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DZ-129: Steadfast Character Arcs - Agents of Change

How do you write a satisfying story when your character never changes

1 AUG 2026

Show Notes

Do characters need to change for you to have a satisfying story? That’s a question we’ve been asking since, like, episode five of this podcast. And we’re finally talking about them - whatever you call ’em: steadfast, resilent, or flat arcs.

To that end, we breakdown MOANA, APOLLO 13, and THE DRESSMAKER to work out what carries a story when a character arc doesn’t. If your protagonist isn’t going to change, the drama has to come from what they do to everyone else.

We develop some tools that we reckon carry a steadfast story:

  • doubt and wobble (a character with no doubt isn’t steadfast, they’re a psychopath)
  • emotional events between characters
  • additive rewards (something is gained) versus subtractive ones (something is taken away) - a distinction we’ve borrowed borrowed from operant conditioning;
  • and how that difference changes the emotional tone of an ending.

The subtractive reward is why a happy ending can still feel like loss... and it’s the thing we reckon that’ll matter most when we get to negative arcs.

Chas, Mel and Stu also wibble-wobble over WILLOW, TAKEN, FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF, THE MARTIAN, PROJECT HAIL MARY, THE GREY, ALL IS LOST, STAR WARS (as always), GREY GARDENS, PRISCILLA, and how many tampons NASA sent to space.

"Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down. And that’s what makes them steadfast."

— Mel Killingsworth  |  DZ-129: Steadfast Character Arcs - Agents of Change

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Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre & Natalie and Lily.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

Resources

Transcript

Read the transcript for this episode.

Chapters

  • 00:00:00 – Cold Open
  • 00:00:18 – What Is a Steadfast Character Arc?
  • 00:04:24 – › Character as habitual action defines change
  • 00:06:11 – › Operant conditioning reframes reward and punishment beats
  • 00:09:14 – › Steadfast characters still need emotional stakes and impact
  • 00:10:33 – The Questionnaire for Analysing Character Arcs
  • 00:12:18 – MOANA
  • 00:16:12 – › The I Want song and being pulled versus pushed
  • 00:18:19 – › Doubt as necessary proof of steadfast resilience
  • 00:26:54 – › Distinguishing upskilling and reward from true character change
  • 00:27:25 – › Maui's full arc contrasts with Moana's steadfastness
  • 00:41:15 – › Genre expectations teach the audience to predict steadfastness
  • 00:45:10 – › Tracking Maui's and Moana's dramatized moments of change
  • 00:53:08 – APOLLO 13
  • 00:58:52 – › Riveting problem solving without character values changing
  • 01:01:07 – › Jim and jack relationship as substitute emotional arc
  • 01:12:12 – › Comparing disaster films that punish or reward steadfastness
  • 01:20:02 – › Working through the arc questionnaire for the film
  • 01:33:53 – THE DRESSMAKER
  • 01:38:14 – › Debating whether THE DRESSMAKER is steadfast or positive
  • 01:44:54 – › Tracking Tilly's three objectives and mystery of the curse
  • 01:50:37 – › Teddy's death as subtractive reward and negative punishment
  • 01:57:00 – › GREY GARDENS parallels and the town as social environment
  • 02:03:10 – › How Tilly's steadfastness transforms the town around her
  • 02:16:37 – › Testing audience expectations for change versus subversion
  • 02:24:48 – › Values of beauty, love, and vengeance in the story world
  • 02:31:45 – Key Learnings & Wrap Up

Films

Episodes in the Character Arcs series

KEY IDEAS

Character as Habitual Action

"I really like David Mamet's definition of a character being habitual action. That's his interpretation of Aristotle, that all a character is is habitual action. And therefore, I think, when... talking about a character change, you're talking about a character's habits changing, right? And therefore, you know, and the other derivation of that is that that means the film has to do enough setup to understand what a character's habit is. And then it needs enough payoff to understand that it wasn't just a one-off thing that they did, but it's actually going to stick."

— Stu Willis (00:05:04) · Setups Payoffs · Character Arcs

Emotional Events Replace Character Arcs

"What makes this work story-wise and keeps compelled is that it has emotional events regardless. And I think Apollo 13 has emotional events between the characters. If anything, the only thing that changes is the relationship between characters. I don't think they change the world. They don't come back and be like, we found water on Mars. You know, it's kind of, and maybe that's true of all survival stories, or maybe they don't, they're just compelling because the external stakes are so high."

— Stu Willis (00:39:23) · Emotional Event · Relationships · Character Arcs

Additive vs. Subtractive Rewards

"I think there is a emotional difference between a additive reward and a subtractive reward. Because it's subtractive, it's going to feel more like it's a loss, in a way. And I think there is a difference between a positive punishment and a negative punishment, emotionally."

— Stu Willis (00:09:22) · Emotional Impact · Stakes

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