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Topic : Re: Making the antagonist a good guy? I was recently re-reading Erin Hunter's Warriors and I noticed something new, knowing what I now know; The antagonist is introduced as a hero. For those unfamiliar - selfpublishingguru.com

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An "antagonist" doesn't have to be a bad guy. He could be a very good guy. All he has to do is to stand in the way of your hero, sometime for the noblest of motives.

I'm writing as a "Northerner," but General Robert E. Lee was perhaps the greatest antagonist the United States has ever known. (He and his fellow "Confederates" killed more Americans than the Nazis and Japanese and other "Axis" nations put together in World War II.) This happened because General Lee wanted to defend his home state, Virginia, from encroachment by the "federal" government. In so doing, he and his troops ended up defending the awful institution of slavery. Even if you disagree with me from a historical perspective, I hope you see the literary point I'm making.

Now your antagonist, Tigerclaw, started out good like Lee, and turned bad later on. There could have been a "dark" ending to the Lee story. Specifically, his fellow southern General, Nathan Bedford Forrest, started the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War. To his credit, Lee didn't participate in this, but if he had, he would have taken the "Tigerclaw" route.


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