Lets say your a power crazed super villian...

Power lust. Power is a heady drug for some. They get a little and then it's not enough, they not only want more, they need it. Yes, a lot has to do with control too. If they don't have total control then someone above them will and that doesn't make them the top dog anymore.

A bad childhood could be used but it isn't always that way either. Some people are just born that way. I knew one growing up. Everything handed to them on a platter yet they were a control freak and sadistic. So, maybe growing up your character always had everything handed to him and whatever he wanted came easy. How would he react when another character thwarts him?

But, your baddie will still need a crack in his armor, even some small thing that isn't bad.

Well, if he doesn't take over the world, it'll fall into chaos, won't it? Wars. Feuds. Petty thugs with swords proclaiming themselves king or warlord. Refugees starving or turning to banditry. Nothing and no-one in their proper place. What the world needs is a single strong, wise, and ruthless leader, someone with the power and authority to simply crush the conflicts before they spiral out of control.

I mean, he's only being cruel to be kind.

In case it's not obvious, I'm saying that it's all about control. The impulse that drives him to take over the world is the same reason he has to (for example) always have the salt shaker in the exact same spot relative to his plate. Maybe he was one of those refugees himself, or maybe one of his parents was an unpredictable headcase, but either way, I bet he grew up amid chaos, never knowing where his next meal was coming from, never knowing whether he was going to be hugged or kicked in the teeth. At some point, he figured out, consciously or not, that there was only one way to be absolutely sure that he would never be ambushed again. And that's to control. Absolutely. Everything.

But, of course, that's just my interpretation.

Izunya

Bahamutchild said:

yeah, um, I'm a little short on those... maybe regret? His army killed many of his friends during the bloody take-over of his own country... hmmmmmmm

Awesome ideas!
Cheers,
Christina

Click to expand...

I hear ya. I have the same problem. Let's see. What was his relationship with his mother? Maybe there was something special between them? Even if she's dead he might have something that was hers that he treasures and looks at a lot. Or the same scenario with his father.

Someone in his life that he loved and admired maybe had a certain pet so now he always keeps the same kind of pet?

He has a passion for beautiful things: paintings, sculptures, horses. Aha! Horses. Right down your alley. He treats his horses better than anyone?

Just thinking off the top of my head here and I don't know if his parents are alive or dead, or if he has horses. I'm betting on the last, though. I know you do have horses in your story.

It seems that for many control freaks and power mongers their desire for control/power is directly proportional to their absence of internal control/power. Because of this character fault/lack of character, they are never able to feel they are in control/power and they are driven to madness with this overwhelming fear of being out of control/power.

Like my ex.

You might want to look up some info on the first Chinese Emperor, Qin Shi Huang.

He took over the "world" (basically all of China) around 250 BCE. His motivation? Well, at that point China was divided into warring feudal states. Qin saw this, and thought things could be better. A unified, China, in his vision, was meant to be.

It wouldn't come without a price. To achieve a unified China meant war. To achieve a unified China meant defeating all the other states. And it meant killing many, many people.

Qin was prepared, and he was ruthless. He ordered the execution of many prisoners of war. His armies swept through the other states, conquering them one by one. Finally he attained his goal, and all of China became unified under one state: Qin.

Now, why did Qin think this way? He didn't want to unify China because he was simply an evil maniac (though some might try to tell you otherwise). He wanted to unify China because he saw it as better for the whole of China. He wanted to set up a dynasty that would last for thousands of years. He foresaw great prosperity for the people under a unified China. In short, he had reasons for doing what he did--even though he knew he was murdering people, destroying states, and trampling tradition.

Of course, he eventually went insane after taking mercury tablets (under the false belief that these would grant him immortality, poor guy), and was probably one of the most paranoid rulers in all of Chinese history. His dynasty was also the shortest lived. Anyway, that's another story entirely.

I think when you're creating a "bad guy", if you want to make them more like a real person, you should look at real world examples. Even Hitler didn't see his visions of world conquest as evil.

I think Colin's right on this one. Qin Shihuangdi is an excellent example of a ruthless totalitarian ruler who didn't see his actions as evil, but rather part of a plan for the greater good. Another example might be Napoleon. He sought world domination, but he did it under the auspices of spreading democracy and the French revolution.

I can never write villains who are just purely evil, because very few people are pure evil. Most of the time, enemies are just people with objectives that run against your own. Even Hitler, twisted as he was, had many "admirable" policies. He was, after all, Time's man of the year in 1938, one year before he started WWII. And who was man of the year in 1939? You guessed it - Stalin.