Robert Downey Jr is the obvious case of a person who had a redemption arc, to simplify it he was a promising actor that got addicted to drugs, fell off, went to rehab and then became a huge hollywood big stsr known, even known for being Iron Man.

What real life person had a redemption arc?

  • Nomecks@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Elon Musk. Started as a likeable tech billionaire but eventually redeemed himself to the right wing fascists and extreme edge lords.

    • BedSharkPal@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I just want to know what the actual fuck happened to him. I know a lot of people will say he was always a man-child and there’s some things to back that up for sure. But I swear COVID does something to some people and they just turned into complete unredeemable asses.

      • SkaveRat
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        1 year ago

        He started to get weird around the time of the cave accident. Or rather that was the time the public really started to notice

        • hastati@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          It’s easy to be humble when the public showers you with praise. The real test of someone’s character is when you earn the public ire.

          Do they grow and reflect, or dig in their heels and lash out? I think we learned how that worked out for Musk.

      • ShadowPouncer@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        As best as I’ve been able to tell, it was a mixture of:

        An increasingly narrow social circle of people willing and able to disagree with him.

        An increasingly large social circle of people willing to tell him what he wants to hear, and willing to try and shape his world view.

        And drugs.

        He has sadly reached the stage where he is unwilling to have anyone around him who will openly disagree with him. Doing so is a firing offense.

        He has absolutely reached the point wealth wise where it is impossible to make new friends who you can trust to not have a motive in every interaction with you.

        And he has, without question, become someone that decent people from his past likely wouldn’t want to be around.

        I’m not sure that it’s going to be possible for someone in his current position to reform without losing the vast majority of his fortune first. And even then, I’m not nearly as optimistic as I could be.

      • Nomecks@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I remember watching a time lapsed video of his flights he took over the years that Tesla was struggling, The Gigafactory was under construction and SpaceX was getting set up. I think it broke him in some way.

    • paper_clip@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Similar to this, there’s this guy who’s close to the living embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins - venal failed casino owner, corrupt real estate developer, unfaithful porn star fucker, boastful self promoter slapping his own name on all sorts of things from buildings to steaks to scammy colleges. He hasn’t directly killed anyone, but arguably is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.

      And, yet, to some people, he’s basically become the right hand of the God.

  • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Jimmy Carter was always a nice guy, but a hapless president. His reputation improved substantially after he started doing work for Habitat for Humanity. He was no longer the guy chased by a swamp rabbit while out fishing; he was a humanitarian, doing his damnedest to serve the community.

    • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, nah mate.

      He’ll always be a war criminal who increased funding and arms to Indonesia while turning a blind eye to their genocide of the Timorese.

      Fuck Jimmy Carter from the bottom of my heart.

  • bug@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    Alfred Nobel invented dynamite (among several other explosives). The story goes that he read his own obituary and was called “the merchant of death”, and so left his fortune to found the Nobel Prize and leave a better legacy.

  • keeb420@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    a former coworker of mine went to a federal penitentiary for bank robbery. afterwards he turned his life around and his kids were on track to do good things.

  • RheingoldRiver@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    For anyone who has followed League of Legends esports since the very very beginning, doublelift. There was a subreddit called /r/doubleliftstrophycase that sat empty for YEARS because he never managed to win anything despite trash-talking everyone in the scene (and admittedly a lot of individual talent). But then he started winning, and he didn’t stop winning. He’s now without question the most storied player in North America, and people refer to him as “the main character of the LCS.” A true legend.

    • barnyard_noise@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      @RheingoldRiver

      @YolkBrushWork402

      perhaps similar to LoL, there are several valorant teams/ players that have seen redemption arcs. I’d argue paper rex have gone from “W gaming trolls” to “W gaming trolls with a method to their madness” placing 3rd at Tokyo with a sub! I think Forsaken has demonstrated that he’s a very diverse player—and does it all well.

  • MeccAnon@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Gary Barlow.

    Talented but obnoxious, arrogant boy band leader bombed his initial solo career, ridiculed by Robbie Williams’, reaches rock bottom, eats a ton of humble pie,comes back as professional man band leader, solo artist and dad.