ambitions

Maybe you all are familiar with presenting a character as mysterious and suspicious at first, developing them as a villain through hearsay or observations taken out of context, then revealing that they actually have a noble (or at least sympathetic) goal they're really driven to achieve. I have a character I want to present in this way, but I'm having trouble thinking of an appropriate goal.

Here's the character: all his life he has been treated with prejudice because he looks unusual and is too scrawny to put up much of a physical defense. But he's very intelligent and has a fiery temper, so he became a master of cutting insults and has also been driving himself to attain enough power (magical and political) that people started avoiding him rather than picking on him. He is bitter about the injustice of the world but decided that since it would never voluntarily give him what he needed he would have to force it to. He prefers to use intimidation, blackmail, kidnapping, and paying well as his main tactics. He does not think of himself as attractive or loveable so he would not normally use seduction or even friendly persuasion. He takes pride in his intelligence and power, enjoys showing them off, and wants people to respect him for these qualities.

The plot call for this semi-villain to acquire one of the other characters as a prisoner, whether by 'buying' her from an indebted family member, blackmailing her to surrender herself to spare a family member or friend, or capturing her in some way that makes her feel guilty for doing something tactically stupid. She is supposed to be a useful tool for him because she is a special type of creature and he needs her power to accomplish.. whatever his ambition is. But, what is his ambition and how is her power a key to achieving it?


Possibilities I have considered so far:

1. He would find being in the military appealing if he thought he could be respected for his abilities there. Maybe she is a dragon, soul weapon, or other kind of partner creature needed to become an elite soldier. Problem with this, her personality is totally unsuited to being a fighter and I don't want to write about violence.

2. He wants to obtain a self-sustaining and defensible territory for himself, such as a castle and surrounding lands. There could be a magical ritual for converting such a territory from an informal bandit camp to an official castle and home, and this ritual could require both a person of his type and a person of her type. Problem with this, I want a different character to end up being their leader, but I don't want this semi-villain to fail at his ambition, I want him to succeed, although maybe requiring more help than he originally thought.

3. Revenge is probably an obvious choice but I hate revenge stories.

4. Gaining respect and power by marrying into a noble family wouldn't really work in the story world because of the prejudice against him. People either wouldn't take the marriage seriously or would regard it as a travesty and try to destroy it.

5. The woman is not the last of her race or the heir of anything unique or chosen by destiny or the key to some ancient foozle or macguffin. Her usefulness has to be because of the type of person she is, not anything unique.

6. He can't intend to sacrifice her because that would make him actually a villain. What he needs is her to voluntarily use her powers on his behalf, like a partner.

So, any ideas?

The story is a romance, this character the hero, so the audience has to come to love him along with the heroine, or at least think he she is making the right choice when she chooses to become his permanent partner. The main way he changes over the course of the story is by becoming less bitter and more idealistic, coming to trust that the heroine really likes and loves him and isn't pretending to for some strategic reason. Also in addition to the heroine he meets some other people who are actually worthwhile human beings and becomes friends with them, he never really had friends before or a leader he considered worthy of his loyalty.

Drasheny said:

(Suffice it to say, if you proceed with idea No. 2, make sure that the castle is not a magical, labyrinthine, Winchester-mansion-esque reflection of your heroine's psyche.)

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Rofl I was imagining a major setting to be a spell which is a literal labyrinth embodiment of the heroine's mind/heart/soul. But, it's a testing ground through which the hero must pass, not a territory to be obtained.

[quote[On a side note, should you be worried about forcing your plot around a character type - especially a character type that's so familiar - rather than letting these characters and their relationship develop organically? [/quote]

Well the order I go in when creating a story is 1. type of relationship I want to write about 2. character archetypes 3. general setting 4. plot archetype, and 5, the current step, plot details. I don't think I'm forcing anything, it's more that I tend to get stuck at this stage because I'm not a plot-oriented reader and I don't have as good of instincts and as much experience analyzing and creating plot as other aspects of the story.

But, maybe I should point out, the options I've listed are the ones I've already discarded for various reasons. I'm looking for different ideas.