January Talking Meme 2018 - January 1
Jan. 1st, 2018 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimorie“What does a good redemption arc look like? What are your preferences?” for
A good redemption arc, is I think, a really fine balancing act and for me there are several baseline requirements for a good redemption story:
1) The character’s previous actions against the protagonists or the characters around them shouldn’t be forgotten. 2) No blame shifting. They own their actions: the terrible and everything in between that led them to the path they were on. 3) The character is self-aware and clear eyed about themselves. Other people might think different but when it comes to it, the character knows who they are. 4) Most importantly, the narrative should know this too. There’s a world of difference IMO, between understanding a motivation and excusing as a motivation. 5) Change and redemption shouldn’t be easy or clean. It is hard, and it’s a struggle, and sometimes they fall off it and stand again. The important thing is the struggle.
In this category, I think Zuko of Avatar the Last Airbender really checks all boxes, IMO. And, its still amazing to me a kid’s show is more nuanced than other shows dealing with the same storyline. Some writers completely re-write their characters into someone really sympathetic and turn them into woobies.
IMO AtLA really struck the balance well. Zuko started out rough. He was angry, raging at everything, blaming everyone else. He was unhappy, and made sure everyone knew it.
I love that Zuko’s character journey was an upward struggle that took the whole show building him up and tearing him down, until he gets the one thing he always desired and realized that what he was always strove for didn’t fit him anymore.
In a way, I think Rachel Duncan of Orphan Black shared a similar journey, except that Rachel was more entrenched in the culture and it took longer for her to actively decide to change. In a lot of ways I feel like Rachel is Azula who got Zuko’s character journey. Except Rachel’s story finished before she got to something paralleling Zuko’s ending. What she got instead was, the goal she always wanted achieved but without the acceptance of a family she really wanted more above everything and a possibility in a distant future for Rachel to maybe, possibly be accepted into her sisters' family.
Other honorable mentions: Root (POI), Tess Mercer (Smallville), and even Missy (Doctor Who).
I hope this make sense?
tumblr: here
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Date: 2018-01-01 05:41 pm (UTC)...and now I want to rewatch Xena to see how it does with this
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Date: 2018-01-02 12:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-02 12:45 am (UTC)