“I Am Historia Reiss, The True Ruler Of These Walls.”
Historia Reiss is the youngest soldier from the 104th training corps. In the beginning, she’s a character without any relief and her only role is to be a beautiful girl. Such a cursory character was even too strange for Attack on Titan and in consequence, this character remained out of the spotlight for some time but when its time came, Historia shines brightly in a big way.
Historia grows up on a farm owned by the Reiss family. Her mother is far from raising her and spends most of her time reading. Historia doesn’t even see her father in her childhood. Instead, her oldest half-sister visits her often and teaches her how to read and write, taking care of Historia’s self-improvement to become a kind and fair girl. After each meeting, Frieda uses the Founder’s powers to erase the memories of her from her mind.
The influence of Historia’s half-sister shapes her persona as dedicated, kind and selfless to those around her. However, deep down she always has sadness, emptiness and uncertainty of her own nature. And because of this, she’s always looking for her own purpose in the world.
One of the decisive things that creates Historia’s personality is the relationship with her parents which is expressed in rejection and hatred from her mother and her father. Looking back, she tries to hug her mother and gets slapped for it and Alma even yells at her that she’s sorry that she didn’t have the courage to kill her. But this fact doesn’t upset Historia and even more she’s happy since for the first time, her mother acknowledges her existence. It’s worth to say that Historia’s mother was murdered in front of her which also has a great impact.
Childhood traumas create Historia’s facade as timid, kind, lenient, innocent and an overly good person. She’s a person who does everything for others and expects nothing in return. That being a fact, Historia has a very hard time accepting herself because she doesn’t like the existence of “Historia Reiss” because that’s what caused her mother’s death, loneliness, isolation and all the traumas that she had in her childhood. Self-blame destroys her self-esteem, and because she never received any kind of love, she’s willing to accept minimal love and appreciation from other people, even if it’s superficial and heartless. By fitting into the role of Krista Lenz she gets it all and more.
The first person who sees Historia’s true self is Ymir. By dragging an incapacitated person through the snow without help, she’s willing to die in a way that makes her look like a hero with Ymir calling her out on it. She’s the one who believed, and more essentially, accepted her for who she is and encourages her to go by her real name. Gradually, from a close relationship with Ymir, she gets used to being her “true self”. As a result of this metamorphosis, she no longer expects anything from others, but is taking it herself. She becomes stubborn, brave and no longer afraid of challenges.
After Ymir leaves her by being taken by Reiner and Bertholdt, Historia loses hope again and returns to her usual apathy and doesn’t know what to do anymore. However, during the coup d’état, Historia begins to slowly regain her faith in herself and gathers her strength, which is demonstrated in defying her father by not turning into a Titan and eating Eren. She also kills her father after he turns into a Titan before an audience, creating a positive reputation in the eyes of the masses.
After losing who she thinks is the only person who accepted her for who she really is and loved her with all her heart, she doesn’t give up and become sad. Instead, with Eren’s help and then by remembering Frieda Reiss, she realizes that her views about herself are wrong and that someone actually loves her even before Ymir, and that person was her oldest half-sister Frieda.
She’s the mother figure in her life, which she had forgotten for so long and under the influence of Frieda and Ymir, Historia becomes a very strong, independent and wise woman in a very short time.
When it’s necessary to become queen, she did it. When it’s necessary to kill her father to save countless people, she did it. When she had to act like a queen in front of Kiyomi, she did it. Historia Reiss has always been on the side of the guild’s interests, a true selfless queen for her people and just a noble person with a hard life story.
