Jean Kirstein

Jean Kirstein is a character from the Attack on Titans anime and manga.

Jean is a graduate of the 104th Training Corps, among whom he ranked 6th best. Jean hails from Wall Rose's Trost District, and joined the military with hopes of obtaining a peaceful life as part of the Military Police Brigade, but would later find himself joining the Survey Corps. Currently he serves as a commanding officer in the Survey Corps, leading a squad during the Battle of Liberio.

In the AWA fics, Jean is a student at the AWA Academy and is part of Class 3.

Appearance
Jean is a young man with spiky, light-brown hair shaved into an undercut style, with the shaved portion being black. He has small, intense brown eyes, and is said to have the same vicious look in them as Eren does. Jean is of average height and muscular build, and has a scowl similar to Eren's but is said to have a long face (a "horse face"). He is often seen wearing the typical uniform of the Survey Corps worn with an olive-gray button-up shirt. After overthrowing the government, his hair appears slightly longer than before.

His casual attire mostly consists of a white button-up shirt, dark pants, and a dark-brown vest. When concealing his identity, he also fashions a cloak and fedora.

Four years later, he has grown a goatee and his hair is now longer. Jean wears the new black Survey Corps uniform with anti-personnel vertical maneuvering equipment.

Personality
Jean has a blunt personality. He holds no restraint when it comes to speaking his mind, even when he knows it would not be wise to do so or when it could spark conflict. Jean is also pragmatic: he has a strong aversion to exposing himself to dangerous situations, and has openly admitted his desire to join the Military Police is due to wanting an easy and safe life.

During his time as a trainee, Jean was extremely hot-headed, easily becoming frustrated and quick to resort to violence when pushed. Jean was also very cynical about defeating the Titans, believing that humanity has no chance against them. He openly mocked more idealistic individuals like Eren, and saw resisting the Titans as a hopeless cause.

Despite his shortcomings, Marco describes Jean as a natural leader, being able to understand others and assess situations well because of his flaws. Indeed, during the Battle of Trost, Jean proves capable of leading his fellow soldiers when they are left confused and leaderless, and rallies Armin and Reiner in an attack on the Female Titan, knowing that not fighting her would endanger the rest of the Survey Corps. His awareness and leadership capabilities were further displayed during the Battle of Shiganshina, when he took command of Armin's squad, and Liberio when he led many of the 104th graduates to attack the Marleyan military.

Although he presents himself as self-centered, Jean places high value on the lives of his comrades, and is ashamed and horrified when he must leave helpless allies behind to save himself and others. He was also willing to risk his life even if just to slow down the Female Titan, as refusing to do so would have certainly resulted in countless more deaths. Jean later criticized Erwin's plan of withholding information from his subordinates out fear that there was a spy among them, feeling that the plan did not justify the lives lost because of it. In addition, Jean is greatly averse to taking human lives. Jean's moral principles initially prevented him from killing enemy soldiers, but he would reluctantly set aside his conscience for the sake of his friends and allies.

Jean's first instinct is to always see life through cautious and doubtful eyes. He was hesitant to accept Armin and Reiner's plan of having the Attack Titan fight for them, and immediately admitted to never having trusted Ymir when she seemingly kidnapped Krista. Despite this, following the second appearance of the Armored Titan, Jean was also the one to motivate Eren to continue fighting for humanity's victory, showing that he is slowly adopting the same idealistic outlooks he once criticized.

Vertical Maneuvering Equipment
Jean is highly adept at using vertical maneuvering equipment, being able to maneuver well even on open terrain, which is considered extremely difficult and not many people can do so. He has also shown his capability in being able to attack and slay Titans efficiently even without his proper equipment and can successfully maneuver around them in order to directly attack their nape or simply avoid them. Four years after Wall Maria was reclaimed, his skill on maneuvering equipment has not changed. Jean has proven to be highly proficient in using anti-personnel vertical maneuvering equipment; ambushing Marleyan infantry from rooftops and even using his equipment's hooks to fling an enemy soldier off a building. Using maneuvering equipment is his greatest strength.

Thunder Spears
Jean is highly skilled in the usage of Thunder Spears, enough to ambush the Cart Titan and shoot a spear through one of the eye slots of its helmet, effectively blowing up the helmet and leaving its head vulnerable to attacks.

Other
Jean is also an exceptionally level-headed individual, able to see the big picture and make tactically wise decisions when it counts. It was these traits that earned Jean his rank as 6th best among the 104th squad.

He also seems to be proficient with firearms, as he is seen using one during the persecution of the Survey Corps. He is capable of shooting people with no intention to kill them, just to incapacitate them, with great accuracy.

Trivia

 * Hajime Isayama has said his favorite character is Jean.
 * In a more recent interview, Isayama revealed that Reiner Braun had replaced Jean as his favorite character.
 * According to Isayama, if the 104th Training Corps had an arm wrestling competition, Jean would be evenly matched with Eren Yeager.
 * "Jean" is the French variant of "John," meaning "Blessed by God."
 * When feeling great confliction, Jean has a habit of tightly clenching his fist and staring at it intently.
 * In a fake preview for Volume 19, Jean can be seen being devoured by the Gluttonous Titan.
 * Additionally, in the fake preview, Jean can be seen as a Titan. The Titan was around 7 meters and retained his facial features while having a slight limp.