[Nightengale]

The weakness of the anime was that there were too much of 'tell, not show' as far as the characters go.

I think it's pretty darn obvious Ryner's life was much more fucked up than Naruto's by far.

A child soldier since small, used by Roland as a human weapon, discriminated and an outcast of society by large as an Alpha Stigma user who can anytime go berserk and destroy everything, and before Sion's appearance, probably had multiple times where any semblance of a 'normal life' were taken away from him by him simply revealing he had Alpha Stigma. And based on the reports read by Claugh where he was involved in multiple operations and multiple counts of disregard for the mission, he had obviously been in a lot of darkness, death and murder in his childhood life growing up.

Ryner had some people he could had considered friends, even before Sion/Ferris. But that was far more painful to Ryner than actually having no friends, because he was always afraid that his friends would betray him or shun him off for being a monster. People definitely did in the past, and society by far still does.

Of course, since the anime doesn't really do the 'tragic-ness of the character's past' much justice, most people don't actually feel for themselves that the characters had a really crapsack past.

Just like how Ryner's status as the 'Roland's Greatest Magician' barely seems to hold any ground, considering how he keeps getting his arse backed to a corner every time by Rule Fragment Users or people more monstrous than him.

The only times he seemed to really seem semi-deserving of his title was when Ferris was somewhat impressed that Ryner could afford to hold back against her.