Reiner Braun

Broad-shouldered and dependable, Reiner ranked second in the 104th and acts as the class's big brother, steadying panicking recruits and shouldering blame that is not his. He is inseparable from Bertholdt, his childhood friend, and is one of the few cadets Eren genuinely admires. His calm authority during the fall of Trost helps hold the surviving trainees together when command collapses.

Reiner is broad, heavily muscled and one of the largest cadets in his year, built like a labourer rather than an athlete. He keeps his blond hair cropped short and combed back, and his light golden brown eyes sit under a heavy brow that makes his face look older than it is. His jaw is square and his neck thick, and the training harness strains visibly across his shoulders. He stands and speaks like an officer even when he holds no rank. The armoured Titan associated with him is roughly fifteen metres tall, plated in hard bony scales across the skull, chest and limbs.

Reiner is the natural big brother of the 104th, the cadet everyone turns to when orders break down. He is steady, blunt, protective and relentlessly responsible, lecturing friends about discipline while putting himself between them and danger. That reliability is partly genuine and partly a role he has built so thoroughly that it has begun replacing whatever he was before. He carries guilt he cannot name aloud and speaks about duty in ways that sound heavier than a teenager's concerns. Under pressure he becomes decisive and coldly practical, willing to trade his own body for someone else's life. Warmth, dread and self loathing sit uncomfortably close together in him.

Reiner grew up outside the walls in a district where his people lived under occupation, raised by a mother who told him that winning honour as a warrior could legitimise their family. Desperate to prove himself among stronger candidates, he was chosen for a mission alongside two other children and given the power of a shifting Titan. At roughly twelve years old he took part in the operation that breached the outer wall, then entered the refugee flood in disguise with his companions. Posing as survivors of a destroyed district, they enlisted with the 104th Training Corps, where Reiner's size and work ethic quickly made him a leader among the very people he had come to destroy.

1. 104th Cadet Corps

   Reiner emerges as the anchor of the trainee class, coaching weaker cadets, defusing fights and finishing second overall. He befriends Eren, mentors Armin and Connie, and becomes the person instructors rely on to keep order. His origin story about a destroyed district is accepted without question by everyone around him.

2. Battle of Trost

   When the supply depot is overrun and the cadets panic, Reiner takes command, organises the assault on the Titans blocking the gas supply and bodily shields Armin from being eaten. He supports the plan to use Eren's Titan to seal the breach and fights in the rear guard through the whole operation.

3. Choosing a regiment

   Despite qualifying easily for the Military Police, Reiner enlists in the Survey Corps and pressures Bertholdt to do the same, insisting that they need to be where the fighting is. The decision baffles classmates who assume he is simply the most dutiful soldier of their year.

4. The 57th Expedition beyond the walls

   Riding in the formation's flanks, Reiner survives the Female Titan's rampage and helps recover the expedition's survivors. He argues with comrades about pursuing Eren, behaves strangely under stress, and his conduct during the disaster leaves small inconsistencies that only look significant in hindsight.

Bertholdt Hoover

Closest companion

The two are inseparable, with Reiner making decisions and Bertholdt following. He pushes his friend toward the Survey Corps and speaks for him constantly, a dynamic somewhere between brotherhood and command.

Annie Leonhart

Fellow outsider

He scolds her for laziness and cynicism and she answers with contempt, but they share a secret that makes them the only honest audience either one has. Their friction hides genuine concern.

Eren Yeager

Comrade and unwitting target

Reiner treats Eren as a younger brother, advising him and fighting beside him at Trost, all while the mission that brought him inside the walls revolves around what Eren represents.

Armin Arlert

Comrade he protects

He drags Armin out of the jaws of a Titan during the supply depot fight and repeatedly praises his tactical mind, becoming one of the first people to treat Armin as an asset rather than a liability.

• He rallies the demoralised cadets inside the overrun supply depot and organises the counterattack.
• He pulls Armin free from a Titan's mouth at the cost of an arm injury.
• He turns down the Military Police despite finishing second in his class and joins the Survey Corps.
• He survives the Female Titan's assault during the 57th Expedition and helps carry the survivors home.

• Classmates half jokingly treat him as the older brother of the entire 104th.
• He and Bertholdt claim to come from the same destroyed settlement, which is why the pair are never separated.
• His fighting instincts favour absorbing a hit in order to land one, a habit that mirrors his Titan form.
• Season one gives him almost no screen time alone, keeping his private thoughts entirely hidden from the audience.

• Eren Yeager
• Mikasa Ackerman
• Armin Arlert
• Levi
• Erwin Smith
• Hange Zoë

• Jean Kirstein
• Sasha Blouse
• Connie Springer
• Annie Leonhart
• Bertholdt Hoover
• Krista Lenz
• Dot Pyxis

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