When I say that your application need not reflect your character I say it for a reason, more often than not people seem to finish these applications very quickly, lord knows I’ve hammered out an app in five minutes before, but the thing is that isn’t very long to think on your character. Some of my best ideas come hours later joking around with friends, I still get ideas just from making jokes with the other admins.
Characterization is a very fluid thing but there is a right and a wrong way to do it, your application all and all should show us your mastery of this character, the time you have put in to understanding the subtle ins and outs of how they talk, their opinions on others, what makes them special, and also your creativity with these characters, as that is something I value highly in applications, creativity is something that warms the blacked void where one would assume a soul is.
The point is I don’t want to force someone down to something they wrote up in five minutes when they have a better idea just waiting to shine through.