I've been blogging about how to write in a more literary fashion. Recently, I watched a video highlighting how the best villains are mirror images of the hero, or even the hero's greatest fears and desires taken to an extreme. There are many villains that don't do this, villains that are bad for the sake of being bad or so far removed from the hero that the hero defeating him/her/it is simply a thing the hero does as part of an adventure. The hero swings a sword and takes down a minotaur, but the minotaur is just a monster, not a reflection of the hero's soul. It's by far better when one remembers that story is character, and character is story. Most writers will tell you every part of the story should further the plot, setting, or main character along. However, if story is character, then it's better still when setting, minor and even major characters, and the antagonist help the character grow. The best kinds of antagonist-protagonist pairings are foils, opposites who are also mirror images of each other in many ways.
If you think of the lesser Star Wars entries, for instance, they're about hero(es) fighting the empire. Main characters shoot their blasters, run around, go to hyperspeed, even swing a light saber, and bad guys go down. They fight big enemies, but those bad guys don't reflect any part of the hero. The characters do stuff, and stuff happens. But there aren't character arcs. The hero, Boba Fett for instance, goes out and fights monsters. He faces mobsters and governors and enemies of all sorts. But none of these challenges transform him into anything but the character he was in the beginning. Rey starts the story as a competent hero and ends the story as a competent hero. She fights bad guys. She stands up for the little guy. She even faces off with the Emperor's forces. But none of these things make her anything different than how she started.
The same thing happens in other movies, TV, books, etc. Disney's Hercules starts a noble hero. He gets a reputation for being what he started, but he doesn't change. Hades is his opposite in every way. Captain Marvel fights bad guys as a hero who always remains a hero. She gets more skills but doesn't grow. Her villain is not like her. Most Disney bad guys are the opposite of the hero(ine) in every way. You can read any of a number of pop lit books and find the same thing. Heroes go out and show how heroic they are, but they don't grow. Their villains are extremely different from them, dark and evil and black-hearted. They deserve to go down to the hero because the hero is Good. The bad guy is Bad.
However, in the very same stories and sagas, you may also find villains that are externalizations of the protagonist's internal struggle. Ben Solo starts very much a follower of the Empire. He's been emotionally destroyed, like Anakin, so he turns to the Dark Side. But unlike Rey, his antagonists reflect some part of his soul. Rey mirrors back the Light Side he tries to hide. Snoke shows the powerful Sith Lord he wants to be. Emperor Palpatine echoes back to him the ultimate power he wants. He grows as he faces off with externalizations of his internal struggles.
The same is true of the Mandalorian and Luke Skywalker. The Mandalorian has embraces a lifestyle all about money. When a child-father connection and love show him the errors of his ways, he has to face people just like how he has been, from bounty hunters to Mandalorians to force wielders who echo part of who he is and externalize his interior struggle. Each conflict helps him grow from misunderstanding to understanding until he becomes a hero. Luke starts a reluctant hero and a kid and, through facing off with his own father, the man who he can become, he learns what he does and does want to become in order to become a hero.
The best of the Disney characters also face off with their mirror images. Flynn Ryder from "Tangled" has to fight with his fellow thieves, his former allies, in order to grow from selfish thug to hero. Rapunzel has to face off with her own mother figure, someone who raised her, someone who she placed as her ideal self for all of her growing up years, in order to regain her identity. In "Encanto," Mirabel has to confront her grandmother who is like her in so many ways in order to save her family. Spider-man comes toe-to-toe with his professors, mentors, heroes, and other ideals, friends, and former allies to grow from clueless boy to great hero.
One of the best examples in literature that comes to mind is the Grimms Brothers' "Snow White." Her Stepmother with the mirror is the personification of Snow-white's own vanity. The items that tempt her are a comb to make her lovely, corset laces to improve her figure, and an apple, representing budding sexuality. In overcoming the vain queen, Snow White overcomes her own vanity. Meanwhile, Harry Potter faces off with Voldemort, who, in childhood, could have been his mirror image. The main difference in their lives is one embraces dark, and the other embraces light. They are clear foils. His growth comes when he overcomes the personification of the path he chose not to take.
Take a look at your antagonists. Do they reflect any part of your protagonist's internal struggle? Is the tale one in which stuff happens, and people do stuff, or is there real growth as the hero faces off with someone that mirrors his dreams, fears, and flaws back to him? If not, how can you change that?
