: Re: Compelling story with the world as a villain My main character is up against the world, or, rather, the world and reality are up against her. A good story is in some ways defined by its

@LarsenBagley300

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Consider Disney's "Mulan" which is a wonderful film, but is noted for the weak strength of the character of "Shan Yu" who's entire motivation is "Invade China cause I want to". This seems like a terrible antagonist until someone pointed out to me that Shan Yu is the only character to see Mulan beyond her gender-class. When they finally meet face to face, and Mulan reveals who she was to Shan Yu, Shan Yu doesn't care that Mulan is a woman, but that Mulan is the person who single handedly killed his army of thousands. Shan Yu may be the villain, but he is not the antagonist of Mulan. An antagonist is someone who serves as a foil to the protagonist, and tries to stop them from being sucessful. This is Shan Yu, who doesn't ever learn Mulan's name and sees her only for her role... Mulan's antagonist is rather her own society, which holds that she is unsuited for the task of stopping Shan Yu becasue of her sex, not because of her talent at kicking Shan Yu's ass (which, I will point out, she always played Shan Yu like a cheap Guqin).

So while Shan Yu is a villain, he's not Mulan's antagonist. Mulan's goal is to help China fight Shan Yu. Shan Yu does nothing to stop this... when she's on the field of battle, he will let her help China stop him... He wants to prove China can't do it. What's stopping Mulan from doing it is her soiciety, which says she can't because a man must do it. Antagonists do not need to be evil to be motivated as Mulan's own father puts her in her place when she decries his inclusion in the draft, despite his injury and the lack of any male child to take his place. Her love interest, Shang, similarly abandons her and refuses to even listen to her rather critical infromation after he learns that she is a woman. He nearly kills her for it, and only spares her because she had moments ago saved his ass. Her own fellow citizens also refuse to listen to her at the start of the climax. We don't list these characters as villains and because they are not static and do learn their lesson at the end and apologize for their treatment of her (in the form of Shang and her Father, as well as the Emperor for the larger society as well as the crowd who bow to her (specifically they Kowtow, which is typically done in apology or other state of unworthiness).

Another film without a "villain" is the legal drama "My Cousin Vinny" in which the titular character is defending his cousin and his friend on capital murder charges. While there are plenty of antagonists, including the Prosecutor, Sheriff, and Judge, they aren't villains and are actually friendly with Vinny outside of the professional setting. Nothing they do to Vinny as antagonists is maliciously motivated, they are just two guys who are doing their best job, and unfortunately, those Jobs oppose Vinny's goal. They aren't trying to do anything that would intentionally harm Vinny in achieving their goal (in fact, the Prosecutor and Sheriff both offer Vinny help when Vinny at different points in the movie.). This is actually very common in legal circles as the lawyers and judges are normally very friendly with each other outside of the court room. There are occasions where the Judge takes some of Vinny's antics personally, but his opposition that hurts Vinny is by and large a fair ruling. Similarly, the Prosecutor is naturally an antagonist in court, we do have scenes where he explains that he was a defense attorney like Vinny and a good one, and had a question of conciousness after he successfully defended a man who he knew for certain did the crime he was accused of and decided to become a prosecutor (which would be a pay cut) to help people who were hurt by criminals. When he learns that Vinny's hotel is uncomfortable, he lets Vinny stay at his hunting lodge, and when Vinny shows that his clients are innocent, he immediately drops the charges as we know his motivation is to only hurt the guilty... not to wrongly imprison the innocent.

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