“They weaponized me. I stole for them. Spied for them. I killed for them. And in exchange for my soul… they were going to cure me. They lied.” -Ghost, Ant-Man and the Wasp
Ant-Man and the Wasp, like many sequels, will not go down in history as one of the greatest Marvel films to hit the cinema. The action was good when it was happening, the characters were likable if not complete caricatures of their first movie selves, and there was more of the childish humor that is becoming Ant-Man’s trademark. It was honestly pretty forgettable, but when I think back on that movie one thing stands out to me: how much I felt for the villain.
Marvel has gotten a lot of flack for their lackluster villains in the past and…rightfully so. But in phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel actually stepped it up with a few menacing and complex villains. I’m talking Killmonger, Vulture and Hela. And let’s not forget how Thanos had EVERYONE so shook during Infinity War that we were scared to so much as breathe too loudly in the theater.
Ant-Man and the Wasp’s antagonist Ava aka Ghost is an anomaly among Marvel villains because she wouldn’t be classified as “evil” among the villain roster and she’s not particularly scary (though her mask would have given 10-year old me nightmares for sure).
Business Insider actually released an article about why Ghost wasn’t a great antagonist and they pointed out something that was interesting to me. They stated that:
“If [Ghost] didn’t fight the heroes, she wouldn’t even be considered a villain.”
The writer might have meant that in a negative way, but I think that’s a very positive thing. A common storytelling phrase is “your villains are the heroes of their own story.” Which brings me to my first point of how to make a sympathetic villain:
Don’t make your villain ‘Evil’
Villains don’t necessarily need to be villainous, they just need to be a threat or a barrier between the heroes and what they want.
For example, In Nicola Yoon’s novel Everything, Everything the “villain” in Maddy’s life is her mom. In an attempt to keep Maddy safe and alleviate her own anxiety about letting go, Maddy’s mom lies about the severity of Maddy’s medical condition which in turn prevents her from living her life the way she’s always wanted to.
Another example of this would be Darla, the little girl from Finding Nemo. Darla isn’t evil, she’s just a kid who wants to play with sea creatures. Sometimes she’s just a little too rough with them and causes their untimely death.
In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ghost even states that her intention is not to kill the heroes, she just wants to steal their tech and heal herself, which is directly at odds with the heroes plans.
Make them a victim
Survival is one of my favorite tropes for protagonists and antagonists alike. We can all resonate with someone who will do whatever it takes to simply survive because most of us can admit we might do pretty desperate and shameful things as well if our survival was at stake.
Ava’s mysterious condition which doctors named “molecular disequilibrium” made it so her cells are split apart and stitched back together over and over again each day. It’s painful for her and us audience members can understand wanting to be free of pain.
In her monologue to the heroes, Ava tells them that the only reason she allowed SHIELD to do research on her and train her to become an assassin was because they claimed they were searching for a cure for her.
Spoiler Alert: “Cure for Ava” did not show up on anyone’s Google search history.
She got hit with a lot of bad luck and encountered a lot of bad people who only wanted to use her for her abilities.
Side note: Ava gives me major Winter Soldier vibes. Like Bucky, she was trained and weaponized to work for the bad guys. Except she wasn’t brought back from the dead and brainwashed, she just wants to survive.
Give them a time limit
Whether it’s a terminal medical condition, a home planet on the brink of destruction, or a loved one being held for ransom, giving your antagonist a time limit will be necessary to making them more sympathetic.
If the antagonist has all the time in the world, your audience might be wondering “what are they in such a hurry for?” or “Why do they seem so desperate?” Antagonists with a lot of time just seem greedy. Antagonists with a limited amount of time, feel human.
Ava is desperately searching for a cure because she’s in a constant state of pain and her condition only gets worse each day. She’s not sure when her cells will completely dissipate.
Another antagonist with similar time limits is Harry Osborne from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 who wants to extract Spider-Man’s healing cells to cure his terminal hereditary illness. Superman is also a good example as he becomes a temporary antagonist to Batman in the movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in order to save his mother.
Give them someone to love
The easiest way to make a villain more sympathetic is to make them care about someone in a truly deep and unconditional way.
In The Godfather, the head of the Corleone family attends his daughter’s wedding because he truly loves her and doesn’t want to miss it, then proceeds to go to the back of the house to deal with mafia shit. All the while he complains about it because he’s a good father who doesn’t want to miss a second of his daughter at her wedding. It kind of makes a homicidal gang leader a little more endearing, right?
Thanos also worked as a sympathetic villain because he loved Gamora as his adopted daughter. Similarly, Vulture was sympathetic because he only sold weapons in order to provide for his family after facing a layoff.
The same rules apply for Ava. After her parents died Bill Foster became her stand-in father and you see through their interactions the genuine love and care they have for one another. We no longer see her as a masked assassin but as a human, and not only a human but as the child who was not able to grow up with her biological parents. The more human you can make your villain, the better.
Make it personal
Hank Pym had Ava’s father fired from SHIELD and discredited as a researcher after a huge disagreement. Ava’s father wanted to continue his research and restore his reputation but had no choice but to do it with fewer resources.
After a failed experiment, Ava’s parents died and she was left with paranormal abilities. She blames Hank for her parent’s deaths and her screwed up DNA. I honestly would too.
We understand why she’s angry and could care less about the well-being of the heroes. While it doesn’t make sense for every story to have a hero and a villain who have a personal history, the more connected you can make your heroes and your villains, the better.
A similar example is the history between Tony Stark and the Maximoff twins aka Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver. Tony Stark indirectly affected the twin’s lives when they were younger after a Stark Industries bomb hits their apartment building, killing their parents. This caused them to grow up with a deep hatred towards Stark and the Avengers.
Writing a sympathetic antagonist involves you taking a character who sees themselves as the hero, giving them a really crappy backstory and pairing them with a few admirable traits we all can relate to such as love, justice and survival.
Who is a villain that you rooted for recently?
