Fiction's BEST Character Developments Explained in 20 Minutes

[00:00:00]Omniman. Omniman, also known as Nolan Grayson from the Invincible comics and TV show, comes from the Viltram Empire, an empire that is known for conquering and enslaving civilizations for their own benefit. They possess faster than light flight, super strength, and insane durability. However, their people went through something known as the Scourge virus, which wiped out 99% of their population, leaving only around 50 Viltrammites in the entire universe.

[00:00:21]That's why they sent Nolan to Earth, so he could investigate and see if humans are compatible with Viltromites. Their plan was to conquer Earth and breed with us so they could save their race. Nolan acts as a hero on Earth, hiding his true intentions and saving people while working alongside the Guardians of the Globe, who are basically Invincible's version of the Justice League. He even manages to find a wife, Debbie, with whom he has a son named Mark. At first, it seems like Nolan is forgetting his old conquering way of life. But one day at the dinner table, Mark tells his dad something that completely changes everything.

[00:00:47]>> Guess who's finally getting his powers?

[00:00:49]>> Are you sure?

[00:00:50]>> Because Mark got his powers, it means that humans are indeed compatible with Viltrammites. And Nolan's true mission of preparing Earth for Viltromite conquest can begin. In the very first episode, after Mark tells him about his powers, Nolan goes on to slaughter every single member of the Guardians, people he had fought alongside and who were essentially his friends for decades. At first, he tries to hide what he did, but Cecil ultimately finds out and confronts him, even sending a big ass kaiju to try and stop him. Mark, who is now known as Invincible, comes to help his dad, not knowing what his true intentions for Earth are. They manage to defeat the Kaiju, and Nolan tells his son the truth. Of course, Mark calls him insane, but the only one who was insane was Mark for thinking he had a choice. Omniman beats the hell out of his son, killing thousands of people in the process and destroying multiple cities. He was basically toying with him, calling his mother a pet and trying to get him to understand that there is no option other than accepting viltrammite rule. After Mark is left lying on the ground, unable to walk from the brutal beating he endured, something in Nolan snaps. He leaves Invincible alive and flies into deep space where he can even be seen shedding a tear. Nolan had traveled to Thraxa, a planet full of humanoid bugs with short lifespans where he had another child with a Thraxen and all of them were in danger from the Viltromites. Because Nolan failed his mission on Earth, they were coming to Thraxa to slaughter everyone. Just a couple of months after Mark got his beating, his dad reaches out to him to ask for help. At first, Mark is hesitant, but he ultimately accepts once he sees he has a little blue brother.

[00:02:05]They manage to fight the Viltromites off, but both of them are severely weakened. A Viltmite ship arrives to capture Nolan and send him to a Viltite prison, leaving Mark with a choice.

[00:02:13]Carry out Nolan's original mission, or they will commit mass genocide on Earth.

[00:02:16]After some time, Nolan manages to escape the prison with the help of Alan the alien. And he joins the coalition of planets to fight against his own people because he realizes they have to be stopped. Alongside Mark, his blue son Oliver, and the rest of the gang, they decide to strike the Viltromites while they are low in numbers and weakened.

[00:02:31]With the help of Mark, Theus, and the Space Racers laser gun, which fires an infinite blast that can pierce through absolutely anything forever in whatever direction it is aimed. They fly straight through Viltrim, destroying the planet completely. Thrag, a badass viltrammite who is easily the strongest of them all, beheads theus on the spot. He almost kills both Nolan and Mark, but ultimately leaves them alive because there are barely any viltrammites left.

[00:02:51]Nolan's time on Earth, and especially his connection with Debbie and his son, changed him completely. Everything bad that 2,000 years of viltramite upbringing had engraved into his personality completely faded away.

[00:03:01]>> I will burn this planet down. Thorphin.

[00:03:05]Thorin from the manga and anime series Vinland Saga is the son of Thors, a legendary warrior who abandoned a life of violence and settled down in Iceland to raise a family. Thor's believed that a true warrior didn't need a sword and wanted his children to grow up far away from war. When Thorin was still a child, a mercenary leader named Ascalad ambushed Thors and killed him. Thorin secretly followed the mercenaries responsible, believing that one day he would earn the right to challenge Ascalad to a duel and avenge his father.

[00:03:29]From that moment on, revenge became the only thing that mattered to him. For years, Thorin fought alongside the very man he hated. He raided villages, participated in wars, and killed countless people, all for the chance to someday take Ascalad's life himself. He completely ignored the lessons his father tried to teach him. Instead of becoming the peaceful man Thors wanted him to be, he became a violent and angry warrior who lived only for revenge.

[00:03:48]Ascalad would repeatedly promise Thorphin another duel if he proved useful in battle. Because of that, Thorin spent most of his childhood and teenage years fighting in England alongside a band of Vikings, but none of it brought him any closer to peace.

[00:04:00]Eventually, the moment Thorfin had been waiting for finally arrived. But before he could kill Ascalad himself, Ascalad sacrificed himself after killing King Swain in order to protect Wales and secure Prince Canut's rise to power. In an instant, the man Thorin had dedicated his entire life to killing was gone.

[00:04:15]With Ascalad dead, Thorin completely lost his purpose. He attacked Canoot in a fit of rage and was quickly subdued.

[00:04:20]Afterwards, he was sold into slavery and sent to work on a farm. For the first time in his life, there was no war, no revenge, and no goal to chase. All he had left were memories. He was forced to confront the reality that he had become the very thing his father never wanted him to be. While working as a slave, Thorin befriended another slave named Anar. Ainar wasn't a warrior or a soldier. He was simply someone trying to live a normal life after losing everything. Through their friendship, Thorin slowly started changing. One night, Thorin finally reaches a breaking point after reliving the horrors of his past in a nightmare where he finds himself standing above an endless pit filled with the corpses of the people he had killed throughout his life. The nightmare forces him to confront the countless lives he destroyed during his years of violence and revenge. He comes to a realization that he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life hurting people. And most importantly, he decides that he never wants to create another victim like the ones he left behind.

[00:05:05]After eventually earning his freedom, Thorin sets out to find Vinland, a land far across the ocean where people can live without war, slavery, or violence.

[00:05:12]Alongside Anar and his companions, he works toward creating a place where conflicts can be solved without bloodshed. He still carries the guilt of everything he did as a child. But instead of running from it, he spends the rest of his life trying to build something better.

[00:05:23]>> You've changed so much, Dorphin.

[00:05:25]>> Aaron Joerger. Aaron Joerger from the anime and manga series Attack on Titan is a boy born and raised inside the walls of Parody Island, a massive enclosed civilization built to protect humanity from giant humanoid creatures known as titans. Inside the walls, humanity believes they are the last of their kind, completely surrounded by extinction. Aaron grows up in a relatively peaceful district with his childhood friends Masa and Armen. Unlike many people inside the walls, he could not accept living trapped inside them.

[00:05:49]From a young age, he became obsessed with joining the survey corps. Soldiers who go outside the walls to fight titans and explore the world. Everything changes when the colossal Titan and armored Titan attack his hometown of Chigshina. The walls are breached, titans flood the district, and Aaron is forced to watch his mother get eaten alive right in front of him. Powerless to save her, he swears that he will kill every Titan and wipe them from the face of the earth. After joining the military alongside his childhood friends, he discovers during a battle that he can transform into a Titan himself. Over time, he discovers that titans are not simply monsters. They are people. Many of them were once human beings transformed against their will.

[00:06:21]Eventually, the scouts successfully reclaim Shigen Sheena and walk into the hidden basement of Aaron's father.

[00:06:26]There, Aaron learns that humanity outside the walls is not extinct.

[00:06:29]Instead, people live in highly advanced modern societies. Furthermore, the titans they have been butchering are actually members of their own persecuted race, the Eldians, used as weapons and exiled by a global empire called Marley.

[00:06:40]The world does not view the people of the walls as victims, but as an infected race of devils that must be systematically exterminated. Through inherited memories of his father and the paths, he uncovers the hidden history of the Eldians, the long cycle of hatred between Eldia and Marley, and the future that seems to lead only to endless war.

[00:06:56]After seeing the future and understanding what will happen, he chooses a path that cannot be undone.

[00:07:00]With the help of the founding titans power, he activates the rumbling, releasing millions of colossal titans trapped within the walls to march across the world and destroy nearly all of humanity outside parody. Aaron's actions force his closest friends, including Macasa and Armen, to eventually confront him. Even though they understand his pain and his desire for freedom, they cannot accept the genocide he has committed. In the end, they are forced to stop him. He starts as a boy who wants freedom from the walls and ends as a man who decides the only way to achieve that freedom is to destroy the world beyond them.

[00:07:27]>> Hear me, subjects of Yir, >> Vegeta. Vegeta is the prince of the Sayans, a warrior race known throughout the universe for conquest and destruction. From the moment he is born, he is told that he is special and superior. He is the son of the Saiyan king, the future ruler of his people, and one of the most naturally gifted warriors his race has ever produced.

[00:07:44]While most sayans are wiped out by Frieza, Vegeta survives and spends his life serving the very tyrant responsible for his people's extinction. He sees himself as the prince of a proud warrior race. Yet, he spends years taking orders from someone stronger than him. Once he finds out that one of his fellow Sayans died on Earth, he learns about a planet that has dragon balls. If you collect seven of them, you can basically grant any wish. Vegeta wanted immortality so he could finally overthrow Frieza from his throne. He arrives on Earth and he is so arrogant that he doesn't even fight any of the Earthlings himself.

[00:08:11]Instead, he leaves that to his bro Nappa, who beats the living hell out of them. After Goku defeats Nappa, Vegeta slimes his ass without hesitation. Goku is a lowclass Saiyan who was raised on Earth and is technically supposed to be levels under Vegeta, but that's not the case. If anything, he pushes Vegeta in battle more than anyone ever did before.

[00:08:27]After his defeat, Goku lets him live and leave Earth, which completely shatters his ego. Not only did he get his ass beat to the point of barely being able to walk, but a low-class warrior like Goku actually spared his life. This made him even more determined to find the Dragon Balls and gain immortality, a goal that sets his path toward Namk, another planet known to have them.

[00:08:43]During this time, he is still operating almost entirely through pride and self-interest. But he is also constantly forced into situations where he is no longer dominant. Instead, he is hunted, injured, and repeatedly pushed into survival rather than control. When he is eventually confronted by Frieza directly, Vegeta is killed after being completely overwhelmed. Before dying, he breaks down in front of Goku and speaks openly about what his life has been. He talks about the destruction of the Saiyans, the humiliation of serving Frieza, and the belief he has carried since childhood that he was meant to become the legendary Super Saiyan. After Nom, Vegeta ends up spending more and more time on Earth because he doesn't have anywhere else to go. Frieza is dead. Planet Vegeta is gone. And for the first time in his life, there isn't some larger goal waiting for him. So, he trains constantly. During this time, Vegeta grows closer to Bulma, and the two of them eventually have a son named Trunks. However, becoming a father didn't immediately make him any better.

[00:09:30]If anything, he acts as though neither his wife nor his son even mattered. But no matter how much Vegeta trained, it seemed as though he could never reach the level of his lowclass warrior rival Goku. For someone who spent his entire life believing he was destined to be the strongest, living in Goku's shadow becomes a constant source of frustration. That frustration reaches its peak during the Majin Buu saga.

[00:09:48]During a tournament battle against Goku, Babi offers him immense power, and Vegeta accepts it willingly. Combining his Super Saiyan power with Babidi's dark magic, he transforms into Majin Vegeta. Vegeta's power helps awaken Majin Buu, a powerful force of destruction. But Vegeta doesn't give a damn. He just wants one more chance to prove himself against Goku. Returning to his ruthless, evil ways, he goes so far as to slaughter a crowd of innocent civilians who had gathered to watch the tournament. After a fight with Goku that arguably ends in a draw, they both agree to stop Buu. But in classic Vegeta fashion, he knocks Goku unconscious and goes on to face Buu alone because he feels responsible for his awakening.

[00:10:21]Despite a massive power boost, Vegeta was losing. Buu was just too strong and kept regenerating with everyone he cares about flashing through his mind, especially his wife and child. Vegeta realizes there is only one way to stop him. He must completely vaporize Buu, even if the blast kills him, too. Not knowing if he will ever come back because of the horrible things he did in the past. He hugs his son for the first time ever, knocks him out, and gives him to Piccolo to fly him to safety. Vegeta then obliterates Buu, sacrificing his life in the process. Buu regenerated about 5 seconds after this, but that's not the point. For the first time ever, Vegeta did something for someone other than himself. He sacrificed his existence for the people HE LOVED.

[00:10:54]>> MEANINGLESS, HUH? WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF MEANINGLESS?

[00:10:58]>> Jason Todd. Jason Todd from the DC Comics universe is best known as the second person to become Robin, Batman's partner and sidekick. Before becoming Robin, Jason grew up in one of Gotham City's roughest neighborhoods. His father was a criminal who spent much of his life in and out of prison, while his mother struggled with addiction and poverty. By the time Jason was a teenager, he had learned to survive on his own. He was angry, stubborn, and willing to fight anyone who got in his way. Eventually, Jason crossed paths with Batman under unusual circumstances.

[00:11:23]In most continuities, he attempted to steal the tires off the Batmobile.

[00:11:26]Batman saw potential in him and decided to take him in. For the first time in his life, Jason had something resembling a family. As Robin, Jason fought alongside Batman against some of Gotham's most dangerous criminals. He was brave, loyal, and willing to put himself in danger to protect others. But unlike the first Robin, Dick Grayson, Jason often struggled to control his anger. Batman constantly tried to teach him discipline and his famous no kill rule. But Jason found it difficult to let go of the rage he had carried since childhood. Deep down, he wanted to do the right thing. He just didn't always know how. But all of that changes when Jason discovers information about his biological mother. Determined to find her, Jason travels overseas and eventually reunites with her. At first, it seems like he has finally found the family connection he's been missing for most of his life. That doesn't last long because his mother betrays him to the Joker. Jason is beaten nearly to death with a crowbar and tortured mentally by the Joker, who eventually leaves both him and his mother trapped in a warehouse rigged with explosives. Batman arrives too late and Jason dies, which becomes the greatest failure in Batman's entire career. Years later, Jason is somehow brought back to life. Depending on the version of the story, this happens through reality altering events or supernatural means, but the result is the same. Jason returns to the world of the living. After his resurrection, Jason struggles with trauma, anger, and the belief that Batman failed him. But more than anything else, he cannot understand why the Joker is still alive.

[00:12:37]Yes, Batman left Joker alive even after blowing up his literal stepson. To Jason, this makes no sense. Batman has spent years locking criminals away only for them to escape and kill again. Jason begins to believe that this nokill rule is a flaw. Instead of trying to become Robin again, he creates a new identity, the Red Hood. As Red Hood, he operates separately from Batman and wages a war on Gotham's criminal underworld using methods Batman would never accept. He uses guns and when necessary, he is willing to kill. The boy who once fought beside Batman becomes one of his greatest ideological opponents.

[00:13:04]>> Look at me while you die, Batman. Look at me.

[00:13:08]>> Jaime Lannister. Jaime Lannister from the fantasy series Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire begins his story as one of the most hated men in Westeros.

[00:13:16]He is a member of the powerful house Lannister, the twin brother of Cersei Lannister and one of the greatest swordsmen in the Seven Kingdoms. Years before the story begins, Jaime served in the King's Guard under King Aerys II Targaryen, better known as the Mad King.

[00:13:28]During Robert's rebellion, Aerys planned to burn King's Landing and everyone inside it rather than surrender. Jaime killed him before he could carry out the order, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. The problem is that almost nobody knows the full story. See, instead of being remembered as the man who saved the city, Jaime becomes known as the knight who betrayed the king he had sworn to protect. For years, people mock him, judge him, and question his honor.

[00:13:47]Eventually, Jaime stops trying to defend himself. If the world already sees him as a villain, he might as well act like one. He actively sleeps with his twin sister, Cersei, and when young Bran Stark accidentally witnesses them, Jaime pushes the child out of a high tower window. During the War of the Five Kings, Jaime is eventually captured by the Stark forces and taken prisoner.

[00:14:04]While being held prisoner, Jaime antagonizes his capttors and loses his sword hand when the mercenaries brutally cut it off. For Jaime, his right hand was his entire identity. It was the only way he could protect himself, and without it, he is completely helpless and stripped of the King's Layer persona. While being transported as a broken prisoner, Jaime is paired with Brienne of Tarth, a woman who represents the pure idealistic knighthood that Jaime used to believe in. At first, he mocks her relentlessly, but her unyielding honor begins to change him.

[00:14:28]One day, while sharing a bath at Harrenhal, naked and missing his hand, Jaime faints into her arms and confesses the truth about the wildfire and the mad king. By sharing his deepest trauma with the one person who truly understands what honor means, Jaime starts to heal.

[00:14:40]He rejects his cynical mask and decides to try being a real knight. Famously risking his life shortly after to leap into a pit and save Brienne from a bear.

[00:14:47]Jaime returns to King's Landing a fundamentally changed man. He cuts his hair, grows a beard, and gets a gold prosthetic hand, a constant, heavy reminder of his limitations. He experiences massive ideological breaks from his toxic family, rejecting his father's offer to leave the king's guard for power, and beginning to see Cersei for the manipulative, destructive force she is. Taking over as Lord Commander of the King's Guard, Jaime opens the White Book, the historical ledger where the deeds of every knight are recorded. He looks at his own page, which lists his betrayal of the Mad King, followed by pages of blank space. He realizes that while he cannot change the past, the blank space means he has the power to write who he wants to be for the rest of his life. Sent to end a brutal siege at Riverrun, the old Jaime would have slaughtered everyone. Instead, the new Jaime uses diplomacy, psychological manipulation, and strategic threats to force a bloodless surrender. He solves a war without shedding a single drop of blood, proving he is no longer just a swordsman, but a true leader.

[00:15:36]>> The king shits and the hand wipes.

[00:15:39]>> Wolverine. Wolverine from Marvel Comics, also known as the guy who never ducks a fade, is one of the most famous mutants in the world. With razor- sharp claws, enhanced senses, superhuman healing, and an adamantium skeleton, he has a reputation for being violent, aggressive, and almost impossible to kill. Long before he became known by that name, he was a boy named James Howlet, born in Canada during the late 19th century. Unlike the hardened warrior he would later become, James was quiet, sickly, and spent most of his childhood sheltered from the outside world. His life changes forever after a traumatic family tragedy awakens his mutant powers for the first time. Taking the name Logan for the next century, he wanders the earth as a soldier, mercenary, and spy. Fighting in both world wars, at some point, Logan is captured by the Weapon X program, a secret experiment designed to turn mutants into living weapons. He is subjected to horrific torture.

[00:16:23]Scientists fuse the indestructible metal adamantium to his skeleton, intentionally wiping his memories and stripping away his name, his history, and his mind. When he escapes, he becomes a monster, running wild in the Canadian wilderness. He spends years trying to figure out who he really is and whether there is anything inside him beyond violence and anger. Logan eventually meets Professor Charles and joins the X-Men, a group of mutants dedicated to protecting a world that often fears and hates them. At first, Logan struggles to fit in. He clashes with teammates, ignores authority, and prefers handling problems on his own.

[00:16:50]But little by little, something starts to change. For the first time in decades, Logan finds himself surrounded by people who understand what it means to be different. Instead of treating him like a weapon, they treat him like a person. Over the years, the X-Men become a family rather than just teammates. One of the biggest changes in Logan's life comes through the younger mutants who begin looking up to him. The man who once wandered the world alone gradually finds himself acting as a teacher, protector, and mentor. Characters like Kitty Pride, Jubilee, and many others come to see Wolverine as someone they can rely on. He started off as an animal and a killing machine with no memory of what he once was, but went on to become a mentor to fellow mutants and finally achieved healthy relationships.

[00:17:25]>> This is Logan checking in.

[00:17:26]>> Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars saga begins life as an ordinary farm boy living on the desert planet of Tatooine. Raised by his aunt and uncle, Luke spends most of his days working on a moisture farm and dreaming about a bigger life beyond the endless sands around him. At the time, Luke knows almost nothing about his real father. He is told that his father was a navigator on a spice freighter who died years ago. The truth is far more complicated. Everything changes when Luke comes across two droids carrying a message intended for an old Jedi named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Through Obi-Wan, Luke learns about the Jedi Order, the Force, and the Galactic Empire that now controls the galaxy. Imperial stormtroopers searching for the droids murder his aunt and uncle and burn their home to the ground. With nothing left tying him to Tatooine, Luke chooses to leave with Obi-Wan and begin training as a Jedi. He is a part of something much bigger than chilling on a moisture farm all day. Luke begins to learn the ways of the Force and embraces an idealized vision of his father, whom he believes was a noble Jedi Knight betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader. Armed with this romanticized legacy and a burning desire to do good, Luke trusts his feelings, blows up the Death Star, and becomes an instant hero of the Rebel Alliance.

[00:18:26]However, true growth requires failure, and Luke's ego is completely destroyed during his training with Jedi Master Yoda on Deoba. Unlike traditional stoic heroes, Luke is highly emotional and impulsive, a direct genetic inheritance from his father. Acting entirely on emotion and ignoring the warnings of his masters, he rushes into a trap at Cloud City to save his friends, only to face Darth Vader and get brutally overpowered, losing his right hand.

[00:18:47]Vader reveals that he is Luke's father.

[00:18:49]This revelation instantly corrupts Luke's entire foundation. The father he idolized is actually the greatest monster in the galaxy, and the legacy Luke was trying to live up to is deeply infected by the dark side. This leads straight to his peak in Return of the Jedi. Dressed in all black, he hides his vulnerability behind the quiet confidence of a true Jedi Knight. When Vader threatens to hunt down and corrupt Luke's twin sister, Leia, Luke finally snaps. In a blind, terrifying rage, he violently hacks away at Vader, overpowering the Sith Lord and severing his mechanical hand. When Luke looks down at Vader's severed robotic hand, then looks down at his own mechanical gloved hand. He realizes that by using hatred and violence to protect those he loves, he is actively turning into Darth Vader. In what is arguably the most powerful subversion of a hero's climax in cinematic history, Luke refuses to play the cycle of violence. He throws his lightsaber away and turns to face the most powerful dictator in the galaxy, Emperor Palpatine. Unarmed, declaring, "I am a Jedi like my father before me." This act of pure faith in his father's humanity is what ultimately saves the galaxy, inspiring Anakin Skywalker to break his own shackles and destroy the Emperor. Luke managed to go from a hot-headed, impulsive farm boy to the Jedi who ultimately saved the galaxy and redeemed his father, Darth Vader. I am a Jedi like my father before