Theo Magath

Theo Magath first appears in the Marley arc as the commander of the Eldian Warrior Unit and later becomes the de facto top commander of the Marleyan military.

Though a Marleyan who benefits from the oppressive system over Eldians, he is one of the few officers who looks beyond racist dogma and takes responsibility for Marley’s failures.

He selects and trains the generation of Warriors that includes Zeke Yeager, Reiner Braun, Bertolt Hoover, Annie Leonhart, Pieck Finger, Marcel Galliard, and Porco Galliard.

He plays a central role in the Slava Fortress campaign, the defense of Liberio, the Marleyan counterattack on Paradis, and the joint effort with Hange Zoë and others to stop Eren Yeager’s Rumbling.

Magath is strict, disciplined, and deeply professional, with a manner that often feels intimidating or harsh to his subordinates.

Despite this, he is not driven by cruelty; he is pragmatic and cares about the lives under his command, even when he orders them into lethal situations.

Unlike most Marleyans, he does not see Eldians only as “devils” to be used and discarded.

His words are cutting and he enforces harsh discipline, but he recognizes Eldian soldiers as people and evaluates them based on ability rather than blood.

He shows flexibility and open-mindedness that contrasts sharply with the entrenched bigotry of Marley’s higher-ups.

He ignores Udo’s muttered criticism of the Marleyan navy, allows Gabi Braun to temporarily remove her Eldian armband for a risky plan, and listens seriously to requests and suggestions from Colt Grice and Zeke Yeager.

Magath believes a commander must be capable of cold, unsentimental decisions and tries to instill this in Colt as the next generation of leadership.

Yet he is not emotionless; he personally opposes sending child Warriors on the mission to retake the Founding Titan and tells them to return alive with the Founding, revealing a protective side beneath his severity.

He despises complacent Marleyan officers who push Eldians into the meat grinder while staying safely behind the lines.

He especially hates how Marley has relied on Titans for power instead of advancing its conventional technology, and he tirelessly advocates for the reintroduction of Marleyan conscription so Marleyans share in the burden of war.

Magath is also keenly observant and politically savvy.

He sees through the facade of Marley’s leadership and realizes that the Tybur family quietly guides Marley from behind the scenes, and he quickly senses the presence of enemy spies within the military.

Long familiarity with Zeke Yeager does not blind him; he never fully trusts Zeke.

He calls Zeke an “unfathomable brat” and jokes about reporting “down to the number of hairs on his butt” while clearly warning him that he is being watched and that Magath understands Zeke’s capacity for deception.

Later, when he works with Hange Zoë and encounters ordinary people from Paradis, his worldview broadens further.

He comes to recognize that both Marley and Eldia have committed atrocities and that someone must preserve an honest record of their bloody history.

Relationship with the Warriors

Magath is the commander of the Eldian Warrior Unit, responsible for selecting and training Eldian children who inherit the Nine Titans for Marley’s benefit.

From numerous applicants, he selects Zeke Yeager, Marcel Galliard, Pieck Finger, Reiner Braun, Bertolt Hoover, Annie Leonhart, and Porco Galliard as Warrior candidates.

He oversees their brutal training, similar in spirit to Keith Shadis’ treatment of the 104th Cadet Corps, pushing them to survive and function in real battlefields.

While he supports the Warrior program officially, he is deeply skeptical about sending children to carry out a mission as critical as the retaking of the Founding Titan on Paradis Island.

When the Warriors depart for Paradis, he tells them, “Come back with the Founding—and all of you come back alive.”

This line shows that, for him, they are not just expendable weapons but soldiers whose lives he genuinely values.

With the next generation—Gabi Braun, Falco Grice, Udo, and Zofia—he is equally strict but shows a surprising willingness to hear them out.

He approves Gabi’s seemingly reckless solo plan in the Slava Fortress campaign, and later he quietly accepts young Warriors’ emotional outbursts rather than crushing them.

Relationship with Marley’s Leadership and the Tybur Family

Magath initially serves under Marley’s traditional military hierarchy but grows deeply disillusioned with them.

He criticizes their arrogance, their blind trust in Titan power, and their racism, which leaves the military technologically backward compared to the rest of the world.

He is one of the few who dares to tell the Marleyan Marshal that Marley’s setbacks are the direct result of overreliance on Titans and a failure to modernize.

He warns that other nations have been developing anti-Titan weapons and that Marley is now paying the price for ignoring technological progress.

When Willy Tybur, head of the Tybur family and holder of the War Hammer Titan, visits Marley’s military headquarters, Magath quickly understands that this visit was arranged specifically to meet him.

Willy reveals his plan to save Marley by simultaneously purging its corrupt military and redirecting global hatred from Marley toward Paradis Island.

Magath accepts Willy’s plan, even though it will require huge sacrifices and likely cost Willy his life.

He tells Willy that, in choosing such a path, both of them are “devils,” and the two men seal their grim partnership with a firm handshake.

After the Liberio disaster, with most senior officers dead, Magath becomes acting Marshal of Marley.

He uses this position to reorganize the military, push for Marleyan conscription, and prepare for war against Paradis and the newly revealed threat it poses to the world.

Relationship with Zeke Yeager

Magath has known Zeke for many years as Marley’s “Beast Titan” and a star Warrior.

Despite Zeke’s apparent loyalty, Magath never fully trusts him.

He is suspicious of Zeke’s opaque motives and habit of keeping his true intentions hidden.

When he catches Colt Grice and Zeke speaking privately, he makes a crude joke about reporting every last detail—“even the hair on your butt”—to signal that he is watching them closely.

Zeke, in turn, recognizes Magath’s intelligence and caution.

At one point, Zeke tells a group of Eldians that “no Marleyan is listening in this room,” a hint that they are surely being monitored elsewhere; Magath understands immediately that Zeke is subtly acknowledging his own surveillance network.

Later, Magath’s distrust proves justified when Zeke’s true anti-Marley agenda and alliance with Eren Yeager become clear.

Even then, Magath continues to treat stopping Zeke as a strategic necessity rather than a personal vendetta, reflecting his professional mindset.

Slava Fortress Campaign

At the start of the Marley arc, Magath commands an Eldian Warrior battalion of about 800 soldiers and several Titan candidates in the war against the Mid-East Allied Forces.

He and his subordinate Koslow initially attempt to approach Slava Fortress via trenches to minimize casualties.

When Colt Grice reports the existence of an armored railway cannon capable of killing Titans, Magath revises his plan.

He refuses Colt’s request to deploy Titans immediately, knowing that Marley cannot afford to waste its dwindling Titan assets.

Instead, he orders a risky frontal assault by the Eldian infantry, fully aware this will cause heavy casualties but deciding it is strategically preferable to losing Titan power.

When Gabi Braun proposes a technically illegal and suicidal plan to take out the armored train herself, Magath weighs the options and—showing his flexibility—authorizes it, even permitting her to remove her Eldian armband to avoid being targeted.

Gabi’s plan succeeds, and Magath is visibly stunned that it actually worked.

The success allows Marley to deploy Titans safely and capture the fortress, but Magath understands that the days when Titans guaranteed victory are ending.

Postwar Assessment and Strategic Realism

After the war with the Mid-East Allied Forces, international coverage criticizes Marley’s reliance on Titans and highlights the threat of new anti-Titan weaponry.

Marley’s Marshal rages at the negative reports, but Magath responds calmly and bluntly.

He explains that the world has been preparing for Titans, while Marley wasted decades leaning on them instead of developing modern weapons.

He predicts that Titans will soon lose their strategic value and that future wars will be decided by artillery, air power, and technology, not by inherited monster powers.

Magath argues that Marley must reform its military, modernize its forces, and reintroduce conscription for Marleyans so that Eldians are no longer the sole ones dying for Marley.

His frankness and strategic insight mark him as one of the most clear-sighted officers in the Marleyan army.

Meeting with Willy Tybur

One night, while Marley’s top brass are conveniently “away on business,” Willy Tybur appears at military headquarters to meet Magath.

Magath quickly realizes that the officers’ absence was orchestrated so that Willy could speak with him privately.

Willy outlines Marley’s dire situation: global hatred, deteriorating reputation, and the looming threat of Paradis Island now that Eren Yeager has the Founding Titan.

He proposes a dramatic solution—stage a high-profile festival and speech in Liberio, lure the enemy into attacking, and use the resulting carnage to unify the world against Paradis.

This plan will sacrifice many Eldian residents of Liberio and likely cost Willy his life, but it will also let them purge corrupt Marleyan officers and reset Marley’s relationship with the world.

Magath agrees to support the plan, acknowledging that they are both “devils” for being willing to orchestrate such a blood-soaked spectacle.

From that point, Magath begins investigating corruption within the army and hunting for enemy spies.

He positions himself as the man who will rebuild Marley’s military from the ground up once the purge is complete.

Preparations for the Declaration of War

In the lead-up to Willy’s monumental declaration of war speech in Liberio, Magath works closely with him to set the stage.

The plan is to use the speech to publicly expose the danger of Eren Yeager and Paradis Island while secretly provoking Eren into attacking.

Magath accepts that the operation will cost enormous numbers of lives but sees it as the only way to both cleanse Marley’s military and secure international support against Paradis.

He and Willy combine political theater with cold military calculus, treating themselves as willing villains if it means ensuring their nation’s survival.

Attack on Liberio

During the festival and declaration of war in Liberio, Eren Yeager transforms into the Attack Titan in the middle of Willy’s speech, just as Willy predicted.

Chaos erupts as the Survey Corps invades from Paradis, using their new gear and strategies to devastating effect.

Magath responds by taking command of a captured anti-Titan cannon system and personally directing fire at Eren.

Despite his efforts, the limited training and chaotic conditions prevent him from killing Eren or stopping the battle from turning in Paradis’s favor.

Zeke Yeager’s betrayal, the appearance of the Survey Corps, and Eren’s theft of the War Hammer Titan (from Lara Tybur) leave Marley with a catastrophic loss of both lives and Titan power.

However, Willy’s objective succeeds posthumously: the world now clearly sees Paradis as a major threat, and global hostility begins to pivot away from Marley toward Eren and the Eldians on the island.

After the destruction of Liberio and the death of much of Marley’s military leadership, Magath is promoted to Marshal of Marley.

He becomes the central figure in reorganizing the shattered army and planning a counterstrike.

Marley’s Surprise Assault on Paradis

Following the Liberio disaster, Marley forms a massive military alliance with major nations to eventually invade Paradis.

Reiner Braun, however, insists this long-term plan will be too slow and that Zeke Yeager is already preparing something on the island.

Reiner argues for an immediate shock assault on Paradis using only the remaining Marleyan forces.

Magath, recognizing the urgency and trusting Reiner’s assessment of Zeke’s duplicity, approves the plan despite their depleted manpower.

Magath gathers all available forces and launches a surprise attack on Paradis using airships.

With Pieck Finger infiltrating ahead and Gabi’s information about Paradis’s internal situation, Magath deduces that Eren and Zeke must make physical contact to activate the Founding Titan’s full powers.

To prevent this, Magath personally mounts Pieck’s Cart Titan, which is equipped with a powerful anti-Titan artillery cannon.

He takes on the role of gunner, a highly unusual role for someone of his rank, because Marley lacks enough skilled soldiers and because he trusts his own marksmanship.

In battle, Magath uses the Cart Titan’s gun to bombard Eren’s Titan form and coordinate with Reiner and Porco Galliard in an attempt to pin Eren down.

However, Zeke appears as the Beast Titan and begins bombarding the battlefield with stones, shifting the tide.

Magath and Pieck feign the Cart Titan’s destruction to lure Zeke into a vulnerable position.

Their plan works: they fire the anti-Titan cannon and blast the Beast Titan from atop the wall, seemingly killing Zeke.

Zeke, however, uses his Titan body as a decoy and secretly escapes.

When he later uses his scream to transform nearby Eldians into pure Titans and further disrupt the battlefield, Magath responds by firing another shot that blows apart the Beast Titan’s nape again.

Before Magath can finish the job, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert intervene, destroying the anti-Titan cannon and forcing him and Pieck into retreat.

Despite their efforts, Eren and Zeke ultimately manage to make contact, and the power of the Founding Titan triggers the Rumbling.

After the Rumbling Begins

Once the Rumbling begins, with colossal Titans marching out of the walls to annihilate the world, Magath and Pieck escape Shiganshina.

On the run, they encounter Hange Zoë, who has deserted the Jaegerist-controlled forces and carries the gravely injured Levi.

At first, Magath and Hange clash—each blames the other side for the endless cycle of violence between Marley and Paradis.

But the unimaginable scale of the Rumbling makes it clear that they must cooperate if there is to be any chance of saving even a fragment of humanity.

Magath joins an unlikely coalition: Marleyan officers, Eldian Warriors, and members of the former Survey Corps.

Their immediate goal is to secure a flying boat (an experimental aircraft) provided by Kiyomi Azumabito of Hizuru, which is being prepared at a port on Paradis.

As they travel toward the port, Magath interacts more with Eldians from Paradis and hears their personal stories.

These encounters push him to fully recognize that neither Marleyans nor Eldians are inherently “devils”—instead, both sides have committed atrocities and perpetuated hatred and lies.

He comes to believe that those who survive have a duty to remember and honestly pass down the bloody history of Marley and Eldia.

This realization marks the culmination of his internal journey away from blind nationalism toward moral accountability.

Final Mission and Death

When the coalition reaches the port, they find it already seized by Jaegerists and protected by heavy forces, including captured Marleyan warships.

To make matters worse, the flying boat will require almost a full day of work at an offshore facility before it can actually take off.

Even in the best-case scenario, the Rumbling will have already devastated much of Marley before they can intercept Eren Yeager.

Nevertheless, Magath and the others decide to fight for the slim chance of saving any part of the world.

A fierce battle breaks out between the coalition and the Jaegerists at the port.

Through coordinated efforts and heavy losses, they manage to secure a ship and evacuate the flying boat and its maintenance crew toward the Azumabito family’s facility.

Magath stays behind as rear guard, choosing to cover the retreat despite knowing it is a likely death sentence.

He boards one of the Marleyan warships the Jaegerists planned to use and discovers that it is packed with explosives.

There he encounters Keith Shadis, the former instructor of the Survey Corps, who has also stayed behind to sabotage the Jaegerists’ plans.

The two men—one Marleyan commander, one Eldian veteran—share a brief, mutual understanding as “the last comrades” in this final act of resistance.

They exchange names and a few words about their pasts and regrets.

Then, together, they ignite the ship’s ammunition and detonates i