



The idea of God has connotations with goodness. When Rod states that the First King is God, can we interpret him as a benevolent being? The answer is likely no, we cannot. The implications behind the First King through various scenes in the manga paints a sinister image and implies rather troubling things about humanity as a whole.

In chapter 49, Bertolt refers to humanity as “children of the devil” in the official English translation. The language in the Japanese raws is a little more specific. Bertolt calls humanity “悪魔の末裔” which translated means descendants of the devil.



The logic goes if humanity is the descents of the devil, children of the devil, who is the devil himself? Who do the wall people and their society descend from?



The First King.

In chapter 66, we see Freida being possessed by the First King and she uses the very specific word sinners to speak about humanity.

What posses Freida to act that way? Historia going over fence, which can be seen as a metaphor for humanity going over the wall, for humanity going outside. Historia or better yet humanity going over the wall is against the wishes of the First King and he reacts accordingly or rather Freida ,against her will acts accordingly.

Knowing this and how humanity is repressed, let’s go back to Bertolt’s, who is an outsider, reference to children of the devil and apply that to humanity. The phrase children of the devil has its own specific connotations in Judeo Christian society:

Children of the Devil



—John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

This sounds quite a bit like what the First King has established in his walled society. He has build up a society build on lies and prevents the real truth about the walls and humanity from being revealed.

Humanity is the children of the First King in that they are descendants from the first people of his society and humanity carries out the First King’s ideology either inadvertently like the wall people do in just carrying out their lives and remaining compliant or directly like the Reiss and the wall cult, who quite incidentally worship the First King and his will.

This lends the question of if the First King is sinister in his intent and outsiders find him to be a devil of sorts, what else has he done to humanity, or even the world as a whole? And what has humanity done to be considered sinners or to be related closely to a devil by someone from outside the walls?