Six for Sunday: Fav Character ARCs

Six for Sunday is a bookish meme created and hosted by Steph at A Little But a Lot.

---

This Sunday’s topic:

Favorite Character ARCs

Zuko

Prince Zuko is one of my favorite characters from the Avatar: the Last Airbender TV show. His character arc is one of redemption. He goes from being an ostracized prince desperately seeking to regain his honor — and his father’s acceptance/love — by capturing Avatar Aang to slowly, and painfully, learning what his purpose is and trying to make up for the wrongs he had done in the past. He is one of the most complex and interesting characters in show. You can’t help being drawn to him.

Alise Kincarron

Alise is one of my favorite characters from Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings books (specifically from the Rain Wild Chronicles). Alise’s character arc is one of discovery, because as she travels up the Rain Wild river to discover more about dragons, where they came from and how they once lived, she also discovers herself, who she is and who she wants to be when she is free from societal constraints. Alise is a gentlewoman from a middle-class merchant family and is thus forced to uphold certain standards. I love it that the further she sails into the wildness of the Rain Wilds, the more we see her shrug off such restraining standards and make her own decisions about how to progress with her life.

Jezal dan Luthar

Jezal is from the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie, of which I’ve read the first two books. So far, his character arc is one of humility, which he seems to learn in the second book, Before They Are Hanged, although I am skeptical because of how selfish, self-centered, and vain Jezal was in the first book and parts of the second one. Granted, getting smashed in his pretty face is a sure way to smack some humility into him, but I can see him quickly forgetting that lesson if the opportunity presents itself. I’m curious about what will become of him later. He isn’t a favorite of mine (that goes to Glokta and Logen/Bloody-Nine and Dogman), and I actually thought him a little silly back in his vain days of book one, but the humility he gained has made him interesting. I like it when he reflects and winces at how much of an ass he was back in the day.

Maia

Ahh, Maia. He’s another favorite of mine. Maia is from Katherine Addison’s novel The Goblin Emperor. I’d say his character arc is one of growth and maturity as the responsibilities of being emperor of a nation is suddenly thrusted upon him, and we observe as Maia struggles to accept and manage such responsibilities. It makes us sympathetic toward him, especially since the story is all from his POV, so we deeply understand that he’s unprepared for the role and is anxious about it and is desperately trying to do his best. I plan to read Addison’s second novel set in this world, The Witness for the Dead, in hopes that we get a paragraph or two about how Maia is getting on as an emperor.

Owen Wedgwood

Wedgwood is a renowned chef in Eli Brown’s Cinnamon and Gunpowder. It’s his POV we read from as he tells us of his adventures aboard the Flying Rose after being kidnapped by its pirate captain, Mad Hannah Mabbot. I guess Wedgwood’s character arc is one of enlightenment because he learns much while aboard Mabbot’s ship, chief of which is how little he knows of the world and especially his employer, who he once revered. I enjoyed seeing how Wedgwood’s regard for the captain and crew of the Flying Rose changes. He’s a very stubborn man, so it took MUCH for him to change his tune.

Lupe dy Cazaril

Caz! 😊 I smile whenever I think of this character. He’s another favorite, of course. Caz is a former soldier in The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. I guess his character arc is one of sacrifice, because it’s due to his sacrifices that a great curse is able to be lifted from the royal family. His story is such an interesting one, especially when you try to puzzle out exactly when the gods began fiddling with his life to make him a prime candidate to lift the curse.

---

So, are you familiar with these characters?

Let me know below.