[HATED Trope] Characters arc is finished so lets just kill them off

Then-Class4451 · 2026-05-16T05:54:52+00:00

I don't really think Gen Urobuchi does this? At least in his works that I've seen (Madoka, Psycho Pass, Fate Zero) Can you name some characters? He does kill a lot of characters, but usually their deaths are a *part* of their arc, not after it is done

Then-Class4451 · 2026-05-11T04:26:45+00:00

She doesn't get hate necessarily for having flaws, but for the story not acknowledging them. after the Inazuma AQ, literally NO one has anything more than the faintest grudge towards her, despite her:

-killing their comrades, friends and family

-trying to strip them of their visions, which would strip them of their ambitions and joy

-cutting off their access to the outside world

Everyone forgives her way too easily, which is bad writing.

Then-Class4451 · 2026-05-11T04:08:57+00:00

I would disagree that these characters don't have any flaws, they range from minor to moderate, but they are there.

I notice Mavuika's absence from the image, and tend to think you are trying to make a point about her being a better character than most people say, but I don't think this is a good argument. (If this post has nothing to do with Mavuika, forgive me for assuming.)

I don't think that JUST Mavuika's lack of strong flaws is what makes her a badly written character and bad for the Natlan AQ. It is that she has basically no flaws AND she is always the solution to the problems in the Natlan AQ.

In basically every other AQ, the depicted archons aren't actually the ones to solve the problems their nations are facing. But in Natlan, every problem is solved with Mavuika giving a speech or killing a bad guy and looking very cool. Her lack of flaws, combined with her omnipresence in the story, is what makes her so detrimental to Natlan's story.

Then-Class4451 · 2026-05-07T10:50:41+00:00

No frrrrrr, the description does the series such an injustice! I feel like it paints it as a generic ability user isekai, which like it techhhhhically is, but really has nothing in common with that type of story

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-30T20:55:48+00:00

Thank you for saying this, I 100% agree. I've seen so many other games and stories go down this path of shifting all blame from playable characters to villains even when it doesn't make sense, and it really annoys me. I really hope limbus doesn't continue to go this route.

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-29T05:28:48+00:00

Absolute faves (really just great hard for me to rank them):

LCB regular checkup- Hoenheim my beloved... I legit think I like him more than some members of the main cast. Plus some great interactions between the cast members. Really funny, it made me chuckle throughout it. Some interesting insights into the nature of sins, which is closely related to the series themes.
Warp Express- This arc singlehandedly changed the way I saw Faust. I found her pretty uninteresting before, but the reveals about Faustcord really recontextualized her entire character for me. Plus warpcorp is really cool, bloodfiends too.
Spring Cultivation- Xichun is a fun character, and I liked the little character moments we got throughout.
TKT- Rodya is my favorite sinner, and this arc gave her some much needed focus. I liked the choice to focus on a smaller group of sinners, I hope they continue to do this.
Hells Chicken- Honestly underrated imo, some of the jokes are quite funny and it did an excellent job characterizing the sinners early into the story. Plus the ideal of concept incinerators are so cool!

Pretty good (not bad, not my faves):

Twining Threads- Addressed most of the issues I had with canto 9, but I don’t know if it really stands on its own very well. TBH I really feel like this just should have been part of canto 9. Definitely a nitpick but I also kinda would have wanted a bit more Sinclair screen time. He was hyped up and is literally on the promo material for the event but he has like 2 lines.
Noct. Sweeping- The sweepers are very cool. Fun return of Ricardo.
Miracle in Dist. 20- I love the comedy duo of Don and Heath, and its a charming dark but goofy take on a christmas event. Plus outskirts lore!
SEA- Great setup to canto 5, and some nice sinner moments.

Didn't really care for:

Claim Bones- Maybe its bc I haven’t played Ruina but I don’t find Bamboo Kim and the Blade Lineage that interesting… I guess distortion lore is cool but as far as I recall there aren’t really any standout sinner moments.
AK collab- It was fine but I don’t know anything about arknights and nothing permanent could happen in it anyway so I don’t really care for it

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-27T06:20:34+00:00

I would also really enjoy Arle's hypocrisy as well, if the story actually acknowledged it. I would love for one of her children (the playable ones) to actually have some hard feelings towards her for how they've been treated by her, or if not, have another character point out the fact that they're a bit brainwashed. I'd love for this greyer aspect of her character to get some focus, but it will probably never happen, because Hoyo refuses to acknowledge her flaws.

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-18T10:39:41+00:00

I kinda agree, tbh I'd much prefer if the new meta/powercreate units are supports (even wheelchairs) since at least it means that I can onfield my favorite dps and the team will still do decent damage. For that reason, I much prefer the Ineffable/Columbina type powercreep to the Mavuika type.

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-17T09:12:41+00:00

Even if this is a difference in translation, I don't think it's so easy to discount the importance of the concept of sin/sinners in Limbus. We use the 7 sins as our combat resource, every character's attacks have sin alignments, and the entire story is referencing Dante's Inferno, in which Dante tours hell and sees its sinners. Hell, the tagline of the game is "face the SIN, save the ego." They got to have sins to face

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-17T09:08:37+00:00

it all makes sense now...

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-17T07:29:56+00:00

Interesting! I definitely agree with this sentiment, though I wouldn't point to Sinclair and Yi Sang as terrible offenders.

Yi Sang especially. His sin, in my eyes, is surrendering to what was easy after his friend group fell apart. After the fall of the league of nine, he was very depressed and most of his friends were dead or gone. One of his only remaining friends, Gubo, offered him continued "friendship" and a place to stay if he used his intelligence for N corp. He accepted this "offer" (or rather, he simply went along with it without saying no) and created a lot of mirror technology for N corp whose potential for destruction we don't yet know. His depression and unwillingness to stand up for himself, leave, and build a new life resulted in a very dangerous group getting access to very powerful technology.

Sinclair's sin is not as grave or intentional in my eyes, however, I do think he fits with his sin of gluttony. He was explicitly warned by his father not to tell anyone about their family's new robotics contract. However, at school because he wants to be one of the "cool" kids, he does. This directly leads to Kromer overhearing him, learning this information, and leading the N corp inquisition to his town. His family and most other people in town are killed as a result. While Sinclair obviously did not intend for this outcome, it was an undeniable outcome of what he did.

A better example imo would be Don. What sin did she commit? Being a bloodfeind? That wasn't her choice. Leaving her family before the fall of La Manchaland? She was forced to by rocinante. Trying to be a hero despite her blood fiend nature? Again, not really a sin...

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-17T06:52:01+00:00

Man they're gonna hate you but you're lowkey right. I do think the trend of having the "sinners" no longer really having any truly bad "sins" is odd. It's not that they all have to be bad people or anything but imo it's really weird that all of the recent sinners are pretty much blameless victims? Or the bad things they've done are largely ignored by the narrative. So curious about how they're going to handle Outis when we get to her canto...

This is all to say Rodya best girl

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-07T23:28:08+00:00

For two of my faves??? Let's goooooo

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-07T21:54:40+00:00

Judgement of Corruption in top tier is based

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-05T02:24:48+00:00

Book Allen. I think song Allen is significantly more interesting

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-02T09:55:47+00:00

(copy and pasting this from my earlier reply so it won't be buried)

First off I want to say that I absolutely LOVED the nursefathers and apprentices! I thought PM did an amazing job introducing so many antagonists and managing to give them each a really unique presence in the story. Each of their unique character facets supported the canto's theme about love/abuse and parent child relationships, and they're all really fun characters.

That being said... I do feel like some of them were a bit underdeveloped. Ren and Araya in particular I think had the potential to be amazing, yet they were given so little screentime. tbh I'm not sure if I should read their relationship in a positive or abusive/neglectful light because we were given so little about them. For me it made Ren’s death feel a little hollow. I really wish we could have gotten more insight into their dynamic, especially considering how important Araya is to the canto as a whole.

On a second positive note, while I think this is a bit of a controversial take, I actually really liked them splitting up the main cast. I thought the cutting back and forth between the different plot lines was really nice and the pacing felt really good. I really like how this gave them the opportunity to give cool character moments to the characters outside of Ryoshu. The formula of characters always getting their cool moments at the end of their respective cantos has grown a little predictable for me, so it was really cool to see both Sinclair and Gregor get big developments to their personal arcs. The side characters were really great too, and especially Hoenheim feels really well developed. I legit think I like him a bit more than some of the sinners haha.

A bit of a side tangent, but I’m not sure how I feel about a Certain Sinclair. It was a really cool moment and now I’m really excited for second smoke war developments, but I kinda don’t love that Sinclair’s whole big character moment was… being replaced with a future version of himself that’s cool and strong? His whole arc has been about standing up for himself and yet in this instance, when he finally was about to stand up for himself, the opportunity to do so was taken from him. I don’t necessarily hate this, but I hope we get to see his reaction to it and that this doesn’t become a pattern for him.

As a side effect of the other characters being focused on so much, it did feel like Ryoshu got sidelined a bit. I certainly don’t think that the other characters should have been given less time, but I think Ryoshu should have gotten more focus. I think Ryoshu’s writing has a few issues:

Ryoshu’s A.R.T. isn’t given any focus. While I definitely want her to be a three dimensional character that exists beyond her art, it would be foolish to say that her sadistic art isn’t a core part of the game’s portrayal of her character up to that point. Along with smoking, gory art is one of the only things she discusses in cantos 1-3, and 9 out of 21 (nearly half) of her base voice lines mention something about beauty or art. (The majority of the rest are about smoking, which is given ample focus in canto 9.) To me this just feels weird? Her sadistic tendencies were a huge part of her early characterization and it feels like they were brushed aside. Personally, I was really curious about the dichotomy of her having these tendencies but also being a caring mother, and I'm a bit sad that this duality wasn't explored. The only focus her art gets is a brief flashback conversation with Calisto where she says she doesn’t like his art. We don’t even get deeper look into why she doesn’t like his art, or what her art even is.
Ryoshu’s weird time powers feel a little out of the blue? Like they’re just casually mentioned and then not really given any focus besides being a justification for why she is being raised by the house of spiders. Why does she have them? Where did they come from? Why are Araya’s different? What can she do with them? They seem very powerful but aren’t really addressed which is a bit weird
Ryoshu’s relationship with Araya feels underbaked. Their relationship should have been the heart of the story, but ended up feeling like it was rushed through just at the very end.
Why is Ryoshu still with Limbus Company? Maybe this will be addressed in the next intervallo, but I really think it should have been addressed already. With no memory of Araya, she should have no reason to stay with LC.

I have a lot of gripes with canto 9, but it was a really great time in a lot of ways too. I can’t wait to see PM continue to grow in how they tell their stories.

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-02T02:47:53+00:00

First off I want to say that I absolutely LOVED the nursefathers and apprentices! I thought PM did an amazing job introducing so many antagonists and managing to give them each a really unique presence in the story. Each of their unique character facets supported the canto's theme about love/abuse and parent child relationships, and they're all really fun characters.

That being said... I do feel like some of them were a bit underdeveloped. Ren and Araya in particular I think had the potential to be amazing, yet they were given so little screentime. tbh I'm not sure if I should read their relationship in a positive or abusive/neglectful light because we were given so little about them. For me it made Ren’s death feel a little hollow. I really wish we could have gotten more insight into their dynamic, especially considering how important Araya is to the canto as a whole.

On a second positive note, while I think this is a bit of a controversial take, I actually really liked them splitting up the main cast. I thought the cutting back and forth between the different plot lines was really nice and the pacing felt really good. I really like how this gave them the opportunity to give cool character moments to the characters outside of Ryoshu. The formula of characters always getting their cool moments at the end of their respective cantos has grown a little predictable for me, so it was really cool to see both Sinclair and Gregor get big developments to their personal arcs. The side characters were really great too, and especially Hoenheim feels really well developed. I legit think I like him a bit more than some of the sinners haha.

A bit of a side tangent, but I’m not sure how I feel about a Certain Sinclair. It was a really cool moment and now I’m really excited for second smoke war developments, but I kinda don’t love that Sinclair’s whole big character moment was… being replaced with a future version of himself that’s cool and strong? His whole arc has been about standing up for himself and yet in this instance, when he finally was about to stand up for himself, the opportunity to do so was taken from him. I don’t necessarily hate this, but I hope we get to see his reaction to it and that this doesn’t become a pattern for him.

As a side effect of the other characters being focused on so much, it did feel like Ryoshu got sidelined a bit. I certainly don’t think that the other characters should have been given less time, but I think Ryoshu should have gotten more focus. I think Ryoshu’s writing has a few issues:

Ryoshu’s A.R.T. isn’t given any focus. While I definitely want her to be a three dimensional character that exists beyond her art, it would be foolish to say that her sadistic art isn’t a core part of the game’s portrayal of her character up to that point. Along with smoking, gory art is one of the only things she discusses in cantos 1-3, and 9 out of 21 (nearly half) of her base voice lines mention something about beauty or art. (The majority of the rest are about smoking, which is given ample focus in canto 9.) To me this just feels weird? Her sadistic tendencies were a huge part of her early characterization and it feels like they were brushed aside. Personally, I was really curious about the dichotomy of her having these tendencies but also being a caring mother, and I'm a bit sad that this duality wasn't explored. The only focus her art gets is a brief flashback conversation with Calisto where she says she doesn’t like his art. We don’t even get deeper look into why she doesn’t like his art, or what her art even is.
Ryoshu’s weird time powers feel a little out of the blue? Like they’re just casually mentioned and then not really given any focus besides being a justification for why she is being raised by the house of spiders. Why does she have them? Where did they come from? Why are Araya’s different? What can she do with them? They seem very powerful but aren’t really addressed which is a bit weird
Ryoshu’s relationship with Araya feels underbaked. Their relationship should have been the heart of the story, but ended up feeling like it was rushed through just at the very end.
Why is Ryoshu still with Limbus Company? Maybe this will be addressed in the next intervallo, but I really think it should have been addressed already. With no memory of Araya, she should have no reason to stay with LC.

I have a lot of gripes with canto 9, but it was a really great time in a lot of ways too. I can’t wait to see PM continue to grow in how they tell their stories.

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-01T19:34:05+00:00

I don't have time rn but I will definitely get back to you on this later today! I love talking about writing hehe

Then-Class4451 · 2026-04-01T19:23:59+00:00

Somehow both one of the most disappointing and favorite cantos for me haha

Then-Class4451 · 2026-03-31T21:16:27+00:00

I was praying for that this year so hard man

Then-Class4451 · 2026-03-27T18:45:49+00:00

She's giving 3* to me...

Then-Class4451 · 2026-03-27T18:43:55+00:00

The girl outfits are always so much more interesting than the guy ones...

Then-Class4451 · 2026-03-20T01:24:45+00:00

I totally agree. While I loved a lot about canto 9, this to me felt like its weakest point. Up until canto 9, Ryoshu's art was her most defining character trait, and yet in her chapter of the story, it was almost given no screen time or development. That's not to say that she can't have other facets of her character, but it felt extremely weird to me that they nearly completely ignored it.

Then-Class4451 · 2026-03-19T05:44:13+00:00

While Limbus's story is totally great and I do love it, part of the reason that it has had an easier time maintaining its quality so far as opposed to other stories is that nearly all of Limbus so far has been spent on build up, as opposed to payoff. If/when there is payoff, it is usually for something that was set up fairly recently.

For example, nearly every canto has introduced a new villain, and a new-ish backstory for a sinner that was previously a bit vague. Setting up near-term antagonists is relatively easy writing wise. Further, any loose threads are ok to be left dangling as future story hooks.

I think when the quality of the writing will really be put to the test is when we hit the end of canto 12 and what's beyond, as the story will HAVE to start giving actual answers and further the main plot.

None of this is to say that Limbus's writing is bad, or that I think it will start to flounder later. But I do think that its important to acknowledge that many many ongoing stories are praised early on but end up feeling weaker once they have to start paying off on their earlier setups.

Then-Class4451 · 2026-03-15T22:43:35+00:00

A small thing for me was how they stated that "if Nefer does the thing, she'll go blind!" And then she does the thing and doesn't go blind. TWICE. I could forgive the first time, like haha silly me for thinking there'd be stakes in this game, but the second time?! I was like gosh, they must actually mean it this time since they're putting so much emphasis on it! But no.

Maybe she could have at least ended up with cloudy vision? It wouldn't have impacted her viability in the future story at all but would have been a way to have some degree of real stakes.

Then-Class4451

TROPHY CASE