I see! that makes sense, sorry for the inconvenience, glad you didnt take my mistrust the wrong way
I'm doing all this because drawing and animating a character, really is like being both a character designer and an actor, and you need a character functioning in a story to do that properly, since you dont have one a character tree works.
The character tree video isnt super explanatory, but it's a start. it's about more than going from stereotypes to specific scenes. (they REALLY fuck up when they say the crown is the stereotype)
if I had to sum it up:
-the facts of a person is not what they are (feet)
-their inmediate, puerile wants are also not what they are (groin)
-what they need to learn before they achieve their dreams isnt what they are (heart)
-how they see themselves, how they appear to others, how they present themselves to others..also not what they are (throat)
-their logical abilities and qualities is not what they are (l cheek)
-their spirituality, ideallistic aspects, intuitivity and impractical notions is not who they are (r cheek
-it is the complex, on the surface contradicting yet upon inspection somehow coherent sum of all of this parts that makes a character.
You may go to filmcrithulk's article to see a larger list (scroll down to the list, you dont have to read the whole hulk-sized article).
Full characters are like a soup where the overall flavor makes sense, and you may pick up on SOME ingredients but it's hard to pick apart andd separate every little thing. Flat characters are exactly what they seem, full characters seem to be one thing overall, but details hint they are something else, and at full inspection reveal many many more qualities than what initially appeared to be.
Looking at your character I just see shoeless girl in pants and shirt with a braid. On top of that the animations just looked like x character doing x fightgame thing, it barely sketches at feet in character tree terminology.
Is she shoeless because she's a bit hippy and she loves nature? is it because she's kinda tomboyish and gross? homeless? is the braid for practicality? the hippy thing again and it seems more "natural" to her? why just shirt and pants? not sure of herself enough to dress herself up? just practical? what?
This is why when you said "next level" I inmediately thought of this. Most fightgame characters go up just to groin, maybe heart, maaaaybe throat.
The ideal thing with character design, is to make someone as interesting as a random person you might take a photo of in the street. That's hard, but you should atleast have a stereotype visually(up to groin), and with the details imply the rest ( atleast show groin, better with throat, hopefully heart, ideally everything)
So this character tree thing isnt a bible, it's just an easy roadmap I can show you to get you thinking about character depth.
If you had a sense of who they are as you would someone you know it'd help you think of when they would hesitate, when they would be sure of themselves, etc(what an actor does).
When you animate, the character is constantly thinking and reacting to what happens. Think of it as a feedback loop that fuels the next motion.
I know you wont be animating a sequence (run, jump, run, punch, wait, spot another enemy, punch) instead just each action independent of eachother, BUT knowing who they are will give you a clue of how they see each action.
Say, maybe you have a very sure of herself fancy woman, who only thinks of getting ahead in her carrer. She might run in a very careful way not to ruin her clothes, still, her strides are long and she looks ahead without wavering because of her ambition. But when punching she may be very energetic and agressive, displaying no finesse, forgetting her dress entirely because her (groin) ambition and ego far overpwoer her fancy idea of herself (throat). Maybe when she jumps she feels as if she's getting above the other person so she has a smug attitue about it, maybe she is a little shy because she has a skirt so she has a protective look to her face on top of that, or maybe she doesnt even think about that because she so full of adrenaline her mind's busy trying to get to the best spot for the next attack....see how this is relevant? character gives animation the "next level" of interest.
all this said, thinking about it with JUST sprite animation you can do feet, groin clearly. The rest you would have to hint at if you were good, but the whole groin/heart contradiction is clearly writer talk, you need to see a character go trough an ordeal and come out the other side a more grown person but still the same in essence, and you cant do that if there is no before and after, just the same animations over and over.
I guess I'm saying dont sweat it with all this stuff, you dont have to check every mark but do try to get as much of it hinted as you can.