Darkest Hour: darkest villain

About this episode

This episode explores the portrayal of villains in storytelling, particularly in historical fiction and film.

Calling historical fiction writers, memoirists, and anyone writing a "David and Goliath" style story! In this episode, I do a deep dive into the Speech in Praise of the Villain and I show how the filmmakers expertly (and seamlessly) used exposition to let the viewing audience know just how formidable the antagonist is. (The level of craft here is truly next-level stuff!) And Melanie explains how, yet again, we have a story where the protagonist is a constant character...he doesn't have an arc, but the story sure does!

People in this episode

Hosts: Melanie, Valerie Francis

Topics covered

• historical fiction
• villains
• storytelling
• character arcs
• film analysis

Keywords

• Darkest Hour
• villain
• protagonist
• exposition
• story arc
• historical fiction
• David and Goliath

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Darkest Hour

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