Everyone loves the Scouts. It makes sense. You’ve got Levi spinning like a beyblade, Erwin screaming about his heart, and the constant adrenaline of being eaten alive by a fifty-foot naked giant. It’s heroic. It's metal. But honestly? If you actually lived inside those walls, you wouldn't want to be a Scout. You’d probably want to be in the Attack on Titan Military Police.
Most fans dismiss the MP Brigade as just a bunch of lazy, corrupt guys drinking expensive wine in the Interior. And yeah, Nile Dok basically admits that’s a huge part of the gig. But if you look closer at how Hajime Isayama built this world, the Military Police Regiment is where the real "human" story of the series happens. It’s where the politics, the class warfare, and the actual rot of the Fritz/Reiss monarchy sit. It isn't just a job; it’s a symptom of a dying civilization.
The Dream of the Interior
Why does anyone join the military in Eldia? To fight? Rarely. For most of the 104th Training Corps, the goal was simple: get into the top ten so you can join the Military Police.
It’s a survival instinct. If you’re in the Garrison, you’re stuck on the walls staring at the horizon, waiting to die. If you’re a Scout, you’re basically a statistic. But the MPs? They live in the Mitras district. They eat meat. They don't see Titans. For a kid coming from a starving village like Sasha or a desperate situation like Connie, that’s the ultimate prize. It’s the "Wall Sheena dream."
But here is the kicker. That dream is a lie.
The moment you get in, you realize the system is designed to break you. Think about Marlo Freudenberg. He went in thinking he could fix the corruption from the inside. He was idealistic, kinda like Eren but with more logic. And what happened? He found out that the corruption isn't a bug; it's the feature. The senior officers steal tax money and sell government supplies on the black market because the government lets them. A fat, happy, corrupt police force is much less likely to start a coup than an honest, disciplined one.
The Burden of the First Interior Squad
We have to talk about Kenny Ackerman. If the standard Military Police are the lazy face of the law, the First Interior Squad is the shadow. They don’t report to Nile Dok. They report directly to the Assembly—and by extension, the true royal family.
These guys are the reason the world stayed stuck in the Middle Ages for a century.
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Whenever someone tried to invent something—like a hot air balloon or a better printing press—the First Interior Squad showed up to "retire" them. It’s brutal. It’s why Paradis had no tech. The Attack on Titan Military Police weren't just keeping the peace; they were actively stifling human evolution to keep the King's secret safe.
Kenny is such a fascinating character because he knows the whole thing is a joke. He’s a serial killer who became a cop. That’s peak irony. He didn't believe in the "order" he was enforcing. He just wanted to see if he could feel the same "peace" the King felt. It adds this layer of nihilism to the MP identity. While the Scouts are dying for the future, the MPs are killing to keep the past alive.
The Gear and the Tactics
You've probably noticed that the MPs use different gear when things get serious. While the Scouts use the standard Vertical Maneuvering Equipment designed for Titan necks, the Anti-Personnel Control Squad uses grappling hooks and dual pistols.
It’s a complete shift in philosophy.
- Scout Gear: Long blades, high mobility in open spaces, gas-intensive.
- Anti-Personnel Gear: Short-range firearms, designed for urban environments, built to kill humans.
This is where the show gets really dark. The government spent more time and money perfecting ways to kill other humans than they did trying to kill Titans. When Kenny's squad fights Levi’s team in the crystal caves, it’s some of the best choreography in the series, but it’s also heartbreaking. It’s Eldian vs. Eldian. The MP's specialized gear proves the monarchy was always more afraid of a revolution than they were of the Colossal Titan.
Is Nile Dok Actually a Bad Guy?
Nile Dok is a character I’ve come to appreciate more on re-watches. He’s the Commander of the Military Police, and at first, he just seems like a foil to Erwin Smith. They were actually friends back in the day. They both liked the same girl (Marie).
Erwin chose the Titans. Nile chose the girl.
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Nile represents the "normal" man. He isn't a visionary. He isn't a devil. He’s a guy with a wife and kids who wants to make sure his family doesn't starve. When he’s ordered to execute the Scouts, he doesn't do it out of malice. He does it because he believes that's how you keep society from collapsing into a civil war.
It’s easy to judge him from our couch, but in a world where humanity is down to its last few miles of territory, "stability" is a powerful drug. His eventual realization that he was on the wrong side—and his quiet dignity when he’s turned into a Titan later—makes him one of the most grounded characters in the whole story.
The Corruption of the Soul
The MPs are a warning. They show what happens when the "best and brightest" are given a life of privilege in exchange for their silence.
Remember Boris Feulner and Hitch Dreyse? They were in Annie Leonhart's unit. They weren't evil. They were just kids who wanted a comfortable life. But being an MP means you have to look the other way when your boss is beating a prisoner or when the rich are stealing food from the refugees.
It creates this culture of apathy. Annie used the MP's laziness as a cover for her missions. She knew nobody would check her papers or wonder where she was going because nobody cared. The Military Police are the reason the Female Titan was able to operate inside the walls for so long. Their incompetence wasn't accidental; it was earned through years of being told that doing nothing was the best way to get promoted.
A Legacy of Failure and Redemption
By the time the Uprising Arc finishes, the Military Police are basically dismantled and reorganized. The old guard is gone. But the damage was done.
The division between the branches—Scouts, Garrison, and MPs—is what almost destroyed Paradis. If they had worked together from the start, if the MPs had used their resources to fund Scout expeditions instead of hunting down inventors, the story might have ended much sooner.
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But then, we wouldn't have a story, would we?
The Attack on Titan Military Police serve as the ultimate mirror to the Scouts. If the Scouts are human potential, the MPs are human frailty. They represent the part of us that wants to be safe, even if it means being stagnant. They want the wine, the wall, and the quiet life.
What You Should Do Next
If you’re doing a deep dive into the lore, don't just focus on the Titan fights. Look at the political shifts in the Uprising Arc.
- Re-watch the Kenny vs. Levi chase in Season 3, Episode 1. Notice how the MPs use the environment of Stohess. It’s a masterclass in urban warfare.
- Read the "Lost Girls" manga or watch the OVA. It follows Annie during her time in the Military Police. It gives a much better look at the day-to-day corruption and the "missing person" cases they usually deal with.
- Pay attention to the background characters in the Mitras scenes. The disparity between the MP uniforms and the clothes of the poor refugees in the underground is the loudest world-building Isayama ever did.
Understanding the Military Police is the only way to truly understand why the revolution was necessary. They weren't the monsters outside the walls, but for many people living inside, they were just as terrifying.
The real tragedy isn't that they were "bad" people. It’s that they were ordinary people who were given every reason to stop caring. And in the world of Attack on Titan, apathy is the quickest way to get someone killed.
Actionable Insight: When analyzing the power dynamics of Paradis, categorize the Military Police not as "soldiers," but as a domestic containment unit. Their primary function was never defense; it was the preservation of a status quo that was fundamentally a lie. To understand the MP is to understand the tragedy of the Walls themselves.