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ANONYMOUS:
Anon is gonna be bitterly disappointed when they read Little Red Riding Hood and find out the wolf needs to have as much story-time as the girl for the story itself to make sense For F@ck Sake Izzy may not be the protagonist indeed but he's among the Main Antagonists, one NEED to make the story also about him for it to advance
HAHAHA. Aren’t they just?
But also, there is a Big Difference between a Villain and an Antagonist! Not all stories have a Villain, but most stories have an Antagonist.
Villains are usually evil, they want to hurt everyone, they want to destroy what’s being built. Unless they’re undercover, they tend to not be a part of the main group. Closer to a villain in OFMD would be the Badmintons, but even they are not really villains.
Antagonists are far different. They promote and create conflict by being in opposition to the protagonist (in this case: Stede. What Stede wants and what Izzy wants are, currently, diametrically opposed) they cannot both get what they want and that is what drives the story forwards.
Izzy has to duel Stede for Stede to win and for Izzy to be cast out so Izzy can then work with the English and Spanish Jackie to go back and ‘rescue’ Edward from Stede’s bewitchment, which causes the Act of Grace, which causes the finale. Without Izzy, none of that would happen.
But he’s not a villain. He’s an antagonist. And he doesn’t have to be evil to be an antagonist. He doesn’t have to be bad or have Edward’s worst interests in his heart or want to watch the world burn. All he has to do is oppose what Stede wants, and he does.
(Even better is the fact that half the time he doesn’t actually oppose what Ed wants, but that’s a different discussion)
Antagonists are vital to the plot of any story. Sometimes antagonists aren’t even people, they’re emotions or effects of change within the narrative.
A list of other antagonists in OFMD off the top of my head:
- The entire crew except for Buttons in 1x01 because of the mutiny
- Stede’s anxiety
- Spanish Jackie
- Nigel and Chauncey Badminton
- Mary Bonnet
- The English (derogatory)
- King George lmao
- Calico Jack
- Stede’s issues
- Ed’s issues
- In the treasure hunt episode: Lucius when he yells at Ed, briefly
- But also Ed in that episode. He’s positioned for a good chunk of it as Stede’s antagonist
- Nana? Oluwande’s antagonist. Her desires (Jim getting revenge) are opposed to Oluwande’s (Jim with him).
there are more for sure, but this is just my impressions of it.
One of my favorite shows of all times is a Canadian Syfy show called Killjoys. Killjoys introduced a lot of antagonists over the five seasons, but the show itself (much like, in my opinion, OFMD) was, at its core (and this was confirmed to me by the writer), about trauma, processing trauma, and coming out of trauma the other side.
Thusly, there was not one single antagonist in that show– Okay, one, but he didn’t really matter, he was just kind of there so I’m disregarding him right now– that wasn’t, by the end of it, either redeemed or given a chance at redemption.
The abusive father figure? Given a second chance, redeemed, saved the protagonist multiple times, and returned (healed, safe, happy) to his wife.
The 3-season long villain, big bad, everyone is scared of her, she killed my favorite character lmao and likes to torture people for funzies? Yeah, her too. She’s redeemed at the end, happy, safe, healing. And I love her.
Originally posted by dailykilljoys
Antagonists don’t have to die or disappear or be written out. Redemption is a wonderful narrative, and sometimes they don’t even need redemption, they just need someone to offer out a hand for them to take.
Ah yes, another of my favorite shows springs to mind…
