Complicated Antagonists – The Climb #627

Tuesday 10^th November 2020

I’ve been catching up on His Dark materials over the last couple of days. It’s been one of those TV series I’ve been meaning to watch and I just needed the right time and mood to watch it.

Despite the movie of The Golden Compass being a complete mess, I have to say that I think the first season of the TV show is probably even better than the book.

There’s some strong visuals I love. The war machinery of the Magistirium juxtaposes lovely to the mystery and magic of the witches in a way that really pushes my fantasy buttons. We’ve not really seen such a mix of technology and magic outside of Urban Fantasy since The last Airbender.

But it’s the character of Mrs Coulter that has really captured me. It’s been a number of years since I read the books but what I really enjoyed was the depth the TV series gave that character.

She is, at her heart, a villain. She’s the major antagonist and we are not meant to see her as anything else. And yet, there is empathy for her. She schemes and is beset with threats from all sides. You almost feel sorry for her, but there’s no forgetting she is very much one of the baddies.

It’s got me thinking about these types of characters. They will usually be in situations where they are forced to make bad choices. Yet, so are protagonists, so what makes them feel different?

It’s something I’ve been pondering about. I think I get some concrete formula and then can think of an exception.

I think at the heart of it when a protagonist gets presented with the choice between two horrible options, they will at least fight for a third. They have some form of moral code even if they’re an anti-hero and it’s a bit twisted. They’d rather die than break that, but the complicated antagonist doesn’t. They’ll sell out their friends, even their own beliefs, and that can often make them a tragic character.

Inside this, they are flawed. I guess all characters are, but this is what stops them ever being a protagonist. They are capable of good, but only if it’s in their interest. There’s a lot of selfishness at the heart of these antagonists.

It makes them fun to write. There’s a danger of making them a little pathetic, but that’s when there’s no moral code for them to break. Whereas the hero would fight to find the 3^rd option, the complicated antagonist will reluctantly break their own code because they have no other choice. They need to be conflicted. They need to be capable of redemption.

Of course, it’s fun when their own flaws mean they’re always just short of being able to claim that redemption. It can often make them tragic characters, but it makes them interesting.

Whilst there’s nothing immediate, I do have a character in a book I probably won’t get to for a couple of years that this model would really suit. Yep, that’s how far ahead I often think.

Applying this idea to that character will now percolate in my head. I’ll probably forget this part of their origin, I’ll probably be unable to find this blog post, but who knows, maybe one day someone will say where did that great idea for that character originate from and I can point them here.