Villain Vs. Antagonist: What's the Difference?

One of the great things about being a writing teacher and a writer is that sometimes what I teach in class lines up well with what I'm thinking about during my writing, and this is one of those times.

This week, I talked to my students about writing fiction and we talked about antagonists and villains. At first, things went smoothly. I discussed what a protagonist is ("one who strives") and how your protagonist needs to want something for the story to progress. So far so good.

Then I started talking about antagonists, and how they strive against the protagonist, making it difficult for the protagonist to get what the want.

That's when the confusion began. My students asked if a villain was the same as an antagonist, and the lesson began.

An villain is a kind of antagonist, but an antagonist is not inherently a villain. An antagonist works against the protagonist, sure, but that doesn't make them a villain any more than it makes the protagonist a hero.

I looked up a bunch of definitions of "villain," and I found that although now and then I see something along the lines of "someone who works against the hero," which seems similar to the definition of an antagonist, most of them detail that a villain is someone who does things that are morally, ethically, and legally wrong in opposing the hero.

A villain is evil. A villain is bad. We, as readers, are not supposed to think that the villain is doing good things. They are actively working against the hero with malicious intent or they will do heinous things to further their ends.

One thing my students questioned was if a villain was a villain if we, as the readers, sympathize with them or if we understand where they're coming from.

No.

Even if we do understand, even if we do sympathize, the villain is still hurting people/breaking laws/actively seeking to harm the hero and as a result, they're still the villain.

Loki is a villain, at least in the first few movies he's in. Yes, we know why he's tormented. We sympathize. But he also killed 80 people in 2 days and he's actively working to harm the heroes and all they care about. Therefore, villain.

 

In Hamlet, Claudius feels remorse for his act of killing the king and prays about it. But he still killed the king, and he still plans to kill Hamlet, and he won't give up the things he got from his act of evil. Therefore, villain.

An antagonist, on the other hand, only needs to be working against the protagonist. This only means that they present some kind of obstacle. If Stacy wants the lead in the school play, and Mary wants it too, Mary is an antagonist because she is striving against Stacy. Mary might be an actual saint who likes Stacy quite a bit and would never harm her, but if she's presenting an obstacle to Stacy getting what she wants, she's an antagonist.

Take Elsa, in Frozen. Elsa does not want to hurt anyone, and is not an evil person. But since she's working against Anna's goal of bringing her sister home, by staying away, she's an antagonist in the film.

I also like the example of Javert from Les Miserables. He's not a bad guy; in fact, one may say he's a good guy given his role as a police inspector and keeper of the peace. He just wants justice, which is not bad. But since Valjean is the protagonist, and Javert is working against Valjean, he's the antagonist.

(Using the David Oyelowo Javert because this miniseries is great.)

So what does this mean for us as writers? Well, it means that not all antagonists need to be villains. Your hero doesn't need to strive against someone evil, someone who kicks puppies for fun and kills his lesser minions. Villains are great, sympathetic and otherwise, but you can draw plenty of drama from antagonists who aren't evil, but whose goals and desires conflict with the protagonist. It can be done---the movie Finding Nemo is an example of a kid's movie without a villain, but with plenty of antagonists.

Lastly, can someone please tell me whether this guy is a villain or a more simple antagonist?

Because I know what I think, but the debate has been going back and forth all week.