How to Write a Good Antihero - Guest Post by Lisa

 

  How to Write a Good Antihero (inspired by Trollhunters)

Hi people! I’m so happy to be visiting Emily’s blog. Truth be told it took a lot of dragging our feet to make this collab happen as we’ve both been quite busy *glance at Emily* at least I have! While she’s posting about The Benefits of Writing Different Stories on my blog, I’m here to talk about one of a writer’s favorite topics—characters.

Lately I’ve been gravitating towards anti-hero characters far more than I can understand, which has prompted me to ask, why? Perhaps it’s because they’re not as clear cut as heroes (mainly good) or villains (mainly bad). Perhaps it’s that they are so complex, such a chaos of darkness and light, and absolutely perfect for the redemption arc (one of my favorite tropes). Perhaps, because they are so much like we are. One of the best anti heroes I have seen in a long while came to me in Dreamwork’s Netflix original series, Trollhunters. I had no intention to end up calling their antiheroes my favorite characters, but all the same, I did. Loving them so much, I set out to analyze what made them so endearing, and I’ve compiled my conclusions for you to be inspired too. That being said, if you are watching Trollhunters, or plan to do so, this post contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

But first, allow me to introduce you to my favorite antihero, Mr Strickler. He appears to be an extremely pleasant, understanding, mild history teacher at the school of the main character, Jim Lake, but  think again. He’s actually a changeling troll, a few hundred years old, and a spy for the evil underlord Gunmar—and his main purpose in life to help break Gunmar free from the darklands where he has been living in banishment. Over the course of the series, Mr. Strickler does some pretty nasty things, including —trying to kill Jim Lake, manipulating Jim’s mom, pretending to be interested in her, dating her, giving her a concoction that binds their destinies together, stealing the powerful and Very Important amulet from Jim,  unleashing an evil monster on Jim, and yeah, you get it. But when his plans start going downhill … *dramatic pause* … he decides to take over the world himself!! And you thought there was a redemption arc coming, didn’t you? 

Just kidding, he does get a redemption arc, but ONLY after that fiasco.

Now the question remains - why do I love him so much? A fifty-something, gray haired, skinny, large nosed history teacher who is actually a green bony troll with a collar made of knives? How did he become my favorite character? 

First of all, even as a villain, he exhibits good qualities, which are really important! I believe that all villains should show some good qualities, even those who have no redemption arcs, but especially antiheroes, whom we want our audience to love. Heroes tend to do the right things for the right reason; villains tend to do the wrong things for the wrong reason. But anti heroes are fascinating because they often do the wrong things for the right reason, or the right things for the wrong reason. Mr. Strickler seems to be like this. Somehow he manages to appear nice, calm, collected, humorous, and caring even when he's using these qualities to deceive the main characters. (Plus he’s just so darn smart!) And yes, that's quite despicable. But because he exhibits this ability to show some goodness, we as the audience are more likely to like him, even though we know he's a villain. If he were all out evil like Gunmar, I wouldn't be writing this post.

Secondly, he also has weaknesses and fears. Not the sort of physical weakness or obvious fear that allows the hero to defeat him (we’ve seen that over and over), but one that allows the audience to see his humanity (or, shall we say, their soft hearts). Even Gunmar, the actual ultimate villain, shows weakness and fear. And that's why Gunmar makes a good villain, and that's why Trollhunters is such a good show. But that's a story for another day (actually, just go watch the whole series). Mr. Strickler's fear isn't this one, big weakness that we can pinpoint—like, "oh yeah, he's terrified of death". I mean, he is afraid of death, but not until it confronts him. He's actually afraid of all the evil villains whom he serves, but you don't see it at first. But when the time comes, he's downright terrified. And as the audience, I never felt, "poor Mr. Strickler," like you probably assumed I would. No, I thought, "good riddance, you deserve it." But at the same time, the fact that he exhibits weakness (like the main characters often do) shows that he's not completely a monster.

Third, it’s very important, imo, for antiheroes to have a backstory, even one that the audience doesn’t get to know completely. But if you as the author know it, the story will be that much more solid. I don’t know Mr. Strickler’s full story, but from the glimpses we are given in the series, we can piece together the most important parts. Gunmar is his master; he was sent as a spy from the very beginning; he is neither fully troll, nor fully human, and thus is hated by both species.He wants to care for his own, even if he’s going about that all wrong. And while we recognize that he’s all wrong for most of the show, we can understand a bit more of who he is and where he comes from.

The final point is one we all know, and love the best—antiheroes need to grow and change. Actually, everyone needs to grow and change over the course of the story, but the only one who needs to have an arc as much as your hero is your villain-with-a-redemption-arc. This doesn’t mean he needs to turn all out good (that really depends on his role) but he has to come our a little bit different at the end of the adventure. Mr Strickler does get his redemption arc, but it’s subtle. It’s full of irony and pain. It’s a mix of falling in love when he had no intention to, seeing the goodness and nobility in Jim, understanding that there is only death and destruction on the dark side, and being shown kindness and mercy when he deserves none. And this is an important point too. Many times antiheroes change just because they fall in love with the good guy. *facepalm* While there’s nothing wrong with that, it has to be done just right. Turning from the dark side to the light side is a very complicated delicate journey, and it usually takes more than just one factor to persuade a person he’s wrong. Give your antihero a gentle arc. And I don’t mean literally gentle, as in, nothing bad happens to them. I mean, allow them to grow slowly. Because, at the end of the day, don’t we all? 

I haven’t written a post in so long; so that felt really good. Let us know below if you have any great tips for writing antiheroes. I have one in the works right now and he’s too much fun to write! 

Have a lovely weekend, guys. Peace out,

Lisa 

Ps. be sure to check out Emily’s post on my blog!