Not Just a Character Flaw
When we think of Marvel movies and all superhero writing (or film) in general, it’s easy…even obvious…to think of characters’ weaknesses. The most obvious is Superman’s Kryptonite. Spider-man fears Ethyl Chloride. The villain, Sandman, can’t handle water or extreme heat. The genre expects as much. But what if we write in a different genre? Your antagonist still needs a weakness, not just character flaws. That gives her more to fight for, makes her more relatable, and increases the severity of the protagonist’s journey.
Plot Spoilers Ahead!
The Governor
One of my favorite television programs of all time (and there aren’t many) is The Walking Dead. The show is a perfect mix of plot and theme and character. It’s such a character gold mine with so many unique and interesting personalities that it’s almost impossible to choose a favorite. Even the villains – for the most part – are fascinating and well-written. One of the best is easily Brian Heriot, who’s known by the moniker, The Governor.
When Andrea and Michonne stumble out of the zombie-strewn streets and woods into Woodbury, a fortified community, Andrea thinks they’ve landed in a virtual heaven-on-earth. The town is safe, filled with food, water, and peaceable people, and the leader of it all, a man known as The Governor, catches her eye.
Michonne is, of course, suspicious. She knows what Andrea, a perennially poor judge of character, doesn’t: that something isn’t right with the town. Without morphing into a Walking Dead post, it isn’t long before she discovers that The Governor has a room filled with tanks holding the zombie/ still moving heads of his enemies.
And a chair.
The Weakness
But that’s not his weakness. Michonne uncovers that later when she finds his shackled zombie daughter, Penny, locked in the closet. You see, Penny was bitten and died. She came back from the dead as a zombie, but her father can’t let her go. So Brian is on a mission to find a way to heal zombies and to bring his daughter back from the walking-dead.
On the surface, that sounds like a noble mission. Except he’s anything but. He’s actually a very cruel, sadistic man. But his love for Penny gives him several things:
- A mission to fight for
- A weakness to protect
- A way for viewers to empathize with him
These are all invaluable in the process of crafting a villain. To extrapolate on these, the villain’s mission becomes more desperate because of his weakness. Brian isn’t just sadistic or committed to ruling the town. He can’t lose because of what’s at stake: his daughter’s possible resurrection. And if she’s taken from him, he’ll only become that much more unhinged (watch the show!).
But it also humanizes him. Writers talk about this often. Gone is the era in which good guys are good just because and bad guys are bad just because. The bad guy has to have reasons, a backstory, a trauma, something that created in him the monster that he is today. The loss of Brian’s daughter does just that. It makes him cruel, but viewers can understand. In the back of our minds, some of us are wondering what we might have done in his situation.
Possible Weaknesses
That’s the key. You want to give your antagonist a weakness that they’ll fight to the death (or a proverbial death depending on the genre) to protect. As you’re searching for one, ask yourself these kinds of questions:
- What is the antagonist most afraid to lose?
- What did she love the most before she became so evil?
- What wound would hurt the antagonist more than death?
- What is the antagonist fighting for (not just against)?
- What does your antagonist want most of all? If you answered, to defeat the protagonist or to stop the protagonist’s plan, why? What does the protagonist threaten?
Perhaps your antagonist has a secret that she cherishes. Something she did in the past or a relationship she had at one point by which she defines herself. If the protagonist brings that to light in a negative way, it threatens everything the antagonist believes about herself.
Maybe your baddie has a hatred for a certain person or group in his fictional town. That person harmed him or someone he loved and now he plans to destroy him. The problem is that your protagonist is now in the way, rallying around that other person. It may be that the person your baddie wants to destroy really is terrible and the protagonist doesn’t know it.
Look for something that the antagonist loves/loved and would do anything to protect or avenge. Something greater than his reputation or her pride. Something outside of himself. The more human it is, the more likely the readers will be able to relate to him. And rather than making him weaker, when written well, a weakness makes the antagonist much more formidable. It brings out his teeth and gives him more desperation. This will make your protagonist’s journey much harder and your readers’ experience much better!
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