Requested by: -TYPEWRITER-

I love a good antagonist/protagonist with an even better backstory and development, whatever the case may be. In every story, not matter what it may be, it needs a protagonist and an antagonist. Let's get one thing straight before I get into talking about development.

Protagonist: Is the main character. They don't have to be a hero/a good guy, they're simply that, a main character.

Antagonist: Is what the main character is facing. This could be anything from an actual person to a theme/idea like society.

For the sake of this story we're doing to be discussing antagonists and protagonists that are people. Developing them is incredibly interesting and can be fun for the author and reader if you're doing it right. Let's discuss how to do it well, okay, and poorly. I'll include some examples as well to show you.

To develop a character first figure out what direction you want them to go in. Good, bad, or even worse? 

A characters descent into insanity will be long and bumpy, full of moments where they're conscious of they're madness and want to know why. They'll have outside forces pushing them towards it, it's not just their own mind affecting itself. 

A characters journey towards the light will be hard. If they're used to being this dark, evil person, then becoming good will be against their very nature. They'll need help, and there'll be moments, big or small, where that evil side will try to shine through again. Redemption isn't earned immediately either. If they've hurt people before, it'll be damn near impossible to assure them they won't be hurt again.

Turning an evil character even worse isn't too hard surprisingly. One string that most evil characters have in common is that there's something keeping them human. It can be a person, an idea, a dream, or an item. If you destroy that then you're going to destroy what's holding them back from reaching their peak of insanity. When there's nothing keeping you human, there's no point in staying that way.

EXAMPLE OF GOOD DEVELOPMENT

I will forever stand by this statement. The best developed character in history is Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender. LISTEN. It took three seasons for him to change. The first season he was evil, the second season he really struggled to figure out who he wanted to be, and he fell back into evil a few times. The third season was the climax, where he denied being evil and joined the team. It was hard, and it took all of them a long time to trust him. 

If you don't know who that character is, or are confused as to why I think he's the best developed character ever, look it up. It's worth it and reading how they developed him will help you a lot when wanting to develop your characters.

EXAMPLE OF MEDIUM DEVELOPMENT

Lotor from Voltron. He was a really interesting character and I do love him a lot, but he could have developed a lot better. He started out as really arrogant and evil seeming, then said he wanted to be different from his father. So he started helping Voltron out. His actions were really redeeming. Then, he didn't get his way, we found out he was doing some really bad stuff the whole time, and he went crazy and tried to kill everyone.

All of this was in the span of around 2 1/2 seasons. Now, if Lotor was the main antagonist and he got eight seasons all to himself, it would be way better. But they tried to shove so much character into him in 2 1/2 seasons. It doesn't work! Don't do it! Take time with your characters, even if they aren't the main they deserve the attention that will get your readers invested in all of the characters.

EXAMPLE OF BAD DEVELOPMENT

Lance from Voltron. Two Voltron examples, yay! Now, I loved Lance, he's the one I relate to the most, but his character was handled awfully. I will fight anyone who says differently.

He started out as a overall confident person who wanted to grow up and be a good fighter. Then, we learned of his insecurities. When present with Keith who understood and wished to help, Lance felt a bit better. Then, Lance got a new lion to make him feel better about how useless he felt. He was constantly used as comic relief instead of being delved into as an interesting storyline and character. When they got to Earth they ignored him a lot and then threw him into a relationship with Allura soon after. 

Throughout these seasons Lance became nothing more than comedic relief, docile and way less confident. I understand he had insecurities, but he had them before they joined Voltron and he was still happy. He took a 180. When (SPOILER, SKIP AHEAD IF YOU WANT) Allura died, he dropped all of his dreams to become a good pilot, got stuck with powers he didn't want in a rushed relationship, and became a flower farmer...

It makes me angry so I'm moving on.

As you can see there are good and bad ways to develop antagonists, and protagonists. I hope this helped, and I encourage you to do more research into it because these examples are the tip of the iceberg! 

Request are open and so is asking questions!

~Lydia