The scale and style guide for how Villains Wiki designates antagonists.
The Scale
- Main - The villain mainly responsible for the conflict of the story. If they are the main antagonist of a long-running series, they are its "Big Bad".
- Secondary - The second most important villain of the story, after the main antagonist. Unlike Heroes Wiki, we scale our roles based on the level of influence a villain has over the plot rather than the amount of focus they receive, so a secondary antagonist may have more prominence than the main antagonist (an example being Darth Vader) yet are still considered secondary if the main one is the actual cause of the plot.
- Major - A villain not as important as the main or secondary, but still plays a prominent role in the story. In a series with different story arcs, this villain is usually the main antagonist of one story arc.
- Supporting - A villain that isn't as important as a major one, but still plays a semi-prominent and consistent role throughout much of the story. This can include a subordinate of a major villain (such as Rune Haako) or a group of grunts who consistently menace the protagonists (such as the Stormtroopers).
- Minor - A villain that has minimal presence and influence in the story, such as a villain who only appears for one or a few scenes and does not leave a significant impact on the plot or a grunt who is named but does not have anything else to distinguish them in the story.
- Overarching - A villain that is more powerful and influential to the setting of the story than the main antagonist, but is not directly responsible for the plot. If they are the overarching antagonist of an entire long-running series, they are its "Bigger Bad". (Note: This does not apply to minor villains who help nudge the main antagonist into becoming evil, but are not more powerful or influential than them at any point in the story).
Style Guide
- When inserting the antagonist role a villain occupies in the opening paragraph, it should be written out as "_ is a/the [insert role] antagonist in/of _." Example: Ernst Vogel is a major antagonist in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
- If a villain only appears or only has a prominent role in a single arc or season of a longer series, it should be written as "_ is the antagonist of the _ arc/Season _ of _." Example: Captain Ginyu is the secondary antagonist of the "Namek" saga of Dragon Ball Z.
- If a villain is mentioned briefly within a work but does not actually appear or have any offscreen influence over the conflict of its story, they should NOT be mentioned in the opening paragraph.
- For groups of villains, in the opening paragraph they should be written out as "_ are the _ antagonists of..." with "antagonists" as plural, not "antagonist faction" or "antagonistic faction". The same goes for Hostile Species.
- If a villain plays a prominent role in multiple installments of a franchise (up to three) then they should be listed in order. Example: Solomon Lane is the main antagonist of Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation and one of the two main antagonists of Mission Impossible - Fallout.
- If a villain plays roles across numerous different arcs/seasons/installments of a franchise, then only the role they play overall should be given in the opening paragraph. Example: Emperor Palpatine is the main antagonist of the Star Wars franchise.
- For stories where the protagonist is a villain, the opening paragraph should be written as "_ is the main protagonist of _." If the deuteragonist and tritagonist are also villains, the same format applies.
- Terms like "central" should not be used. "Secondary" should always be used for the second most important villain after the main.
- Terms like "tertiary", "quaternary", "quinary" etc. should NOT be used.
- Terms like "opening" and "final" should NOT be used.
- Terms like "_ protagonist-turned-_ antagonist" or "main later secondary antagonist" should NOT be used.
- Terms like "true main antagonist" or "hidden main antagonist" should NOT be used.