How to Write an Antagonist - Inside Out 2 

Everyone loves a good villain but sometimes, you need a good antagonist.

The most simple yet most reliable way to create an antagonist is to have them have good intentions but unethical methods.

Another little detail is that when Riley crashes into her friend, she says she didn’t even see her. At the start of the movie Anxiety says Fear protects Riley from what she can see, while Anxiety from what she can’t see. Fear wasn’t there to stop Riley, and Anxiety couldn’t fill that role.

I wish Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui were fleshed out more and shown how harmful they could be if they go overboard, like Anxiety. Riley could be scared of embarrassing herself by messing up during practice, thus no longer wanting to do anything that would put her in an uncomfortable situation and losing motivation. Riley could have felt envious that her friends were going to the same school without her and envious of how good Val is (rather than only admiring her), thus making her want to be better at hockey and make new friends. Ennui could be Riley giving up- she no longer has interest in hockey after all the stress she is going through

Most villans are antagonists, but not all antagonists are villans! This is how to write a good, non-villan antagonist!

I think Anxiety was very well written as far as her role, character arc, and parallel to Joy in the first movie. I would consider her my favorite Inside Out character, not just because of that, but honestly I don’t think I’ve ever resonated so much with a movie character, let alone an antagonist. It’s a little creepy how similar I am to what’s supposed to be the literal spawn of anxiety lol

Something I love about anxiety is that she is very accurate, in my opinion, about how anxiety can act. I have GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) which causes me to just worry excessively about really anything my brain decides that day. While anxiety isn't a tiny anthropomorphic character inside my head, the rationality and the things anxiety does as a character and to Riley are very very accurate to what it feels like to live with GAD to an extent. I had never felt so seen in a movie before, I actually cried in the theater. I'm glad that this movie brought open and displays anxiety in such a true-to-life way because most of the time in other movies it isn't shown super great.

I wish Fear was kept in the command center. Fear is very much an adjacent emotion to Anxiety and I wish he had been kept as the insider member of the original cast. Perhaps initially agreeing with Anxiety on things and slowly realizing she’s going to crash the ship.

My favorite way to talk about Anxiety- She's an antagonist, not a villain

Why is this one of the only videos about Inside Out 2 that DOESNT spend half the video talking about Pixar corporate drama (THANK YOU BTW) no one seems to be appreciating the movie for the story that it told. Instead, the major narrative is about how it's a bad omen for Pixar's future.

I think the most fascinating part of Anxiety's character and why she serves as a good antagonist is that she basically acts like how Joy did in the first movie. Too overbearing and too controlling; they never let the other emotions have control over the console and pushed everyone away. They behaved the exact same way and experienced the same consequences - An unheathy mental state for Riley. And I firmly believe that ALL the emotions are capable of becoming like Joy or Anxiety if they have too much control. NONE of them are explicitly bad, they're only bad in excess. Some of the new emotions in Inside Out 2 get some hate for being primarily negative emotions and not really demonstrating their purpose, but I don't believe that. First of all, the first movie already made the point of how there is no 'bad' emotion. All of them have a purpose, and secondly, I think the fact that we know so little of the new emotions and what they can do served as reinforcement to Anxiety's controlling behaviour. She hogged the console so much that the other emotions no longer got to shine and SHOW why Riley needs them. And I have a couple of theories to what their purpose in Riley's life is. Embarrassment: I think he's supposed to serve a similar role as sadness, and I may be reading too much into it, but I think that's why they got along in the movie. The display of sadness encourages other people around to act. To empathize, to grieve, to be there for Riley and comfort her. Embarrassment is the opposite. He's there as a signal so people know to give Riley SPACE without being aggressive like say, the dinner table scene in the first movie with Anger. If Riley instead looked embarrassed, then it would've been more clear that they shouldn't push this topic too hard and they would've given her some space and revisit the conversation another time. He serves as a support for Riley's need for personal space and privacy. Envy: Although it was framed more as admiration, I think the point of Envy is to serve as a form of motivation for Riley. She gives Riley a goal or objective to strive towards by having someone else serve as this model to follow. She's one way for Riley to be pushed towards her ambitions and goals; because she admires this person. Ennui: She's definitely the oddest one, but I think the point of Ennui is to serve as this baseline emotion that ensures that Riley can continue her day, even with the bare minimum. Think about when she was introduced. She's the last of the new emotions to be introduced and throughout that time, the other emotions were very overwhelmed by the newcomers and none of them knew what to do. That's when Ennui shows up and takes control of the console, making sure Riley responds and is able to function and interact with others. She's there so Riley can still function normally while getting her inner bearings together. She's the steady bar that Riley can hold onto while regaining her balance.

The scene of Rilley having the anxiety attack hit very close to home for me. I already had an anxiety attack one night, it prevented me from sleeping and no one took me seriously, I was looking at the ceiling of my room trying to sleep, my chest hurting and I was crying uncontrollably. Aging can be difficult to deal with, especially when you have no one to comfort you. this scene almost made me cry, but I held it together, I really loved that scene, it conveys anxiety perfectly!

its funny because technically... joy was both the protagonist and the antagonist of the first movie. her goal was to keep riley happy but she opposed her own goals by going about it the wrong way. ...kinda like anxiety does in this movie... actually when yoy think about it their arcs are almost the same, they both learn that supressing other emotions to do things their way is bad for riley. thats also why joy in this movie always works with the other emotions and not just alone

Anxiety is now one of my favorite antagonists. It’s hard to follow up Goldie and Death from Last Wish and Miguel from Across the Spider Verse but the writers for Inside Out 2 managed to make such a perfect antagonist for the movie. Funny mentioning Miguel because Anxiety reminded me a bit of Miguel besides not being a bit of a jerk. Both wanted complete control(Miguel over the lives of spider people and Anxiety over Riley) and thought it was for the greater good and the protagonist Miles and Joy(well at least at the end) know you can’t control the life of someone and people should be able to live their own lives and make their own decisions

Inside out 2 is my favorite movie,and i think anxiety is a perfect antagonist. She’s written perfectly

The theater I saw this in applauded at the end credits, which was very refreshing to hear.

Antagonists and Villains are not mutually exclusive. An example being Death, from puss in boots

I would be lying if I didn’t say I was rooting for anxiety at the start of the movie😭

Im not sure if this was intended, or if people already know, but the cool thing i noticed in anxiety hair is it sorta represents multiple paths future can take, they all spring from her head. Which symbolizes how she constantly contemplates different outcomes.

There’s a quote from Turning Red that I feel sums up this movie perfectly: people have all kinds of sides to them and some sides are messy but the point isn’t to push the bad stuff away it’s to make room for it and live with it

I did shed a tear when Anxiety cried. It was such a good portrayal of an anxiety attack, it really got to me.

everyone thinks they themselves are the good guys

i love Anxiety sm for this exact reason. She just wants the best for Riley and i felt so bad for her as she had her own panic attack

The antagonists are not always “villains” they are just doing what they think is right, but it sometimes backfires. Anxiety is a core emotion for practically everyone, especially during everyone’s teen years. I know because I have experienced it myself. There are times where I feel like my anxiety went off the rails, I would always think about things that could go wrong, whether it be me screwing up a choir audition/performance, or failing a test. I tend to overthink the bad scenarios, and how to fix them, but when it approaches, anxiety ultimately causes me to fall apart in the end. There was a time where I had a literal panic attack when I was singing in front of the classroom, I was so nervous I would screw up, and all my worries came true.

Great video! I think a spoiler warning would be helpful in the future, though; especially since the movie has only very recently come out. I enjoyed this analysis very much, but do admit I was happy that I'd already seen the movie, as I didn't expect the video to go right into all of the details of the film's conclusion without any warning. Thank you for posting this!

Thank you for outlining why I think it’s stupid that people have been diagnosing the “problem with Pixar lately” as having no real villain. That’s not an issue in storytelling, and never has been.

Infinite loop. The emotions have emotions

Anxiety is an absolutely phenomenal antagonist and you put into words exactly why.

You know you have a good antagonist when they can be described as a protagonist in their own story.

I keep finding these channels with videos that you'd expect to have like 100k subs, honestly dude keep up the good work, you deserve 100k

I think what makes the movie even better is that anxiety does exactly what Joy did in the first movie

I cried because I felt like I understood, I felt like this was relatable, I felt like I once too cpulsnt control myself because I told myself I was never enough and I will never be. It felt amazing when I watched this, knowing I also once had this feeling and now can understand if someone else has it too. Empathy, sympathy, and even just a moral compass fills me with hope and relief.

So from this angle of analysis, Sadness is the protagonist in the first Inside Out and Joy is the antagonist?

That's why Anxiety wasn't a villain. Just an antagonist. Not all antagonists are villains.

I loved anxietys' reaction to the new perception of self she made for riley

My hopes for this movie were embarrassingly low but I loved it so much. Anxiety is literally the most relatable character I've ever seen on screen which reminded me to take my meds

1:28 THANK YOU. I've seen so many people mislabel death as another villain and it's been driving me crazy.

Well, a villain at its core is an antagonist or at least it's a type of antagonist. A character can be a villain and an antagonist. for example Death in PIBTLW is a villain. He goes out of his way to try and kill Puss who didn't lose his last life. He's actively tormenting him throughout the movie. He isn't just "doing his job" he's going out of his way to try and kill Puss. But at the same time he's also a direct antagonist to Puss as he represents Puss' fears and insecurities and is directly in opposition to Puss. An antagonist is a character who's goals and motives conflict with the protagonists which leads to conflict. So someone like Darth Vader is an antagonist, Davy Jones is an antagonist, Jafar is an antagonist, etc.

an antigonist is a character or FORCE that acts against the protagonist

Awesome video, subbed!

Rarely cry in cinemas but god I just couldn't keep it, it broke me, Anxiety is so well done

Nice video ! I just discovered your channel it's awesome ! I don't agree with your video about The Last Jedi but except this it's cool !

something I had thought about is how the emotions can (maybe, but as seen in the movie) die! Which means that if they are ended, the person probably wont experience that emotion at all.

I think some of my favorite characters are antagonist heroes! So rare and fun.

So when you have a panic attack os when your anxiety gets anxiety

Great video

She's doing the only thing she can and it's up to the stablished characters to find out how to properly respond to it for Riley's sake. No villain, perfect antagonist. She's even a great foil for the protagonist because she's not gloomy and introspective like sadness was in 1, personality wise you almost get a sense she would be bffs with Joy if only they weren't supposed to share Riley's mind's cockpit.

I like the archetype of antagonist they used here. She’s like that new person at a long-standing company who arbitrarily thinks they know best 😂

to be fair, death IS a villain, not just an antagonist, he isn´t just "doing his job" he is chasing Puss because he sees him as unworthy of his own life

i realized joy is double jointed

I'm surprised in bringing up Puss in Boots there wasn't the comparison of the anxiety attacks. I like how both handle it accurately but from the different "perspectives." I honestly think this movie has helped me view emotions in a more healthy manner as much as the first one did, seeing my anxiety less like a "disorder" I need to "fix" as something that is genuinely important (planning for the future) that sometimes gets out of control. It's not inherently bad any more than being sad or angry is. Sometimes you're sad because you need to emotionally process a difficult loss. Sometimes you're angry because the situation you're in is genuinely unfair and you need to do something about it. And sometimes you're anxious because the future is uncertain and you need to consider how your choices will impact it. It's scary, absolutely. But that's life. I take deep breaths, counting to 4. Learned that one from the Owl House. When I lock up, I try to focus on the next thing I want to do right now. I learned that from Steven Universe. When I spin up a thousand worst case scenarios in my head and can't sleep, I try to think about ways in which things could actually go great instead since that's easier than stopping the energy that anxiety filled me with, just redirecting it. I learned that one from my therapist at 26. I'm glad kids will watch this movie. Because sorry kids, _Anxiety isn't going anywhere._ The future will not be easy.

ANXIETY IS SO Amazing Like I luv her but she’s the antagonist, but she’s not trying to be a bad person but at the same time she doesn’t know she’s hurting Riley❤❤

In simplicity I honestly think the best kind of antagonist is an antagonist that embodies something not necessarily evil but is still a problem for the protagonist. I think this video touched on that very well at least by my understanding.

Bro I can’t wait for inside out 2 to get on Disney + so I can watching this movie again

I genuinely loved this film and I related to Anxiety a lot actually.

This movie honestly was a good one, I definitely teared up watching it and yeah, i say they did a good job especially displaying, well, anxiety

amazing amazing video

When I think of an antagonist in a show or movie who's not a villain, I think of Benson from Regular Show. Inside Out 2 was awesome btw

Anxiety looks like Fregley and I don’t think thats a coincidence

Anxiety iis the masterpiece of Inside Out 2

This is a good video

So there is something that really confuses me about this movie. I really loved everything about the movie, but I think the whole point of new sense of self was wrong. I mean, we were making a new sense of self with anxiety's moments. But "if I do this they will love me" and stuff doesn't sound like anxiety to me. I personally have anxiety too and sometimes even anxiety attacks, but for me its " What if Im not capable" and stuff. "If I do this they will love me" sounds so much more enviness to me. Even the "I'm not good enough" sense of self sounds much more enviness than anxiety to me. Im frequently using "to me" because I'm not sure if I'm right, but isn't whole point of too much enviness equals not loving yourself enough. Anxiety is usually much more doubting than judging. "What if I'm not good enough" "What if they don't like me" and stuff sounds more like anxiety. And I'm not saying envy is a bad emotion, but envy taking control of you would mean you actually don't like much about yourself and doesn't feel good enough, which is a result of wanting everything that others have and not being happy with yourselves. And doing things that could be not good for you just to fit in or win something, "If I do this they will love me", also sounds much more enviness to me. If Im wrong can someone explain it to me? Because nobody seems bothered by this. (I'm sorry if I did any mistakes I'm not native.)

The situations anxiety were truly villainous nonetheless

Inside Out 1 and 2 brought back Pixar to its golden standards.

I don’t know if I’m weird for this, but I think the not good enough enough mindset is actually pretty good mindset. If you think you’re good enough, you’re not going to strive to get better and it’s always better to underrate yourself than overrate yourself. A person who thinks they’re good enough isn’t going to try hard or strive to improve. A person who constantly thinks they’re inadequate is going to. The greatest people are insecure and don’t think they’re enough. The truth is, Riley was not good enough or else her coach would’ve said that she was ready. I never let myself believe that I’m good enough and always strive to get better and I’m always competitive.

As a person who suffered literature for 3 years cause we already did all the grammatica and vocabulary of my mother language Antagonist was defined as : a person that influences the protagonist, consciously or unconsciously and positively or negatively

Actually Death is kind of a villain since he “cheats” by trying to take Puss’ last life instead of letting Puss just ride his last one out. The movie points out how that’s wrong and unfair towards Puss. He definitely still has sort of an Antagonist role considering his actions are directed towards Puss specifically and no one else.

I swear this movie managed to give me a lot of anxiety, and if they managed to do that, they did a really fitting work🤣

Anxiety achieved heaven

I thought the antagonist meaning was: A person who on the protagonists side is bad (not evil) but to another face could be a different role

i was physically unabble to cry cus of anxiety's look with that goofy large mouth and few hairs that grew out behind her eyes

One thing I'd like to point out is that antagonists and villains aren't mutually exclusive at all.

I think that if a villain goes against a hero, they can be considered an antagonist, it’s just that not all antagonists are ‘villains’, per say.

gonna argue on an intro point; death is not an antagonist, he is a villain. he went out of his way to kill him before his time because puss's arrogance got on his nerves. in the film it's said that it's cheating fro him to be breaking the rules and going after him like this. he does evil things for evil reasons.

Anxiety is my antagonist fr

I love how my RU-vid is just pushing out a bunch of small creators to me instead of a bunch of big craters. My whole RU-vid feed is almost exclusively people with only a few thousand or a few hundred subscribers.

BRO I GOT AN INSIDE OUT 2 AD BEFORE THIS VIDEO LOL

Villains are antagonists But not all antagonists are villains

Star Trek TNG season 1 had huge issues in having any antagonist/drama, in favor of depicting an utopia. Friendship-is-magic soon adapted the same main antagonist as TNG. Bluey excells in its mild drama, because anything is closer cosmic-horror, if you are young enough. Disneys Wish is completely confused, the male antagonist is suddenly declared a villain out of envy, while he is actually a background-protagonist, and their wannabe-protagonist is clearly the villain all along.

Villain: them vs the world. Antagonist: them vs the protagonist.

i watched the movie yesterday, and, to be honest, its kinda good. now, by "kinda good", i mean "its a mid movie, but more to the 'good mid' rather than 'bad mid'", pretty much because the plot was quite predictable, that being (not to spoil it too much) the little tree thing that makes Riley (well, Riley) ending up being neither the original thingy nor the one anxiety created. with that aside it reminds me alot about myself (im a teenager, btw), which i think is the point of the movie. how would i rate it? probably 8.4/10

I kin anxiety lol except if I was in anybody’s head, I’d be kind of reluctant to touch the controls. I’d probably be asking all the other emotions questions before I just go ahead and touch it. The stimming, the energy, the nervousness reminds me of myself especially also because of the fact that anxiety wants to be a leader, but she’s horrible at it goes too far. I’ve also been trying to be a leader for a very long time and failed after taking things too far.

Anxiety is the best antagonist because all antagonists prob have anxiety.

6:18 so basically anxiety’s anxiety is giving anxiety to Riley… 😂

Yo what mic do you use. You sound amazing man

8:38 is that doc scratch

All vilians are antagonists but not all antagonists are villains. As for the call back to Puss in Boots 2. IMO that movie did something that most movies have never done. It had both a great antagonist with Death and a great villain like Jack Horner.

Is Dean Hardscrabble from Monster University also part of this Ethical Antagonist.

i feel like this movie is very good sequel but at the start it felt like it was very fast paced then slowly unpacked other than that i love this movie

What if anxiety has anxiety and that anxiety has anxiety and that anxiety has anxiety. Feel bad tbh

honestly, inside out 2 is *not* a perfect movie, it goes back on a lot of the themes from the first movie to manufacture conflict, however it has an absolutely incredible antagonist, and wonderful values and morals.

There is a difference to a villain and an antagonist

let's face it if rillie could talk to her brain emotions...she would've told them to put anxiety into the jar...., a reminder she started as embarrassment

The road to hell...

🧌 radical

Does anyone know the budget for this?

do you think antagonists are significantly easier if your main charaters an anti-hero/villian?

peacock from kfp 2:

I mean, antagonist never stopped being a thing, even in movies. Also, am I the only one that doesn't think writing antagonists are that hard? Anyone that is in opposition to the protagonist and fight with it, is the antagonist of the story. Imagine if the antagonist was the protagonist and see if the protagonist would be his antagonist

In my opinion, Riley is the hero of the story with joy and anxiety as the antagonist. Both of them want to do the good to Riley but both of them are going against her.