Villain viewpoint - or sidekick of the villan?

Hi!

So I'm working on my ideas for the main antagonist and I've got a pretty clear view of who he is. I'm writing in third limited perspective and I need to show the antagonist of to the reader before he clashes with the protagonist, so I feel like I should have a viewpoint on their side as well.

The thing is I want to show the antagonist's actions, but not his thoughts. So I'm thinking I'll do a sort of side-kick for him, which in that way would show his actions and not spill his thoughts - and instead show the internal reactions of the side-kick when the antagonist does something surprising etc.

The question I have though, is if this is a good or bad idea. Is it a good plan the way I imagined (that given I make the viewpoint side-kick character genuine and important to the plot as well of course), or should is it a bad idea to create a character primarily to show off another?

I want to do this as the antagonist would give away somewhat to much if I spilled his thoughts for the reader.

//Thoras

 

Thanks for the feedback and tips!

I'm still considering both options, as I have continued to envision the options in my heads with your words in my mind and I can see both ideas working out. I was thinking of another thing now as I'm writing (still working on the first chapters of my protagonist) and I was thinking - if I were to do the viewpoint of the main villain, I would like to introduce him somewhat later on, like a few chapters into the book, but I'm thinking is that a bad idea as well if you are to have two viewpoint characters, and one gets a lot more pages?

I mean the story is about the protagonist after all. As I'm a new writer I'm not sure about some of the "rules" of writing. I know some may say there are no rules, which is probably correct - but I'm sure there are a few do's and don'ts. Is it okay to do three chapters of protag before you show of the antag? Or should I try to work him into the second chapter and do every other chapter?