did a reread of all the aftg books and been thinking about jean. like across the board, the themes are: you have to let people in (but lean on them, they are not a lifeline) and you need to have hobbies you enjoy (but they can't be the centre of your world). And in both series it's emphasized to both Andrew and Jean that they should be having fun playing exy, and jean just doesn't anymore--so what would his happy ending be?
supposing that browning (relocating, biggest case of his career) is angling for the big Moriyama fish, and he catches them, Jean would no longer have to play. He could do what he wants (which is his whole arc). I don't think he would want to give up exy completely, as i feel it's more an obligation than hatred, and he seems to enjoy teaching the drills to the 1st years. So my perfect ending for jean is he finishes his degree, maybe a year or two in the pros (a la EC) and then he quits and gets in to coaching (becoming what he should have had the whole time; to make exy what it always should have been (see: kaleigh day spirit award)
and i don't know, I feel like it aligns with his arc, puts him in conversation the perfect court as athlete archetypes, and in conjunction with Dan (who wants to get into coaching to continue the work of the man who gave her a chance; so Wymack v Rhemann (fathers)) says the direction the sport is going and the players with it. And it puts his and jeremy's arc in more stark inversion, which I like for series consistency since our other main couple (andreil) had inverse arcs
or my other option is the whole pro, court, olympics thing but he plays for the French national team and goes against the rest of them. Because that would make me laugh
