Antagonists rule the world

[hades]

So, tell me: how do you view the antagonists of your story? Who or what are they? Are they characters? Beasties? Inner conflicts of the main character? Evil possessed elevators that shoot lasers ??

For me one of the themes of my comic is the use of perspective and how intentions drive morals but deeds create reputation. Due to this the antagonist tends to switch over on the readers and before they know it they are watching the bad guy's story. I just think this is incredibly fun to write.

[AnnaLandin]

Okay, how to do this with out ALL THE SPOILERS? Hmm.

Let's put it like this; Grassblades is in large part about the journey its protagonist, Masahiro, makes - and most of the time he's fighting against himself, because he fell out of the Oh-god-do-I-ever-have-issues-tree and hit every branch on the way down. BUT there are definitely external antagonists in the story.

The approach I'm taking is three-fold, because I've got three types of antagonists I'm working with.

1.) The people with opposing goals. Masahiro is travelling somewhere, and he's travelling for a reason - he wants to go on doing it until he reaches his goal. I've got another set of reoccurring characters (who will be introduced in this current chapter!) who will try to stop him from doing so; they have their own reasons for doing so, none of which are cruel or evil. It's just the task they've been set to do. But as they are opposing the goals of the protagonist(s), so they are, in function at least, antagonists.

2.) The people with bad intentions. These lot are more true antagonists; they will be the people who, once they show up in the story, will establish their will to not only hinder Masahiro, but to actively hurt him. They're the stab-people-in-the-back-for-fun-and-profit type, though you can switch out "fun" for "furthering their own goals".

3.) The scary demons. Exactly what it says on the tin; while it hasn't been immediately obvious, Grassblades is a fantasy-comic. For more than one reason, Masahiro is going to be forced to use his +1 sword of stabbity on more than one supernatural beastie.

From this list, it should be clear that I prefer antagonists who are people (when, uh, they are actual people, and not supernatural beasties, of course). I have about 0% interest in antagonists who fall into the cackling mad evil overlord category, because there is no tension in that. They're just cackling mad and evil. Conflict becomes a lot more potent when you can't just point to the antagonist and say "Well, we're fighting them because LOOK HOW EVIL THEY ARE!" There's got to be more to it than that. I might not what my readers to sympathise with all of my antagonists (except the first group), but I do want them to emphathise with them. You don't need to be cheering them on, but you do need to understand why they do what they do.

[futureboundentertain]

Well in Robuds, the only one of the Robuds that can be considered an Antagonist is Ivan... and he is just crying out for attention by being mean.

In Dan's Voyage the antagonsits vary greatly, the first Antagonists in the comic are the Moon Bikers who are a semi-legitimate group that often steals to get the resources it needs. Everyone is good to each other within the group though, and they arent outright evil.

Then in Dan's Voyage there is a lot of... Super Scientists, people who have placed themselves above other people... they are a corrupted aspect of what makes the universe so glorious in a sense, many of the villains faced by the crew in Dan's Voyage are there to cast doubt on the main characters love of the universe, to make him question what he believes... but not in a religious sense.

In Rebel Cowgirls each villanous group is meant to be entirely different, the Robots in the first story represent a lot of the issues with classism and high society. The Squids are similiar but their society is more focused on slavery and human experimentation.

I cant just make all antagonists one thing, each has to be a different sort of thing. I try to make the content as varied as possible in all of my work.

[zelkats]

Well, I have this guy:

He's probably your stereotypical, tyrannical, skinless doucheface.

[tsukin]

Well idk if this really answers your question but, I know when I have a story, I rarely have characters that are pure evil or good unless I'm dealing with characters that are not human or has human like qualities. I view most things as morally gray, and the world having a bit of a duality to it so roles tend to flip flop around the board based on well experiences.

[UzukiCheverie]

It's funny because Time Gate is such a long series, there are actually going to be quite a few antagonists throughout, and only one of them is actually, well, "evil", in the purest sense of the word. Like "RAWR I'M EVIL I'M GOING TO DESTROY THE WORLD WITH MY AWESOME POWERS OOOOOOO".

Time Gate, though, at the end of the day, despite it's dark themes, and all the characters in the story that are secretly demons, or become demons, and muck things up for everyone, is a story about friendship, loss, and learning to move on and accept the past for what it is so that the future can be achieved. And a lot of the future antagonists in the story reflect that; all of them are fighting against the particular force that's trying to stop them because they need to gain the one thing that's important to them, whether it's love, or closure, or revenge, whatever it is. A few of them are merely misunderstood, while other's are just dealing with their problems in a way that's haphazard and unhealthy.

At the end of the day, despite all the epic battles that happen and all the bullshit with angels and demons and Reapers and all that, it's just about Uzuki and her friend's lives, how they take a much darker turn, how they fall in love, how they betray each other, how they live to protect each other at the end of their paths, and how they come out okay (or not so okay) on the other side.

[bmacbride]

I don't really have proper villains, just characters who are often on the opposite side of my protagonists... The characters are so all over the place morally and their stances on certain issues within the plot change all the time, so it generally just depends on what Schaeler is doing and who is or isn't currently on his team.

[punkarsenic]

in my comic, i have two forms of antagonists: a corporation of adults and a group of kids

the adults are the true antagonists i think, the group of kids are more like other heroes with opposing views who get in the way.

ive always felt that rich white men in positions of power are far scarier than, say, witches or """mad scientists""" and i tried to reflect that, in that the antagonists of my story work in a pyramid format of corporation and government. ngl, its a little bit x-men, but hey.

meanwhile, the gang of kids are not specifically portrayed as bad, just other, a different choice, and my heroes each decide for themselves whether they think its a better or worse choice.

im trying to keep a careful balancing act between making just a fun comic, and saying something larger about humanity, i guess. i didnt intend to go all deep and say stuff about humanity, annoyingly it happened by accident, i blame my english teacher.

[keii4ii]

At the core, Heart of Keol is not about two (or three... or four...) opposing parties at all. There are parties with opposing goals, but each party believes that they are the good guys, or at the very least, that their choices are justified one way or the other. More importantly, those opposing parties simply create circumstances for the main characters to work out their inner conflicts, and to develop and test their bonds. The main characters aren't a band of comrades fighting against some other party... They're just friends trying to figure out how to be true to themselves and to each other.

My previous comic, Haru-Sari, was different. There was this... polygon: three irrefutably bad guys (some more justified than others, depending on your stance, but still bad) all opposed against each other, two victims, one in between. NONE of them were truly siding with each other even though sometimes two of them (different pairs) would work together. And one of those three bad guys was the main character. Fun times!

[rainbowolfe]

In Destiny Awaits, who the antagonist really is is a matter of perspective and opinion. There's really only two or three characters that play as the majority's common enemy. '

For example, from Kayla's perspective, Tai would be an antagonist. Tai doesn't follow her authority, is incredibly aggressive, has killed(and even eaten) people, and doesn't understand American standards of a "monster". However, the things Tai does is normal in her culture, so her and everyone else in Neo-America wouldn't see Tai as an antagonist.

It's all kind of weird.But to quote Pewdiepie(and I'm paraphrasing what he said): "There are no bad people, just good people who do bad things sometimes."

[VermillionWorks]

Uhh, well...Daniel's titular character has been both a protagonist and antagonist as he's the main source of horror in my horror story. XD He was once a good man, but...-things- happened, and he is now a vampire and twisted shadow of his former self. His old self had been lingering for a time and keeping the monster at bay, but for the most part things are just getting worse and worse with him.

Wayne is also an antagonist because {insert spoiler information here}.

....so yes, basically there is little I can say about this without spoiling things for people. =P

[ashriott]

The antagonist(s) for Malleus Maleficarum aren't quite revealed yet! Anyway, without giving too much away, I think the antagonists in my story are going down the somewhat "tropey" path of "not being as bad as they seem". While their actions and intentions may or may not be evil, there are some good and valid points to them. Either that, or they're just plain crazy and need professional mental help LOL yes, probably the latter.

[Aloredd]

well, my antagonists for my story are conscienceless creatures that used to be normal people. I have a big bad guy named Gobenon (pronounced Go-ben-on) who's a giant mist monster from a different dimension. When youngsters (younger than 1 1/2 years) breathe in his vapor their 'good' emotions are sealed by it, and they become the creatures called demons. The good emotions are classified as love, joy, peace, happiness, contentment, grief, friendship, guilt, compassion, sadness, and empathy. They still feel anger, hate, desire, and other such emotions, so they can still have fun doing things that fulfill the emotions they do have. In short, they are creatures to be feared.

My main character was one step away from becoming one of these creatures, so in a way they are inner conflicts of him (and the others like him). Quixel is a half elf who looked human, so he wasn't forced to breath in enough of Gobenon's vapor to fully demonize him (since elves have a higher sense of right and wrong than humans they need to breathe in more of the vapor in order for it to work). Since he's a half elf, his human side was sealed away, and his elf side was given full reign of his being. By the time Gobenon realized this, it was too late to do anything besides reject him, so Quixel was thrown out to die, but he got picked up by a giantess, who raised him. My story starts about 15 years later, where's he nightmaring about the experience (supposedly impossible, since he was so young, but I remember things from when I was about that age, so....)

[windikite]

In Hallowed you haven't met the main antagonist, but you did see the one who started it all. I really don't like basic villains, and even then making a character a villain makes them less likely to be identifiable with which imo makes the stories less impactful. If you have a chracter that is only supposed to be opposition then you have relegated them to be a shallow plot device.

All of my characters in some sense are antagonists to both the main characters and eachother. What do you expect when people's goals conflict? Even my two main characters directly cause problems for eachother.

The main antagonist is a bit of a unique concept where they become more responsible for their actions the closer they get to their goal, and by realizing their own humanity they occasionally lose the will to continue their story. I actually think their plight is one of the greatest in my story since by suffering through humanity they reforge themself and become more likable.

[Zanreo]

The antagonists... well, it can kind of depend on the story. Considering they're companies I have a hard time considering most of them fully "antagonists" or "heroes" Though, it's kind of obvious what companies I'm not too fond of (EA, for example isn't exactly the nicest guy...)

[Cairas]

My main antagonist is actually one of my favorite characters that I've made. She is driven by grief and passion and wants to punish the world and Death for taking her lover away. She connects strongly with my protagonist, so much so that if it weren't for a few choice actions on her part they would probably be partners in crime. She has a quirky attitude and loves movies. She would do anything for the people she cares about.
But she also enslaved and murdered a large number of people in order to obtain her goals. She's definitely driven.. lol