A Study in Opposites

Do all things exist in balance? Good and evil. Light and dark. Chaos and order. Are these the binary opposites we’ve been led to believe? Or is there always more to the story?

How do we explore the space between one extreme and another?
One potential place to start is by considering perspective. Who is the story about? Who is it for? What are the author’s own biases or intentions? Why is this the story being told and why now?

Perspective is the key difference between the hero of a story and the villain--characters we will here define as the protagonist and antagonist respectively. The word protagonist comes from a Greek theatre term meaning “first actor” and is usually used to describe the main character of the story, whether they are inherently heroic or not. Think of your protagonist as the figure that is the most proactively progressing the story forward and furthering the narrative. A story can still have a passive main character, however, then the question becomes, are they truely your protagonist?

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The term antagonist is likewise derived from a Greek term. In theatre, the antagonist is “one who opposes the first actor,” however, this term was even more broadly used to reference any rival or contentious person acting against another. That doesn’t necessarily make an antagonist an evil person, or even a bad person, they simply have goals or interests at odds with that of the driving force of the story.

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So you can see why perspective is crucial in defining which character in your story deserves which moniker. After all, Link might be the Hero of Hyrule, however, do you think those monsters appreciate being attacked in their homes deep in the caves and forests where they’re not bothering anyone? Especially when many of them are being forced to act violently by Ganon and are simply pawns in his evil machinations. ​Except, maybe Ganon isn’t evil either, maybe Zelda’s family has abused their royal power over the people of the Hyrule and Ganon seeks to overthrow a corrupted monarchy in order to enforce a democratically elected governing body? Link could be an agent of feudal oppression, you don’t know.

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And that’s ultimately the point. All things exist in opposition, positive and negative, and it’s that duality that creates the best stories. Pro- and anti-, for and against, arbiter of preservation, agent of change. Protagonists and antagonists are simply whichever characters the author needs to affix the lens of the story on to drive the story forward. It’s the wants and desires of these two characters that creates the essential elements of contrast, tension, and conflict that every good story needs.

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