I got confused between antagonist and villain. I never thought about this before.
Now I know a villain and antagonist are not the same thing.
I agree with you here.
You must take into consideration that Sasuke was traumatized and tortured by Itachi as a child. It affected him mentally.
Tobi also tried to brainwash him. But ultimately, it was Sasuke who chose his own path. He became a criminal and he wasn't in the right state of mind. But it can always change.
Naruto was finally able to knock some sense into him in the end. If you take all that into account, it's understandable why he was forgiven easily. Sasuke didn't deserve to witness the massacre of his clan.
He deserves a good life after going through that trauma.
A criminal in a story is not always a villain. Take Batman and Green Arrow for example. So I conclude that Sasuke is not a villain but an antagonist. It would've been better if he was a villain though.
"A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction.
The villain usually is the antagonist (though can be the protagonist), the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. A female villain is occasionally called a villainess. Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot"
"An antagonist is a character, group of characters, institution, or concept that stands in or represents opposition against which the protagonist(s) must contend. In other words, an antagonist is a person or a group of people who opposes a protagonist."
In short an antagonist is something that opposes the main character. A villain is evil.
L is a heroic antagonist while Light is a villainous protagonist.
Sasuke is antagonist for most of the story, while in parts drifting into becoming a villain. He is Naruto's "rival' in part one, making him a somewhat of an antagonist. He isn't doing evil acts for the first part of part two. He merely wants to gain power so he can hunt down a wanted criminal. It just the person who he decided he wanted to be his teacher is an evil villain. Then after his talk with Obito he decided he wanted to destroy the village and all the people in it for revenge, hunted down a person knowing they will die and they power they hold would be used for evil purposes, and attack a conference between world leaders. Firmly putting him into a role of a villain. Then a talk with Itachi snaps him out of it and he eventually joins up with the rest of the world to save it. Then after Kaguya defeat he needs to be an antagonist again. So he captured all the tailed beast, knocked out Sakura, intended on killing Naruto, and announce a plan for him to conquer the world. Turning him into a villain for the final fight. Then during the final fight he is an antagonist again because he and Naruto are having a philosophical debate or something like that while fighting.
Edited by Bail o' Lies, 16 April 2017 - 12:40 PM.