Hange Zoe

Hange Zoe is a character from the Attack on Titans anime and manga.

Hange is the 14th and current commander (Danchō) of the Survey Corps, named so by Erwin Smith before his death. She is also a former squad leader (Bun-taichō) who was in charge of the Fourth Squad, having the duties of innovative inventingand conducting research on Titans, including Eren Yeagerwho has the ability to transform into a Titan. Since her promotion to commander, Hange also is in charge of expedition planning, management of the regiment, recruiting, and all the other responsibilities previously handled by Erwin.

Appearance
Hange has wide, light brown eyes and shoulder length dark brown hair that she often keeps tied up in an unkempt high ponytail with bangs parted down the middle. When Hange was caught in an explosion caused by Bertolt Hoover transforming, her left eye was badly injured. This has led her to wear a small black eye patch over it. As a constantly busy person, her hair is thrown up very quickly and is usually oily and unclean. Along with her eye patch, Hange wears square, thick-rimmed glasses that have bands strapped around her head to keep them from dislodging during combat. However, when she is out of combat she wears thin oval-shaped glasses, still keeping the bands on her head most of the time. She is occasionally shown pulling her glasses up onto her forehead from time to time, often to indicate seriousness or anger. Hange is often seen wearing the normal Survey Corps uniform with a white button-up shirt underneath. When on missions or business, she wears the traditional green Survey Corps cloak and in addition to this uniform, Hange now wears a bolo-tie at all times as the other military commanders do. When out of uniform, Hange usually wears a white button-up shirt with black pants, and occasionally sporting a black coat. If Hange is in a hurry, she will only wear her Survey Corps jacket; even if it is over her sleepwear.

Personality
To most people, Hange appears to be an energetic, freethinking researcher with a very unique way of conducting herself and her work through her rather observant and objective character. She explained that she first had a very resentful heart and insecure character when she joined the Survey Corps, but when she kicked the head of a 3 meter Titan she was shocked and amazed at how abnormally light it was. This drove her to forget most of her resentment and insecurity, as well as taking an outside the box approach to Titan research and showcased her wild actions. Hange also shows great compassion for her Titan test subjects, even crying when she was forced to put Bean in severe pain for an experiment, and having a complete meltdown when they were killed.

As the threat of the enemy becomes much more severe, Hange less frequently shows her lighthearted nature, often becoming blunt and serious. However, Hange still displays great empathy towards others in general, as well as high sympathy for the dead and the suffering. The last was seen when she attempted to console Mikasa Ackerman by explaining her agony over the constant loss of her comrades, all while hugging her in sorrow. Despite being a brave soldier, Hange confides in Moblit Berner that she feels terror in all of the Titan things that are unknown to her, but her curiosity about them and concern towards her dear ones appear to be greater. As her responsibilities continue to grow with her position as Commander, Hange more frequently shows signs of severe anger, stress, and exhaustion.

Hange is a genius, using her brain to create weapons, tactical plans, and inventions for the benefit of humanity. As a leader, Hange is thoughtful of her comrades, and can easily figure out complex problems in order to create plans for her teammates to carry out. On a less cheerful note, she can use this genius anyway she can, being able to easily manipulating people to do what she wants in order to benefit humanity.

However, Hange's energetic attitude is only half of her personality, alongside a darker attitude normally kept under her usual self. She shows a psychotic side when giving a demented smile to Djel Sannes, telling him of the horrible pain she was going to cause him for what he did to her friend, Minister Nick. Furthermore, Hange even smiled and entirely sarcastically joked with Sannes during his torture under her and Levi Ackerman's hands. Probably the strongest emotion Hange expresses is anger, as she is often seen flipping from calm and collected to rage-filled and threatening. However, this extreme change in personality is usually brief as she quickly calms down herself, and is only seen in highly urgent situations.

Intelligence
Hange's abilities as a soldier are an extremely valuable asset to humanity. Her different approach to Titans has yielded an impressive amount of information and research. Her capabilities are noticed by her teammates, especially her superior Erwin Smith who named her his successor. Her persistence and drive for knowledge often aides her in acquiring information. She will spend hours studying Titan subjects and Eren Yeager when he is transformed. Thanks to information left behind by Ilse Langnar, she was able to get authorization to resume Titan capture operations in the Survey Corps despite being turned down several times. This information has aided Hange in a great deal of her work with the Titans. However, she is often reckless when working around Titans and because of this she often endangers herself and sometimes others. Hange demonstrates and impressive resolve when put under great pressure, as she able to use her intelligence and wits paired with any means necessary to devise cunning plans and inventions. She also can lead people who oppose humanity to do what she needs them to do, such as Minister Nick, Djel Sannes, Flegel Reeves, Roy and Peaure of Berg Newspapers, and even Erwin and Levi. Despite being a quick thinker, Hange is known to show great anger from time to time and little remorse when faced with people who have the means to help humanity but do not.

Vertical Maneuvering Equipment
Hange's intelligence and wits are not her only valuable features. She displays superior skills when operating her vertical maneuvering equipment. Due to her passion for Titans, she is constantly very close to them and because of this, has developed an impressive reaction time that helps her to always slip through their fingers. Her many years in the Survey Corps have helped her to master the equipment and she is easily able to take down Titans with her blades.

Trivia

 * The manga's author, Hajime Isayama, has left Hange's gender open to interpretation as he told his editor that 'either one is fine' and instructed Kodansha Comics not to confirm any gender in their translation. Since then, Kodansha has removed gendered pronouns for Hange in their translation and clarified that indeed, Hange's gender is up to the reader's interpretation. The anime and the live-action movie, on the other hand, have consistently depicted Hange as female.
 * Hange believes she gets along with Levi best among the Survey Corps soldiers.
 * In Levi, Erwin, and Hange's character interview, it was said that Levi forcefully bathes Hange by knocking her unconscious.