Gordon

A pronounced jawline is Gordon's most memorable feature. His black hair sits close to his head, shaved down along the sides and brushed toward the front, and he carries a tall frame without any particular bulk. Once enlisted, he dresses in the Survey Corps' standard issue.

The manga grants Gordon only a handful of panels, and they sketch an ordinary young soldier rather than a hero. He backs Floch Forster when the former Garrison recruits bristle at doubts about their reliability, and news that every veteran of the Corps has been wiped out leaves him huddled in fear. Erwin's plan for a frontal suicide assault visibly horrifies him, yet he mounts up and rides into it anyway, obedience and loyalty outlasting his dread.

Gordon enlists in the Survey Corps during the quiet two-month stretch separating the assault at Orvud District from the mission to reclaim Shiganshina, entering service under Squad Klaus. At the feast held before the operation, he stands with Floch as his friend needles Jean Kirstein, asking whether soldiers drawn from the Garrison and the 104th are really so untrustworthy.

In Shiganshina, the annihilation of the Corps' veteran wing sends him cowering beside Floch and Sandra until Erwin Smith rallies the recruits for a cavalry charge meant to distract the Beast Titan at the cost of their lives. Gordon rides with his comrades and dies in the storm of projectiles that shreds the charge. He shares his November 19th birthday with Yeager, Grisha's father, and his Scottish name translates to "fort."