What motivates your villain?

Let's face it, there really aren't that many different kinds of villains, not when you get down to the basics of it. For example; there are those bad guys who want power, those who want revenge, those who act on uncontrollable impulses, those who have noble intentions but use evil means to reach their goals, and then there are those that just want to cause mayhem and destruction for the sheer thrill of it. If you think about it, all the villains in our favorite stories are really just variations or mixtures of these archetypes. The key, then, to crafting a compelling villain, is not to invent a new type of antagonist (which really isn’t possible), but to put a fresh spin on one or more of these themes. I will illustrate using five examples.

Those who want power: In my opinion, this is the default villain of choice. It's easy to create someone who just wants to "rule the world." Therefore, the trick is to give your power-hungry baddie an interesting motive for wanting ultimate power. A good example of this would be Anakin Skywalker from Revenge of the Sith. Anakin starts out a hero, but turns to the dark side because he believes it will give him the power to save his wife. But the price of that power ends up being Anakin's soul (and ironically his wife) and he becomes iconic, space-boogieman, Darth Vader.

Those who want revenge: Two Face from the Dark Knight is a great example of this. Once a hero, tragedy filled him so full of grief and hate that his moral boundaries collapsed, and the only thing that ended up driving him was the desire to make someone pay for his loss.

Those who can't control their evil impulses: Whether it be anger, lust, or addiction to something, these villains have turned their wills over to external forces. An example of this would be Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Like real-life junkies, Smeagol innocently finds his addiction, the ring of power, and instantly becomes enslaved to it, so much so that he strangles his brother to get it. From then on, all he cares about is the ring and all the evil and vile things he does are to the end of serving his desire.

The "ends justify the means" villain: These characters are usually not depraved psychopaths, but normal, well meaning people who have made deals with the devil in order to accomplish something good. I like Walternate from Fringe as an example of this. He is simply trying to save his world from a plight caused by someone else. Sure in the process he has to annihilate a parallel universe to do it, but he's willing to make that sacrifice. And that's how he really sees it, a sacrifice and himself a sort of moral martyr.

And finally there is my personal favorite, the villain who wants to cause chaos and death because it's just so darn fun! I thought of several examples of this (the Joker gets an honorable mention), and came up with two flavors of this villain; the sociopath who gets his jollies from causing pain and suffering, and the nihilist who wants to destroy because he believes it a preferable alternative or an inevitability. My two examples come from the Wheel of Time. First, we have Padan Fain, a wretched creature who becomes the embodied antithesis of life. Fain has no agenda save to kill Rand al'Thor and joys in being a living blight upon the world - a truly compelling, and frightening villain. We have our second example in Elan Morin Tedrona AKA Ishamael/Moridin. Elan was once a respected statesmen and philosophical genius who came to believe that fighting against the Dark Lord was futile, because the turning of the Wheel of Time and the Dark One's eternal nature made his victory inevitable – he could just keep waging war on mankind until he got it right. Thus, without desire for power or glory, Elan became the betrayer of hope, because for him, there was just no other option.

Are you sensing a theme here? To make a villain truly compelling, your audience has to be able to connect with them on some level. This makes them believable and in some cases even pitiable. You want your reader to think "Holy cow, what if that was me? Would I have made those choices? Would I have ended up like him/her?" You do this by showing the good, and humane side of your villain. I don't believe there are many people who are "pure evil," and most people consider mankind generally good. So what took your antagonist from a decent human being to a crazed cannibal that likes to target practice with puppies? Like Anakin Skywalker, the power of a villain to standout is rooted in the journey that took them to villainy. It is also in showing their humanity. Even serial killers sometimes feel bad about what they do, so make your villain human. Shiny, perfect, Boy Scout heroes make a story bland, and so do villains that dance around and sing about just how bad they are and how much they love it. Complexity, gray areas, moral stratification, and self deception are the keys to crafting good villains.