Reiner Braun

About Reiner Braun

Reiner Braun is the big, dependable graduate of the 104th cadet corps whom younger soldiers look up to like a brother. Strong, brave and steady, he seems the perfect soldier, yet he carries a secret mission and a divided mind that slowly tear him apart. Reiner's story shows how war can make someone both a loyal friend and an enemy, and the damage that causes.

Appearance

Reiner is a big, broad-shouldered young man, the most physically imposing of his class at 185 cm, with short blond hair, hazel eyes and a strong jaw. He looks older than his years and carries himself like a veteran even as a cadet. In uniform he is the picture of the ideal soldier. In private moments, though, his face betrays him, exhausted, haunted expressions that flicker across before he forces the dependable mask back into place.

Personality

Reiner is two people at war in one body. As a soldier of the walls he is genuinely brave, protective and beloved, the big brother who carries wounded comrades and never panics. But Reiner arrived with a mission he was raised for, and living among his targets as their friend has fractured his mind: he sometimes speaks and acts as if he truly is only a soldier, forgetting what he came to do. His story is a study of what indoctrination and guilt do to a fundamentally decent person ordered to commit indecent things.

Background & Story

Reiner comes from far beyond the walls, raised in the nation of Marley as a child of the oppressed Eldian minority. Desperate to win status and safety for his family, and to reunite with the father who rejected him, young Reiner volunteered for Marley's Warrior programme, which sends chosen children on a mission of infiltration and destruction against the island of Paradis. He arrived as a boy soldier with a role to play, then made the mistake of meaning it: the comrades he trained beside for three years became real to him. As the story unfolds, Reiner's buried mission and his soldier's heart tear him apart, making him one of the most tragic figures on either side of the war.

Powers & Abilities

• Superhuman Strength: Even in human form Reiner is the strongest of his class, able to carry huge loads and wounded comrades across battlefields.
• Warrior Training: Reiner was trained from childhood in Marley's Warrior programme in combat, infiltration and survival far beyond cadet standard.
• Leadership: Reiner's steadiness makes him the 104th's informal second leader, the soldier others rally behind when officers fall.

Key Relationships

• Bertolt Hoover: His closest friend and fellow Warrior from Marley, the one person who sees every crack in Reiner's mind.
• Eren Yeager: A junior Reiner mentored like a brother, which makes his mission's demands a personal torment.
• Annie Leonhart: A fellow Warrior and graduate, bound to Reiner by their shared secret and their years undercover.
• Gabi Braun: His young cousin in Marley, a Warrior candidate who idolises the path that has cost Reiner so much.

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