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I can only say that I agree whole-heartedly. 3nodding

I agree. But I would like to discourage people from accidentally making their antagonist more likeable than their protagonist. I, personally, am sick and tired of reading books and finding myself sympathizing more with the antagonist than the protagonist.

At first I thought I was just a weird, antagonizing reader but the more I discuss with other readers I find many people are attracted to the antagonistic characters because they're more interesting, compelling, and better written.

And while interesting, compelling, and well-written antagonists are ALWAYS a good thing I just want to make sure people try to make their protagonists just as interesting, compelling, and well-written.

I've always agreed with this view.

I could take Harry Potter for example. Voldemort is a classic villian- he's evil, discrimintive and kills without mercy. Many readers don't really feel any major hatred towards him because he's so evil its silly.
Then there's Umbrdge- she has a believiable cause, she does believe Harry is lying and she wants to put a stop to it. She has medieval ways of punishing people but she is not wholly evil. She is an antagonist and readers absoulutely despise her.

I'm trying to do this with my story. My antagonist works on the side of Order (as in, some of my protagonists are Disorder). He's a charming guy who is obsessed with charming girls. He's a bit reckless and hates some of the protagonists with an irrational hatred. He just hates things that don't make sense but is quite clever and likes to play mind games with them. He has his good qualaties though- when not clashing with some of the protagonists he is actually quite warm with people who think along the same line as him, just as long as they acknowledge him as alpha to them. Especially girls, he's a bit sexist but not in a mean way. Likes to look after them if he feels they need it and the only female he is ever horrid to is one whom is a form of Disorder.
He's quite straight forward thinking despite his cleverness, he sees in black and white compared to my protagonist- who gets lost in the confusion of the many shades of grey that exist.

I agree.
The protagonist’s enemy doesn't have to be a cackling, orphanage burning, kitten stealing devil to be the story's antagonist.

I like how the line between good and evil can be blurred between the protagonist and antagonist.
On a similar note it makes me think of the comic V for Vendetta where the protagonist is a murderer and a terrorist but he's still seen as the "hero" of the story.