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“Nobody thinks they’re evil or bad, they think they are doing the right thing”. Andrew McCarthy, 1962.
This is a famous quote for writing and storytelling. It’s been paraphrased and repeated by lots of people, even villains in stories. I’ve also seen people take lots of exceptions with this quote. People have gotten very angry with this sentiment.
It’s a great conversation piece. Philosophically, it gets the brain juices flowing about the nature of good and evil. What is the mindset of someone who does evil things, or even what an “evil” thing may be. I, and really anybody, could go on about this at length. As philosophically, sociologically, and psychologically speaking this has so many meanings and implications it’s literally still a hot topic for debate.
What I want to talk about today in regards to writing is the antagonist of your story. What might this mean? Does this mean that your antagonist is the hero of their story? That is possible, but it’s only relevant if you’re telling the story from the antagonist’s perspective. Of course, then the antagonist would be the protagonist, wouldn’t they?
Oops! Looks like things have gotten muddled, doesn’t it?
Okay. Enough of the philosophical gymnastics. Let us, you and I, get down to the brass tacks of the matter.
I’ll try to make this as simple as possible. When it comes to crafting a story, what I believe the quote means is that the antagonist has their own motivation. Also, you, as the storyteller, have to know the role the antagonist plays in the story. When you know the role of your antagonist it can help you find their motivation. Let’s go over a few examples.
First, let’s look at Stephen King’s It. Obviously, Pennywise is the antagonist. What can we define his role as? I think It can easily fit into the ‘monster’ role. Okay. So, what does that mean for its motivations? Monster’s are forces of nature, they act on instinct, with one desire overwriting everything else. Most of the time, this amounts to killing and eating indiscriminately. Grendel from Beowulf is another example of a monster.
Next, let’s look at Professor James Moriarte from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. What is his role (other than being a Dark Mirror for Sherlock)? He would be a ‘mastermind’. He’s smart, thinking one, two, three, and even four steps, sometimes ten steps, ahead of those around him. He has no compunctions about hurting people, directly or indirectly. What are his motivations? Usually, masterminds are worried about making as much money as possible (sometimes it’s to prove they are smarter than everyone else), because they are the antagonists of the story, the means by which they do this is usually through underhanded, immoral, and illegal means. Unlike the monster, who will strike, stalk, kill, and hunt anything in its path bringing it into conflict with the protagonist(s); the meeting between a mastermind antagonist and a protagonist is usually, at least for the first time, completely coincidental. The protagonist might not even know they’ve met the mastermind antagonist. The reason the two of them have come into conflict is because of the difference in morals. The antagonist wants to be rich/outsmart people and is willing to break the laws of man and nature to do so. The protagonist, meanwhile, is an upholder of said laws. Thus, the conflict is inevitable. For more examples of masterminds check out almost any of the James Bond villains.
Lastly, I’d like to talk about Moff Gideon from the show The Mandolorian. If we look at his behavior throughout the series, one thing becomes readily apparent, he is in the role of dominator. A dominator is the type of person that wants to, as the name suggests, control things. The dominator will lie, cheat, double-deal, and kill to get their way. They are all about their way. They want to control a group (like a gang, cult, or similar organization), a town/city/nation/galaxy usually outside of whatever actual government is in charge. The dominator wants control because they are the only way the group will prosper, or order maintained, or only they have the correct vision of the future, and they don’t care how many rules/laws they have to break or how many people have to die for that prosperity/order/vision of the future. For another example of a dominator, look at Magneto from the X-Men franchise.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I’m not here to give you an exhaustive list. The point of the post, and the quote it started with, is that your antagonists aren’t just villains, they should be just as much people as your protagonist(s).
Until next time, be yourself, be well, write yourself, write well.
The Hemlock Notations 