Warning: contains spoilers for the Attack on Titan manga and anime!
The monstrous Titans in Attack on Titan mutely chase down their prey, devouring humans with no sign of compassion or even any hint of a deeper motive. The colossal predators share some human characteristics, but with mysterious expressions and a frequent lack of basic sensory impulses like pain responses and blinking, it’s long been unclear how much of the world around them these monsters experience, let alone what they think. Despite that, there has been some evidence that more is going on behind those vast, terrifying eyes than may first appear.
Putting aside the humans that can transform into Titans, the typical Titan doesn’t seem to have any thought process beyond eating humans. The popular manga sets humanity on the brink of destruction from giants let loose by another tribe of humanity, the Marleyans, who despise people who can transform into Titans, known as Eldians. Eldians used to be safe behind gigantic walls located on an island, until spies from the continent of Marley transformed into Titans and burst through the walls.
Attack on Titan, by Hajime Isayama, brilliantly withholds information about the world Eldians inhabit, dropping tidbits of information about the Titans keeping readers and anime audiences hooked with each new development. Even with some exposition dumps of information about the lore in Attack on Titan, there is still a lot that’s unknown about the nature of Titans. They are activated by injections of Titan spinal fluid into Eldians, but the Titans’ biology is still largely a mystery. Besides those rare humans who can transform to Titans under their own power, and therefore retain their intelligence, only one Titan has been known to speak, hinting at potential intelligence.
To pull apart if any Titans really have sentience, delving into the weeds around the lore surrounding Attack on Titan is required. A cadet named Ilse with the Survey Corps runs into a 20-foot Titan that doesn’t immediately eat her in a side story of Volume 5. Ilse writes in a journal that is later recovered that the Titan said “Lady Ymir … Well met,” and bowed to her. Even though this Titan displayed the ability to speak, it ended up eating the cadet anyway. Ymir is later revealed to be a cult that grew in Marley.
The Marleyans routinely inject Eldian prisoners to force them to become mindless Titans and set them loose on Paradis Island, where the bulk of Attack on Titan is set. Ymir was one such mindless Titan, eventually returning to human form with no memory of her time as a Titan, which she says lasted about sixty years. She only regained consciousness after devouring a human that could transform. While Ymir retained her memories and sense of self somehow, it’s clear that she didn’t create new memories in Titan form.
Though giant, Titans are lightweight and don’t need to eat or defecate, apparently killing on instinct rather than out of need. In every way except physical size, Titans are less than human, and don’t seem to possess anything beyond rudimentary impulses. The speaking Titan is an aberration, but it’s crucial that it seems to be parroting a phrase memorized as a human, suggesting the random expression of a deeply buried memory rather than true thought or intent. Ultimately, Titans are so horrifying because they lack humanity, and their lack of intelligence, opinion, or morality is a big part of that quality.
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