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Q&A Is a lawful good "antagonist" effective?

In my post-apocalyptic novel, my protagonist is not necessarily "good", and although the antagonist is an honest and kind person, my protagonist perceives her as "evil". My antagonist is the leade...

14 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Kevin‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:18:06Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/43428
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar weakdna says reinstate monica‭ · 2019-12-08T11:18:06Z (almost 5 years ago)
In my post-apocalyptic novel, my protagonist is not necessarily "good", and although the antagonist is an honest and kind person, my protagonist perceives her as "evil". My antagonist is the leader of a group of survivors, and cares deeply for her family and group, and is extremely suspicious of my protagonist.

The way I constructed the antagonist's character (and according to the results of an alignment test I took from her point of view), she's lawful good. That aligns with how I see her, and how I'm writing her right now. I still want the reader to resent and sometimes hate her, just like my protagonist does, but I'm afraid my readers are going to start sympathizing with her when I want their loyalties to lie with my protagonist, no matter how bad she is.

Can I still make my antagonist an effective "bad guy", despite the fact that she is, truly, lawful good? Can I keep my readers' loyalties with my protagonist, not my antagonist?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-03-13T15:23:20Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 26