The Female Titan in the Attack on Titan universe is a force to be reckoned with. She is strong, fast, and agile. Most recently in the Attack on Titan anime, Annie Leonhart, the current wielder of this titan, has quite literally broken out of her (crystal) shell and has yet to use her Female Titan in combat after being forced into a state of years-long stasis.
As the name suggests, the Female Titan is distinguishably female. Even the past versions of this titan appear to have feminine features. However, what were to happen if a male titan inherited her powers?
What are Titans?
Descendants of Eldia are known to possess the ability to turn into titans, giant monsters whose only aim is to eat humans. There are, however, nine unique titans who seemingly possess intelligence and distinct abilities - meaning that a human can transform into these titans at will and control the titan body in any way they please akin to a man in a mascot costume. An Eldian can inherit these titans by consuming the titan-changing human that possesses the ability to transform into one of these titans.
Who is the Female Titan?
One of these special titans is the Female Titan, a slender athletic titan with feminine features. She is currently in the possession of Annie Leonhart, a Warrior from Marley who was sent to Paradis Island with fellow Warriors Reiner Braun, Bertholdt Hoover and Marcel Galliard to locate the Founding Titan. Fans first see the Female Titan in action when Annie used her Female Titan form to locate Eren in season one of Attack on Titan. Her abilities include adaptability, high speed, localized hardening of the skin and the power to summon pure titans within a short-range. Even though Annie is female, the anime does not specify the possibility and consequences of a male Eldian pure titan consuming the Female Titan.
Can a Male Inherit the Female Titan?
Unfortunately, neither the manga nor anime answer this question. In fact, it's been a topic of debate amongst fans. Thorough discussions can be found on sites such as Quora and Reddit on the matter. It is worth diving into the rules and logic of titans in general to ascertain if a male inheriting the Female Titan is indeed a possibility.
All Eldians are capable of becoming titans, regardless of their sex. Hypothetically, it seems nonsensical for a pure titan who is male to avoid eating Annie simply because she is the Female Titan. How would a mindless hungry titan know she is the female titan? All the pure titans have one mindset, which is to eat humans. It seems improbable that they would possess more intelligence to know that they would eat someone that may give them a feminine titan.
Unlike the other nine special titans, the Female Titan is not named for a specific ability or skill. For example, the Jaw Titan is named after its ability to crush anything with its sharp teeth. The Female Titan is a strong titan, but it is not named after any unique skills. It only displays feminine features when in control by a female. This differs from Ymir and Pieck's respective Jaw and Cart Titans who do not exhibit any feminine features in their titan forms. By a female controlling the Female Titan, it is possible that the reason for calling it the Female Titan is simply because it looks female. However, the anime confuses this explanation in season 4. In season 1, the Paradisians called this titan the Female Titan because they have never seen this kind of monster before, and it looked female. This is a logical explanation to why they call her this name, but confusingly in season 4 the Marleyans also call it the Female Titan. While the manga does not explain this, it may be interpreted as a hole in the script.
Another theory stems from the first Founding Titan Ymir Fritz's history. It must be noted that she created the nine special titans. Not only that, but it is revealed that every time a titan is created, Ymir Fritz molds them by hand in the sand of the Coordinate plane she is in. It seems improbable that these titan forms will change. It is known that the titan forms do not change regardless of who possesses the titan in question. Through this knowledge, it can be a plausible theory that even if a man inherits the Female Titan, the form will not change. This means that his titan form will still retain the Female Titan's typical feminine features such as breasts and slight figure.
The Female Titan has to exist. Say a man consumes Annie's spine, it does not make sense for suddenly this special titan to be extinct because a male ate her. Some fans call this form the Crystal Titan, because of her ability to harden specific points on her body with crystal and the fact that she was able to encase herself in a crystal in season 1. This indicates that perhaps the point of this titan was not to be inherently female, but has abilities centered on crystallization. Therefore, if a man were to eat the human wielding this titan, he would possibly retain his masculine features, but his defining characteristic would be to crystallize. Consequently, this means that the name Female Titan is not apt for this titan form.