I'm having trouble writing an interesting villain. I've got her fleshed out pretty well, but I don't think she has any real motivation. My villain is the "god" of my world and keeps destroying/recreating universes to combat her own boredom and lack of interaction. (The goal of the protagonist is to stop this.) However, I don't think 'boredom' is solid motivation. Does anyone have any ideas? Any ideas on how to limit this type of character as well? Such as, what's stopping her from killing the protagonist?
Maybe she actually does have a moral code, and is okay with destroying universes because it doesn't FEEL like she's killing people. But maybe she sees the protagonist and sees their determination and personality and goes "okay, I can't kill them, they actually are a person," and doesn't kill the protagonist because a) she feels really bad or b) it gives her something to do, stopping them. Just an idea, lol
Could she see the bad things the people in the universes she creates do and become angry or even disappointed in herself over the shoddy handiwork and destroy them because of that? Then the protagonist might try to prove that there's goodness in the world that's worth saving, or that the god could make improvements, but not destroy everything and start from scratch?
You could make a caveat to her power that if someone is aware of her then she can't destroy their universe? And her motivation is to destroy protagonist so she can create a new one?
or maybe you could make her a perfectionnist. She never stops destroying worlds because she seeks perfection but doesn't see that she shatters people's life. Also if you want to make her aweful you can add the lack of empathy to her personality. She doesn't care about all the lifes she destroys. And the hero will make her see her own flaws, how by destroying everytime her worlds she represents lazyness, cruelty and more, so she doesn't have the right to look for a perfect world if she is not perfect herself. It's just a random idea :)
Personality! Backstory! Quirks! It usually helps to develop villains if you put just as much thought into their personality and backstory, and often there is where you will find the key to motivation for their actions. Could it be revenge? Love? Religion (although that probably doesn't fit in this case)?? Either have them think they are in the right, or push them past the point of caring whether they're on the "good" side. Sure, they can be evil for the sake of evil, or destroy for the sake of destruction, but there's still a lot to explore there. Are they a bit off in the head? What made them that way, or were they just born a bit messed up? Are they a sociopath? A psychopath??? If their motivation /is/ simply boredom how does destroying worlds diminish the boredom? What is the appeal? Question EVERYTHING!
I'd accept boredom as a motivation. With a god, I'd say them viewing universes similar to me viewing a game of Sims or something wouldn't be too outlandish.
As for limits, maybe she can't interact directly with the world she created? Can she control the weather? Can she control animals that only work on instinct? Can she control sentient people? Once you give her weaknesses, just make sure you stick to a rational-in-universe system to make sure her powers don't seem to have "convenient weaknesses".
The protagonist could be entertaining to the villain, and over time the villain comes to realize that they can't kill the protagonist because she sees a little version of herself in them, maybe from a time where she wasn't a God and was in the same situation of fighting for life/death.
Thank you everyone for the ideas! I believe I'll stick with the idea of boredom then. In a way that makes then more human. Maybe I can think of things like having a sims.
