| “ | If that happens, Eldia will never rise again! | „ |
| ~ Comrade D upon hearing Marley’s plan to steal the Founding Titan’s power. |
The Peering Titan, also known as Comrade D, is a minor antagonist in Attack on Titan. He was an Eldian of Marley from the Liberio internment zone and accomplice of the Owl and Grisha Yeager, being a member of the Eldian Restorationists. After the betrayal of the Restorationist mole from the Marleyan military, Zeke Yeager, he and the rest of the movement were arrested by the Public Security Authorities for treason and exiled to Paradis Island as Pure Titans for eternity.
Appearance[]
Human form[]
He was in his human days, a middle-aged man with long, tousled brown hair and big brown eyes. His skin was tanned and his face had a very distinct look, having strong marks across his eyes and mouth. He was seen wearing a black jacket with a grey button up shirt under it, along with a white blazer.
Pure Titan form[]
His Pure Titan form resembled his human form a lot, he had the same ruffled crop of hair and facial structure. His eyes were larger than average and has the same lines across his face, that has an irritated expression to it. His height as a titan was quite small, being only around 4 meters in length.
But for the most part, his overall appearance does stay the same as that of his human form.
Personality[]
While living as a human, he was shown to be a zealous man, heavily advocating for the revival of the Eldian Empire and being proud of his fallen nation’s history, which caused him to have a distain for Marley and wished to see its downfall. But he is also shown to have a nervous side, being visibly frightened of the idea that Marley could potentially take the Founding Titan’s power, and he spent the last moments of his human life crying in fear of being turned into a Pure Titan.
Story[]
Past[]
He was born an Eldian man in the nation of Marley and used to live inside an Eldian internment zone in the city of Liberio. He was presumably subjected to the same treatment other Eldians had to endure in Marley, being heavily stigmatized and discriminated against by the population. He would eventually join the Eldian Restorationists movement, which was organized by a mole informant within the Marleyan government known as "the Owl". Along with the rest of his comrades, he advocated for the fall of Marley and rebirth of Eldia.
In 824, "Comrade D" was present at the welcoming of their newest member, Grisha Yeager, and watched Grisha's reaction upon learning about the causes of his sister's death that occured seven years ago, at the hands of a Public Security officer; an information disclosed by the spy Owl himself. The man angrily cheered Grisha on with his fellow comrades as he tearfully carved his flesh with a knife as a sign of patriotism. Along with his comrades, he was seen receiving boxes full of firearms stolen from the military sent by the Owl.
Later on the same year, he was seen along with Grisha, Grice, and the other Restorationists reading old writings and illustrations sent by the Owl, which narrated Eldia's development from a small tribe into a powerful nation. The man listened to Grisha's own assumption that the "goddess" Ymir Fritz helped the continent prosper using the power of her Titan, firmly claiming that any negative aspect and event of Eldia's history was either fabricated by Marley and other enemy nations, or that any conflict was the fault of any other party other than Eldia.
On the same day, another Restorationist joined the meeting, bringing along with him a new member sent by the Owl himself, Dina Fritz, who introduced herself as the last living member of Eldia's true royal family that ruled most of the world for centuries. Comrade D was seen sitting with the other rebels as Dina provided more detailed information from the Fritz family about the history of the Great Titan War and the defeat of the 145th King Karl Fritz, who had survived and moved the kingdom to Paradis Island where he had erected the Walls.
Following the Owl's indirect instructions and Dina's exposition, Grisha concluded that the Restorationists' ultimate goal was to retake the power of the Founding Titan and bring it back to the mainland in order to use it to control all the other seven of the Nine Titans under Marley's control and use them to wage war and instigate riots within the internment zones to take down Marley once more. The Restorationists at that point were unaware about the specific conditions to use the Founder's powers. After Dina explained that King Karl had refused to fight with the Founding Titan, Grisha declared the Subjects of Ymir to be the "chosen people of God", as it was claimed during the days of the Eldian Empire, and that the Restorationists would infiltrate the Walls in the near future and retake the power of the Founding Titan from the royal family's branch of the Walls to give it back to Dina's line. The other Restorationists hailed passionately in response, crying out for Eldia's revival.
Six years later, in 830, the Marleyan government announced the training of soldiers for the military's Warrior program, to inherit six of the Nine Titans. However, this time the government decided to accept only young children as eligible to become Warriors, and no longer adult soldiers. Comrade D was seen during an alarming discussion with the other Restorationists, listening to Grisha reading the Owl's disclosure of information that at the time was still secret affairs of state of the Marleyan government concealed from the public. For almost a century, Marley had been ruling as the world's superpower nation by using the Titan soldiers of the Eldian Unit to pursue the nation's imperialistic policies, but with the constant progress of human technology, it was clear that the long age of Titan world domination was finally coming to an end, and the main source of military power was going to be fuel, not Eldian blood. The Owl's letter revealed to the Restorationists that Marley was preparing an invasion in Paradis Island's Walls, by sending the Warriors to take down the remaining royal family and reclaim the Founding Titan for their own, in order to nullify the threat of the Rumbling posed by the Colossal Titans within the Walls and being able to seize all the rare resources on the island.
Upon hearing such reveal, Comrade D became frightened that Eldia would never see the light of day again if that happened, and the Restorationists were all adults, thus not eligible for the new Warrior program. Grisha, however, reassured his comrades with a proposition of his own; to make his and Dina's royal-blooded son, Zeke, a Restorationist mole and enlist him into the military to become one of the Marleyan Warriors. The Restorationists accepted to entrust to Zeke the mission to steal the Founding Titan from the Walls and Marley.
However, in 832, Zeke betrayed his parents and turned them and the rest of the Restorationist movement in. Exposed by the government, the Restorationists were all arrested by the Marleyan Public Security Authorities for treason and terrorism. They were tortured for information about the Owl's identity, then sentenced to exile for life to be "sent to Heaven" as Pure Titans on the penal colony Paradis Island.
While the majority of the Restorationists were injected by the soldiers of Public Security with a serum to transform Subjects of Ymir into Titans, Comrade D was kept aside for a while, along with Grisha and Dina, whilst Grice was spared from the life sentence and instead used as bait for the other Titanized Restorationists to chase and devour him far away from Marley's wharf. After Dina was also injected and sent to join the other Titans chasing Grice away, only Comrade D and Grisha remained, both missing all their fingers. The man did not protest nor begged to receive death like Grice over becoming a Titan, and instead was crying in silent despair and terror, presumably not expecting any mercy.
Sergeant Major Gross, who was in charge of the deportations of Eldian prisoners from Marley's north-eastern territories, specifically deciced to turn Comrade D into a 3 or 4 meter Titan and have Grisha fed to him for sport. He was injected and kicked off the wharf's wall by Gross, as the latter discussed life, human nature and morality with Grisha. Once he became the "Peering Titan", Gross pointed at him to Grisha to tell him that Subjects of Ymir are not real human beings, but only monsters, whose real forms are the Titan ones they take after they are injected with body fluids. Gross attempted to push Grisha off the wall to suffer a slow death at the hands of the Titan, but instead he himself was pushed off by his own comrade of Public Security, Eren Kruger (the Owl's true identity). Gross came face to face with the Peering Titan who was looking down at the Sergeant with his hands on his knees, he would then grab Gross up and eat him alive, biting his face off. The Titan walked away towards north to the inner island afterwards.
At some point in or between 845 and 850, the Peering Titan entered the territories of Wall Maria, which had fallen to hordes of Pure Titans from Marley during 845, after an attack from the south by the Marleyan military, specifically three Titan soldiers of the Warrior Unit.
Battle of Trost District Arc[]
The Peering Titan is part of the hordes of Pure Titans who invade Wall Rose in 850, following a second attack of the Walls by the Colossal Titan from the south at Trost District. He is presumably involved with the annihilation of the entire Garrison vanguard, who fail to hold the Titans off until the civilian evacuation at Trost is completed. By the time multiple squads of the 104th Training Corps are sent to fight on the lines, the Peering Titan is roaming around the city's streets, hanging around the "Jumping Titan", the "Bearded Titan", the "Bigmouth Titan", them being three of his former Restorationist comrades who were injected along with him 18 years ago. The Titans encounter a Trainee squad led by Thomas Wagner and they attack them, killing their leader first and causing confusion, panic and rage among them. During the chaos, the Peering Titan catches his arm on Mina Carolina's maneuvering equipment grapple wire, causing her to crash on the ground. He would then look down on her with his hands on his knees, similarly as how he did with Sergeant Major Gross. The Titan picks Mina up and eats her alive before she can recover.
The Peering Titan makes his way towards the inner city, killing any other Trainee on the way. He is one of the several smaller Titans which manage to enter the military headquarters of Trost, breaking into the equipment depot and killing all the Trainees in the supply rooms, whilst all the other soldiers retreated to the building's upper floors. In the anime version, the Peering Titan is seen devouring another Trainee.
The Titan remains there with six others for a long time, until later they are suddenly joined by the arrival of Trainees armed with rifles and led by Marco Bott on an elevator, as part of Armin Arlert's plan to clear out the Titans from the depot. The seven Titans are simultaneously attacked from behind by Mikasa Ackerman, Reiner Braun, Bertolt Hoover, Annie Leonhart, Jean Kirstein, Connie Springer, and Sasha Braus, and five of them are killed. Sasha and Connie miss their kills, however, and are attacked by the Peering Titan and another one, causing Sasha to panic and irrationally starting to apologize to the Peering Titan for the attempted kill, whilst he approaches her. The Peering Titan jumps on Sasha, but misses her, and then Mikasa kills him, whilst Annie kills with the one attcking Connie.
Trivia[]
- The Peering Titan is the only Titan from the Eldian Restorationists not killed by Eren. This was most likely the result of the Titan wandering into the headquarters rather than remain outside as its other Titan comrades did given their larger sizes.
Gallery[]
