Top Ten Tuesday | Redeemed Characters

Posted September 16, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 20 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Ten Characters Authors Surprisingly Redeemed (which characters did you not like at first, but grew to love by the end of the book?) 

Topics like this one are difficult because while I’ve definitely got a whole bunch of characters I didn’t like that I ended up liking, I can never think of them when I need them! But I did some digging and went through my books read and managed to come up with ten, whew!

Top Ten Redeemed Characters

  1. Glokta from The Blade Itself (and the whole The First Law Trilogy) – He’s a royally sanctioned torturer and inquisitor and does a lot of bad things. But he’s also a very interesting character and may be my favorite character in the series.
  2. Mary from The Secret Garden – She starts out really spoiled and contrary, which to be fair, isn’t really her fault, but becomes such a lovely person in the end.
  3. Colin from The Secret Garden – Another spoiled and annoying child who becomes a much nicer person.
  4. Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol – He starts out so horrible and stingy that his name has become synonymous with stinginess.
  5. Jaime Lannister from A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire series) – There are several other characters who have redemption stories in this series, but I think Jaime’s arc is one of my favorites.
  6. Naomi from You Deserve Each Other – Naomi and Nicholas, listed below, are the MCs of this book and they are both insufferable at the beginning of the book to the point that you don’t know how you could enjoy the story at all. I was happily surprised to be wrong.
  7. Nicholas from You Deserve Each Other – See above.
  8. Linus from The House in the Cerulean Sea – Linus wasn’t evil or anything, just naive and maybe too much of a rule-follower, but sometimes the people who are “just doing their jobs” can cause a lot of harm. Glad to see things change.
  9. Cardan from The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air series) – He was such an insufferable bully. I hated him. Then I loved him.
  10. Boromir from The Lord of the Rings – Maybe one of the most well-known examples of redeemed characters? Or maybe it’s just because LOTR is one of the most well-known books! Either way.

Have you read any of these books? Did you like any of these characters? Who are your favorite redeemed characters?

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20 responses to “Top Ten Tuesday | Redeemed Characters”

  1. Rissi JC

    Scrooge would have been a great one to add to my list (and I needed more names!). I don’t know that I ever read the book, but Mary in the film adaptations of The Secret Garden is definitely a character in need of change. At least at the start. 🙂

    Reply
    • Haze

      So true! I didn’t like Mary at first, even less so when I read it as a child. I think I see it differently as an adult reading about a neglected child.

      Reply
  4. Alice

    Secret Garden is a good one for this list! I read that as a child and I’d almost forgotten about it! I had a paperback book and I’d listen to the audiobook on cassette a lot, especially if I was off sick from school!

    Reply
  12. Jaime

    Oohhhh, Mary and Colin are GREAT examples for redeemed characters! As is Boromir. I love Boromir for so many different reasons. Great list! 🙂

    Reply

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