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[theomachy]

Player Information
Name: Trent
Age: 33
Contact: tacce or tacce#5571 on discord
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information
Name: Erwin Smith
Canon: Attack on Titan
Canon Point: Immediately post-death
Age: Late thirties. Good luck figuring out how old he actually is because no one ever says
History: Wiki

Personality: Erwin is incredibly stoic and alarmingly intelligent. If a smart person can see six moves ahead in a game of chess, Erwin can see twelve. He has lofty goals and will do anything to see them fulfilled. In all things Erwin is shrewd and calculating, but his ability to plan ahead allows him to properly lead.

His calmness can be unnerving, but not as much so as his intensity when he's gathering the soldiers. He does that as well as he can handle sending his men out to die to further his goals. That said, later on near the end of his life that punched down trauma caught up to him, so there would be some shifting there of the ruthlessness in future now that he's had a chance to die as well.

All his outer calm is generally a facade though, at least in the matter of being completely unflinching in his decisions. He worries and second-guesses himself constantly, but still does what needs to be done. On top of that, his personal goals were different from the goals of humanity as a whole, and while most people don't notice it, some did and called him out on it - and they were right.

He has a moment of weakness near the end of his life, a persona shift, where he lets his single-minded need for information and knowledge get in the way of protecting his men. He recants on that and does what needs doing, but he had to be talked down from it because he's such a mix of stubborn and remorseful that he was paralyzed with indecision. That part of Erwin is either going to wither away or come back in force, but it's difficult to tell without playing him out.

EXPANDING ON PERSONALITY:

stoic/calm
- He doesn't really "break down" in any sense until right before he dies. He gets his arm eaten and he essentially tells his troops to go on without him because he's replaceable. He gets tortured while he's a prisoner to the point that he's almost executed but he still stays stoic, he keeps his head in the game even when he's in crippling pain.
- When he does crack it's only in front of his closest friend and confidant Levi Ackerman, and he isn't loud or tantruming, more like letting the mask crack just a little so that Levi can see the vulnerable bits beneath.



intelligent
He's behind all main plans even when he's not yet commander. He games the system to prevent the survey corps from losing expedition funding. He keeps on with machinations like this throughout his career.
- He correctly predicts many things that happen, for example he correctly figures out that one of the titans is actually human (which allowed her to escape) and would fight them again, which is further evidenced by his ordering equipment refueling and so on when they normally wouldn't have needed it yet.
- He orchestrates an uprising, an entire uprising including crowning Historia as queen... from jail. He's in jail for most of that arc and he still plans everything thoroughly.
- His actions allowed others to learn more about the outside world and technology even though he didn't live to see the results.
- He created a formation for the squads to use to travel outside the walls that allowed communication between the troops and for things to essentially turn on a dime whenever something got in their way. It was extremely successful and kept more people from dying.



shrewd/calculating/ruthless
- A lot of people have died on his order, but it wasn't a matter of cruelty as they were all soldiers who knew what they were getting into—it's just that he doesn't shy away from sending them to their deaths to further the goals. They knew they would probably die, and still went for it.
- In essentially every arc he's a significant part of, he's at a major disadvantage for many reasons, not the least of which being that he's on the human side of the fight, but even when the cards aren't in his favor he manages to (in part due to his calculating everything to a T) he comes out on top.



intensity
- He turns this on and off as necessary. He's very soft with Eren in the beginning because he's trying to cajole him to work with them after Levi beat him publicly. He does proper damage control. That said, not long after that when he realizes there's a mole in the corps he becomes deeply intense, showcasing it in a query he makes to Eren about who could be untrustworthy.
- His other intensity varies: from the No Regrets manga when he screams at Levi to convince him to join the cause, to how he shouts before expeditions to build up the morale of his troops even though he's reminding them of how many of them are going to die. He screams at other points and it always works out for him, one such occasion being when he's leading a suicide charge, pulling the others into it without much issue because his intensity is catching.



doubt/guilt
- While he keeps it mostly under wraps, the most blatant show of this being when he imagines himself standing atop a huge pile of dead bodies, those being the soldiers he's sent to their deaths; people who died on his order. In a way he sees himself as a monster because of this.
- There's a point where Levi tries to convince Erwin to not go to the basement in the first place, but he says his dream has priority over humanity's victory, but near his death he seems to feel guilt for this too.


Abilities & Skills: Erwin is a seasoned veteran and is a tactical genius. He can lead squads and do what needs to be done, but he doesn't sit around either. He's fully versed in using the standard equipment of the survey corps, remaining extremely agile and good with his blades. This is somewhat hampered by the loss of his right arm, but he's still a formidable foe in a battle.

His wit is sharp and part of his charm.

Inventory/Companions: The clothes/strapping he wears, and a survey corps cape. No gear or weapons.

Choice: Vampire.
Reason: I just think it'd be interesting to put him in a position where he has to feed off people: living in a world where people are eaten every day, he'd have a strong revulsion to the idea and I want to force him to come to terms with it.

Sample: TDM threads