What’s a fitting tribute to one of the best characters in the Attack on Titan manga?
That’s the question I’ve been dealing with since Chapter 132 dropped. Hange Zoe had been a favourite character of mine from early on. I think it’s obvious because they’re always featured in my fanfic stories. Needless to say, I was gutted by their death in canon.
One thing I’ve been considering was a ‘Lament for Hange’ type of song, inspired by JRR Tolkien’s ‘Lament for Boromir’ in the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers book. In the film, this part had been cut woefully short, but in the novel Aragorn and Legolas sing this gorgeous piece of poetry. If only I could write something similar for Hange! Unfortunately, either my skills as a poet were entirely lacking, or I was too in over my head with grief to muster anything of poetic substance. Whatever the reason, that ‘Lament for Hange’ song did not materialise.
Next, I considered making a straightforward ‘Top Ten Favourite Hange Moments’ type of article, which would be fairly easy to write as all I need to do was go over the manga and pick out the best Hange scenes. But then that was just too easy. I felt Hange deserved something that required more effort than a simple list.
So there I was, ruminating. One day on my way home from work, I was half-asleep on the train when I spotted this young woman. From her outfit she seemed to be a typical office worker. She was reading a tankobon, a Japanese paperback novel. I couldn’t see the title because it had a book cover on. But what caught my eye was a Hange Zoe tin keychain hanging from the strap of her shoulder bag.
How rare, I thought. Eren and Levi are the most popular characters from the manga as far as I know, so finding some other character was a pleasant surprise. She must be a real fan, I mused. I mean, me, I’m also an AoT aficionado: I own the paperback volumes plus a bunch of anime DVDs. I also buy official merchandise when they’re the practical variety, that is, something edible. To my shame I’ve even purchased a whole bunch of character figures back when I was a teenager; they now lie inside a box at home. So yeah, I’m a fan, but what I don’t do is carry merch around with me. That’s like, quite the hot-blooded devotee. Nuh-uh, not my style.
Having said all that, I couldn’t get the Hange keychain and the girl who had it out of my mind (yeah, she was pretty, too, so there’s that). This is it, I thought: the inspiration I need. So I wrote an entire fictional backstory about her. It’s a tribute to Hange Zoe, as well as an ode to the powers of imagination and serendipity.
Hope you enjoy!
List of Chapters
