Louise

Dirty blonde hair falling to her shoulders, parted down the center, is Louise's constant feature from childhood onward. Her childhood outfit paired a small jacket with a dark shirt and matching skirt, while her adult civilian wear is a plain long-sleeved top and a long skirt, exchanged for the standard Survey Corps uniform when on duty.

Power is Louise's creed. Watching Mikasa Ackerman slam a Titan into the dirt through raw human strength during the Trost invasion convinces her that no one can be saved without it, and the conviction hardens into something close to a might-makes-right philosophy. She treats rules as obstacles, happily defying orders and authority when doing so serves her goals, and counts the ends as justification enough. Her faith eventually settles on Eren Yeager as the sole hope for Paradis. Even bleeding out in a hospital bed she voices no remorse, only disappointment that her injuries will keep her from seeing the free world he promised, glad to have given her heart to the cause.

As a child, Louise is trapped in Trost with her mother while Dimo Reeves's cargo blocks the evacuation gate. An Abnormal charges the crowd, Mikasa cuts it down and strong-arms Reeves into moving his cart, and the salute the two exchange afterward sets the course of Louise's life; years later she enlists specifically to get closer to her savior.

As a Survey Corps recruit she fights in the raid on Liberio, watching Eren fail in his bid to consume the War Hammer Titan, sheltering from the Beast Titan's projectiles, and assisting Jean against the Cart Titan until Theo Magath's troops drive her off. Aboard the retreating airship she works desperately to keep the dying Sasha Blouse alive while other soldiers beat the two young stowaways responsible.

Back on Paradis, she helps feed news of Eren's arrest to the papers and lands in a cell for it, where she tries to recruit Mikasa to Eren's cause and is coldly cut off. Sympathetic guards free the rebels, who regroup around Eren himself. Louise later appears among the armed Yeagerists pressing Hange for Zeke's location and travels with the group to Shiganshina. When Marley's retaliation forces the Yeagerists to release their prisoners, she cheerfully tells Mikasa she is glad to fight at her side again, and after finding the famous scarf left behind, she takes to wearing it herself. Defending headquarters against Zeke's newly made Titan horde under Jean's command, she is torn open by a Thunder Spear fragment to the stomach. In the infirmary she tells a visiting Mikasa how Trost shaped her, admits Eren instructed her to discard the scarf, and surrenders it on demand, saying as Mikasa walks out that she lived without regret and devoted her heart.