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Reflecting on two of the most broken witches I've seen in media & realize what I value the most in antagonist is how they integrated thematic merit into work as a whole while mirroring a strong correlations with many other character's belief, pain, their fates.
#WTC
Reflecting on two of the most broken witches I've seen in media & realize what I value the most in antagonist is how they integrated thematic merit into work as a whole while mirroring a strong correlations with many other character's belief, pain, their fates.
Basically a kind of character that were perfectly structured for their series' core values. A foil to themself as a person. Pretty much from the moment they being introduced, carrying a strong presence & unique character presentation.
Morgana & Bern are a layered antagonist on their own with fascinating approach to what MC stand for while occasionally display hypocrisy on their belief. Only twice times more layered & complex when you realize the full context of their past that driven them to the current state.
Since introduction, we immedialy gain an insight into their feeling whether it's from their hidden monologues or sheer presence. Their thoughts on the fates of protagonist & how similar it was to them. Backstories are not mandatory for a great antagonist.
However it's brilliant when they do have a full fleshed out present stories that contextualize their complex & contradicting personality and belief, especially when they're fleshed out to the point that you understand where they coming from.
With Morgana, it's door 6/8 & especially Requiem which fully dedicated as the character study of her. With Bern, it's the whole Higurashi & particularly Saikoroshi that detached her as an entity. This make you got to understand them from many perspective.
Both from Michel & Battler and what they used to be that contrast against their present belief. Reflecting on the series as a whole with full context is like a puzzle for you to understand them from every dimension of their identity, feeling and more.
Their stories as an upright main character before being antagonist are incredibly tragic yet very powerful tales of those who pursuit & learn to reach out for happiness in their life. And it's this mirror to themself, how that ties to the core of series that make me adore them
+ their dynamics or parallel with other characters from the full picture of their life (WHG/Michel/Giselle/Jacopo/Mell/Yukimasa/Imeon/Ceren & Keiichi/Akasaka/Takano/Satoko/Hanyuu/Featherine/Battler/Ange/Beato/Will/Erika/Lambda) that sells how fascinating they're as a character.
It's very special because they're not just antagonist with backstory to justified their action, only there as an oppression against MCs but a deuteragonist & protagonist with their whole journey of transition to antagonist at another narrative point. It make them more complete
Not something that instantly integrated into the character work, just for them to be thematic relevant with a short exposition that barely hold any weight to their character transition but something that fundamentally built and integrated with those antagonists from the start.
Antagonist is the role that perfect for a variety of complexibility and various versatiles to the narrative but every step of antagonist's mind & decision should be always meticulously lays out in a way that makes sense with their character exploration.
Even if some transition was intentionally hidden from viewer, there should be always enough subtext, interpretation, parallel & connections that one can draw from those context which presented in the story. And this is what elevated them to the perfection to me
In my perspective, the more thematic values & subtext you can draw from their characterization, the more I value them highly from an analytical perspective. Especially when they have a fully fleshed out stories for themself that makes sense with their mind & progression.
I don't think there is necessarily a restriction to do a great character but when there is an antagonist with multiple top tier dynamics/parallel to the rest of cast that in a way, nuance & distant from each other, that is like what it meant to be a perfectly executed antagonist
It's amazing how much was put into their characters. Sharing the same antagonistic insecurities after the tragedies that stripped away everything from them. That similarities of them is perhaps partly why Morgana & Bernkastel (+Rika) are like the peak female & antagonist to me.
