by
Anything for Your Happiness
A cousin of mine messaged me a while ago asking why I chose yellow flowers for Jean and Mikasa’s wedding bouquet to illustrate my fanfic. The answer to that is pretty straightforward: there was this AoT-themed flower shop event thing in Tokyo and the promo poster had Jean on it holding a sunflower:
I don’t know if there’s any deep meaning or symbolism to the sunflower thing–for all we know they just randomly picked a flower for Jean to hold–but if we look up the language of flowers these sunny golden blooms mean 憧れ (‘akogare’ or aspiration, longing, yearning) as well as 愛慕 (‘aibo’ or adoration, affection). After Chapter 127 we all know who Jean’s been yearning for. Of course, the so-called ‘language of flowers’ vary from culture to culture, so there are sure to be other meanings out there.
All of which bring us to today’s blog topic.
I just finished publishing the final chapter of the story A Decade in the Making here on the blog and over at Archive of Our Own. It’s a love story, a jeankasa ship. Yeah, another extremely unpopular ship, but then so is my other ship: jeanere/erejean. The other pairing I love, eruri, is so popular already I don’t think my contribution in that genre would make a difference. On the other hand, there is a dearth of jeankasa/jeanmika fanfic out there so I decided to contribute this story of mine. I divided it into eight short chapters and the full piece is now ready to entertain you. [Update February 2021: The story has grown into a fifty-chapter novela!]
Jean is AoT’s Most Compelling Character
People sometimes wonder why I really dig Jean and my answer is quite simple: Jean is the most human among the characters and thus the most relatable. For me, that is. Everyone else in the cast is a manga character to a T. Jean, meanwhile, is like a real human being, an Earthling transported into the AoT universe who is just doing his darn best to keep up and figure what the fuck is going on. His reactions to events, his flickering emotions, his strengths and his many weaknesses are so startlingly real they always hit a nerve.
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Jean Kirschtein in the manga is such a compelling character because he is portrayed as a deeply flawed human being and yet an intelligent, lovable, accessible, empathetic person. One of the great pleasures of reading AoT through the years has been watching Jean grow from insufferable boy to dependable leader of men. The way he makes mistakes and then makes excuses for them and then genuinely feels sorry for them, the way the ghosts of his past haunt him, the way he clings to hopeless causes, the way his allegiances swing from one end to the other…I see all this and go, “Omg! I’d have done the same thing, felt the same way!” Even in the early chapters of the manga when Jean was being an obnoxious jerk I felt that he was the character I could relate to the most.
A friend and I were discussing the latest manga chapter (#127) the other day and she remarked how tragic it was for Jean to be still in love with Mikasa after all these years.
Yes, it is indeed incredibly sad, because in canon Mikasa couldn’t care less about Jean, would hardly even glance at him. We all know that Mikasa has only one person on her mind and in her heart: Eren. He is her reason for living, her beginning and end; she seems completely incapable of romantically loving anyone other than Eren. Even if Eren dies, in Mikasa’s mind she was and will always be his wife forever and a day. She is Eren’s girl and Eren’s alone, until the end of time. No ifs or buts. And this is what makes Jean’s unrequited love for her so utterly tragic: he simply doesn’t stand a chance.
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Jean Deserves Happiness
As my favorite character in the manga I believe Jean deserves all the happiness in the world. One of the reasons I’m eager to ship him with anyone (Eren, Armin, even Marco who is long dead) other than Mikasa is that these other people have shown how much they care about Jean. They looked him in the eye, talked to him, fought with him, encouraged him, lifted him up, listened to what he had to say, debated with him, trusted him…just all around paid him the attention he deserved. In other words, they fully appreciated him.
Canon Mikasa has done none of these. And I don’t blame her. In Isayama’s universe her character is basically written as Eren’s appendage. She is the barnacle to Eren’s whale.
I know my jeankasa love story is a long reach. It brings me back to the time I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time. Eowyn appears and she is so badass I found myself shipping her with Aragorn, leader of the badass band, wishing they’d end up together even if I knew in my gut that it’s Arwen he ends up with. It wouldn’t have annoyed me so much if this Arwen was the warrior princess portrayed in the movies, but alas! In the books the only thing I remember her doing was sewing a banner. I think I wrote an Eowyn-Aragorn fanfic then, though I hardly remember as it was many years ago. So this is really what I do: ship the hopeless xD
I’m quite certain that like Erwin and Marco, canon Jean will die a horrific death. I think all that Mikasa-fantasizing he’d done in Chapter 127 is to set him up for a gruesome, heartbreaking end, something that goes like this: Eren refuses to talk, the other titan shifters try to kill him, Mikasa protects Eren with her life but due to her impulsiveness and lack of self-control she is about to die. Jean gives up his life protecting her. He’s saved her life once before and he’ll do it again, unflinchingly, without hesitation.
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What an absolutely shitty ending that would be. I hope against hope that Isayama comes up with something far better than this, proving my pessimistic ass wrong.
Erwin was the sacrifice Levi made on the altar of Eren’s (then) happiness. He may be dead in canon, but he continues to live forever in our hearts. The great commander lives a happy life with Levi in the bazillions of eruri AU fanfics out there. That’s what I wanted to do for Jean: let him live a happy life in an AU.
Mikasa Grows Up
To make my story work, Mikasa outgrows her Eren obsession and begins to move forward on her own. In my fantasy Paradis, she is feisty but sweet and kind and learns to love Jean. She cares about him, is sensitive to his feelings. In this story they fall in love, and unlike in canon, Jean is given a fairy tale ending: he actually gets to live his dream.
This is my attempt to have Jean live forever in our hearts, with the girl he loves, with the happiness he so very much deserves. If it’s Mikasa he wants then poof! I’m the genie who makes it happen. Anything for his happiness. In this story Mikasa decides to open up her heart, and she is happy, too. Yeah, yeah, canon-wise it’s far fetched, sure, but that’s precisely why it’s called fanfiction.
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I hope you Jean stans like it. They don’t get to hear the wedding bells immediately; I’ve thrown obstacles along the way but like any sappy romance they overcome them and live happily ever after. For the precious few jeankasa shippers as well as the rare and wonderfully open-minded “I truly love Jean I’ll ship him with anyone as long as he is happy” crew out there.
[Update February 2021] Read my jeankasa novela here, there’s nearly 50 chapters of it now!
- Part I : A Decade in the Making
- Part II : Between a Rock and a Hard Place
- Part III : A Night to Remember
- Part IV : Bladesmiths and Librarians
- Part V: The Stowaway
So Grateful
I really can’t thank enough the people at AO3 for reading and commenting on the story.
Your kind words about the story and praise for my writing not just made my day, but also gave me the encouragement to publish even when there are so few readers to begin with. It’s discouraging for a writer to find that nobody reads their stuff or cares about their favorite characters/ships. Your taking the time to read and comment–and with such generosity of heart–has really lifted my spirits. I am truly grateful! xoxo
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.
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First of all, Thank you for your blog and overall contribution !! I really enjoy reading your stories 🙂 Jean really is my favorite character and I’m still hoping for JeanKasa to happen. He deserves happiness !
I’ll take the opportunity here to write my theory : Remember chap. 15 when Jean wiped his hand on Conny’s back (after seeing Mikasa for the first time) saying « he’d lost his faith in humanity » ? Considering the possibility for Conny to die, I think it would give an opportunity for Jean to get closer to Mikasa. I still believe Eren is meant to die and remembered by his friends after his death as Humanity’s best peace contribution (as in chap.7 when Mikasa faces a titan after learning about Eren’s death and says « if I die now I won’t be able to remember you »). As for me, Eren is just part of Mikasa’s family – nothing more – she just has to realize that. Besides, a lot has happened since Eren’s departure that we don’t know about. So, I’ve not given up on JeanKasa yet 😉
Your ending theory is still consistent with Jean’s character. I really hope he won’t die !
Anyways, keep up with your great work and thanks again ! (sorry for my English)
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my stories and share your thoughts! Only one or two people ever comment on my blog so it really makes me happy when I get readers who take the time to comment.
I’m really glad to hear Jean is your favorite character! He deserves all the love and adoration in the world but unfortunately, his fan base is still very small compared to the more popular characters. It’s always a treat to find a fellow fan. We are the few, the special, the unique, the dedicated! 😀
Thank you for sharing your theories. My hope is that Isayama isn’t showing us jeankasa scenes in canon to keep us guessing about the state of their relationship, but in reality the two have actually been speaking to each other and all that xD I really hope we get even just a little bit of jeankasa in flashback, in those blank years when the Marley arc was being published. As you say, we don’t know what happened in those three years between ages 16 (after the railroad sunset scene) and 19 (before the Liberio attack). Like you, I like to believe that a lot has happened!
I totally agree with you about Eren dying. Eren has so many fans who don’t want him to die and/or believe he is doing the right thing in destroying the rest of the world. But I don’t want Eren to end as the destroyer of worlds. I’d rather he sacrifice his life, remove the power of titanization, and have Armin figure out what to do afterwards. Like you, I want Eren to be remembered as someone who brought peace, not only to Paradis but to the whole world. Other fans keep on pointing out that Eren dying in order to save the world is too much of a Code Geass ending. For me, I don’t care if the ending is similar to Code Geass. I just don’t want Eren destroying the world he wanted so much to explore as a child. I want him to die a hero, not just a hero for Paradis, but a hero for the entire world.
Thank you for not giving up on jeankasa! After the “What am I to you?” question from Eren, and Mikasa’s inability to answer honestly, I simply gave up on a non-eremika ending for the manga. It seems Isayama added that chapter so as to weaken the chances of eremika, only to make it the final happy pairing at the very end of the story, like a typical shonen manga.
I’m being paranoid when I say this but I think Isayama will give in to the pressure from fans to end the story with an eremika ending. He wants to create a Hollywood blockbuster film and in order to attain this goal, he will give the fans the happy ending that they demand. It will be bittersweet because the other characters will die, but eremika will live happily ever after. That will make the majority of fans happy, resulting in a Hollywood hit movie. Needless to say, I don’t want this type of ending to happen! It will make the story cheap and Disney princess-like, instead of a serious, dark fantasy tale.
To tell you the truth, I’ve given up on trying to predict the ending of the manga. Isayama can do what he wants because it’s his manga, and I can’t do anything about it. The only thing I can do is to keep on writing stories where Jean gets what he wants! He’s such an amazing, interesting character so even if he dies in canon, I hope I can find the strength to keep him alive in my fanfic 🙂
Your English is fantastic! Please don’t apologize because there’s absolutely no need–your points are clear as day and I completely understand what you’re saying.
Thank you so much once again for taking the time to comment and share your thoughts <3 Next week I'll publish a story with Levi, Hange, erehisu, jeankasa and some original characters. Please stay tuned!
jeankasa has got to be the most underrated ship i hope isayama surprises everyone by making it come true in canon it would be the bombshell of the century
Ahaha! That’d be really fun, though as unlikely as us feeding all the poor and hungry and giving free and quality education to every child in all corners of Planet Earth. Something as surprising as a jeankasa ending will, indeed, be the ultimate thunderbolt in the shonen manga world. Imagine all them rabid eremika shippers shitting on the manga in anger! I’d love that, personally! 😀
I think we’re heading for the ‘everyone is dead’ kind of ending, however. What do you think?
I really like your way of writing. Please continue these fanfictions
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! Your words are so encouraging. Yes, I’ll continue with the fanfic (as long as Jean is alive in canon. If he dies I think I’ll die right there with him LOL)