These 7 types of Antagonist Can Save Your Novel 

Everybody always says that we need to see the backstory or some slimmer of good nature to make us feel bad or care about the villain. While these villains are good, like Thanos, we forget about some truly great all evil villains because we see their power or the fear they instill in others, like Sauron, Joker from Dark Night, or White Witch from Narnia

6:57, not every villain needs to be sympathetic. Some can be dog-kicking child-harming overly boorish diabolical fiends.

villains are the one carrying this show people do not give enough respect to today 99% of the antagonist of become bad and now people carrying for the old days

This is a very good video, sifting down antagonists into archetypes that viewers can understand. Solid stuff!

4:55 - this is absolutely correct. I started to go more on the motivations of my antagonist and he became a tragic hero, destined tonne defeated by the protagonist.

I love your example of Magneto being partial antagonist. Book 2 in my series will have this because the rebels who saved the MCs in book 1 turn out to want to share the power the bad guys possess... but only with their people, effectively depriving the planet of magic. The MCs won't allow this half measure and there will be some great conflict when they come to the realization that they're at odds with the people who rescued them. Like Prof X and Mag, they have a shared goal of taking the power from the maegi, but they disagree on where it should go. Thanks for the video!

We obviously don’t need the Night King as he’s not a real character in the books lmao. But I get your point

7:05, Once Upon a Time found out the hard way that backstory will only make your villain sympathetic to a point. Also, for the record, there’s nothing wrong with a villain being unsympathetic.

Great reminders and some clever addition insights. Thx!

Wining a Noble Prize in math would be extremely impressive.

6:49, I know you said “rule of thumb” rather than hard and fast rule but Finley in The Diamond Lens by Fitz James O’Brien is a villain and the protagonist. Ditto for Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

You should have more view in this video. It's simply amazing!

Great vid. Thank you.

That's great advice 😃

One of my favorite villains who resemble the protagonist is the principal villain in the James Bond movie LICENSE TO KILL- the South American drug lord Frans Sanchez (Robert Davi).

3:40 um, should I rethink having the book I'm writing be my first one? A lot happens in it so it's going to be long, there are multiple antagonists and I'm somewhat against turning it into a series. This could just be how I write since I like going in depth and exploring a lot of the concepts I introduce. My mom keeps comparing me to Victor Hugo, what should I do?

The ally antagonist can also be on a more gradual downward spiral, rather than doing a twist betrayal

He is dancing, dancing, he says that he will never die.

1:51 - would the inner antagonist be like in fight club? Where the story might be in his head.

7:00, There is no chance whatsoever of Arthur Fleck, as portrayed in the so-called Joker movie, could conceivably become a threat to Batman. He’s not the Joker, he’s just a broken man who lashed out when bad things happen to him. Which is a fine thing to make a movie about but isn’t The Joker.

I have got a really complex one here. Still storyboarding so nothing concrete yet. The premise is that the protagonist falls from grace in essentially a military dictatorship, so here’s antagonist #1 the state (antagonist entity), since he’s a fugitive. Before his fall he was friends with the leader of the country, who in essence wants the best for his country and resorts to harsh methods to achieve the best solutions he can imagine striving for equality etc. So antagonist #2 the good antagonist. The leader has a close advisor, who is especially cunning and brilliant, a Tywin Lannister type guy with even less emotions over all. He manipulates virtually all of his environment including the leader to gain more power. In the end he is also the reason for your downfall. Theres antagonist #3, definitely a villain. Then there is a side antagonist siding with #3 also a villain, scientist also striving for power, but through knowledge instead of manipulation. He will need more fleshing-out still 😅 And last but not least there is the protagonists mentor, who played all sides of the conflict for his own ends. Without getting into too much detail of world building here. He will be the final twist since the protagonist wont suspect anything. For now he is the one i need to work on the most. In the end i believe the hero must loose or else the whole story becomes unbelievable. For someone to have played all sides, to be revealed virtually in his triumph, to loose just like that would be strange. Its pretty much ambitious to say the least 😂

"All villains are antagonists..." I think that's wrong. A villain can be very well the protagonist. Take Michael Crichton's "Great Train Robbery" for example: Edward Pierce is clearly the protagonist, as he organizes the heist and is in almost every scene. We might admire him for being smart and daring, but he is a villain with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He is a rich man with the goal of getting richer and he uses and abuses poor people to reach his goals. Just think about what he does to Clean Willy or to that little girl he sells to Fowler!

Like the comment: “Both can’t get what they want.” Has me thinking.

Regarding #1: Ally Antagonist. Would this type of antagonist still count if it's a secret antagonist? Someone who one of the protagonists trusts &/or reveres, who turns out to be the main villain, meanwhile another one (kind of a red herring but not really, since they are a bad guy) who is more flamboyant, steals the stage in essence, as the villain until the main one is revealed. Edit: yes I know the Multiple Antagonists is more accurate but I'm curious about the ally one (mentor-ish in this case too).

Bold of you to assume being evil and being likable are mutually exclusive.

Ayn Rand. LMFAO

You talk more about movies than books…

This video isn't bad but it's kinda basic. Most of this is stuff we've already heard and not very comprehensive. It is fine advice though I guess.