For thousands of years, the past of Paradis Island and the Eldians has been veiled in obscurity. The Titan’s powers and origins are one of the most important secrets that have been argued numerous times on online forums. Although Marylean and Eldian believe that Ymir was the first to develop the mysterious skills, they have differing tales of how she did it. If you’re interested in learning more about how she became a Titan or what it truly means to be a Subject of Ymir in ‘Attack on Titan,’ we’ve got you covered. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

What Steps Did Ymir Take to Become a Titan?

Previous seasons showed that Ymir was the first to get the unusual skills, but there has been no unanimous agreement on how she did it. The Marleyans were convinced that she struck a bargain with the devil to get the strange powers, which were then divided into the Nine Titans after her death. While Ymir, like Marley, was feared and despised in most parts of the world, the restorationists revered her as a deity. However, the truth differs greatly from the contradictory hypotheses proposed by all of these organizations.

Ymir lived in a tranquil town two thousand years ago until the Eldians attacked and controlled the region. They enslaved the locals and even severed people’s tongues. Fritz, the new king, controlled the hamlet mercilessly and punished individuals according to his whims and fancies. As a result, when a few pigs escaped the pen when Ymir left the gate open one day, she was permitted to flee and then hunted down by bloodthirsty Eldians as punishment. She was badly injured in the process and wound up under a big tree with a fissure at its roots.

To deceive the Eldians, Ymir chose to take refuge inside the tree and fell into a pool of water. As her frail body sinks gently, it looks that she had made peace with her fate and did not fight. In an unusual turn of events, a bizarre spine-like creature swimming alongside her united with her body. Ymir was instantly transformed into a Titan in front of the hunters, who were urgently searching for the small girl, whom they were intended to kill.

Despite this, Ymir stayed faithful to King Fritz and helped the Eldians become a formidable colonizing force. She also helped with the kingdom’s infrastructure development by building roads and bridges, and she served Fritz until her last breath, after which she ended up in the Coordinate. On their father’s behest, the daughters Ymir had with the King consumed her flesh in order to gain Titan might.

Who Are Ymir’s Subjects?

The Subjects of Ymir are Ymir’s direct descendants who can transform into Titans under certain conditions. Years before her death, Ymir earned King Fritz’s trust by serving his country faithfully and assisting it in becoming a major colonizing force. The King rewarded her by having children with her, thereby establishing the ethnic group that would later populate Paradis Island and Marley’s incarceration zone.

As previously stated, the Titan’s power was passed down through generations since King Fritz forced their daughters — Maria, Sina, and Rose — to devour their mother’s corpse. Before his death, he commanded his daughters to bear children and multiply so that the Titans could continue to rule indefinitely. The powers were passed down as planned over the years until Eren decided to break the never-ending cycle of anguish and misery with his equally vile genocidal plot by beginning the rumble.

All of Ymir’s subjects were linked to the mysterious power that gathered at the Coordinate surrounded by an unknown region. Ymir lived there all by herself for thousands of years, obeying the royal family’s orders. While some (such as Zeke) see her as a slave and others as a goddess, it was eventually Eren who reminded her that she, too, had a choice, just like everyone else.

Those lovely words were exactly what Ymir had been hoping to hear, and they were ultimately what freed her from the agony of enslavement. However, even after her powers were transferred to Eren, the bonds between the Subjects of Ymir were not severed, implying that there is something special that links her descendants together. It is precisely this link that distinguishes the Subjects of Ymir.