Thoughts on ymir’s backstory (No manga spoilers)

Ineedananimegirl said:
Thats what i got

The titan power ymir is given represents the ultimate strength. Now lets just imagine snk universe has divinities because that magical spine didn't come from nowhere. Ymir is a feeble and frail girl but still altruistic and selfless. The gods seeing how she was chased to death thought "she is good and doesn't deserve to be a slave and die like this but she is too weak so we shall grant her the greatest strength for her to live freely" and so in the lake the shinning spine gives her the titan powers. But even after receiving this power she keeps serving as a slave. even if she has to do the worst possible things for her master. After some years of serving she is disgusted with herself and what she has done doesn't want to live anymore and dies protecting her master maybe thinking that only death will free her. Only to realise that after death she is now slave of her own power as if she is punished for not using it for herself and her freedom she will for eternity serve the titan power to those who makes use of it.

Thats why eren managed to convince her to give him her powers. Because she actually desperately wanted to be free but was too good for her own good literally. Eren him doesn't give a f and tells her that he will end the world and she will never have to be a slave ever again for anyone. By giving her power to eren she chooses herself before others for the first time ever because he will supposedly give her her freedom by killing every possible ennemis to eldians so that theres never ever a need to use titan power again.

jamieac42 said:
So I am not trying to talk down on attack on titan or anything but I thought ymir’s backstory was pretty plain and nothing special. Did anyone think the same or similar? This is coming from an anime only as well so I have no idea if it was better in the manga but I just didn’t feel it was that impactful. I mean it didn’t bring down the overall quality of the episode that much because of everything else that happened. Basically i want to know your thoughts to see if I am being over critical or if you think that the simplicity of the story benefitted the anime as a whole? I just kind of expected as important of a character as ymir is to have a more impactful back story y’know?

pyro___x said:
For me ymir's backstory was fuckin pathetic she and her village get turned into a slaves then the village turn on her and she gets thrown out by king fritz only to have him send a bunch of people to kill ymir?? And then ymir just coincidentally manages to go into a big fuckin tree and get titan god powers only to return to being a slave for king fritz despite clearly not wanting to??
Its genuinely fuckin pathetic

jamieac42 said:
So I am not trying to talk down on attack on titan or anything but I thought ymir’s backstory was pretty plain and nothing special. Did anyone think the same or similar? This is coming from an anime only as well so I have no idea if it was better in the manga but I just didn’t feel it was that impactful. I mean it didn’t bring down the overall quality of the episode that much because of everything else that happened. Basically i want to know your thoughts to see if I am being over critical or if you think that the simplicity of the story benefitted the anime as a whole? I just kind of expected as important of a character as ymir is to have a more impactful back story y’know?

jamieac42 said:
Yeah I was thinking about that as well, I dunno of it just symbolises her feeling dead inside or if its something else but I too would like to hear peoples thoughts

SevenStop said:
I think it felt more impactful in the manga for some reason

jamieac42 said:
So I am not trying to talk down on attack on titan or anything but I thought ymir’s backstory was pretty plain and nothing special. Did anyone think the same or similar? This is coming from an anime only as well so I have no idea if it was better in the manga but I just didn’t feel it was that impactful. I mean it didn’t bring down the overall quality of the episode that much because of everything else that happened. Basically i want to know your thoughts to see if I am being over critical or if you think that the simplicity of the story benefitted the anime as a whole? I just kind of expected as important of a character as ymir is to have a more impactful back story y’know?

LockHowl said:


There was a bit more that was hinted at. Ymir wanted to be loved that's why she willingly served the eldian king. She could have easily crushed the shit out of them. She wanted to marry and have children but when she was pierced by a spear, she realized the king didn't even budge from the chair to check on her. She lost the will to live and that's the tragic part. She doesn't slave for people because she is a victim of slavery, she does it to make people happy - selflessly. This is also why titans can die if they no longer have a will to live, they don't regenerate. I think this is the parasite's symbiosis allowing the host to die. There was quite an emotional package in that last bit. I hope that makes it a little less cliche to you. Idk how complicated it could get with normal warring villages.

Jayanthlovesanim said:
try watching episode 80 again and spend your every brain cell on understanding ymir's circumstances...you'd get it, if not...I'm sorry bro, but as for me the backstory was great, since it explained everything about why founder ymir was doing the things she did but sorry dude I am not good at explaining so I can't help ya try watching it again maybe you'd get the point and change your opinion ;)