Characters
Tom Xaver in Attack on Titan
The Eldian researcher who held the Beast Titan before Zeke, and the man who taught him to throw.
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Complete record: Tom Xaver
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Profile
The Eldian researcher who held the Beast Titan before Zeke did, and the only adult in Marley who ever treated him as a child rather than as a candidate. He studied Titans because they were the one thing in the world he found interesting, and he became one because he wanted to die slowly.
The Armband He Hid
He fell in love with a Marleyan woman, which in Marley is not allowed, so he took the armband off every time he went to see her. They married and had a son. Years later she found out what her husband was, killed their child and then herself out of shame, and he came home to both of them. He joined the Warriors afterwards as a way of ending himself on a schedule.
Playing Catch in the Alley
Riding out to the training ground with Magath, he asked about the boy trailing at the back of the run and was told the name and the low opinion that came with it. He did not share the opinion. He called Zeke over one day to throw a ball with him, told him his arm was good, and kept coming back to that alley for years.
He Told the Boy to Turn His Parents In
He found Zeke crying in their alley and learned whose son he was. Public Security was closing on the leaders of the movement; the advice he gave was the only one that kept the boy alive — hand them in first, and prove where you stand. He stood beside Zeke and his grandparents while Grisha and Dina were taken away, and comforted him afterwards.
The Founder Can Rewrite a Body
His research turned up something Marley never got told: the Founding Titan does not only edit memory, it can alter the bodies of every Subject of Ymir at once. Zeke saw the end of the sentence immediately — sterilise the Eldians and the whole problem dies out in a century without a single killing — and Xaver, who wished aloud he had never been born into this world, agreed with him.
The Key He Kept From Marley
Near the end of his thirteen years he told Zeke the one finding he never wrote up: Karl Fritz's vow renouncing war can be broken, but only if royal blood and the holder of the Founder act together. Then he asked the boy for something — find an heir who will understand, and agree.
Chained to the Altar
In 842 he was chained to an underground altar and fed to Zeke's mindless Titan, which is how the Beast Titan changes hands. Thirteen years of Titan research, he said at the end, and a boy to play catch with, and it had been fun; he had been looking for his dead son in him the whole time. Zeke keeps Xaver's glasses after inheriting the Beast Titan.
One Last Throw
At the end of the world every holder the Nine ever had is raised again to defend the Founder. Zeke wakes a handful of them anyway and asks them to come over to his side — telling Xaver that the euthanasia was right, and that the games of catch were what made his life worth having. Xaver's Titan turns and helps clear the way to Eren's nape.
Titan identity
Beast Titan
Final fate
All linked characters
- Theo Magath — Rode out to the training ground with him and told him the boy was hopeless
- Zeke — Taught him to throw, handed him the plan, and let him inherit the Titan
- Beast Titan — Held it for thirteen years and barely used it
- Grisha Yeager — Never met him; told his son to hand him over to Public Security
