Erwin Smith held the position of 13th Commander of the Survey Corps. He stood tall with a muscular frame, his blond hair precisely parted to the left and complemented by thick, prominent eyebrows. Calm, striking ice-blue eyes anchored his expression. In missions, he wore the standard military uniform with the Survey Corps' green cape and an emerald bolo tie like his predecessors. His childhood brimmed with intense curiosity about humanity’s missing history before the Walls. His father, a history teacher, privately theorized the king manipulated memories to control the populace. When young Erwin naively shared this theory with classmates, it triggered his father’s arrest, torture, and execution by the Military Police Brigade’s First Interior Squad, masked as an accident. This cemented Erwin’s resolve to validate his father’s ideas. As a cadet, he befriended Nile Dok and openly discussed government deception theories. Post-graduation, Erwin joined the Survey Corps while Nile entered the Military Police. Recognizing his comrades fought for survival over truth, Erwin concealed his personal mission. He ascended to become advisor to Commander Keith Shadis. Leading a squad, Erwin created the Long-Distance Enemy Scouting Formation to reduce casualties. Shadis initially rejected it, but Erwin implemented it within his squad, achieving zero deaths on expeditions—a stark contrast to Shadis’s heavy losses. This success contributed to Shadis resigning and appointing Erwin commander around 845. Erwin recruited Levi Ackerman, an Underground criminal, aware Levi was sent to assassinate him under orders from corrupt official Nicholas Lovof. After Levi’s friends died during the 23rd expedition, Erwin leveraged evidence of Lovof’s corruption to bind Levi’s loyalty to the Survey Corps. At Eren Jaeger’s military tribunal, Erwin advocated transferring the boy to the Survey Corps. When Eren lost control, Erwin exploited Levi’s violent restraint to demonstrate secure custody to Commander-in-Chief Darius Zackly. He proposed using Eren’s Titan powers to retake Wall Maria, demanding Eren’s execution if the mission failed. After Titan researchers Sonny and Bean died, Erwin suspected a Titan-shifting spy infiltrated the corps. He tested members with a deliberately confusing question to observe reactions, though the traitor evaded detection. He then engineered a plan to capture the Female Titan on an expedition. Addressing the 104th Cadet Corps recruitment, Erwin acknowledged the Survey Corps’ brutal mortality rate while framing their missions as humanity’s sole hope for freedom and the secrets in Eren’s basement. His speech swayed top graduates like Armin Arlert to join despite the risks. Erwin’s leadership fused strategic brilliance with personal guilt. He sacrificed soldiers for humanity’s progress yet internally questioned his motives, admitting his core drive was proving his father’s theories over humanitarian ideals. He confessed to Levi that his dream of reaching the basement outweighed humanity’s victory in his heart, but he continued leading deadly expeditions to achieve both objectives. He named Hange Zoë as his successor, doubting his own survival. He later lost his right arm below the shoulder during a mission to rescue Eren from Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover, though this occurred after Part 1’s events.