While watching Series One Ep.3 of Sherlock, a thought came to me. Was Moriarty the first villain ,or turned into, that is the opposite of the main character. I’m not sure if I’m making sense but look how in many modern works in books or live action. A main character will have a enemy that is their archenemy. You can’t have Batman without the Joker. You can’t have Superman without Lex Luthor. You can’t have Sherlock Holmes without Moriarty. They are so intertwined that it’s impossible not to include in some shape or form if being adapted.
But it’s not they are just enemies, I mean main characters will have countless enemies. But it’s something about “the Moriarty to my (blank)”. The opposite of the MC that works. I can’t even describe it because in my head it makes sense.
If I’m making any sense to you. Then where does this come from? Heroes have always had their villain to defeat but idk it’s something different when you have someone who’s the opposite of you. That’s just not evil.
by GaelG721
6 Comments
Moriarty goes back to Conan Doyle at least. He was designed specifically to counter Holmes.
Every protagonist needs a foil. It’s what creates conflict which is an important part of storytelling.
It’s called a Foil Character. “In any narrative, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character, typically, a character who contrasts with the protagonist, in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist.”
Many times, the antagonist of a story will be written as a foil of the protagonist to better highlight qualities within the protagonist. For example, Holmes had a great deal of qualities that were not socially acceptable and could be viewed as negative. Professor Moriarty shows that while Holmes might have those qualities, he’s not the evil that is the real villain of the stories.
The idea of having a story with an antagonist in it (i.e. someone who is trying to stop the main character from doing something or otherwise making their life harder) has probably been around for as long as people have been telling stories. lt definitely didn’t start with Moriarity.
I think that one goes back to Gilgamesh.
The oldest story of this kind I can think of is god vs satan perhaps