Character Development

Redemption arcs are a common character device for writers to use in pretty much all genres of writing. Whether it be drama, fantasy or adventure there is sure to be a redemption arc for someone. Some are done not so well (Snape), and some are done very well. Those are the stories we are going to talk about. We know that I am very passionate about character driven stories and redemption arcs are a huge part of that. So here is a list of characters I think have the best character development of all time. Some of these aren’t necessarily redemption arcs but they do demonstrate incredible development and drastic positive changes.

We are starting with the obvious here, Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender. This is a child who was cast out by his father and is essentially wandering the earth looking for something to gain his father’s approval. But through his travels and his contact with people with empathy and compassion, he realized that the only person he needed approval from was himself. He becomes one of the good guys and fights against his family for what’s right. Zuko is one of my favorite characters of all time and his story is easily one of the best character development stories in the history of television. His change doesn’t happen all at once, it's slow and gradual and he struggles with it.

Let’s move into a different genre here with Brooke Davis from One Tree Hill. One Tree Hill is a wildly popular teen drama that features a very strong ensemble cast, it is a pretty common opinion that the two characters with the strongest arcs are also the best characters, Nathan Scott and Brooke Davis. They are both rich kids with abusive/neglectful parents. They are both popular, a basketball player and a cheerleader. And they are both a little lost at the beginning of the series. Nathan is an asshole, Brooke is a slut. And then they find people that they love; Haley and Lucas respectively and they start to change, and while Haley continues to be Nathan’s anchor, Brooke learns that the person that she needs to connect to is herself. Learning to love herself is what saves her. Both stories are equally beautiful and well written and though the plots in the show get a little buckwild, the character development is incredible.

Another one of my most favorite character development arcs is Elenor Shelstrop from The Good Place. Obviously when Elenor arrives in the “good” place she is not great as a person (because they are actually in the bad place) but through meeting and falling in love with Chidi she learns how to become a good person. The best part about this particular character arc is that we get to watch her become a better person over and over again in different ways. Her catalyst is always Chidi but how long it takes her and in what ways she develops is different every time. And even as she starts to do things for other people, and starts to put others in front of herself she struggles. She struggles with her mom becoming a better person, she struggles with not running when situations get hard. But she learns and grows and allows people to get close to her.

Great character development is memorable, slow and sometimes labored. But character development can make or break a story. It either makes a show incredible or awful. It's literally one of the metrics to determine whether or not a project is good and worth watching. These are obviously just a few of my favorite arcs. Only two of them really qualify as redemption arcs but all are examples of truly incredibly written character development.