Redemption Arcs
Some thoughts on characters who turn over a new leaf over the course of a story.
Hey Story Crafters,
I was cleaning up my post on the strongest character archetype for my website and to post on the RevPit Fall into Fiction subreddit, when one of the examples—Avatar: The Last Airbender—got me thinking about my favorite ATLA character and his character arc: Zuko.
To me, Zuko is the perfect example of a character who undergoes a redemption arc. Yes, there are literary characters like Edmund from The Chronicles of Narnia (who embodies the Judas archetype by betraying his siblings for Turkish delights, and “The Prodigal Son” parable when he escapes The White Witch and returns to his siblings and Aslan) or Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, and even iconic movie villains like Darth Vader (who I would argue doesn’t have much of a redemptive arc at all—in the eleventh hour, he turns against the Emperor and the dark side to save his son, but isn’t given much opportunity to truly redeem himself), but Zuko’s redemption arc is one of the messiest I’ve seen in storytelling. I think what makes it relatable is that his redemption arc isn’t a perfect arc—he starts the process of redemption, backtracks, and then starts again. Literally a “one step forward, two steps back” process. His “arc” shows that redemption doesn’t have to be—and isn’t—a perfect, clear-cut process.
Context for Avatar: The Last Airbender
For those unfamiliar with Avatar: The Last Airbender, the premise is straightforward. The story world is made up of four nations—Water, Earth, Air, and Fire—based on their respective bending types. The Water Tribes are localized in the North and South Poles, the Earth Nation is the largest, spanning an entire continent, the Fire Nation is much smaller, a cluster of islands near the equator, and the Air Nomads have a temple in each hemisphere of the globe. Each nation is fairly insular.
The one person who is able to keep balance between the nations is the Avatar, the one person who is able to bend all four elements and act as a bridge to the Spirit World. Aang, the protagonist, is told at 12 years old that he’s the next Avatar—and he wants nothing to do with the responsibility. So, like any 12-year old with a flying bison, he decides to run away from his responsibilities and destiny, only to get caught in a dangerous storm. He saves himself from drowning by briefly activating his Avatar powers (the Avatar State) and waterbending and airbending himself and his bison into an air bubble…which freezes and preserves them for the next century.
In the meantime, the Fire Nation, led by an ambitious Fire Lord (leader of the nation), decides to enact an imperialist mindset and begin subjugating the other nations. Their initial strike is timed with and enabled by the appearance of a comet, which boosts the power of all combat-worthy firebenders astronomically. The current Avatar ends up killed, and the Fire Nation destroys all the Air Temples in search of the next Avatar (the Avatar Cycle goes water, earth, fire, air, so they knew the next Avatar, a.k.a. Aang, would be an airbender). When they can’t find Aang, the Fire Nation spends the next century conquering land from the other nations, colonizing them, and capturing rebel benders.
Zuko’s Redemption Arc
At the start of the series, Zuko is 16-years old and the crown prince of the Fire Nation. His goal is simple: capture the Avatar and bring him to the Fire Lord (his father), so he can restore his honor. He expects Aang to be over 100 years old, but even though Aang turns out to be a child, his goal is the same.
For a while, Zuko acts as the face of the Fire Nation—he is the antagonist Aang is meant to defeat and evade as needed. Zuko eventually becomes a major character in his own right. As more of his backstory is revealed, it becomes clear that Zuko is a product of his upbringing. He was raised to believe that the Fire Nation was conquering the other nations for their own good. A few years prior to the start of the series, he makes the mistake of showing empathy in public—speaking against his father in a war room while trying to reduce potential loss of life for Fire Nation soldiers—and he’s immediately punished (burned, badly), given an impossible task (because as far as anyone knows, the Avatar has disappeared), and banished from the Fire Nation accompanied by his uncle (Iroh), and with one ship manned with a full crew, to his name.
It becomes clear Zuko was never meant to succeed. Iroh, who already knows this, is there to act a mentor figure to guide Zuko in firebending and to a better way of thinking, to break away from the need to gain his father’s approval.
The series is split amongst the different element types in the order that Aang learns them, excluding Air: Water (Season 1), Earth (Season 2), and Fire (Season 3, the last season).
Season 1 has Zuko chasing after Aang and his gang (the Gaang, in fandom), clutching tight to the belief that capturing Aang is the way to restore his honor and return home. He sometimes helps out the Gaang, but only so other Fire Nation officials won’t be able to capture Aang and take away his ticket for returning home.
Season 2, after an assassination attempt makes it clear he can’t trust anyone from the Fire Nation, Zuko and Iroh travel across the Earth Kingdom to the capitol city of Ba Sing Se to live as refuges. This is when Zuko’s redemption arc starts.
He experiences firsthand what life is like in the colonized parts of the Earth Kingdom on the way to Ba Sing Se, and realizes that the Fire Nation isn’t necessarily making life better for the people living there. He acts selfishly at first, stealing food and other items from the locals who aren’t well-off—much to his uncle’s disapproval. On the journey to Ba Sing Se, Zuko and Iroh hide their firebending abilities and their identities. (Fun fact: Years earlier, Iroh tried and failed to lay siege to Ba Sing Se—he gave up when he learned his only son was killed in action. This is when Iroh realized the Fire Nation’s propaganda wasn’t actually what the world needed.)
While living in Ba Sing Se, Zuko tries to bury his past as the Fire Nation prince. He literally makes himself sick for an episode or two as he struggles between clinging to his past, and letting go to move on to a better future. When his fever breaks, Zuko seems to have decided to turn over a new leaf (a.k.a., one step forward).
In the season finale, Zuko helps Katara (the waterbender of the Gaang) fight his younger sister, Azula, who is an expert firebender and lightningbender. But he lets Azula get into his head with promises of returning home a hero, and turns on Katara (a.k.a., taking two steps back). The Gaang escapes with serious injuries, Azula captures Iroh and brands him a traitor, and Zuko is allowed to return home because Azula lets him take credit for killing the Avatar (spoiler: Aang isn’t dead).
In Season 3, Zuko eventually realizes that what he thought he wanted (his honor restored and returning home) isn’t what he actually wanted. He feels like an outsider in his own home and his own country, and his one ally—his uncle—is imprisoned and won’t talk to him. Iroh eventually escapes and joins with rebel forces who support the Avatar (The Order of the White Lotus). Zuko follows suit, though he tracks down and joins the Gaang to become Aang’s firebending master. Of course, though he’s allowed to join no one trusts him, and he has to prove that he’s turned over a new leaf.
Redemption Step #1: Zuko isn’t able to firebend at first when he joins the Gaang. He was taught that anger is needed to firebend, and now that he’s no longer consumed with anger, he can’t firebend. He and Aang go on a side quest to learn a healthier way to firebend.
Redemption Step #2: Zuko helps Sokka infiltrate the Fire Nation’s most impenetrable prison (Boiling Rock) to break out Sokka’s father, who is Chief of the Southern Water Tribe and a leader in the rebel forces. Azula once again appears on the scene, but this time, Zuko maintains his choice of siding with the Gaang.
Redemption Step #3: Zuko helps arrange for Katara (Sokka’s sister) to get her revenge on the Fire Nation solider who killed her mother years ago. After he helps Katara hunt the soldier down, he stands aside to let her deal justice as she sees fit.
Final Step: Zuko has a showdown with his sister on the night of the comet. In the series finale, the comet that supercharges all firebenders appears. This is when the antagonist, Fire Lord Ozai, plans to make his final, decisive strike against the world, and bring it all under Fire Nation rule. Aang goes to confront Ozai, other members of the Gaang try to slow down the most dangerous and destructive of the Fire Nation weapons, and Zuko goes to the Fire Nation royal palace to remove his sister from power and take his place as crown prince. He’s accompanied by Katara; and technically, Katara is the one who defeats Azula. But by confronting Azula, Zuko is essentially confronting the version of himself that could have been if he had chosen to side with his father. And when Azula is defeated, Zuko is able to finally put that part of himself to rest.
So, in Zuko’s redemption arc (when he reaches the actual “arc” part), he shows the core or original members of the Gang from Season 1 (Aang, Katara, and Sokka) that he has grown from the angry prince trying to capture the Avatar to someone who wants to help make the world a better place (first by stopping his father, then by changing the Fire Nation).
One critique that I have about Zuko’s redemption arc is how Iroh originally frames the two paths Zuko can choose from: (1) stay the course of the angry prince, capture the Avatar, and return to his father (and the imperialistic ideology of the Fire Nation) or (2) learn from his experiences in the world, become a better person, and use his abilities and political position to help Aang and help bring balance to the world. I can’t remember Iroh’s exact wording, but he implies that Zuko’s turmoil is caused not only by a conflict of ideology, but of bloodlines. Zuko’s paternal grandfather is the Fire Lord who started war, sending the Fire Nation abroad to conquer the other nations; his maternal grandfather is the Avatar before Aang, who tried to stop Zuko’s paternal grandfather. I think Zuko’s blood relation to the previous Avatar is supposed to justify Zuko eventually joining the Gaang and supporting Aang, but I don’t really think it was necessary. And, according to the Dark Horse comics that are set shortly after the end of the TV series, Fire Lord Ozai likely isn’t Zuko’s actual father, which would make the “warring bloodlines” framework moot.
The Wrap-Up
For a character to have an effective redemption arc:
They have to realize their current situation and actions are bad/harmful.
They undergo a transformation to move away from their initial characterization.
They perform acts of kindness for other characters (strangers or established major characters) and/or redemptive acts for the major characters to show that they’ve changed.
During the climax, they make the sacrificial play for the main character/major characters/for the greater good, cementing their redemption arc.
Do you have a favorite character with an effective redemption arc? Share in the comments!
Also, I’ve still got one (1) editing slot open for this year, and I’m starting to take on projects for 2025! If you’re a fiction author with a recently finished project—or if you plan to finish a project by the end of this month—(whether it’s a short story collection, a novella, or a novel) and you’re looking for an editor, please get in touch. If you've got a character with a redemption arc that needs reviewing, I might be the editor for the job!
Until next time!
Best,
Leah
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