Antagonists are interesting forces in stories because they exist as a counter-point to our heroes, looking at the world in a different way to our heroes or even standing as a contradiction to all that a hero believes. A big issue with this, though, is that you can rarely have any discussions between heroes and villains. After all, if either party is in a room together, they’d probably try to kill each other first and not bother asking questions. However, it is the individuals in stories who function in a grey area of morality, those who straddle the position between friend and enemy than can truly meet with the characters on an equal level and speak to them, whilst also acting as an element of conflict. These types of characters are rivals to our main hero: an individual in a competitive relationship with the hero, bridging the themes of conflict…