just saw a post that was like 'which of your characters is the sun and which one is the moon' and i wanted to write about it cuz my writing has been Bleh lately.
both eren and jean would probably say that they're the sun (the blazing source of light) and the other is the moon (merely the sun's reflection), but this is only half the story, and only one of them is right. this is what they'd say out loud, to save face in front of their friends and comrades, to pretend in front of everyone else they're not as gone on the other as they are, and that they're each better than the other in their own way, even if it's not at all what they really think. what eren and jean really think is that the other is the sun and they're the moon, just lucky to catch some of the light coming off the other.
for eren, he's watched jean grow and change and emerge into a good leader who loves his people with a solid head on his shoulders, and eren envies his certainty and his capacity for becoming. for jean, eren is a blazing force of nature, just as capable of incinerating everything in his path as he is of bringing warmth and life to barren landscapes. but if i had to choose, i'd say that jean is a bit more correct with his secret thoughts. eren's the sun. he's fire incarnate. rage and hatred and passion and life and love all wrapped up in one contradictory, volatile little package. he forges his own path, and the other bodies in the universe fall in line around him because his gravity is just that strong. meanwhile, jean is the moon that reflects the light of the stars around him, because a true leader is only as bright as those in his system, and leadership is service more than it is anything else. he takes in the best of those around him and he becomes better because of it. his light is not a dangerous thing, but an illuminating one, and sometimes cool and distant and unreachable.
