posted
Interesting characters are not completely good or completely bad. Each character has motives which persuade him/her to do the good or bad things that he does.
Here are some motives that I can think of:
Motives for bad actions: -Impatience, inexperience -Seeking power selfishly -Prioritizing money over people -Acting on rumor or false information -Assuming things which aren't true; acts in ignorance -Ritualistic upbringing; acts by tradition rather than principal
Motives for good actions: -Experience and knowledge -Spiritual self-worth -To strengthen love and relationships -Monetary success through fairness, truth and patience -Understands the golden rule -Open to new ideas or ways of doing things
Can anyone think of any more?
[This message has been edited by AllenMackley (edited February 16, 2008).]
Revenge for (imagined) slight, disproportionate. Jealousy Greed Obsessive Love Anger Being a hothead Self preservation
Good
Seeking Truth Love Understanding Seeking financial independence, but fairly. Altruism
Although I think it is quite easy to turn something from the bad list into something good or the reverse. You can seek the truth In he name of our Lord et voila, you have the Spanish Inquisition.
Having the right motives doesn't equal a good action or vice versa, it may be a diametrically opposite result.
posted
I often find that many of my 'bad guys' (though not all - there are those that are simply megolmaniacs or hell bent on revenge for something wrong done to them) believe that they have good motives. For example, one bad guy really just wants to protect what is his - family, possessions, beliefs - but ends up often, as said above, acting on wrong information, or hurting the wrong people because he is hurting too.
So where many of the motives listed below are correct, there's aften a deeper, more complicated reason for bad guys doing what they do.
Same as with the good guys. Sometimes motives alone are not enough. Maybe a 'good guy' isn't all that good, but does good things because the bad guy forces him/her in a place where its either walk away, or do something about it, or to protect his family. I beleive family is one of the strongest motives for good and bad, because its the thing that means the most, to most people.
posted
In all the books I've read and movies I've seen I have never saw any character that I could name 'evil'. The problem is a couple of years ago I took it upon myself to ask myself a question: "What is evil?" And realized that those that we name evil are in fact not 'evil' but 'cruel'. What's the difference? Cruel people hurt others because someone wants hurted them. And now they drown their own pain in the pain of others. So if I want to make a character of mine truly evil, I must not give him pain for becoming this. It must be something else. What is that? Still working on that.
The character that came closest to being evil was Joffrey Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. So spoiled children have the best way of becoming evil by my standards.
posted
A friend of mine spent a considerable amount of time working in a prison. One characteristic she noticed that was common among prisoners is an overblown sense of entitlement. "I wanted it, so I took it. It should have been mine." I think that "bad guy" motivation can apply to political leaders, as well as criminals.
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posted
In my most recent works, many of the antagonists are not 'bad' characters, themselves, but rather in total opposition to the protagonist.
When they are 'bad,' they frequently put faith in something that leads them toward actions that are either morally reprehensible, or destructive for themselves and others.
Belief is one of the most powerful motivations in my stories, and can be a true factor of evil when erroneously placed in some thing or person.
Inkwell ------------------ "The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
posted
One of my WIP's currently on the back burner (but forever following me) doesn't have much in the way of bad guys. It has characters and governments that clash heads, none right, none wrong. Mostly it stems from more than one person (or group of people) wanting the same thing but only one person (or group of people) being able to get it.
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posted
No good guys/ bad guys in my WIP either, just people doing what they think is right, filtered through the lens of their culture.
Some of my characters do exhibit what might be considered "bad guy" motives, including the unwillingness to forgive or be merciful, the belief that the ends might justify the means, reveling in violence/ cruelty for its own sake, cheating behavior, preying on the weak/ defenseless, and inability to be empathic/ sympathetic.
posted
The bad guy in my novel is a psychopath - deliberately so on my part. "Good" characteristics are rare in such people, although they can be very charming when they want to be. Do some serious research into psychogical case studies of well-known criminals - it's scary and interesting at the same time. I based my baddie on the psychological "style" of a serial killer or mass murderer (since he is one). Interesting stuff.
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posted
You can have bad characters motivated by "good" things. Hannibal Lector got his start by "bringing justice" (to use the modern euphemism) to the men who killed his sister, as an example.
Michael Corleone is another example. His duty to protect his family (as he saw it) ultimately led him to do bad things.
While things like greed, jealousy, and the like make good motivations for villians, entering the age old "do the ends justify the means" debate by having a positively motivated antagonist use questionable methods to achieve their goals make for some of the better bad guys out there.
posted
Thanks for the feedback everybody. Good ideas. I like what you said Christine and annepin, that a lot of what is thought of as "good" and "bad" is in the eyes of the beholder and is biased by culture. Discrimination is always present when there are wars and pain. However, I believe people usually know in their gut when they're doing something wrong (to some extent)--they've just learned to push their guilt aside and act in denial (for whatever reason. Upbringing and family are probably huge contributors).
In the real world, a person that comes to mind when I think of as "bad" is Hitler. A person that comes to mind when I think of "good" is Gandhi. On the one hand you have someone who has zero tolerance for people of different religions and culture and lives by a very narrow life-philosophy. On the other hand you have someone who has an astounding amount of tolerance for other religions and culture and sees the good in all people. Hitler focused on what was "wrong" with people (by his opinion). He always had to "fix it." Gandhi, on the other hand, focused on what was RIGHT with people and embraced it.
[This message has been edited by AllenMackley (edited February 29, 2008).]
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