About The Founder, Ymir – Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2

We have to segue from the events of this most recent season to revisit the OVAs from the first season, particularly the first episode titled “Ilse’s Notebook”, which covers events from at some point before Hanji manages to lead the capture of Titans Sawney and Bean. During a routine scouting mission beyond the walls, Hanji and the Levi squad are intercepted by a blonde aberrant that chases Hanji a distance before running back to a patch of forest for some strange reason. When they chase it down, they kill it in combat and soon stumble upon a diary and a body in the hollow of the tree that the Titan was so eager to return to.

About a year before Bertolt destroyed the wall, a woman named Ilse Langnar was a Survey Corps member who was part of the 34th expedition beyond the walls (for reference, the main characters’ first expedition beyond the walls was the 57th). This was long before we knew anything about the titans, and not long after the first time, we ever saw one of the Titans in the wall.

Ilse’s entire squadron was annihilated by Titans and she was left stranded without any real hope of safely making it back to the wall. Armed with nothing but a notebook, Ilse decided that she’ll make some kind of contribution, no matter how small, one that will one day lead humanity to freedom from the fear that has shackled them for 100 years. She documents everything she sees in a diary and accounts for her bizarre encounter with a Titan that spoke to her. It said, “Subject of Ymir. Ymir-sama. I am honoured.” when it got a good look at her face. It then bowed, showing clear reverence towards the puzzled woman.

At this point in the canonical story, a talking Titan was simply unheard of; however, we’d gotten a really good taste of Aberrants, and this particular Titan was very easily designated Aberrant status, hence written off by the audience as a piece of truly important, and plot-destroying lore. Ilse realizes that this is finally an opportunity to make actual contact with a Titan beyond being eaten, and tries to question why Titans do what they do, but the Titan gets frustrated, tearing at its own face possibly in an attempt to think and provide answers to the various difficult questions Ilse posed, like “What are you?”, “Where do you come from?” and “Why do you eat us?”