#gemini could probably write a 10 paragraph essay on this though LOL

[t4tdanvis]

I meant like what motivates them to do evil things in general not literally “what motivates them to be evil” so like “what motivates him to kill the people he does” falls under “what motivates him to be evil”. Because yeah no, Zane’s not trying to be evil but he’s still trying to kill people which is usually objectively evil.

But if someone’s just evil from birth, then they don’t need a general motivator. They don’t need an overall reason. They can just stab a guy because he annoyed them and it doesn’t need any deeper explanation because nothing made them choose to do that aside from this guy annoying them right now. There’s no root cause or deeper reason for them choosing to be violent because they’re evil from birth!

Like if Zane’s whole thing is that Garte was abusive and often used violence towards others to solve his problems, and now the use of violence is normalized to him, then he is now not evil from birth. He’s not stabbing a guy just because he annoyed him, he’s doing it because violence is normal to him and therefore stabbing the guy is, to him, a justifiable response.

My brain's not working well but!! I think if the character is doing things for no reason (regardless of if the things they're doing are bad or not) it's a very obvious sign of bad writing! Like yeah he stabbed someone but why? Just because He's The Villain? Damn Jess great writing yeah no definitely not a 2 dimensional character

This is a problem in most of Jess's writing because it often seems like the characters are doing things Just Because? There's no reason for a lot of it other than "it's funny" or "it's dramatic" and that's!! So frustrating!! I want villain characters to be evil and irredeemable and horrible while also still being People and not just a cardboard cutout of a classic villain!

Giving a character reasons for their actions is often seen as "oh so you're justifying what they did??" when it's not!! People have reasons to do things, you don't just wake up one day and go "im bored I'm gonna go kill someone", people don't work like that even if they're objectively bad people!