Redemption Arcs: How to Make them Work

Long time no see!

I've been on hiatus for the holidays, and the rest has been great. My ideas for my current WIPs and future books have been developing well, and I've had time to think about writing as a concept. I also saw the new Star Wars movie and have been revisiting Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

And, as a result, I want to talk to you about redemption arcs. (For those of you who don't have time for the whole discussion, there's a tl;dr tag below for you to skip to.)

Everyone likes a redemption story. We love to hear about a bad guy seeing the error of their ways and becoming a good guy by the end of a story. Think A Christmas Carol. The whole story is all about Scrooge's redemption arc, and we love it!

That said, I don't think all redemption arcs work evenly. Some are excellent, heartwarming tales . . . that are super unrealistic. Some are very realistic but lack the right kind of punch, don't they? This guy is a good guy now, but before he was just kind of a jerk (I don't consider Steve Harrington's story from Stranger Things a real good example of this trope, for this reason - though I love Steve as a character).

We want our stories to be interesting, but we want them to ring true. If a character seems to change too fast, given what they've done, readers don't feel like justice has been served and that the author just wants them to accept the redemption. But if the change takes a long time for a small fault, it's not really redemption, is it?
And redemption is hard. Hey, I totally believe at any moment that a person can change their direction, but that's just it. It's a change in direction, not a total arrival at a new state of mind in a moment. Actions in the past have consequences, and people who change will still struggle with old mindsets and habits until new ones form.

Stories, though, don't always have the time to put into a full transformation. So they have to somehow balance the redemption with the realism. Let's look at a couple and see what they do to make the story work.

A classic redemption story is that of Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Scrooge is a horrible miser. He's cold and unfeeling and loves money more than people. In one night, he's subjected to multiple ghostly visitors who show him the error of his ways so that he changes to a man who is generous, loves Christmas, and helps those who need it.

Okay, an overnight change isn't very realistic. Miser to generous? That doesn't happen.

Yet this story works for so many people. It could be because it's just so gosh-darn heartwarming. Or it could work for the following reasons:

1. Scrooge is a small-scale sinner. A miser, yes, but hoarding money isn't the same as actively killing people or destroying lives (although the effect may be the same). Scrooge's sin is a blindness to the needs of the world around him, and, honestly, his own place in the world, and that's easier to combat than years of active evil.

2. He has people pushing him to make a change: his only friend's ghost, and then three supernatural powers that can show him where he went wrong, the present good he's missing and the consequences of his actions, leading to his own death. These are counselors; Scrooge wouldn't change on his own, but yeah, a silent ghost revealing the miser's own grave to him may do the trick.

3. It's important to remember that we only see the start of the change. We don't see later days when Scrooge starts to fall back on old habits and have to work to ignore them. Ending the book on Christmas Day keeps the arc intact and we can happily believe in the overall change.

Okay, another example. My favorite one: Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Excellent redemption arc. Zuko begins the story as the main villain, a Fire Nation prince seeking the Avatar. He attacks villages and throws tantrums and is a pretty nasty guy. Nasty enough, at the start, for us to dislike him and root against him. He is unlikely to change on his own. But Zuko's arc works for a number of reasons:

1. He travels with Uncle Iroh, a wise, kind family member and counselor who teaches him how to let go of his anger and become a good man.

2. Zuko's no monster. Yes, he attacks villages in his hunt for the Avatar. But we don't see proof that he's a murderer, or that he enjoys these attacks. We also know he's driven by a desire to regain honor and a place with his family, and I, personally, can't blame these motives. Zuko's actions lay more in a belief in the righteousness of the Fire Nation's actions and anger at his exile. He's not seeking power or dominion, and we can believe that in time, his views may change.

3. We see positive traits in Zuko. We see his love for his uncle (and his uncle's for him) and we even see him rescue Aang from a worse foe. He's sympathetic in objective ways, and not just because the writers tell us we should like him.

4. It takes a long time. We see Zuko struggle with doing the right thing over the course of 3 seasons. And he struggles. When given the chance to go home, get everything he wants, he takes it and only after realizes it was the wrong choice. We see him figure out the right thing to do and be terrible at it.

5. And, when Zuko does change, the heroes aren't eager to accept him. They don't trust him and it takes time for them to warm to him.

This is realistic and has real impact. The heroes, the people Zuko actively wronged for months, have to struggle to believe that he has changed, and Zuko's path is not an easy one. We see him make progress, only to backslide. We see Iroh working with him time and time again. When Zuko's redemption comes, we truly believe it.

For those of you looking to write a redemption arc, this one's a good one to study.

But what do you do when your character is a monster? When they've committed mass murder and are very hardened?

Consider Scar's arc in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. 

 
Scar murders many, many people, and tries to kill Ed. This is out of revenge for atrocities committed against his people, which is something we can understand, even if we don't condone it.

Traits of Scar's arc include:

1. A mentor appears, an old teacher of Scar's, who cautions him against revenge. (I'm seeing a trend here with counselors in redemption arcs.)

2. Scar has a face-to-face encounter with a girl whose parents he killed out of anger and revenge, and sees her consider killing him. He is forced to see what happens when revenge goes unchecked, and he has to face that this time, he's the monster that committed an atrocity, and that begins to change him. (On a side note, he also sees forgiveness, and that affects him, too.)

3. Scar comes to realize who his true enemies are (not the people he's been killing) and he fights with the heroes against those foes. We also see other people not really comfortable with this.

4. Along with point #3, we see Scar's good traits. He's protective of others and will not kill anyone he hasn't targeted. Though skewed, his moral code is present. Scar acts with honor, even if it's his own standard.

5. It doesn't end. The show ends, but Scar still has restitution to make. He's done wrong and he's going to act to atone for it.

I like this arc because it lets a monster change but doesn't make it easy. Scar's change costs him a lot, and we're left knowing he has more to do to make up for what he's done. He might have more changes to make in himself.

But, if your character is beyond saving, consider pulling a Darth Vader: kill the guy.

Yeah, consider Vader. This guy is responsible for murder on a MASSIVE scale. He got his start by killing children, for crying out loud. This guy's cape is soaked in blood. Vader has committed genocide, and goes through subordinates like tissues.

What would it take to redeem this guy, realistically? A heck of a lot. Lucas didn't have that kind of time, so what happens? Vader does one good thing, at the very end, and saves his son from the Emperor. Then he promptly dies.

This cuts the arc off. We don't have to wonder if Vader "deserves" a second chance, because he doesn't live long enough to get it. But we can believe that maybe, in that last moment, he decided to turn to the light. (In fact, that's exactly what we're supposed to believe.) As a result, this makes the arc unproblematic. Don't believe he'd turn good? Well, he's dead. Who knows what he'd do?

I'm being a little dismissive, but honestly, sometimes this is all you have. It's not always believable that a character this depraved would just suddenly become good. But we can believe that he'd make one good decision, maybe even start the change, and then die before he can finish it (though in Vader's case, the redemption may take freakin' decades). The death, also, works as a form of justice: this character deserves to die. Maybe they redeemed themselves, in a way, but there are still consequences for torturing their own daughter.

TL;DR people, start here:

What does this mean for you? Well, you can start by reading between the lines here and see my thoughts on a certain other, recent Star Wars redemption arc and whether or not I think they did the right thing. But it also means that if you're writing a redemption arc you need to consider what reader will accept as a true redemption.

How depraved is this character? What have they done, and who have they done it to?

Thus, what will it take to change their hearts and minds? Will they need counselors to help them see the light? Will the heroes struggle to accept them or will they reject them? Is your character so far gone that all they can really accomplish is a final act of good before receiving the justice of death?

Like I said, redemption arcs are hard. It's not easy to change from bad to good, although the choice can be made at any moment, and good habits can begin to form immediately. We need redemption stories to remind us that we're not doomed to be the people we used to be, forever. That's why they need to be written well.

I'd love to know what you think. Have I missed some key points about redemption arcs? Do you know any really good, or really bad, arcs that might be worth studying? Comment about it!