How to be a Better Writer (For Beginners)

Hero Versus Villain: How To Make Them Clash

Heroes and villains. They are the main conflict in the story. They are what moves the story forward from the beginning to the end.

The hero overcoming the villain is the big change in every classic Disney movie. The villain is cunning and clever, thinking only for their benefit meanwhile ruining the hero's plans. The hero is the one that must go through the big change in the story, which ultimately gets rid of the bad guy.

They must come to a break in realization, a force of change that the villain gives them no other choice but to fight back. A hero's character arc should be bigger than any other character's in the story. Since the villain is too stubborn and headstrong to change, your hero is forced to come to a change themselves.

They must outsmart their maniacal geniuses and plotting brainiacts to win. Whether it be a realization of something they have found out or a secret and strong vulnerability they have been lugging around with them the whole story. Once they have overcome their own vulnerability, they use it to their advantage to overcome the villain (which, should be much like your villain's vulnerability because that is how your character's will butt heads).

Or maybe there was something in the villain's wicked plan that they somehow oversaw or didn't notice so the hero sees their chance to cause a blow back to the villain, thus backfiring their plan.

Your hero and villain should both have the same, if not same then pretty similar, goals and motivations. They cannot reach this goal without the other getting in the way.

Also, most importantly, not every villain or bad guy has to die in the end. In reality, most people don't resort to brutally stabbing their coworker, Kyle, whom they despise for being obnoxious in the cubicle next to them.

Maybe the villain in the end has a change of heart from the hero's understanding of the villain's tragic past and takes pity on them. Or maybe your villain is temporarily defeated until they come back with another plan and discover a way to regain their rise to power.

Your hero and villain's goal can be something as simple as a powerful object, an important person for whatever the reason being, or any other personal gain like finally getting the respect and pride they deserve or even the last remaining spot on the cheerleading team.

Here are some Disney examples of heros and villains creating conflict:

In the movie Tangled, (this is my absolute favorite Disney movie), Rapunzel is brainwashed into thinking she cannot leave her tower. But upon doing so when she meets Flynn Rider, she finds out it isn't as bad as her mother told her, discovering happiness and even finding love. Meanwhile, her mother finds out Rapunzel has left her tower and schemes up a plan to get her back. She lurks in the shadows and cunningly plotting to trick Rapunzel into coming back with her. In the end, Rapunzel is tricked again by her mother's schemes and follows her mother back home. Only after this does Rapunzel realize, from what she has experienced outside of her tower, that she is the lost princess and Mother Gothel was trying to keep her from discovering this truth and locked her away her whole life so she could use her hair to keep her young forever.

But the most important quote to show the struggle between them both to me is when Rapunzel runs to Mother Gothel's open arms saying, "You were right, mother. You were right."

There is a physical fight with everyone in the end and Mother Gothel falls out of the tower's window and turns to dust. (Classic family friendly Disney villain deaths). 👏👏

Now, you see, the conflict was between Rapunzel and Mother Gothel as they both butted heads about going outside or staying in the tower.

"I want to go outside. I want to see the lights." + "Enough, Rapunzel! You are never leaving this tower! Ever!" = BOOM! CONFLICT!

...

Another example I have is from Big Hero 6. (My second favorite movie so just bear with me, haha.)

The villain in this movie, Callaghan, is kind of a less dialed down villain I'd like to say but still, nonetheless, a villain. Though he never wanted to be the bad guy, he saw no other choice because he wanted his daughter back.

Hiro, having lost his brother and therefore being able to empathise with Callaghan can understand the pain of having lost a loved one, therefore having a similar goal - to get justice for themselves and the ones they have lost. Yet, Hiro, being the fourteen year old genius and the hero, (you get it? Because his name is Hiro and he is the - yeah, okay), outsmarts Callaghan (yet, this time a Disney villain gets to live! He is still arrested for it, which adds a lot of realism so I'm glad they did that).

That isn't the only important thing though in this movie. Hiro, throughout the movie, comes through many realizations from his brother's death in the beginning and soon he starts to mimick his brother's last words.

Before he went to save Callaghan's daughter in the portal he states, "She's alive in there. Someone has to help."

Above all, though Callaghan survived the fire and Hiro's brother perished, Hiro realizes through trying to destroy Callaghan the first time that that is not the way to solve your problems (through anger and hate) though through forgiveness. In the end, he is about to strike the final fatal punch but stops. He knows that hurting Callaghan won't solve anything and has become a bigger and better person.

"Our programming prevents us from injuring another human being."

WOW, I LOVE THE BIG CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND HIRO'S CHARACTER ARC SO MUCH UGH.

So overall, heroes and villains are amazing and every story cannot survive without conflict.

And incase you are wondering why Tangled is my favorite movie of all time, it's because Rapunzel was such an icon and one of the Disney princesses that I just naturally fell in love with from the moment I saw her. She was like the new Renaissance Disney princess of her time and changed princesses from being perfect and stereotypically flawless to more human. But also she has magical powers and like the original Rapunzel folktale we have all been told, Disney took their own twist to it, like giving Rapunzel magical hair and actually being kidnapped and that's why she stayed locked in a tower.

As for Big Hero 6, it was truly another real classic because of its realism. A sibling losing a sibling. That hits hard for me because I have a sister who I'm very close with and Tadashi and Hiro's brother relationship is like any other sibling-teasing and inspirational older sibling relationship. It's a nastolgic movie and I just love the story so much.