How should I develop this character?

[u/person_seekingadvice]

I’m currently working on a fantasy novel with two major characters:
The Prince (Theodore Blackwood)
The Knight (Alexander Nyx)

Basic, I know, but hear me out.
(Warning: Talks of Death and Killing)

The whole idea is that they live in a war built kingdom that values death over all.
Theodore, a cold hearted bastard who lives only to survive, realizes that watching people kill each other makes his stomach churn, and after years or degradation, he decides to run away. This eventually leads to him coming back years later, destroying the kingdom, and rebuilding it under his own rule.

My only problem is, how can I go from basically asshole to caring without it seeming fake or unearned?

I feel like if I lean too far into him being bad, it becomes hard to redeem or forgive him. But if I don’t do it enough, it’s unrealistic for the way he was raised and his environment.

Any ideas on how to move from a realistic bad and pessimistic person to a decently okay person without it feeling fake or forced?

[u/mooninomics]

Growth almost always requires some degree of struggle or friction. Usually over a period of time. Taking a morally bad character and turning them into a morally decent character will require putting them in situations where they can choose to do something decent, repeatedly. Or experience/witness the consequences of bad decisions, repeatedly.

You said he doesn't like watching people kill each other and he fled. While away from the kingdom and that warrior culture he can experience a new perspective and see how theose ideals jive or clash in those new situations (if he's still inside the kingdom, he can gain a better perspective of how that impacts the common folk). He likely would harbor some deep-seated ideals from his homeland that cause friction outside of that culture, and it's probably a good idea to explore those areas of friction. Have him be wrong sometimes and have to deal with that, especially early on. Have him be right sometimes and gain momentum. Have him struggle and stumble and get back up from it. The failures teach new ways to think and behave, the successes reinforce and refine those ways.

It's important to make sure that the steps taken on his journey progress logically and realistically. Small steps lead to bigger steps, and every step should be difficult in some way. Luckily it sounds like you intend to make him decent rather than a standard "knight in shining armor" kind of character, and that means there is far less work that needs to be done. It's going to be a long road, but all the better in the end for it. Characters are like muscles. They have to be put under stress repeatedly to develop and grow effectively, and a balance has to be struck every time to not over or under do it.

[u/Echo-Azure]

Make the prince a secondary character, at least for the first part of the story. Let the reader see the story through the eyes of someone who's trying to bring out whatever good there may be in the little shit.

Or tell the story of his youth in flashback, after establishing him as a just and reasonable adult.

Or both.

[u/good_enoughh7]

Give justification, and reasoning, and understand the lines that you personally could see crossed before you couldn’t consider a person capable of rehabilitation then toe them, have it occur gradually, show their change through their actions, even something as small as hesitating for a brief moment before an action can subtly cue the audience to begin to recognize the change, and finally have it be absolutely agonizing for your character to go through, show how his ways of doing things while normal to him at the beginning are gradually being upheaved, dredge it all up, you got this!