Characters / Attack on Titan: Zeke Yeager

Attack on Titan Main Character Index
Shinganshina Trio (Eren Yeager) | Warrior Trio | 104th Trainee Corps (Krista Lenz) | Survey Corps (Levi Ackerman) | Military Police Brigade | Garrison | Titans | Marley [Warrior Unit (Zeke Yeager)] | Eldia | Others | Before the Fall

WARNING: Unmarked spoilers abound. Beware if you are not updated with the manga.

---

Warchief Zeke Yeager

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu, Daiki Yamashita (young) (JP), Jason Liebrecht (EN), Ricardo Brust, Ana Lobo (young) (Latin American Spanish)

Debut: Chapter 70 (Manga), Episode 47 (Anime)

"Isn't war a terrible thing?"

The Warchief of the Warriors, the true identity behind the Beast Titan, and the main antagonist for most of the series. Zeke is the first-born son of Grisha Yeager with his original wife Dina Fritz, and therefore, the older half brother of Eren Yeager. He initially appeared within Wall Rose after the capture of Annie at Stohess, and transformed the people of Ragako Village into Titans in order to test the military's response to the threat. He takes command over Reiner and Bertolt soon afterwards, promising to end their long battle. Zeke is a mysterious and manipulative person whose actions are shadowed in mystery even to his fellow Warriors and superior officers in Marley.

Considered a paragon of the Eldian minority's loyalty towards Marley from an early age, Zeke is a prodigious wielder of the Titan's power due to his ability to control other Titans, and is by far the greatest and mightiest of the "Warriors", earning himself a voice in the inner circle of the Marleyan military's high command as the de-facto internal leader of the Warrior Unit and the flag-carrier for its cause.

---

# - F

• #1 Dime: The old baseball that he and Mr. Ksaver used to play catch with. In the realm of Paths, it's the memento that breaks his nihilism and reminds him that there's more to life than simply existing and surviving.
• The Ace: On top of being a brilliant strategist, Zeke is also considered to be the best recruit to ever inherit the Beast Titan since due to his royal blood, his spinal fluid not only allows him to Titanize Eldians at will, he can also command the Titans produced in this manner not unlike the "Coordinate" ability. He's considered enough of a legend that Colt firmly believes that he wouldn't be able to live up to his predecessor's lineage.
• Achievements in Ignorance: He only has a marginal knowledge of the 3DM gear employed by the Survey Corps, and he sets up a scenario where he thinks the gear cannot be employed against him. It is enough for him to almost annihilate the Survey Corps in the ground, meaning, the recruits. He certainly wasn't counting on the fact that by doing so, he set up a perfect scenario where Levi, both the most experienced and powerful enemy soldier, can reach him unimpeded. Levi then carves him like a cake and almost captures him altogether.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: His human form and its subsequent resemblance to Grisha Yeager — his and Eren's father — is shown (or rather teased, since there's shadow-shading over his details) at the end of the Anime's second season and its adaptation of the Clash of the Titans arc, a full two arcs sooner than when it was introduced in the original manga.
• Affably Evil: While he is utterly merciless in battle and isn't above using harsh measures to keep his subordinates in line, Zeke treats his fellow Warriors with kindness (rousing Bertolt and Reiner with a fatherly speech) and even states that he dislikes war.
• Animal Motifs: Monkeys, the smartest animals. Quite fitting as Zeke is one of the more intelligent characters in the show. On the other hand, they also represent Zeke's repressed savage side, which happens to shine through every time he transforms.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Grisha's manipulation of him as a child has left Zeke with an overwhelming hatred for the man, referring to himself as Grisha's "former son". He turned his parents in to the authorities as a child, and considers Eren another victim of Grisha that needs to be rescued.
• Arch-Enemy: Levi hates his guts for killing off most of the Survey Corps, including Erwin, and repeatedly voiced his desire to cut him to pieces even when they have to cooperate. He ultimately succeeds in killing Zeke, but only when Zeke practically invites him to do so.
• An Arm and a Leg: Both of his arms along with one of his legs are sliced off after being forced out of his Titan form by Levi. This was intentional on Levi's part in order to keep Zeke from generating a new Titan body. After nearly dying from the thunderspear explosion, Zeke sees a mysterious girl who uses the power of the Titans to restore him.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: It appears that any Warrior can challenge their leader to assert their dominance should viewpoints clash, if needs be. Zeke is noticeably the oldest of all the Warriors shown and clearly the most dominant, and the other Warriors look up to as the standard to live up to.
• Back for the Dead: After a 15 chapter absence, going from 122 to 137, Zeke returned from inside the Founding Titan to offer himself up to Levi. His death stopped the Rumbling, as it was his blood that made the connection possible for Eren to utilize the power.
• Back from the Dead: In chapter 115, Zeke is dying due to facing the ground zero explosion of the thunderspear. Suddenly a pure Titan emerges from nowhere, rips open its guts and stuffs Zeke's carcass inside. Zeke suddenly witnesses a little girl (Ymir Fritz) who rebuilds and restores his body. Zeke miraculously returns to life and emerges from the Titan carcass.
• The Band Minus the Face: Zeke is the Warrior Unit. He is their leader, their main strategist, their role model, and nothing short of their big brother. Goes to show how much damage he did by turning against them.
• Barbarian Longhair: During his time on Paradis, he let his hair grow out long and unkempt. Once back in Marley, he resumes normal grooming practices.
• Bash Brothers: At Fort Slava, he takes on this dynamic with Reiner. Their assault on the fortress involves Reiner's brute force combined with Zeke's long-range attacks.
• Bearer of Bad News: Implied Trope. Zeke states to Lady Azumabito that he continued his parents' mission to restore Eldia to its former glory, but it's implied that he dug more into the research that Kruger had leaked to his dad and beyond, and what he found is not pretty; it's further hinted that what he found about not only the Eldians, but also about himself, is what's been driving him since he was little, and his mission is going to leave mountains of dead people in its wake. There will be blood.
• Big Bad: Zeke is the main villain for the majority of the series. He's the one leading the mission to retrieve the Founder, is ordering Reiner and Bertolt, and while he is actually serving under the Kingdom of Marley, Zeke is more heavily involved in the main plot. It's also heavily implied he has his own motivations for instigating the war between Marley and Paradis Island. After the time-skip, he defects from Marley and helps his brother Eren stage a coup in Paradis. Subverted in the final arc when he unveils his true motive to sterilize the Eldian race only to get outplayed and replaced by Eren, who plans to give the Founding Titan the power to take control of all Titans and end all life outside of Paradis. In fact, Zeke dies stopping Eren.
• Big Brother Instinct: His relationship with the children in the warriors program and to his half brother Eren, rescuing him in the nick of time with a well aimed throw, he even says "big brother is here".
• Big Brother Mentor: According to Isayama, he's that for the Titan Trio, and demonstrated to be this to the other prospective Warriors. A flashback in Chapter 94 showed him as a teen acting like this to a younger Reiner, Bertolt, Annie, Marcel, Porco, and Pieck.
• Big Damn Heroes: After surviving near-fatal injuries, Zeke wastes no time rushing to Eren's aid, when the latter is dealing with a surprise Marley attack.
• Blessed with Suck: Implied Trope: Even if he were to gain the Coordinate, and as a member of the Eldian Royal Family, there is no guarantee that he wouldn't be subject to the Will of the First King just like the Kings of the Walls before him. As a matter of fact, this is one of the reasons Historia rejects the Coordinate (aside from not wanting Eren to die), as the Will would make her lose her willpower.
• Blue Blood:
  • He is the son of a member of the Eldian Royal family.
  • As stated in Chapter 105, he being of royal blood came into collation during his planning of the Survey Corps' attack on Liberio, on which he was successfully extracted in order to be transported to Paradis.
• Boomerang Bigot: He refers to the Eldians living inside the Walls as a "cursed race", despite the fact that he himself is an Eldian. To be fair to Zeke, this seems to be an attitude that all of Marley forcibly drills into the Eldians' heads. However, his use of the word "cursed" is rather interesting, as Marley typically uses words like "Demons" or "Evil" in their propaganda. Likely one of the first hints that he's not entirely as loyal to Marley as he seems.
• Boring, but Practical: After several tense chapters and much planning by the Yeagerists to find and free him, his grand escape plan to get away from Levi in chapter 112 essentially amounts to... "run away screaming really, really fast as soon as his back is turned". Unfortunately, this would probably have been hilarious if it weren't for the fact that his men secretly drugged soldiers all across Paradis and his scream transforms them into Titans right above Levi's head. Somewhat subverted in the next chapter however, as it turns out it wasn't so "practical" due to the ease with which Levi disposes of the Titans.
• Break the Haughty: Big time. Twice over — once before the timeskip, another three afterwords:
  • Zeke initially looked down on the Paradis/Wall inhabitants as either misguided or insignificant and believed himself (and possibly Titans in general) their superior in both intelligence and strength. But then Levi — a single soldier ^note albeit a Super-Soldier from a specific clan that gene-modded themselves — manages to single-handedly take out his entire Titan army, completely decimate his Titan-form, take off three of his limbs and nearly capture or kill him outright. This results in Zeke not only losing any and all trace of smugness towards the Wall soldiers, but becoming completely terrified of Levi to the point of calling him a monster and even four years after the fact states he never wants to face him or any other member of the Ackerman clan ever again.
  • Originally confident in the power of the Titans being indomitable, any trace of haughtiness that Levi didn't cut out of Zeke at Shinganshina was officially blown away in the final battle of the Eastern-Union war that took place during the time-skip. Specifically, at the moment Zeke not only realized there were weapons that could match his throwing range and accuracy level (which had always been his greatest advantage), but that said weapons would have outright killed him in one shot if not for Reiner taking the hit (and nearly dying himself) instead.
  • Gets this again post timeskip in chapter 113. He thinks he's outmaneuvered Levi and placed the man in a no-win situation. Zeke gets about ten seconds before Levi gets ahold of him again and makes the previous asskickings look like a disciplinary spanking.
  • The reveal that Eren has in fact been playing him like a fiddle is another. For the longest time, Zeke believed he was saving his brainwashed half-brother and working alongside him to render the Eldians sterile to end the threat of Titans forever. Even when Eren revealed how ridiculous he finds Zeke's plan, Zeke is assured in his success via having greater control in the Paths than first thought. In the moments that follow, Zeke is horrified and completely invalidated when Eren reveals that not only did Grisha never brainwash him, even raising him in a normal family, but that Eren was the one manipulating him, meaning Eren had far more cunning and success in his plans that Zeke had accounted for. And in the end, it's Eren's gamble which pays off as he urges Ymir to finally override the will of Eldian Royal Blood. Zeke can only watch in horror and dismay, screaming out ineffective commands, as the power that was meant to be his instead goes to Eren, his plans having come to a complete dead end just inches from when they could have succeeded.
  • Happens for a final time in chapter 137, where he earnestly believes that Eren is correct in destroying the world because all life boils down to in his eyes is survival and multiplying. It takes Armin reminding him that life is so much more than survival of the fittest for him to remember his childhood memories of playing catch with his mentor. The act ultimately serves as the final straw for Zeke, leading him to atone for his role in the Rumbling by purposefully allowing Levi to kill him.
• Bullying a Dragon: Seriously Zeke, stop baiting Levi. Don't insult him in a passive-aggressive manner either. And especially don't force him to kill his own subordinates.
• Cain and Abel: He is Eren's older half-brother, though he states he wants to rescue Eren. After the time-skip, the brothers become trusted allies and start executing a grand plan to save humanity. Flipped around by Chapter 122, while both being villainous, Eren is the Cain to Zeke's Abel.
• Call-Forward: When we're shown the moment in his childhood when Grisha decided to give him to be trained by the Marleyans, he's playing with an ape-like stuffed animal that resembles his later Titan form, which we've already seen in the present.
• The Cameo: In the 2nd season finale, he very briefly appears in human form.
• Character Tics: Scratching his ear in human and titan form. This is used to great effect in the anime to confirm his identity as the Beast Titan.
• The Chessmaster: His intelligence is ranked an 11/10, and he proves to be a brilliant tactician able to compete against the likes of Erwin and Armin.
  • He clearly runs his own game and has masterfully set up his own plan to supposedly save Eldia, starting out by having Yelena visit Paradis and convincing the Survey Corps to ally with Zeke. During the attack on Liberio, he fakes his own death by having Levi "kill" him, boarding the airship to accompany the Survey Corps back to Paradis. Even when in Paradis he remains secretive about his true goals and his methods of achieving them. He not only manages to sow discord between Eren, a faction zealously following Eren and the Survey Corps, but has an unknown amount of people in the military working towards his cause. Chapter 111 reveals wine had been laced with his spinal fluid and served to numerous higher ups within the military, essentially making all of the infected Zeke's hostages.
• Child Prodigy: According to the Marleyan Marshal, he used to be one in his early years on the Warrior Unit, and so much that the whole thing is basically built around him.
• The Chosen One:
  • The Eldia Restorationists considered him the person who would return Eldia to its former glory.
  • Invoked. Yelena and his followers consider him a messiah and God himself.
  • After he blows himself up with the Thunder Spear that Levi attached to him, in his death throes, a Titan emanates from the ground and places his battered body inside its abdomen, where he sees a vision of a young girl rebuilding his body from the soil. Alerted by the sound of the explosion, the Yeagerists and Hange find Levi's remains as well as the Titan, from which a reconstituted Zeke emerges. By this sequence of events, it's implied that it's primordial for the powers-to-be that Zeke lives to carry out his purpose, regardless of whether it coincides with his mission, and that he's not that much in control of his own fate.
• Conditional Powers:
  • Just like every other Shifter, he is a subject of the Curse of Ymir, giving him an estimated 13 years of lifespan after acquiring the Titan Power. It's mentioned that he was Titanized and given the Beast Titan Power around one year before Reiner.
  • Even when it's shown that he can manipulate other Titans by shouting, his encounter with Mike suggests that this is not quite universal, as one of the Mindless Titans actively disobeys his command by trying to devour Mike, so Zeke has to resort to violence to quell it.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Arguably the reason for his fighting prowess being an Informed Ability. Zeke is shown to be a very lethal Long-Range Fighter, as seen during the Marleyan attack on Shiganshina, where Zeke decimates the enemy airships, and keeps both Reiner and Galliard at bay. However, he is not as effective at close range, which puts him at a disadvantage against users of 3D Maneuver Gear, specially Levi.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Downplayed. Despite coming across as a very bumbling and cheerful man in private (even scalding his lips on a cup of coffee) and his propensity to occasionally crack jokes both on and off the battlefield, it is made brutally clear from his first appearance just what he is capable of doing.
  • Additionally, he sometimes takes a baseball pitcher's stance before chucking rocks, which while physically practical, gives a sense of morbid playfulness like he's imagining lethally beaning the enemy.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Both the dealer and the recipient in the same battle. He first surrounds the entrance to Shinganshina with Titans and sends waves of them to lure the Survey Corps to a focal point, thereafter bombarding them by pelting them with giant rocks, almost decimating the forces inside Wall Maria with little effort. He then is distracted by the frontal charge of the Erwin-led survivors of the Corps, making him unaware of his surroundings and allowing Levi to reach him by perching on the line of Titans to his right, finally reaching Zeke and slicing his body like swiss cheese.
  • Chapter 103 does this once again: he's smugly raining rocks onto the Paradisians, possibly killing Redshirts while believing it's all a matter of attrition and home field advantage, but Levi drops him again and this time it's so fast that neither he nor Pieck with her crew behind him see it coming and gets bombed in a matter of seconds. However, this defeat was entirely staged so that Zeke can be smuggled into Paradis.
  • Levi once again butchers Zeke like a pig in Chapter 113 and goes freakin' medieval on him after Zeke attempts to flee custody at the Forest of Giant Trees by transforming Levi's comrades into Titans. Levi butchers the Titans in about five minutes and riddles Zeke's Titan with half a dozen Thunder Spears to the nape, prying Zeke's charred living remains out. Levi then affixes a Thunder Spear to Zeke's exposed abdomen and lets Zeke's body heal around it to fix it there, and lastly ties the spear's firing pin to Zeke's neck so that even the slightest movement triggers the spear and blows Zeke in two pieces. Last, but not least, Levi waits for Zeke to regain consciousness in order to ensure that he can feel Levi cutting his legs so that he can't escape. Brutal is too little a word, and he only comes out on top by actually triggering the Thunder Spear while Levi is nearby in what's almost certainly a suicide move (since not even he accounted for literally being brought back).
• Dark Messiah: He is a man in his thirties with long hair and a beard, the classical depiction of Christ, and both his parents and Ksaver believed him to be the savior of the Eldian people. After being captured, he is speared in the side just like Jesus was stabbed by a lance and is subsequently "killed". He is even "resurrected" by becoming restored within a Titan and is symbolically "reborn" into the world by emerging from within it. By this time he loses his glasses, further strengthening his resemblance to Jesus. He even meets a similar end, placing himself atop a high pillar (one of the Founding Titan's spines) and invites Levi to kill him. With his sacrifice, Zeke stops the Rumbling, thereby saving the world after all, albeit not in the way he had originally intended to.
• Dated History: Played with in-universe. He was aware that the Reiss family were in power within the Three Walls as far as he's concerned, but what he didn't know is that they have been effectively deposed by a Military Coup with Historia Reiss as a figurehead queen.
• Deadpan Snarker: Prone to occasionally cracking joke at the expense of both his adversaries and allies. Occasionally bordering of Gallows Humour.
• Death Seeker: He wants desperately to die, while taking the entire Eldian race with him. Every Eldian that dies at his hand is someone he's "saved" as far as he's concerned. He gets his wish by Chapter 137, but not before acknowledging that his goals were indeed monstrous, and stopping his brother.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • With all of his meticulous planning for ambushing the Survey Corps and despite being warned by Reiner beforehand, he never factored in just how much of a threat Levi truly was. That gross miscalculation led to Zeke being dismembered and almost killed outright, his entire Titan army slaughtered, and being forced to retreat with a horribly injured Reiner not just from Shiganshina but from Paradis Island entirely — leaving Bertolt behind and outright abandoning any rescue attempts for Annie.
  • His most favored tactic — picking off his targets from afar, where they have no chance to counter-attack him in turn — is turned against him again four years later. He chucks a fistful of artillery shells at the Eastern Union's navy, taking them out, but what he didn't anticipate was that their ship's cannons were advanced enough to reach the hill he was standing on and return fire. He lives only because the Armored Titan jumps in their line of fire, getting downed in his place.
  • And literally again in Chapter 103: He knows he can't find Levi yet smugly agrees with Pieck that they have home field advantage against Eren's group, but the combination of Armin going Colossal Titan and Galliard rushing off in a rage to Eren provides Levi the opportunity to not only drop him like a chump once again, but also bomb his ass with an explosive that's unlike the Thunder Spears, suggesting it was specially-designed to kill him. This time however, was entirely staged for the sole purpose of faking his death and joining the Eldians.
  • He seriously wasn't expecting Ymir Fritz to openly disobey his order to sterilize the Eldians and siding with Eren instead. In other words Zeke would no longer be able to use his unique abilities as a royal descendant.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Zeke becomes this in the Post-Time Skip half of the series. Initially, many people assume that Zeke is manipulating Eren into orchestrating the coup on Paradis Island and, with the revelation of his euthanization plan, the series seems intent on establishing Zeke as the overall Big Bad of the series. However, once they actually touch Zeke is outplayed by Eren, who reveals that he never had any intention in going along with Zeke's plan. Instead Eren used his half brother to achieve his own genocidal ends. In the end Zeke is defeated and sent to the Paths to create Titans for Eren's army, with his brother taking over as the series Big Bad and Final Boss.
• Dissonant Serenity: In a sharp contrast to the usual panicked or at least nervous behavior he showed whenever Levi came at him in the past, he calmly admires the beautiful weather and expresses some sincere regret at his actions right before Levi finally kills him.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Zeke has been playing sides for years, at the very least. He betrayed his parents, gaining the admiration of Marley in the process. He commanded the final operation on Paradis, and even advocated a second operation once the war with the Middle East Union was finished. But it seems he has also been forging an alliance with the Survey Corps over the last few years, including sending at least one loyal subordinate to the island. He states that he sold out his parents to Marley because they were about to get caught, but neglected to tell the Marleyan authorities that he and his mom were of Royal descent. While helping to organize the Festival and war declaration, he also schemed with the Survey Corps to cripple Marley through destroying the harbor and the military's top brass. He arranged for the other Warriors to be confined out of the way, but his plans went south thanks to Eren's rampage and Pieck figuring out the trap. His attack on the Survey Corps was mostly staged, with him forced to kill soldiers to maintain his cover until Levi could help him fake his death. And then it's revealed that he ultimately doesn't support either side, instead pursuing his own twisted view of "saving" both the human and Eldian races by using the Founding Titan to forcibly sterilize the entire the Eldian race. His double crossing is so blatant that it's not quite easy to tell who's getting the actual truth from him regarding his intentions.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Zeke comments that he could get along quite with Frieda Reiss during her speech of non-violence to Grisha. However, Frieda can only hold such opinions (and no others) due to being influenced by King Fritz's ideology. In other words, Frieda was brainwashed to think the way that she does, yet Zeke insists this to be the case with Eren regardless of what he says. There is also the fact that Marley has manipulated history to their own benefit and indoctrinates everyone into believing that the people of Paradis are devils out to destroy the world. This extents to all Eldians living in the Interment Zones as well, resulting in people like Reiner and Gabi being brainwashed into adopting these beliefs without question. Zeke seems to believe that Grisha alone owns the monopoly on brainwashing people.
• The Dreaded:
  • Reiner and Bertolt turn bone-white at the sight of his Titan morosely walking by Castle Utgard. His presence means one thing: they fucked up BIG.
  • After his decimation of the Survey Corps, he is considered public enemy No. 1 by the Eldian military junta at Paradis, a fact that is brought up when there's discussions regarding his possible defection to Paradis.
• Dub Name Change: The French edition spells his name as "Sieg" (the katakana reads "Ji-ku"), the German word for "victory". It makes a lot of sense when Grisha refers to that exact word when he's born.
• Enigmatic Minion: Zeke maintains a subservient front before his superiors in the Marleyan military, but Magath claims that he has been unreadable since his childhood; there's also the fact that he has deliberately kept his royal lineage hidden from Marley. He also manages to manipulate the Marleyan military to green-light the invasion of Paradis Island before his tenure ends despite his status as an Eldian, a feat that impresses Colt. Likewise subtly warning his fellow Warriors during a meeting that their superiors had bugged the room.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • While on Chapter 113 Zeke is safe to assume that the enemies of Paradis would invade the island en-masse, it's earlier shown that they are actually using a more discreet approach by infiltrating the Three Walls with the Warriors once again, as Pieck is undercover in the interior.
  • In the same chapter, Zeke thinks that Levi wouldn't have the heart to kill his own Titanized comrades and that he could escape custody scot-free. Levi proves him wrong in a matter of minutes, pointing out that the Survey Corps have been able to have the upper hand by precisely throwing the lives of their comrades for the cause, and as such, Levi is not new in bloodying his hands. As such, Levi once again butchers him like a pig; just because he has to kill them doesn't mean that Levi doesn't care about them.
  • Zeke assumes Eren is fully into his plan to save Eldians by euthanizing them as Eren has also expressed a desire to save them. What he didn't count on was Eren's plan to save the Eldians was drastically different from what Zeke intended in the first place.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Zeke seems to have a very good relationship with his grandparents and affectionately greets the two of them after he returns from the Battle for Fort Slava. Zeke also cares about Eren as he promised him that he would save him from Grisha's ambitions. After learning of Zeke's plans to euthanize the Eldians, Eren agrees to help him as brothers. Even after Eren betrays him, Zeke swears to save him before saving the world. But what follows next is a different story...
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Played with in regards to Armin, whom he never learned the name of. When they finally meet in Paths, he simply refers to him as "Eren's Friend".
• Everyone Is Related: He is related to several other characters, being a member of both the Yeager and Fritz/Reiss families. This makes him a relative of not only Eren, but Historia as well.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • He is completely put off and baffled when the Survey Corps soldiers just keep charging at him even after he nearly decimated them with his previous attack, to the point where he subconsciously crushes the rocks he's holding. Shifts into Hidden Depths in that it implies that, rather than not understanding their reasons, he just flat-out pities them and instead doesn't understand the intensity of their devotion to those ideals.
  • He assumes all people are self centered bastards, and is shocked to find out that Grisha did regret raising him poorly and tried to learn from his mistakes so he could be a better parent to Eren.
  • He sees Ymir as nothing more than a mindless tool to be used for his goals, unable to see her as a person who has suffered.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Is one to Levi. Zeke's status as the strongest of the Warriors clashes with Levi's title as "humanity's strongest soldier", and as such are the leading forces and most capable combatants among their groups. Levi and Zeke are both willing to use force to coerce their unwilling subordinates to act, and both are willing to put their enemies through some quite horrific bloodshed to get to their ends. Chapter 83 highlights this, with the final line "An adult's heartless decision will take away the life of a childhood friend", essentially applying equally to Levi and Zeke. One could almost say they are the same character seen from different points of view.
  • He's also this to Eren, as they're both Shifters and half-brothers with the same father to boot. Except by the end (at least at first) Eren becomes more evil than him.
  • Zeke also serves as one to Erwin Smith. The two of them are considered geniuses whose ruthlessness have allowed their countries to advance further in a few years than in a lifetime. The two of them are charismatic chessmasters whose actions and thoughts are a mystery even to their other allies and subordinates. And, despite their ruthlessness, the two of them do care for their fellow subordinates even if they don't show it all of the time.
• Evil Is Petty: It's implied everything he's done, even his plan to sterilize the Eldian race is nothing more than an attempt to spite his father's dream of seeing the Eldian Empire restored. At one point during the Battle of Shiganshina, Zeke finds himself getting worked up and calms himself down by claiming he's not a hardass like Grisha is.

• Exact Words: When describing how the inhabitants of Ragako village were turned into Titans, his wording implied that the paralyzing agent in the gas used was his spinal fluid: "The gas contained my spinal fluid, any subject of Ymir who inhaled the gas, even the smallest bit, were immediately frozen in place". Because of this, the Paradis' military were completely unaware that wine they drank was laced with Zeke's spinal fluid.
• Eye Scream: Levi shoves a blade into his mouth while he's pinned to the ground and keeps pushing until it goes through Zeke's skull, and out of his eye socket.
• Face Death with Dignity: In the end, Zeke regains his appreciation for life and decides the world is worth saving. He admits he doesn't want to die, but offers himself up to Levi anyway, knowing it is the only way to stop Eren's connection to the Founding Titan. Zeke spends his last moments marveling at the beauty of the world, wistfully wishing that he could have realized this earlier.
• Faking the Dead: Levi killing him with an explosive to the nape was staged, faking Zeke's death in front of his superiors. This allowed him to escape with the Survey Corps, as part of a larger plan.
• Fatal Flaw: Nihilism, along with a heavy mixture of self-loathing and selfishness. Because of his upbringing, historical and contemporary prejudice of the Eldian race and their race's constant exploitation; Zeke has detached himself so much from contemplating the true woes and struggles of his own people. So much so that he believes he is within his own right to dictate their eventual fate, by projecting his own personal anguish on the Eldians and having them pay for the crime of simply existing and being third parties for HIS own suffering.
  • By the final arc of the manga; it is clear that his nihilism has made him ignorant and blind from the fact that he was being manipulated by his own brother. It also makes him unable to perceive that perhaps Ymir, the first Titan and ancestor of all Eldians, may want a future for her people beyond constant suffering and extinction.
• Fate Worse than Death: For the man who wanted nothing more than to die and take the curse of the Titans with him, his current fate is a living hell. Forced to take Ymir's place in Paths by Eren, he now spends his days trapped while endlessly creating Titans to serve the brother that betrayed him. Even worse when you consider that time flows differently in Paths, meaning from Zeke's point-of-view, he's been doing this for ages. He's finally freed from his fate by Levi, who decapitates Zeke after he leaves the Paths.
• Foil: Zeke resembles a dark reflection to Eren. Both Eren and Zeke lost their parents at a young age to tragedy, both went through harsh military training, and both were expected by Grisha to use their titan powers to save Eldia. Both Eren and Zeke are motivated by the loss of their families. However, Eren was shown love and support as a child while Zeke was generally neglected by his parents, instead being raised by his grandparents and spending most of his day at Warrior training. While Eren had a mostly peaceful childhood that ended when he lost his parents, Zeke endured harsh training and neglect before being chosen by the Warrior Unit after turning in his parents. While Eren is hot-blooded and prone to violence, Zeke is usually calm and collected, even in the midst of battle. In contrast to Eren's vengeance-fueled desire to wipe out the Titans and eventually the Marleyans, Zeke's goal is to sterilize all Eldians so that they can never have children, effectively ending the Eldian race without a struggle. Ironically, Zeke's end goal is the same as Eren's was at the beginning of the series: the end of the Titan race. By the time the audience realizes this, Eren has acknowledged his plans are not necessarily right and is willing to allow the Survey Corps to stop him if they can kill him, while Zeke is still determined to sterilize the Eldian race.
• Foreshadowing
  • During the Battle of Shiganshina, he demonstrates perfect shot put form when closing off the inner gate with a boulder toss, and then remarks on throwing a perfect game as he shreds the Survey Corps' horse formations with crushed boulders. Both of these indicate before The Reveal that the place he comes from plays both track-and-field and baseball for recreation, which is a major clue that Marley is significantly more advanced culture- and technology-wise than Paradis.
  • The fact that the Marleyan military's high command didn't know of the 3DM gear of the Eldians of Paradis past the testimony of Pieck, Reiner and Zeke suggests that the latter didn't disclose the gear he appropriated from Mike during his incursion with the Titans of Rakago in the interior of Wall Rose. Zeke had used the gear to sway Lady Kiyomi Azumabito from Hizuru in order to sway her to form an alliance with the Eldians of Paradis.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: His survival was hinted on Chapter 103 page 33 which shows an object flying out from the Beast Titan's nape, just before being stricken down by Levi.
• Freudian Excuse: We knew for a long time that he betrayed his parents to Marley, but it was assumed he was just indoctrinated by Marley's propaganda. Then it turns out that, at least from his perspective, his parents only cared about him as a tool to destroy Marley and free the Eldians. They showed little to no real affection to him unless it related to their plans. And even though he was scared that they would get caught and sent to Paradis as punishment, they'd angrily rebuke him for not thinking of the plan. He confided all of this to his one friend, a Marleyian scientist and holder of the Beast Titan, who fearing for Zeke's safety convinced him to turn in his parents to save himself and his grandparents. This experience plus all the suffering he has experienced as an Eldian plus the fear and suffering all non-Eldians have because of them has led him to believe that the Eldian Race should simply disappear, making the issue of the Titans disappear too.

G - P

• Gallows Humour: Prone to occasionally cracking morbid jokes to himself in the midst of battle.
• Gave Up Too Soon: After Zeke encounters Eren in Shiganshina holding Bertolt hostage, just as he manages to get Eren to lower his guard by mentioning that he knew Eren's father, he notices Levi atop the Wall. As Levi begins to maneuver towards them, Zeke decides at that point to call it a draw and has Pieck quickly carry them both out of the area, abandoning any rescue attempt for Bertolt. Right after Levi lands next to Eren, he runs out of gas. Had Zeke waited mere seconds before making his decision, he would have had a great opportunity to finish Levi off while he was a sitting duck. This is assuming Eren couldn't do anything. It is possible that he didn't want Bertoldt to be killed and thought there might have been a chance at saving him.
• The Glasses Come Off: Early on, he stores his glasses in his pocket before battle.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: He seems to be second to only Reiner when it comes to the number of times he's been severely maimed in combat while still in human form (though, to be fair, it's usually only when facing Levi). He finally overtaxes his Healing Factor in chapter 114 however, as taking an explosion from a Thunder Spear point blank while already being heavily injured proved to be too much to recover from by himself.
• Gorn: Every time he attempts to fight Levi, Zeke invariably ends up missing a few limbs, loses an eye or two, or has large chunks of his flesh and skin blown off. Reaches its logical conclusion in chapter 115, where Zeke's attempted suicide attack on Levi is revealed to have left him him missing both arms and his entire body from below his chest.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Both his side and the Eldians' side have done some morally dubious things.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: After being re-captured by Levi, he purposely triggers the detonator of the thunder spear stuck in his stomach. The resulting explosion tears his body into two. Later still, his final appearence in the series features him as just an upper body fused to Eren's Founding Titan, seemingly unable to detach himself (though he was ready for death at that particular moment, anyhow).
• Heel Realization: Has one in his last moments.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After Armin convinces him that life is worth something, Zeke awakens the consciousnesses of Bertoldt, Ymir, Grisha, Eren Kruger, Tom Ksaver, and the Galliard Brothers to help the Survey Corps in the real world. Zeke manifests himself as well and allows Levi to kill him, severing Eren's connection to the Founding Titan and stopping the Rumbling.
• Hero Killer: He's killed Mike, Lynn and Henning, and indirectly killed Gelgar and Nanaba before slaying Commander Erwin and annihilating the Survey Corps at Shiganshina.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Zig-zagged. He is the actual motivator for the Titan infiltrators to conform to the Marleyans' plans 1:1 as they're supposed to. However, he has noticeably kept his royal lineage to himself and urges Marley to attack Paradis before his time runs out, indicating that he has his own personal agenda.
  • It becomes even more complicated when he allies himself with Paradis. He claims to be acting for the sake of restoring Eldia, but makes sure no one can guess his true intentions nor his methods. Regardless of what Zeke is after, he makes sure he gets to go about it in his own way.
  • It is finally revealed that Zeke intends to sterilize the whole Eldian race using the Founding Titan's power, effectively euthanizing the race and eliminating the curse of the Titans. This is similar to that of King Fritz's goal, albeit much faster and "cleaner" since it wouldn't require anything other than the passage of time rather than flat-out extermination. Zeke himself experienced the discrimination of Eldians and how it affected those around him and came up with that plan.
• Hidden Depths: When first introduced Zeke seems like an utterly cruel, remorseless, sadistic bastard who massacres humans and other Titans for his own sheer enjoyment. Later chapters in the manga that focus more on Marley show that he's not quite as evil as initially assumed by showing him as a Big Brother Mentor to other members of the Warriors, including his successor to the Beast Titan power Colt, and shows that when not in battle he's actually a rather affable kind of guy. It also brings the moment in Shiganshina where he crushes the rocks he's holding in anger into a new light, since it's implied that he actually feels sorry for the Eldians he's killing and that they're unwittingly killing themselves needlessly to help a corrupt monarchy cling to power.
• History Repeats: Invoked. Much like Eren Kruger before him, he states that he was forced into his role to disguise his animosity towards Marley, even resorting to killing his fellow Eldians of Paradis. Still, he is considered to be almost completely untrustworthy by all the authorities and military personnel at Paradis.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His army of Titans forming a semi-circle around the battlefield provided the perfect anchor points for Levi's Maneuvering Gear on open terrain to get within attacking range and take him down while all of his attention was focused on the rest of the Survey Corps. While Zeke does survive by the skin of his teeth courtesy of the Cart Titan, he's forced to retreat, much to his chagrin. Later, when having a face-off with Eren, Zeke concedes a tie when he sees that Levi followed him into the city by using the very Titans Zeke sent to devour him as anchors for his 3D maneuvering gear.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: He's not only an Eldian, he's a son of an Eldian Queen; yet, he's dead set on committing full blown genocide against the walled Eldians, calling them "a cursed race". However, his use of the word "cursed" is rather interesting, as Marley typically uses words like "Demons" or "Evil" in their propaganda. That's because he views the Eldians as an unfortunate race that still needs to be wiped out in order to end the scourge of the Titans on the world. It's just that he has plans for a different way of going about it than brutally murdering every single one.
• Hypocrite: Calls Levi a monster after he cuts his way through the Titans Zeke sent to kill him, despite the fact he himself betrayed his family, their friends, murdered countless people and had others killed by his Titans and shows little to no feeling towards Titans himself and ordered the Titans to rip Levi apart without mercy.
  • Despite claiming his plan to sterilize the Eldian race is good for them because no new Eldians means none of them will ever suffer, he relishes murdering his fellow Eldians during the battle to reclaim Shiganshina, something Levi notes.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: He could throw a mean baseball prior to becoming the Beast Titan, and it shows in how he pitches boulders. He also has very good shot put form, as evidenced by his opening boulder toss at Shiganshina. Of course, given how Eldians are treated in Marley, this is a very minor example.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • Zeke argues that he sold his parents to the Marleyans due to the fact that they were about to be caught anyway, and it was the only way to remove all doubt as to his loyalty to Marley. According to himself, he has conspired against Marley from the very beginning, assuming the role of a leader against the Paradians to fool his commanders. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, as his behavior during the first Warrior campaign in Paradis did not give any indication of his supposed "loyalty" towards the Paradians.
  • In the end, it's shown that he did genuinely feel this way, but his intentions were essentially the opposite of what he claimed; he was only doing "what he felt he had to" and he was planning on screwing over Marley... but Marley was really just a side casualty of his plan. Rather, his ultimate goal was still to kill off the Eldians via sterilization and take as many of their lives (or "save", as he would word it) as possible in the process. Meaning, for all his beliefs to the contrary, he ultimately was an enemy of the Eldians.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Played-with. In Zeke's final moments, while he believes his intentions were pure, he ponders what could have been if he had simply enjoyed a normal life as a child playing catch with Mr. Ksaver.
• Identical Stranger: As Eren notes when confronting him Zeke has a close resemblance to his father. It turns out that there's a reason behind this; Zeke is Grisha's first-born son from a different family, many years before he'd settle down with Carla and have Eren.
• If You Thought That Was Bad...: Zeke was able to attain his position at the Warriors by showing his loyalty to Marley when he ratted out his parents; the Marleyan military in turn never went past investigating more about him and his preternatural powers when he attained the Beast Titan based on said loyalty. Had they dug further down, they might have found out that Zeke is of Royal descent. He never discussed this with them, and it's because he intended to use said Royal descent to control the power of the Founding Titan and sterilize all Eldians.
• Informed Ability: It should be noted that despite how much the story hypes up Zeke as the "Strongest Warrior," his actual combat record doesn't back it up. He has never won a battle onscreen without an overwhelming advantage in his favor by spamming projectiles from far away where his opponents can't reach. Once that's taken away from him, he tends to go down very quickly.
  • His first appearance has him defeating humanity's second strongest soldier Mike by ambushing him while he's stranded on a house with little to grapple onto while several Titans surround him.
  • He later defeats Reiner in his Armored Titan form in what appears to be a close quarters combat duel... except it's offscreen so we never see how it happens.
  • Zeke singlehandedly massacres the entire Survey Corps by maneuvering them into a spot where they're forced to stay still while he throws rocks at high speed towards them over and over again. Levi gets by his defences by sneaking behind and then carves him up in seconds, despite Zeke having dozens of Titans as backup. This could've been excused by Zeke being taken by surprise except their rematch years later ends the exact same way despite Zeke having prepared for this encounter.
  • His only on-screen contribution to the war with the Mid-East Allied Forces has him throwing just one handful of shells at enemy warships and almost getting killed in return by their long range guns were it not for Reiner's Taking the Bullet.
• Invincible Villain: Luck seems to always to be on Zeke's side as whenever Levi has him at death door, someone will save him at the last minute. Notably, after blowing himself and Levi with a Thunder Spear with even himself likely not seeing a way out, a Titan suddenly came out from nowhere and nurses the dying Zeke back to health. In the end, Zeke is only killed because he decides to sacrifice himself so that the rest of the world can live.
• Ironic Echo: Levi — the Walls' strongest soldier — tells him to "speak when he's spoken to" right after he dominates the Beast Titan and puts Zeke at his mercy, reflecting the sentiments Zeke gave Mike (the Walls' second strongest soldier) when he had him at his mercy much earlier.
• Irony: Zeke intended to prove to Eren how he had been brainwashed by Grisha. After exploring the memories, however, Zeke realizes that Grisha never brainwashed his son. But Zeke is later horrified to learn the truth: Eren was the one controlling Grisha by using the Paths to send his memories back in time.
  • His Fate Worse than Death in being forced to take the place of Ymir in Paths; creating Titans like a slave to aid in Eren's war against humanity. Even his subsequent death is ironic, as he ends up freed from his horrible fate by Levi; though Levi certainly wanted nothing more than to kill Zeke, he probably didn't anticipate it to ultimately be doing him a favor.
• It's Personal: Implied. He calls Grisha a liar and argues to Eren that he's just being manipulated by Grisha's agenda. He's right to be angry at his father, considering that Grisha and Dina basically sold him to the Marley Warrior Unit for their own cause. This implies that he's badmouthing Grisha for what was done to him, and not because Grisha might actually be right; given what Zeke had to go through, it's understandable why he doesn't give Grisha the benefit of the doubt. He even declares to his superiors that only he can stop his father's machinations.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He has a more than valid reason for turning against his father, and based on the information he's given, he's right at being frustrated at the Eldian military needlessly sacrificing soldiers to support a corrupt government; what he doesn't know is that his father was right, and the government of the Eldians at Paradis is no longer corrupt when he expresses his frustration.
• King Incognito: He is practically a Prince of the Eldians, a fact that he has told no one about in Marley. In turn, they consider his inherent ability to control Titans a happy accident. After all, if they knew they would also realize he could use the power of the Founding Titan without limits.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: At the end of Chapter 83, when he's facing Levi and Eren, all of whom are rightfully pissed, and his army is gone through his own actions, save the Cart Titan he's riding, and unable to go into Titan Form himself, he decides to "call it a draw" and run away, with Reiner in the Cart Titan's mouth.
• Last of His Kind:
  • He is the last surviving member of the Eldian royal family, save for his distant cousin, Historia.
  • He is the last member of the original nine noble clans of the Eldians that retains a Titan Power, though it's not his clan's original Power, as he has the Beast Titan instead of the Coordinate; this is, considering that the Tybur Family lost the War-Hammer Titan Power to Eren Yeager.
• Lesser of Two Evils: As revealed in Chapter 123, his plan to sterilize all Eldians. Both him and his brother, Eren have one goal in mind, the salvation of the Eldians and to stop any further atrocities against them. While Zeke wants to make sure no Eldian baby ever has to be born to face further discrimination and life under slavery^note which is so bad the Marleyan treatment is actually the best the Eldians could ever get in the world, Eren's solution to the above problem is to kill everyone who is not an Eldian.
• The Leader:
  • He spearheaded the campaign to attack Paradis Island and is seen as a figure to follow to both the Warriors and the program candidates alike.
  • He planned the original attack of the Survey Corps on Liberio.
• Like Father, Like Son: Played with. Zeke's low opinion of Grisha doesn't differ that much from Grisha's opinion of his own father, Zeke's grandpa. The main difference comes from the fact that at least Grisha eventually understood why his own father behaved the way he did, while Zeke has done everything in his power to foil Grisha.
• Living MacGuffin:
  • Invoked. According to his own testimony, he knows a way to subvert the Will of the First King, and it involves both building rapport with his brother Eren, and somehow, relying on Historia producing an heir. Even when his testimony is unreliable as all hell, the military junta at Paradis resort to follow his plan because they couldn't come up with a better alternative. Zeke made hell break lose at Liberio, made the Paradis Eldians answer the calls to war from Marley... and he barely lifted a finger to begin with. It's fair to point out that as the head of the Warrior Unit, and an active participant in the Marleyan high command, he had access to highly classified information that the Marleyans supressed, so much that he considered his parents' efforts child's play.
  • After Eren succeeds in activating the Rumbling Zeke becomes this to him. As Armin realizes, while Eren might be the one in control of the Rumbling, he still needs someone of Royal Blood so he can access the power of the Founding Titan, so Zeke must still be alive somewhere. Indeed its revealed in chapter 136 that Zeke has been safely stored within the Paths while Eren has been using his Founding Titan form to go on a rampage. After Zeke allows himself to be killed Eren loses to ability to continue the Rumbling and the various Colossal Titans around the world stop moving.
• Long-Range Fighter: His long arms make his Titan perfect for throwing projectiles at a distance.
• Looks Like Jesus: Pre-timeskip, he had a blond beard and un-kept shoulder-long hair, after the timeskip he sports a more trimmed hairstyle.
• Loving a Shadow: Non-romantic example towards his half-brother Eren. Upon learning of his existence, and that he was the holder of the Coordinate, Zeke immediately comes to the conclusion Grisha brainwashed him into following his will, much like he had done to Zeke in the past. Zeke thus convinces himself that he needs to save Eren like Ksaver saved him, and that he would be the one who would accept to carry out the sterilization plan with Zeke himself. During their first proper talk, Eren plays along with Zeke's expectations of him, pretending to agree with Zeke's ideals for his own goals. When Zeke discovers this deception, he refuses to accept that Eren is acting out of his own will, until Eren finally lays it out on him that they are nothing alike, and that the pitiful younger brother Zeke expected just doesn't exist.
• The Man Behind the Man: Zackley suspects that Zeke is controlling Eren, which resulted in the assault on Liberio. Even Mikasa and Armin believe it. Averted, when it is revealed that Eren was the one deceiving Zeke by cooperating with him. Eren needed Zeke to access the realm of Paths and find the founder Ymir. Much to Zeke's dismay, Eren succeeds.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Zeke" is short for the Hebrew name Ezekiel, which roughly means "God will strengthen", which makes sense as Grisha and Dina conceived him for the sole purpose of being the Eldians' (who themselves have many Jewish connotations) messiah.
  • "Sieg", another of the possible translations of his name, means "victory" in German; this also has significant connotations as to what his parents intended for him regarding the Eldian cause, though it has no religious meaning behind it like the name "Zeke".
• Mercy Kill: This is how Zeke views killing Eldians; to him, it frees them from their "cursed" existence. This foreshadows his plan to "euthanize" the race by sterilizing them, ensuring no other children are born to suffer like him.
  • Ironically, he himself is given this by Levi, as he was forced by Eren to maintain the connection to the Founding Titan, and to make past Titans to sic on the survivors and not unlike Ymir, has been doing it for a long time.
• Mildly Military: During his time in Paradis Island, he goes around shirtless most of the time, wears his hair long and unkempt, and sports a full beard, making him seem more like a savage than a soldier. This is justified, as he has essentially been camping out in the raw wilderness for weeks, and once he returns to Marley, trims his hair and beard.
• Missed Him by That Much: Invoked and played with. Zeke tells Lady Kiyomi that he sold his parents to Marley because they were about to get caught by the Marleyans, but if he hadn't played his cards right, he would have been killed too, spoiling the infiltration plans of the Restorationists. As such, his parents and the Restorationist Movement were beyond saving by the time he ratted them out.
• The Mole: Grisha intended for him to infiltrate the Warrior Unit and turn against the Marley government when the time came. Zeke betrayed him instead, and brought Marley soldiers right to the resistance's door. This, Zeke states, he did because his parents were about to get caught; had he not, he would have been caught too. He is eventually proven to have indeed been telling the truth, as flashbacks show that Zeke overheard Marleyan officials discuss their discovery of the Eldian Restorationists and even the existence of the Owl (Eren Kruger). To Zeke's credit though, he had actually not wanted to turn in his parents originally and was only convinced by Tom Ksaver, who he had come to see as a replacement father for the neglectful Grisha at the time..
• Mr. Fanservice: Probably the one single canon example of fanservice in this series to date. He gets shirtless (for seemingly no reason, as he was wearing one prior to shifting) and unlike every other example, he isn't chained up, bleeding, or missing any limbs. Or his face, for that matter.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Heavily regretted selling his parents out to the Marleyans, knowing that his parents were not unjustified regarding them. It possibly played a role in his defection later.
  • After Armin convinces him that life is great, even to an extent of simply playing catch, Zeke is sorrowful of his goals, and decides to help Levi kill him so as to stop Eren from destroying the world.
• My Greatest Failure: His failure to defeat the Survey Corps and take the Coordinate seems to be his, as the Marleyan General notes that Zeke's reputation took a bit of a dive after he not only came back empty handed but lost three of their warriors (Annie, Marcel and Bertolt) and two of their Titan Powers^note Annie's Female Titan, which became inaccessible when she was captured, and Bertolt's Colossal Titan, which was taken by Armin to use against them. Zeke, for his part, acknowledges this and pledges to his bosses to finish the job in the few months/one year he has left to live.
• Names to Run Away From: Warchief Zeke cannot mean a good thing.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: When he was a child, Zeke turned Grisha and the rest of the revolutionaries over to the Marley authorities shortly after being enlisted into the Warrior Unit. This inadvertently gave the Eldians living in the Walls the power necessary to stand their ground and fight back with devastating results.
• Not So Stoic: He actually gets angry at the Survey Corps charging at him, thinking about how futile it is to throw away your life for some misguided sense of honor, which shows some Hidden Depths.
• Off with His Head!: How he finally meets his end at the hands of Levi, allowing himself to be decapitated while lamenting the carnage he's caused.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Gets a major one as Levi is carving him up like a turkey. Zeke gets it again when Levi goes Super-Persistent Predator on him and decimates his Titan army just to get to him later.
  • He does it again in chapter 113 when he misgauges a situation that he thought gave him an advantage over Levi. To say it doesn't end well for him is an understatement.
  • Can do nothing but scream in horror in chapter 119 when Gabi uses Colt's BFG to blow a non-Titanized Eren's head clean off.
  • His biggest one comes when he realizes Eren had been manipulating him this entire time. When he tries to stop him by forcing Ymir to make all the Eldians infertile, Eren simply convinces her to ignore him. He does not take it well when he learns that Eren's plan is to use the Wall Titans to basically start the Apocalypse.
• Out-Gambitted: Yes. His overblown pride in his intelligence deeply blinds him. Chapter 119 -123 is all about how his actions were wrapped around the little finger of Eren Yeager. Yes, the "stupid, suicidal bastard" Eren Yeager!
• The Paragon Always Rebels: His parents forced into him the fate of the Eldian people when they gave him away to be a recruit of the Marley war front. He then ratted his parents to the Marleyans and later became the undisputed leader of the Marley-controlled Titan Shifters in complete and astounding opposition to what his parents expected of him. His memories paint a vastly different picture, of a child who didn't want to be a Warrior placed under immense pressure. He was nearly kicked out of the program which caused his parents to argue and double down on their expectations. The betrayal was a matter of survival when his parents were already on the verge of being captured.
• Pride: His greatest fault. Zeke has a habit of underestimating and belittling his opponents due to the fact that he's a remarkably intelligent person. This comes to bite him in the ass every time he meets Levi, who is in the opinion that Zeke just has a few too many appendages and organs for someone who runs his mouth as much as he does. As such, Levi is the purveyor of poetic justice who butchers the pride out of Zeke, both literally and figuratively.
• Practically Different Generations: He is ten years older than his half-brother, Eren.
• Properly Paranoid: Having Paradis' military higher ups drink his spinal fluid in order to take them hostage might have been appaling, but said higher ups were planning on having Historia eat him as soon as he arrived.
• Psychological Projection: Towards the Eldian race and especially Eren. He assumes that Grisha has put Eren through the same childhood Zeke experienced and therefore Eren came to the same conclusion that because all Eldians suffer, they should be sterilized. He's shocked to find out that Eren has different views on life.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: His glasses are only a memento from Tom Ksaver.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: Motivated by his miserable childhood in Marley, Zeke's goal in obtaining the Founding Titan is to sterilize the entire Eldian race, ensuring they die out within the century. He sees this as the best way to end the cycle of hatred caused by the Titans.

R - Y

• Raised by Grandparents: His grandparents took him in after their son and daughter-in-law, Grisha and Dina, were arrested for treason.
• Redemption Equals Death: Zeke sacrifices his life to stop the Rumbling. In his last moments, he admires the beauty of the world and laments having killed so many people before Levi decapitates him.
• Royalty Super Power: The numerous special abilities he demonstrates are the result of his Royal blood, something he's kept hidden from his superiors.
• Scars Are Forever: Oddly enough, despite his Healing Factor, he has what appears to be a large burn scar on his left arm. While it can be surmised that he must've gotten it before his inherited his powers, it's still strange; he's the only known titan shifter to retain any visible scarring.
• Slasher Smile: Wears one before the final battle after blocking the entrance to Shiganshina with a boulder.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: He (unknowingly) takes after his father, donning a pair of double-bridged glasses, and is the smartest character shown in the series. He completely outmaneuvers Erwin in tactics through a simple but deadly formation and he appears to have been one of the masterminds behind the Eldian attack on Marley.
• Smoking Is Cool: After taking charge of a meeting with several high-ranking Marleyan officials, he sits on the roof enjoying a smoke.
• Smug Super: It's quite clear from his actions that he considers himself to be untouchable in terms of strength and intelligence. In his mind, the idea of being bested by mere humans was pure, undiluted fantasy. However, Zeke gets a massive wake-up call after Levi utterly wrecks his Titan form and brings him inches away from death. After the Time Skip, any trace of smugness left in him vanished after he was almost killed by a single anti-Titan artillery round from an enemy warship.
• Sociopathic Hero: What he markets himself as towards the Survey Corps. Levi notes that regardless of whether Zeke plans to save/restore Eldia, he clearly has no regard for any lives sacrificed in the process. The truth, however, is considerably more complicated. He was never entirely apathetic about the Eldian lives he's taken, but he was so thoroughly convinced that he was doing the right thing by "saving them from the cruel world" that whatever guilt he might have felt was covered up by his iron-clad determination. In his last moments, after having been reminded that life is not all about suffering, he finally shows some regret for having robbed so many of their chance to enjoy life's little moments.
• The Strategist: He devises a very clever battle plan to fight the Survey Corps at Shiganshina, effectively utilizing the abilities of the four Titan Shifters under his command. He would have been victorious had he not underestimated how dangerous Levi is despite Reiner's warning prior to the battle.
• Sterility Plague: Zeke's ultimate goal is to inflict this upon the Eldian race. He believes that by peacefully driving Eldians to extinction, he would be saving them from the cruelty of life while helping the rest of the world finally rid itself of the power of the Titans.
• Straw Nihilist: He believes life holds nothing for him except for endless suffering, so he wants to sterilize the Eldian race and Put Them All Out of My Misery. He abandons this view after Armin reminds him about life being about the simple things that bring happiness, pulling him out of his despair he had been in since Ymir gave control of the Titans to Eren.
  Zeke: You know that to live... means to one day die, does it not?
• Strong Family Resemblance: Zeke looks almost identical to his father Grisha except with lighter coloured hair, especially as a teenager, and before the Time Skip. In fact, when Eren gets a good look at Zeke for the first time, he actually mistakes him for Grisha briefly.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: In Chapter 95, he proposes and believes that the only way to redeem the situation where the world wants the Eldians completely exterminated, due to their horrific reputation, in Marley's service, is to do even more of the things that make the world hate them in the first place, especially conquering Paradis Island.
• Super-Scream: He can control other Titans with his shouts, and in Chapter 92 it's shown that he also has the ability to turn Eldians into mindless Titans by just shouting. Up until said chapter, it was assumed that Mindless Titans just heeded to all of the Shifters' commands, though the Clash of the Titans arc had previously hinted that this might have not been the case by showing how these can be used against the Shifters too. Chapter 93 states that this is a technique unique to Zeke thanks to his Royal blood, by extracting his spinal fluid and injecting it into various Eldians he can then control and command him not unlike the Founding Titan.
• Taking You with Me: He purposely detonates the thunder spear stuck in his stomach when Levi is close, apparently in an attempt to take the latter down with him. It succeeds to an extent, Levi suffers a Career-Ending Injury (if he wasn't an Ackerman, he would have died), so much that it takes Zeke's willing co-operation for Levi to end him rather than any of Levi's own efforts.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: For his part, Zeke seems to be enjoying giving Levi a hard time over their "alliance", and how badly he wants to kill him.
• This Is Unforgivable!: There are two things that made him justifiably hate his dad:
  • Grisha and Dina enlisted him in the Warrior Unit to serve as a mole for their own agendas.
  • He is shown to be in considerable distress and anguish when he finds out from Reiner that Grisha outdid himself and brought his second son Eren into the fold too, and on top of that, gave him the Founding Titan too.
• Tyke Bomb: From the day he was born, Grisha wanted him to lead the revolution to victory, and he was seven years old when he became part of the Warrior Unit.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • He really should have taken Reiner's warning about Levi seriously. He even admits so to his superiors and notes he never wants to face another Ackerman again.
  • He makes the same mistake again, when assuming that a few dozen of Titans would be enough to take down Levi alone. He also greatly overestimated how Levi would hesitate to kill his recently Titanized comrades. This mistake would cause his escape attempt to end in utter failure.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Notwithstanding his betrayal of his parents (which was entirely justified), Levi comments on the irony of how nonplussed Zeke appears at the possibility that his grandparents were squished flat by Eren during the attack on Liberio; keep in mind these were the people who raised him.
• Unwitting Pawn: Ironically, in spite of being The Chessmaster, Zeke was secretly being used by Eren so that the latter could assume complete control over the Founding Titan for his own agenda. Zeke has a Villainous Breakdown when Eren succeeds.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: In his rematch with Levi in Chapter 113, he immediately hardens his nape as soon as the fight begins. This would have been a viable strategy four years prior, when Thunder Spears hadn't yet been invented. Naturally, Levi blows his Titan to kingdom come.
• Villain Has a Point: He nonetheless has a point about Grisha messing around with Eren's head, perhaps more than once. Of course, he's completely wrong when he assumes that Eren has been brainwashed by their father and doesn't know what he's doing.
  • He has a point about removing the Eldians' reproductive abilities to end their pain in a lifetime, to the extent that Eren himself thinks so, but can't consider wiping his own race out.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • He lost his cool when he was blindsided and curb-stomped by Levi. He does it again in Chapter 113 when an extremely pissed-off Levi is coming after him. In no short order he freaks the fuck out, transforms into titan form, frantically flinging debris and other titans at Levi, all the while screaming madly.
  • Happens again in Chapter 122 when Eren persuades Ymir into disobeying Zeke's orders. Zeke is horrified because Ymir is supposed to be an unthinkingly loyal slave to the royal family and Eren just convinced her to rebel against him, completely ruining his lifelong plan. It doesn't help when he learns about Eren's plan to use the Wall Titans to destroy everything and everyone outside Paradis.
    Zeke Yeager: What did you say!? Eren!? You say that... you're going to end this world...!? (Beat) Stop it!! What are you trying to do!? [...] What are you doing!? Ymir!! Do as I ordered you to!! I'm telling you to take away from Ymir's subjects their ability to reproduce!! Do it immediately!! Ymir!! I am... a descendant of the royal family!
• Villains Out Shopping: He plays catch in his spare time. Considering he does this with his successor, Colt, this is clearly a (relaxed) kind of training. Chapter 114 reveals it's a hobby he picked up from his own mentor and the previous Beast Titan.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He spends the majority of his time on Paradis either shirtless, or with one haphazardly thrown on but left completely unbuttoned.
• Walking Spoiler: Since he's the Beast Titan's true identity (and the long-lost half-brother of Eren), this is a given.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: For all the bad things he has to say about his father, and in spite of the horrible way he was treated as a child, Zeke ultimately proves to be this in the end. When Grisha senses Zeke watching his memories via the Paths, his uncontrolled outburst of affection and remorse towards his oldest son is nearly enough to bring Zeke to tears. Zeke even tries to honor his father's last wish to stop Eren, although unsuccessfully.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Chapter 114 reveals that Zeke wants to use the Founding Titan's power to commit "euthanasia" on all the Eldians to end their suffering and return peace to the world. As such, he justifies all of his murders as sparing his victims from the world's cruelty. Not that his actions are any good for the Eldians, but compared to his half-brother's ultimate goal, well...
• What the Hell, Hero?: Even at an early age, he realized how his parents threw their political baggage onto him; they basically sold him to Marley for their cause.
• Why Won't You Die?: Screams this nearly word-for-word at Levi as he futilely tries to fend him off. Also applies for this as he resembles raw hamburger after he gets wrecked. Seems to be a requirement for Marley-based titan shifters.
• Worf Had the Flu: Unlike the other Shifters, Zeke had only encountered 3DM gear once prior to Shinganshina^note when he swiped the gear of Mike, so he only had a vague idea what soldiers equipped with it were capable of, especially Levi.
• The World Is Just Awesome: Averted. Zeke is very nihilistic and believes that life only leads to suffering. His ultimate goal is to sterilize the Eldians so that no more titans can be born, ensuring the race dies in a few generations. However, it's Armin convincing Zeke of this, that life is worth living for the small moments like exploring the world or playing catch, that finally gets him to renounce his plan to sterilize the Eldians and help the Survey Corps stop the Rumbling. Before he dies, he takes a moment to admire the beauty of the world and regret his actions.
• Worthy Opponent: In true awe, he calls Levi "a monster" after he almost captures him, annihilates the Titans he sent to eat him and chases Zeke relentlessly, basically doing by himself what almost the entirety of the Survey Corps weren't able to do against him. Later on, he admits that he does not want to face the Ackermans again, labeling them as "byproducts of Titan science".
• Younger Than They Look: Zeke looks as if he is in his late 30's to early 40's and given his fatherly relationship with the other Warriors being significantly older than them would support that. Particularly after the time skip, his blond hair appears to have turned nearly white. However Zeke was a teenager in the Warrior Unit with the other recruits so at the very least he would currently be in his late 20's to early 30's. It's likely that, much like Uri Reiss, the Curse of Ymir has caused him to physically age much quicker than normal. It's eventually confirmed that he was 25 during his introduction and is currently 29 (though, again, he doesn't look a day under 39).
• Your Days Are Numbered: As is the case with all Shifters, Zeke can only stay a Shifter for thirteen years before dying. It's revealed that, after the four year Time Skip post Chapter 90, that Zeke is in his last year and his time might be even shorter than that.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He seems quick to dispose of anyone no longer useful to him, informing Reiner that if he's not completely committed to their cause, he'll have to... give up his armor to another Warrior.
  • He himself is subjected to this after the four year Timeskip, as he has less than one year left to live and Marley needs him to give up his power to another warrior. (IE let himself be eaten by them) Colt Grice is named as his most-likely successor.
  • Happens to himself again, this time by his own brother Eren. After Zeke aids Eren in reaching the realm of Paths, Eren betrays him and starts the Rumbling of his own accord.
• You Monster!: To Levi because the latter not only survived their last encounter where Zeke ordered an entire army of Titans to rip him apart, but that he's still fit enough to keep on fighting and challenge him directly.

---

"What a beautiful day it is. If only I had eyes on things like this sooner... well, considering all the killing I've done, that'd be too much to ask."