Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-29414935-20171003195741/@comment-1705775-20171004141857

all villains are antagonists but NOT all antagonists are villains..

a villain must have criminal traits or desires, which make them a threat to their setting - be it a bank robber, thief or minor criminal all the way up to universe-destroying madmen.. in short they are fictional criminals.

antagonists do not need to be criminals, villains do.

that's the core reasoning on if a character warrants a place here - "are they criminal in action and thought?"

note "of action AND thought" - that's also very important as a villain must also be, in general, either extremely selfish or delusional in their thought process.. that's what differs them from heroic "criminals" such as Batman or Robin Hood (who break the law of the land but do so to try and aid their setting "aid the poor" / "stop crime at any cost").

Batman is a heroic criminal (and also a hypocrite since he breaks the law while punishing criminals) but at his core he wants to help people and is willing to sacrifice himself for it.. a villainous vigilante would kill criminals with no regard for severity of the crime (someone parked illegally, they get killed or beaten up just as mercilessly as a killer would) and instead of wanting to help people the villainous vigilante just wants to help themselves (whether it be to gain fame from their work or to *force* society to do as they demand, via violence or fear).

TLDR Version below

antagonist: Walter Peck (Ghostbusters) - just a mean jerk, has not committed actual crimes, opposes the heroes but doesn't really threaten anyone else in the setting.

villain: Gozer (Ghostbusters) - murderous, ill-intentioned and cruel for no reason other than it can.. poses a serious threat not just to the heroes but to the entire setting.