Willy Tybur

Willy Tybur is the public face of the Tybur family, a prestigious Eldian noble house that sided against the Eldian Empire in the past and helped bring about its downfall.

Because of this history, the Tyburs are celebrated worldwide as descendants of “saviors” who ended Eldian imperial rule.

Although he is Eldian by blood, Willy was born with the title of honorary Marleyan, a status normally earned through service.

He lives in luxury on a vast estate outside the internment zone, is exempt from wearing an Eldian armband, and enjoys privileges denied to ordinary Eldians.

As head of the family that holds the War Hammer Titan, Willy was originally the rightful successor to this Titan power.

He chose instead to prioritize the political responsibilities of the Tybur family, allowing his younger sister Lara Tybur to inherit the War Hammer Titan in his place.

He carries deep guilt over making his sister bear the burden and mortal risk of becoming a Titan shifter.

This guilt adds to the pressure he feels as the man who must decide the fate of Marley, the Eldians, and the wider world.

Willy knows the true history of the Great Titan War and the fall of the Eldian Empire, knowledge passed down with the War Hammer Titan from Tybur head to Tybur head.

This secret weighs heavily on him, especially as he watches Marley repeat cycles of violence and militarism using Eldian Titan power.

Willy presents himself as charismatic, refined, and deeply political, skilled at winning the favor of both Marleyans and foreign dignitaries.

He has an extensive network of contacts and can speak directly with leaders of many nations, which makes him a key diplomatic figure.

Despite his privilege, he is self-critical and sees himself as “just a man who happened to be next in line” at a critical moment in history.

He believes he must use his position to take responsibility for past sins—those of Eldia, of Marley, and of the Tybur family itself.

Willy views the Tybur family as having quietly allowed Marley to do whatever it wanted for generations.

While the Tyburs had enough authority to manipulate Marley from the shadows, previous heads chose a stance of non-interference, leaving politics and war to the Marleyan people.

Because Marley used the power of Titans and the oppression of Eldians to wage long-term expansionist wars, Willy feels personally responsible as the current head.

He believes Marley’s path of militarism and abuse of Eldian power has led both Marley and the Eldian people into an existential crisis.

He is willing to sacrifice himself, his reputation, and even his family’s safety if that will help correct the course of history.

He calls himself and his co-conspirators “devils,” acknowledging the moral cost of their plan while committing to it anyway.

Willy holds enough influence to effectively control Marley from behind the scenes, even though the Tybur family is not officially part of the Marleyan military government.

His family’s revered image as heroic traitors to the old Eldian Empire gives him enormous moral authority in the eyes of the world.

Both within Marley and abroad, Willy is widely respected and even admired, despite being Eldian.

His presence can sway international opinion, and world leaders are willing to meet and negotiate with him.

Because of this exceptional status, Willy is an anomaly: an Eldian who is treated as an equal—or even a superior—by Marleyan elites and foreign powers.

His life of freedom and comfort stands in stark contrast to the suffering of Eldians confined within internment zones.

As head of the Tybur family, Willy possesses the true account of the Great Titan War, the retreat of King Fritz, and the origin of the Walls on Paradis Island.

He knows that King Fritz chose peace and created the threat of the Rumbling as a deterrent rather than an active plan for global domination.

Willy understands that, in reality, it was Marley that initiated aggression for resource reasons by sending the Warrior Unit to Paradis.

Grisha Yeager’s theft of the Founding Titan was a reaction to that Marleyan invasion, making Marley’s greed the real starting point of the modern conflict.

However, from the perspective of the many nations who fear the Rumbling, the threat of a mass Titan march has long been a shared global concern.

Once Eren Yeager gained the Founding Titan, that abstract fear became an immediate and terrifying reality.

Willy’s actions can be seen as a form of atonement: he is trying to correct a history of manipulation and violence by uniting the world against what he frames as a common enemy.

Even though the foundation of that narrative is selective and partially deceptive, he sees it as the only path to buy time and reform Marley.

Willy’s most famous act is his dramatic public speech in the Liberio internment zone, staged as a world-shaking political performance.

He invites foreign dignitaries, Marleyan leaders, and the Eldian residents of Liberio to witness his revelation.

In this speech, Willy retells Eldian and Marleyan history, mixing truth with carefully chosen distortions.

He reveals King Fritz’s true desire for peace and the retreat to Paradis, but he emphasizes the current danger posed by Eren Yeager and the forces on the island.

The structure of his speech is designed to create a specific narrative:

First, he portrays Marley as a victim and martyr in the current age.

Then, he introduces the threat of Paradis Island and Eren Yeager as the new enemy of humanity.

By doing so, Willy aims to shift global attention and hostility away from Marley’s own militarism and toward Paradis.

He wants the world to see Paradis Island as the target that must be confronted, giving Marley breathing room and a chance to restructure itself.

Willy and Theo Magath secretly coordinate to ensure that Marley’s corrupt upper military leadership will be present and vulnerable during the expected attack.

Their intention is that, when the Paradis forces strike, the most compromised and reckless Marleyan officers will be killed, allowing more responsible figures like Magath to rebuild the military.

Fully expecting Paradis to launch an assault on the festiv