Balance of opposing characters

Welcome back! In my most recent post we discussed the role of a good villain and what they add to the plot. If you haven’t read my most recent post, click here! As we previously learned, a good antagonist is not just your generic greedy, bloodthirsty bad guy. No, a villain is much more than that. A good villain has a back story, something that motivates them to behave the way they do, an intense passion or desire that gives them the drive to change something and to stop at nothing. Surprisingly, many villains lack this trait causing the plot to fall flat. A well written comic does not have an antagonist or protagonist out shine one another despite who wins the actual fight; instead, the characters feed off of each other in order to create balance.

                With this in mind, it’s no wonder that Sinestro is considered a favorite of the comic book villains ranking him the 15^th greatest villain of all time. For those of you unfamiliar with the comic, Sinestro was once considered the greatest green lantern in the corps but was dishonorably discharged after he gave in to his desires and took advantage of his power. He believed in the iron-fist rule and used this tactic to dictate his home planet. When his dictating was exposed to Hal Jordan, Hal and Sinestro’s slaves fought and defeated the dictator. He was then banished to the antimatter universe of Qward where he became allies with the weaponers and plotted revenge on their enemy, the green lanterns. Together they created the yellow power ring fueled by fear rather than hope. Weakness in their power rings prevented the green lanterns from directly affecting the color yellow causing Sinestro to become their most powerful nemesis.

 In this picture, we are able to see the balance of characters while still sensing the tension in their differences. With both characters being in the center and the same size, they are equally important and we are immediately drawn to them. Since in this picture Sinestro (left) is still wearing the green lantern suit and the same suit as Hal Jordan (right), you naturally link them together and in this case assume that it would be hard to distinguish the antagonist from the protagonist. However, if you pay closer attention, you will notice that Sinestro has more pointed and staggered features than Hal making him seem more dangerous just as the red tint in his face does. Anyone familiar with “picture this” by Molly Bang should agree that there is obvious tension between the two related yet opposite characters. Bang states that “diagonal lines give a feeling of movement or tension to the picture”, in this case the diagonal lines coming out of the rings raises tension between the two characters. Bang then goes on to say that “shapes that lean toward the protagonist feel as though they are blocking or stopping forward progress.” As displayed in the image, the antagonist (Sinestro) is leaning toward the protagonist (Hal) attempting to get in the way of the green lanterns and shift power in his direction; thus further exaggerating the tension between the two characters. This picture serves as an outstanding visual to the theme of this blog by outlining the importance of balance between the opposing characters.