What's the difference between a villain and antagonist?

Post Reply New Topic

The way I see it an antagonist isn't necessarily a bad person, just someone who opposes the protagonist. A villain does have to be a bad person.

A villan does things because they are pissed. The antagonist does things because he/she wants to make someone ELSE pissed. (say troll)

An antagonist opposes the main character (protagonist). The main character could be evil and opposed by a good person. Though I can't think of any movies with evil main characters at the moment.

Evil protagonists exist. You can find examples here:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... rotagonist

A protagonist is typically the main character of the story, and the one who's trying to achieve some kind of goal. The antagonist is the primary character who opposes him or her. The protagonist is usually good and the antagonist is usually evil, but this isn't always the case.

I once heard John McTiernan, the director of Die Hard, talking about how the hero of the movie was the antagonist and the villain was the protagonist, his reasoning being that the villain is trying to achieve something and the hero is trying to stop him. It's a valid point, although John McClane, the hero, is still the main character rather than Hans Gruber, the villain.

Long story short, the villain is the "bad guy" and the antagonist is whoever is standing in the way of, challenging, or confronting the main character of the story.

Hmmm, I see a villain as someone who wants to do bad things because they like or need it. Antagonists are just the person that are against the protagonist. Say, in a film where two people are running to become presidents. Person 1 is the protagonist and Person 2 is the antagonist, even though they're not doing anything evil. They would be a villain however if they wanted to become president to take over the world or...something like that.

Protagonist would be the person the story chronicles, through his or her point of view or through thirdd person that mostly follows him or her. Antagonist opposes him or her and their goals. A book that would be written entirely through Hitler's perspective would have him be the protagonist, but still obviously a villian.

A couple top of my head villian protagonist I can name would be Conker from Conker's Bad Fur Day. He isn't really evil, but he is a massive d-bag. And the sherriff in The Killer Inside Me, who was sadistic, sexist, and psychopathic. Anti-hero would be a good term, which the protagonist has a dark side, which usually is made through subtle clues. A red herring can also be used for this purpose.

Villain = bad.
Antagonist = opposing.

I'm in agreement with everyone else, so far - an antagonist supplies opposition to the protagonist for whatever reason, but the villain does it for purposely malignant reasons.
Case in point - in The Fugitive, Tommy Lee Jones plays the antagonist trying to recapture framed Harrison Ford, not because he's a bad person, but catching Harrison Ford is just his job.
While a genuine villain would be someone like Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine of the Star Wars saga, who wishes to plunge the whole galaxy into a thousand years of darkness under Sith rule by drawing Anakin Skywalker into a Faustian deal, in which he loses his humanity both spiritually and physically when he became Darth Vader, then tries the same with Anakin's son, Luke.

Villain = "muahahahaha"
Antagonist = "Why so serious?"

I would see The Joker more as a villain rather than an antagonist.

I disagree. The Joker is a very complicated character. (at least the one in The Dark Knight) I think a villain is evil just for the sake of just being evil, or for some inane reason. and an antagonist is one who competes with another, or rival as is the case with the Joker vs Batman

a villain isn't as sophisticated as an antagonist.