'Attack on Titan' Ep. 17-18 Speculation: Who's Blondie?

WAIT A MINUTE!

     The greatest part of speculative discussion is that someone might point out something that I missed, allowing me to either improve or altogether abandon my own theories. However, these Attack on Titan posts have been edited and updated numerous times. They were in desperate need of abridgment, so I've summarized the theories here (WARNING: SPOILERS!):

"What we can share so far..."

     That said, feel free to read the following post. However, most of these theories have been disputed, so be sure to read the summary post!

     So, episode 17 of Attack on Titan aired last Saturday, and I've just found the time to watch it. After several episodes of character and backstory building, I was beginning to wonder when the action was going to return. And return it did... in force. (Warning: Spoilers up to episode 18) (UPDATED!)

     Again, I haven't read the manga and I don't scour the internet for spoilers. In fact, I don't even watch the "next episode preview" at the end of each episode. I want each episode to be fresh and exciting. So, if you, dear reader, have read ahead in the manga and decide to spoil my fun and everyone else's in the comments, know that I will personally hunt you down and gut you like a fish. PLEASE NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS.

Otherwise, I'll send a pack of ravenous titans to consume you and all that you love...

     So, we finally get to see what's outside the walls. And you know what? It looks the same as the inside, only a lot more abandoned and filled with titans. But not just any titans... abnormal ones. First off, I'd like to say the one that chased down Sasha was creepy as all get out and had me on the edge of my seat. I was so worried that one of my favorite characters was about to become titan chow...

My heart was racing...

     But now on to a more interesting matter: Who's Blondie? I've been waiting for her to show up ever since she was hinted at in the new opening animation.

At first I thought this might be Mikasa, but the blue eyes gave it away...

     Blondie's really the first "female-esque" titan we've seen. She's also very obviously of the same type as the Behemoth and Armored titans. But who is she? Before we get to that theory, however, we have to address Reiner Braun's little magic trick.

THEORY 1: Reiner Braun is the Armored Titan

Shazam!

     So Armin gets his horse slapped out from beneath him and rolls to the ground in a very painful looking way. Jean also gets grounded after failing to execute their plan to slow Blondie down, and is only saved by Armin's quick thinking (we'll talk about that in a minute). Now Reiner Braun rushes in and tries to take on Blondie while she's distracted by Armin, and gets himself nabbed. To everyone's horror (including my own) she clamps down and crushes him.

*Crunch!*

     The guy's seemingly crushed into paste in Blondie's iron grip, yet explodes out of her hand completely unfazed by the whole thing. He then swings down, grabs Armin off the ground, and hightails it out of there, all the while talking smack to a titan he really shouldn't be taunting. This has raised a question: is Reiner a titan like Eren? In my opinion, I can't really say for sure. EDIT: Alright, I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong (or possibly wrong, given that this is purely speculation). After watching the episode a few more times, I can't see any other way Reiner could have escaped. I don't understand how he regenerated so quickly, or how he burst out of Blondie's grip, but there's no way he could have survived that if he was merely human. There's a few seconds of animation where Reiner is running away, with Armin in hand, where he seems to have smoke coming off his face, like he recently regenerated.

"Is it hot in here... or is it just me?"

     Then there's the uncanny resemblance Reiner shares with the Armored titan, which I had noticed and someone brought it up in my earlier speculation post. They both have yellow eyes and white-blonde hair...

... but none of the other titan's eyes glow, so they may just be glowing for intimidation and, therefore, irrelevant.

THEORY 2: Annie is Blondie
     My original theory, although it made at least a little sense when I thought it up, doesn't hold a candle to a theory that someone brought up in the comments below. Upon further thought and research, there's no way to un-see what has been seen. Theory Two: Blondie is Annie, their comrade that joined the Military Police instead of the Legion, which means her whereabouts are unknown. One of the biggest pieces of evidence to this theory is their facial similarities: the blonde hair and blue eyes, but by one in particular... the nose.

Dat nose...

     In anime, it is very important for artists to drastically change each characters appearance so that we know who we're looking at with a simple glance, otherwise, you have a lot of different characters who all look the same. Hair color, eye color, and distinct facial features allow us to tell characters apart easily. Annie is the only person I can think of in the show that has this distinct "Roman nose", and, sure enough, Blondie has it too. Now this may just be another character that happens to have that same style of nose, but I doubt that's the case. There's also the fact that Blondie's eyes are "ice-blue", not just "blue". Annie has these same ice-blue eyes.

Is this one of those, "Dem eyes!" moments?

     But a more concrete theory for the argument is that she didn't kill Armin. She took off his hood, looked at his face, then ran off to continue her search.

She obviously knows Armin, otherwise she would have killed him like she did those other two soldiers earlier...

     This is important, but there is something even more important that I completely missed in my previous viewings. When Armin is unhorsed and Jean goes on the attack, it looks as if Blondie is going to kill Jean. However, she hesitates when Armin starts yelling. But she doesn't stop because she hears Armin's voice, or because of what he's saying: she stops because she hears Jean's name.

     When she finds out that Jean is the one attacking her, she immediately holds back so as not to hurt another of her friends. However, she then turns around and crushes Reiner into paste. I don't completely understand that, unless of course she didn't actually crush Reiner or they're in cahoots.

     So there's a question: If we accept the theory that both Reiner and Annie are titans, does each one know that the other is a titan? Annie obviously has to have noticed that Reiner is a titan after crushing him, but does Reiner know that the titan that crushed him is Annie?

"What? You can't handle the Braun?"

     The commentor below brought up the point that Reiner thought Eren was on the right flank, which is the flank Blondie utterly decimated. Could this mean, if Reiner is the Armored titan and Annie is Blondie, that they're working together? Did Reiner tell Annie where Eren would be? But Reiner's false information brings up another question: why were they all given false information as to where Eren was?

THEORY 3: Commander Erwin's Plan

     Commander Erwin is a genius. The ending of episode fifteen left all kinds of questions looming in the back of my mind, many of which have still not been answered. Who killed the two captured titans? And what did Erwin mean by, "What do you think the enemy is?"

Not to mention Commander Erwin's creepiness factor, which just shot through the roof...

     I think Erwin knows there are more out there who have the titan power, he knew that they resided within the walls, and he knew that they would find out about the Legion's excursion. I think Erwin selectively gave out false information so that he could figure out who the titans were. For example: you tell three different people three different variations of secrets, then wait for one of those secrets to be exposed. Then you know who your blabbermouth is. This is the same concept, and now Erwin has narrowed down the list of people who could be titans. At least, that's my theory.

     As of episode 18, there is no doubt in my mind that Blondie was looking for Eren. I mean, with that crazy look in her eyes, how could she not be.

"Dat eye!"

     But if Blondie is Annie, why is she looking for Eren? There's a possibility that the reason for that and the reason for killing those two captured titans are one and the same: the titans are trying to keep their secrets hidden. Without titans to examine, they can't learn anything about them. And if there is something important to the titans in the basement, they would probably go after anyone who tries to find that too. The Legion's whole purpose on this expedition is to get to Eren's house and find out what's in the basement, so Blondie is tearing them a new one in hopes that they will give up.

Like slaughtering cattle...

     Putting all this aside, I'm pretty sure Armin has figured it out, and might even have a theory of his own as to who it is. He was the one that pieced together the, "There are people 'piloting' these things!" theory, and he seemed rather distracted throughout episode 18. There's a good chance that he's putting all this together on his own, albeit very slowly.

BOGUS THEORY TIME
     As for the Behemoth titan, I'm not entirely sure. Behemoth has no hair and you can't really tell what his eye color is. Even when Eren turns titan, he keeps both of those features. So... who is he? Perhaps he's Armin's father, who left the safety of the walls long ago and never returned, or maybe they're completely new characters we haven't been introduced to yet. It's also strange that he appears out of thin air and then disappears into nothing.

"Hello... is it me you're looking for?"

      TOTAL BOGUS THEORY: What if the Behemoth is PIXIS!?! I actually thought that for a good three seconds before remembering that Pixis was playing chess with "the duke" when the Behemoth showed up the second time. Man that would have been good though...

     One thing's for certain: I'm pretty sure we're gonna' see an awesome battle between Blondie and Eren in the next episode... and I hope we figure out why Blondie is looking for Eren.

     Oh, and I almost forgot:

Here's episode seventeen's, "Dem eyes!" moment...

Want the answer?
BLONDIE REVEALED!

     If you want to read more speculation about the show, here's where it's at:

ATTACK ON TITAN SPECULATION THREADS

     OKAY, I'm going to re-post this here because someone on the internet is apparently illiterate... (shocking, I know)

     "Again, I haven't read the manga and I don't scour the internet for spoilers. In fact, I don't even watch the "next episode preview" at the end of each episode. I want each episode to be fresh and exciting. PLEASE NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS. I FRICKIN' MEAN IT."

     I will disable comments if this continues to be a problem, but I love being able to talk and speculate with my fellow speculators and civilized, mature people who have read ahead but enjoy the speculation. I don't have many local friends who watch anime, so this has become like my own personal "anime club". Please stop with the spoilers.

Mikasa is disappointed in you... whoever you are... scumbag...