#character depth

Okay, so you need to grill Halsin about Moonrise Towers before completing the Grove quest. Trust me. Reserved, Veteran Halsin shines here, and not just in lore, but in tone, voice, and delivery.

Persistent players are rewarded. Why? Because this choice mirrors his worldview: nature favors the bold. Druids may serve balance, but they do intervene: to heal, guide, correct. They act as the gods’ extensions, grounded in the world, doing what the divine cannot.

If you press Halsin in the dungeons, his delivery subtly shifts. A line spoken slower. A pause heavier than the rest. It’s nuanced but intentional. I haven’t seen many people break it down, so I started looking closer. And let me tell you—the payoff? So, so worth it.

Halsin isn’t just a big guy with kind eyes and nice... you know what. He’s a man who’s lived through unimaginable loss and chose hope over hatred. Where others would’ve turned cruel or cynical (which, let’s be real, is exactly what happens to other characters in this story), he rebuilt himself; unlearned the unhealthy habits that once numbed his sorrow—with little to no support—and still moved forward. Alone. Quietly. With trauma clinging like shadowy tendrils, puncturing his heavy heart. You can feel the weight of someone who has lived through the unimaginable… and still chooses not bitterness, not vengeance, but hope. And you only see that if you poke the bear a little. If you challenge him. Which, again, ties directly into his worldview, nature respects boldness. He respects boldness.

And yet, he stands tall. He heals. He cares.

There’s a glance, a distant stare, that pause in his voice when he speaks of the past. Not dramatic but devastatingly quiet. It’s grief that’s settled into the bones. It’s earned wisdom. And it hits harder than anything shouted.

He carries a cruel burden, but he won't break.

That far-off stare as he speaks about the past. That tight breath before he continues, like he’s had to learn how to speak around the ache. That's what makes it brutal. It’s the kind of grief that isn’t fresh anymore, but still lives in the bones. A grief he’s chosen not to let define him.

It kills you as the player.

This Act 1 exchange reveals his gravitas, his inner strength, and that beautifully understated: 13 Intelligence. He feels more in tune with the early access experience here than almost anywhere else in the game: mature, serious, vulnerable—knowing only loss and still, choosing to do good.

Not just sorrowful.

Not just self-sacrificing.

Or self-punishing.

But furious at what was done to him. At the life he lost. At the way he’s expected to carry the weight of actions he wasn’t fully conscious of, with grace and silence.

He’s always shown as composed in his guilt, patient in his atonement—which is admirable. But sometimes it feels like it’s flattening him into a symbol of repentance, and erasing the complexity of what he endured.

He was a child. He was manipulated. He bled, he hurt, and he was twisted into something he didn’t choose.

He lost YEARS of his life in containment, upon containment, upon containment.

Years he’ll never get back.

Jellal is one of the characters who objectively suffered the most in Fairy Tail, but the narrative rarely lets the audience sit with that. His pain is shifted away, reframed through others, or skipped over entirely.

We never really get to see him process it on his own terms.

I guess what I’m trying to say is: I don’t want Jellal to be a parable.

I want him to be a person.

Let him feel what was done to him. Let him process that he was wronged, too—that he’s not just someone who caused pain, but someone who experienced it, deeply. It’s not about removing accountability—it’s about letting him grieve and exist outside of guilt.

He doesn’t need to be calm and noble all the time. That’s not healing. That’s just another kind of silence.

Let Jellal scream. Let him ask why. Let him mourn the life he never got to live—not as a villain, not as a saint, but as someone who deserves that emotional space.

I have a lot of thoughts on Jellal and how his character was handled, and I already have a breakdown/long post coming up which tackles another topic but I might make one for this sentiment too.

But as of now, I just needed to get this part off my chest.

Thank you for listening. EDIT : Beneath is the breakdown I mentioned I would get around to doing for anyone interested!

Let Him Sin, Let Her Speak Meta Series

(+ another Jellal focused post that I made shortly after the analysis breakdown!)

Jellal's Story: What Was Mashima Trying To Do?

I will never understand why people insist on writing Superman as if he’s flawless. As if he wakes up every morning full of hope and light, untouched by fear, doubt, or exhaustion. As if optimism is something that simply exists within him, rather than something he has to fight for every single day.

Especially in Superbat fics (and, honestly, I say this as someone guilty of it too 😔✍️), Clark is often reduced to nothing more than Bruce’s emotional support system—someone who is always steady, always understanding, always a rock. Meanwhile, Bruce gets to be the complicated one, the one with depth, the one who struggles. But why do we act like Clark’s hopefulness means he doesn’t struggle, too?

Because here’s the thing: hope is not easy. It’s not a passive state of being. Hope is an act of defiance. It’s looking at a world full of suffering, corruption, and despair and saying, No, I still believe in something better. That takes strength. That takes resilience. That takes constant effort.

🌍💥 Clark Kent is not hopeful because he has never known pain—he is hopeful because he has. Because he understands it, because he has seen the worst of humanity and chooses, every single day, to believe in its best. And that choice? That’s where his depth is. That’s where his struggle is.

And yet, so often, we see him written as if hope and inner conflict cannot coexist. As if choosing optimism means he’s somehow untouched by fear, grief, or doubt. But hope is not the absence of fear—it is the decision to keep going despite it. And that is what makes Clark Kent truly extraordinary.

Superman’s Humanity: Canon Examples 📖⚡

🔻 Kingdom Come – Clark isolates himself, disillusioned by a world that no longer wants him. When hope fails, he withdraws. He isn’t immune to losing faith.

🔻 For the Man Who Has Everything – He experiences a perfect fantasy of Krypton as if it had never been destroyed. And when it’s ripped away, he reacts with pure, uncontrolled rage. He wanted it. He wanted to stay.

🔻 All-Star Superman – Even at his most "ideal," Clark worries. He prepares for death. He feels the weight of his legacy and the people he will leave behind. Hope doesn’t erase fear; it coexists with it.

🔻 Superman: Birthright – He doubts himself, struggles with what it means to be an alien among humans. He wonders if he really belongs. His place in the world is not a given—he has to find it.

🔻 Superman: Up in the Sky – He agonizes over leaving people in need to save one single child across the universe. He knows he can’t save everyone. That burden never leaves him.

Because there is no hope without fear. Hope does not exist in a vacuum—it is a victory. 🏆 A battle fought and won against the quiet, creeping voice of doubt that tells you it isn’t worth it, that things will never get better. And every time Clark Kent stands back up, every time he chooses to believe, he reminds us that hope isn’t naïve. It’s powerful.

And that’s why it matters that we don’t flatten him. If we make him shallow, we lose sight of what makes him great. If we treat him as an unattainable ideal, someone who is only good because he never struggles, then we can’t see ourselves in him. And that is a disservice, because Superman is not supposed to be distant. He is not supposed to be perfect. He is supposed to be possible.

Because Superman is an alien, sure—but he is built to be the best of us. A person who chooses to be kind, to be strong, to be hopeful. Someone who faces the same internal battles we do and still decides, every single day, to keep believing. That’s why we can, and should, see ourselves in him. That’s why we should try to be like him.

Superman is called the Man of Tomorrow—not because he is unreachable, but because he shows us what we could be. And that’s the whole point.

So one of my moots on here which is @klkingmybrain was talking about how people in the Klk fandom don’t really care about the story and more so only talk about the same 3 characters which are satsuki, ryuko and mako. No hate to them but i totally agree with her on that..A lot of you fawn over them when Uzu or even the whole elite 4 is literally right there. So I’m going to emphasize and talk about how yall neglect the fact that Uzu is a very important character to the story and embodies self growth and improvement. And I’m not just gonna yap about him being funny I’m genuinely going to talk about how his character actually matters and he’s not just there to goof off. Which is something some of yall sweep under a rug unfortunately…

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FIRST OFF in episode 6 when he first asked satsuki about fighting ryuko she questioned him and then she goes on to say that he’s the same way he was like 3 years ago. And then she even tries to stray him away from offering to fight Matoi by asking “what if you lose to her” but instead of backing down he was persistent respectfully.

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Here’s a clip showing this!! (I had another one but I can only post one…):

Then after this he fights Matoi and Satsuki purposely doesn’t show up because she knows he’s gonna lose. Once he lost he didn’t just get upset he genuinely took it personally and changed himself for the better and for his own growth and improvement like I said before.

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Him being “overshadowed” in his own episode..

Due to him realizing this faults he makes a big change by asking Iori (a legend btw) to sew his eyes shut. Shiro hesitated and said that he couldn’t use his powers without seeing anything but once again Sanageyama was persistent on doing this since he thought he “relied too much on his eyes” during his fight. After allat shiro agreed and then Uzu’s eyes were sewn shut. And the reason why I say that he was overshadowed in his own episode is because the fact that they literally had him on his knees BEGGING satsuki for a second chance in the RAIN which I think is ridiculous. I get why they made him do that.. They wanted to show how devoted and loyal he really is to her but I feel like they kinda humiliated him in his own episode by doing this to him.

Here’s a pic of him begging 💔🥹:

I really wish instead of them making him change for Satsuki’s forgiveness they leaned it towards him trying to fix himself for his OWN gain since he realized his mistakes and wanted to take full accountability for them by humbling himself and “going blind”. I do respect that choice in writing but they could’ve made him do allat more independently. He also kinda took his anger out on Matoi before the fight by saying “I’m gonna show you what happens when you force a man to change” and he was visibly upset and annoyed during his whole fight. He was literally about to beat Matoi but Ms Main character had 1000% plot armor on so Uzu’s goku uniform “overheated” which made him “lose” but I think he won since 1: ryuko got nervous when fighting him and 2: because he was WHOPPING HER BADDD!! 😭✌🏾

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Uzu being nerfed and tossed to the side in later episodes

After his episode and him going blind they made him lose repeatedly to Nui and satsuki but satsuki more so in the 25th Ova episode which I’ll leave a link for so yall can see the whole fight. They just tossed him to the side and basically humiliated him AGAIN. And they did this by making Nui rip the life fiber out of his goku uniform and knocking him off a cliff BUTT ASS NAKED when she interrupted his 3rd fight with Matoi.

Here’s a pic 😞 :

And here’s the link to Uzu and Satsuki’s fight in the 25th episode:

Uzu genuinely had so much potential but they just HAD to dumb him down for no reason at all. And then they even made him say a stupid ass line (it was lowkey a lil funny tho) and Nonon and Houka got mad at him since he didn’t wait for them to say it with him…

Here’s a pic of the scene:

Matter fact he literally was grasping and holding his potential and then the writers just ripped it out of his hands. TBH all of the elite 4 had potential too but since the show is about ryuko they’re like side characters to her which sucks because Uzu,Houka,Nonon, and Ira are all interesting characters and even Shiro too since he makes ALL the damn clothing for the students. He needs more appreciation too he works HARD and barely gets praise in the show AND IN THE FANDOM..They all do especially Uzu he literally does kendo in and out of his goku uniform and that’s why he was the CLOSEST AND ONLY member out of the elite 4 to get REALLY CLOSE to beating ryuko. My goat could’ve been sooo much more after his own episode but no💔

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Uzu being the Strongest out of the elite 4

ALSO!! One of the reason why uzu is the strongest out of the elite 4 is because during the sudden death runoff He had the HIGHEST pillar and was the last person to fight Ryuko. He even got upset when he was going last and said “shit I kick too much loser ass.” He beat up the most students during this event. Houka then said “you’re fighting style is more effective than you thought”

Here’s a pic of that scene:

And Here’s some pics proving that he had the highest pillar:

Pic of uzu’s pillar being higher than Nonon’s:

And an arrow I drew pointing at uzu’s pillar:

And when ryuko almost lost to jakuzure Uzu said “what the hell are you doing Matoi. You can’t lose to her. You and me got a date for a fight. I’m the one who’s supposed to kick your ass.”

Here’s a pic of him yelling allat:

Also during the runoffs the order they went in (which was weakest to strongest) was Gamagori, then Inumuta, Then Jakuzure , and Lasty Sanageyama.

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Conclusion

Anyways I didn’t just make this post to completely baby Uzu or anything since I’m fully aware that he’s an 18 year old high schooler but I just wanted yall to know that he is more than a stupid monkey and that he’s genuinely a VERY good character and even a good person since he was helping all those students extra to get them out of Ragyo's COVERS. Fuck he’s even the kindest character right next to mako and her mom. He’s not just some cocky dude he’s an AMAZING character and I love him and respect him sooooo much.. Also I made this post so I can show some of these gooner fans of ryuko and satsuki that there’s more characters than just them. There’s plenty that yall need to focus on aswell besides the sisters and the famous coconut head mako (which I love no shade). All of the elite 4 is right there. Shiro is there. Aikuro is there. Tsumugu with his needle gun thingy. YALL LITERALLY HAVE ALL THESE COOL CHARACTERS BUT DONT GIVE A SHIT I DONT GET IT. Also gooning to these ladies and gents lowkey means that yall didn’t understand the message in this show unfortunately so yall need to rewatch it… unless if you did get it and do that then whatever at least you’re aware of the message.. also I DO NOT PLAY about Uzu AT ALL..!! HE IS MY GOAT😭❤️‍🩹

anyways I’m done ranting and yapping!! Go follow my awesome moot @klkingmybrain btw!! 😋💕

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Ending

That’s all I have to say!! Thanks for reading if you actually cared and once again I love UZU SANAGEYAMA AND ALL OF THE ELITE 4!! 🤫🫧

Byeeee!!!!!

Is just me or does anyone else wish the show went deeper into the character stuggles of the trio so they can actually confront them. It feels like charles, mabel and oliver have the same flaws each season yet they never properly face them or they do but lightly so the core is still unresolved. Ofc, they need to have these overarching character arcs but I just wish that they were kind of forced them to deal with themselves and really dig deep. The show has so much potential FOR this, like they're literally held at gunpoint every two seconds and have a mastermind villain after them like surely it should up the emotional stakes too?? Obviously, I love the humour and the fact that it's supposed to be a Comedy/Mystery but it just feels like there are missed oppurtunities for the angst and meaningful resolution.

Like in ep 7 when Oliver straight up says "Unlike you two, I have someone to lose" LAKJFSL- they coud have made this HEART-BREAKING and have a much more satisfying resolution like them all realising they have eachother to lose being all sappy like the found family they are. Instead it was Charles saying "You are my family"(gut-wrenching) to Mabel and her being too DISTRACTED to even clock it then it just moves on.

Even episode 8 - I was lowkey excited for the therapy session w/ Charles and Oliver like they would finally be forced to admit how much they meant to eachother- esp since Charles is very clearly feeling left out so that he needs to now "find [his] Loretta," so AGAIN, he admits this but AGAIN, it's treated like a throwaway to segway into Oliver doing another impression for a joke.

It's like my boy Charles is the only one actually making an effort in the trio to communicate but oli and mabel aren't actually GETTING what he's saying.

💄🧨 KILL THE GIRLBOSS — OR KILL THE STORY

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Let’s talk about the word “Girlboss.”

A term born in a boardroom, beta-tested on brunch mimosas, and shipped to an audience that never existed.

It’s a costume. A filter. A pink-tinted hallucination designed to simulate power while defanging character.

🧠 Here’s your free reality check, writer: If your character’s entire vibe is “Some people will love this” — you’ve already written for no one.

Because:

“Some people” don’t buy tickets. “Some people” don’t rewatch scenes for decades. “Some people” don’t carry myth in their blood.

And “some people” sure as hell don’t want to see a movie that feels like a tampon commercial disguised as a Marvel installment.

You wanna write a female character who matters?

Then burn the blueprint the studios handed you. Because that script was ghostwritten by executives who care more about merchandise synergy than myth.

And their screenwriters? Cowards who’d rather cash a check than fight for truth on the page.

📜 Let me show you what made humans worth filming in the first place.

We don’t watch stories about a cow’s peaceful journey around the pasture. We watch stories where a human soul stands between the cosmos and a punch from the f*cking infinity gauntlet.

Because the only question that matters in myth is:

> “What would I do in that body, in that moment, with that weight?”

That’s how myth transfers. That’s how legend moves. Not by t-shirt slogans.

Not by quippy disrespect toward male characters who’ve bled for the cause.

💥 WRITING LESSON: Kill the Girlboss, Save the Story

Erase the term “Girlboss.” Not for cancel culture reasons. For craft reasons. It’s childish. Cringe. Infantalizing. Real power doesn’t self-brand. It radiates.

Never have her declare her own badassery. That’s not a reveal. That’s insecurity. If the audience can’t see it, you failed.

Never have her flippantly disrespect a male hero who’s proven his value over multiple arcs unless the script answers for it. You think fans forgot that he saved her nana in Movie 1, her sisterhood in Movie 2, and took a space-beam to the chest in Movie 3? You think the audience doesn’t notice when the new girl talks like she skipped the war but wants to boss the veterans?

Men and women are not the same. And that’s the point. Stop writing female leads like men with a flat iron. You know who looked cool? Sarah Connor. Doing pull-ups in a concrete monkey cage. Sweaty. Unhinged. Ripped like a prom dress. And when Arnie walked back into her life, even though he was on her side this time — she flinched. She almost pissed herself. Because trauma doesn’t care about plot twists. She pushed through it anyway. Not for clout. For her son.

📌 Write this down. Tape it to your wall. Bleed it into your next script:

> Girlboss is not a compliment. > It’s a warning label. > It means you wrote a child’s idea of power > with none of the scars.

Now, open your notebook. Write “Girlboss.” Draw a line through it. And whisper:

> “I refute the premise.”

Then get to work. Or flounder for two more years under the illusion that writer’s block is anything more than your conscience refusing to publish garbage.

Good day, ma’am. Or sir.

This was not advice. This was a literary firing squad. Follow for more truths the studios are too soft to tell you. ➡️ [Your Patreon Link] for scrolltrap screenwriting lessons, cognitive demolition, and raw myth-building power.

michelangelo: maybe you think you’re a monster because that’s how everyone treats you.

TMNT (2012) — S01E12