/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I re-read phase 1 recently, and it's really not that bad. There are too many public bath chapters with too much walls of peace, and there isn't enough going on character-wise with Miyaos chivalric order while the conflict is escalating, but all of that is basically contained to a couple of chapters around the bloodmoon. Feels like Ryukishi just didn't know what to do with the characters while they were waiting for christmas, and after thinking about it for a bit I think I understand why.
The gauntletknights have a few hopeful moments that lead nowhere (the world peace summit), they make attempts at breaking the bounds of their roles as gamepieces that also go nowhere (Rethabile contacting her brother, Chloe offering Miyao her help if he wants to become Big Boss), they avert a few minor crises while facing increasingly difficult challenges, but they don't display any real agency anywhere along the way to their inevitable doom.
Which is the point, obviously, but because they're oblivious to their own inconsequentiality there's no room for internal conflict, like there was in Higurashi, so there's not much potential for a story there. What should Ryukishi have done to make the build up to the finale more interesting?