Since its first episode in 2013, Attack on Titan has proven to be an animated masterstroke of story, art, and intense emotion. The show has made such complex and powerful characters only to kill them off in the most brutal and shocking of ways.
With the fourth season set to be released this Fall, uber-fans of the series are most likely losing their minds waiting. Instead of starting some lesser anime to sate those needs, relive the most surprising deaths to ever occur in the wonderful series.
Updated on February 23rd, 2021 by Kit Morris: The fourth season of the anime has been out for a couple of months now and more characters have been killed since. Seeing as how these deaths have surprised fans even more than those prior to season four, it's only fair to include them here now, as well as characters that have died in the manga that are expected to die in the anime soon. There are also some characters that were not included in the original list that will be added in as they deserve to be on it just as much.
15 Carla
Attack on Titan has one of the best first episodes in all of anime. Everything seems to be completely normal, at least for the people inside of Shiganshina District. But things quickly change when the Colossal Titan breaks into their homes, followed by many other titans. Eren and Mikasa weren't home at the time and ran towards their house when they saw what happened.
Shocked to find Eren's mother, Carla, crushed underneath their destroyed home, the two kids tried to save her. However, Hannes tried and failed to save Carla, taking the children away as they witnessed Carla get eaten by the Smiling Titan.
14 Ymir
Ymir was a member of the 104th Cadet Corps and Survey Corps that came from Marley. When Reiner and Bertholdt were revealed to be the Armored and Colossal Titans, Ymir was the only one that could understand why they attacked Paradis as she knew that they came from Marley, where she had also lived.
Deciding to help the two of them, Ymir left Historia and the other soldiers. Upon returning to Marley, she was eaten by Porco and became the next Jaw Titan. What made Ymir's death shocking was that it was never actually seen. By the time some fans realized she was dead, Porco had already been the Jaw Titan for four years.
13 Porco
Ymir isn't the only inheritor of the Jaw Titan that died. Her successor, Porco, had a huge rivalry with Reiner for years. Believing that Reiner wasn't cut out to inherit the Armored Titan, Porco was shocked to find out that he was the one who didn't make the cut. However, it turned out that the only reason Reiner was accepted was because Porco's brother, Marcel, sabotaged him in order to protect him.
Years later, when Porco found out, he confronted Reiner about it. At this time, Zeke had used his scream to turn everyone that had his spinal fluid inside of them into titans, including Falco. As Porco told Reiner that he had gained Marcel's memories, Falco ate him and became the Jaw Titan.
12 Sasha
Sasha's death was one of the most recent heartbreaks for fans of the series. While the Survey Corps fought the Marleyan army, fans had no clue that such a beloved character would die in the battle.
Sasha, and most of the other soldiers, retreated to Paradis as Gabi unexpectedly followed them and shot Sasha. Because of this, many anime viewers have come to hate Gabi for taking away the life of the precious potato girl.
11 Ilse
Only seen in the OVA titled Ilse's Notebook, Ilse's death is definitely shocking, but it's what we learn from her encounter with an abnormal that is most shocking. The OVA was the first moment fans saw a Titan that spoke to a human and tried not to eat them.
This strange capacity for intelligence and restraint was a shocking moment in the series. However, the abnormal could not resist and after Ilse wrote down what had occurred moment after moment, it stuffed her in his mouth and ate her.
10 The First Levi Squad
The first Levi Squad had four of the Survey Corps. best veterans with an incredible kill-assist record of over a hundred Titan kills. For an episode or two they were established as the cream of the crop, the elite of the elite, the best of the best! Then they died horrifically. What was most shocking about the death of the entire squad was how they all went.
On their first mission protecting Eren, the Female Titan (Annie) attacked them. The soldiers seemed to have defeated her at first, but they underestimated her power and were brutally killed.
9 Mike Zacharias
Mike is probably best known to fans as the man with the super nose. Most importantly, he was Erwin's third-in-command after Levi. Known for sniffing titans miles away, he was considered to be humanity's second best soldier after Levi. His death however was a shocking moment in the series mainly because of what we learned at that moment.
Surrounded by a group of titans, he learns too little too late that the Beast Titan is capable of intelligent speech and control over other titans, and is asked a few questions by the Beast Titan. As the soldier was speechless, the Beast Titan decides that Mike has nothing to offer and commands a pack of Titans to tear Mike apart as he begs for his life.
8 Grisha Yeager
Eren's father has a very mysterious past, and it doesn't become clear until the Survey Corps retakes Shiganshina District. What Eren learns is that Grisha isn't from Paradis, but a different country that creates Titans.
Eren also learns that Grisha was a Titan himself, and had eaten the holder of the Coordinate, a member of the Reiss Royal Family. What he did after that though is most shocking. Grisha injected Eren with a serum to turn him into a mindless Titan and then had Eren eat him to gain the Coordinate. Grisha chose Cannibalistic Patricide as his death, and that is extremely shocking.
7 Marco
Marco was one of the new members of the Training Corps, along with Eren and the gang. He had a great can-do attitude, and saw the values in others. He was a peace-maker and did a lot to bring up team morale. Unfortunately for him, in the Battle of Trost District arc, he heard Bertholdt and Reiner talk about their Titan alter-egos.
Instead of snuffing him out or pretending it was a lie, Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie (who appears at that moment) leave him stranded on the Titan-infested area without any equipment to escape. What is most shocking about his death is that after the Titan trio see Marco die, Reiner forgets that he sent his comrade to his death due to his split personality.
6 Hannes
The drunk Hannes was best known in the first episode for being too much of a coward to rescue Eren's mom as she gets eaten by the Smiling Titan. Hannes still does the next most respectable thing and grabs Eren and Mikasa and runs, starting the vengeance cycle that fueled Eren's hatred against the Titans. Hannes does make up for it though when the Survey Corps fails and retreats from a Titan attack.
Eren is incapable of becoming a Titan, and his friends are wounded or helpless without gas. Hannes flies out and tries to save them, ironically coming face to face with the Smiling Titan once more. However he fails and as the Smiling Titan eats him, Eren finally connects with the coordinate ability, causing Titans to swarm the Smiling Titan and destroy her.
5 Commander Erwin
The pride and joy of the Survey Corps. and the greatest commander of the regiment, Erwin was a brilliant strategist and leader. However, after he lost an arm in the retreat to the wall he was fighting less and leading more. Despite this, he led his group all the way to Shiganshina District and helped retake the wall, doing what many thought to be impossible.
But all good things must end, and Erwin takes critical injuries when he leads a charge against the Beast Titan to distract it in an all-or-nothing gambit to save the city. Dying slowly, Erwin's last moments are compounded by a chance to be saved by Levi and the Titan Serum. But Levi is faced with an impossible decision as Armin had also suffered from horrific burning by the Colossal Titan. In this moment, Levi chooses Armin and sees Erwin die from his wounds.
4 Zeke Yeager
After Erwin's death, Levi desperately wanted revenge on Zeke, the inheritor of the Beast Titan. At the end of the series, Armin and Zeke had a conversation about the meaning of life inside of the coordinate. In doing so, they were able to give the previous inheritors of the Nine Titans their free will, which stopped the Rumbling, an attack on humanity that Zeke accidentally helped Eren start.
Free from Eren's control, Zeke realized how precious life could be. In that moment, Levi finally got his revenge and decapitated him.
3 Bertholdt Hoover
Bertholdt may have been a kind person to everyone in the Survey Corps but he was also responsible for multiple deaths and the death of Marco, an innocent soldier who trusted him. What makes Bertholdt's death shocking though is mainly that the group even managed to capture him.
Whenever the group is close to capturing one of the intelligent Titans, someone manages to interfere and causes the situation to end. However, Bertholdt suffers a fitting death, as the new Titan form of Armin mindlessly eats him and becomes sentient.
2 Isabel & Furlan
In the OVA No Regrets we learn the backstory of how Levi joined the Survey Corps. Levi had been raised in the Underground and had been a petty criminal with his make-shift family of Isabel and Furlan. They were like his younger sister and best friend, and are all blackmailed into the Survey Corps on a mission to kill Erwin and steal a document he carried.
When Levi sees the chance to kill Erwin he leaves Isabel and Furlan, but fails and returns to see both of them killed by Titans in the most horrific of ways.
1 Faye Yeager
Faye Yeager was Grisha's younger sister, and Eren's aunt. Unfortunately for Eren, he never got to meet her because Grisha and Faye lived in Marley, a police state that treated Grisha and Faye poorly due to their Titan-connected heritage. On a day when Grisha had them sneak into a prohibited area to see airships, the Marleyan police caught them and while one of them beat Grisha, the other lied and said he would take Faye home.
What had happened was that the man had fed Faye to his dogs while she was still alive! Faye's innocence and horrific murder is by far the most shocking death in the entire series.