Quote:Original post by Estok The general definition of Antagonist:
The principal character in opposition to the protagonist or hero of a narrative or drama.
Now define just what a character is...
because a character can be the fish in Finding Nemo, the mechanical beings in Robots, HAL in 2001, the programs and agents in the Matrix, Big Brother in 1984, a bomb in Dark Star, V'Ger in Star Trek the motion picture, the demon in the Exorcist, even a figment of ones imagination such as the title character from Drop Dead Fred...and even the people in the flashback story about another man with memory loss as recounted in Momento...A character can even be a personification of an idea such as Tyler Durden from Fight Club.
your example is not useful for this discussion, because you already imposed roles and characterization. If you really want to learn, start from scratch.
The ideas here are not about removing characters and replace them with non-character means to deliver the message. It is about choosing between using and not using character to deliver the message. In your example, you had already took the step and chosen to use characters.
If you simplying want to do:
"change a society of aliens from rejecting a homosexual family to accepting them" as a mean of providing a viewpoint about homosexuality, then this story aligns with The Wedding Banquet (1993). The Wedding Banquet is an example of the same concept presented without an antagonist.
Changing from using antagonist to not using any is not just a translation of symbols. It is a redesign, a shift of paradigm. I am not saying that there is no design that will fit your thematics, but designing anew is easier than form-fitting it to the constraints. If you really want to know how it works and how it comes about, start a flesh idea.
Extra: Fairy Tale version of the Wedding Banquet
Keep your Ranma or Urusei Yatsura mind when you read the following:
Design Requirements: - Characters with Creativity, Strategy, Loyalty, and Leadership, and magical ability - Aliens that reject homosexual family
As their end of year science projects, each alien student must study a space species and present a term paper about their families. Here comes Mikey the alien who decided to pick humans as the subject. He came down to earth and became part of this 4-member family. Everything was going fine, he studied their interactions, their thoughts, etc... but then he realized that they are a family of the same sex. Time is running out to start over on a different family, but someone, somehow has to be able to have an offspring in order to qualify as a 'family'. So they devised a scheme to fool the judges...
I already imposed roles and characterization because I'm trying to get the plot outline for my novel finished. Learning is nice, but not my primary goal at the moment. It's not like I currently have no idea how to write a story with no antagonist; among the stories I've written you'd be hard-pressed to find one that _does_ have an antagonist. I just wanted to discus the subject because I've been reading how-to-write books lately and it seems like _none_ of them are about the type of fiction I'm trying to write. I'm currently interested in getting a climax for my book figured out. I've never seen a good list of what types of climaxes there are so I could pick out a kind to aim for, and it's just tricky to get the climax to go off with a bang if you don't have a single 'bad guy' to focus on. Especially with magic involved, since I have more of a science-fiction mindset and not much experience writing magic.
I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.
