Science fiction and fantasy stories have villains with epic ambitions. They want absolute power. They never want to die. They want to end all life. They want to become the ultimate being in all universe. That explains why they hatch elaborate plans, activate minions – usually millions of them – building superweapons and cross every line of decency and morality.
But why does Voldemort (Harry Potter) never want to die? Why does Sauron (Lord of the Rings) want to rule over everything? Why does Malekith (Thor: Dark World) want to end light (and bring eternal night)? Not every SFF book/comic/film delves into the why behind the why. And if they do, it’s usually not very well developed.
There are notable exceptions, of course. While Thanos starts off as the “Mad Titan” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by the time we come to ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, his motivations are made clear. He wants the power of the infinity stones because he wants to kill half of all life in one finger snap. And he wants to end half of all life in the universe because worlds can no longer support such large populations. He has seen his own world destroyed.
This reasoning generates a certain level of understanding from the audience. The heroes themselves acknowledge this when Captain America tells a demotivated Black Widow that he saw a pod of whales in the Hudson.
The machines in The Matrix series have a great motivation to keep the humans subjugated. Their survival depends on the humans sleeping!
I am not saying stories with villains whose true motivations are not explored don’t work. (Sauron is a badass – even if we don’t quite know why he wants to rule over all life on Middle-Earth.) But when a storyteller shows why evil is evil, then it adds an interesting layer that helps see the antagonist’s point of view.
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