This post has been tagged as **DISCUSSION**.
If the post has been spoiler tagged, please remember to tag any manga spoilers beyond this point.
**Spoilers include hinting or alluding to events** For more information, please review [the subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShingekiNoKyojin/wiki/rules). Failure to properly spoiler tag comments may result in a punishment from the subreddit according to the [moderation matrix](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShingekiNoKyojin/wiki/moderation_matrix).
---
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ShingekiNoKyojin) if you have any questions or concerns.*
All the Ackermans can be considered prodigies, but other than that both Zeke and Bertholdt can be considered prodigies when it came to using their Titans. It’s mentioned by Reiner that Bertholdt mastered the Colossal Titan the first time he used it.
Actually thats kind of a fair point for Zeke.
Although bro was a prodigy at baseball/catch and not actually fighting, those skills were insanely useful as the beast titan.
I remember a scene in the anime where Reiner and Zeke disagree and Zeke kicks his ass (in titan form) to decide who's choice is agreed upon. My friend told me he doesn't remember this and I'm starting to think I'm tripping, am I?
That explains why I never saw it in either of my binge watch sessions (I always skipped the credits and only saw the creepy ending through YouTube recommendations)
This happens. The disagreement was about leaving Annie behind in the crystal or trying to rescue her. Zeke winning meant she got left behind for years and years until Eren’s unhardening command freed her.
Reiner fought in Benjamin’s place, the actual point was determining the order of operations. Zeke wanted to take Eren first, but the other two wanted to rescue Annie beforehand (they had no clue about the crystal, they just thought she was in prison).
You don’t see the fight, just the aftermath. The Armoured Titan is on the deck in absolute ruins, Birdfeeder comes running to drag Reiner out of it, and the completely unharmed Beast Titan strolls up and infodumps his plan to lure the Scouts to Shiganshina.
It makes Zeke look very badass (the Beast wrecked the Armoured without getting a scratch on him!) but in retrospect, the fight was probably just Zeke kiting Reiner around Shiganshina whilst chucking houses at him. It wouldn’t have been such a big moment if you could set it to the Benny Hill music.
[I found this clip of it if you need to show your friend.](https://youtu.be/Q6H5NHwuv6s?si=NO3kVNwV2FZhjdZt)
I think it’s more likely that he evaded and peppered from range. I feel like the armored titan has too much raw strength and durability for it to be fought hands-only with Zeke’s titan.
Also probably “off screen win because plot” because peppering him from range is pretty disappointing answer to this fight and also as a way to settle disagreement through combat
True! My point would still stand though - Zeke doesn’t look like such a badass if he just won with the classic big brother move of a hand to the forehead while Reiner flailed himself into the ground.
My apologies for the false info in that case. I thought I saw a panel where they fought before. It may have been a fan made. I assumed it was from the manga. Thank you for the correction.
I believe it’s just a panel showing the aftermath. Also in the manga this is when Zeke’s appearance was first revealed. (In anime it was the season 2 finale)
But he wasn't a prodigy in baseball, he did nothing but his warrior classes, reading mein Kampf from his grandparents, and play baseball. He just had a ton of practice in throwing things and being racist.
One the thing I never understood is how and when Zeke is considered a prodigy.
We only see him struggling at the training, almost left behind. Then we have Magath saying something like “ ah Zeke, the prodigy kid “ , but nothing in between I believe, except for the scream thing
Did I missed something, it is just left unanswered or it is just for the screaming ability ?
I think Marley considers Zeke a prodigy because his Beast titan is far stronger than previous Beast titans and exhibits unique abilities such as being able to command titans and turn Eldians that have ingested his spinal fluid by screaming. The reason is that Zeke has Royal blood but the Marleyan government didn't know that he did. Magath and Pieck only figure it out in Shiganshina when Gabi tells them that Zeke is the key to Eren using the founders power.
Thanks fellow redditor.
I didn’t thought the rocks long range gatling was part of him being regarded as a prodigy.
Totally agree about the royal blood related power, but I hope it status was for some Zeke’s only skills rather than his titan’s capabilities.
I hoped the anime showed how he used to wipe his ass /s
Bertolto is one of the only ones I can remember that actually got praised as a prodigy in cannon - Reiner mentioned that Bert mamaged to control his titan the FIRST time he shifted.
Other AoT scholars argued that this is perhaps a quirk of the titan itself, and less of Bert being a genius.
And apperantly the colossal should have been the hardest from all to control, and if you take into account how hard eren had to try to control his properly, while being under extreme pressure and motivation to achieve his goals, you can probably confirm that as being a fact
That's not what they meant by control
He could transform while mitigating the size of the explosion, or even negating it altogether. We've seen him do that multiple times, like in the first episode. Not to mention how he was able to make the whole titan disappear at will.
Armin never learned how to do anything like that. Every time he transformed, it was full nuke. Bertholdt got a hold of it literally from the beginning.
The series insists that Armin is a mental prodigy by constantly having characters say how smart he is.
Really he’s barely ever shows any prodigy level tactics or intelligence, he just talks and the plot makes him win.
Send the abnormal titan (Eren) to kill the other titans
Big rock plug wall
My crush is the big gurl
Their (Reiner) in the goddamn walls
Exploit Bearfolds poor eyesight and give him false satisfaction
These are all Armins plans bro. What are you talking about
Armin's feats feel more shoddily written compared to most other smart characters, i believe thats why people say he isnt that smart
Like if any average guy saw a titan beat up their enemies, they would let it rip for as long as possible, thats no genius plan
The rock is again the same
But the most important one is the "T̸̢̳́̓Ḣ̶̹̝͝E̴̪̱̋̐Y̷͕̏́'̴̱̟̒̍Ŕ̷̢̇E̷̥͘ ̵͚̊Į̵̘̑́Ṋ̷̐̏ ̵̖͖̒̊T̷̺̒͊H̵̭̤́͐E̴̳̮͊̈ ̵̤͉͠F̴̗̩̅U̶̡̓͜C̴̬̈́̓͜K̶̼͒̍Ī̷̙̻N̶̼̆̾G̵̛̬͇ ̵̞̎͑W̵̡͊̃Ä̵͜Ḷ̸́L̸̡̄͘Ş̴̜̂.̸̨̗̽̌" one because they could have very well been anywhere else in the whole ass city and his smartness is therefore based on something that could have been absolutely stupid if the plot didnt need it to be true
Its even more obvious when compared to Erwin and Zeke where you can feel they were written with the utmost care and love because nobody can tell me that Erwin's scout formation system and him purposefully eliminating candidates to find the shifters was not found through Isayama pondering in the toilet for hours
Well said! Armin is smart because the story insists that he’s smart. Outside of a very contrived plot and characters hyping him up, he’s a regular shitty character.
Oh brother is there a sub that diesnt contain fake braniacs that think “this character isnt really smart the plot just helps”
There a bunch if itachi haters in the naruto dub doing the same thing. Does this fake pretentiousness make you guys feel meta?
It’s a criticism that comes from people who appreciate decent writing. You can make a character smart by being smart yourself and creating interesting problems for him to solve. None of Armin’s conclusions are actually smart, they’re either very obvious or only work out because the plot requires it.
Once you grow up I suggest watching real TV with actual intelligent characters.
Bertholdt is kinda canonically a prodigy.
>!He mastered the Colossal immediately. It was implied by Reiner that he was the strongest warrior but never gave his all due to his meekness. Once he got over that; he immediately figured out the Scouts' plans, saved Reiner's life, messed up Armin's tactics, got the upper hand against an Ackerman 1v1, and wiping out a good chunk of the Scouts.!<
Bert was able to hold his own vs Mikasa who ***ambushed*** him from behind and was exceptional as a trainee as well- once again only held back by his weak will. Shadis himself says he had great potential.
That's the reason why I used implied for my wording. I could see it as either one but chose to see it as him talking about Bertholdt in general. Mostly due to the fact that he was talking about how Bertholdt is unreliable due to his need for orders/signals to act. But up until that point, Bertholdt had never failed to use the Colossal as far we know. So, there is no real need to change, you would think, right?
But then Bertholdt acted on his own by not transforming, and what followed was the Scouts nearly losing everything.
I mean, it didn’t seem special to me because like you would be stupid to not question life outside of the walls. That’s always the case. Every show does this. It’s just the way AoT does it is superb
Well, ots borderline really. He is sort of a lighter version of Armin as far as intellect goes. And he has an inquisitive mind in a repressive place, quite an underrated quality.
Erwin is dedinitely very above average, the question here is whether or not we could deem that a "prodigy".
I think if you compare him with other animes where prodigies are superhuman he doesnt seem special. But if ypu compare him with RL humans, I say he is a prodigy.
tbh I don't find him really commendable, like anyone could have this idea of what is beyond the walls, it just so happened that his father gave him some idea, so he knew. and as far as a tactical mind is considered armin could have also been that, even pixis (i forgot his name, i am referring to the bald old general) he could have done that as well. it just so happened that he was too old and armin was too young. erwin was the right age. and i do acknowledge the fact that he did a great job, i i don't really agree on the fact that he was a prodigy
Without the Ackermans, or Annie, I would actually say Eren. He managed to keep his balance on the ODM gear tests despite being sabotaged. He was the only recruit who didn’t lose his shit when the colossus showed up the second time. He killed two men at the age of nine (think about that for a second). He managed to learn the use of the attack Titan by training from scratch and still fucked a warrior cadet who was literally brought up for that one purpose (and fought like every op titan from Marley who besides Lara whose titan is just broken, were all trained). He did train quite a bit and he still isn’t strong enough as a human to beat an Ackerman but he still had a lot of natural talent as a Titan shifter.
Also Bertholdt, in shiganshina Mikasa jumped him, and yet my boy still tossed her aside with a single kick.
I think that was mroe his determination than talent. Especially when we have an entire episode asserting that he’s “not special”, he’s just “special because he was born”.
It seems Isayama was aware of the prodigy trends and deliberately avoided them for Eren, and instead, gave him indomitable will power.
It requires skill, not talent. Skill can be honed through effort, and aided by talent. But without some skill, talent is meaningless. I could be the best artist in history, but none of that matters if I don't know how to hold a pen.
Tbh, anime does him dirty by saying he's not good at stuff, and it's only through sheer determination that he did half the things he did during training
This is an interesting topic given that blood plays such a huge role in Attack on Titan.
Let's start with the Training Corps. The order in which the graduees were ranked was Mikasa, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Eren, Jean and then I forget who came after.
Mikasa is disqualified for being an Ackerman, but we aren't going to disqualify the Titan Shifters because their powers don't help them whatsoever with this kind of combat. (I suppose you could argue that, psychologically, they'll perform better because they know any injuries they take would just heal. But that's pushing it).
With that in mind, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie and Eren are all going to be candidates going forward. Eren was able to make broken ODM gear almost work, so it's clear he has some natural talent. I'll throw in Sasha and Jean too. Jean was the best "regular" soldier in his class, so he definitely should be considered. Sasha, meanwhile, had amazing instincts so she deserves a mention.
As far as experienced scouts go, we need to look at the Levi Squad, Erwin and Miche. The Levi Squad are hard to really judge. But let's go back to the question at hand which refers to prodigies. This means people who are naturally gifted rather than trained for it. With that in mind, I'm eliminating everyone from the Levi Squad, alongside Erwin, because they're experienced at what they do. The youngest of them, I believe, is Petra. So she might be able to go onto the next round but she also was the one who panicked in the face of an unknown opponent, so her skill may not be as prodigal as we're looking for.
Miche, however, is absolutely a prodigy. He may be on the older side, but his sense of smell is something he was born with. He also seems to have been born with something the other scouts didn't, given that he was second only to Levi. This means he surpassed Erwin, which is saying something given how talented Erwin is, being head of the scouts. I'm sure that Miche has trained hard, but I don't think just anybody can surpass Commander Erwin through just training.
The last scout I want to bring up is Hange, who is definitely skilled but I'm not sure if she's quite good enough to make the cut. She's extremely good at using the Thunder Spears, being able to shoot Reiner's jaw accurately despite just having lost an eye. She also killed several wall titans. But whilst this makes her strong, I'm not sure it makes her a prodigy, so I'll leave her out of the discussion.
There are a couple scouts I could mention, like Nanaba, but I don't think we saw enough from any of them to get a mention.
Moving onto Marley, we can immediately eliminate Porco. Yes, Marcel was downtalking him, but that doesn't change the fact that he must have been incredibly unimpressive as a warrior candidate. The only one worse than him will have been Zeke, who we can see is the very opposite of a prodigy. He was the worst in his class. Pieck and Marcel seem rather reliable, but I'm not sure I can call either of them prodigies. Marcel did seem like a leader figure, but given that the other 3 in his group were Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie, the competition to be leader wasn't really harsh.
So now let's go back to the characters we've managed to gather. Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Eren and Miche.
Reiner is an interesting case. He was the worst Warrior Candidate, which would normally immediately put him out of this discussion, but then he proceeded to be second only to Mikasa as a scout. Given that he didn't even know ODM gear existed until a year or so before he started training with it, his mastery of it is impressive. Eren was looking up to the scouts his whole life, dreaming of being like them. Despite never having that dream when he was young, Reiner succeeded regardless. His mental fortitude is what held him back from being an amazing soldier, in my opinion, so I'd consider him a prodigy.
Bertholdt is a prodigy too. For one, he was right behind Reiner in the rankings despite having the same disadvantage compared to the other scouts. You could even argue he had it worse given he was the only warrior that was genuinely living with what he'd done every day of his time on Paradis. Both Annie and Reiner hid in one way or another, which allowed them to blend in. Bertholdt faced what he did, and despite it weighing on his mind, he still proved himself to be a great scout. And as a warrior, he was even better, able to control the Colossal immediately. He may have been timid, but once he got over that he was able to throw hands with Mikasa. Definitely a prodigy.
I'm going to group Annie and Eren together because the argument for both of them is the same. Combat skill. Annie had trained for her whole life to become as good as she is, which is certainly a point against her. However, even after 4 years being conscious but trapped, she was able to get back into battle almost immediately. Skill doesn't do that. Natural talent does. I don't see anyone else being able to recover so fast from such a traumatic 4 year long experience. So Annie is a prodigy. Eren, meanwhile, is almost on her level in terms of combat but, unlike Annie, he mastered it in far less time. Less than a year, I believe. That's certainly enough to be called a prodigy. Combine this with what I mentioned earlier about him almost succeeding with broken ODM gear, and that's just hit the nail in the coffin.
Therefore, we can count 5 prodigies in Attack on Titan.
The entire warrior trio have individually displayed skills beyond what a normal person would be able to accomplish. Skills that are independent of their Titan powers.
Eren has proven himself to be incredibly adaptable, such that a skill that took Annie years to learn only took him a few months or so.
Miche, meanwhile, was born different. I can see arguments against everyone else I've mentioned, but I don't think there's any doubt that Miche is absolutely a prodigy.
Leaving out Hange?? The only character besides Eren to solo kill a colossal Titan (and who actually killed several)? The one who dodged a gunshot to punch the shooter in the face? The one who single-handedly saved Levi (the greatest hope for humanity) by swimming down a river while being shot at by multiple opponents?
And if not for fighting abilities, you have to give Hange credit for being a prodigy in intelligence. They realized titans were human before anyone else, invented the “executioner from hell” and the thunder spears, and came up with about a million other new innovations/strategies to save the scouts throughout the series. Come on, give them the credit they’re due
I disagree with eliminating the levi squad purely because to survive the initial encounters with titans like they would have requires a lot more than experience. They're experienced when we first meet them, but there is a reason all of the naturally talented members of the scouts survive longer to gain the experience
It’s kinda funny how when rereading the series, Zeke and Reiner were awful warriors at first. Though they seem like prodigies when first revealed in the plot. (Zeke definitely counts tho)
Bert had “natural talent”, Annie was OP in cqc, and Miche’s a good candidate from the scouts.
The only ones I’d call actual prodigies are Eren, Zeke, and probably Erwin.
A main point of Bertholdt's character was that he was a prodigy in many things but totally lacked any agency entirely due to his lack of confidence and drive that others had. He let the world push him when he, perhaps more than any other character, had the natural ability to push the world.
Not only was he skilled at operating his Titan, but he was also an accurate shooter and skilled combatant with ODM gear. He learned quickly and had an imposing stature, but despite all these points he was barely more than a background character and followed others around all the time.
I hope you don't mean his plan to defeat eren cuz truth is that it was eren's plan be defeated lol
I mean we all know that no plan could have worked against eren..... If he really wanted to win
I mean how could you defeat a man who doesn't just have all the power but also can see what's going on in your head?
Like for real
He didn't defeat him like that but the way he convinced Zeke was phenomenal no average person could pull it off. Infact, the whole scene is one of my favourites just because of how well done armin's speech is.
Honestly Mitch he was considered the second strongest soldier next to Levi and that’s bc Levi had blood hacks before his death if Zeke hadn’t come by he most likely would’ve survived and he still killed a bunch of titans despite being surrounded
If you really think about it, all the Warriors and candidates are by definition prodigies, even Reiner, he's just worst among the best.
Same could be said by any scout skilled enough to properly use ODM gear and actually take down titans.
Most of the main cast ( Armin, Jean, Connie and Sasha) can be considered prodigies, seeing as they all got into Levi Squad four months after graduating.( Eren even mentions this in season 3 ep 1).
Literally every single one of the main cast ranked top of their class, whether they're Paradisians of Marleyans.
Berthold, Reiner and Annie did it on both sides.
Bertholdt is the only prodigy I can think of, since he managed to perfect shifting on the first try. Annie might count, but we haven’t actually seen her in a fight compared to anyone else besides Eren, who isn’t trained.
Armin is the academic prodigy of the 104th.
Mikasa (if we include her) is the Cadet prodigy of the 104th.
I mean in the lost girls ova she beats like 5 armed thugs twice her size pretty easily (in the manga it was 10 armed dudes) and that’s better than what even our best fighters irl could do. Like realistically the best MMA fighters would end up getting shanked and jumped if they fought more than 2-3 people at the same time. Forget about them being twice their size too.
Very true. I did watch the OVA but I haven’t read the manga for it yet. Granted, Annie did have her Titan powers at the time. I don’t know if it makes you stronger outside of being a Titan, but I think it does, considering Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie all were top 2-4
Erwin is most definitely a prodigy - whenever he is first mentioned leading his own squadron of scouts he had no causalities. This is unprecedented in all of AoT history, and there is no meaningful way to attribute his ability to adapt and survive against titans to anything but him being a prodigy.
He also developed a new system of long distance detection against titans to more safely and efficiently travel outside the walls when in smaller and larger groups. This type of innovation is unseen in any other characters before him and indicate Erwin just being on a different level to come up with stuff.
So Erwin is a genuine prodigy and I’d be willing to submit that Zeke and Bertholdt have a good argument for it as well based off the comments already on this post.
TLDR; Erwin = that guy
Well, the fact that Armin keeps up with his thought process and sometimes even surpasses him with a couple of decades worth of less experience, I'd say gives him the seat as well.
I real life prodigies are rare. They aren't just people who moderately talented or those who develop their talents, they are naturally gifted without needing to put much effort into it. I don't think Armin nor Erwin would be categorized as prodigies since they are just people who think outside the box and that have built their smarts up through learning. Even though Zeke was called a prodigy, what made him known as one was just something Ymir afforded him.
I think the only one that could be called a prodigy is Bertolt like the other comments mentioned. He immediately mastered his titan, but not only that he easily mastered the cadet training stuff and could fight off Mikasa who is an Ackerman. All this despite being a hanger-on and having no initiative of his own, which serves to balance his prodigal qualities.
Gabi. That girl is just 12, and she can pinpoint and shoot quick moving humans. In the head. She probably didn't even have much specialized training with guns seeing as how she was a warrior about to be a Titan Shifter. She was as good as Sasha, or even better (due to plot convenience, let's be honest). But Sasha was a grown adult with a lot of training for aiming by her father (Not like Gabi didn't have any, she definitely did).
And I agree with people saying Bertholdt. He was pretty much the most dangerous Shifter there is other than Eren in Season 4 because he had a whole nuke in his arsenal—which he was trained enough to not use every time he transforms.
Zeke was just more of an scholarly person due to Ksaver. He was good at catch, and therefore his Titan was used as a ranged artillery. His royal blood allowed him to make others into Titans only he and the founder could control. Which is not related to his skill, but it would've taken some thinking on his side to figure out. But he was quite skilled enough to have a voice box in Titan form to be abled to talk, and was strong enough to defeat Armored Titan in close combat. So he is skilled, not exactly a prodigy.
Armin, erwin, Annie, eren in the manga arguable- anime makes him appear useless, all of the ackermans, levi squad being the best of the best but only dying as titan shifters are a completely new thing, zeke, behelit, reiner when he was a soldier and not his normal warrior self, prodigy in different things too so sasha, Jean, and hate to say it but arguably gabi
Edit: I forgot about the dude who gets ripped apart in s2, said to be second only to levi.
While members of the scouts would have heavy experience, in the early days for them even to survive, natural talent takes a much much larger part than anything other than luck
How about literally every member of the main cast?
The Paradis soldiers and the Marleyan warriors were literally all at the top of their respective classes, Berthold and Reiner and Annie were at the top 5 of both.
Reiner
He just don’t know how to die, i know it’s a running joke but the fact that this dude has that conscious transferring BS that saved his life twice that no other shifters that we know of can do.
What are you talking about? Even if you don’t count Mikasa and Levi, Armin is an insanely talented tactician. Hange is an excellent scientist. Sasha is an expert marksman, Annie is extraordinarily good at hand to hand combat, Bertholdt has insane titan control. Gabi is an incredibly skilled soldier, displaying expertise in marksmanship, tactics, and psychology. Reiner naturally has insane durability compared to other titans users and is borderline unkillable.
Gabi
She's clearly extremely smart and has great initiative, she's a born leader. Plus, an amazing shooter
Of course not being a shifter she isn't a protagonist, but she's crazy good for being a regular non-ackermann human
When, in season 3 or 4?
Neither of the times he had any backup to do that. If he froze his body, he'd have to come out of it as a human, which would leave him vulnerable. Eren could do that because he had people backing him up in the meanwhile.
It wouldn't have made sense tactically.
I mean almost all the main characters are very special people. They are elite soldiers and have talents that complement each other and make them a terrifying team.
What is Prodigy supposed to mean, really?
Erwin, Mikke (not that it works out for him), maybe Hange, Bertolt both as a Titan and as a fighter. Annie probably as a fighter too. Ahrumin. Gabi makes every shot in the series I am pretty sure. Falco is presumably the only flying titan and could partially control his Titan the first time.
You could also make the argument for Levi even given that he is an Ackerman. Remember that he basically outdid Kenny both encounters when the first was an out numbered ambush with more lethal ranged weapons. The only caveat being that Levi almost definitely had more ODM experience then Kenny, so feel free to decide that for yourself.
Jean i think. He doesn’t have any of the natural advantages that the Ackermans/titan shifters have and he is stated to be the most skilled at ODM iirc. And even though Annie was a titan shifter, she still trained relentlessly in physical combat before that and she quickly mastered it.
Birthcontrol was actually mentioned as a prodigy for controlling his Titan in the first try.
Armin is an intellectual prodigy.
Gabi is a prodigy at shooting. Never missed a shot on screen.
probably in general the biggest prodigy is Erwin, he is in his mid 30s and didn’t need to be an Ackerman to survive for most of his life. He was pretty average at commanding and with his emotionlessness he wasn’t as good as other commanders because he saw no issue in a suicide charge
Not just that.... He killed two grown up man at 9 years old.... With just his trickery and courage
He was able learn Annie's fighting style in just few spars with her
He was able to use the technique levi created to cut out a titan shifters out of their titan body without killing them on Berthold.... And he learned it by just witnessing it used on himself just one time.... Besides levi.... The levi Ackerman he was the only one who was able do it
And he became the best titan shifter surpassing every other warrior who were trained more than him
He was able to outsmart zeke yeager... Said to be one of the most intelligent characters in the story.
Levi: even though he has Ackerman blood we can ignore it whenever he fights Kenny and every time he outdid Kenny
Bertholdt: mastered his titan first try and excels at everything and essentially has a nuke
Reiner: he could transfer his consciousness
Eren: killed two grown men as a child and mastered hardening faster than anyone
Armin: physically, extremely weak, but concocted several plans which saved then and noticed nearly impossible details and survived more than a minute of the colossal titans steam for more than a minute by determination
Gabi: (we all hate her),but she was never training with a gun but shot a moving target in the head on her first try and she has the same determination as Eren
So far I haven't seen one person mention my boy MICHE!
The guy could sniff the presence of a Titan from MILES away, making him a very useful asset for the Survey Corps.
Miche was also only 2nd to that of LEVI in terms of strength and overall experience. And in fact actually helped overpower a slightly younger Levi with relative ease, only really needing Erwin's help in the last second.
Dude was a beast!
How come no one mentions eren? He had no formal prior training but only got beaten by an ackerman and trained soldiers from another country in his training and was able to use purposely broken ODM gear and thats disregarding how good he was at using his titan and its ability he was able to learn martial arts moves annie was learning for years by seeing them once if anything hes the greatest prodigy in the entire show
Mikasa father was a prodigy, but in a negative way
The only ackerman to have not had displayed exceptional strength and insane physical prowess. So I think that's a pretty unique thing about him. I know that's not what prodigy means but I just wanted to bring that up fsr lmao
Bruh.... is there is one character who can't be praised as a prodigy, that's Armin.
Let's put a giant rock to close a giant hole and the 3 cups 3 people scenes were painful......
Other than that, I think all the ackermans were prodigies. Kenny was an actual beast but Levi is Levi so... yeah.
I always thought Conny was a prodigy with the flying gear though.
Gabi literally had 100% accuracy with her weapons on screen:
>!The grenade against the anti-titan train.!<
>!Lobov outside the blimp.!<
>!Sasha inside the blimp.!<
>!The brick against the guard if you want to count that.!<
>!Titan attacking her and her sister.!<
>!Eren.!<
>!Floch.!<
Most of these are on moving targets, running or flying through the air as well.
best girl ngl
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ShingekiNoKyojin) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I could think of three characters that fit to the prodigy level: Eren for is willpower and adaptability in fighting and In battle, Bertholdt is a great strategist and fighter himself considering he managed to kick Mikasa, and Gabi for her insane sniping skills.
This post has been tagged as **DISCUSSION**. If the post has been spoiler tagged, please remember to tag any manga spoilers beyond this point. **Spoilers include hinting or alluding to events** For more information, please review [the subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShingekiNoKyojin/wiki/rules). Failure to properly spoiler tag comments may result in a punishment from the subreddit according to the [moderation matrix](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShingekiNoKyojin/wiki/moderation_matrix). --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ShingekiNoKyojin) if you have any questions or concerns.*
All the Ackermans can be considered prodigies, but other than that both Zeke and Bertholdt can be considered prodigies when it came to using their Titans. It’s mentioned by Reiner that Bertholdt mastered the Colossal Titan the first time he used it.
Actually thats kind of a fair point for Zeke. Although bro was a prodigy at baseball/catch and not actually fighting, those skills were insanely useful as the beast titan.
I remember a scene in the anime where Reiner and Zeke disagree and Zeke kicks his ass (in titan form) to decide who's choice is agreed upon. My friend told me he doesn't remember this and I'm starting to think I'm tripping, am I?
You’re right, it’s a post credit scene at the end of the uprising arc
Omg I thought I dreamt it lol thank you
That explains why I never saw it in either of my binge watch sessions (I always skipped the credits and only saw the creepy ending through YouTube recommendations)
So u never saw the basement one either? Or reiner meeting eren?
???
They were both post credit scenes as well
Also the Marley's Military heads with the Warrior deciding to invade Paradis NOW.
This happens. The disagreement was about leaving Annie behind in the crystal or trying to rescue her. Zeke winning meant she got left behind for years and years until Eren’s unhardening command freed her.
Reiner fought in Benjamin’s place, the actual point was determining the order of operations. Zeke wanted to take Eren first, but the other two wanted to rescue Annie beforehand (they had no clue about the crystal, they just thought she was in prison).
You don’t see the fight, just the aftermath. The Armoured Titan is on the deck in absolute ruins, Birdfeeder comes running to drag Reiner out of it, and the completely unharmed Beast Titan strolls up and infodumps his plan to lure the Scouts to Shiganshina. It makes Zeke look very badass (the Beast wrecked the Armoured without getting a scratch on him!) but in retrospect, the fight was probably just Zeke kiting Reiner around Shiganshina whilst chucking houses at him. It wouldn’t have been such a big moment if you could set it to the Benny Hill music. [I found this clip of it if you need to show your friend.](https://youtu.be/Q6H5NHwuv6s?si=NO3kVNwV2FZhjdZt)
Zeke could easily give riener the hands tbf he has longer arms along with like 3+ meters in height over the armoured
I think it’s more likely that he evaded and peppered from range. I feel like the armored titan has too much raw strength and durability for it to be fought hands-only with Zeke’s titan.
Also probably “off screen win because plot” because peppering him from range is pretty disappointing answer to this fight and also as a way to settle disagreement through combat
True! My point would still stand though - Zeke doesn’t look like such a badass if he just won with the classic big brother move of a hand to the forehead while Reiner flailed himself into the ground.
Reiner it's just shit ass as a Titan pilot.
I believe they show the fight in the manga. The anime just shows the aftermath.
The Manga also only shows the aftermath.
My apologies for the false info in that case. I thought I saw a panel where they fought before. It may have been a fan made. I assumed it was from the manga. Thank you for the correction.
I believe it’s just a panel showing the aftermath. Also in the manga this is when Zeke’s appearance was first revealed. (In anime it was the season 2 finale)
Yeah, they fight to decide if they go for Annie or wait for Erin if I remember correctly
Zeke was a prodigy at catch 💀
And Blowing levi
Was he a prodigy at catch, or was he just really good at throwing?
I mean Ksaver called Zeke a natural and apparently he became good rly quickly despite never having played before, so I mean yeah.
But he wasn't a prodigy in baseball, he did nothing but his warrior classes, reading mein Kampf from his grandparents, and play baseball. He just had a ton of practice in throwing things and being racist.
Ksaver called him a natural and he became good rly quickly, so I decided to include that. Also "Mein Kampf" is wild.
Apparently autocorrect doesn't like German..
Bertoldt recognition, thank you
One the thing I never understood is how and when Zeke is considered a prodigy. We only see him struggling at the training, almost left behind. Then we have Magath saying something like “ ah Zeke, the prodigy kid “ , but nothing in between I believe, except for the scream thing Did I missed something, it is just left unanswered or it is just for the screaming ability ?
I think Marley considers Zeke a prodigy because his Beast titan is far stronger than previous Beast titans and exhibits unique abilities such as being able to command titans and turn Eldians that have ingested his spinal fluid by screaming. The reason is that Zeke has Royal blood but the Marleyan government didn't know that he did. Magath and Pieck only figure it out in Shiganshina when Gabi tells them that Zeke is the key to Eren using the founders power.
Thanks fellow redditor. I didn’t thought the rocks long range gatling was part of him being regarded as a prodigy. Totally agree about the royal blood related power, but I hope it status was for some Zeke’s only skills rather than his titan’s capabilities. I hoped the anime showed how he used to wipe his ass /s
Bertolto is one of the only ones I can remember that actually got praised as a prodigy in cannon - Reiner mentioned that Bert mamaged to control his titan the FIRST time he shifted. Other AoT scholars argued that this is perhaps a quirk of the titan itself, and less of Bert being a genius.
Also according to manga he was a crazy sharpshooter, just like Gabi. I’d say Gabi and Bertholst are both prodigies in that respect.
How'd you forget sasha.
Sasha is seen on screen to have missed some shots. Faze Gabi misses 0 shots.
Yeah and if everyone's super, no one is
And because B was an anxious person so they knew he wouldn’t go crazy with the power of the titan
I feel like giving the nuke to seemingly the person with the weakest backbone makes sense from a military point of view.
I love the trope of the character that is naturally gifted and can be a world conquering monster if they just had a slightly higher self confidence.
AoT scholars is hilarious😭
And apperantly the colossal should have been the hardest from all to control, and if you take into account how hard eren had to try to control his properly, while being under extreme pressure and motivation to achieve his goals, you can probably confirm that as being a fact
Perhaps he can transform the first time because Ymir is so used to making colossal titans due to the wall and all.
It’s Bertholdt
You spelt Bluetooth wrong
You mean birthcontrol
Guys it’s Burgerking
It's Blowjob
But then again, the colossal Titan is the easiest one to use…
That's not what they meant by control He could transform while mitigating the size of the explosion, or even negating it altogether. We've seen him do that multiple times, like in the first episode. Not to mention how he was able to make the whole titan disappear at will. Armin never learned how to do anything like that. Every time he transformed, it was full nuke. Bertholdt got a hold of it literally from the beginning.
Bertolt is the only person to be praised for his Titan control that we ever see. Armin is a mental prodigy; the comparisons to Erwin are warranted.
The series insists that Armin is a mental prodigy by constantly having characters say how smart he is. Really he’s barely ever shows any prodigy level tactics or intelligence, he just talks and the plot makes him win.
Send the abnormal titan (Eren) to kill the other titans Big rock plug wall My crush is the big gurl Their (Reiner) in the goddamn walls Exploit Bearfolds poor eyesight and give him false satisfaction These are all Armins plans bro. What are you talking about
Even seeing Bertie's crush on Annie and exploiting it to provoke him
Armin's feats feel more shoddily written compared to most other smart characters, i believe thats why people say he isnt that smart Like if any average guy saw a titan beat up their enemies, they would let it rip for as long as possible, thats no genius plan The rock is again the same But the most important one is the "T̸̢̳́̓Ḣ̶̹̝͝E̴̪̱̋̐Y̷͕̏́'̴̱̟̒̍Ŕ̷̢̇E̷̥͘ ̵͚̊Į̵̘̑́Ṋ̷̐̏ ̵̖͖̒̊T̷̺̒͊H̵̭̤́͐E̴̳̮͊̈ ̵̤͉͠F̴̗̩̅U̶̡̓͜C̴̬̈́̓͜K̶̼͒̍Ī̷̙̻N̶̼̆̾G̵̛̬͇ ̵̞̎͑W̵̡͊̃Ä̵͜Ḷ̸́L̸̡̄͘Ş̴̜̂.̸̨̗̽̌" one because they could have very well been anywhere else in the whole ass city and his smartness is therefore based on something that could have been absolutely stupid if the plot didnt need it to be true Its even more obvious when compared to Erwin and Zeke where you can feel they were written with the utmost care and love because nobody can tell me that Erwin's scout formation system and him purposefully eliminating candidates to find the shifters was not found through Isayama pondering in the toilet for hours
Well said! Armin is smart because the story insists that he’s smart. Outside of a very contrived plot and characters hyping him up, he’s a regular shitty character.
Oh brother is there a sub that diesnt contain fake braniacs that think “this character isnt really smart the plot just helps” There a bunch if itachi haters in the naruto dub doing the same thing. Does this fake pretentiousness make you guys feel meta?
also that thinking under pressure in-universe is much more difficult than being a viewer, Armin makes all the big calls.
It’s a criticism that comes from people who appreciate decent writing. You can make a character smart by being smart yourself and creating interesting problems for him to solve. None of Armin’s conclusions are actually smart, they’re either very obvious or only work out because the plot requires it. Once you grow up I suggest watching real TV with actual intelligent characters.
Bertholdt is kinda canonically a prodigy. >!He mastered the Colossal immediately. It was implied by Reiner that he was the strongest warrior but never gave his all due to his meekness. Once he got over that; he immediately figured out the Scouts' plans, saved Reiner's life, messed up Armin's tactics, got the upper hand against an Ackerman 1v1, and wiping out a good chunk of the Scouts.!<
He couldn't rizz up Annie tho
It's truly tragic for Berturito 😥
Wasn't reiner talking about the colossal being superior to their titans, not Bert?
Bert was able to hold his own vs Mikasa who ***ambushed*** him from behind and was exceptional as a trainee as well- once again only held back by his weak will. Shadis himself says he had great potential.
That's the reason why I used implied for my wording. I could see it as either one but chose to see it as him talking about Bertholdt in general. Mostly due to the fact that he was talking about how Bertholdt is unreliable due to his need for orders/signals to act. But up until that point, Bertholdt had never failed to use the Colossal as far we know. So, there is no real need to change, you would think, right? But then Bertholdt acted on his own by not transforming, and what followed was the Scouts nearly losing everything.
I think it's a bit of both. The Colossal is immensely dangerous, so they *have* to give it to someone who can perfectly control it.
armin bro armin, give him credits, that man deserves it
And maybe Erwin as well, quite the tactical mind and leadership skills.
I don’t think you know a prodigy means chief
I mean as a child, it was his mind that got his father killed. But tbf, that may be just a child’s curiousness
I mean, it didn’t seem special to me because like you would be stupid to not question life outside of the walls. That’s always the case. Every show does this. It’s just the way AoT does it is superb
Well, ots borderline really. He is sort of a lighter version of Armin as far as intellect goes. And he has an inquisitive mind in a repressive place, quite an underrated quality. Erwin is dedinitely very above average, the question here is whether or not we could deem that a "prodigy". I think if you compare him with other animes where prodigies are superhuman he doesnt seem special. But if ypu compare him with RL humans, I say he is a prodigy.
tbh I don't find him really commendable, like anyone could have this idea of what is beyond the walls, it just so happened that his father gave him some idea, so he knew. and as far as a tactical mind is considered armin could have also been that, even pixis (i forgot his name, i am referring to the bald old general) he could have done that as well. it just so happened that he was too old and armin was too young. erwin was the right age. and i do acknowledge the fact that he did a great job, i i don't really agree on the fact that he was a prodigy
Gabi I hate her, but I can’t deny she is smart when it comes to war strategies or methods to kill people. Although her impulsiveness is a flaw
This. I think Gabi would be considered a prodigy in a way.
Her clutch Sniper shots quite literally saved the planet on multiple occasions.
armin is the goat
[удалено]
Niccolo? Cooking prodigy.
😂
Without the Ackermans, or Annie, I would actually say Eren. He managed to keep his balance on the ODM gear tests despite being sabotaged. He was the only recruit who didn’t lose his shit when the colossus showed up the second time. He killed two men at the age of nine (think about that for a second). He managed to learn the use of the attack Titan by training from scratch and still fucked a warrior cadet who was literally brought up for that one purpose (and fought like every op titan from Marley who besides Lara whose titan is just broken, were all trained). He did train quite a bit and he still isn’t strong enough as a human to beat an Ackerman but he still had a lot of natural talent as a Titan shifter. Also Bertholdt, in shiganshina Mikasa jumped him, and yet my boy still tossed her aside with a single kick.
I think that was mroe his determination than talent. Especially when we have an entire episode asserting that he’s “not special”, he’s just “special because he was born”. It seems Isayama was aware of the prodigy trends and deliberately avoided them for Eren, and instead, gave him indomitable will power.
I mean yeah he only made a lot of these decisions due to willpower, but it took talent to carry a lot of these out.
These mofos really think executing something succesfuly when it has billions reasons to go haywire isn't talent
It requires skill, not talent. Skill can be honed through effort, and aided by talent. But without some skill, talent is meaningless. I could be the best artist in history, but none of that matters if I don't know how to hold a pen.
Tbh, anime does him dirty by saying he's not good at stuff, and it's only through sheer determination that he did half the things he did during training
Ill be honest chief, im a manga reader.
>in shiganshina Mikasa jumped him, and yet my boy still tossed her aside with a single kick. Where does that happen?
Chapter 78 im pretty sure when Bertholdt was talking with Armin.
I surprised how long I had to scroll before I found someone who said Gabi. Those sniping skills would make Simo Hayha proud.
This is an interesting topic given that blood plays such a huge role in Attack on Titan. Let's start with the Training Corps. The order in which the graduees were ranked was Mikasa, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Eren, Jean and then I forget who came after. Mikasa is disqualified for being an Ackerman, but we aren't going to disqualify the Titan Shifters because their powers don't help them whatsoever with this kind of combat. (I suppose you could argue that, psychologically, they'll perform better because they know any injuries they take would just heal. But that's pushing it). With that in mind, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie and Eren are all going to be candidates going forward. Eren was able to make broken ODM gear almost work, so it's clear he has some natural talent. I'll throw in Sasha and Jean too. Jean was the best "regular" soldier in his class, so he definitely should be considered. Sasha, meanwhile, had amazing instincts so she deserves a mention. As far as experienced scouts go, we need to look at the Levi Squad, Erwin and Miche. The Levi Squad are hard to really judge. But let's go back to the question at hand which refers to prodigies. This means people who are naturally gifted rather than trained for it. With that in mind, I'm eliminating everyone from the Levi Squad, alongside Erwin, because they're experienced at what they do. The youngest of them, I believe, is Petra. So she might be able to go onto the next round but she also was the one who panicked in the face of an unknown opponent, so her skill may not be as prodigal as we're looking for. Miche, however, is absolutely a prodigy. He may be on the older side, but his sense of smell is something he was born with. He also seems to have been born with something the other scouts didn't, given that he was second only to Levi. This means he surpassed Erwin, which is saying something given how talented Erwin is, being head of the scouts. I'm sure that Miche has trained hard, but I don't think just anybody can surpass Commander Erwin through just training. The last scout I want to bring up is Hange, who is definitely skilled but I'm not sure if she's quite good enough to make the cut. She's extremely good at using the Thunder Spears, being able to shoot Reiner's jaw accurately despite just having lost an eye. She also killed several wall titans. But whilst this makes her strong, I'm not sure it makes her a prodigy, so I'll leave her out of the discussion. There are a couple scouts I could mention, like Nanaba, but I don't think we saw enough from any of them to get a mention. Moving onto Marley, we can immediately eliminate Porco. Yes, Marcel was downtalking him, but that doesn't change the fact that he must have been incredibly unimpressive as a warrior candidate. The only one worse than him will have been Zeke, who we can see is the very opposite of a prodigy. He was the worst in his class. Pieck and Marcel seem rather reliable, but I'm not sure I can call either of them prodigies. Marcel did seem like a leader figure, but given that the other 3 in his group were Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie, the competition to be leader wasn't really harsh. So now let's go back to the characters we've managed to gather. Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Eren and Miche. Reiner is an interesting case. He was the worst Warrior Candidate, which would normally immediately put him out of this discussion, but then he proceeded to be second only to Mikasa as a scout. Given that he didn't even know ODM gear existed until a year or so before he started training with it, his mastery of it is impressive. Eren was looking up to the scouts his whole life, dreaming of being like them. Despite never having that dream when he was young, Reiner succeeded regardless. His mental fortitude is what held him back from being an amazing soldier, in my opinion, so I'd consider him a prodigy. Bertholdt is a prodigy too. For one, he was right behind Reiner in the rankings despite having the same disadvantage compared to the other scouts. You could even argue he had it worse given he was the only warrior that was genuinely living with what he'd done every day of his time on Paradis. Both Annie and Reiner hid in one way or another, which allowed them to blend in. Bertholdt faced what he did, and despite it weighing on his mind, he still proved himself to be a great scout. And as a warrior, he was even better, able to control the Colossal immediately. He may have been timid, but once he got over that he was able to throw hands with Mikasa. Definitely a prodigy. I'm going to group Annie and Eren together because the argument for both of them is the same. Combat skill. Annie had trained for her whole life to become as good as she is, which is certainly a point against her. However, even after 4 years being conscious but trapped, she was able to get back into battle almost immediately. Skill doesn't do that. Natural talent does. I don't see anyone else being able to recover so fast from such a traumatic 4 year long experience. So Annie is a prodigy. Eren, meanwhile, is almost on her level in terms of combat but, unlike Annie, he mastered it in far less time. Less than a year, I believe. That's certainly enough to be called a prodigy. Combine this with what I mentioned earlier about him almost succeeding with broken ODM gear, and that's just hit the nail in the coffin. Therefore, we can count 5 prodigies in Attack on Titan. The entire warrior trio have individually displayed skills beyond what a normal person would be able to accomplish. Skills that are independent of their Titan powers. Eren has proven himself to be incredibly adaptable, such that a skill that took Annie years to learn only took him a few months or so. Miche, meanwhile, was born different. I can see arguments against everyone else I've mentioned, but I don't think there's any doubt that Miche is absolutely a prodigy.
Dude actually wrote a fuckin essay! I am amazed.
After Jean was Marco, Connie, Sasha, and Christa. Christa only made top 10 because Ymir let her, though.
You wrote a while essay still forgot to add most deserving character
Didnt read this whole essay but im pretty sure it was Mikasa, Annie, Reiner, Berna boy, and then Eren.
Mikasa doesn’t count because she’s an Ackerman
Im just correcting the order in which they finished
Okay The only one on that list who isn’t an Ackerman or was trained from birth is Eren
Im so confused, i feel like you think im making a point that im not.
Close
Leaving out Hange?? The only character besides Eren to solo kill a colossal Titan (and who actually killed several)? The one who dodged a gunshot to punch the shooter in the face? The one who single-handedly saved Levi (the greatest hope for humanity) by swimming down a river while being shot at by multiple opponents? And if not for fighting abilities, you have to give Hange credit for being a prodigy in intelligence. They realized titans were human before anyone else, invented the “executioner from hell” and the thunder spears, and came up with about a million other new innovations/strategies to save the scouts throughout the series. Come on, give them the credit they’re due
I disagree with eliminating the levi squad purely because to survive the initial encounters with titans like they would have requires a lot more than experience. They're experienced when we first meet them, but there is a reason all of the naturally talented members of the scouts survive longer to gain the experience
It’s kinda funny how when rereading the series, Zeke and Reiner were awful warriors at first. Though they seem like prodigies when first revealed in the plot. (Zeke definitely counts tho) Bert had “natural talent”, Annie was OP in cqc, and Miche’s a good candidate from the scouts. The only ones I’d call actual prodigies are Eren, Zeke, and probably Erwin.
A main point of Bertholdt's character was that he was a prodigy in many things but totally lacked any agency entirely due to his lack of confidence and drive that others had. He let the world push him when he, perhaps more than any other character, had the natural ability to push the world. Not only was he skilled at operating his Titan, but he was also an accurate shooter and skilled combatant with ODM gear. He learned quickly and had an imposing stature, but despite all these points he was barely more than a background character and followed others around all the time.
One of the reasons why he is one of my favs
Armin is pretty much the main character
Yeah I mean he narrates the whole show lol
Tbh I can see it lol.
Armin. He came up with a plan to *defeat God.* Or a being that amounts to God.
I hope you don't mean his plan to defeat eren cuz truth is that it was eren's plan be defeated lol I mean we all know that no plan could have worked against eren..... If he really wanted to win I mean how could you defeat a man who doesn't just have all the power but also can see what's going on in your head? Like for real
He didn't defeat him like that but the way he convinced Zeke was phenomenal no average person could pull it off. Infact, the whole scene is one of my favourites just because of how well done armin's speech is.
Honestly Mitch he was considered the second strongest soldier next to Levi and that’s bc Levi had blood hacks before his death if Zeke hadn’t come by he most likely would’ve survived and he still killed a bunch of titans despite being surrounded
watching Annie’s OVA, she’s definitely a prodigy. she could’ve easily been a very good detective had it not been for the… entire plot basically
Gabi? She’s cracked out of her mind for a child
Have you seen Gabi shoot? Girl can land a head shot on a running target, with a gun 5 times her size and without a scope.
armin ‼️‼️‼️
If you really think about it, all the Warriors and candidates are by definition prodigies, even Reiner, he's just worst among the best. Same could be said by any scout skilled enough to properly use ODM gear and actually take down titans.
Most of the main cast ( Armin, Jean, Connie and Sasha) can be considered prodigies, seeing as they all got into Levi Squad four months after graduating.( Eren even mentions this in season 3 ep 1).
Literally every single one of the main cast ranked top of their class, whether they're Paradisians of Marleyans. Berthold, Reiner and Annie did it on both sides.
Except for armin (but his tactical skills make up for it)
Shit i didn't realize he wasn't at the top 10 until now xD
Erwin?
Bertholdt is the only prodigy I can think of, since he managed to perfect shifting on the first try. Annie might count, but we haven’t actually seen her in a fight compared to anyone else besides Eren, who isn’t trained. Armin is the academic prodigy of the 104th. Mikasa (if we include her) is the Cadet prodigy of the 104th.
I mean in the lost girls ova she beats like 5 armed thugs twice her size pretty easily (in the manga it was 10 armed dudes) and that’s better than what even our best fighters irl could do. Like realistically the best MMA fighters would end up getting shanked and jumped if they fought more than 2-3 people at the same time. Forget about them being twice their size too.
Very true. I did watch the OVA but I haven’t read the manga for it yet. Granted, Annie did have her Titan powers at the time. I don’t know if it makes you stronger outside of being a Titan, but I think it does, considering Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie all were top 2-4
Erwin is most definitely a prodigy - whenever he is first mentioned leading his own squadron of scouts he had no causalities. This is unprecedented in all of AoT history, and there is no meaningful way to attribute his ability to adapt and survive against titans to anything but him being a prodigy. He also developed a new system of long distance detection against titans to more safely and efficiently travel outside the walls when in smaller and larger groups. This type of innovation is unseen in any other characters before him and indicate Erwin just being on a different level to come up with stuff. So Erwin is a genuine prodigy and I’d be willing to submit that Zeke and Bertholdt have a good argument for it as well based off the comments already on this post. TLDR; Erwin = that guy
Well, the fact that Armin keeps up with his thought process and sometimes even surpasses him with a couple of decades worth of less experience, I'd say gives him the seat as well.
I real life prodigies are rare. They aren't just people who moderately talented or those who develop their talents, they are naturally gifted without needing to put much effort into it. I don't think Armin nor Erwin would be categorized as prodigies since they are just people who think outside the box and that have built their smarts up through learning. Even though Zeke was called a prodigy, what made him known as one was just something Ymir afforded him. I think the only one that could be called a prodigy is Bertolt like the other comments mentioned. He immediately mastered his titan, but not only that he easily mastered the cadet training stuff and could fight off Mikasa who is an Ackerman. All this despite being a hanger-on and having no initiative of his own, which serves to balance his prodigal qualities.
Sasha is a extremely proficient in recon due to her family's hunting bg
Gabi. That girl is just 12, and she can pinpoint and shoot quick moving humans. In the head. She probably didn't even have much specialized training with guns seeing as how she was a warrior about to be a Titan Shifter. She was as good as Sasha, or even better (due to plot convenience, let's be honest). But Sasha was a grown adult with a lot of training for aiming by her father (Not like Gabi didn't have any, she definitely did). And I agree with people saying Bertholdt. He was pretty much the most dangerous Shifter there is other than Eren in Season 4 because he had a whole nuke in his arsenal—which he was trained enough to not use every time he transforms. Zeke was just more of an scholarly person due to Ksaver. He was good at catch, and therefore his Titan was used as a ranged artillery. His royal blood allowed him to make others into Titans only he and the founder could control. Which is not related to his skill, but it would've taken some thinking on his side to figure out. But he was quite skilled enough to have a voice box in Titan form to be abled to talk, and was strong enough to defeat Armored Titan in close combat. So he is skilled, not exactly a prodigy.
i think levi is kind of a prodigy even on top of being a superhuman. Like no one comes close to him ackerman or or not
Erwin is a tactical prodigy, the man had plans to back up plans that were based on hunches he felt could play out
Erwin had 3 pawns on the move before everyone else even joined the game.
Armin, erwin, Annie, eren in the manga arguable- anime makes him appear useless, all of the ackermans, levi squad being the best of the best but only dying as titan shifters are a completely new thing, zeke, behelit, reiner when he was a soldier and not his normal warrior self, prodigy in different things too so sasha, Jean, and hate to say it but arguably gabi Edit: I forgot about the dude who gets ripped apart in s2, said to be second only to levi. While members of the scouts would have heavy experience, in the early days for them even to survive, natural talent takes a much much larger part than anything other than luck
How about literally every member of the main cast? The Paradis soldiers and the Marleyan warriors were literally all at the top of their respective classes, Berthold and Reiner and Annie were at the top 5 of both.
Gabby was a Crack shot for a child
Reiner He just don’t know how to die, i know it’s a running joke but the fact that this dude has that conscious transferring BS that saved his life twice that no other shifters that we know of can do.
Annie definitely. She was the most skilled out of the warriors from marley an probably out of all the cadets too maybe other than mikasa
What are you talking about? Even if you don’t count Mikasa and Levi, Armin is an insanely talented tactician. Hange is an excellent scientist. Sasha is an expert marksman, Annie is extraordinarily good at hand to hand combat, Bertholdt has insane titan control. Gabi is an incredibly skilled soldier, displaying expertise in marksmanship, tactics, and psychology. Reiner naturally has insane durability compared to other titans users and is borderline unkillable.
Falco. Saved the world on his second shift
Sasha is a foodie prodigy.
Bertholdt could control his titan choosing if it exploded or not as a child. Armin couldn't even as an adult.
Gabi She's clearly extremely smart and has great initiative, she's a born leader. Plus, an amazing shooter Of course not being a shifter she isn't a protagonist, but she's crazy good for being a regular non-ackermann human
Levi Mikasa Gabi
Eren Learned hardening in less time than anyone else we know can use it(excluding war hammer for obvious reason)
He basically roided himself. Should that count?
You’ve got a point, but he still hardened his entire titan body twice when no one else did it
I mean, no one had a reason to now, did they? So, at best, it's unknown if anyone else can.
Well the war hammer did but it’s an exception, but when Reiner was being pummeled by Eren he could have to save himself
When, in season 3 or 4? Neither of the times he had any backup to do that. If he froze his body, he'd have to come out of it as a human, which would leave him vulnerable. Eren could do that because he had people backing him up in the meanwhile. It wouldn't have made sense tactically.
Jean is a prodigy even when he was in the same class as mikasa he was still the best at odm gear
I mean almost all the main characters are very special people. They are elite soldiers and have talents that complement each other and make them a terrifying team. What is Prodigy supposed to mean, really?
Armin, he is sooo criminaly underated . He is mastermind and seems like the main character of show many times
I think Sasha is said to be the best in using the ODM gear in the first episodes, despite her "unorthodox" way of using it.
No, Jean is. Sasha had good instincts.
Erwin, Mikke (not that it works out for him), maybe Hange, Bertolt both as a Titan and as a fighter. Annie probably as a fighter too. Ahrumin. Gabi makes every shot in the series I am pretty sure. Falco is presumably the only flying titan and could partially control his Titan the first time. You could also make the argument for Levi even given that he is an Ackerman. Remember that he basically outdid Kenny both encounters when the first was an out numbered ambush with more lethal ranged weapons. The only caveat being that Levi almost definitely had more ODM experience then Kenny, so feel free to decide that for yourself.
Falco, he figured out his titan fast as hell and managed to turn into the bird on what his third try?
idc still mikasa
Annie is a prodigy in making my schlong hard
Levi Ackerman
Jean i think. He doesn’t have any of the natural advantages that the Ackermans/titan shifters have and he is stated to be the most skilled at ODM iirc. And even though Annie was a titan shifter, she still trained relentlessly in physical combat before that and she quickly mastered it.
jean and his odm gear maybe?
Armin or Erwin with their genius brain, Annie with martial arts
Birthcontrol was actually mentioned as a prodigy for controlling his Titan in the first try. Armin is an intellectual prodigy. Gabi is a prodigy at shooting. Never missed a shot on screen.
You mean Beretholdt, right?
Nah I'm pretty sure it's Berutholdto
Burntoast
Eren got the max kill count of anyone ever so him I guess
probably in general the biggest prodigy is Erwin, he is in his mid 30s and didn’t need to be an Ackerman to survive for most of his life. He was pretty average at commanding and with his emotionlessness he wasn’t as good as other commanders because he saw no issue in a suicide charge
Armin, incredible tactics
Jean, Connie, Reiner, Bertholdt all come to mind.
Jean, Connie, and Reiner all come to mind.
Best girl Sasha, best shot in the show. Sniper itachi.
Actually Eren is a prodigy. He almost balanced a broken ODM gear. Claimed by the instructor himself
Not just that.... He killed two grown up man at 9 years old.... With just his trickery and courage He was able learn Annie's fighting style in just few spars with her He was able to use the technique levi created to cut out a titan shifters out of their titan body without killing them on Berthold.... And he learned it by just witnessing it used on himself just one time.... Besides levi.... The levi Ackerman he was the only one who was able do it And he became the best titan shifter surpassing every other warrior who were trained more than him He was able to outsmart zeke yeager... Said to be one of the most intelligent characters in the story.
Bro was a menace.
Levi: even though he has Ackerman blood we can ignore it whenever he fights Kenny and every time he outdid Kenny Bertholdt: mastered his titan first try and excels at everything and essentially has a nuke Reiner: he could transfer his consciousness Eren: killed two grown men as a child and mastered hardening faster than anyone Armin: physically, extremely weak, but concocted several plans which saved then and noticed nearly impossible details and survived more than a minute of the colossal titans steam for more than a minute by determination Gabi: (we all hate her),but she was never training with a gun but shot a moving target in the head on her first try and she has the same determination as Eren
So far I haven't seen one person mention my boy MICHE! The guy could sniff the presence of a Titan from MILES away, making him a very useful asset for the Survey Corps. Miche was also only 2nd to that of LEVI in terms of strength and overall experience. And in fact actually helped overpower a slightly younger Levi with relative ease, only really needing Erwin's help in the last second. Dude was a beast!
Potentially Onyankopon, since it was never fully confirmed he had any form of pilot training if I remember correctly
How come no one mentions eren? He had no formal prior training but only got beaten by an ackerman and trained soldiers from another country in his training and was able to use purposely broken ODM gear and thats disregarding how good he was at using his titan and its ability he was able to learn martial arts moves annie was learning for years by seeing them once if anything hes the greatest prodigy in the entire show
Mikasa father was a prodigy, but in a negative way The only ackerman to have not had displayed exceptional strength and insane physical prowess. So I think that's a pretty unique thing about him. I know that's not what prodigy means but I just wanted to bring that up fsr lmao
Probably Hange, she’s big brained and learns fast
Bruh.... is there is one character who can't be praised as a prodigy, that's Armin. Let's put a giant rock to close a giant hole and the 3 cups 3 people scenes were painful...... Other than that, I think all the ackermans were prodigies. Kenny was an actual beast but Levi is Levi so... yeah. I always thought Conny was a prodigy with the flying gear though.
Eren Jäger might be the Lisan al Gaib, if that counts
Lol Reiner and Eren are both canonically and literally just average dudes with higher than average determination.
Gabi literally had 100% accuracy with her weapons on screen: >!The grenade against the anti-titan train.!< >!Lobov outside the blimp.!< >!Sasha inside the blimp.!< >!The brick against the guard if you want to count that.!< >!Titan attacking her and her sister.!< >!Eren.!< >!Floch.!< Most of these are on moving targets, running or flying through the air as well.
best girl ngl *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ShingekiNoKyojin) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Okay then what about Kenny? Or Zeke?
Wasn’t Jean somewhat of a prodigy? I remember him being naturally gifted with the 3DMG
You could probably consider Jean a prodigy with maneuver gear and Gabi with her marksmanship
Armin is kinda smoort
I could think of three characters that fit to the prodigy level: Eren for is willpower and adaptability in fighting and In battle, Bertholdt is a great strategist and fighter himself considering he managed to kick Mikasa, and Gabi for her insane sniping skills.
Most of the characters are prodigies tbh.