When we start the conversation about the protagonist and the antagonist, some writers instantly jump to the conclusion that we are referring to a good-guy-vs-bad-guy story.

One might ask, "What if I don't have a villain in my story?"

My response: "Not all stories have villains. But all stories have characters striving towards a goal of some sort… and there is always something getting in the way."

I dove deeper into this idea in a previous post, highlighting that the role of the antagonist in a story is to get in the way of the protagonist achieving those goals, whatever those goals happen to be. But your protagonist is not necessarily the good guy of the story. And the antagonist is not necessarily another character. The good-guy-vs-bad-guy concept is one of many protagonist/antagonist pairings that might exist.

It's time to take a dive into the different types of antagonists found in stories. And not all of them are characters. We'll be looking at the classic good-guy-vs-bad-guy trope, but we're also going to dive into man-vs-nature and man-vs-self.

Before we get into it, I need to mention that when I say things like man-vs-nature or man-vs-self, I'm using the word man in the generic sense to refer to a character. For your story, your characters might be man, woman, dog, vampire, child, alien, or be of any other identity that a writer could think of. But all characters relevant for this discussion should be communicating in some fashion such that the reader is able to follow their story.

Good Guy vs Bad Guy

In this trope, the hero of the story (the good guy) is working to stop some villain (the bad guy) from doing their evil deeds. In many uses of this trope, the protagonist of the story is the hero or the good guy, whereas the antagonist is the villain.

But remember that the protagonist of the story is the main character whose actions are driving the story as they work towards a goal, and the antagonist is just getting in the way.

In the movie The Joker (2019), the main character was the Joker himself, making him the protagonist of the story. But the antagonist of the story is the police commissioner, and ultimately Batman in later renditions of the story.

Another example where the main character of a story is actually a bad guy is seen in Netflix's series YOU. In that series, the main character is Joe… and he's a stalker! He's a serial killer. He's a bad guy… but he's a bad guy that we eventually come to adore.

So, one needs to remember that your good guy may in fact be the antagonist of the story.

But let's look at some other examples:

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in some countries), the main character and protagonist of the story is Harry. His main goal is to find a place in the world where he fits, trying to forge friendships and a sense of belonging. As Harry learns more about the world that he's found himself in, he also becomes determined to stop Voldermort from taking over and doing his evil deeds.

Voldermort eventually becomes the overall series antagonist, but there are other antagonists in the first book too. These include Draco, Professor Quirrell, Uncle Vernon, and to a lesser extent, Professor Snape.

Voldermort and Draco fall clearly into the bad-guy catagory, as does Professor Quirrell by the end of the story. However, Uncle Vernon and Professor Snape are not evil, but they are getting in the way of Harry's goals (namely his goal to find a place where he belongs).

Other good-guy-vs-bad-guy stories include:

• Sherlock Holmes
• Star Wars (Main protagonist: Luke Skywalker, and the main antagonist: Darth Vader)
• Batman (although this one really is a bad-guy-vs-outright-evil-guy, because Batman is not exactly a good guy.)
• The Jungle Book (with Mogli being the protagonist, but Sheerkan is the main antagonist)

Man vs Man

Many of the best stories out there are not clear-cut good vs evil. In many cases, our main characters are just trying to make the best of a bad situation, and not necessarily making the best decisions.

Sometimes, we're looking at man-vs-man story. (And I'm using the term man in the generic sense to refer to any character, regardless of gender or species (remember that not all characters are human).)

Consider the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. In this movie, there is no clear bad guy or good guy. There isn't a clear "main character" either. In this case, both characters are the protagonists of their own stories AND antagonists of their counterpart's story.

Andie (Hudson) wants to prove that she can lose a guy in 10 days by doing all the stupid girly stuff that women have been known to do to push a guy away. However, Benjamin (McConaughey) is challenged by those who know about Andie's challenge to make a woman fall in love with him (his boss questions whether he really understands the concept of romance). There's a bet at play… and the two of them are unknowingly pitted against each other.

It's a hilarious romance story, but it uses the man-vs-man protagonist/antagonist pairing. Each main character is the protagonist of their own story, but the antagonist of the other's story.

Another man-vs-man story can be seen in the original The Fast and the Furious film from 2001. At the start of the film, you are led to believe that Paul Walker's character (Brian O'Conner) is the main character and is a good guy chasing after a bad guy. However, as you learn more about Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel's character), you start to question who is really the main character and whether Dom really is a bad guy. In the final showdown, it is clear that there really isn't a bad guy or a good guy in the story. This movie is definitely a man-vs-man story.

Other man-vs-man stories include:

• The Fugitive (1993 film; Protagonist: Richard Kimble (played by Harrison Ford); Antagonist: US Marshall Samuel Gerard (played by Tommy Lee Jones))
• The Hunger Games (Katniss vs other combatants)
• Dracula (Count Dracula vs Professor Abraham Van Helsing)
• Pride and Prejudice (the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy)

Man vs Nature

In a man-vs-nature story, the goal of the protagonist is commonly survival. The antagonist is whatever is threatening to kill the protagonist.

There are a few variants of the man-vs-nature story: man vs animal, man vs disease, man vs environment, and man vs weather.

Man vs Animal

In a man-vs-animal story, the antagonist is commonly the animal that is hunting down the main character. This might be a bear, a lion, a wolf, or a zombie. Yes, a zombie.

In the man-vs-animal story, the antagonist will be personified in the hunter. They will be showing lateral thinking and logic. And at one point in the story, the protagonist will get a sense that the antagonist is tracking them, hunting them down.

Most man-vs-animal stories can be treated like a man-vs-man story, but with an antagonistic character that is less cogitative and possibly acting irrationally.

An example of a man-vs-animal story is Disney's Brother Bear (2003). The main character Kenai is turned into a bear by the weird magic of the spirits. As such, his goal is to find a way to turn back into a human. But along the way, he becomes hunted by his human brother Denahi. At that point, Kenai's goal becomes survival. His human brother is clearly tracking Kenai, and the only way to survive is to do some odd things... like ride the mammoths.

Man vs Disease

In a man-vs-disease story, the main character is trying to survive in the face of some illness, be it a disease like cancer or a viral outbreak. In these stories, there is no character that is actively trying to get in the way of the protagonist's survival. It's their own bodies (and the disease) that is the main antagonist. But in these stories, you will also find alternate goals, where the character is trying to finish some challenge before they die. And it will be that other goal that will often present a character antagonist.

Examples of man vs disease include:

• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• Outbreak (1995 film)
• Zoo by James Patterson
• The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Man vs Environment (and Man vs Weather)

Man-vs-weather stories are a subset of man-vs-environment, where the main character is trying to survive despite the surroundings that they have found themselves in. The environment (or the weather) will kill them if they don't do whatever they can.

Examples of man-vs-environment (and man-vs-weather) stories include:

• The Martian by Andy Weir (antagonist: the environment of Mars)
• Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo (antagonist: the ocean environment)
• The Perfect Storm (2000 film) (antagonist: hurricane that has created sea swells of 12 meters (40 feet))
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner (antagonist: the creatures and other dangers found in the maze)

Man vs Society

Sometimes, the protagonist is fighting against societal norms or the "system". While the antagonist (society) can often be personified in the form of a character who is upholding society's ideals, this is not necessary.

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, the protagonist is Asher, who is trying to learn what their role is as the Receiver, only to discover that there is more to life than the basic, colorless system before him. The antagonist is the society, because Asher is not allowed to share what he has learned about the world, for fear that it would make everyone crazy and become harmful beings. The Giver is an agent of the antagonist, but he isn't an antagonist in the strictest sense, because he's not trying to stop the protagonist from achieving their goals (where the protagonist's goal is to learn about what it means to be a Receiver).

But sometimes, the societal antagonist grows out of other events. Consider the tsunami film The Impossible (2012) with Ewan McGregor. Early in the story, Thailand is struck by a tsunami, and Ewan McGregor's family is separated from one another. Their goal is to find one another, but the antagonist of the story is the societal norms that grow out of survival after a major natural disaster. It's the civil defense protocols that are getting in the way.

Other examples of man-vs-society stories include:

• George Orwell's 1984
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)

Man vs Self

The last type of antagonist found in story grows from our own internal demons. We are our own antagonists.

Whenever a character is getting in their own way from doing what needs to be done, be it from self-doubt or other internal insecurities, the antagonist becomes the character themselves.

Within a man-vs-self story, conflict normally comes from want vs need, where the character wants something, but they don't recognize what they need to move forward. And sometimes, they are striving towards the wrong goal.

Examples of man-vs-self stories include:

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original book by Dr Suess)
• The Wizard of Oz
• Eat, Pray, Love
• Teen Wolf (the original film starring Michael J Fox)
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

More than One Antagonist

In many of the examples listed above, you might have looked at the story and questioned whether they were categorized correctly. Or maybe you saw them listed under multiple categories.

Many long-form stories have multiple antagonists, often from different categories.

Take The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The main series antagonist is the societal norms from Capitol, because if it wasn't for those societal constructs, the Hunger Games wouldn't exist in the first place. Come the second book in the series, Capitol is personified in the form of President Snow, but he is only showing the views of society.

In the first book in the series, the other tributes (the other combatants in the games) are antagonists. Katniss has the goal to survive, and the other combatants are trying to kill her—so they can survive instead. And Katniss is also her own antagonist, particularly when you look at her relationship with Peeta and Haymitch. She wants to believe that Peeta and Haymitch are on her side, but she struggles to trust anyone but herself.

Within a story, the nature of the antagonist will define how the antagonist might influence the plot and the action on the page. An antagonist that happens to be a wild animal will react and behave very differently to an antagonist who might be a serial killer. (And I can think of a few stories where you might find both the wild animal and serial killer in the same story.) But by understanding the nature of your antagonist, you'll be able to piece together logical reactions that your protagonist might have in response to the antagonistic action going on around them. And when you understand that piece of the puzzle, you'll be able to structure your story in such a way that the antagonist/protagonist interplay is stronger.

What type of antagonist do you have?

Examine your own story and make a list of all possible protagonists for your story. What is their goal? And what could be standing in their way? Each element standing in the way of the protagonist achieving their goals is another possible antagonist for your story.

For each antagonist identified, identify the nature of the antagonist. If your antagonists are characters, also consider what their goal might be that drives their actions. Their goals won't necessarily be in direct opposition to your protagonist's goal.

Feel free to post in the comments about the nature of your antagonists if you would like a bit of feedback.