Article by Xel

Warning: this article contains Episode III spoilers!

This is the very first in a series of archived “Gold Post” on this website. A gold post is a post of outstanding depth that is archived on the homepage for future readers. To view the original discussion thread, click here.

rofl, I’ve been working on this post on and off all day. Know that when I started this, there was no Jin fanclub yet. XD;; I’m still not putting it there, though, because it covers a lot more than just Jin, and it’s not necessarily in a fanclubby kinda way, I guess. Hurr.

I’ve been thinking a lot about him lately. What follows is probably just a bunch of nonsensical rambling, but that’s what discussion is for. ;D I got on this tangent because I realized that I have never understood why there are so many issues between Jin and Shion in the series. I had a hard time understanding just what the problem was, and why she had so much trouble forgiving and not being so uncomfortable around him. Because you have to admit, the Jin we actually SEE (as opposed to the one we hear about from her) is one cool customer in the series. He’s really portrayed as being calm and strong and likable–and by the end of XSIII, a true hero.

So I was just like… “what is your deal with him, Shion? Where is all this tension coming from?” But I think I have a better idea about it now. So this is all my interpretation and speculation about to come out here–maybe you guys have different ideas. I think I have all my facts straight in terms of canon events and whatnot, but I guess we’ll see. XD

Jin is thirteen years Shion’s senior. It’s kind of an unusually large age gap for two siblings*, being more than a decade apart. I’m not saying it never happens, but it still seems a bit unusual compared to siblings who are less than ten years apart in age. At any rate, that still creates quite the emotional gap–by the time Shion was three or four, we can assume that Jin was probably in the process of leading his own life, training under Ouga, buddying it up with Margulis, etc., etc. I was reading the database a couple days ago, and it looks like while Jin and Shion’s home planet was Miltia, Ouga Uzuki actually lived on Second Miltia even before it was known as Second Miltia. Before the Federation finished terraforming it, even. So it’s entirely possible that Jin wasn’t even home for a fair bit of Shion’s childhood. Second Miltia’s not too far away from Miltia, mind you–it’s the closest neighboring planet at about 30 light years, I think–but it’s like if you had a sibling away in boarding school all the time.

* Actually, my personal belief is that Shion and Jin might not be full siblings at all–I think they could actually be half-siblings, with different mothers. In XSIII, Jin has this really odd habit of referring to Aoi as “Shion’s mother/her mother/your mother” as opposed to “our mother” or “my mother.” He does this constantly, again and again, pretty much every time he talks about her. It’s true that Jin is very much his father’s son, but it’s still a pretty strange thing to say if Aoi gave birth to him as well. He has no problem talking about Suou as “my father/our father.” It might also help explain the age disparity if Jin was the product of a previous relationship his father had before marrying Aoi and having Shion.

The age gap alone would be enough to skew Shion’s perception of Jin, though. To her, he’s a grown-up. He always has been. Although Jin has genuine affection and love for her, I have a hard time imagining that he really doted on her or anything, for the reasons I mentioned. Or… well, who knows. Maybe she adored him and thought he was the coolest person ever, as really little kids often do with their older siblings/cousins/whatever. That would make her subsequent disappointment in him all the more devastating for everyone involved, I bet.

Recall that Jin was supposed to check in on Shion and their parents during the Miltian Conflict–that was his destination when he told chaos and Canaan “sorry, can’t stay with you, I’ve got somewhere I have to be.” But because fighting Margulis slowed him up, he didn’t make it in time to save anyone but Shion. Watching your parents die in front of you as a little kid is a lot. A LOT a lot. So I think Shion can’t necessarily be blamed for holding onto the childlike hurt that makes her believe, “if only you’d gotten there sooner, our parents wouldn’t have died.” Is it rational or fair? Maybe not. But I can kinda understand how she might think that from time to time. And hearing that probably hurts Jin just as much, since there’s a grain of truth to it.

That I understand. But there really seems to be more to it than that. And that I’m just starting to really think about.

What happens after their parents’ death? Jin, who probably never had much to do with Shion’s upbringing up to that point, is suddenly her primary caregiver. Jin was only 21 during the Miltian Conflict, after which he left the military in order to raise his sister. That’s… young. The guy’s ostensibly spent his whole life under a lot of discipline, whether from his sword training or from the military–I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he kind of expected Shion to operate according to that same kind of discipline. I also wouldn’t be surprised to find that she rebelled a bit as she got older. It’s pretty obvious that he’s always viewed her as a child–maybe even one that he feels he has to protect because of what she’s been through. But so it seems like although he genuinely loves her, he maybe had kind of a funny way of showing it to her sometimes. It seems that he was quite critical of her, like in the example given in the database of how Jin’s curry preferences led to conflict at the dinner table because he criticized her cooking. It seems like he’s always got something condescending to say to or about her, and it often demonstrates a real lack of confidence in her that I think I would find very disheartening and hurtful if I were in Shion’s position. He really wants what’s best for her, but he thinks he knows what’s best for her better than she does and he’s not shy about letting her know it, whether it’s telling her that she should cook better curry or opposing her recruitment into Vector after she’s recognized for writing this brilliant paper on Realian maintenance. She really took off from that household as soon as she graduated high school.

I think it also speaks volumes that he’s shit-scared of her getting fed up and cutting him out of her life, but he doesn’t ever let her know that–he just carries on as usual. But he doesn’t want to show her that kind of vulnerability for whatever reason, so she just thinks he’s being an arrogant jerk who belittles all her accomplishments.

So I guess what I’m saying is that… although in the beginning it looked to me like their strained relationship was mostly Shion’s problem, I see now that in spite of his intentions, Jin was kind of an asshole sometimes.

I was going to ramble about Jin and his own issues, as well as his history with Margulis and Pellegri, but it’s late and will have to save itself for my next post. :’D