Hidden antagonist

Luiglin

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Hi all, I've realised that in my current WiP concerning the Dark Lord that the endgame antagonist is not going to be revealed until the end.

The course of the tale is a sort of road trip of self discovery by the Dark Lord, the key point being the reveal of the antagonist at the end.

Is this acceptable or do I need to drop in more subtle hints? The aim of the tale is more about how the Dark Lord reacts rather than what the antagonist is doing but I'm concerned that readers may discount them as background fodder.

Any thoughts?

Cheers
 
My gut, possibly underinformed, opinion is that

a) The reader should be able to guess who the antagonist is before they're revealed, and ideally should make that guess just before the Dark Lord does; that seems to be the general "fairness"

b) The character does need to be more than background fodder in some way
 
Is this acceptable or do I need to drop in more subtle hints? The aim of the tale is more about how the Dark Lord reacts rather than what the antagonist is doing but I'm concerned that readers may discount them as background fodder.
Ah... so the Indiana Jones gambit... ;)
For me I'd think of revealing the Dark Lord like a prophecy. They usually work best when the riddle is solved and the reader thinks "Of course it's obvious now"...
Now... How you get to that point? I'm not so sure.
 
Ah... so the Indiana Jones gambit... ;)
For me I'd think of revealing the Dark Lord like a prophecy. They usually work best when the riddle is solved and the reader thinks "Of course it's obvious now"...
Now... How you get to that point? I'm not so sure.
The Dark Lord is the sort of... ahem... hero in this respect. The actual antagonist is someone doing something too good.

But I agree, I need to raise the antagonist profile more.
 
I presume you have a false antagonist for much of the story. If not, I would suggest one or even a series of them. Whichever the case, you might think about transformation. Use disguises or have literal transformation of the antagonist from one form to another. That way, the motivations you establish for the antagonist in earlier don't chapters will still be in place for the final boss battle.
 
I presume you have a false antagonist for much of the story. If not, I would suggest one or even a series of them. Whichever the case, you might think about transformation. Use disguises or have literal transformation of the antagonist from one form to another. That way, the motivations you establish for the antagonist in earlier don't chapters will still be in place for the final boss battle.
I have another character that shares the storyline from a different angle. He's not an antagonist but gets drawn into a situation where he's forced into that sort of role. Again, maybe I need to emphasise his involvement more.
 
I think you need to assemble all the characters in the library at the end.

The detective can do his denouement and the policeman outside the door can catch the fake butler as he attempts to flee.
 
I think you need to assemble all the characters in the library at the end.

The detective can do his denouement and the policeman outside the door can catch the fake butler as he attempts to flee.
Now there's a good twist.
 
I think that it depends on how big a surprise it might be when it is revealed.

I hinted at something in my first novel, which was written in first person and some extra scenes of third person that were supposed to help give clues that the main character couldn't see; however my clues might not have been clear enough because some readers complained that this--the element revealed--came out of nowhere.

Sometimes you can't help everyone get there.

However in my story which is several novels; there are clear antagonists in each book and then one that stretches through them all that is the overarching antagonist that the characters have to learn about as it goes.
 

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