Creating Your Story’s Antagonist

Antagonists are some of the hardest characters to create, as their evil deeds need to have motives that makes sense, along with their more cynical worldview.

Antagonists who are evil for the sake of being evil often don’t resonate with readers — especially if you want to create empathy and pose a moral dilemma — as they tend to be unrealistic and can easily fall flat. People don’t go around causing havoc for the pure “joy” of it… usually. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t have a well-written masochistic antagonist with psychopathic tendencies, such as Moriarty from BBC Sherlock. Such villains should still be given a fear and/or motive — which can include vengeance, or, more simply, finding a purpose in their seemingly meaningless life — to make them more developed. 

You may also consider creating a secondary antagonist — a pawn— who evokes more emotional responses from your readers instead. Antagonists who create such emotional or intellectual responses tend to be more morally gray. They do not commit evil acts for fun, but because it is necessary. 

So, instead of simply writing gray antagonists as wicked, horrible individuals who were born with a thirst for blood (unless they’re a vampire or part monster), we need to determine their values and reasoning. Many villains, for example, believe that “the ends justify the means,” yet they may have restrictions on how far they’re morally willing to go. You may also want to consider if they attempt to justify their evil deeds to themselves or others. Do they truly believe in these excuses, or are they constantly trying to convince themselves of it?

If you were to tell the story from your antagonist’s perspective, what would the reader think of them? 

Would they root for them? 
Would they have empathy or compassion for them? 
Would they despise them, but have curiosity about what drove them to that horrible state? 
Are they entertained by them? 

During creation, keep in mind what you want your character to feel for them to help shape them. The easiest way for a reader to connect with a character is through shared human experience: 

What kind of humanity does your antagonist have, or had at one point before something tragic happened to them? 

The ability to love is one of the most universal human experiences; does your villain love someone, confuse obsession with love, or believe love is weakness? Why?

There are antagonists who people love to hate — like Umbridge from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling — and antagonists who people hate to love — like Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape from Harry Potter— because they have a values and moral conflicts that are sympathizable and were manipulated victims/puppets to a degree.

I would argue that some of the most impactful antagonists give the readers a moral quandary of their own, where they can see both sides of the story and the truths and lies within each. They cannot fully be against the villain, because they understand them to a degree. Even if the reader ultimately sides with the protagonist — which makes sense after following the hero’s side of the journey — they can still feel some sadness at the villain’s loss, having empathy for the one who never got the chance to redeem themselves and who had the potential for so much more. 

That takes me to the first thing you want to consider when creating your antagonist:

THE BREAKING POINT

Imagine your antagonist as a newborn child. Now, what could potentially turn this innocent baby into a mad scientist, a mass murderer, a sociopath, or a vengeful individual? Surely they were not born evil, unless there was some psychopathy, strange DNA, or demonic entity attached to them from infancy. 

Your villain is likely to have some type of talent or natural inclination, which they use for bad as opposed to good:

• Are they super-intelligent, ahead of all their peers intellectually and able to come up with unimaginable innovations that potentially save the world?
• Does magic come more easily to them, making them more powerful than other witches and wizards? 
• Do they have some sort of mutation which enhances their abilities?
• Are they highly charismatic, knowing how the human psyche works?
•  Were they born into a wealthy family, giving them access to things such as education, military protection, equipment, unique experiences, freedom,..?

Now, how can these good, extreme traits turn bad? 

• If they are super-intelligent, do they want to push the boundaries of nature to its extremes? Could they create innovations to destroy the world if they felt like everyone was against them?
• If they have more advanced magical abilities, do they also have a bad moral compass that makes them destructive?
• If they have a supernatural genetic advantage, does this mutation also turn them animalistic (into a “monster”) at times? 
• If they are charismatic, do they manipulate others for their own benefit?
• If they are wealthy, did being spoiled inflate their ego? Do they use their wealth to coerce people? Do they abuse their military power?

Now that we have an idea of what could potentially go wrong with these abilities or privileges, what caused things to go wrong? 

The most obvious answer would be a traumatic childhood. This could involve abuse, neglect, or being bullied. This would create within your antagonist a distrust of others early on and isolate them from human connection. It is easier to feel hatred for something when you feel disconnected and left out of it (like The Grinch in Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch).

There may be a series of minor incidents which lead up to a very specific breaking point, which decisively sends your antagonist down the wrong path. It’s unlikely that only one incident would hurl someone to the dark side, and more likely for it to be due to a big “blow” after a series of smaller “blows” or from one small “blow” after a series of bigger “blows” (the butterfly effect).

If you plan on showing flashbacks of your antagonist’s life, remember to include hints of their insanity before their breaking point is reached.

Some breaking points could be:

• That the antagonist is rejected by someone they love(d) — especially cruelly — breaking their heart and causing them to believe that love is stupid and meaningless. They may stalk this person, even decades later, refusing to let go and despising everyone they get with.
• That the antagonist experiences a humiliation, such as being bullied publicly or failing at something publicly. This could make them to isolate themselves, seek revenge, or prove themselves to all who wronged them.
• That the antagonist experiences an injustice, perhaps blamed for something they didn’t do and villainized by the actions of another. This would especially make sense if they were already judged and seen as a questionable member of society and wanted to prove themselves. After everyone turns on them, they may decide to act outwardly maliciously since they’re already hated anyway; “What’s the point of trying now?”

These are all relatable human experiences that a reader can empathize with, even if they didn’t experience it to the same degree.

On the other hand, your antagonist may have been coddled, creating unrealistic expectations for the world that continually lets them down while still believing they are entitled to and deserve everything. This, too, would fuel rage in someone, but in a less sympathetic way.

Your villain’s breaking point might also establish a debilitating fear that follows them for the rest of their life, heavily influencing their future motive(s):

MOTIVATIONS & FEARS

Fear can be a powerful motivator; to avoid re-living a bad event or experiencing something at all costs. Because fears don’t appear out of the blue, it’s a good idea to tie it to your antagonist’s personality or rough past, especially relating to their breaking point.

Some common fears are:

• Abandonment 
• Failure (do they have to prove themselves after being undermined and laughed at for their ideas their whole life?)
• Death and Loss (either their own death or the death of someone they love, especially if the person they care for is ill)
• Loneliness (to avoid this, they formulate fake and manipulative connections, bribing friendships or romances)
• Rejection (if they sense that someone is rejecting them they easily blow up, push them away first, or smite them)
• Embarrassment 
• Being forgotten (they need to leave a mark on the world and be remembered for their greatness; tied to a large ego)
• Poverty (if they began poor and became rich, they may do anything to not be poor again)

Some more questions you can ask yourself about their fear(s) are:

How powerful/influential is their fear? 
Is their fear so strong that it can override their own value system , either to a certain degree or completely?
Does it torment or motivate them more? 
Does their fear make them weaker, stronger, or a mix of both? 
Can others pick up on this fear (especially the protagonist), or do they hide it well? 
Is this fear noble, such as wanting to keep a loved one alive, reasonable, such as wanting to cure an ailment they have, or unrealistic, such as wanting to avoid death? 

Motivators are also important to consider in your antagonist, and can work either together with or in opposition to their fear. These goals can be “good” (with evil means to achieve it), “neutral,” or “evil” in nature.

Here are some common motivators:

• A better future or a different world (their vision of an improved world can be selfish, with themselves as its supreme ruler, good, with a bad way of reaching it, or destructive, especially if your villain has anger at the world for wronging them)
• Love (is your antagonist even capable of love, or just idealization?)
• Ambition (for greatness, wealth, power, fame, adoration..) 
• Greed
• Revenge (they will stop at nothing until the one(s) who wronged them get their recompense)

How do they go about achieving their goal, and how far would they go? 

A key distinction between antagonists and protagonists is their ability to justify their harmful actions.

If you want to complicate your antagonist’s internal struggle, you can make the villain’s fears and motivations conflict with each other:

• They want to be adored, but have to make enemies along the way
• They want to create eternal life for all, but have to kill many in the process (applicable with the mad scientist trope especially)
• They want to be a dictator, but hate being in the spotlight
• They want to achieve something that will involve many failures before they can succeed, but have a fear of failure that pushes them to anger more and more (making them more careless and unpredictable)

If you’re going to play around with these types of inner conflicts, it’s good to determine how their fears and motives interact with each other, and which of the two is more impactful: 

Is their fear stronger than their drive, or vice versa?

CONNECT TO THE PROTAGONIST

Your protagonist and antagonist need to come head-to-head somehow, and one of the most efficient ways to achieve this is to design them with either similar goals (with the protagonist unwilling to sacrifice their values to achieve it), or conflicting goals. 

Some things to consider:

• Is the protagonist in the way of the antagonist’s goal, and/or vice versa?
• Is one of their goals to stop the other from achieving their goal (especially if a hero is trying to stop a villain)?
• What similarities do they have, and how are they mirrors to each other?
• What differences do they have, especially regarding values? 

Some examples in literature of heroes and villains who mirror each other are Harry Potter and Voldemort from Harry Potter and Sherlock and Moriarty from BBC Sherlock. 

Throughout the Harry Potter series Harry is compared to Voldemort, even by Tom Riddle himself, who says to him in The Chamber of Secrets:

“There are strange likenesses between us, Harry Potter. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike.” — Tom Riddle, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Yes they had a lot of similarities, but what truly brought these two together was when Voldemort marked him as his equal. As the prophecy said:

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies….” — Sybill Trelawney, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling 

Sherlock and Moriarty are both deducting geniuses, with one defining difference between the two:

Moriarty: “We’re a lot alike, you and I. Except your boring, your on the side of the angels!”
Sherlock : “Oh, I may be on the side of the angels, but don’t think for one second that I am one of them.”

Their greatest contrast was how they used their abilities. Sherlock used his intelligence to solve crimes, and Moriarty used his intelligence to become rich and powerful. 

As we discussed earlier, an antagonist should have a breaking point which sets them on a path toward evil. A protagonist should also have a breaking point in their character arc, but instead of allowing it to create darkness within them, they overcome it and become stronger. It is especially interesting when the hero’s and the villain’s breaking points overlap, and the different outcomes are dependent on choice. 

How will both the protagonist’s and antagonist’s fears work within this hero-villain relationship?

• How will your antagonist use your protagonist’s fears and weaknesses against them? Will they torment, taunt, and say the most triggering things they can think of?
• How will your protagonist use your antagonist’s fears and weaknesses against them? This could ultimately be their fatal flaw; the Achilles’ heel for the hero to defeat the villain. 

It is extremely satisfying when the antagonist’s greatest fear — which they went to great and evil lengths to avoid — is the cause of their demise. The hero journey may involve trying to discover this weakness, especially if the antagonist hides it well (such as Voldemort’s Horcruxes from Harry Potter).

Aware of how far your antagonist would go to achieve their goals, what do you believe could possibly stop such a person? 

Seeing the error of their ways? 
Self-realization (are they even capable of that, or are they too emotionally detached and self-righteous)? 
A curse or anti-curse? 
Imprisonment (could a prison contain them)? 
Death?

MORE THINGS TO CONSIDER

After some final touches, you should have a fully-rounded villain for your valiant protagonist to contend with.

1. Does your villain have any mental disturbances, such as narcissism, entity possession, or psychopathy? 

2. What other traits do you want your antagonist to have to make them more scary or interesting?

• Unpredictable— You never know when they are going to lash out aggressively; characters must walk on eggshells around them.
• Ruthless — They won’t hesitate to kill even their own followers if they err.
• Manipulative — Others are unaware of how corrupt they are, unable to recognize the evil behind their intentions and sweet talking.
• Wrathful —They are prone to rage and are unforgiving.
• Powerful — If they wanted, they could hire an assassin or send an army to overthrow a city without even having to leave their throne 
• Talks to self —They are so isolated and detached that they only have themselves to speak to, and they do so maniacally
• Egotistical — They see themselves as a virtuous leader working for the greater good of mankind, perhaps even creating their own cult and generating a religious following

3. What physical traits reveal their personality (scars, style, hair, gauntness, a strange eye color, paleness,..) 

4. How do they speak (slowly, choosing their words carefully, in a deep voice, intellectually, insultingly) and how does their tone add to their horror? 

Read more about creating a character’s appearance and unique tone here.