C
Chessie
Guest
No. The antagonist wants the same story goal as the protagonist. It's why there's a competition to the death for it, in essence.All an antagonist is is whoever has goals opposed to the protagonist.
No. The antagonist wants the same story goal as the protagonist. It's why there's a competition to the death for it, in essence.All an antagonist is is whoever has goals opposed to the protagonist.
No. The antagonist wants the same story goal as the protagonist. It's why there's a competition to the death for it, in essence.
GOT where all of the characters are basically antagonists to one another. They all want the throne. They all want power.
... No. No, it is not. That is a potential goal for an antagonist. It is not the definition of an antagonist. An antagonist is just someone who opposes the protagonist. Saying that their goal being the same as the protagonist is necessary to make an antagonist is wildly untrue, unless you twist the definition of "the same story goal" beyond recognition.
Maybe it works in that one case, but to apply it to the definition of "antagonist" as a whole is absurd. It only needs one single example where the antagonist does not have the same goal as the protagonist to disprove as a "rule".
In the Little Mermaid, Ariel wants hot man-action. Ursela is the antagonist, but she doesn't want anything relating to Ariel's freedom, the human world, or anything similar. She just wants to rule the sea.
I guess it's hard to find examples; mostly because you, as predicted, stretched the definition of "goal/desire" well beyond its breaking point. A goal is what a character wishes to accomplish, and a desire is much the same. Often, the goal/desire of the antagonist is the opposite, but you suggest using very strange and vague terminology to force them to sound like what you want them to be.
Take the Rescuers; the lady wants to use the little girl to get her a diamond in a cave, and the eponymous rescuers want to protect the little girl. In reality, their goals are related but dis-similar; the rescuers want to save the girl, the lady just wants her diamond. But had I posted that example without giving this explanation, no doubt rests in my mind that you would have said that they "both want control of the girl," even though that's only a means to the antagonist's end, rather than their actual goal.
In Robin Hood, Robin wants to give money to the poor and the King wants the money all to himself. You would say "they both want money", but that's not their GOALS, that's only the king's actual goal or desire. The money is the means to achieve their goals, Robin Hood's to improve the lot of the common folk and the king's to be rich. Again, the method used to achieve the goal IS NOT the goal or desire in and of itself.
In The Great Mouse Detective, Basil wants to stop Rattigan. Rattigan doesn't just want freedom, he wants to rule the kingdom! But Basil's main desire isn't so much to uphold the status quo for the kingdom, but to stop Rattigan from doing evil. It wouldn't matter to Basil WHAT evil that Rattigan wanted to commit, he just wanted to stop it.
They aren't opposite, though. The villain wants control of the girl, and the girl wants to be free. They both want control of her. That's the same goal/desire.
Hi,
Late to the party. But no heroes and villains aren't necessarily pursuing the same goal. Consider LOTR. Sauron wants to rule the world and he will do it by any means necessary...
To play a little devil's advocate. I think one could say both sides want the One Ring.
That's not what I'm saying, but it doesn't matter really. It took me some time to grasp this concept but it's opened up a whole new world for me. There truly is conflict in my stories now whereas before, I struggled with the protagonist/antagonist relationship. Anyway, I'm not trying to get anyone to agree with me.Chesterama, I think what you're defining as the same goal for protagonist and antagonist, isn't really their goal or goals. It's just the point of friction/conflict between the two, which to me isn't the same.
Anyway, I'm not trying to get anyone to agree with me.