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"Mature Content Warning!" |
General Theo Magath is both a major character and major antagonist of the manga and anime Attack on Titan.
He is introduced as the Commander of the Eldian Unit of the Marley Army, including the Warrior Unit. Many years before the beginning of the story, he was one of the chief overseers of previous batches of Warrior candidates during their training, and years before that during his early career, he was a war veteran known to be the military's best artilleryman.
As the story progresses, he becomes the General and top executive leader of the whole Marleyan military, after his predecessor General Calvi's death at the hands of Eren Yeager. Magath succeeded Calvi through the support of Marley's supreme leader Willy Tybur and Marley's governmental party. According to Tybur, the nation has been entrusted to Magath to control in the Tybur family's behalf.
He serves as one of the unseen overarching antagonists of the majority of the story prior the timeskip (alongside his General and government), a major character in the Marley arc, one of the overarching antagonists of the first half of the War for Paradis arc (alongside the posthumous Willy Tybur), and a major character in its second half.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- As a military commander in Marley he was part of Marley’s conquests of enemy nations. He led soldiers, including suicide troops, to destroy countries and annex them into Marley as a nation-continent and build colonies by taking the enemies' resources.
- Along with the other leaders of the Marleyan military, he approved of using Zeke's scream and spinal fluid ability to summon and control Pure Titans for Marley's global conquest. This is used by the military for battle strategies, in which Zeke turned units of Eldian prisoners and even civilians into Titans, who rampaged in cities, destroying them and killing numerous residents in wars and terroristic attacks against enemy nations. Two known places involved with this strategy a capital city of an enemy nation and Ragako village in Paradis' Walls.
- As a result of the war between his country and the countries of the Mid-East Allied Forces, many Mid-Eastern people lost their homes and were forced to leave their hometowns as Refugees to live in tents within Marley's mainland territory, such as the camp of Ramzi's people, whom some members of the population curse as enemy invaders due to the war. However, this war was also not started by Marley, but by the Mid-East Union instead.
- He was part, and eventually in charge of the Warrior program and selected the candidates to become Titan Shifters which reduced the lifespan of the children recruited and he indoctrinated them into becoming child soldiers. As part of their training, hate was very prominent in general, and Magath and his overseers taught the children that outside their Motherland killing enemies is fine, soldiers and civilians of all ages alike.
- On his government's wishes and superiors' orders, he sent the Warriors to their mission to retrieve the Founding Titan, in order to deprive the Eldians of their sole mean of self-defense, so that Marley could conquer the Walls without threat and monopolize all the island's rare resources, which makes him responsible of all the deaths within Paradis' Walls caused by the Warriors.
- Like most Marleyans and people from other nations, he displays a discriminatory attitude towards Eldians, by berating them for questioning him and being perfectly willing to sacrifice 800 hundred Eldians soldiers to achieve victory in war.
- Alongside Willy Tybur, he planned to have all the useless and conservative Military leaders, including his General, die at Eren’s hand so that he can rebuild the military with himself in charge, backstabbing his own comrades for the sake of the nation and change. Magath and Willy also sacrifice numerous innocent Eldian, Marleyan, and foreign civilians and dignitaries in Liberio so that they can get most of the world's nations help Marley wipe out the population of Paradis Island.
- As the head of security of Willy's stage production and speech, Magath let the Warriors and several of their family members also attend the event, as he accepted to offer them along with the VIPS and military leaders as bait to the enemy as well, choosing only to summon the Titan Warriors to prepare for battle, and leaving the rest on their seats. Although all the Warrior family members managed to escape safely, Udo and Zofia ended up dying in the attack, making Magath indirectly responsible of their demises, despite his genuine care for the Warriors. His favorite, Gabi, as well as Colt, were almost among the victims. However, this is also argued with the likely possibility that Eren was going to initiate the Raid on Liberio regardless what Willy would have said, as Zeke's plan to attack his own hometown was to weaken Marley's military and above all to provoke the world's wrath and make the major nations allies together, all in order to crush the nations' assembled global fleet with a Rumbling made only of Wall Titans from Shiganshina District, in order to force the world to accept peace for at least 50 years.
- As the new General of Marley and one of the main leaders of the Global Alliance, he was part of the plans to conduct a scorched-earth operation to utterly destroy Paradis Island and kill its entire population. On Reiner Braun's advice, he led a smaller surprise attack on Paradis, the Revenge for Liberio, ahead of schedule to retake the Founder. The attack would've resulted with the deaths of thousands of civilians of Shiganshina District, if not for their evacuation due to the original small-scale Rumbling plan of Zeke to only crush the Global Allied Fleet to scare the world. However, Magath did not care about the well-being of the civilians of the Walls, as he felt vengeful for how the Survey Corps also had no hesitation in sacrificing civilians in Liberio.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He genuinely cares for the safety of his country and does not actively want the authority of being a General, rather he feels it is his duty. He also doesn't glorify war and despises it, having planned to reform his country's policies by ending its imperialistic ways and instead focus on estabilishing positive relationships with the other countries, worked to reinstate conscription for Marleyan citizens in order to show them the harsh reality of war, criticized his government's corruption and society's flaws in general. As soon as he took charge of the Marleyan military, he planned in the near future to enact a new policy to forbid the use of Titans and anything related to them in war, instead solely rely on human technology and conventional weapons.
- Despite his racist attitude he is much nicer and reasonable to Eldians than the average Marleyan, given that he will actually listen to the advice of Zeke, Colt and Reiner and was shocked at Willy’s plan to sacrifice many Eldian residents of the Liberio internment zone.
- He also has a good relationship with Pieck and trusts her insight. He is very respected by his Warriors and soldiers.
- Is genuinely affable to Willy Tybur despite him being also an Eldian and even shakes his hand when they agree both of them are just as bad as the Eldians.
- Despite everything and the causes of the conflict, Magath still personally led his forces in the Revenge for Liberio with the purpose of killing Eren Yeager, and if possible even the traitor Zeke Yeager, in order to stop Eren from initiating the Rumbling. Unlike Eren's friends and Zeke who refused to believe he could start a full-scale Rumbling, Magath, Willy, Reiner, as well as the rest of the entire Marleyan military, correctly understood that Eren always planned to destroy the world, Eren himself having personally admitted so to Reiner himself during Willy's speech. Magath's efforts in the battle were for survival, not resources, as he tried to save humanity from the Rumbling and to redeem Marley in the eyes of the rest of the world.
- Genuinely cares for Falco and Gabi, given that he asked if Falco was hurt during the attack on Liberio and hugged Gabi when they rescued her, as well as showing concern for her and protecting her other times. He also stopped Falco from killing Pieck by cutting him out of his Titan's nape.
- Apologizes to Hange, Armin, Mikasa, Jean, and Connie for blaming them for their ancestors' sins, as well as apologized to Reiner, Pieck, Annie, Gabi, and Falco for using them into war for atonement, and to both groups for all his country and the world put them through.
- In his final moments, he expresses remorse for indoctrinating children and turning them into Warriors and soldiers, and wishes he could have given the Warriors normal lives. This culminates in a redemption by sacrificing himself alongside Keith Shadis to help their alliance escape so that they can stop the Rumbling and save humanity, all played for sympathy.
External Links[]
- Theo Magath on the Villains Wiki
- Theo Magath on the Attack on Titan Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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Canon Marley Eldian Empire Eldian Restorationists | ||