The Arc of the Character

The Character Arc. It's one of those terms that's bandied about by writers, readers, reviewers, editors, agents, movie producers, etc.

But what exactly is a character arc? Some define it as the emotional progress of a character through a story. Others as the change and development a character undergoes, or the evolution of a character towards something positive, or something negative. On his website, James P. Mercurio has some interesting defintions of a character arc.

But I think it's safe to say that a character arc is some kind of change that a character undergoes during the course of a short story, novel, play, televison series or movie.

Deep Space Nine was the third incarnation of the Star Trek franchise. I'm not going to argue whether the show was the best or the worst of the franchise. I just know that for me it was one of the more interesting because it had some of the most dramatic character arcs I'd ever seen in Star Trek. Or in any other television show for that matter.

The four characters below, Captain Benjamin Sisko, Major Kira Nerys, Damar and Nog had some of the more fascinating arcs.

At the beginning of the seven year run of the series, then Commander Benjamin Sisko has recently been assigned to not only command the space station Deep Space Nine, but to assist the newly liberated inhabitants of Bajor in acquring Federation membership.

Having endured decades of occupation by the Cardassians, a militaristic alien race who enslaved the Bajorans and raped their planet of its natural resources, the Bajorans are struggling to get back on their feet.

However, the last thing Sisko wants is to raise his son on a space station, formerly a Cardassian stronghold, on the edge of the Federation. And the very last thing he wants is to be the Emissary of the Prophets of the Celesital Temple, as they are known to the Bajoran people. To Sisko, the strange beings who telepathically contact him are nothing more than wormhole aliens.

And yet, by the end of the seventh season, Sisko has not only accepted his role as Emissary, he regularly receives visions from the Prophets and in the very last episode joins the aliens in the wormhole in order to receive guidance from them.

Sisko's second in command at Deep Space Nine is Kira Nerys. She's a Bajoran national and a former freedom fighther or, as the Cardassians see her, a former terrorist. As she tells Sisko at their first meeting, she's been fighting the Cardiassians since she was old enough to pick up a phaser. And the last thing she wants is for the Federation to come along and replace the Cardassians as the overlords of Bajor.

And yet, by the end of the seventh season, Kira has not only befriended a number of Cardssians, sat and comforted a dying Cardassian who called her daughter, but in the last episode she's wearing a Federation uniform and sharing a belly laugh with three Cardassians whom she's been sent to train as freedom fighters as they struggle to free their world from the Dominion, a race of aliens even more hell-bent on conquest then they are.

Nog is a Ferengi, a race of aliens who live and breathe a credo that Gordon Gekko (played by Micheal Douglas) in the movie Wallstreet would have heartily embraced: Greed is good.

As a matter of fact the first time we see Nog he's burglarizing a store on DS9 and Sisko immediately has him arrested. By the end of the seventh season, however, Nog has not only been admitted to Star Fleet Academy, but he's become a spit and polish, by-the-book cadet. And in the last episode of the series, he's given the news, by Sisko himself, that he's been promoted to lieutenant.

And, finally, there's Damar. Damar is a Cardassian and he starts out initially as one of the officers serving under Gul Dukat, the antagonist of the entire series.

Damar is intensely loyal to Dukat and considers himself a true patriot of Cardassia. He has a great dislike of the Bajorans and an absolute loathing of Kira Nerys. And the feeling is mutal on Kira's part. Especially after Damar cold-bloodedly kills Gul Dukat's daugther, a half-Bajoran, half Cardassian woman whom Kira saw not only as a friend but as a kind of younger sister.

And yet, by the end of the series Damar has become a charismatic, heroic, rebel leader. He not only finds the strength to liberate himself from the alcoholic and self-pitying emotional morass he wallows in, as a result of his having gotten in bed with the Dominion, a tyrannical and imperalistic government that sees nothing at all wrong with sacrificing the lives of half a million Cardassian soldiers to achieve its ends, but Damar turns for help to free his world from the very woman whom, not that long ago, he would have gladly killed.

Kira Nerys.

Damar is, in fact, one of those Cardassians I mentioned earlier, with whom Kira is sharing a belly laugh as they try to figure out a way to storm the stronghold of the Dominion.

Needless to say, I love character arcs. I love when characters change, and I think a lot of readers feel the same way. Why?

Because I think we all would like to imagine or believe that we can change. That we are capable, in some way, of becoming better than what we are. That's there's hope for us to not only be better people but to create a better life for ourselves and those around us.

Not all characters have to change during a story, of course. But I think it can make for not only a more satisfying reading experience if a character does change, does arc, but an equally satisfying writing experience.