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StarkвЂ™s lowest and most powerless moment, and his extreme vulnerability-his heart, threatened by shrapnel-leads to his superhero strength. To me, thatвЂ™s the really fascinating thing about the Iron Man character arc. The experience also gives him his first motivation to do so. This inspires him to design a better suit, enabling him to be a superhero and right some wrongs. He comes close to death, and escapes because he and a sympathetic doctor engineer an iron suit that not only protects his heart from shrapnel, but also serves as both armor and weapon. TonyвЂ™s вЂњinciting incidentвЂќ is when heвЂ™s kidnapped by terrorists.

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Of course, his character arc doesnвЂ™t happen all in the first movie, but over the series (something to consider, if youвЂ™re writing a fantasy, scifi, dystopian, or other type of series yourself.) HereвЂ™s an overview of how he changes in just the first movie, bit by bit. LetвЂ™s talk about the Tony Stark character arc! Tony goes from a charming and brilliant but selfish billionaire playboyвЂ¦to a charming and brilliant, self-sacrificing, committedВ billionaire superhero.

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Hopefully, theyвЂ™ll give you more inspiration concerning how to write character arcs (or, they may just remind you that youвЂ™re already great at doing this!)Д«y the way, these examples contain spoilers!

If youвЂ™re wondering what the difference is between this and вЂњthe heroвЂ™s journey,вЂќ well, the heroвЂ™s journey is one very popular type of character arc.Д«ut there are other types of character arcs, too! Here are seven examples from movies and books. When we get near the end of the story and our hero is saying or doing things they would have never said or done at the beginning of the story, thatвЂ™s really fun and exciting. Besides, theyвЂ™re just plain entertaining. Why are character arcs so important to us in stories? Probably because they remind us of our own possibilities for change, growth, and improvement. (IвЂ™ll talk about this more with the first example below.) Ideally, we see the character change (through actions, or at least through their thoughts) at a few key moments, or turning points. It takes a lot of thought!ДЄ successful character arc doesnвЂ™t happen all at once a sudden about-face is confusing and unconvincing for the reader. This seems simple enough, but a character arc is actually hard to write. But not always! A descent into evil is also a character arc. Usually, they become better: stronger, kinder, wiser, more competent, or more successful. The character faces challenges to their goals, their identity, their worldview, or even their very survival, and they adapt and change in response to it. Simply put, the definition of a character arc is the way the character grows and changes over the course of a story. In my day job in publishing, whenever weвЂ™re discussing a new story, one thing weвЂ™re often asking is, вЂњWhatвЂ™s the character arc?вЂќ (ItвЂ™s also a reason we pass on a lot of stories: вЂњI donвЂ™t understand his arc.вЂќ)В Without a strong character arc, the reader (or the editor) may be left thinking, вЂњSo what? Why should I care?вЂќ

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