Why do you want power?

If you reduce power to it's most basic form, it's getting other people to do what you want them to. Whether it's because you're a king, rich, charismatic, popular, or dangerous the result is the same. I believe it's natural for most people to want others to do and say what they want.

Now go get me a soda.

One of my space-opera villains wants power because it will help him protect the human race from extinction. In his world, he's not actually wrong - he just goes about it in horrible ways. Of course, he does other terrible things: destroys inoffensive colonies, plays mind-games with slaves, cheats on his taxes, is an awful father...

Another villain's end goal is forcing a rematch of wits and physical skill against the brother who beat the stuffing out of him long ago. The brother was not wrong and the villain is dangerously psycho.

In the political intrigue fantasy I'm working on now, a bunch of aristocrats and merchants are rebelling against an immortal ruler who constrains their development of and access to technology.

The desire for power is something I actively try to avoid in my WIP. It can be done well, but most of the time, I feel like it's just shorthand to create an easy hero/villain.

My antagonists (not really villains) genuinely want to make the world a better place. The current ruler wasn't born into the royal family - he married the princess, who is dead at the time of narration - and the Gods who appointed him, the only reason for his power, have cut themselves off from humanity. The antagonists see this as a cue to change the system. They want to get rid of the theocracy and re-establish the royal line by putting the princess's bastard daughter on the throne. What makes them antagonists is their means for achieving it, namely, a bloody revolution that will cause thousands (including the king) to die.

As for the protagonists - the king wants power, but not for the sake of it. He needs it to keep his country together. The other two MCs don't want power at all. One of them just wants to reunite with her family, and the other wants to put an end to the uprising before his often-persecuted tribe is used as a scapegoat.

I tend to think that the need for power is hard-wired into us. It's an evolutionary thing. The most powerful alpha male lion gets the most nookie, which in turn means that his genes predominate.

From that we get our urges to be competitive and to be better than our neighbours. For some people, this manifests itself in a desire for a bigger house, a better car or a $8,000 Apple Watch (which is functionally identical to every other Apple Watch).

For other people, this alpha-maleness pushes them to want to exercise power on the sports field, in politics, world domination, the galaxy, the whole of time...

Mind you, the bit that has always puzzled me is why the villain nearly always feels the need to marry the hero's girlfriend. There was Ming the Merciless and Dale Arden, the Sherriff of Nottingham and Maid Marian and ... um ... William Wallace (sort of), Krull, the Princess Bride ...

There are many motives for people to want to gain power; it partly depends on the type of power to be gained. For example, I would sacrifice virgins to the Eldest Gods so that I could gain powers equal to the later Gods; wealth and political power are merely side effects of gaining real power.

There are other kinds of power, and which type one wants depends on background, etc. For example, the fellow who works in the post office just wants revenge, but he doesn't want to "go postal".

What kind of power do you want?

Once! said:

I tend to think that the need for power is hard-wired into us. It's an evolutionary thing. The most powerful alpha male lion gets the most nookie, which in turn means that his genes predominate.

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I just came to say "for the groupies" but I was beaten to it

You know what, the Villain in my series already has power. I mean they call him the personification of Destiny, for crying out loud - he has the power to do whatever the hell he wants, when he wants it, the way he wants it done. And given a human's predisposition to blindly believe in Predestination, he's got 80 - 90+ percent of the world by the balls already.

No, I wouldn't say my villain is after power. It's more like he's after recognition.

It's kind of a parallel to the situation between Satan and God. Like if you've ever taken a look at 1John 5:19, the bible says that Satan has power - in fact, the whole damn world is under his power/control. So in like manner, Satan himself isn't a power-hungry bastard, but someone who's aching for the recognition that belongs to God - he wants to be worshiped.

And Mokallai, the villain in my WIP, is no different.




Now if anyone wants to continue in a religious debate of Satan's motives or whatever else, just know that I'm not planning on responding to anyone's statements what-so-ever. I just wanted to draw the parallel, that's all.

With my main bad guy, it boils down to pretty simple: He wants to live forever.

Religion0 said:

Problem is, that from what we know of "natural" human social structure (which, admittedly, could all be false) that isn't how our society functions. Don't get me wrong, alpha people are more attractive to the opposite gender (especially male to female), but human nature wants most people to reproduce, not just the best. Sort of the insect approach to dominating the world. Anyway, we're some sort of monogamous (serial? Bi- or polygamous? Really bad at picking-and-sticking in general?) and we live several families together, so most everyone gets to get laid.

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No monogamy is a social construct (and not in all societies). So is several families living together (and that only in some societies) (and what is "natural" human social structure? The one I live in, or the utterly different one half a world away? The one I agree with, or the other one?)


It's not a given. Nothing is a given when people are involved. Even in those societies that say they are all for it. I live in a society that says monogamy is Da Bomb. Still almost half of people in a "monogamous" relationship...aren't monogamous. So "groupies" is still a valid, believable goal. Especially for someone not getting any any other way

The three big motivators are usually:

Sex - wanting it

Death - avoiding it

Power/money (possibly to help with the other two. Or for any number of other reasons. To show your parents that hey, see, I totally can be a success! is just as "good" or at least believable reason)

The main reason the bad guy in my novel wants power is because he wants the other guy to have no power. It's a very childish toy-grabbing type of thing.

I've been powerless at certain points in my life. Because of that, I've had people steal from me, lie to me and humiliate me.

If power is one way to prevent that from ever happening again, I'll take power.

My current WIP revolves around the pursuit of power, but the reasoning is very simple: those who have power keep victimizing those without. The only way to stop being a victim is to accumulate power greater than that of the abuser. Of course, the moment a character succeeds in their goal and turns the tables, they're faced with the temptation of revenge. Many of them give into that temptation, thus perpetuating the cycle as they create new victims who will then pursue power and, if they find it, take revenge of their own.

Because of the cycle, there's little difference in motivation between the protagonists and antagonists. In fact, the whole story could be flipped around and told from the "villains" perspectives, and then they would be the "heroes".

I don't believe in imposing messages or morality on my stories, so I'm just letting them all go at each other. Some people probably won't like the fact there are no "white hat" heroes to cheer for, but it's wickedly fun to write.

Marian Perera said:

I've been powerless at certain points in my life. Because of that, I've had people steal from me, lie to me and humiliate me.

If power is one way to prevent that from ever happening again, I'll take power.

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I was going to comment on something tangentially related to this. So often, a (believable, non-moustache-twirling-gratuitously-ebil) person wants power out of fear. They want to remove a possibility that causes them anxiety. In Marian's case (although I'm not claiming she's a villain! She's just demonstrating a very human reaction), she's been taken advantage of and would like to make it so that never happens again. I think a lot of villain power grabs in books come down to the villain trying to make sure something that causes him/her anxiety can't happen.

Another quite-human reason for a power grab comes from people who are immensely frustrated at how the world doesn't generally agree with them, yet they can't argue the world into changing its mind. They simply can't handle being a minority opinion, so it starts to seem easier to them to force people to change their minds by taking away those people's autonomy.

You can see this latter sort of behaviour in an office setting where there happens to be an reflexive micro-manager, or in some religious environments where there's a zealot (although some of the more aggressive atheists behave the same; religiosity is not the problem, insecurity is), or even in company discussions about what computer solution to use for a coding problem. When you've got one person who is sure they're right, but can't convince enough other people they are, sometimes they choose to get ugly and controlling with their behaviour.

Why seek power?

1. You have an idea about how to make the world a better place and you need power to implement it. This is very nasty to people who don't share your vision.

2. You're afraid that you'll be hurt by those with more power than you, so you try to be the most powerful. Maybe this is based on experience, or simply on good old fashioned paranoia.

3. You're powerful to begin with, and pursuing more power becomes a sort of game, even an addiction.

4. You want to be rich, or have friends and supporters who do, and political power is a great way to do this.

5. Voices in your head, whether they're delusional or really are a god/powerful being, are speaking to you, telling you that you're some kind of chosen one.

6. Anger/resentment over wrongs done to you, your nation, or your people in the past. You want to reclaim that occupied homeland or free your people.

7. Fear of something you can't control, but you believe the pursuit of power will give you control (this was Voldemort's reason)

8. You're immortal, or already ultra powerful in a way that's made you lose contact with basic empathy or perspective (if you ever had these things). Mortals with their petty little mayfly lives are just pieces on a game board, or at best amusing pets. Perhaps you're consumed with some long-standing feud or rivalry with your immortal brethren. So mortals are something to be controlled and used for your edification or amusement.

In general, people follow strength, in any form. It draws others to them, and as LOTLOF said, it allows them to get others to do what they want. They can instill their philosophy, and ideals. Power gives them instant respect.

Power, in its simplest form, is the ability to defeat the environment (people and things) when it tries to kill you. So, power is the ability to live when others don't want you to.

Religion0 said:

So why do you, your villain, your hero, your random guy who runs the post office, that magician sitting on the top of a mountain staring into a campfire, your nemesis, your childhood friend, or the tightly wound cupcake want power?

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I have to say, I've wondered about this myself. The mentality and the drive of people who seek power (especially absolute power) is a mystery to me. I suppose they want to "change the world" in some way. Mussolini, Lenin, Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Khomeni - all of them saw some fundamental "flaw" in the world that could only be rectified by them seizing the reins of power. Maybe that's the answer.

And there's this:



“Authority has always attracted the worst elements in the human race. All throughout history mankind has been bullied by scum.” - P. J. O’Rourke, “Parliament of Whores” (1992) (p233)

Marian Perera said:

I've been powerless at certain points in my life. Because of that, I've had people steal from me, lie to me and humiliate me.

If power is one way to prevent that from ever happening again, I'll take power.

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Well, yeah, there is that. I feel a certain affinity for that point of view myself.

If you have enough power, you can use it to ignore rules and laws pressed upon you by others. So, power can also be a means to freedom from any real or imagined shackles that keeps one bound to society.

Now that is spookily relevant! I have written a book about this exact subject, and I'm currently giving it away for free on Kindle. We are roughly half way through the free five days, which ends on Monday 8 June.

So if you would like to know my take on absolute power, why not take a free copy of "Global Domination for Beginners"? It's the James Bond story told from the point of view of the bad guy. Why would someone want to take over the world? How would they do it? And having got all that power, could they hold on to it?

Shameless plug, I know, for which many apologies.

I think it helps if you get some insight on what the character would do if they did gain power...stories where power is treated as a goal in itself are a bit awkward for me.

egearbox said:

I suppose they want to "change the world" in some way. Mussolini, Lenin, Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Khomeni - all of them saw some fundamental "flaw" in the world that could only be rectified by them seizing the reins of power. Maybe that's the answer.

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This, for example.

ShaunHorton said:

If you have enough power, you can use it to ignore rules and laws pressed upon you by others. So, power can also be a means to freedom from any real or imagined shackles that keeps one bound to society.

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Power is the ability to prevent others from exerting power over you.

The more power one has, the more one is free.

The more power others have, the less one is free.

Thus, to be free in this world, you must wrest as much power as possible away from others, before they wrest the power to do so from you.

Not my reasoning, of course. But the sort of reasoning I imagine any self-respecting megalomaniac would have.