Theory A theory on Titans in the Walls

[Themistocles]

So, I've not been around too long, but here is a theory I came up with. well, theory might not be the best word, but anyways

I'll start off by saying I was thinking about "purpose" and "Titans" prompted by what Armin says in Chapter 20, Pg 15 at the top here: http://www.mangareader.net/shingeki-no-kyojin/20/15

Like, Titans exist for the sole purpose of eating humans, they are mindless without higher function than that. The deviants types obviously deviate from that (being not perfect Titans?) while the Shifters are a whole other story


But even Eren needs a purpose to shift: to defeat the Titans, to plug this breach with the rock, to pick up this spoon, etc..

and I assume Reiner and Bertholdt are similar (I have to destroy this gate, I have to wipe out humanity).

Annie was perhaps: I need to kidnap Eren
Ymir's perhaps was: I need to protect Christa

Basically, a case can be made for a shifter needing a purpose to shift into Titan form.

So, I began to wonder: what purpose do the Titans within the walls have?

Immediately I thought of this: Well, to protect of course. But protect who from whom?

Now the formation of the walls, shown-ish below lead me to believe that they were protecting humans from the Titans (this is without bringing in the embedded Titans yet)

Spoiler

Yet, the secret writings on the map within each volume (sorry, I would have a link but my skills fail me at the moment) tell of the walls being prepared. Prepared for the Titans me thinks?


So now I think: the creators of the wall purposed the wall to be created to protect "the Ideal Humanity" from the Titans which are purposed to "eat" humans, the "unneeded" ones in this Ideal Humanity.


Now, with the revelation of the Titans within the walls themselves, this makes it more plausible, see if the people who made the walls in preparation, also made the Titan outbreak, then their purposes are consistent and tada! stuff!

but hold on.

Usually a protector is shown facing the enemy and protecting that which is behind him

But look at this: http://i29.mangapanda.com/shingeki-no-kyojin/34/shingeki-no-kyojin-3363237.jpg

(if the link doesn't work, it is chapter 34, pages 8-11)

The Titan is facing inside the wall. So here is my thoughts: who is the Titan protecting, and what is it protecting from?

I remember Ymir suggesting the Enemy is not the Titans, but as many have speculated the enemy could either be the government, the wall cultist group, or both.

So I really thought of the Terra Cotta Army as well. The TC army was made to protect Emperor Qin in the afterlife (I apologize to those who know this way better than me for anything I get wrong), and were facing east against his enemies standing in battle ready formations.


I thought, well what if the Titans are not protecting the people inside the walls, but protecting someone or something from the center? I use the center to mean either people, or some machine, or some truth. Basically the Center to me is an unidentified 'noun' that has some unknown importance to the story and the truth of the story.

When this center, this thing does whatever it does, perhaps the Titans within the walls are there to stop it. remember Armin's words: I feel like someday soon they'll get up and walk in on us (something like that)

The people living within the walls think it's for their protection, when it could be that the ones being protected are elsewhere. Perhaps RBA's village? Or some unknown place. Either way, I think that the Titans within the walls, and so the walls themselves are not suppose to protect humanity forever.

The cultists calling the walls divine and sacred is a tip off for me. It means something important happened with those Titans. There is a reason, and a truth there that we don't know. I'm suggesting that what things seem like in the manga so far may not be as they actually are.


One thing, to end off with, Isayama uses contradictions or seeming contradictions within his story in an interesting way, not as mistakes, but as a literary device. Which is why I think it isn't too far-fetched to believe that the walls (which should exist to protect humanity) in fact are not meant to protect humanity.

 

[Huesoman]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

I like the idea, and you can add that in the second ending of the anime there is like a square between the 2 armies, I can think of that square being the castle at the center of the circle formed by the walls, maybe the wall titans are protecting people inside that castle (the nobility), I mean maybe the nobility are no common humans, maybe all they are shifters. By the way, I do think Wall Shina is full of titans but I don't think Rose nor Maria have titans inside them.

 

[kannazuki]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

I like the reference to the Terra Cotta Army. I wonder if-- since all of the wall titans must be colossal types (like Bert)-- they are a threat to all humans and all titans as long as they come in large enough numbers to be able to back each other up?

 

[Garybald]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

What if titans were not protecting anything, what if instead the wall provided to stop them? That would also work if we think of what the Wall Cult guy said about not letting the titan see sunlight. If the wall-titan was there of his own will, him coming back alive thanks to sunlight would not represent a threat for humanity.. am i wrong?

 

[kannazuki]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

Unless they were told that when they awaken, they can/must wreak havoc?

 

[Garybald]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

Unless they were told that when they awaken, they can/must wreak havoc?

I noticed my theory somehow collides with what is said in the hidden upside-down writings. Walls were already there, "previously prepared" for humanity to come and inhabit them. To create a valid and powerful theory we should insert also Shifters in it, and possibly titans on humanity's side.

 

[teioh]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

Really interesting theory.

Now: if only the sunlight can activate them how can they awake inside the walls? It's a casuality (not 100% sure as someone theorize) that Annie open a breach where that colossal titan sleep nope?

If knowed by R&B that those titans are there for a murderous intent they could easly free them and let them awake to kill the humanity nope?

 

[Zinc]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

sunlight gives energy to the titans right ? but the titan's face wasn't covered by a cloth , just the wall , so how were the titans kept in place without wrecking havoc while the wall was being built ? what if the titans inside the walls were actually titan shifters that sacrificed themselves as pillars for the wall and without sunlight they go in a comatose state and not actually die and would reveal secrets that endangers the church's ideals if they are awoken

 

[teioh]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

But... It's really a good idea to build walls in this way? And if this is true then the material of the walls itself is not stone but hardened Titan skin or something?

 

[kannazuki]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

Nope; titan crystal, like the stuff Annie encased herself within. Armin and/or Hange speculated there were more titans in the walls. Sorry I can't remember the chapter right now... (but this is why the wall cult was so opposed to major maintenance on the walls-- both because nothing is stronger than that crystal and because the titans could be discovered)

 

[Themistocles]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

thanks for the replies, there are definitely more information to be considered, but when talking to a friend of mine taking a science degree, he theorized that the titan power may have something to do with using the sun's energy (all of it, including infrared, and other forms of sun-light) and using that energy to make the Titan body. At least for shifters they are conjuring a Titan's body, not transforming. This includes a reason for the heat of the shifters and the steam, it is energy escaping in the easiest form.

Perhaps the Titans within the wall function on a similar principle. Without sun-light they go into a dormant mode (perhaps like cold-blooded animals when in a cold room?).

 

[kannazuki]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

Considering Hange-san's light deprivation experiments, that's what I've been going with for the time being.

 

[teioh]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

What about night walker titans?

However Walls can't be made of crystal, it's transparent as the cocoon of Annie.

 

[kannazuki]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

Sawney and Bean wound down and became lethargic after different amounts of time had passed. It probably varies from titan to titan, and there may be a way (which the ape titan knows) to manipulate the night-time suitability of a (new) titan, or to allow them to store energy, or allow them to use the energy from food eaten in human form or such. As for the walls, they obviously wouldn't be 100% crystal. The exterior (the parts which cracked) is probably made of ordinary building materials. It's unclear whether it would be a solid seam along the interior or if it's just in the for joints and connecting pieces but the crystal could reinforce that wall a lot, since apparently nothing can break it (so far).

 

[ImmortalZodd]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

I don't think they are made by crystals (even partially), just hardened skin material.
http://www.mangareader.net/shingeki-no-kyojin/37/7
Hanji said "it got cut off from Annie's titan body" about a small fragment that she was carrying. Althought in the next page she said that it was the crystal that she compared to the pieces of the wall, I think that could be a translation error or something like that.
Since they couldn't even scratch the crystal around Annie with their steel blades and all that.

 

[kannazuki]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

If there was a jagged edge poking out of the crystal Annie hastily surrounded herself with, that small part of it could have been structurally weak enough to break apart from the rest. I don't think she was taking her time and making the most perfect cocoon she could for herself, you know?

 

[Themistocles]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

I wonder if Annie can break out of her own crystal.

Because if so, they're defenses aren't the going to stop her. I wonder if she becomes like the Titans in wall being dormat and all that, or if she is conscious

 

[kannazuki]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

Hmm. I don't know if she can do it herself, or if only other titans can. Maybe exposure to sunlight makes a difference?

 

[Themistocles]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

hm. Questions, questions that need answering.

maybe the Scouting Corps returns to find Annie gone and the place in a wreak, or she is still there trapped, and helpless to escape, but unable to be questioned at least.

 

[Utsune]

Re: A theory on Titans in the Walls (Spoilers)

Thought I'd post here even though it was a point kkck raised in the other thread (Potential Leak Thread.) This concerns the number of Titans in the Walls.

Below are a few images I hastily found on the Internet:

Spoiler

I'm going make a very rough estimate on the number of Titans inside.

Assuming they're all filled with 50m class all standing next to each other (I trust Armin on that...!) :
50m class is about 25 times larger than an adult human.
One adult standing next to another takes up about 1m in length.
So two 50m class takes up 25m in length.
Diameter of Wall Maria = 480km, so Wall Maria Circumference ≒ 3000km
That means 240 000 50m class Titans are inside Wall Maria ALONE. Holy Moly..................

Wall Rose has 95 000.

Wall Sina has 63 000.

This is a very rough estimate, you can expect 25%~50% error depending on how spread they're standing. But even with 50% less, it doesn't matter --- I don't think I've ever said "it doesn't matter" and actually mean it with all my heart in my life, ever.

Oh aaaand by the way, I have NOT included the Protruding Walls (such as Trost.) A very rough guesstimate from the picture would be about 3 x 50 000, with is 150 000. But the picture specifically states it's not drawn to scale, so I'll just leave this out.

The total number of Wall Titans ≒ 398 000 (~400 000, which is ~half a million, without the Protruding Districts.)

Population of Tokyo is about 13 million. Population of London (UK) is about 8 mil. Cape Town is about 3 mil. Baghdad, St Petersburg, Singapore, and Santiago each have 5 mil.

Keep in mind, as far as we know, the current setting of SnK is relatively 'old' and 'undeveloped,' meaning cities are usually less dense and less populated.

Population of London (England) in the 18th Century: 750 000 (source: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Population-history-of-london.jsp)
Bear in mind, London is a capital city.

Meaning, half a million = population of one whole city (small, half of London of the 18th Century)

Quarter of a million = population of one smaller city (or a town maybe? in case there's a 100% error in my estimation.)



Anyways, this is only based on the assumption that the Walls are ALL FILLED with 50m class.