[felix]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

what would you have preferred?

That's not a question I think about. I did go into some detail on what I like in the FT story earlier though.

Originally Posted by Kaijo

And keep in mind, Erza is probably one of the characters with the most dimensions to her. Natsu is one of the more one dimensional characters, but Erza has her whole Heaven's Tower backstory and her ongoing, complex relationship with Jellal, which has been developed really well.

The backstory isn't really making her multidimentional; I guess it depends on your definition. To me a backstory doesn't do anything but give context to her actions, it's not like she's doing anything related to the events in the backstory, there's no conflict of interest, it's pretty clear FT duty 24/7. Agree on Jelly, though I wouldn't call it complex, it's more like cheezy and pretentious (don't get me wrong I do find it entertaining that way; but maybe because I like Jelly's character).

By my definition a character is "more then one dimensional" if in every action there are very different clear (to the character and the audience) options the character has to consider, because of his/her circumstances; to be perfectly clear hidden/secret/surprise/obscure options do not count, you can't consider a characters "past" by what you know now were his choices, it has to be always the knowledge in the present of the writing. So for example say you have a character that's a spy for another country, but ends up as the general of the country he is suppose to spy on, that character always has to choose between responsibility, the trust placed upon them (by "the enemy"), the duty to his compatriots, his new found friends, the morality of his actions, and that goes with out saying, there are countless problems in even basic situations (such as another character looking funny at him/her) that adds tension. The character is multidimensional in the sense that there is no ambiguity in the choices involved, it's not like we don't know what he's suppose to do as a spy, or what he would do if decided to become a double agent, but even so we don't know what the character will choose. Of course it can be a lot more subtle then that, if you say just take childhood friendship vs duty or honor vs morality; depends on the topic of the work in question.

Having a really complex backstory, some form of childhood or adulthood stigma, or simply being in what appears as a complex context (involved with X, Y, Z) but that provides no tantalizing choice in the characters "present" actions (Erza only had the choice to keep quiet about Jelly for example) is not really adding any dimension to a character, IMHO anyway. It's simply fluff you tack on because it's nice to have and helps the character click with the audience.

So in that sense, Erza has some added dimension from her relationship with Jelly and Millana (and I do mean the shared relationship of all three together), but overall she's pretty one dimensional since just about any action she takes is either dictated by her complete faith in her guild or her complete faith in nakama power.

For the record, there's nothing wrong with having one dimensional characters, they are simply interesting in their own way, which is different to what makes multidimentional characters interesting and fun. I do think having solely one dimensional characters is bound to hurt the writing sooner or later though (such as this armor problem).

Originally Posted by Kaijo

And that still continues into the present with Kagura and Milliana, which we still don't know how it will be resolved. I doubt Kagura and Milli will suddenly be buddy-buddy with Jellal, even if they start to give Erza some benefit of the doubt, which will strain Erza and Milli's friendship.

Uhm, I don't really see Erza thinking of any of them outside of scenes with them, where it's to be expected (though she barely does it in those too).

Originally Posted by Kaijo

But out of all the characters, Erza is one of the most complex and developed. I don't see how Minerva, as a typical bad girl, would have added much. Once she beat the crap out of Lucy, threatened Happy, and backstabbed Kagura, she pretty much cemented herself in bad guy territory. And there is still the possibility of Minerva popping up down the road as a bad guy and clashing with Erza again, possibly after having acquired some new advantage or magic. But I didn't sense any "heart to heart" that she could have had with Erza.

Minerva's choice is kind of nonsensical, so where the author is going with her is anyone's guess. She has writing potential, but I think so far Mashima wrote her into the corner of soon-to-be-forgotten-villains. And I meant Erza and the audience, not Erza and Minerva, when I said "heart to heart time."