Written by Stephen Turner | 29 January 2010

Every good story needs conflict of some kind, something that pushes the story along and gives your protagonist a challenge against which he or she can prove their worth, such as a mountain that needs to be climbed, a bridge to be built across a raging river or a book that needs to be written by a certain deadline. Quite often in these cases the protagonist contends with his or her own weaknesses and shortcomings for a bit of character development. At other times the hero of our story needs something a little more personal, something that can give a face to the challenges and trials they must face. In other words, our hero needs an adversary, an antagonist.

While the antagonist can come in a variety of shapes, ranging from a rival in romance to an obstructionist bureaucrat who hinders the hero's efforts or a ruthless poker player who's trying to land our hero in debt, they usually come to two very broad forms: the rival or the adversary.

The rival antagonist can be a rather pedestrian, petty minded individual who objects to the hero's behaviour or actions, rather than a villain intent on actual evil. They are figures that can be appeased, bribed, tricked, bypassed, ignored, mocked and sometimes even won over, but, by and large, they are unlikely to want our hero dead or be too seriously mangled. Instead, the rival antagonist is more likely to employ the tactics of protest, obstruction, theft, deceit and complaint, maybe even using sabotage or deploying bureaucratic red tape to stop the protagonist from achieving their aim. These often feature in young adult orientated stories where the efforts of the teen hero are obstructed by the uptight headmaster who is focused on petty rules and the prestige of the school.

The rival can also feature in stories where a disaster is being faced, be it epidemic or natural or a full-blown end of the world scenario. In these cases, the antagonist can be the work colleague who steals the credit or pushes for the use of an untested procedure that the protagonist believes is not ready. They can be an uptight politician unwilling to heed warnings of imminent disaster for fear of what it could do to their economy or their chances for re-election if the rumours prove unfounded. In such cases, the selfish or obstructionist antagonist gives a human face to something that is otherwise too big to have a human face.

A rival occurs in The Black Cauldron, second book of Lloyd Alexander's 'Chronicles of Prydian'. While Taran, the assistant pig keeper, and his friends try to keep the titular Black Cauldron from the forces of evil for the greater good of Prydian, they are confronted by Prince Ellidyr who is willing to go to any lengths to ensure that he alone receives all the glory for their deeds, regardless of the lies or black mail he must resort to.

Then we have the villains and adversaries who may well take a personal interest in the protagonist for one reason or another. The difference between rivals and adversaries is a simple one. Rivals compete with the protagonists. They may have simper goals, they may be after the same thing in the long run and sometimes they will even stop to help each other as they strive for that common goal, for the rival may have their own selfish reasons for getting there (such as fame, glory or monetary reimbursement).

The adversary, however, competes against the protagonist and is the villain that the protagonist must overcome, and this is what drives the story. The protagonist may have to undertake the Hero's Journey to find a means to defeat the villain, such as our stalwart band of hobbits who started their journey to get the One Ring to Rivendell where the Wise would decide how it could be used to defeat the Dark Lord Sauron.

Villains, of course, can be a lot of fun. Just look at all the wonderfully wicked Disney villains who seem to have their own fan clubs, or Shakespearean baddies like Richard III or Macbeth, who have some of the best lines (as well as top billing) in the plays. For many people, Darth Vader is preferable to his Anakin Skywalker alter ego, who I have heard referred to as a 'whiney brat Jedi'. As far as such people are concerned, becoming a villain made Anakin much more interesting.

Needless to say, a good villain will make for interesting times and will add to the appeal of the story. When creating the antagonists, the writer should be looking for ways to make them more than just some two dimensional punching bag for the protagonist to slap about. There are question they should ask. For example: Why are they a villain? What is it they want and why? Are they victims of fate who, but for circumstances, might have been a hero in their own right, or are they complete monsters who want to see the world burn? Do they work for themselves or are they the employed servant of faceless masters who lurk in the shadows? Do they work alone or do they have armies of disposable mooks at their beck and call? Does the hero even know who the antagonist is?

The antagonist is as much a co-traveller on the Hero's Journey as any of the hero's other companions and deserves something more than being a cardboard cut-out villain. Check out one of the Evil Overlord lists for ideas and thoughts about how a villain can be improved. Or look at what tvtropes.org has to say on the matter. Just be aware that they have thousands of very interesting pages and it is not easy to stop at one.

One day I am going to do a piece on mooks, orcs, stormtroopers, faceless minions and other low ranking cannon fodder in the forces of evil, as they can be fascinating in and of themselves. But next time I will be looking at the other, and friendlier, companions the Hero might meet on his/her Journey,  such characters that are allies and some that are tricksters.

Happy writing.