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| “ | Grisha... I... No matter what I become... Don't worry. I'll find you. | „ |
| ~ Dina's vow to Grisha Yeager as she is about to be transformed into a Pure Titan. |
Dina Yeager, neé Fritz, also known as the Smiling Titan, is a supporting antagonist in the anime/manga series Attack on Titan. She returns as a flashback character in the Return to Shiganshina arc, the Marley arc and the War for Paradis arc, mostly as a human.
She is an Eldian of Marley, from the city of Liberio, and a member of the royal family of the former Eldian Empire. She is the first wife of Grisha Yeager and the mother of Zeke Yeager, the former stepmother of Eren Yeager, and the Abnormal Pure Titan who killed Grisha's second wife and Eren's mother, Carla, during the invasion of Wall Maria, driving Eren to swear revenge against the Titans.
Five years after their first encounter, Eren encounters the Smiling Titan again during his escape from the Armored Titan. She kills Hannes in front of Eren and Mikasa. Eren, who is by now an Intelligent Titan, unknowingly uses the power of the Coordinate against the Smiling Titan, which works thanks to Dina's royal blood, resulting in Dina being devoured by other Pure Titans. Eren and the rest of the Survey Corps witness this as they escape the Armored Titan.
The life of this woman-turned-monster had been full of contradiction and tragedy that only ended with her death at the hands of Eren, who, after learning the Titans' origins, loses his hatred for her and Pure Titans in general.
She is voiced by Nozomi Kishimoto in the Japanese version, and by Erika Harlacher in the English dubbed.
Contents
- 1 Appearance
- 2 Background
- 3 Biography
- 3.1 Prologue arc
- 3.2 104th Training Corps arc
- 3.3 Clash of the Titans arc
- 4 Aftermath
- 5 Trivia
- 6 Navigation
Appearance[]
The "Smiling Titan" is 46–50 feet tall and it is shown to lack intelligence like other Titans in its class. Its main distinguishing feature is its characteristic grinning smile; in which its lips are fixed wide open, exposing its teeth and gums within at all times. In the anime, the white part of its right eye is a luminescent yellow color, reminiscent of heterochromia.
The Smiling Titan has a thin emaciated frame with stocky proportions, in which its ribs are visibly apparent, and it possessed an unusually long neck. It has medium-length dark hair that only barely reaches down its head. Though it is like many other Titans in terms of its instinct to seek out and eat humans, it is been shown to kill Carla before devouring her.
Background[]
Dina Fritz was born in the nation of Marley as a direct member of the bloodline of the Fritz royal family; that makes Dina a distant relative of Historia Reiss of the Reiss royal family. She, along with her husband Grisha Yeager, was a core member of the Eldian Restorationists, an underground organization in the Liberio internment zone comprised of discontented Eldians in Marley seeking to overthrow the nation's government, start a new war and revive Eldia through conquest. The rebel movement was guided under the leadership of an anonymous mole known as "the Owl", who was working in the Marleyan government and providing the rebels with inside information of state, and firearms.
Eventually, Dina and Grisha fell in love and married, giving birth to Zeke Yeager in 825. Although she and Grisha attempted to raise Zeke as a loyal Eldian devoted to the Restorationists' cause like they had, their teachings were too much for young Zeke who suffered identity crisis. It was fully revealed in chapter 114, that she and her husband Grisha indoctrinated their son Zeke very harshly to the point of brainwashing, never stop to think about how burdening their indoctrination must be for Zeke. Dina and Grisha also tried to force Zeke to shorten his lifespan by having him join the Warrior program to inherit a Titan power and infiltrate the Paradis Island Operation so he could steal the Founding Titan from both Paradis and Marley and bring it to Liberio to further the Restorationists' agenda. Ultimately Zeke, urged by his mentor Tom Xaver and to save the lives of his grandparents as well as his own, betrayed his parents and tipped them off to Marley's Public Security Authorities. In 832, Grisha and Dina were arrested and all the Eldian restorationists, except their leader Owl, were purged in a single day.
Grisha and Dina, along with their fellow Restorationists, were tortured for interrogation and confessed their plan to have Zeke infiltrate the military as a Warrior, to steal the Founding Titan from both Paradis and Marley in the future, for the sake of the Eldians in the zones. Like her accomplices, Dina had all her fingers slowly severed during the interrogation, but she never reveals to the soldiers of Public Security that she is a member of the Fritz family, and such possibility was never brought up during the interrogation. After confirming that none of the Restorationists know the identity of their leader mole Owl, the authorities of Marley condemned them all to exile and transformation into Pure Titans, to wonder mindlessly in Paradis Island, the penal colony for Eldians in Marley. Before she was turned into a Titan, Dina promised that she would find Grisha's Titan, no matter what she would become. As she was mocked and injected by Sergeant Major Gross, Dina smiled in acceptance of her fate, causing her Titan form to bear its signature grin. Dina's Titan proceeds to join the other Titans in chasing Grice, who was left running away as a human to be devoured by his own friends.
The "Smiling Titan" is the unofficial name of Dina's Pure Titan that was notable for killing Eren's mother, Carla Yeager, the new wife of her former husband during the invasion of Wall Maria.
Biography[]
Prologue arc[]
When the Colossal Titan breached through the gates of Shiganshina District in 845, many Titans made their way inside the city, and among them was the Smiling Titan. Before entering the destroyed gate of Shiganshina District, Dina showed Abnormal Titan behavior when she ignored the child Warrior Bertolt Hoover, who was standing in front of her after emerging from his Titan, missing her chance to return human by inheriting the Colossal Titan. It is revealed in the manga final chapter, that Eren Yeager from the future used the power of the Coordinate to control Dina's Titan and make her ignore Bertolt, because according to Eren it was not his time to die yet (the same reason why he left Rod Reiss alive on the same year). Eren used his power to direct Dina specifically to his parents' house at Shiganshina, so that she could eat his own mother Carla and drive the events of the story, basically manipulating his younger self.
Following the instructions sent by the Coordinate, Dina immediately went after the house of her husband Grisha, where her stepson Eren and Grisha's new wife, Carla lived. As she was approaching Grisha's house, she was witnessed by Eren and Mikasa Ackerman as they tried to free Carla under debris of the house, which was destroyed by the Colossal Titan. Though Hannes, a soldier of the Garrison and friend of the Yeagers, initially came to their aid and decided to face the Smiling Titan, he stood catatonic in fear of its frightening appearance. After Hannes realized that he was too afraid to face it, he opted to take Eren and Mikasa to safety, leaving Carla behind. Afterward, Eren witnessed the Smiling Titan pull his mother out of the debris, as it proceeded to violently incapacitate her and devour her thereafter. This incident, along with the other horrors of the attack on Shiganshina and the loss of territory and freedom, would instill a hatred of all Titans within Eren.
104th Training Corps arc[]
Two years later, in 847, during Eren's first day of training to enlist into the military, this incident is shown to have left a traumatizing impact on Eren. This was evident when he was approached by his fellow Trainees about his impressions regarding normal Titans, in which Eren experienced a flashback of the Smiling Titan devouring Carla; associating Pure Titans to the trauma caused by the Smiling Titan. He remains silent and is visibly shaken by the thought, until maintaining his composure in front of his classmates and shrugging it off as he pretended to be unaffected by their questions.
Clash of the Titans arc[]
Three years later in 850, after Eren had already joined the Survey Corps, the Smiling Titan appeared again before Eren and Mikasa outside a forest of giant trees in a region of Wall Maria, during the military's pursuit of the Armored Titan, Bertholdt Hoover and Ymir, who had kidnapped Eren and Historia Reiss. After the Armored Titan resorted to throwing Pure Titans in direction of the Survey Corps, the Garrison and the Military Police, the resounding crashes attracted the Smiling Titan's attention, and her appearance horrifies Eren and Mikasa. Hannes, at this point a Unit Captain, tries to fight the Titan off in an attempt to both protect Eren and Mikasa, and to make up for failing to stop Carla from being eaten. Unfortunately, the Smiling Titan manages to catch Hannes and then devoured him in a similar manner to Carla, right in front of Eren and Mikasa. After being encouraged by Mikasa, Eren, filled with hatred and wishing for her death, punches her hand away just as she is about to grab him. Unbeknownst to anyone, including Eren himself, the contact with Dina Fritz - a Titan with royal blood - causes Eren to briefly activate the power of the Coordinate in the Founding Titan. The surrounding Pure Titans, sensing Eren's desire/unknowing command for her death, attack the Smiling Titan. They all tackle it, rip it to shreds, and devour it, whilst Eren and Mikasa escape.
Aftermath[]
In general, Eren never thought much about the Smiling Titan, other than seeing her in his traumatized mind, nor expressed a wish to hunt it down before he met her by chance again. He just saw her as another of the many giant monsters he equally hated with a passion. After finding out that Titans might be all of human origins from Ymir's background and the discovery of Connie Springer's mother, Eren starts to abandon his hatred for the Titans and never thinks about Dina, focusing his vendetta on Reiner Braun and Bertolt Hoover instead. As he acknowledges that Pure Titans are just victims and people being "tormented by a nightmare", Eren wonders who is the responsible for all this and who should take the blame.
After discovering the truth of the world in Grisha Yeager's basem*nt in Shiganshina District, Eren learns his father's background from his diary, one of the three books he left, and discovers that Grisha was married to a woman of royal blood named Dina when he lived in Marley, and that they had a son named Zeke, as well as receiving definitive confirmation that all the Titans in the world are indeed humans, as the Survey Corps speculated. Eren later unlocks Grisha's memories and personally witnesses all his background through his own eyes and perspective, seeing the outside world, his deceased child aunt Faye, Liberio in Marley, the Eldian Restorationists, the truth behind the military's Warrior Unit, the ocean, and the deportation of criminal Marley Eldians to "Heaven" on Paradis Island, where they are made into Pure Titans. Much to his horror, Eren finds out the Smiling Titan was Dina Fritz all along and realizes that the Titans were just as much as victims as the people they killed, all of them being Subjects of Ymir living in Marley's internment zones.
Eren later realizes that the only reason he managed to control Pure Titans, back during the chase against the Armored Titan, was because he made physical contact with Dina's Titan, a member of the Eldian royal family. This makes him realize if he touches a Titan with royal blood, he will be able to use the power of the Coordinate in his Founding Titan. Upon realizing that his real enemies are not Titans, but the entire world, Eren begins to change and becomes disillusioned with his dream of a free wild world outside the Walls. Eren develops pity and sadness for the Titans, especially after discovering his relation to Dina herself.
Born as royal bloodline of Ymir Fritz, Dina spent her life dedicated to trying to free her people from the internment zones, also living most of her life as a spouse, whilst barely raising her son Zeke, who as a result felt no connection to her and felt nothing upon learning about her death. However, all of Dina's diligent life came to a tragic end the moment she turned into a Pure Titan: as a Titan she left a deep, profound psychological scar on Grisha's new family. However, other than eating an Intelligent Titan, there was no way Dina could return to being a human ever again, unless she was captured and kept alive until Eren's death at the end of the Rumbling, in which all the recently made Pure Titans in Marley, plus Connie Springer's mother, all returned human.
Trivia[]
- The scene of Carla Yeager's death is depicted slightly different in the anime and manga. In the manga, the Smiling Titan squeezed her until her spine snaps, making her vomit blood and twitch in its hand before it ate her, whereas, in the anime, it simply breaks her spine off-screen with both hands, showing the Smiling Titan biting downwards with blood spraying afterward.
