my close and personal friend jean kirschstein
jean kirschstein is one of my favorite characters ever written and i love his character development throughout the show and seeing how he struggles between selfish desires but the need to do the right thing.
the way in which he is introduced as this cocky and annoying guy who wants to join the mps so he can have his own private and easy life. in those first few moments his character differs greatly from eren's who is all into fighting the titans for the good of humanity. he makes jean seem super selfish and like all of jean's goals are for himself neglecting the fact that they are all cattle in a pen yadayadayada. at the moment tho jean does seem like one of the more real and rational characters because i know i'd be the same way and terrified.
trost shows how he really thinks tho and with a few encouraging words from marco we see jean choosing the more heroic route with the scouts and abandoning his dream after actually witnessing the horrors of their reality and their fight against the titans. in the moment in front of the bonfire he's in shambles like that guy is TERRIFIED and knows so closely what comes with being apart of the scouts but he chooses it anyways because he knows it's the right thing to do. i think that like here is really where you start seeing him push away his own desires for others and it demonstrates his actual character that the cocky guy from before is really just a front because on the inside he's terrified but cannot bring himself to let others suffer for him to reach his own desires.
the scene in season 4 where he's covering his ears trying to ignore the fact that people are dying and knowing that eren needs to be stopped but the yeagerists are giving him the opportunity to obtain his dream of a quiet life with a family but then he remembers trost and the burning pile of bones and forces himself to do the right thing actually means so much to me. he couldn't let himself live in luxury knowing it would come at the expense of others and all that came before him would basically have suffered for nothing. i think that scene really shows a human struggle of being put in such an insane situation where in most shows characters immediately be the hero and are selfless to a fault and it just makes him seem more relatable and a deeper character. he's not exactly selfless but he isn't selfish either.
then to connect to what i was saying before and how his character differs i love how they display different kind of choices than how they did in the beginning. i mean that jean seemed super selfish with his goals but all of his actions following that are selfless and show him putting others over himself and then erens are selfish and are intended to reach his goal at the expense of the world. eren wanted to hurt people while in the beginning he spoke about wanting to stop the titans and save the cattle. what he did he did for his friends yes but he also says that he wanted to crush the world like he fell to his selfish desires.
but anyways then the song just like is him ok jean = mr. brightside