The field of battle

The first season of Attack on Titan (AoT) introduced us to humanity’s gruesome struggle against what seemed to be a never-ending onslaught of humanoid monsters dubbed – titans. These titans served as the central antagonist in the first couple seasons as they senselessly killed civilians and posed as the central national security risk to the Eldian Empire as they continued to destroy the walls guarding civilization.

As posed, this struggle seems to be man against nature, not a situation where laws of armed conflict come into play. However, this dynamic changes with two massive revelations. First, not all titans are the same. Second and most importantly, at the end of AoT’s third season we learn that most titans are not natural. Certain titans are manufactured by the Marleyan Empire and have been used as weapons against Paradis Island and other states.

Not all weapons are allowed

 Just because we may be in an armed conflict does not give a state or an armed group the green light to use any weapon or stratagem to beat their opponent. States have to go through a strict process when developing weapons to ensure they are capable of being deployed into the conflict. Additionally, when creating or testing these weapons a state cannot subject POWs or civilians to testing. Failure to avoid any of these things results in an international law violation.

Before a new weapon or strategy can be used on the field of battle, a commander needs to ensure a few things. First, the commander needs to see that the weapon will not cause superfluous injury. Second, the commander needs to ensure that it won’t cause unnecessary suffering. And lastly, tying into the principle of distinction, is that there is a way for the weapon to be used discriminately to prevent adverse effects to civilians and other protected people. Basically, is there a human element that can help control the weapon’s targeting and prevent it from hurting protected classes.

Even if these questions are satisfied this is only half of the considerations. Commanders need to see that the weapon will not be used on protected classes e.g. POWs or civilians. In times of armed conflict, both POWs and civilians are meant to be protected. The list of protections are laid in the Third Geneva Convention for POWs and the Fourth Geneva Convention for civilians. These protections are broad but running through each of the four conventions is Common Article 3 (CA3). CA3 endeavors to broadly protect those from a long list atrocities that might occur once captured. For our interests, a few protections from CA3 stick out. First, Section A of CA3 prohibits “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.” Second, Section C prohibits “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.” Lastly, Section D prohibits “the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.” All of these prohibitions are violated by Marley in their quest for dominance via the titans.

Not all titans are the same

 Throughout AoT we are shown that there are two distinct groups of titans: those that are manufactured and those that are controlled by individuals. Marley uses both groups of titans to expand their territorial holdings and to exert geopolitical strength against prospective challengers. Marley’s creation and use of manufactured titans establishes them as IHL violators. How so? Well…

Type 1: Manufactured Titans

The manufactured titans, like those in the below picture, do not come from a laboratory. Instead, they are created from POWs of foreign countries that Marley has conquered. This extends too to the Eldians that live within relegated zones under Marley’s control and captured members of Eldia’s military. Marley uses spinal fluid from the Beast Titan to cause the transformation and then deploys the POWs and Eldians against their own people. The simple creation of these titans violates CA3 of the Geneva Conventions because they are used for experiments and torture and the transformation ultimately mutilates their body. Further, this transformation is seen as a form of execution because their life ends and no legal system intervenes – Marley’s government is complicit in these actions. Marley knows that these titans cannot discern who is a civilian and who is not, and they continue to consciously deploy them to subjugate the people of Paradis Island into a state of being a non-threat. Because these titans can’t discern and because they cause unnecessary suffering harm with their actions they fail the remaining portion of the considerations.

Type 2: Shifting Titans

Marley has not violated international law through its use of the “shifting” titans. The titans that are manufactured far outnumber the titans that can shift because the shifters are passed from one individual to the next through a gruesome process. These shifting titans each have an individualized, special ability that sets them apart from the common ones. This includes titans such as the: Founding Titan, the Warhammer Titan, the Cart Titan, the Beast Titan, and the Attack Titan pictured to the right.

Further, these titans are controlled by the wielders personally and adopt the same intelligence and knowledge of their wielder. The wielder at any time can activate the transformation into the titan and can back out of the transformation. These titans can discern who are targets and who are not and have a record of not blatantly going after civilians. Lastly, Marley controls who passes the titans too and it keeps them within their military ranks. Typically, they do not allow POWs or civilians from Eldia to acquire these titans but have allowed some once they have proven their loyalty to Marley. Thus, there are no violations of the Geneva Conventions in this process.

Conclusion

 In an armed conflict, it is obvious that neither side wants to drag the conflict out longer than is necessary because that adds to the harm each party has to bear. Quickening the conflict can be done by the introduction of new weapons or stratagems. But, quickening is done improperly if it violates general principles of IHL or if the weapons are used on protected classes.

Marley’s wars were fought quickly and effectively. But, those military victories were fueled by the expending of many POWs and civilians in ways that should never have happened. The creation and continued use of manufactured titans against Paradis Island and the world extended the long record of IHL and international law violations that Marley must account for. While horrific, Marley did not violate IHL nor international law through its “shifting” titans because of their origins and ability to discriminate in conflict.