Redemption arcs

[mαrkαsscoρ]

When a character that was once bad at the start of the story ends up turning good by the end. A bit of a simplification but that's the idea. The most notable one that a lot of us here know is Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, where he was the main bad guy of season 1 but went through much hardships and self reflection during the series until finally joining w/ Aang and co. by the end of season 3. There's also Darth Vader from Star Wars who was a bad guy throughout the movies, but came to at the end of Episode 6 and threw the Emperor into the shaft.

What are some other noteworthy redemption arcs that you've seen in TV, movies, or video games?

Sticking to Nickelodeon, one quick one I thought about was Suzie Crabgrass from Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. In season 1, she was primarily among the stuck up popular crowd. But she gradually got more friendly w/ Ned and Moze until she finally left behind the popular kids to be w/ Ned. Then they kinda wrote her off in the last season but that's a different topic.

 

[VikzeLink]

First one that comes to mind would be Piccolo from Dragon Ball, starts out as a villain, then slowly moves into anti-hero status, and then ends up one of the good guys. Actually Vegeta has the exact same arc, just happens a bit later, as he is introduced to the story later XD

From Spirit Tracks we've got Staven, who was actually good before the game started, then became bad, then back to good again in the end. To a lesser degree, Groose from SS, as he started out as a bully, but ended up helping Link holding back the Imprisoned.

Hector Barbossa from the PotC franchise is one of my favorites. He is the main villain in the first movie, dies, and then comes back in the end of the second movie, but now as a frenemy. He sorta stays that way until his end in the 5th movie when he sacrifices his life to save his daughter, who he'd just met.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

Joy from inside out and Joe from soul

 

[Uwu_Oocoo2]

First thing I thought of is Dinobot from Transformers Beast Wars. He started off a predacon, but ended up betraying them and joining the maximals. He spends forever gaining their trust and learning to be a good guy, he becomes a valued member of the team. Eventually he ends up doing something he thinks is right but in doing it betrays his friends. He spends the next few episodes trying to gain their trust back, which is pretty much impossible by that point, and spoiler alert almost commits honor suicide and eventually dies saving innocents and righting his wrongs. So it's kind of the opposite of something of the other examples here, where he starts off okay but then screws up and needs to redeem himself.
One thing I hate about redemption arcs is that depending on how bad a person's deeds are sometimes they'll have to die to right them. But by trying to show the person realizing they were wrong you start to actually like the character, and it completely sucks when they die.

 

[Ninja]

Vegeta from Dragonball has numerous redemption arcs, one of my favorites being his sacrifice in his battle with Majin Buu.