by
Just when we thought all you’re meant to do
was play foil to the protagonist
Eren the hot-headed hero while you
the stereotypical jerk, cowardly antagonist
And then suddenly you grew, group leader,
no longer the obnoxious bastard
Now you are a skilled commanding officer,
the leadership role you’ve mastered
Kirschtein is your name, standing up for Eren
has become your game
In a world where hatred reigns supreme,
you keep from becoming insane
Reiner you punched, never forgive nor forget,
yet somehow you understand
Saddled in guilt and shame he bends,
still you decide to lend a helping hand
Cherishing memories of friends long gone,
you struggle with sweet temptation
How far you’ve come, turning your back
on the quick n’ easy road to liberation
This is you, full of dreams, hopeless fantasies,
tender, yet so utterly heartbreaking
Extremely relatable, so fully human
in your thoughts and decision-making
Inglorious, deeply flawed, perfectly imperfect;
in you we find character justice
Nowhere else do we find such development;
indeed you are Isayama’s masterpiece
Many happy returns of the day to our favorite character in the Attack on Titan manga: Jean Kirschtein. Placing 6th at the military academy behind four titan shifters and one superhuman, he’s literally the smartest and strongest ordinary human being of his generation. (Yeah, sure there were the northern, western and eastern academy branches. But the southern branch rulez!)
I’ve yakked on about Jean enough, enumerating the countless reasons why I love his character (see my review of Chapter 127, the best Jean-centric chapter in history, and my manga meta about shipping Jean).
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Now I’ve tried my hand at free verse poetry and it’s as shitty as I thought it would be. Sorry, Jean!
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I’m not sorry about falling in love with the Attack on Titan universe, though. No other manga has inspired me to write this much and feel this much. Especially about Jean. We watch him grow from cocky youngster to a bastion of leadership, a wellspring of reason. Oh baby, look how far you’ve come! It’s been a wild ride and a very satisfying, rewarding one in terms of character development.
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Thank you, Isayama-sensei, for the masterpiece that is Jean Kirschtein.
Thank you so much for reading! Please consider sharing a thought or two in the comment section below. Your comments give me life and are a real source of encouragement. xoxo, hana
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love this it’s so sweet <3 jean’s lucky to have a fan like you methinks many happy returns of the day to best boi
Thanks! I’m lucky to be alive at a time when AoT is being published! Methinks we’re all lucky to have a character like Jean to love 🙂
my fave parts are the temptation- liberation and justice – masterpiece lines you’re a poetess yo me! <3
Thank you so much! I also think those are the least bad lines xD I’ve written a bunch of sonnets for Erwin, the ones he’s written for Levi. Writing a sonnet is far more difficult than free verse…I’m kinda afraid to publish them but in the upcoming story they’re sort of needed, so publish them I shall. Can’t wait to have you read them, just to torture you! 😉
publish them sonnets or i stop commenting! i demand sonnets by erwin smith to levi ackermann! i DESERVE them sonnets!
Thanks! I just published the first chapter of “Bladesmiths and Librarians.” There’ll be plenty of eruri here, with the sonnets, of course! I miss Levi so much as he’s been out of action for a really long time in canon.