Nothing beats a well-executed redemption arc. In fact, redemption arcs are so common in popular media that you can’t spin a wheel of Netflix originals and throw a dart without hitting one. There is, however, one redemption arc that no self-respecting top ten list would ever leave out: the story of Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. There’s a simple reason for that.

It's the best one.

Like many teenagers in the 2010s, I grew up on the Hunger Games trilogy. I have always admired the work of Suzanne Collins, especially because classical influences shine through her books in such a thoughtful way. On top of all that, Haymitch Abernathy has always been my favorite Hunger Games character, so when I heard that Collins was publishing a prequel that told the story of Haymitch’s Games, I was excited to go back to my roots and read a new Hunger Games book for the first time in over a decade.

Don’t get me wrong. “Show, don’t tell” is probably the most important rule of fiction, and it’s a skill that every writer has to learn. But sometimes writers (even experienced writers!) implement “show, don’t tell” in a way that actively makes their writing worse.