My antagonist was just the hero's mirror image until I flipped the POV

Wrote 12 chapters with a villain who existed only to oppose my protagonist, then I did a one-page exercise from the villain's perspective and realized he had a completely valid reason for every single move. Why do we default to making bad guys just 'bad' instead of giving them their own story? Anyone else have that moment where your antagonist suddenly became the more interesting character?

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the_joseph9d ago

Isn't it wild how one little exercise can just wreck your whole plan? I had the same thing happen with a guy who was supposedly just out to tear down the kingdom for no reason. Turns out his whole family got wiped out by the king's decree, and he was actually trying to stop a war he saw coming. Suddenly I'm rooting for him and my hero looks like the clueless one who's just following orders. Now I'm stuck rewriting half the book because the bad guy feels more real than the good one. It's like once you see their side, you can't unsee it.