Antagonist vs Villain; There is a Difference

So here is my other rant that I was going to do. The confusing thing about villains is that they are also antagonists but antagonists are not aways villains. I'll use Harry Potter as an example to better explain. (The reason for using Harry Potter is because I'm a fan.)

Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) is an antagonist at the beginning of the books and films. He makes Harry's life harder than it needs to be, by being a pain in the neck. In the later books, Draco becomes a minor villain but that doesn't last every long because the real villain of the story is the one pulling his strings.

Tom Riddle/Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is the big bad of the story. He antagonizes Harry in the beginning of the book series but shows off why he really is the villain of book four/movie four. He has a huge influence on Harry life.

The easiest way I can describe the difference between an antagonist and a villain is that an antagonist makes the protagonist have a bad day. A villain forces the protagonist to change who they are. Naturally, if that change in the protagonist is a good or bad thing is up to the author. But a change does happen.

Of course, I care about how the antagonist and villain are written in the story. They are elements that bring in conflict to the story. Because without conflict then what is the book even about outside of characters just sitting there watching paint dry. Which doesn't sound like a very good read if you think about it?

Well, that's all for my rants! Sorry to anyone who is waiting for my to start posting prompts or continuing We're Not Zombies!  but writer's block is the antagonist of writers so it can't be helped.

Let's Talk About Protagonists!

Okay, so I had this rant on my mind for some time and I finally decided that I will give in and talk about it. When I first started my blog I wrote about different elements that make up a story. However, I never stated the status of what characters are in a story. My mistake was that I kept repeating "main character" when I should have put protagonist.

If you don't know what a protagonist is here's your answer! They are the one the story is about. Everything that happens in the story is because of the protagonist. This can be a good or bad thing depending on what the end game of the story is going to be.

Because the story hinges on the protagonist they have to be someone you can remember. And it makes me so mad when the protagonist has twenty other characters from different books that are just like them. Although, I will admit that I'm fearful of writing just as plain and common character that you find in less than interesting stories. But on the plus side, you dear readers will tell me before that ever becomes a habit right? Right. My annoyance on such things is probably higher than it has any right to be, but hopefully, it will encourage me to perform better.

Back to my feelings about other authors protagonists. I also feel frustrated when a secondary character is better than the protagonist. And I don't mean better in that the secondary character has a stronger moral compass, but that they would have been a more interesting protagonist than the one I am reading about.

As you can see I'm  picky when it comes to characters that I have to follow throughout the story. Which I don't think is a bad thing because it's okay to want to enjoy the media you're experiencing. I do have two more rants that I wish to share with you. They will be up later and don't worry I will be uploading more stories to my blog and not just these rants.

So I have Writer's Block.

Hello my dear readers! I have a some semi-bad news. Right now I am suffering from writer's block. Which means that I'm going to have to pause on writing the 'We're Not Zombies!' series for a bit. Fear not, because I'm still going to update my blog with different posts still. With any luck focusing on subjects will cure my writer's block and we can go back to a large number of phobias plaguing small children.

That being said be sure to share this blog on different social medias and talk about it to the people you know. Bye!