I gave up trying to force protags into my vision a long way back. It just didn't work. I was, however, astonished when I got a huge problem with a really foul antag.

I began to feel sorry for him and to see things from his POV, which was valid to a certain extent, from his perspective. At that point I had to do a rewrite to show him in a sympathetic light. He was just the same hateful and viscious antag, but now it became possible to relate to him. The results were that he became even more scary because of the human qualities. To say I was startled would be the understatement of the millenium.