Bertolt Hoover

About Bertolt Hoover

Bertolt Hoover is a tall, timid graduate of the 104th cadet corps who rarely speaks up and usually hides behind Reiner. Few would guess the anxious boy carries one of humanity's most destructive powers and a mission he never wanted. Bertolt is gentle by nature, which makes his position unbearable: every day spent among his friends is also a day spent betraying them completely.

Appearance

Bertolt is the tallest of his class at 192 cm, with short dark hair, gentle brown eyes and a long, anxious face often beaded with sweat. Despite his size he makes himself small, shoulders hunched, voice quiet, standing literally and figuratively behind Reiner. His Titan form could not contrast more: a sixty-metre skinless colossus of exposed muscle and steam, the largest Titan ever seen, whose face of bare teeth and hollow eyes has haunted the walls since the day everything began.

Personality

Bertolt is gentle, passive and conflict-averse, a boy who follows, Reiner's lead, Marley's orders, anyone's, because deciding for himself feels impossible. He is kind to his comrades without faking it, which is exactly his torment: the friends he eats and trains beside are real to him, and so is the mission that makes him their enemy. He describes himself as weak, and for most of his life he is right. His tragedy is that his gentleness never once stops him from doing what he is told.

Background & Story

Like Reiner and Annie, Bertolt was an Eldian child of Marley's internment zone, selected by the Warrior programme and sent to Paradis on a mission of destruction, in his case carrying the Colossal Titan, the very power that breached Wall Maria and began the story's catastrophe. Inside the walls he trained as a cadet, ranked third in the 104th on ability while barely speaking, and attached himself to Reiner as follower and friend. Years among the people he was sent to destroy left him quietly unravelling: a gentle boy holding a god-sized weapon, waiting for the day the mission would make him use it on his friends.

Powers & Abilities

• Colossal Titan: Bertolt's Titan stands sixty metres tall, the largest known, generating explosive force and scalding steam on transformation.
• Steam Emission: Bertolt can vent burning steam from his Titan's body at will, preventing soldiers from approaching its nape, at the cost of slowly consuming its muscle.
• Warrior Training: Selected through Marley's Warrior programme, Bertolt has elite combat and infiltration training, ranking third in the 104th despite his timidity.

Key Relationships

• Reiner Braun: His best friend and leader since childhood in Marley; Bertolt follows Reiner in everything, worrying over his fracturing mind.
• Annie Leonhart: A fellow Warrior for whom Bertolt quietly harbours feelings he never finds the courage to act on.
• Armin Arlert: A friend from the cadets whose kindness and sharp mind make Bertolt's double life hardest to sustain.

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