Attack on Titan is the focus of tremendous hype in the manga and anime community right now and rightly so! In this article, we’ll be looking at the character of Yelena who was first introduced to us in the Marley manga arc.
Yelena is a woman pretending to be a Marleyan soldier in Liberio. In reality, she leads a group of Anti-Marleyan volunteers who are all working for Zeke Yeager.
Is she an enemy or an ally?
She is one of the major antagonists of Attack on Titan’s fourth season. Just as in the manga, she is quite a shady character who doesn’t disclose much information about herself.
She seems to almost obsessively worship the Titan Zeke Yeager. That, along with her own personal agenda to receive lifelong recognition for saving the world, is the motivation behind her villanous actions.
Appearance and Personality
Yelena is a really tall woman with straight bangs and blonde hair. She is portrayed often wearing the Marleyan uniform and has quite an androgynous character design.
As for her personality, she seems to be on the extreme end of admiring Zeke, almost to the point of painting him into a Godlike figure. While most of the time, she is responsible and seems quite relaxed, we can notice a deranged quality in her.
She kills her comrades without any hesitation should they stand in the way of her goals. Her behaviour points a lot to her possibly being a sociopath as she basks in the destruction of countless airships and people.
What is Yelena’s past?
Yelena is originally born in Marley but became deeply disillusioned with her nation. After an expedition in which she is saved by the Beast Titan Zeke Yeager, she dedicates herself to Zeke’s cause.
She concocts a false story of her own identity and claims that she comes from a small country invaded by Marley. She also claims to have been forcibly assigned to the Marleyan military force.
Yelena’s role in the Marley arc
Yelena volunteers to go to Paradis island as part of the crew serving on a survey ship. This is after Zeke informs his followers about his half-brother Eren who has two Titan abilities.
The crew is captured when Eren in his Titan form grabs the ship and pulls it onto land. The soldiers are captured by the Survey Corps, after which Levi and Hanji question them. Despite the islanders’ mistrust of the volunteers, they begin helping them by introducing them to military and technical innovations.
Under Zeke’s orders, her plan is to distribute numerous wine bottles mixed with Zeke’s spinal fluid to those in the military. This will allow Zeke to transform all those who drink the wine into Titans with a single scream.
