BY ALICE FONTANESI
STAFF WRITER
This is probably one of the things that irritates me the most: when the antagonist is the villain because they are evil. Like seriously, I can understand when someone does something just for fun, but what kind of motivation is that?!
Antagonists are probably one of my favorite kinds of characters. They can be really interesting, and it’s cool to see what led them up to who they are; you can even sympathize with them sometimes. But I will admit I kind of dislike it when the main villain joins the good guys because I need an antagonist to hate on. Obviously, a person’s motivation can change, but it feels bland whenever that’s how a story ends. I can appreciate a love-hate relationship, but if rivals become best friends in three hours it just kills the mood. The main villain is now your lover and now the story ends? C’mon I was waiting for bloodshed, and he killed your dad, how did that even happen?! There are a few exceptions to this trope (in my opinion), but only if the main antagonist isn’t viewed as a villain.
The difference between an antagonist and a villain is that an antagonist is against the main character and a villain is a person who is viewed as evil. Most people learn what is good and what is bad, so that’s why we view the protagonist as the good guy while the antagonist is automatically the bad guy. But this is because of perspective. The main antagonist always views themselves as the protagonist and the protagonist for us to be the main antagonist. The world doesn’t revolve around the protagonist nor does it for anyone else. The protagonist can have a criminal history and serious issues with the law while a police officer (who most people view as a good person) is the antagonist. If you read that story you’d be on the side of the criminal when they would probably be viewed as a villain from the outside perspective.
But the antagonist doesn’t even have to be a person. If you’re writing a story about someone being stranded on an island, their enemy is the environment.
Even if you have a good antagonist, it can really mess it up if they don’t have a good motive. Like imagine getting attacked by a person from fifth grade because you forgot to give them back their pencil (but if you do purposely not give back the pencil I hope you step on a Lego, you twink).
Before I officially establish the main antagonist, I like to create a backstory for them. What really pushed them to the limit, and what relationship do they have with the protagonist? Usually the antagonist is the conflict or just a part of it because that’s kind of their point. In a story I have written, there are many villains and people who could pass on as an antagonist, but technically the main character is the antagonist. She’s her own antagonist because she can achieve her goal, but that is up to her and how willing she is. Everyone else who is against her is an obstacle for her, but no one is seriously trying to destroy her dream.
Your antagonist is just like everyone else because they are a person trying to achieve their goals. You want to keep an open mind when creating all the other characters including the antagonist. This will help you create good characters and prevent making your main character a Mary Sue. If you don’t know what a Mary Sue is then a Mary Sue (or a Gary Stew for masculaine characters) is a character who is perfect in every way possible and or the world revolves around them. Mary Sues take away the attention of the other characters, and the story is usually quite sloppy. There are a few characters who are overpowered like Osamu Dazai from Bungo Stray Dogs who are basically unkillable, but we still like them because the world doesn’t revolve around them, they aren’t perfect, and they are struggling with at least one problem.
People also say that a self-insert character is bad, but I just want to say that depending on how you write the character, it’ll determine if they are good or bad. I wanted to say that because I hate stereotypes.
Balancing out your antagonist’s qualities and motives is the best way to create just about any character. Obviously people have different methods and a certain way may work better for them, but it’s a fact that balanced and well thought out characters are good.
There’s a chance this might not apply to everyone because we all have our own styles, but remember that an antagonist should have a purpose other than being evil for the sake of being evil.