Writing Villains' Motivations
Motivation is important to every character in a story, and villains are no exception. If it’s not clear why a villain is acting the way they are, then the audience won’t get behind the story. Motivation can be simple for unsympathetic villains, but for sympathetic ones, there should be more depth. Motivation that is too complicated can be bad too, because it will end up confusing the audience.
Oftentimes, a villain’s motivations are simple. They want power, money, something basic we can all understand. These are your generic villains, usually. It’s a quick and easy way to develop them. We don’t need to know their whole backstory to understand why they want what they want. However, it can be a little dull and make the villain bland. You’ll have to put more time into making them distinct from other villains.
If you want the villain to be sympathetic, then there will have to be more depth to them. I’ll take an example once again from Person of Interest, because it was good at this. The villain Elias was shown at first to be a mob boss who wanted to run New York City. But his motivation was soon made clear: He was abandoned by his father, who had his mother murdered. After that he sought revenge on his father, himself a mob boss. Elias also sought to claim what he believed to be his birthright, that is taking over the city. It’s clear, it’s understandable, and Elias was so dignified and charismatic that I wanted him to succeed.
The problem comes when a villain’s motives are too complicated. They want something specific, so there’s a reason they want it, one that may not be clear. An easy way to fix this is by having the villain gloat about their master plan. This often explains not only what, but why. If their plan is so complicated that people don’t understand it, you may lose part of your audience. The same goes for their motivation. I don’t need to like them, but I want to know why they’re doing what they’re doing.
Villain and antagonist motivations can be easy to get right, but also easy to mess up. Which makes it like everything else in writing. If in doubt, it’s okay to do something simple. The Joker is an iconic villain for a reason. His motivation is simple: he’s insane. Simple motivations can make a memorable villain, but sympathetic ones need more depth. It’s up to you which one you choose.
© 2023 Sky Starlight CC BY-NC-SA