What makes an antagonist?[]
What makes an antagonist? Is Lucas an antagonist, for getting into a fight with Mike? Is Lonnie an antagonist, for being a deadbeat? Is Joyce's boss an antagonist for almost denying her advances on her paycheck? Is Mr Scott's date an antagonist for giving him the cold shoulder?
Maybe Brenner has ends that justify the means. Is the Monster truly an antagonist, or is it just eating to survive?
Calling someone an antagonist is purely a subjective moral judgement in some cases. I'm not sure it's a valid category, and there's definitely not a unifying factor about everyone being called an antagonist here that ties them together, which is kinda the point of a category. FishTank (wall) 03:07, September 1, 2016 (UTC)
- I vote to keep. In this case it's not a purely subjective moral judgement, but rather explains the characters' function in the story. Is Brenner pure evil? Is the monster? Perhaps not, but that's not what the term means in the context of narrative. It just means that they're the opposition - the ones who stand in the way of the protagonists reaching their goal. Stranger Things is a story that distinguishes between the protagonists and antagonists very clearly, in my opinion. 80XPD (talk) 15:44, September 1, 2016 (UTC)
- I vote to keep as well, for more or less the same reason as 80XPD: An antagonist is, generally, a character that functions as an obstacle that the protagonist needs to overcome, and the division between protagonists and antagonists in Stranger Things are pretty clear cut. The fact that you can justify the actions of an antagonist and maybe even sympathize with them does not make them any less of an antagonist, it just makes for better storytelling (as does protagonists not always getting along, as in the case with Lucas). SaveMeJebus (talk) 08:26, September 5, 2016 (UTC)