Every writer, reader, and viewer has felt it that moment when a character stops feeling like words on a page or pixels on a screen and starts feeling like a real person. That transformation does not happen by accident. It is the result of careful, intentional character development, and the best examples of it are found scattered across every storytelling medium imaginable.
Whether someone is searching for the best character development books, bingeing shows with the best character development, or studying anime characters with the best character development to sharpen their own craft, this article covers it all. It also looks at specific fan favourites from the best character development in Game of Thrones to the best character development in Stranger Things and gives writers the tools they need to know when their own character is truly ready.
What Makes Character Development “The Best”?
Before diving into specific recommendations, it helps to understand what separates good character development from the best character development of all time. The answer is not complexity for its own sake. The best-developed characters tend to share a few key traits:
- Their internal beliefs shift because of external events
- Their flaws are shown, not just mentioned
- Their growth feels earned, not rushed
- Readers and viewers feel the change before a character announces it
- They leave a mark that outlasts the story itself
With that framework in mind, here is a close look at who has the best character development and where to find it.
Best Character Development in TV Shows
What Show Has the Best Character Development?
Television has a significant advantage over film: time. A well-written series can spend dozens of hours deepening a character in ways a two-hour movie simply cannot. When people ask what show has the best character development, a few names come up again and again.
Breaking Bad remains the most commonly cited example, and with good reason. Walter White begins as a sympathetic, put-upon chemistry teacher and ends somewhere most viewers never anticipated. The series never rushes his descent, making it one of the best examples of character development in the history of television.
The Wire also deserves a mention. Its ensemble cast particularly Omar Little and McNulty shows that character development does not require a single protagonist. Entire communities can shift, crack, and reshape across a series.
Best Character Development in Game of Thrones
When it comes to the best character development in Game of Thrones, Jaime Lannister is the character most writers point to as a masterclass. Introduced as an arrogant, morally bankrupt villain, he spends seasons being stripped of everything his hand, his pride, his certainties until something more honest emerges. His arc, at least through the middle seasons, is among the most carefully constructed in prestige television.
Arya Stark and Sansa Stark both show strong arcs too. Sansa in particular moves from naive girl to sharp political survivor in a way that feels organic rather than convenient. Who has the best character development in Game of Thrones is a debate many fans enjoy, but Jaime’s early-to-middle arc is hard to beat as a writing reference.
Best Character Development in Stranger Things
The best character development in Stranger Things belongs, by most accounts, to Steve Harrington. He begins as the archetypal popular jock self-centred and performative and gradually becomes one of the show’s most genuinely warm and protective figures. His evolution is subtle enough that it feels real rather than scripted.
Eleven’s journey is also worth noting, particularly in earlier seasons. Who has the best character development in Stranger Things depends on what kind of growth a reader values internal emotional growth (Eleven) or social and moral growth (Steve). Both offer strong models for writers.
Best Character Development in TWD (The Walking Dead)
Who has the best character development in TWD is a debate that fills forums. Carol Peletier is the most discussed. She transforms from a quiet, abused woman into one of the most strategically formidable survivors in the show. Her arc is especially valuable for writers because it shows how trauma can reshape a character without erasing who they were.
Best Character Development in Books and Novels
Best Character Development Books of All Time
Books have produced some of the most enduring character arcs in storytelling history. The best character development books tend to be the ones where the internal world of the character is mapped as carefully as the external plot.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a foundational example. Jane’s growth from a powerless, overlooked child into a woman of moral conviction and self-respect is detailed, gradual, and deeply human.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky tracks Raskolnikov’s psychological unravelling and eventual moral reckoning with extraordinary precision. Few novels match it for internal character work.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini follows Amir’s journey from cowardice to redemption across decades one of the best examples of character development that combines personal guilt with cultural and political upheaval.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is one of the most emotionally demanding reads in contemporary fiction, but it offers some of the most carefully constructed character interiority in recent literary history.
Best Novels for Character Development
For readers specifically looking for the best novels for character development, the following are consistently recommended by literary critics and writing tutors alike:
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro gradual emotional revelation done with restraint
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt how complicity reshapes a person
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Janie’s journey to self-ownership
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee multigenerational identity and sacrifice
- Normal People by Sally Rooney the quiet, painful business of becoming
Best Books for Character Development (For Writers)
Writers who want to study and improve their own craft should explore books written about the craft, not just the fiction itself.
The best books on character development for writers include:
- The Art of Fiction by John Gardner still the most rigorous academic text on character interiority
- Story by Robert McKee primarily for screenwriters but deeply applicable to fiction
- Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway widely used in university writing programmes
- Creating Character Arcs by K.M. Weiland a practical, structured guide for plotting character change alongside plot structure
- The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass focuses on making character growth felt rather than just observed
These are the best books for character development that writers return to again and again.
Best Character Development in Fiction (Broader)
Best Character Development in Fiction: Honoured Examples
Looking across best character development in fiction more broadly, certain characters have become almost universally referenced in writing discussions:
- Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird) — though later novels complicated his legacy, his arc in the original remains a study in moral courage
- Humbert Humbert (Lolita) — an example of deliberate unreliable narration used to expose a character’s self-deception
- Pip (Great Expectations) — Dickens’s exploration of class anxiety and moral maturation
- Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) self-correction done with wit and grace
Best Character Development Series
For readers who want sustained arcs across multiple books, the best character development series include:
- Harry Potter — Harry, Neville, and particularly Snape reward close attention to long arc development
- The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson Kaladin’s arc across multiple volumes is frequently cited as one of the best in epic fantasy
- A Song of Ice and Fire — the source material for Game of Thrones offers even deeper character work than the show
- Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan characters change across fourteen books in ways that feel consistent but surprising
Best Character Development in Anime
Best Character Development Anime: The Top Examples
Anime has a rich tradition of long-form character storytelling. The best character development anime series treat emotional growth with the same seriousness as action or world-building.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is almost always at the top of any list. Edward Elric’s journey from angry, grieving boy to someone who understands the limits of human ambition is one of the most complete arcs in the medium.
Neon Genesis Evangelion goes further inward, using its protagonist Shinji’s paralysing anxiety and need for validation as the central tension of the series. Love it or find it difficult, its character work is unlike anything else in animation.
Vinland Saga tracks Thorfinn from revenge-obsessed child warrior to pacifist and is widely praised for how it earns that transformation over time.
Who Has the Best Character Development in Anime?
Who has the best character development in anime generates passionate debate in fan communities. The most frequently cited names include:
- Itachi Uchiha (Naruto) — his recontextualisation is one of the most discussed reveals in shonen anime
- Roy Mustang (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) grief and purpose rewriting a man’s priorities
- Thorfinn (Vinland Saga) — arguably the most complete pacifist arc in the medium
- Guts (Berserk) — trauma, survival, and the cost of endurance across decades of publication
Anime Characters with the Best Character Development
Anime characters with the best character development tend to appear in series that trust their audience. When creators give characters room to be wrong, afraid, and contradictory, the growth that follows lands harder. The examples above all share that quality.
Best Character Development in Movies
Best Movie for Character Development
Film offers tighter constraints, which means the best movie for character development uses every scene economically. Some films make a single character’s internal shift the entire argument of the movie.
Whiplash (2014) — Andrew’s obsessive pursuit of greatness, and what it costs him, is compressed into 107 minutes of almost unbearable tension.
Marriage Story (2019) — both protagonists shift during the course of a divorce in ways that feel painfully honest.
Moonlight (2016) — Chiron’s arc across three life stages is one of the most quietly devastating studies of identity in contemporary cinema.
Ratatouille (2007) — Ego the food critic’s single scene of transformation is a masterclass in showing a lifetime of hardness dissolving in a single moment.
Best Character Development Movies: Worth Watching Twice
The best character development movies often reward repeat viewing because the viewer already knows the endpoint and can trace the path more carefully. Films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Her, and The Remains of the Day (adapted from Ishiguro’s novel) all operate this way.
Characters with the Best Character Development (Cross-Medium)
Across all mediums, characters with the best character development tend to share one quality above everything else: they are wrong about something important at the start of the story, and the narrative forces them to reckon with that wrongness.
Whether it is Walter White refusing to admit he loves power, Jaime Lannister refusing to admit he has any honour, or Edward Elric refusing to accept human limitation — the arc begins with a lie the character tells themselves.
That is the writer’s most powerful tool.
How Do Writers Know Their Character Is Ready?
This is the real question underneath all the examples above. Studying the best character development of all time is only useful if a writer can translate those lessons into their own work.
Signs a Character Is Fully Developed
A character is ready when:
1. Their flaw is structural, not decorative. It should connect to the theme of the story and create the central conflict not just make them seem more interesting on the surface.
2. Their arc is traceable scene by scene. If a writer cannot point to specific moments that shifted the character, the development may be happening off-page.
3. Their voice is distinct under pressure. How a character speaks when afraid, grieving, or furious should differ from how they speak when comfortable.
4. Their growth costs them something. The best examples of character development across every medium examined in this article involve a character losing something in order to gain something more true.
5. They surprise the writer, not just the reader. When a character’s decision feels inevitable in retrospect but unexpected in the moment, development has done its job.
Final Thought
The best character development in fiction, film, anime, and television all point to the same truth: change that is earned is change that is remembered. Whether a writer is studying Jaime Lannister’s humbling, Thorfinn’s pacifism, or the quiet transformation of Jane Eyre, the lesson is the same characters do not become memorable by being perfect. They become memorable by being honestly broken, and by growing in spite of it.
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