8 Worst Antagonist Mistakes New Fantasy Writers Make

What / Who are your favorite antagonists of all time? :)

I agree on some points, but very much disagree on others. Complex villains and subverting cliché tropes are not inherrently better than their counterparts. On the contrary, these practices have become overused tropes of their own. What matters more than wether your villain has layers to their personality is wether their actions, phillosophy, and/or goals stand in direct conflict with those of the protagonist. Using an example from recent time, The Spot from Across the Spiderverse is a great villain not because of his depth of character, but because he is a simple powerful threat who has a personal grudge against the protagonist and his actions and goals, moreso than just being destructive, get in the way of Miles' goals. Wether intentionally or unintentionally. Making him a deeper character than "you hit me with a bagel and turned me into a freak! I hate you now!" Might make him a better character, but unless done skillfully is just more likely to make him a more tedious character. TL,DR: Character depth is an accent. Don't apply too heavily.

When you mentioned unclear objectives, I thought about Hans from Frozen. The character kept changing, and it wasn't clear what he wanted until the plot twist at the end. The character is more fleshed out in the book that was made, and the reader can see more about his life and why he decided to do the things he did.

We should also not confuse an antagonist with a villain. Antagonists are necessary for the plot. Villains are not. What is more impactful for one’s story, or which they want to write is up to them.

Agree on all points. And, when thinking of favorite antagonists, the morally gray ones are far more enjoyable. I definitely need to expand my villans personalities. In pushing through draft one I stuck to the basics for the whole cast. But, I relize how flat and one dimensional everyone is. Before starting draft two I really need to do some character delving.😅

I think having reasonable and deep motivations and not being pure evil are two different things. IMO pure evil characters can be interesting, if their character is logical. For example, Blackbeard or Imu from One Piece both can be described as two different variations of pure evil. They are imo both interesting because of the way Oda is using them. One of them is a foil of Luffy, but he lacks luffy's morality and emotional intelligence. He is very unpredictable though. He has his ideas, his goals, which are, in a way, very similar to Luffy's, but when Luffy is pursuing his dreams by helping others pursue theirs, Blackbeard's approach is completly selfish. It's an interesting dichotomy. Both of them grow at the same time, both of them shake the world. Blackbeard is in a way an Anti-Protagonist of the story. Imu on the other hand is a personification of both mystery and darkness of the world. It was shown time and time again how sickening this world is. Imu is used in a way to be a figurative avatar of this darkness. He is a face that allows readers to see that all of those tragedies weren't just caused by situation that couldn't be avoided. They were results of decisions of de facto one individual. They do not need to be complex themself, they don't even need to be present. They are just a way to give the world, which is a true antagonist of this story, a face. And this makes them compeling.

Artimes Enteri and Jarlaxle from R. A. Salvatore. Dresden Files by Jim Butcher has a few, Nicodemus a fallen angel, John Marcone a mob boss, Queen Mab of the Winter Court. Generally, as you pointed out, villans that aren't cut and dry "evil" but have a moral code. Twisted and very gray, but moral.

Favorite is gotta be Darth Vader. Everyone in the Star Wars Galaxy fears him, even Palpatine to some extent.

Here is a question based on these mistakes. What if the antagonist is not the main antagonist? What if the main antagonist is a force of nature (Let's say the main antagonist that pushes the plot is the civil war currently surrounding the characters) Since they are not the one who is the main drive, yet they stand in the way of the person how does that influence them when it comes to these. Because some of these mistakes wouldn't fit a secondary antagonist considering how much must be spent on the force of nature antagonist.

The current main Antagonist I'm working with suffers from various birth defects and whose innate magical strength is often considered on the weaker side by the magic community, mostly because of its lack of power to brute force solutions compared to the other magics. The Antagonist is indebted to the true Villain of the story, as they were the only one who accepted them as they were. The Antagonist presents a threat to the Protagonist through their mastery of Alchemy, Artificing, and Enchanting that they have acquired over their prolonged life. Their deep involvement in the formation of the current magic society offers them access to rare resources and vast networks of political influence. Their objective is to revive the Villain back into the world and reap vengeance against those who killed his only true friend. In order for his plan to work, he has to break the Six Great Seals of the world that were placed by the gods, in order to release those who he wishes to take revenge upon. The Protagonist suffers the misfortune of being one of the keystones required to break one of the Six Great Seals, as their innate magic links them to one the prisoners. Their failure in the hero's journey will not only result in their death, but also the collapse of the known world and the enslavement of both gods and mortals alike by the Villain.

What if the antagonist is a god, where the characters have little possibility to gain insight into its true motives?