How to Write an Antagonist - Inside Out 2

After Puss in Boots The Last Wish it proved that animation is a perfect excuse to make an antagonist that truly impacts the audience as much as the protagonist does.
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#videoessay #movie #insideout2 #analysis #film #disney #pixar #pixaranimationstudios #insideout #pusssinbootsthelastwishdeath #pussinbootsthelastwish #animation #animatedmovie #funny #anixety #mayahawke

[chasehedges]

Everyone loves a good villain but sometimes, you need a good antagonist.

[ultima]

Another little detail is that when Riley crashes into her friend, she says she didn’t even see her.
At the start of the movie Anxiety says Fear protects Riley from what she can see, while Anxiety from what she can’t see. Fear wasn’t there to stop Riley, and Anxiety couldn’t fill that role.

[Keeganator]

The most simple yet most reliable way to create an antagonist is to have them have good intentions but unethical methods.

[ShadowKitty]

When Riley’s belief first said “I’m not good enough” I couldn’t help but cry. It’s such a simple line but it’s basically the line that defined my middle school experience.

[icepl]

its funny because technically... joy was both the protagonist and the antagonist of the first movie.
her goal was to keep riley happy but she opposed her own goals by going about it the wrong way.

...kinda like anxiety does in this movie... actually when yoy think about it their arcs are almost the same, they both learn that supressing other emotions to do things their way is bad for riley.
thats also why joy in this movie always works with the other emotions and not just alone

[DORAisDD]

I wish Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui were fleshed out more and shown how harmful they could be if they go overboard, like Anxiety.
Riley could be scared of embarrassing herself by messing up during practice, thus no longer wanting to do anything that would put her in an uncomfortable situation and losing motivation.
Riley could have felt envious that her friends were going to the same school without her and envious of how good Val is (rather than only admiring her), thus making her want to be better at hockey and make new friends.
Ennui could be Riley giving up- she no longer has interest in hockey after all the stress she is going through

[ChristianDall-pj]

Most villans are antagonists, but not all antagonists are villans! This is how to write a good, non-villan antagonist!

[fireemblemaddict]

I wish Fear was kept in the command center. Fear is very much an adjacent emotion to Anxiety and I wish he had been kept as the insider member of the original cast. Perhaps initially agreeing with Anxiety on things and slowly realizing she’s going to crash the ship.

[Istletheckie]

Something I love about anxiety is that she is very accurate, in my opinion, about how anxiety can act. I have GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) which causes me to just worry excessively about really anything my brain decides that day. While anxiety isn't a tiny anthropomorphic character inside my head, the rationality and the things anxiety does as a character and to Riley are very very accurate to what it feels like to live with GAD to an extent. I had never felt so seen in a movie before, I actually cried in the theater. I'm glad that this movie brought open and displays anxiety in such a true-to-life way because most of the time in other movies it isn't shown super great.

[KekerikiGreen]

Thank you for outlining why I think it’s stupid that people have been diagnosing the “problem with Pixar lately” as having no real villain. That’s not an issue in storytelling, and never has been.

[treddox]

Anxiety genuinely believed that all of her actions and plans were what was best for Riley. All of the emotions love Riley dearly. That’s why Anxiety had tears streaming down her eyes when she was frozen to the console, because she realized what she was doing was hurting Riley, but she had already reached a point where she couldn’t stop.

[Frostykozmos]

I think Anxiety was very well written as far as her role, character arc, and parallel to Joy in the first movie. I would consider her my favorite Inside Out character, not just because of that, but honestly I don’t think I’ve ever resonated so much with a movie character, let alone an antagonist. It’s a little creepy how similar I am to what’s supposed to be the literal spawn of anxiety lol

[kaylenvee]

I think the most fascinating part of Anxiety's character and why she serves as a good antagonist is that she basically acts like how Joy did in the first movie. Too overbearing and too controlling; they never let the other emotions have control over the console and pushed everyone away. They behaved the exact same way and experienced the same consequences - An unheathy mental state for Riley. And I firmly believe that ALL the emotions are capable of becoming like Joy or Anxiety if they have too much control. NONE of them are explicitly bad, they're only bad in excess.

Some of the new emotions in Inside Out 2 get some hate for being primarily negative emotions and not really demonstrating their purpose, but I don't believe that. First of all, the first movie already made the point of how there is no 'bad' emotion. All of them have a purpose, and secondly, I think the fact that we know so little of the new emotions and what they can do served as reinforcement to Anxiety's controlling behaviour. She hogged the console so much that the other emotions no longer got to shine and SHOW why Riley needs them. And I have a couple of theories to what their purpose in Riley's life is.

Embarrassment: I think he's supposed to serve a similar role as sadness, and I may be reading too much into it, but I think that's why they got along in the movie. The display of sadness encourages other people around to act. To empathize, to grieve, to be there for Riley and comfort her. Embarrassment is the opposite. He's there as a signal so people know to give Riley SPACE without being aggressive like say, the dinner table scene in the first movie with Anger. If Riley instead looked embarrassed, then it would've been more clear that they shouldn't push this topic too hard and they would've given her some space and revisit the conversation another time. He serves as a support for Riley's need for personal space and privacy.

Envy: Although it was framed more as admiration, I think the point of Envy is to serve as a form of motivation for Riley. She gives Riley a goal or objective to strive towards by having someone else serve as this model to follow. She's one way for Riley to be pushed towards her ambitions and goals; because she admires this person.

Ennui: She's definitely the oddest one, but I think the point of Ennui is to serve as this baseline emotion that ensures that Riley can continue her day, even with the bare minimum. Think about when she was introduced. She's the last of the new emotions to be introduced and throughout that time, the other emotions were very overwhelmed by the newcomers and none of them knew what to do. That's when Ennui shows up and takes control of the console, making sure Riley responds and is able to function and interact with others. She's there so Riley can still function normally while getting her inner bearings together. She's the steady bar that Riley can hold onto while regaining her balance.

[benjaminwebster]

One of the things that really sold me on this movie is all the times anxiety put new and harmful thoughts into Riley’s head, and when she plucks the thought string “I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH” and even she is taken aback by that statement.

[Baddexample]

My favorite way to talk about Anxiety-
She's an antagonist, not a villain

[laraprisma]

The scene of Rilley having the anxiety attack hit very close to home for me. I already had an anxiety attack one night, it prevented me from sleeping and no one took me seriously, I was looking at the ceiling of my room trying to sleep, my chest hurting and I was crying uncontrollably. Aging can be difficult to deal with, especially when you have no one to comfort you. this scene almost made me cry, but I held it together, I really loved that scene, it conveys anxiety perfectly!

[MovieMadness]

There’s a quote from Turning Red that I feel sums up this movie perfectly: people have all kinds of sides to them and some sides are messy but the point isn’t to push the bad stuff away it’s to make room for it and live with it

[theenchilada]

If you noticed in the beginning of the movie, Joy was throwing out bad memories and created Riley's naive worldview. Anxiety was influenece by and took it a stepped further with a even more self-centered one. Joy realized when she tried to put it back it didn't work because Riley had discovered a new sense of self when she remembered the bad memories that filpped her morality around into a more sympathic sense of self.

[cawareyoudoin]

I did shed a tear when Anxiety cried. It was such a good portrayal of an anxiety attack, it really got to me.

[Potable_scent]

I like how Anxiety was just like Joy in the first movie
they both want the best for Riley and in doing so, they neglect the other emotions, they think Riley needs them and them only
I also enjoyed the scene where Riley questions how much ideas did they reject, then she realized how much ideas/emotions she rejected during the first movie knowing anxiety is just like her
on a personal note, I broke down in tears when Riley kept saying "I'm a good person"