User blog comment:Rossker1/Character Development Talk/@comment-28602918-20171229192759

This is kinda in the same vein as Kusa's advice but I feel like you might benefit from letting loose a bit. First get to really know your character. Generally, I start with the small things, what do they like/dislike and then when I have a skeletal structure of their personality I imagine utterly random scenarios and place said character in them. They don't have to be one you would actually use in their story, but just instances your character found themselves in your mind so you can get to know them better. For example: if two friends fought what would they do? Leave it, intervene, make it worse. This exercise really helps me establish my character and like Kusa said, once I have a firmer grasp on them scenario it's much easier to imagine their story. But here comes the other half of this advice.

What is their purpose in the story? I wouldn't worry now about cliches or canon. First decide what your character's purpose is and then you can work on how they achieve it. I say don't worry about cliches and canon at this point because you can keep improving their story as you develop it more and more but it is easier once you have a baseline to work with.

You said you didn't like how canon ended so why not change it. I know some people frown upon changing the status quo but changing evens, at least to me isn't an issue. If anything it would be a natural thing to do the more involved one's character becomes with the plot. (events are determined by character interactions so adding even an extra character could change said interactions)