Ilse Langnar

Observers note how strongly Ilse resembles Ymir. Freckles dot the skin beneath each of her light eyes, her complexion carries a light tan, and she keeps her black hair short with the part falling to the right. Over a gray shirt she wears the Survey Corps uniform and its cape.

Emotion runs close to the surface in Ilse, yet she forces herself to stand firm when despair presses in. Devoted to the Survey Corps and proud of her place within it, she resolves to contribute whatever she can, and her final regrets center on never having repaid her parents. Even cornered by a Titan she documents everything with a level head, though her composure cracks when the subject turns to eating humans: she screams at the cowering giant, then flees in terror at its unnerving reaction.

On the Survey Corps' 34th expedition, Ilse holds command of the second brigade's left wing. Titans annihilate her entire flank, leaving her the only survivor, without a horse and with vertical maneuvering equipment too damaged to use. Discarding the broken gear, she runs north into a forest hunting for any route back to the Walls, and, knowing her odds are dismal, begins writing down her experiences so that something useful might outlive her.

Deep in the woods she blunders into a Titan that pursues her and pins her against a tree, then inexplicably stops. Instead of feeding, the creature bows and speaks, uttering the phrase "a subject of Ymir" and greeting "Lady Ymir" with apparent reverence. Stunned that speech is even possible, Ilse presses the creature to explain the Titans' nature and their origins, logging each question and every reaction in her notebook. No answers come, only moans and mounting frustration. Her patience finally breaks: she shouts at the creature, demanding to know why Titans devour people, and curses them as useless lumps of flesh that ought to vanish from the world. The Titan responds by tearing at its own cheeks until the flesh rips and blood sprays. Ilse bolts, but it catches her, pries her hands away, and bites off her head without eating her, then abandons the body and walks away.

Her notebook is eventually recovered, and the information inside proves valuable to Hange Zoë's Titan research. During the battle of Shiganshina, Erwin Smith envisions Ilse among the dead comrades silently asking whether their sacrifices meant anything.