fun fact about character development by the way. you can make them develop worse.
like I mean this very seriously as writing advice. the character should experience events and make decisions that make them different at the end of the story. they should be changed. they do not have to be improved.
they can get worse. they can make decisions of an increasingly terrible nature. they can stop taking risks on kindness. they can discover how much they can get away with. they can find religion, or abandon it, with negative effects on their moral creed. the character has to develop. the character does not have to grow.
The most effective thing about The Fast & The Furious (2001) is Vin Diesel's character development from "Those 10 seconds on the road are all that matters, to the exclusion of my friends, my team, and my family." [Oh, a hyperbole to illustrate the lesson he will learn about friendship by the end of the film!] to "When that light turns green, I'm going." as his only spoken response to the massive betrayal and multiple teammate deaths before flooring it toward an oncoming train. [Oh shit he was serious!]
That film tees you up for the conflict catalyst turning him into a more caring friend with perspective on the fragility of life and then pulls the rug out by having him double-down and put MORE lives at risk. 10/10 character worsening. I know he gets more serious about family later in the franchise, but there's something special to me about his commitment to the streets in the original.
