Hi Yami.
After coming across your profile through your recent art pieces, I ended up reading through your headcanon posts tied to them—and went through the whole Jellal backstory post. I’ve seen a few of your other pieces as well, and I just wanted to say—I think you have a really grounded grasp on Jellal’s character, and honestly, on characters in general. You manage to explore complexity without pushing it into something unrecognisable, which isn’t easy to do.
I'll be honest, Jellal did interest me early on, especially in his villain arc. There was presence, purpose, something that felt mythic in scale. But over time, that weight faded. His story started circling guilt and redemption without grounding it in anything deeper.
What you've done here adds structure to the chaos—religion, power, legacy, all working in tandem to shape who he became. It made me reconsider parts of his story that l'd written off.
The art you added alongside it helped a lot too. It wasn't just aesthetic, but it also clarified tone, emotion, and intent. You don't often see visual storytelling paired that well with headcanon-heavy posts.
I know it would have been best to comment this all under your post/s, but with word limits, I don't want to bother with replies being sent prematurely or incompletely.
So whatever I wanted to ask, I'm going to do it here, if you don't mind?
Here are the questions I have:
- The name Zerith immediately stood out.
Was the similarity to Zeref intentional? Both are feared more than they're revered, and both seem to represent chaos dressed as divinity. I'm curious if that was meant to mirror how Jellal once saw Zeref-not as a person, but as a god he could shape his fate around.
- The way Almeta handles magic-tearing it publicly while preserving it through elite bloodlines-reads like a mirror to how they treat Jellal. Was that meant to reflect his personal contradiction too?
- When it comes to redemption, do you think Jellal actually believes it's possible? Or is he just trying to rewrite the ending before someone else writes it for him?
- Small question at the end: aside from the Saint Siegrain story, does he have a favorite book or tale that shaped his views early on?
Something personal, maybe even mundane?
This isn't everything I want to ask, but I want it to be an opening to the discussion.
If you're open to it, l'd be interested in continuing the conversation. There's a lot in what you've built that I think deserves a closer look.
—Crim
Hello! @theoryofcrim
And thank you so much for taking the time to read through my posts and ask me your questions. I really am grateful for the support and engagement you’ve given my work. And from this ask alone, you don’t know how happy I’ve become seeing it! ^^
I know there’s a lot going on in my HCs, but I’m really glad to know the vision is coming through and it’s not all just seeming like noise.
(For anyone who hasn’t seen/read the original HC post, I’ll link it here.)
You asked very interesting questions and I’m going to do my best to answer them without overwhelming you (because I do have the tendency to kind of blab on a bit >.>)
Note : I’ll include some segments of my writing when fitting whilst answering the questions to explain points in the lore that my words might not be enough to cover alone.
So let’s get into it!
Q1. ‘The name Zerith immediately stood out. Was the similarity to Zeref intentional?’
Oh this is a good question.
I’ll be honest, the reasoning behind the name Zerith is more connected to Almetian history, but your question drew out points and parallels I didn’t even notice existed.
In Almetian lore, Zerith is the one who was known to kill the founder of Almeta ‘Siegrain Aldemir’ after his power was said to have begun ‘corrupting’ him.
There’s a lot of underlying narratives weaved in with the reasoning of this direction; such as building a legacy, introducing where the black and white thinking is so impressed from, Jellal’s understanding of the gods and the way they shape his reality etc.
Admittedly, I designed Zerith with the callback to Zeref in mind (and as you can see from the lore on Zerith, he acts similar/or even the same to Zeref-), and for him to be central to Jellal’s story. But over time the concept of him grew into more than that.
He’s the reason Almetians don’t stray too far in their proudness. He’s there to remind them that even if they are blessed, they are human. And they are limited. Chaos comes and goes whenever it pleases, and because such is the nature of Zerith, it scares them.
Because—if a god so cruel could take their saviour away after how much and how long they suffered, after they had finally attained peace—then what else could he do?
Thinking about it, Zerith’s identity does not only just link with canon Zeref but he’s a meta critique on dogma and the root of faith and fate in general.
Also I think the culture surrounding him could be a mirror to how canon’s Zeref’s own following and legend cultivated.
(I don’t know if I waffled here but I hope I answered the question.)
Q2. ‘The way Almeta handles magic….Was that meant to reflect his personal contradiction too?’
Another amazing question.
I would say the main reason behind this was to expose their hypocrisy. But at the same time, it was meant to show how blatant hypocrisy can go unquestioned when a system is that deeply conditioning to its people.
Because Almetian society demonises magic with the belief that it is evil—which when you see their past and how they suffered for it, though a harsh view—it is understandable. But, where it gets sticky is that the same thing they condemned is the same thing that saved them (hence Heavenly Body Magic is prided in the country.)
But of course, Almeta refuses to extend understanding to other forms of magic—maybe due to their trauma endured or due to arrogance, as they see their magic as the only fitting and necessary.
Some may argue it’s because of the hierarchy put in place and that’s what makes them not question it as much. Or maybe it’s the religion they follow (with reverence for the saint and the gods upon them and the nation). Or perhaps they have become so tuned out to what’s around them they feel no need to question as everything is fine the way it is.
Or it could be the price to pay when questioning is more than what others would be ready to face…
But in regard to Jellal? I guess the inclusion of this system is to be the ‘devil’s advocate’ in his life. To show how someone who sees just truth and evil, that hypocrisy exists all around him and the world isn’t as just black and white.
It’s much more than that and it’s up to him to how he processes that.
Q3. ‘When it comes to redemption, do you think Jellal actually believes it’s possible? Or is he just trying to rewrite the ending before someone else writes it for him?’
I love this one.
Though I will be honest I don’t know if this is in regards to my rendition of him or Jellal in general so I’ll answer for both.
For my version of him, I honestly feel like it’s both. Because in my interpretation Jellal is a man going against fate condemned upon him. He doesn’t believe he needs redemption, because what sin did he do that he needs to be redeemed from?
(Meaning in regards to his ‘born sin’)
This is right until he stains his own hands in trying to rebel against the imposed injustice.
But in doing so, he’s already set the wave in motion—trying to beat god by ‘playing’ him. Questioning too far, obsessing too deep and becoming desperate to undo what rots in his blood.
Idealistically he wants redemption. Or to be more correct, he wants to be ‘good’. This is a reoccurring theme in Jellal’s journey. He wants to be seen as something more than a ‘devil’.
But at first, he doesn’t bow down.
Because to him, it does not make sense why he needs to in the first place.
All this confusion he experiences is all connected to why he hates the gods with such passion and wishes to break their seal on his life.
(You can see this is setting the stage leading up to his canon hatred and resentment towards ‘God’/Gods’ in the TOH as a slave.)
He was a boy who always vied from freedom, but because of the way he was born and who he was born from and what they did, that was taken from him.
And he wasn’t about to take that lying down,
Siegrain (his alter) is born from his drive in trying to rebel against the injustice inflicted upon him. But—due to his rigid black and white thinking—Jellal denies him more than accepts him.
For canon Jellal however?
I have a more complex thought process as I feel like redemption for him is not actually something cleanly defined either. He says ‘he had darkness’ and ‘he wants to walk the path of light’ but these ring more as thoughts about redemption but not necessarily the act of it.
I feel like he wants redemption because that’s what he’s meant to seek. His time of being a victim is passed him and the world has decided what its view is on him so he needs to seek what answer is expected of him regardless if it makes sense or not.
There’s a status quo in place and he can’t argue against it, it’s beyond him and besides who would actually listen otherwise?
That’s not to say his guilt isn’t real, it’s very much so and it’s understandable with how it’s come about. Nor is that to say his efforts are to reconcile with his sins are wholly performative either.
However.
It’s when you look into the root of the guilt and the said verdict of those ‘sins’—that’s when it gets messy and undefined.
Because the story never gives a clear answer.
And his circumstances of his guilt muddy everything further, which to the point you wonder how organic his behaviour is or if it’s expected of him.
Because with Jellal, whether people like to admit it or not, he is a victim of circumstances.
And that means he is a victim.
But.
Instead of being given space for that and being allowed to process it within his right, he’s expected to suppress his pain and trauma because of what he caused others.
Of course what he did was wrong, there’s no excusing it. But it seems for the comfort and acceptance of others, he needs to forget his own place in the equation.
That’s why I have the skepticism here, that yes everything he feels is valid and real, but for where it originates from regarding him?
That’s completely ignored.
For these reasons this is why Jellal’s actions and behaviour don’t feel entirely organic to me—but more like a preemptive response to how he’s expected to respond to the world.
(I actually have a whole long post addressing my thoughts on this topic coming out soon so maybe you’d want to give that a read?)
So to answer your question, my rendition of him is first acting in resistance but inevitably falling into the script, whilst canon Jellal is actively playing the part written.
Q4. ‘Aside from the Saint Siegrain story, does he have a favorite book or tale that shaped his views early on? Something personal, maybe even mundane?’
Unfortunately Jellal was actually not allowed much beyond that book.
Due to his stripped circumstances, he wasn’t just denied basic humanity, but alongside that he was denied entertainment, proper sustenance, and alongside that education.
It’s no exaggeration to say he grew up in the equivalent of captivity.
Because of this, he was barely allowed more than the few threads on his back. He was constantly watched over, and the only things given to educate him was the illustrated tale of Saint Siegrain and a book of prayers he couldn’t even read, let alone recite.
It’s telling that these things weren’t ever meant to be something he was meant to indulge in, but to condition him. And in his situation specifically—mock him.
But Jellal didn’t see the cruel intention behind this because he was an innocent boy looking for good in his bleak life. He saw a hero in the pages when the world wanted him to see the one calling him an enemy.
I wish Jellal had something more than a book that was meant to hurt him as inspiration.
Ah. Now i feel sad.
The nation of Almeta wouldn’t have allowed him to forget his place, and even if he wasn’t under its restriction, the saint’s story was religious—its importance was beyond words.
So out of all the tales that could have been told, it may have been the one to always standout to begin with.
Jellal really deserved better.
Thank you so much for these asks, I loved answering them and I hope my reply didn’t span for too long. I’ll try and get better if that’s the case.
Please if you ever have anything else you want to ask, I’m brimming with the desire to just go on about my Jellal centric series.
Thank you so much once again and I hope you and anyone else interested enjoyed reading this!