Rambling about Fairies - Rhodonite Chapter 17
This might be mean of me to say, but I truly think this spinoff does a better characterisation of Jellal than canon, because it’s not centered upon his love story and his guilt toward Erza. Instead it’s on how he’s changed as a person, and his guilt toward his actions as the tyrant of the Tower of Heaven. (You know, the real reason he decided to lead an independent guild?)
“I don’t intend to be a chain on them,” he says. That’s such a powerful line to me.
Jellal’s feelings in regards to how much Crime Sorciere means to him is not emphasized much in canon. Jellal, much like Mystogan, has the deep and mature insight of a natural leader. This spinoff allows us to see how Jellal has come in redemption-- in terms of being a leader.
I mean, I still think Ultear should have been the leader of Crime Sorciere, but honestly, I feel it was because this kind of development was meant to happen onscreen in canon for Jellal’s development, but Mashima just never did it because all Jellal’s screentime is spent on Jerza now.
Rather than letting his conscience and guilt trip him up like all of his interactions with Erza, I like this depiction of him allowing himself to have friends, and go about without being weighed down by his crimes.
He’s making his way through his own understanding of redemption slowly, and he, too, is finally experiencing how to belong again.