There’s just something about a prickly, unfriendly vagabond going through a life-defining character arc to become a well-developed paragon of goodwill.
Redemption arcs are plotlines where an originally generally villainous character for one reason or another changes their ways and becomes a nebulously morally good person. These are popular for many reasons; people like seeing aggressive people show their vulnerable sides, especially when they’re attractive, which many of these characters are. (See Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries and Villanelle from Killing Eve.)
I believe that the interest in these stories comes from learning about what exactly made these villains have a change of heart. Change is not easy, especially when it means evaluating your entire ideology and admitting you’ve done wrong. But ultimately, this is what makes these stories so compelling.
These stories can be told in a lot of different ways. Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) showed us how a redemption arc can be carefully planned and masterfully executed. Catra from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) shows how forgiveness can be the first step towards growth. Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars movies shows that it is never too late to change.
These are my favorite redemption stories.
I had to start with Mr. Redemption Arc himself.
From the 2005 Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, Zuko is kinda the redemption arc guy. Over the course of 3 seasons and 61 episodes, Zuko goes from bald, aggressive villain to a misunderstood, shy, earnest teenager looking to do good. And you can tell that the showrunners knew from the start where they wanted to go with Zuko, which is the hallmark of a good redemption arc. Redemption arcs need to be thoroughly planned out and then executed; throwing out a half-hearted effort to make a former villain sympathetic is much less effective.
Zuko’s first appearance comes in the first episode of A:TLA, “The Boy in the Iceberg”. Immediately, Zuko is the main antagonist of the show, harassing the defenseless Southern Water Tribe elderly and children while searching for Aang. Even on the promotional poster for season one, Zuko’s scarred visage looms over the main trio of Aang, Katara and Sokka as the clear villain. And yet, it is clear from even the third episode that Zuko is not evil when Zuko shows mercy to a rival who does not reciprocate. Later in the season, he saves Aang, his enemy, for what he says are selfish reasons, but Aang says otherwise, foreshadowing Zuko’s future.
It’s easy to attribute Zuko’s ability to be redeemed to his child abuse and the circumstances that brought him to his cruelty. I think Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino were smart about their portrayal of Zuko. Instead of being lazy and portraying him as a one-note, flat character plot piece, their writing shows Zuko’s propensity for growth from even the first episode. This makes Zuko’s redemption much more believable, and ultimately, much more satisfying.
This same attention to detail continues throughout the rest of the series. From Zuko’s initial rejection of his quest to capture the Avatar to his return to the Fire Kingdom to his final rejection of his father, Zuko’s redemption arc is fleshed out, logical, and empathetic. Viewers in the late 2000s and today resonated with Zuko’s choice to do good and break away from his father because of how believable it was. We watched Zuko come to understand that his father was wrong, and that he himself was wrong for following his example. This realization allowed Zuko to finally disown his father and fully turn to good. Konietzko and DiMartino put on a masterclass in writing with Zuko’s character arc.
Catra - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Catra from the 2018 Netflix animated show She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is the youngest entry on this list. Originally from the 80s She-Ra: Princess of Power franchise, Catra has always been an antagonist, but the 2018 show takes a very different approach to Catra’s character. In the 80s, Catra was solely the main character Adora’s arch-nemesis and rival in love. In the 2010s, Catra is the childhood best friend to Adora turned arch-nemesis and love interest.
This difference leads to a deeper, more impactful story for Catra. Some of SPoP’s strongest (and darkest) themes are explored through her. Catra’s toxic attachment to Adora and how her self-worth was defined by their and other relationships was an incredibly mature theme to include in what was marketed as a children’s show.
A lot of Catra’s psyche is dominated by her abuse at the hands of Shadow Weaver, her and Adora’s surrogate mother figure in the Horde. As seen in season one episode eleven, “Promise”, Catra has always been belittled next to Adora, who is the golden child. Adora is responsible, talented, and naturally friendly even from a young age, making her valuable in the eyes of Shadow Weaver. In “Promise”, Shadow Weaver threatens a toddler-aged Catra that if she drags Adora down, Shadow Weaver would dispose of her. It’s one of many scenes where Shadow Weaver reminds Catra of her inferiority to Adora, which in turn feeds Catra’s mistrust and resentment of Adora despite their closeness.
Because Shadow Weaver serves as Adora’s mother figure, Catra wants the same affection from her. But Catra does not receive this, leading to her lashing out with cruelty just like Shadow Weaver does, because it's what she’s been taught power looks like. Catra’s violence is a defense mechanism.
While Zuko faces many of the same detriments Catra does, such as being treated as the inferior part of a duo, Zuko is able to respond much better largely due to the influence of Iroh. Catra has no Iroh. Like Azula, Catra is stuck with her manipulator and abuser while her opposite, Adora, gets to be free.
Catra’s story in SPoP is about a lot of things: self-determination, abuse, and abandonment are just some of them. But what changes Catra’s story is the sincerity in her connection to Adora. It all comes back to Adora.
Maybe that’s a bad thing, but I don’t think it is. Catra and Adora survived with each other and their shared abuse from Shadow Weaver led to an incredibly unhealthy dependency resulting in an inferiority complex within Catra and a martyr complex within Adora, who believed she had to save Catra. But this same relationship brought them comfort, love, and perhaps most important for Catra, forgiveness.
When Catra understands that she is forgiven by Adora, that Adora’s love is not conditional, her self-destructive tendencies and anger begin to fade. Catra begins to try to change. She understands that love can be given freely and her need for a defense mechanism lessens. It doesn’t happen overnight, but this is Catra’s big breakthrough.
My only gripe is that her “redemption” is somewhat easily earned. Catra’s psyche is fully explored and the audience is able to understand her own progression, but Catra is relatively easily forgiven by the rest of the main cast for her former transgressions, despite not having the knowledge we and Adora have. It may be a product of how short the show really is, but I would have appreciated Catra receiving pushback from more of the people she hurt.
In the series finale, “Heart Part 2”, Catra is able to forgive Shadow Weaver to work with her to stop the big bad that threatens their world. It is Catra’s free admission of her love for Adora that saves the day. Catra ends the series at peace with her self-worth and her relationship with Adora, free (mostly) of the damage done to her by Shadow Weaver and the Horde, all because she was able to relearn what had been taught to her through childhood abuse. Catra changes, and Etheria is the better for it.
Anakin Skywalker - Star Wars
Would you consider Anakin’s story a redemption arc? I do, if for no other reason than his change of heart in Return of the Jedi defines his character arc.
A lot of people (me included) love Anakin Skywalker for his development throughout the prequel movies and prequel series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008). The work done on Anakin’s character to expand upon and explain his downfall to become Darth Vader is less than perfect, but overall engaging and struck a chord with me and countless other fans. However, the prequels are not where Anakin’s redemption arc occurs.
The prequels are all about the events leading up to Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side and the creation of the Empire. Because they are prequels, they do not elaborate upon Anakin’s redemption in the original trilogy. The bulk of Anakin’s redemption arc is placed within one movie, Return of the Jedi (1983).
In Return of the Jedi, Anakin has been Darth Vader for over twenty three years and is essentially fully under the thumb of Palpatine, Darth Sidious. Anakin Skywalker has been dead throughout the period, replaced by Darth Vader, who says as much in the 2023 spin-off series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Anakin has given up on thinking for himself and follows Palpatine without much thought (I’m ignoring the comics here, bear with me).
Anakin is forced to think when he comes face to face with his children. Does he obey Sidious and harm his children? Or does he follow the old Anakin Skywalker who wants to save them? In The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Anakin does what he’s been doing for the last two decades and does what's best for Sidious. And yet, it's clear that his interactions with Luke have affected him in his hesitations with Sidious.
By Return of the Jedi, so much time has passed since Anakin fell to the Dark Side and massacred the Jedi Temple’s inhabitants. In that time, Darth Vader has killed and oppressed in the name of the Empire, in the name of Sidious. Vader had never shown any interest in changing his ways. But his love for Luke compels him to fight back against Sidious, allowing the Light to win. It was too late for Anakin, whose body had been so corroded that he would never have survived an escape attempt. But it wasn’t too late for him to give Luke the chance to do good.
It’s never too late to change.
This goes for Anakin, Catra, Zuko; for anybody really. It’s never too late to change, to turn things around, to learn and do good. These stories aren’t always relatable to us ordinary, non-fantastical folks, but the message stands.
You’ve been doom-scrolling for hours instead of doing your lab report? It’s not too late! Turn it in before the deadline, and if it's late, see if you can still turn it for partial credit! If you can’t, well, then at least you’ve learned something. Or maybe you’ve been neglecting a friend. Send them a hello message and start up a conversation! Ask them how they’ve been and send some love their way.
Maybe you know you’ve been doing something “wrong” for a while now. You may have been doing this for so long it feels like you can’t go back, like you can’t fix it. And maybe you can’t. But you can always choose to do good and be a good person. You can always choose to reflect, look inwards, and think critically about yourself and your actions. Are you a good person? Are you leaving a net positive on the world? Or are you sticking to old habits that hurt others?
Whether you’re a misguided prince, a traumatized cat-hybrid, or an ordinarily “bad” person, it's never too late to change. We love these stories because we like to see a person change, but they aren’t just great storylines. You too can have a change of heart.
