James Tybur

Tybur Family

* + Willy Tybur "(brother, deceased)"
	+ Unnamed Sister-in-Law
	+ Unnamed niece
	+ Fine Tybur "(niece)"
	+ Alois Tybur "(nephew)"
	+ Bruno Tybur "(nephew)"
	+ Rico Tybur "(nephew)"
	+ Lara Tybur "(sister, deceased)"

- SPOILERS AHEAD -

**James Tybur**(ジェームズ・タイバー Jēmuzu taibā) was an Eldian noble living in Marley. He was the eldest son of the Tybur family but he abdicated as head of the family, he was the husband of Alma Engel and father to Marianne and Emmaline Tybur. After his 2nd daughters death he takes his own life to try and escape his own sins.

## Appearance

James Tybur was a man of above-average stature who greatly resembled his daughters, commonly seen wearing a long maroon tailcoat and dress pants paired with a black dress shirt and matching black dress shoes . He had short blond hair, barely reaching his ears. He had a long narrow face, with soft features a delicate jawline, and pale gray eyes.

In Zeke's flashback he is much more disheveled, with longer shoulder length hair and a scraggly beard along with messy wrinkled clothing.

## Personality

As befitted a man of his status, James conducted himself in a very dignified manner, treating others with disdain, as evidenced by how he speaks down on those he sees as below himself. He also showed a cowardly nature, as seen when he refused to become head of the family nor did do anything to stop his wife's abuse of their children. James was also extremely cautious and paranoid after his father was assassinated, refusing to be seen in public without a complete disguise and divorcing his wife Alma for flaunting their daughters to the public.

## History

As a child born into nobility, James Tybur made friends with many other children of noble families, even those from foreign nations such as Hizuru. Some time in his early adulthood, his second daughter, Emmaline, would go on to inherit the power of the War Hammer Titan.

When his younger brother Willy became the head of the family, the previous War Hammer inheritor Lara Tybur shared with them the truths of the Tybur Family and how they dealt with Karl Fritz during the Great Titan War. Shocked by what really happened James's began to double down on his original belief that Eldians should have never existed and need to be destroyed. His mental state started to rapidly decline with the loss of both his children and his wife leading to him taking his own life.

## Story

### An Innocent Plan arc

Emma has once again snuck out of her house just before one of James's dinner parties and when he finds out he is furious. He has the Public Security officers look all throughout Marley for her and tells them to arrest anyone that may get in their way.

Once Emmaline is brought back home he calls her to speak with him in his office. Once she arrives he starts to berate her for running off without telling anyone. Once he finds out she was in Liberio he orders the maids to lock her into her room and to withhold meals for the rest of the day, and only feed her the bare minimum in the following days.

Later on his younger sister, Lara Tybur, comes to speak with him about replacing officers of the Public Security after a few of them attempted to attack Emmaline. After hearing about the incident he begins to rant about how she is proving to be more useless by the day. Going as far as to wish she had died instead of Marianne. He asks Lara what she thinks he should do with her to try and correct her behavior, stating that he is running out of ideas. Lara suggests taking her with him next time he goes on a trade expedition, to try and form a bond with her in hopes it will correct the behavior. James laughs at the suggestion and comments that he would rather die than spend any more time with her than he has too. After Lara leaves he comments that Emmaline is becoming more like her mother by the day.

### Burdens of Inheritance arc

After two years of pretending she doesn't exist, he begins to see promise in Emmaline after she learns how to shoot a gun and shows a natural talent for it. He hires marksmen from all over the world to come and train her until she becomes the best. While watching her training he sees her shoot a coin from the air without looking at it. He joins her outside and praises her talents.

Soon after her training finishes he begins to receive marriage proposals from many nobles who had heard of her beauty from the former tutors, he calls for Emmaline and asks her to look over the proposals and decide if she likes any of them. when she refuses to get married he orchestrates a misunderstanding between her and Zeke to further divide them. Once she is hurt by the fight James reaches out and suggests that an engagement will be the perfect revenge and how he would be so proud of her if she agreed.

The next day she returns the proposals to him with the top three circled for him to pick from. He chooses the Heil family and Emmaline ends up engaged to Lord Karsten Heil, a Marleyan noble. James then signs the proposal and returns it to them signaling the beginning of their engagement. Once finalized he releases the news to the media and it is printed in the news.

### Glass Minds arc

Due to concerns over whether or not Emmaline should marry Lord Heil, the engagement is put on hold. Soon after Lara's health begins to decline rapidly as she enters her final year as the War Hammer Titan. Willy and James Tybur agree it's time for Emmaline to inherit it and James begins the process of taking her to the underground altar to turn her into a titan.

After the transformation is complete James is infuriated as Emmaline becomes an abnormal titan with no desire to eat humans. He tries to order her to eat Lara, to which she rolls over. Eventually he has to call in Willy and they force Emma to eat Lara and inherit the War Hammer Titan, when she turns back into a human James begins to yell at her for being incompetent. Shouting about how her mother is likely rolling in her grave at what Emmaline has become and how Marianne would have never acted like she had been.

Shortly after inheriting the War Hammer Titan, Emmaline dies and leaves the Tybur family without any claim to the Trade company, War Hammer Titan and nobody that has friendly relations with the other nations. Around a year after Emmaline's death James has fallen into such disregard that he has completely neglected his own appearance and status, becoming increasingly paranoid about an assassination attempt. He takes his own life a few weeks later, leaving behind 4 letters to his siblings and daughters explaining his wish to see his daughters again and how he regretted treating everyone the way he did.

## Legacy

### **Clash of the Titans arc**

During the battle at Utgard Castle, after Zeke Yeager discovers Emmaline is still alive, he recounts her father's dying wish to see her and Marianne one final time so he could apologize. Hearing this strips Emmaline of what little sanity she had left and she begins to lash out at everyone around her.

### Marley arc

When Emmaline returns to Marley she is presented with a letter addressed to her from James. It expresses how deeply he regrets the way he treated her and how he feared becoming his own father. He goes on to lament how instead of becoming his father he became something so much worse and it is his fault her and Marianne died.

Emmaline begins to grow angry that he didn't feel the need to tell her this when he was alive, instead only treating her as a stranger. A week after arriving in Marley she goes to visit his grave and spits on while telling his soul to rot in Hell, before leaving with tears in her eyes.

## Relationships

* Alma Engel - James married Alma after a year long engagement period in which he fell in love with her. He was overjoyed when they had their daughters and bragged to anyone who would listen about his perfect family. He was devastated when he found out about Alma's betrayal and shed a tear when she was found guilty of treason and exiled to Paradis Island to become a titan. After her exile he began to resent their daughters and felt no remorse when Marianne died in battle nor when Emmaline died after inheriting the War Hammer Titan.
* Marianne - James was much closer to his elder daughter Marianne than anyone else, he saw her as the perfect golden child and she became a martyr after her death. When she was born he cried for hours in happiness over becoming a father. Then he spent a month treating her as if she was made of porcelain. When she died he had a mental breakdown and began to treat Emmaline even harsher, holding her to standards Marianne had not even reached. He regularly reminded Emmaline that he wished she had died instead of Marianne, showing that he had a very clear favorite. He left a letter for her despite her being dead mentioning how much he missed her and how he cant wait to see he again in the after-life.
* Emmaline - James loved his daughter as he cried tears of happiness when she was born. Spending all of his free time doting on his daughters and wife he absolutely adored his family. But after Alma's betrayal he would begin to see them as tools to achieve his goals to eliminate the Eldians once and for all. His overbearing actions drove Emmaline to fake her own death and escape to Paradis Island with the War Hammer Titan. As he died he wished he could apologize for punishing her for he mothers actions when she did nothing wrong. Emmaline ends up resenting him for how he treated her, leading to her wishing that he's "rotting in Hell". He left her a letter after he died mentioning how much he loved her and that he regretted his harsh treatment of her. He ended his letter mentioning that he can't wait to reunite with her in the afterlife.
* Willy Tybur - Willy was James's little brother. When they were kids James and Willy would make plans to wipe out the Eldians and bring Marley into a new age. As they got older they grew apart until James abdicated the role of Family head to Willy and married Alma Engel against Willy's advice. He began to despise Willy after Alma's trial, believing Willy fabricated the entire affair until Alma confirmed it was true. After which he went and begged for forgiveness from Willy. He loved his brother enough to leave him a letter after his death.
* Lara Tybur - Him and Lara rarely interacted due to a large age gap. but James still loved his little sister and left her a letter alongside Willy.
* Zeke Yeager - He didn't like Zeke Yeager and did not pretend for even half a second otherwise. When he first found out about Zeke dating Emmaline, he threatened to have Zeke and his entire family killed before Emmaline called him out on not having that kind of power.