User blog comment:Grimlord31/What's the difference between a central antagonist, a main antagonist and a primary antagonist?/@comment-25305244-20191224033138

There are differences between them.

Main antagonist is the most important antagonist in a work or story arc. With the main antagonist, there can actually be more than one main antagonist -- often times they are called the Big Bad. If the main antagonists are working together it would called a Big Bad Duumvirate as both are working together. If they are working against each other, it would be called the Big Bad Ensemble. With the main antagonists, if they can't be categorized as primary and secondary and they have equal impact on the story, then they'd fall under main antagonist.

Primary antagonist is the single most important antagonist of a work or story arc. It's made clear in the story that this is the single most important antagonist in the work and that there is no other competing antagonist. Often times a primary antagonist would have other villains working under them. Their right hand would be the secondary antagonist.

Central antagonist often overlaps with main antagonist. It is the type of villain that has a lot of screen time. They may not always be the main antagonist. They may be The Heavy before the Big Bad appears or they may be the Big Bad. Or they could be both.

Not all main antagonists are primary antagonists; but all primary antagonists are main antagonists. Central antagonists overlap with main antagonists but they have a lot of screen time and often times overlap with The Heavy.