Fanfic / Freedom's Ring

Ilse Langnar is in trouble. Very big trouble.

Her team had been wiped out by Titans and she's the only one left. Her horse had left her and her ODM gear was broken. Stuck so far away from the nearest settlement in the dead of the night in a land full of man-eating Titans, it looked like she was doomed. Fortunately for her, help came from an unlikely source as she stumbled upon a mysterious structure that appeared out of nowhere before a strange girl appeared and ushered her to head into the gate, where the promise of help awaited.

Freedom's Ring is a crossover between Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There and Attack on Titan written by DFMRCV, who is also the author of The Fight we Chose, making it the second Gate fanfiction by him, although this fanfic weights more towards Attack on Titan although some Gate characters do appear.

This story can be read on Fanfiction.Net

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Freedom's Ring provides examples of:

• Action Survivor: Ilse Langnar was one, being left alone after her entire team was killed by the Titans and would've died had Rory not intervened.
• Adaptational Badass: Many characters improve in combat ability once they receive modern-Earth weaponry and/or training, but the 104th Trainees receives this treatment big time. In canon, they were just barely out-of-training rookies who were easily decimated when the titans invaded Trost and only able to turn the tables by Eren transforming into a Titan and the Survey Corps' arrival at the very end. Here, they were supplied with modern weapons in the form of Barrett .50 anti-materiel rifles and M2 Browning heavy machine guns, not to mention received training from none other than the United States Army Rangers on complimenting it with their ODM Gear. As a result, they became a deadly titan-hunting squad who were able to repel the titan incursion on the now-liberated Shiganshina District without incurring any casualties on their part. In fact, the only hiccup to their newfound success was Eren's transformation itself on part of a deliberate sabotage courtesy of Bertholdt.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: When she took on the roles and responsibilities as the Queen of Paradis, Historia was only 15 years old.
• A God I Am Not: Turns out to be the case for this fic's Rory. Despite having ascended to far greater power than in canon, Rory admits that she is neither omniscient or omnipotent, and gives this as the reason for why she could not intervene at an earlier point in the Attack on Titan timeline to improve things sooner.
• Ascended Extra: Thanks to the aforementioned help from Rory and the Americans beyond the Gate, Ilse receives much more focus and becomes a more involved character by helping to bring about the alliance between Paradis and modern-Earth.
  • Extends to a few other characters who survive their canon deaths, such as Petra and Eld remaining active to devote their impressive combat skills as valuable support throughout the story.
  • Dina Yeager is able to escape a canon Fate Worse than Death and thus lend great help to explore the use of Eren's Founding Titan abilities with her Royal lineage earlier and better than the protagonists originally could.
  • In the manga, the Tybur family that rules Marley was mainly represented by the family head Willy Tybur and his sister Lara, with none of the other members receiving characterization. Here, their parents and grandfather also hold considerable authority and relevance even over Willy, and discuss national matters together. The elder grandfather Tybur in particular strongly pushes the family into leading Marley and the World Union into highly-aggressive moves against the Paradis-Earth Coalition. Lara herself earns considerably more characterization than her canon self.
• Alas, Poor Villain: The W.U soldiers who survived the doomed invasion of Paradis after having the misfortune of encountering the horrors of modern combat to the point where Armin can't help but lament on the amount of casualties all because of the World Union leaders' paranoia and racism when seeing the survivors being treated.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The ODM Gear used by Paradis military forces may look flashy, but using it requires years of training and practice. Adding to it's impracticability was that the device itself was heavy and bulky, and using the ODM Gear incorrectly could lead to injuries or even death. Not to mention that killing Titans with it requires its user to get extremely close to them, before cutting the back of the nape at the correct location and depth. Simply missing the spot or depth by even an inch will not kill it. Naturally, after receiving modern firearms from the Americans the Scouts abandoned this tactic, the blades were now relegated to emergency use only.
  • In a similar vein, the airship blimps that were deployed by Marley did pose a formidable threat against the Paradisians in canon. But with Paradis now being backed by modern-world technology, those same Marleyan blimps - and virtually all of the collective World Union's aerial forces - are utterly outmaneuvered and useless against the far greater speed, mobility and firepower of modern jet fighters. The gaseous envelopes of the airships in particular are little more than oversized targets for fighter pilots and anti-aircraft weaponry.
  • Mid-East Alliance's armoured trains are powerful and a force to reckon with. But it was a huge target full of high explosive ordinance that could only travel on a set of tracks. One well-aimed hit at it's ammo storage or by simply destroying the tracks is all it takes to destroy the whole thing.
  • Pure Titans were already this in the overall Attack on Titan world thanks to advancing technology. While still a threat in large hordes and able to heal from most wounds via their regeneration, the Pure Titans' relatively low durability and mindless natures leave them vulnerable to even 1920's-era firepower aimed to their open weak spot (especially aircraft flying outside their reach). After witnessing modern-Earth's 21st century armaments, Marley's own intelligence officers openly admit that all Titans - even the intelligent, trained Shifters - are practically useless for war now.
• Attack Its Weakpoint: The Titan's weak point is at the back of its neck. Traditionally Titans were dispatched by making a deep, precise cut around the nape but thanks to the firepower they afforded, the US military simply engaged them from the front.
  • Additionally, except for Abnormal Titan which is thankfully uncommon, Titans were inactive at night. Upon obtaining access to night vision technology, the Scouts along with the American forces exterminated them at night to reduce risks.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Titans themselves are rather sizeable, The smallest stand 5 meters tall and most titans were at most 15 meters tall, but two Titans stand out because they are just...big.
  • Bertholdt's Colossal Titan. Standing over 60 meters tall, it was even higher than the walls itself.
  • Reiss's Titan. Even bigger than the Colossal Titan. This one was even harder to face as it spends most of its time on it's back, which means it's weakpoint was buried deep and far out of reach of most weapons that the Americans had on Paradis until Eren dropped a GBU-43 MOAB on top of him.
• Badass Army: Much respect is shown to the Survey Corps for their high skill in fighting Titans and maneuvering through the air with ODM Gear despite their inferior weapons and high mortality rate. They have little trouble pulling their weight when working with their more advanced American allies, who freely admit that the Survey Corps soldiers bring strengths and specialties that make up for many of the Americans' weaknesses. This becomes more emphasized once the Americans share modern gear with Paradis, allowing the Survey Corps to operate with even greater efficiency and far less casualties.
  MARSOC Operative: "Primitive tech or not, these guys are legit."
• Badass Crew: While the Survey Corps was already a Badass Army on their own, then there was the Special Operations Squad, better known as Squad Levi, which was considered by many within the Walls as the most elite unit of the Survey Corps. This squad was named so after their leader, Levi and each member where individually hand-picked by Levi himself. They demonstrated their skills to the Americans during the retaking of Shiganshina and the Army and Marines watching can't help but praise their showcase.
  • Initially, Squad Levi was made up of Levi himself plus Oluo, Petra, Gunther and Eld. But following the Uprising, which saw the death of Oluo and Gunther, Marco and Sasha was brought in to replace them when the squad was chosen to be sent to Hizuru and later, Liberio.
• Big Applesauce: The Gate connects Paradis from what would eventually become Hill Zero One to the Times Square in New York City. Until the successful activation of Project Arrowhead it was the sole connection between the two worlds. Also for the same reason the Gate was used exclusively by the Americans and their allies, drawing criticism from countries such as China and North Korea.
• BFG:
  • Upon being modernised by America and their allies, while the Garrison and the Military Police were armed with bolt-action M1903 Springfields chambered in .30-06, the Scouts were armed with semi-automatic M1 Garands chambered in .458 Winchester. How powerful was it? It was just below the .50 caliber in it's Titan killing efficiency.
  • Mikasa also used a Barret M107 in Chapter 7.
  • Paradis's military also fielded wall-mounted cannons, which was normally used to fight Titans. While archaic, it was surprisingly powerful enough to disable a Stryker if shot at close range multiple times.
  • The First Interior Squad's handguns, while also archaic, are still powerful enough to decapitate someone if they are fired close enough to the target.
  • On the World Union side, the Mid-East Alliance fielded their anti-Titan rifle during the invasion of Paradis. The rifle fired an impressive 14.5mm rounds at it's target. Effective against Titans, not so effective against modern main battle tanks.
  • Also fielded by the Mid-East Alliance was their armoured trains. Complete with 105mm railway guns which was used to destroy Liberio as an attempt to intimidate Earth's nations for their stance on the Eldians. Both were destroyed before they could even complete their objectives.
• Back from the Dead: What seeing Ilse alive again was for her parents after presuming that she was dead for a year.
  • Played for real when Dina Yeager turned back into a human after being stuck wandering around Paradis as a Titan for eighteen years.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: Given Paradis's technological level, manufacturing capacity and resources they had at hand, they were given M1903 Springfield and M1911 as their rifle and sidearm of choice upon being modernised given that their existing gun factories could be quickly retooled to produce them. As General Connor words it, they were reliable and easy to use, maintain, and manufacture. Not bad for a firearm that was already more than a century old.
  • The Scout's weapon of choice, the M1 Garand is itself originated before World War Two even started, albeit modified to fire .458 Winchester.
  • On the Earth's side, the US Navy reactivated USS New Jersey and USS Missouri as a mean to intimidate the World Union to prove that even by their standards, they were still outclassed by what is literally a floating museum. Even the World Union representatives themselves were shocked when they learned the facts.
• Brits with Battleships: To help infiltrate the Royal Government and learn more about them, the British sent members of the Special Air Service to back the CIA team. Following the declaration of war against Paradis by the World Union, they sent additional units including Challenger 2 tanks to help defend Paradis.
• Car Fu: In Chapter 2, rather than wasting ammo on an 8-meter class Titan, a crew of an M1 Abrams decided to make a good use of the tank's 70-ton weight to run it over instead, much to the Survey Corps' amusement.
  • Happens again during the World Union's invasion of Paradis, particularly the Mid-East infantry's offensive, when the Paradis-Earth defenders utilized their tank units to steamroll the open battlefield and crushed any enemy unfortunate enough to get caught in their way.
• Canon Foreigner: Despite being a formal crossover, very few characters representing modern-day Earth from Gate actually appear in the story. Instead, the majority of the military personnel who interact with the Attack on Titan world are original creations with their own backgrounds, personalities and dynamics.
  • Ilse ends up befriending Officer Callahan, Officer Toby and Officer Roe of the NYPD, who coordinate with Ilse and the rest of their department to defeat the Pure Titans who chased Ilse through the Gate.
  • Soldiers of the US Army include Matt White, Jackson "Jake" Jackson, Dave Emin, and Lieutenant Troy.
  • General Connor serves as the primary leader of the Marine Corps, as was Colonel Parker for the US Army.
  • The President of the United States is shown to be a rather different character than his canon Gate counterpart, and spends the story handling the protagonists' political obstacles from modern-Earth's side of the Gate.
  • US Ambassador Kelly and Ambassador Daniel Caine are America's main representatives to the Paradisian government.
  • From Attack on Titan, Ian Kline is a Military Police recruit who devotedly serves the Royal Government and later promoted to the First Interior Squad under Djel Sannes.
  • General Osman is a military leader of the Mid-East Alliance known for his hatred of Marley's differing values and far greater hatred towards all Eldians.
  • Virtually all of the representing diplomats from Attack on Titan's non-Paradis nations are this, barring Marley and Hizuru. This is partly a result of the original manga's lack of Narrative Filigree pertaining to the wider world beyond Paradis and Marley. Thus necessitating the inclusion of fan-original countries and representing dignitaries in the Attack on Titan globe.
• Canucks with Chinooks: A battalion of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery was deployed to Paradis to help reinforce the island against the increasingly hostile forces of the World Union.
• Child Soldiers: To the Paradisians, recruiting teenagers as early as 13 into their military was considered a normal practice. To Earth's nations however, such actions were considered unethical and inhumane. Somewhat justified given the situation Paradis was in even after the Gate's opening.
  • One of the reasons why the Americans bothered to train the 104th despite knowing how young the cadets were was due to an agreement with the Royal Government.
  • On the other side of the ocean, Marley was even worse, recruiting children as young as five years old to become part of their Warrior Unit. Again it was justified, as Titan Shifters only live for 13 years therefore they have to keep looking for candidates.
• Chekhov's Skill: As a person of Turkish descent, Dave Emin was encouraged by his mother and grandmother to learn the Turkish language in Chapter 12. Later in Chapter 16, the World Union sent a merchant ship full of civilians to test the waters. Said ship is full of Eldian refugees from the Mid-East Alliance and as such everyone onboard spoke in Turkish. As such, he was sent aboard the ship to help communicate with the crew and refugees inside.
• Combat Pragmatist: As both of them were aware of their disadvantages against the more technologically superir and heavily armed Americans and others beyond the Gate, both the First Interior Squad and the World Union would do anything to achieve some form of victory.
  • The First Interior Squad relied heavily on ambushes, their expertise with their ODM Gear, hometown advantage, crude prototypical explosives and even the anti-Titan cannons to get some upper hands against the Americans. It does worked for a bit as they managed to kill a few drivers during their initial strike on the convoy carrying the 104th as well as one US Army Ranger later in their confrontation.
  • The World Union was an even bigger offender, like placing Eldians on their warships when they learned that the Americans and their allies would not attack any ships with civilians on-board, using said Eldians to be turned into Titans to clear a path for their armies during the invasion of Paradis, and when the invasion failed, attempted to gas an entire town using railway artillery.
• Curbstomp Battle: There were quite a few examples.
  • One was undoubtedly at the beginning when Ilse's team was wiped out by the Titans.
  • The retaking of Shiganshina, which was a combined arms effort between the US Army, USMC, and the Scouts. It only took one day for the city to be reclaimed by humanity.
  • A major reason why the Warriors Trio never uses their Titan abilities to directly attack Paradis is because they are fearfully aware that they would be on the receiving end of this trope against the firepower of Paradis' otherworldly allies. Even when the Warriors have Bertholdt use an indirect offensive by unleashing his Titan powers in a surprise move that breaches the Walls, Bertholdt's Colossal Titan form is immediately almost killed by a quick encounter with four Cobra helicopters, and Bertholdt barely flees with serious injuries. The Warriors Trio are never able and/or willing to engage the Paradisians and their allies again afterwards.
  • When the Walls were breached again, the US Army, USMC, and the 104th Trainees managed to hold out long enough for help to arrive from Hill Zero One.
  • During the Uprising, the First Interior Squad managed to caught the Scouts, 104th Trainees and the American off-guard, but as soon as they regained their bearings, the Americans brought the fight back to the First Interior Squad and Rod's other support. By the end of the fighting, almost the whole squad was completely wiped out.
  • The battles between Paradis-Earth forces versus the World Union. Paradis had about just over 10,000 troops consisting of Paradis's own forces, the US military, Germans, Canadians, and the French Foreign Legion armed with main battle tanks, ground-attack aircrafts, fifth-gen fighter jets, attack helicopters, modern weapons, artillery, and communication systems and an entire carrier battle group backed with decades worth of modern battlefield tactics with them. The World Union fielded five-hundred thousand troops armed with World War One-era weapons and tactics against them. Guess who comes out on top?
• Death by Adaptation: The surprise attack on Hill Zero One results in the deaths of half of the 104th cadets, including Connie Springer, who was one of the few survivors at the end of the Attack on Titan canon story.
• Death from Above:
  • As the Titans have no ability to fight against airborne units, the US Military made good use of attack helicopters during the retaking of Shiganshina.
  • Once the airfield was ready, the Marines sends out Harriers to take down Titans. Later down the story F-35s and A-10 Warthogs were also deployed on Paradis.
  • In order to stop Rod Reiss' Titan from attacking the Gate and the military base structured there, four Chinook helicopters lift Eren's Titan into the sky via chains so that he can drop a GBU-43 (AKA the Mother of All Bombs) directly from the air and onto the threat. He succeeds, and the explosion is large enough to completely engulf and obliterate Rod's Titan form.
  • During the invasion of Paradis, much of the World Union's attempt to make way inland were foiled by NATO airstrikes.
• Decapitation Strike: The CIA pulled this off on the First Interior Squad by kidnapping Djel Sannes, throwing their leadership off and their plans into disarray. They got back at them later by attacking Hill Zero One itself, killing Erwin, Nike, Pyxis, Zackly, the US ambassador and almost killing General Connor.
  • Later down the story, the CIA did this again, this time by taking Zeke Yeager and his family out of World Union's hands, preventing them from using his powers against Paradis.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: A given in a story where two different worlds with different histories and levels of progression end up connecting to each other.
  • A good number of people from modern Earth have strong objections to the Paradisian military's standard practice of having teenagers as young as Ilse or Eren being formally trained and deployed to fight giant cannibalistic monsters.
  • On a more emphasized note, virtually everyone in the Attack on Titan world outside of Paradis, especially the leading figures in the World Union, harbors a deep paranoia and prejudice against Subjects of Ymir. This especially extends to those on Paradis who possess the Founding Titan and its ability to unleash The Rumbling, and the World Union has no compunctions about wiping out the island's population just for peace of mind. This determined prejudice runs deep enough that the World Union refuses to even consider forming a peaceful compromise with Paradis whatsoever, instead insisting that all of their demands are to be met.
  • Likewise, the modern world's inhabitants (who are approximately a full century ahead) are not only strongly against any and all such discrimination, but also hold deep disgust and loathing for the World Union's readiness to commit genocide. To the extent that numerous other nations in modern-Earth are willing to send military support through the Gate to protect Paradis against such an atrocity. This massive difference is one of the major factors that prevents the two worlds' leaders from seeing eye-to-eye, and inevitably leads to Willy Tybur handing a declaration of war against Paradis and their allied nations from modern-Earth.
• Demoted to Extra: A few characters receive considerably less focus than in canon.
  • Garrison captain Hannes appears occasionally to support Eren, Mikasa and Armin, as well as taking his duties somewhat more seriously, but doesn't get to substantially affect the plot.
  • Due to a combination of the Americans hesitating to give young recruits exposure to serious combat as well as Bertholdt surviving, Armin doesn't get to display his tactical brilliance as much, and never becomes the Colossal Titan Shifter. Downplayed, though, as Armin does nevertheless remain a staple character with Eren and Mikasa, becoming a capable soldier whose support for his friends helps to convince Eren to remove the Power of the Titans from the world.
  • The Warriors (Annie, Bertholdt and Reiner) get noticeably less development here. Unlike canon, where their continued battles with and against the Survey Corps allotted plenty of time for them to consider their choices,the American military's presence forces them to quietly realize that opposing Paradis and its new support now is pointless. As a result, Annie and Bertholdt peacefully surrender to the Americans after the second breach, give up Reiner to them, and spend the rest of the story in jail cells without participating in nearly as much action, apart from divulging what information about Titans and the outside world that they know.
  • On that note, the Nine Titans themselves are used far less. Again, much of it has to do with the obvious advantage that modern-Earth technology holds over any Titan, causing their abilities to be far less game-breaking. Only the Founding and Attack Titans remain as serious threats, and that's more so for their esoteric powers than direct combat applicability.
  • The young Marleyan Warrior Candidates, particularly Gabi and Falco, have much less effect on the story. While Gabi still goes through an arc of realizing that a Marleyan upbringing had filled her head with racist propaganda, it's much more of a minor subplot. The canonical Alliance between the Survey Corps and Marleyan Warriors never forms due to Paradis already finding reliable allies. Hence, the Warrior Candidates are left more as relevant bystanders than able participants.
  • From Gate's side, canon protagonist Itami and his JSDF squad also count. They do show up to give important backup and political opportunities to the Paradisians, especially regarding infiltrating Hizuru with Squad Levi to negotiate with the Azumabito clan. But they barely interact with any Attack on Titan characters beyond that, and are only introduced in the final fifth or so of the plot to boot. In general, they end up playing a much reduced role in the military interactions between the two worlds' nations than in the canon Gate story, mostly due to the Gate connecting Paradis to the modern-Earth nation of America, not Japan.
• Difficult, but Awesome: While the ODM Gear does have drawbacks like being heavy and bulky and the amount of training needed to use one, in the hands of an experienced and well-trained soldiers the ODM Gear is an unquestionably useful equipment. For starters, it gave it's user an unparalleled mobility advantage over regular foot soldiers as they can quickly move from one position to another, especially in places like forests and urban areas where there were plenty of vertical surfaces for the hooks to latch on to but even on flat terrain, any solid objects can be used to pull themselves towards to. Even the Americans pointed out that the ODM Gear was perfectly fine for them. Rather, the introduction of modern firearms and communication system made the ODM Gear even more useful than before, as radio-based communication network allows soldiers to be notified faster and quickly reposition themselves while modern firearms pretty much solves the only gripe the ODM Gear have as soldiers can now reliably engage Titans or other enemies at range instead of having to get dangerously close to them.
• Didn't See That Coming: The opening of the Gate and the subsequent arrival of Earth's military on Paradis pretty much caught everyone off-guard, as the new players were completely above them on all levels. This completely unforeseen phenomenon resulting in chains of events (including the swift retaking of Shiganshina at the second chapter) that turns these schemers' plans completely on its heads. Reactions ranged from resigned acceptance that there's no point in continuing (The Warriors Trio and Zeke) to resorting to drastic measures that led to even worsening the situation they already had (Rod Reiss and the Tybur family). The only major players in the series whose plans and goals actually benefitted from the Gate would be Erwin Smith and Hizuru.
• Didn't Think This Through: Reiss upon realising that he could simply take the district of Trost hostage using his Titan powers so he could pressure the Americans to meet his demands.
  • Likewise, the World Union after their Paradis invasion force were thoroughly beaten and pushed out of Paradis, as they were so fixated on invading that they forgot to take into account what would happen if they failed to take the island.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: This taking place in the kind of world that Attack on Titan is, it's not much of a surprise that some characters still die, albeit in unexpectedly new ways.
  • Rather than perishing in the Battle of Shiganshina, Commander Erwin Smith, Marlowe and Moblit are killed during the ambush led by Rod's forces against the American base in Hill Zero One and convoy carrying the 104th cadets.
  • Similarly, Commander Dot Pyxis and Commander Nile Dok both die during Rod's ambush on Hill Zero One instead of being turned into mindless titans during the Marley attack on Shiganshina. Commander-in-Chief Zackly also perishes in the same event, instead of killed by the Yeagerists' bomb.
  • Ymir of the 104th also ends up being consumed by Rod Reiss rather than Porco Galliard. This ironically leads to the defeated Rod and his Jaw Titan's power both being consumed by the Pure Titan form of Dina Yeager, inadvertently saving her life as opposed to Dina's canon demise.
  • Squad Levi's Oluo and Gunther are killed in the clash between the Royal Government and dissenting military branches instead of by the Female Titan. Somewhat of an odd case, in that Petra and Eld, the other half of Squad Levi who also canonically died with them, are instead able to survive both this battle and the rest of the story's conflicts altogether.
• End of an Age: Already the canon inevitability of Marley's global domination due to the Attack on Titan world's technology progressing to the point that the Titan-based warfare that Marley depends on will be easily thwarted and rendered obsolete. Here, it's taken up to eleven with the arrival of even greater weaponry from the modern world. Continued exposure from the modern-world through the Gate all but guarantees that an era where Titans are feared on the battlefield as unstoppable killing machines has practically already gone by.
  • Also arguably applies to the Paradisian population after contacting the US and especially post-Uprising, due to now knowing that their existence as the last remnants of humanity behind the Walls being protected by the Royal family was a 100-year lie.
  • Definitively in effect by the end of the story, when Eren ultimately refuses to activate the Rumbling and instead gives up the Power of the Titans entirely, spontaneously eliminating all Titans (including the Wall Titans) as well as all Titan Shifters' abilities. Not only does this destroy a massive motivation for the World Union's war, it also completely ends the Titans' millennia-long reign of terror from the Attack on Titan world. The Tybur family anxiously note that their world has no precedent for how to move forward in a new era without Titans, but Rory and most of the Paradisians are clear in their stance that Eren's choice is for the best and that the new age will prove to be a better one.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Eldians were so hated in Attack on Titan Earth that outside of Paradis, they were regularly abused by the rest of humanity. Even their equivalent of the United Nations, the World Union, often if not purposely excludes Eldians from international laws such as their take on the Geneva Convention.
  • Even within Paradis, non-Eldians were heavily persecuted and were outright killed. The Advisory tried to pass it off by claiming that they were criminals who rebelled against the King and had to be put down to maintain stability, but the US and other countries saw through their lies.
• Final Solution: The World Union demanded the United Nations to hand over all Eldian population of Paradis, including the Royal Family and the current holder of the Founding Titan to them to be imprisoned "until the Eldian Question can be answered." Naturally, the United Nations straight out refused their demands. You know it's horrible when People's Republic of China out of all nations deemed it unacceptable.
• Fire-Forged Friends: The soldiers of the Survey Corps quickly become this with the modern-American forces after working together to achieve several victories against the Titans, particularly sealing the Wall Maria breach of Shiganshina and going on joint expeditions. The camaraderie between the two worlds' soldiers deepens to the point where Matt, one of the Army soldiers, later confides to Petra Ral that he would choose to bring in much more reinforcements to keep the Paradisians protected and destroy any opposing military powers who would threaten them. It's strongly implied that most if not all of the modern-Earth personnel feel similarly, greatly opposing the idea of pulling out and abandoning Paradis to their world's threats. Likewise, the Paradisian soldiers welcome the outsiders in their ranks and gladly stick up for their modern-Earth allies in high-stakes political negotiations.
  • This later extends to the Garrison and Training Corps after being introduced to the modern-worlders, and later on with military support from Canada, Germany, France and other modern nations who join the Americans.
  • Ironically subverted with most of the disparate nations comprising the World Union. They are willing to combine their military resources against Paradis and can coordinate strategy together decently well, but the various leaders also constantly bring up past grievances and argue during tactical discussions. This is particularly prominent between the leaders of Marley and the Mid-East Alliance. Though using far inferior technology was the main factor, this is another reason why the World Union suffers a humiliating loss in the war against the Paradis-Earth Coalition. The World Union members' fixation on holding grudges left them unable to mesh together like the Paradisians and their modern-Earth allies, who were accepting and open-minded enough to work as a cohesive faction.
  • Averted with the Military Police and especially the First Interior Squad, who remain blindly loyal to the Royal family and immensely distrusting of the modern-Earth forces. They later aid King Rod Reiss in surprise-attacking both the Americans and their fellow servicemen from the other military branches, spurring the surviving Survey Corps, Garrison and Military Police that didn't partake in the attack into a civil war with the backing of the Americans against the Royal Government.
• Fish out of Temporal Water:
  • The Walls society that Ilse hails from is approximately equivalent to the 1800's in technology, lacking amenities such as electricity, and the known human population is confined to a single territory behind the aforementioned Walls with most of the outside world unknown to them. Thus, when Ilse finds herself in modern real-life New York City, Ilse is understandably flabbergasted by the vastly superior technology, huge number of different cultures due to humanity establishing itself around the world, and differing cultural values.
  • Later, members of Paradis' government and military - including Queen Historia, Hanji, Levi, Kitz, Rico, Eren and other members of the 104th - also experience this when they travel through the Gate to modern Earth in order to gain international military support against the hostile intentions of the World Union.
• Foreshadowing: While the American ambassador in the UN was thinking about answer to why America restricting access to the Gate in Chapter 4, her answer was due to the Gate being located in New York City and not a giant interdimensional portal located in the Atlantic. Fast forward to Chapter 18, when Project Arrowhead was successfully activated, it was a giant interdimensional portal located in the Atlantic. ^note Specifically, just outside Puerto Rico.
• Friendly Sniper: Sasha Brouse may be a klutz with a bottomless pit for a stomach, but she's one of the best marksmen of the 104th, whether it was a bow and arrow or a rifle.
• General Ripper: General Osman of the Mid-East Alliance was one. From advocating the World Union to use increasingly heinous tactics to outright killing his own men for refusing orders, he would do anything if it means the destruction of Paradis and the death of all Eldians.
  • Really, his bloody career began thirty years before the story begins when he led a raid on a Marley border town, killing 70 people. 40 of them were children.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: It is made transparently clear that the World Union's intent for complete genocide against Paradis' Eldian population is a threat that the Paradisians cannot face alone, at least not without resorting to the Rumbling. In response, Historia, who has become Paradis' queen, goes to modern-Earth and delivers a pleading speech for aid to the representatives at the United Nations General Assembly. Ilse notes that Historia goes off-script to personally relate the Paradisians' struggles, and refuses the notion of their generation taking the blame for their ancestors' crimes. Surprisingly, it achieves spectacular results that even Eren hadn't expected: over ninety modern-Earth countries pledge to grant full military support to protect Paradis against any hostile attacks. This result not only enrages and intimidates the World Union's leaders, but it also serves to invalidate the idea of Eren using the Rumbling to defend the island from the outside world as in canon, thanks to the heightened backup.
  Queen Historia: "But I don't want to push more of my friends, my people, to die! Today you will vote to either recognize Paradis as an independent nation or not… I understand recognition means very little. I don’t expect the entire world to send its armies to aid us. It’s unrealistic, but… even if you don’t recognize us and even if you kick us out… please… for the sake of humanity… to prove that we are, in fact, human… please… help us."
• Healing Factor: Titans and Titan Shifters can regenerate their body to heal their injuries, so long as their weakspot weren't hit. At the end of the story, Reiner becoming unable to rapidly heal from a simple cut on his palm is the first proof that Eren successfully removed the Titans from existence.
• Hold the Line: Three examples, the first two both taking place in the exact same location.
  • The first was the retaking of Shiganshina, where the joint American-Survey Corps held back the Titans so that the engineers could finish the installation of the new gate to seal the breach.
  • After Bertholdt, using his Colossal Titan to breach the Wall again, the 104th, USMC and the US Army stationed there held the town for two hours before support from Hill Zero One arrives to help them.
  • The defense of Paradis was essentially Paradis/NATO forces trying to hold off the World Union long enough until Project Arrowhead became fully operational.
• Human Shield: Upon learning that America and their allies will not attack ships with civilians onboard, the World Union places as many Eldians on their warships to prevent them from being attacked from the air by aircrafts.
  • Could be even worse. The World Union's original plan was to bringing thousands of Eldian refugees and using Zeke's power to transform them into thousands of Pure Titans, that would be then directed to charge directly towards Paradis's defenders again using his powers. This will no doubt guarantee some losses on Paradis's side. Fortunately, the CIA stopped this insanity by bringing Zeke and his family to Paradis.
  • Even within the Marleyan Army, there was some that questioned the legitimacy of this tactic. General Calvi himself pointed out how this may instigate a revolt among Eldian population. One Marleyan Army officer even deemed this plan as insane.
  • Rather, this seems to a shtick for the World Union as it was revealed by Reiner and Bertholdt that the Romanovs once forced an entire town's population towards Marley's forces which was utilizing the Titans. This tactic leaves so much of a mess that the World Union eventually had to pass up an international law that demands protection of civilians in war. Eldians, however, were not added on that list.
• Identical Stranger: Ilse to 104th!Ymir as in canon. This becomes even more of a plot point in this story, due to Ilse surviving her encounter with the Talking Titan and allowing the Paradisian-American allies to figure out that someone with a very similar face apparently has some level of authority with the Titans. Their ensuing investigation culminates in Ymir being revealed as a foreign Titan Shifter like the Warriors Trio, though Ymir also makes it clear that she legitimately had nothing to do with Paradis' plight against the Titans. Unlike the Warriors, Ymir really was on the Paradisian military's side the whole time.
• Improperly Paranoid: On top of a deep hatred against modern Eldians for the atrocities committed by the ancient Eldian Empire over a century ago, the World Union is also terrified of the prospect that Paradis will exploit their allies' military power and the might of the Founding Titan to conquer the world again. Despite representatives from Paradis and modern-Earth both making it very clear that they have zero intentions of conquest, even offering multiple peaceful compromises to assuage their fears, the WU leaders refuse to accept anything less than the complete genocide of Paradis' native population. Their paranoia is strong enough to push the World Union into declaring war on Paradis and their allies despite the severe technology disadvantage.
  Queen Historia: "Please, for all our sakes, don't push for war. We think we may have found a way to stop the threat of titans, we may even be able to eliminate the wall titans if you just give us time!"
  Willy Tybur: "And say we do? We have no guarantee you won't just turn around and try to attack us. Or use your new friends against us... Miss Reiss, we cannot accept anything but the destruction of Eldia. It is the unfortunate truth of the world."
• It's Raining Men: The 82nd Airborne Division was deployed over Liberio to capture the town and show the World Union that the Earth's armies can easily take any of their territory with ease.
• Kaiju Defense Force: Japan was among the first countries after the US to send help to Paradis. Initially they sent their Army engineers to help rebuild Shiganshina. Following the declaration of war against Paradis by the World Union, they send in an elite team to infiltrate Hizuru, and helped aiding in extracting Zeke and his family out of Liberio to throw off World Union's invasion plan.
• Laser-Guided Karma: General Osman of the Mid-East Alliance continues to push for the war even when defeat is certain to the point of murdering an officer who disagrees which makes him a scapegoat for the W.U when the people call for the heads of the ones responsible for the bloodshed. He is last seen being hauled away by his troops to be tried for his war crimes.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Just like the rest of her Survey Corps comrades, Ilse was completely unaware of the existence of human societies beyond the Walls of her world, and explained her people's situation as such. This causes the modern-Earth military personnel to remain ignorant of the imminent threat posed by Marley and the rest of the world's countries until they discover the information from the Yeager family's basement and interrogations with the foreign Titan Shifters.
  • It ends up going both ways. The total lack of communication outside the Walls also means that the overseas threats are completely unaware that the previously-isolated Paradis population has made some powerful friends. By the time Marley sends Zeke Yeager, Colonel Theo Magath, and Pieck Finger to the island by ship, they find that the Warriors have failed and been taken prisoner, the pacifistic Royal Government has been overthrown, and the Paradis-America alliance have expanded enough to eliminate any remaining Pure Titans and gain full control of the island. Zeke in particular is thrown off by how much these rapid developments have derailed his race-wide euthanasia plan. Needless say, neither of the two worlds' leading factions are pleased to learn of the others' existence.
  • Eren was also completely unaware of his status as an important Titan Shifter, or even that the Nine Titans and Titan Shifters existed at all until after the second breach of Wall Maria provided a rude awakening.
• Loophole Abuse: When the Royal Government banned the use flying machines on anything other than killing Titans, they specifically banned helicopters thanks to Ilse specifically mentioning them. What they don't know was there was other types of flying machines such as fixed-wing aircrafts and drones and as such the Americans were able to use them to explore Paradis unhindered as they weren't banned.
• Macross Missile Massacre: While the US military made good use of BGM-71 TOW and Hellfires, the king of this trope was the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System. A unit of them was deployed around Chapter 10 and it was instrumental at both defeating Rod Reiss's Titan and decimating an entire army of Romanovs, Marley, and Mid-East forces during the invasion of Paradis.
• Mad Scientist: Hanji Zoe, as per canon. Her eager love for scientific discovery and research means that she is particularly excited to learn about the advanced gear used by the militaries of modern-Earth. Even when an international team of scientists are brought over, Hanji's overt passion for Titan research (and her casual suggestions for painful experiments) sticks out as almost worrisome. When Hanji joins Queen Historia and the other Paradisian military commanders through the Gate on a political mission, she finds herself just as excited to learn about our world's exotic wildlife that Paradis has never seen.
• Medieval Stasis: The First Interior Squad purposely curbed Paradis's technological progress, assassinating inventors and intellectuals under the orders of the Royal Family under the context of maintaining stability but in reality it was to keep the Paradisians within the Walls. After the removal of Rod Reiss and the destruction of the First Interior Squad following the Uprising, Paradis were quick to modernise to early 20th-century standards no thanks to help from the United States and their allies.
• Mook Horror Show: The beginning of the World Union's disastrous invasion of Paradis is shown in the perspective of a Mid-East Alliance soldier as he witnesses the full horrors of modern combat, ranging from platoons being swallowed up by missile strikes to tanks being impervious to anti-titan weaponry and crushing everything in their way.
• More Dakka: One of the main premises of this fic was the gratuitous use of firepower afforded by the US Armed Forces being used to kill Titans.
  • The 7.62x51 NATO was considered the smallest ammunition capable of killing Titans, albeit one must aim it directly at the nape to successfully kill it. This was used by the NYPD during the initial Titan incursion and later by a Marine during the retaking of Shiganshina. While barely effective against Titans, against regular humans standard NATO rounds still worked as it can penetrate any body armor available to Paradis's forces. This became relevant later down the story when humans began to replace Titans as the main adversary, notably during the Uprising, where American forces effortlessly dispatched the First Interior Squad soldiers with ease and the invasion of Paradis, where Paradis-NATO forces engaged against World Union forces.
  • In contrast with the 7.62x51 NATO above, the .50 BMG rounds were capable of killing Titans even from the front thanks to it's stopping power. Just the M2 Browning machine gun alone were capable of dispatching a Titan horde with ease, and these were used by the 104th during the defense of Shiganshina.
  • Then there was the M2 Bradley with it's 25mm Bushmaster autocannons. These too rip up Titans with ease.
  • And of course, the 30mm rounds fired by the GAU-8 Avenger from an A-10 Thunderbolt II. These was used to great effect on Rod Reiss's Titan and the invading World Union forces.
• Muggles Do It Better: Even by Attack on Titan world's standard, Titans were already on their way out as inventions such as anti-Titan cannons and rifles as well as the rise of aerial power slowly diminished their prominence as a feared weapon on the battlefield, and those were considered advanced by their world's standards, which is at most early 20th-century at it's most advanced. Now enter the US Armed Forces and basically any country that is from Earth, where 21st century weapons technology essentially made Titans into a trivial problem.
• Mundane Utility: When not used for combat, the ODM Gear is also a useful construction equipment.
  • Also, when the gas tanks were removed, the holsters can be used to carry ammunition boxes making them ideal for resupplying troops in the heat of combat.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: After disarming Matt of his rifle and having a brief fist fight, Ian decided to charge at him with his blade. Matt's response was to pull out his M17 pistol and proceeded to unload on him. The last we see of Ian was his dead body being carried away.
  • Rather, this was the fate that befell many of the First Interior Squad as some of them decided to use their ODM Gears on the Strykers and MRA Ps only to be gunned down by machine guns.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Titans can tank a lot of damage thanks to their regenerative ability which made them hard to kill even after getting their limbs sliced off or being shot to pieces unless their nape were cut off. While modern weaponry were more than capable of killing Titans thanks to being more accurate and powerful, this trope still applies to certain Titans, such as Rod Reiss's Titan.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: The US Armed Forces were already amongst the strongest standing military in the world with only a few countries that could come close to challenge them. But upon being deployed to Attack on Titan Earth, there's almost nothing in that world that could even challenge them. Rather they had to hold themselves back in order to comply with international laws as America could if they really wanted to, completely invade every country in Attack on Titan's Earth.
• Nuclear Weapons Taboo: The Americans initially kept the existence and knowledge of nuclear weapons away from the Paradisians. But later when they finally discloses the topic, Anka suggested using one against Rod's Titan. Cue every NATO officer in the room replying with a Big "NO!"
  • Interestingly, after detonating a GBU-43 MOAB on Rod, this exchange occurs:
  Daniel Caine: "Welcome to the atomic age your Majesty; it's a world full of terror and wonders."
  Queen Historia: "That isn't an atomic bomb."
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Much detail and nuance is given to the war between the World Union and the Paradis-Earth Coalition, but only the end and aftermath of Russia's overwhelming invasion against the Romanov Empire is shown to the readers. Justified as the events happen roughly at the same time as the climactic Battle of Liberio.
  • An earlier example was when the US Army and the USMC crossed the Gate for the first time. Upon arrival, they were met with dozens of Titans. We never see how the fighting goes but we do know how it ended: 35 Titans killed within six hours.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Ilse serves this role to the girls of the 104th Training Corps when they travel to modern-Earth. Between Sasha's impulsive hunger, Historia's anxious stress, and Mikasa's intensity, Ilse finds that keeping her junior comrades on track is comparable to herding cats.
  • Among all of the World Union representatives, Hizuru's Kiyomi and the rest of the Azumabito clan are the only ambassadors willing to give Paradis a genuine chance at independent peace from the start. Let alone to fully face and accept the knowledge that declaring war on a united faction who could end their world is an idiotic idea at best and suicidal at worst. The fact that Kiyomi is willing to sit down for trade negotiations with the Coalition via Japanese middlemen behind the World Union's backs is considered a vital opportunity for Paradis' defenders.
  • Downplayed because he still goes through with it, but General Calvi is one of the only military leaders who continuously warns the other officials against eagerly throwing their outgunned troops against the heavily-armed Coalition. Unfortunately for him, Mid-East Alliance General Osman fiercely rebukes him and spurs the World Union into executing those highly-aggressive tactics anyway.
• Outside-Context Problem: The arrival of the United States (and modern Earth in general) on Paradis are this to pretty much everyone.
  • Not only do their advanced weapons and technology enables them to completely decimate all Titans on Paradis Island without breaking a sweat, but their vehement opposition to the ingrained discrimination and hatred against Eldian people also manages to throw Marley and the entire world outside the island (referred collectively as the World Union in this fic) out of the loop. This is because the World Union simply could not comprehend the idea of an entire world of ordinary humans who would willingly throw their support for the so-called "Eldian Devils". The incomprehension is only exacerbated when a motion that authorizes the US and NATO military intervention to protect island inhabitants against genocide (the sort of motion that in other circumstances would be vetoed by oppositions like Russia and China), passes unopposed in the United Nations.
  • When the World Union's forces finally land their troops on the island as part of desperate Final Solution measures, the combined Earth and Paradis defenders armed with 21st century technology are able to swiftly deal with the invading forces a crushing blow. The Union forces, expecting to only facing against armies of the awakened Wall Titans at worst, finding themselves completely outclassed by the Coalition's combined arms of not only ODM gears, but also main battle tanks, field artilleries, attack helicopters, fighter jets, and guided-missile warships. Try as their leaders might, it becomes clear that the WU has zero options for overcoming these unexpected trump cards. Needless to say, after witnessing the sheer discrepancy in technological level, the rational minds within the WU quickly announces their surrender and sign a non-aggression treaty that forces them to peacefully co-exist with the new Paradis nation under Queen Historia.
  • Even before the first contact with Marley and the World Union, the first US forces to cross the Gate and help the Survey Corps to retake the Shiganshina District without incurring any losses, already proves to be the OCP for both Rod Reiss and the Warriors Trio. For the former, it's mainly due to them being an uncontrollable and heavily-armed third party that Rod believes would threaten the stability of his regime and unravel the curtain that his family had put to isolate Paradis from the outside world. For the latter, it's because they possess advanced medical technology that are capable of exposing their true identities as Marley's Titan Shifter infiltrators as well as advanced military firepower that can easily take down their Titan forms. Every single one of them were eventually proven to be correct in their assumptions.
• Rock Beats Laser: The First Interior Squad managed to disable a Stryker containing Eren, Historia, and Ymir with a combination of Thunder Spears and a wall-mounted cannon.
• Russians with Rusting Rockets: After opening their own take on Project Arrowhead, Russia launched an invasion on the Romanovs to force open a second front against the World Union. While it wasn't shown how the invasion goes, the invasion was a success as the Romanovs were forced to concede to them.
• Secret Police: The First Interior Squad, an inner faction within the Military Police. They were blindly loyal only to Rod Reiss and their duties was to eliminate "undesirable elements" within the walls for the King. This includes assassinating inventors and intellectuals that got too curious about the world outside the Walls, and dissidents that questioned the government. Initially it was a small unit, but Rod had the unit expanded to the point that by the time he authorised them to attack the Scouts, 104th, their military commanders and the Americans, their membership was almost the entire Military Police itself, which given that the Military Police were made up of the top ten-ranked recruits in each Training Corps generation, they were basically the best-trained and equipped units of the Paradisian Military. Despite this however, as they mostly stayed in relative safety of the inner Walls and their targets are often incapable of fighting back they lacked the combat experience of their fellow peers in the Scouts and Garrison unless one counts torture and interrogation as one. As such, when they faced units that can actually fight back, they were easily defeated.
  • Hizuru's Kempeitai also counts. Like the First Interior Squad, they were heavily trained and equipped, but unlike the latter they were actually experienced as they managed to give Itami's squad a hard time until they were promptly erased by JMSDF Atago.
  • The Romanovs also had the Oprichnina. While never seen fighting any of Earth's forces, they do however were used to capture all remaining Eldians within Romanov's territories to be used as human shields for the upcoming invasion of Paradis.
• Spanner in the Works: Ilse Langnar essentially becomes this for the story's premise. Simply by surviving the Titan-infested wildlands long enough to escape into the Gate and bringing the far more advanced US Armed Forces to support the Survey Corps, Ilse unknowingly threatens and/or destroys nearly every secret agenda set by the pre-existing factions in her world. In particular, the Royal Government, First Interior Squad, the Warriors, Tybur family (and outside world's leaders as a whole) are left scrambling to salvage the derailments caused by one tough survivor. While Rory intended to give some help to the Attack on Titan protagonists anyway to avert their canon tragedies, Rory also admits that she originally planted the Gate there out of sympathy for Ilse's individual plight and merely offered Ilse a path to save her own life.
  • Eren also counts. By simple virtue of being a non-Royal Eldian holding two of the Nine Titans (without even knowing it), Eren inadvertently becomes a wrench in several people's plans that required the Founding Titan to be held by a Royal Family member. In fact, a major factor in the Warrior Trio's surrender and the World Union's declaration of war against the Coalition is the fact that someone as oppression-resenting and determined as Eren has possible access to the Founding Titan's world-destroying power, without a Royal bloodline's usual safeguards.
  • Also Ymir, courtesy of her Pure Titan form devouring Marcel, taking the Jaw Titan with him, and depriving the infiltrating Warriors of their fully competent leader before they reached the Walls. Just as in the manga, this action plays a major long-term role in ruining Marley's secret plan to steal the Founding Titan's power and eradicate the Paradisians, four years before the Americans even arrived to help Paradis.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Paradis connecting and allying with the modern United States of America allows numerous characters to escape their canon fates.
  • In canon, Ilse Langnar was just a one-shot character who was immediately killed off to provide important insight to the titans' behavior. However, in this fic, intervention from the ascended Rory and US Armed Forces means that she becomes a central character who plays an important role in connecting Paradis with the United States. She later manages to survive her fated encounter with the Talking Titan thanks to US Army soldiers and Survey Corps scouts who were with her.
  • Other canonically killed characters who've also managed to survive all the way to the end of fic include Marco Bodt, Sasha Braus, Mina Carolina, Petra Ral, Eld Djinn, Hange Zoë, Mike Zacharias and his team, Hannes, Floch Forster, Bertholdt Hoover, Kenny Ackermann, Keith Shadis, Zeke Yeager, Theo Magath, General Calvi, the entire Tybur family, Dina Yeager and last but not least, Eren Yeager himself.
• Story-Breaker Team-Up: Played with. As the author previously had experience writing another GATE fanfiction, he knows full well how overpowered the modern day US Armed Forces is as they could curb-stomp any threat on Attack on Titan's world. As such, early on the author places some in-universe restrictions such as the Royal Government's banning of flying vehicles for all purpose other than killing Titans and United Nations putting pressure on the US Government. But as the story progressed and newer threats began to emerge, some of this restrictions were slowly removed and from Chapter 15 onwards, the Americans were finally able to go all out.
• Stuff Blowing Up:
  • Knowing that Titans were mostly inactive at night, the most preferred method by the Americans to kill them was to sneak up on them during night time and planting C4s on their necks.
  • Any time fighter jets or attack helicopters were used, things were bound to explode. The most prominent example of this was when Eren dropped a GBU-43 MOAB on top of Rod Reiss's Titan.
  • The Thunder Spears used by the First Interior Squad killed or injured half of the 104th, as well as the top military leaders of Paradis and almost killing General Connor.
  • How did the World Union kicked off the invasion of Paradis? By shelling the port they've been using to dump Eldians guilty of crime that were sentenced to be transformed into Pure Titans on Paradis in the first place.
  • When the Mid-East Alliance were about to launch a gas attack on Liberio using their armoured trains, the 82nd Airborne soldiers launched Javelins at it, destroying the train and stopping the gas attack. The MEA again sent another train to finish the job, and it too was destroyed by a carrier strike group from USS George H W Bush.
• Sword and Gun: Even after switching their weapons to firearms, the Scouts still carries their blades with them, although they now carry two blades instead of six. The blades do still come in handy at times, such as Levi rescuing Hanji and their American allies from the Talking Titan's attack by quickly slicing its arm off.
• Tank Goodness:
  • The M1 Abrams. Capable of running over an 8-meter class Titan with no impunity at all. It's 120mm guns fire depleted uranium shells that made short work of any Titans it came across.
  • The Germans, British, and French would send in a battalion of Leopard 2, Challenger 2, and Leclerc tanks to help bolster the defence of Paradis from the World Union.
  • When the Russians invaded the Romanovs, they sent in alongside their soldiers T-80BVs.
• Technology Uplift: The introduction of modern firearms and communication systems help tremendously increase the Scout's combat capability.
  • Following the removal of Rod Reiss and the destruction of the First Interior Squad who previously curbed Paradis's technological growth, Paradis began to modernize as basic modern amenities such as radios began to appear.
• Tempting Fate: Several characters end up doing this, much to their respective allies' frustration.
  • During the joint effort to seal the breach and retake Wall Maria, Eld boldly comments that their modern-Earth support should make the mission easy. Captain Levi rebukes his cockiness and reminds Eld of the threat that Titans still pose. Sure enough, greater waves of Titans appear that force the Paradis-America alliance to intensify their efforts, fiercely protecting their engineers until they finish the reinforced Wall barrier.
  • Later, Oluo complains that the Americans didn't properly consider the chance that the Wall could be breached again. Almost immediately, Levi appears and explains that they were given advanced sensor devices that will instantly signal a Wall breach, before ordering Oluo to help set them.
  • At one point, a political commentator on modern-Earth states that there is a good chance that the US military personnel will have a pleasant first meeting with Paradis' Royal Government thanks to having already aided the Survey Corps. Cue a dangerous stand-off between the joint Survey Corps-US forces and the Military Police mistakenly ordered by the Royals to arrest them, culminating in a Marine and an MP nearly starting a fight when the latter's regiment attempts to arrest Ilse.
  • While patrolling Shiganshina, the crew of a Marine helicopter that goes by the callsign "Cobra 2" remarked how it was just another boring day. Someone then replied asking them not to tempt fate. Moments later, the Colossal Titan showed up.
  Radio: "Cobra 2, see anything?"
  Cobra 2: "Negative, skies are clear, grounds clear. Looks like a perfectly boring day."
  Radio: "Cobra 2, please refrain from screwing us over by tempting fate."
  • During the Uprising, in an attempt to prevent Reiss from getting his side of the story out, the US Army alongside Hanji raced to the newspaper office only to find it blockaded by the First Interior Squad. Both sides tried to get each other to back down and surrender but the Military Police decided to shoot first. They were all predictably gunned down with a machine gun.
  • When the World Union member nations' leaders are planning their all-out invasion against Paradis, General Calvi expresses frustration that none of the military minds are even considering their options in the event that it fails. Predictably, the World Union's forces are crushed and pushed off the island's shores by the Paradis-Earth Coalition, forcing the World Union into the very undesirable position of mainland defense and with no concrete plans for the scenario drawn up beforehand.
  • During the invasion, a combined Romanov-Mid-East Alliance-Marley army formation marched through the desert towards the Walls, but a few soldiers stopped after seeing columns of white smoke rising far in the distance. Their company commander assured them that it was just regular artillery and is not that accurate and urges them to push forward. What they didn't know was said artillery was a battery of M270 MLRS firing at them, and they're dead accurate and designed precisely to be used against massed formation like them. Cue almost the whole formation being wiped out, company commander included. Those that survived immediately retreated.
• This Means War!: Though the Paradis-Earth alliance makes it abundantly clear that they want to coexist with the rest of Paradis' world peacefully, the World Union refuses to consider any scenario where Paradis is left alone due to their fear of Paradis using their new power and support to rebirth the Eldian Empire. When the World Union demands that the modern-Earth nations allow them to wipe out Paradis' population and take back the Titan Powers, not only do the Americans refuses outright, but also other modern-Earth nations pledge to lend even more military support and protection for Paradis after Queen Historia's pleading speech at the United Nations conference. Remaining unwilling to compromise, the World Union formally declares war with the intent to rout the modern-Earth troops and wipe out Paradis.
  Daniel Caine: "It isn't fair to punish the children for the sins of the father."
  Willy Tybur: "Then... we have no choice. I hope you at least understand that you forced us into this."
  Daniel Caine: "No, we didn't."
  [Beat]
  Willy Tybur (hands Daniel a paper): "Send it to Paradis and all nations that wish to side with them. To all enemies of humanity... a declaration of war."
• The Cavalry: Several instances of them showing up to aid the heroes.
  • The most notable example was the arrival of 1st Air Cavalry Brigade to Shiganshina following the the second Breach, relieving the forces there who had been holding the town against rampaging Titans for almost two hours.
  • When Itami's squad was pinned down by Hizuru's Kempeitai forces, the JMSDF Atago arrived there after exiting the portal from Project Arrowhead and proceeds to wipe out the Kempeitai.
  • The arrival of the 82nd Airborne and the USS George H W Bush carrier battle group in Liberio saved the CIA team as well as the Eldians there.
• The Coup: Desperate to maintain control, Rod authorized the First Interior Squad to attack Paradis's other military branches (especially their dissenting commanders), the 104th that were trained by the Americans, and the Americans themselves both to regain the Founding Titan and kick the outsiders out. Unfortunately for him, it failed spectacularly.
• We Are Not the Wehrmacht: Germany was among the first foreign country after the US to send help to Paradis. Initially they sent their Army engineers to help rebuild Shiganshina. Following the declaration of war against Paradis by the World Union, they sent an entire armoured battalion and KSK troops to Paradis to help defend the island.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • His unflinching ingratitude to the Americans' support aside, King Rod Reiss and his Advisory truly believe in the Royal Government's traditional attitude that Paradis' population must remain isolated in the Walls and unaware of the pre-existing nations outside the island. After Rod's death and his government's defeat, Armin and Eren heatedly talk about how Rod could have used his power to free his people from the Walls with the Americans. But, ultimately, Rod died clinging to the idea that keeping his people imprisoned and murdering his own military commanders was for the best.
  • Similarly, First Interior Squad officers such as Djel Sannes and Ian Kline are utterly devoted to the Royal Government and obey any order they receive in the name of supposedly keeping the Walls safe and secure. Even killing off brilliant inventors and launching a surprise attack on their fellow military branches in an attempt to quell dissent and kick out the Americans is acceptable in their book for protecting the populace from potential threats. Some of the surviving members of the defeated regime, such as Sannes, later willingly choose to work with the rebel branches and Americans after they learn that all of Paradis could be doomed against the wrath of the entire outside world without support from modern-Earth.
  • Willy Tybur of Marley is one of the few World Union diplomats who genuinely wants to improve conditions for Eldians everywhere, joined by the rest of his family. Unfortunately, he also stubbornly believes that the potential threat of the Founding Titan and Paradis' modern-Earth allies is too dangerous to let be and personally hands a declaration of war to the Paradis-Earth alliance with full intent on wiping out the island. By the time Eren eliminates all Titan threats forever and the Coalition crushes the World Union's forces, Willy finally realizes that he should have accepted a peaceful coexistence with Paradis. Of course, it's only after countless WU soldiers have pointlessly lost their lives, compared to the Coalition enjoying nearly zero casualties. By the end, the choice of sending so many of the World Union's men to their deaths in a war that was both avoidable and unwinnable has become Willy's biggest regret.
  • Exaggerated with General Osman of the Mid-East Alliance. Once war is formally declared, he reveals himself as a complete racist who pushes the World Union into using increasingly heinous and underhanded tactics against the technologically-superior Coalition. These range from filling boats with Eldian civilians to land them as Titans on the shore, to culling the entire Eldian population in Liberio as a desperate intimidation tactic. At one point, he even murders one of his own men for questioning his horrific methods. Osman wholeheartedly believes that this is all justified in the name of saving the world from a resurgence of the Eldian Empire, feeling no remorse for any of his actions and ignoring how he himself is hypocritically committing atrocities not much differently than the Eldian Empire that Osman despises.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: Paradis' Military Police branch and their First Interior Squad. Eld explains that the MP branch is composed of the top ten-ranked recruits in each Training Corps generation, but the fact that the Military Police are allowed to lounge in the safe interior territories without much exposure to direct combat leaves their members with far less actual experience in combat than Paradis' other military branches. This becomes relevant when the Americans get into a confrontation with the Military Police when trying to greet the king, with the MP officers notably less composed and prone to panicking in comparison to the other military branches in the story.
  • Exemplified by Ian Kline, a young MP recruit and then the First Interior Squad. Though Ian is highly skilled and driven by his blind devotion to King Rod Reiss, he lacks the same firsthand battle experience as the Survey Corps and US military personnel. This ultimately comes back to bite him in the ass when, during King Rod's pre-meditated attack on the rebelling branches and American personnel, Ian fights US Army soldier Matt in a one-on-one confrontation. Though it is close, Matt wins and kills Ian when the latter recklessly clashes his ODM Gear's blades against Matt's M17 pistol.
  • Also applies to the 104th Training Corps. Even with the training and gear supplied by the modern-Earth personnel, it is acknowledged that the 104th's members are still young teenagers who should not be deployed in combat without adult allies. Though they aid in holding off the second Wall Maria breach and accompany Squad Levi to Hizuru, the 104th Trainees require plenty of guidance from older superiors. Later, after the World Union is defeated in their attempt to purge Paradis, Armin despondently notes that he and the other Trainees were kept in reserve as a shallow excuse to protect them from ever fighting the genocidal invaders.
• Yanks with Tanks: As the Gate connects Paradis directly to the United States, there was hardly any surprised that the US Armed Forces will respond.
  • The first units to be sent in to scout the area prior to the main deployment was the Marines.
  • Once orders was officiated, the Army and the Marines were sent in to secure the Gate and make contact with the locals, which they did. Even helped in recapturing Shiganshina.
  • US Air Force came later, and they provided the air power needed both to defeat Rod Reiss and holding off the World Union's invasion.
  • US Navy was the last to arrive, as they have to wait for Project Arrowhead to be activated. Once they arrived, the firepower they brought and unleashed eventually forced the World Union to finally declare their surrender.