner and Bertholdt likely took her back to Marley, since they had to abandon their goal of capturing Eren in order to fight a different battle at some point. The people of Marley have no sympathy for the Eldians, and they put a lot of time into training a select few Eldians to take on the Founding Titan’s powers. There’s no reason they would just leave those powers with someone they couldn’t trust (aka Ymir.) Instead, they would of course feed Ymir to someone who had trained for that purpose and proven their loyalty. So yes, Reiner and Bertholdt knew that in taking Ymir to their hometown, they were taking her to a certain death.
Season 4 simply confirmed what fans already feared. We won’t be seeing Ymir again.
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