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Character Development

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"You have the opportunity, here and now, to choose. To become something greater and nobler, and more difficult than what you were before. The universe does not offer such chances often, G'kar."
Nameless Narn, Babylon 5, "Dust to Dust"

Character Development is, by definition, the change in characterization of a Dynamic Character, who changes over the course of a narrative. At its core, it shows a character changing. Most narrative fiction in any media will feature some display of this.

While the definition of "good" and "bad" character development is subjective, it's generally agreed upon that good character development is believable and rounds out a well-written character. Bad character development leads to the feeling that someone is manipulating the events to their own whims, or even reduces the character's believability.

There are many sub-tropes that take place due to this trope, some of which include:

These are hardly the only examples. The Evil Twin of Character Development is Character Derailment. Beware this trope. To see the opposite of this trope, see Static Character. See also Flat Character and Rounded Character. Compare Hidden Depths, where something is revealed that was true all along, but would not have been visible before.


 
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Alternative Title(s): Character Arc

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Walt in season 1 vs season 5

Near the beginning of season 1, Walt crosses a dangerous drug dealer and holds him captive so he doesn't come after Walt and his family. He just wants to set Krazy-8 free and not have to worry about him again, but is forced to kill him in self defense, apologizing profusely all the while with tears in his eyes. In the last episode of the series, it's as easy as pointing and clicking.

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