No Antagonist: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* A lot of [[Studio Ghibli]]/[[Hayao Miyazaki]], especially the [[Slice of Life]], films are like this. Some of them have characters who at first ''seem'' to be antagonists, but are really not.

** ''[[My Neighbor Totoro]]'': The story centers around character's exploration of the rural life they are thrust into and its magical title character. The chief dramatic tension comes when a 5 year old girl goes missing, not from any antagonist.

* [[Haibane Renmei]] fits this.

* [[Digimon Tamers]] follows this trope for the first 13 episodes. It's an unusual example in that the protagonists initial struggle is in how to deal with the fact that digimon are real, this may have been one of the reasons why the start is widely considered to be slow.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Airplane!]]'' deals with the passengers of the titular plane (pilot included) succumbing to a virus, as well as one of the few passengers on board who didn't catch the virus having to land the plane on his own, despite not having flown one for years as well as previously flying a different model.

* ''[[Bolt]]'' has meddlesome TV executives and dog catchers who cause problems for the main heroes, and [[Windmill Crusader|Bolt]] initially blames "[[Show Within a Show|Dr. Calico]]" for everything, but in reality there is no central villain.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In [[Brian's Saga]] the protagonist is stranded in a forest without ready access to supplies.

 

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': The episode "The Body" uses this. It's even lampshaded in a rant by Xander:

{{quote|"Things don't just happen! Not like this!"}}

* ''[[Mad Men]]'' is probably the closest thing to this on tv currently. Character's problems and worries are all caused by their own actions and traumatic events of the 1960s (like the Kennedy Assassination and the Cuban Missile Crisis for instance). While a character may occasionally have a rival of some sort its never on such a level that the other character could be defined as a [[Big Bad]] or even a [[Villainy-Free Villain]].

* Many episodes of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' fit the trope: the "antagonist" of the medical part of the show is just some kind of disease or medical condition, whilst in the protagonist's life the "antagonists" are merely his own personal problems, such as drug addiction. In the first season (at the [[Executive Meddling|wishes of the network]]) they introduced a villain named Edward Vogler, but this arc was resolved rather abruptly, as the creators of the show were well aware that a villain did not really fit the show's dynamic (although a second antagonist, Det. Tritter, was introduced in the third season; naturally, when push came to shove his arc was resolved just as hastily as Vogler's).

 

== Music ==

* [[Pink Floyd]]'s ''[[The Wall]]'' is about Pink's inner struggle with the demons his life has brought down on him. There is no one you can point to and say that they're responsible for all of his issues...except himself.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Ultima IV]]: Quest of the Avatar'': the goal of the game is to become the titular Avatar. While a fair part of that quest involves the traditional [[Dungeon Crawl]], there is no villain and most of the work involved in completing the quest involves simply acting virtuously.

* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' and its [[Left 4 Dead 2|sequel]] take place in a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] and is about the characters trying to escape from it. The "Director", commonly said to be the one placing hardships on the characters, is merely the name of the game's AI system that spawns enemies. The closest thing to a villain would be the military in ''The Sacrifice'' digital comic, although even the military's own leaders are more concerned with eliminating the zombies than opposing the main characters.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[Dissonance]]'': Two researchers deal with a new life form which challenges what they thought they knew about evolution, and their own [[Angst]]. Even the life form - a catlike creature that can walk on two legs - is friendly and completely non hostile.

* ''[[Dumbing of Age]]''. Possibly to the frustration of fans, most of the conflict is derived from interpersonal relationships and inner demons. When an actual [[Rape as Drama|antagonist designed purely to be hated]] shows up, however...

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Unlike other [[Story Arc]]s on the site that have the reviewers fighting bad guys like Mechakara or Dark Nella, most of the drama that [[The Nostalgia Critic]] deals with comes from his own issues.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Most ''[[Postman Pat]]'' episodes are like this, with inclement weather, lost kites, special events (such as fetes and birthdays) and too-small suits of armour amongst others typically being the things that drive the plot, rather than a conflict between characters.

* ''[[The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh]]'', as well as most Pooh media in general. Usually, the conflict instead comes from characters trying to solve simple problems and/or misunderstandings.