Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3542887-20170709003930/@comment-30829344-20170711200755

also Squidward IS the tritagonist.. however antagonists are NOT always villains, it just happens that in Spongebob's case the other two recurring antagonists are villains (Krabs and Plankton).

an antagonist is anyone who opposes the hero(es) of a story, whether it be a full-blown villain, a simple jerk or even a force of nature.. can even apply to a rival hero who doesn't share the views of a main character or even just someone that does not like the hero and thus acts as an obstacle of some kind.

Peck is a good example of an antagonist.. in Ghostbusters.. Gozer is the villain but Peck is the antagonist because while Gozer is truly evil and seeking to kill / harm people in great numbers Peck is simply a VERY obnoxious man who wants to make life difficult for the heroes.