Imma scream about my latest writing project for a hot minute because what else do you do at 5am other than contemplate if your antagonists are really antagonistic and also if they qualify as sympathetic villains or not

So the plot line follows the oldest son of one of the Mares of Diomedes, who has decided that maybe eating human beings isn't the way to go and he would very much like out please, much to the distaste of his mother, aunts, and half-brother.

He ends up leaving and finding a place with a 17-year-old girl and her father, who eventually realizes that this horse has some big ass teeth and puts together that the Mares can't be far, and resolves to hunt them down.

And this leads me to what I've been thinking about. So the Mares proper all have their reasons for staying man-eaters. And most of them are based in the fact that their former master, King Diomedes, was Kind of an Asshole

He can't *kill* them exactly (for the sake of the story I made them immortal, but the two brothers aren't, since they're half regular horse. They live longer than the average horse, but can still be killed and will die eventually) but he can get them out of the forest

Then blah blah blah Hercules blah blah blah eating Diomedes, and they end up getting free, and the oldest mare, Podargos, is pregnant by one of Hercules's chariot horses producing the main character and then plot ensues

But I've been thinking about the Mares because my original thought was 'what if the Mares of Diomedes were sympathetic villains?' but now that I've built and written I really don't think that's what I did. Each one has their own individual reason for staying how they are,

And only one of them is moderately redeemable.
For the two younger ones (Deinos and Lampon) its just all they've ever known. Being at the end of the line meant Diomedes knew how to deal with their kind and started them on it as soon as they were weaned, and that's just how it is

For the oldest, Podargos, she sees it as a sort of revenge, lashing out against the species that harmed her and her sisters for so long. She acknowledges this isn't where she saw herself, but has absolutely no intention of changing

((Which, side bar, the only person that Podargos is actually seen killing in the story is NOT for eating purposes- I mean, they do eat him, but her reason for killing him is that he was attempting to capture her sons to sell. She killed him in defense of her children

Which is a VERY deliberate move))