Worth Ending for the Moral Antagonist as the Dark Mirror of the Protagonist
One-dimensional antagonists are shallow characters, usually evil for evil's sake. For some authors, a 1D antagonist can be well-written, especially when the antagonist falls or loses, the blow feels satisfying. Moreover, readers tend to like evil villains who are defeated by the protagonist decisively (who doesn't like seeing an evil villain punished? Whether in fiction or real life, it's the same).
But what about a 3D antagonist, a character who opposes the protagonist who has a complex and human personality? Perhaps they are evil but have legitimate motives. Or they are heroes in their own version or for the group they defend.
Thanos could be considered a balancer of the cosmos by wiping out half the universe's population. Magneto could be considered a hero to oppressed mutants. And Pain (Nagato Uzumaki) is a dark mirror for Naruto, who desires peace through collective pain as opposed to peace through empathy (which Naruto strives for).
They are concrete representations of what would happen if the protagonist fell down the path of darkness? We understand their reasons for extreme actions, although that doesn't necessarily justify them.
And maybe... if we were in their shoes, we might have done the same. That's why I call them dark mirrors for the protagonist.
As such, their endings are less relevant, with crushing defeats or ignominious deaths like those of evil villains. I even still sympathize with Nagato's death after over a decade.
So, what do you think is a worth ending for a moral antagonist who acts as a dark mirror for the protagonist?
I'm currently writing a story offline. I don't know if this will make sense, or if it even applies here.. I'll let you be the judge.
4 characters from different backgrounds meet up together in the city.
through certain circumstances, they end up forming a group, and they become friends. close friends. two even become more so.
they all came to this city to find themselves, learn how they each fit within this world. they help each other, and carry each other. they love each other like family. more than half the story they're doing things together. they're having fun. they're growing as people.
but as time continues, and they're learning more, and more, about themselves, and what they want out of life; goals, expectations, needs, and obsessions. they slowly start drifting apart, while, at the same time, try their damnedest to stay friends.
Sad thing is- Their goals, and aspirations, are clashing. They aren't trying to get in each other's ways, they're friends, they're trying to be there for one another. but the more they try to all stay together, they begin fighting, and arguing, and unintentionally betraying one another. until one of them gets hurt. -because that's the way it happens; That's the way it always happens. They didn't mean to; It just happened.
Try as they might to mend relationships, everything just becomes more and more grey.
Someone's hurt, and they villainize the the one who did it for pushing things too far.
Things go right for one person as things for the others get worse, and they become jealous.
One of the others gets bad news, and becomes bitter, feeling left behind.
The two who were dating break up.
Things escalate until each of them just becomes the villain of another's story.
they fight, and argue, and complain, and- Things escalate even more
Something happens, something bad. and it can't be undone.
It's the last straw that drives them to separation.
Each end up feeling more lost than ever before, angry, bitter, sad, and alone.
They end up feeling trapped in the midst of what they were running away from in the first place; The entire reason they went to the city to begin with, coming back to haunt them. There is no escape.
They become the villains of book 2.
They're all protagonists that slowly devolve into antagonists in each others stories.
At first you root for them, you like them, you enjoy them being on screen, and somewhere within the chapters, it begins to twist and wrench at your gut until you look down, and see the knife they put there. It's not immediate. it's not something that just happens. None of them are bad. none of them want bad things. nobody intentionally tries to destroy one another. but somewhere, they just did.. and.. it happens again, and again.. and again.. and as you start to see the knives in your chest, and in your back. You have to ask, "A-are you.. doing this on purpose??" They say no, but.. you don't believe them. you just can't. You see them holding another knife, and you just sit and stare, and-
how do you walk away from that being okay? ..I don't think you do.. I don't think anyone does. I don't think it's possible.
-so in my story, they don't.. They just... don't.
