Motivations are the reasons characters do anything. It brings them to action and directs their choices. These are not what characters do, such as Saving the World or Take Over the World, but why they do it, such as For Great Justice or For the Evulz. See the Goals and Objectives Index for what characters are trying to accomplish.
Tropes of motivation
Categories:
- Aimlessly Seeking Happiness: Characters want to be happy, but don't know how.
- All-Loving Hero: A character is driven by unconditional love for all.
- Ambition Is Evil: Obsession with self-improvement corrupts.
- Ambitious, but Lazy: Character wants to achieve success without hard work.
- Attention Whore: A character wants to be the center of attention.
- Because Destiny Says So: Characters want to fulfill a prophecy.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: One character is loyal to another due to a single kind act.
- Beta Test Baddie: A character is driven by an inferiority complex.
- Bucket List: A character who is dying makes a list of things to do before their time is up.
- Career-Building Blunder: When an early mistake provides a character's motivation.
- Challenge Seeker: A character who seeks to challenge themselves.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Character is compelled to help everyone, all the time.
- Community-Threatening Construction: When a planned construction site motivates residents to defend their home, which is subject for demolition.
- Concepts Are Cheap: Characters have vague one-word motivations that could really mean anything.
- Control Freak: Someone who wants to have control over themselves, other people and their environment.
- The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: A character who uses evil means to accomplish a good goal loses sight of the goal over time.
- Darwinist Desire: A character wants to reproduce with the fittest mate possible.
- Debt Detester: Character repays debts as soon as possible so as to not owe others.
- Declaration of Protection: A person has their entire motivation built around protecting a vulnerable person (usually a girl).
- Deliberate Under-Performance: A character wants to be average-or-lower in something.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: A character on a journey to find a meaningful place in the world.
- Desperately Craves Affection: A character desperate to be loved, and who may go to some extreme lengths to gain it.
- Desperately Needs Orders: A character who completely lacks any kind of initiative and wants someone else to tell them what to do.
- Despotism Justifies the Means: Bad guys who want only power and will do anything to achieve it, not caring about the state things'll be in.
- Determined Doctor: A healer wants to cure their patient, no matter what.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Disappointment in another character's motivation.
- Dismotivation: Characters try hard to achieve nothing.
- Driven by Envy: A character wants something someone else has and resents them for it.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: Bad guys whose goal is to create a nightmarish Crapsack World.
- Embodiment of Vice: A character is driven by a negative quality assigned to them as a defining trait.
- Embodiment of Virtue: A character is driven by the desire to achieve perfection in a certain moral virtue.
- Enemies Equals Greatness: Opposition or mistreatment from others is what gets a character highly motivated to do great things.
- Everyone's Baby Sister: Threats on a character that everyone cares about gets characters to act against the threat.
- Evil Malthusian: A villain who wants to prevent overpopulation by any means necessary.
- Evil Reactionary: A villain whose goal is to remodel the world based on their old-fashioned beliefs and/or interests.
- Failure Knight: A character failed to protect someone once and is determined not to fail again.
- Family Honor: A character wants to live up to their family name and bring credit to their family.
- Fighting for a Homeland: A character or group is motivated to fight by their desire for a new homeland.
- Food as Bribe: Some people will do anything for food.
- For Great Justice: Good guys fight so that Justice Will Prevail.
- For Happiness: A character wants to spread joy and cheer.
- For Science!: A character wants to make scientific discoveries, even if they have no real practical purposes.
- For the Evulz: Bad guys do evil because they love evil.
- For the Funnyz: A character makes a joke, usually against their own self-interest, because they love jokes.
- The Four Loves: A character searches for love, in any form.
- Freudian Excuse: Something in a villain's past causes them to act the way they do, such as parental abuse.
- Freudian Excuse Denial: Nothing in a character's past is the reason/motivation for any of the questionable actions a character commits in the present.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Terrible childhood or not, it still doesn't justify their crimes.
- Getting Sick Deliberately: A character wants to get themselves sick, for one reason or another.
- Glory Hound: A character who wants to be remembered and will commit atrocities in order to achieve that.
- Glory Seeker: A character wants other people to consider them to be a badass.
- Goal in Life: A character's main motivation through life.
- Gotta Catch Them All: A character wants to pursue a collection.
- Greed: Insatiable desire for material possessions and wealth.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Someone's desire for what other people have driven them to evil.
- Healthcare Motivation: A character desperately needs money to pay for medical treatment.
- The Hedonist: A character wants to be amused and experience various kinds of pleasure, often at the expense of others.
- Heroism Motive Speech: Hero explains why they became a hero.
- Hidden Agenda Hero: Undeniably a hero, but the motivation for why they do it is unsure.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: They have a motive, but we're not sure what it is.
- Home Sweet Home: A character is just trying to settle things so they can stay home.
- Honor Before Reason: A character only wants to do the right thing above all else.
- Hope Crusher: A character who wants to make other people fall into despair and crush their hopes.
- Humble Goal: A character wants to do or have something that happens to be simple.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: A character wants to be strong.
- I Just Want to Be Beautiful: A character wants to remain or become beautiful.
- I Just Want to Be Free: A character wants freedom from some sort of bondage.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: A character wants to feel loved.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: A character living an abnormal life wants to live a life without excitement.
- I Just Want to Be Special: A character living a mundane life wants to be more exciting.
- I Just Want to Be You: A character wants to literally be the person they envy.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: A character or a person who wants friends.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Someone wants to raise their self-esteem by adopting an egotistical attitude.
- In Harm's Way: Characters want excitement and danger in their lives.
- Inspirational Insult: A character gets inspiration from the insults hurled at them.
- I Owe You My Life: A character feels indebted to someone who saved their life.
- It Amused Me: A character who acts purely for their own entertainment.
- It Is Beyond Saving: A character or group of characters wants a society destroyed and/or abandoned under the impression that it is beyond saving.
- It's Personal: A character does something for a personal reason.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A character wants the person they love to be happy, even at the risk of their own happiness.
- "I Want" Song: Exposition of a character's motivation in the form of a song at the beginning of the story.
- I Want to Be a Real Man: A character wants to be masculine or prove his masculinity.
- I Will Find You: A character wants to find a lost or kidnapped loved one, whatever the cost.
- Just Here for the Free Snacks
- Lazy Bum: Characters with an extreme lack of motivation.
- Legacy Seeker: A character is obsessed with leaving a lasting mark on the world.
- Life-Affirming Aesop: An Aesop about accepting life especially the hard parts of it.
- Living Out a Childhood Dream: What you could only dream of as a child becomes possible when you're an adult.
- Loves Only Gold: A character is obsessed with a particular form of wealth and will do anything to obtain it.
- Lust: Insatiable desire for something that doesn't properly have material existence, typically sexual pleasure or something more abstract (power, respect, knowledge, etc.).
- MacGuffin: It doesn't matter what it does, but all the characters want it.
- Mission Creep: You signed up for a mission which requires you to do a lot of grinding, sidetracking, and unrelated tasks to achieve it, risking compromise and failure.
- Moral Pragmatist: You can turn a villain into a hero, if you can convince them that their methods hurt their motivation.
- Motivated by Fear: Fear is a powerful motivator.
- Motivation on a Stick
- Motivational Kiss: A character (usually male) becomes more confident and self-determined after receiving a kiss from a Love Interest.
- Motivational Lie: A character is motivated into doing something they were initially reluctant to do after being lied to about it.
- Motive Decay: A character has a great motivation but forgets it eventually.
- Motive Rant: A villain gives a monologue about their motives.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: A character do what needs to be done for the benefit of their country.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: A character do what needs to be done for the benefit of their master.
- Nature Lover: A character is driven by an affinity for the natural world.
- Never Be Hurt Again: A character seeks to ensure that no one will ever hurt or take advantage of them again, usually by becoming a badass.
- New Year's Resolution: A character tries to use the promise of a New Year to create motivation.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: A character is involved in an admirable pursuit for un-heroic reasons. Not necessarily evil, just not heroic.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Their goals (or what they tell themselves and others about the goals) sound high-minded, but the actual motive isn't very noble at all.
- Omnicidal Maniac: A villain who maliciously wants to destroy their setting's world and kill all who live in it.
- Only Cares About Inheritance: A character wants to get their hands on a deceased person's inheritance.
- Only in It for the Money: A character works for a particular side just because doing so will be profitable.
- Oppose What You Suffered: A character is motivated to fight against something that caused them to suffer in their past.
- Peer-Pressured Bully: A character is motivated to bully someone due to societal pressure.
- Pep-Talk Song: A song meant to increase the characters' confidence.
- Physical Therapy Plot: A character becomes disable after severe injuries and begins taking physical therapy to become mobile again. Frequently featuring characters pulling through via their mental willpower and dedication to keep going.
- The Power of Apathy: The character's lack of motivation saves the day.
- The Power of Friendship: A character is motivated by their friends.
- The Power of Hate: A character desires what's worst for others.
- The Power of Love: A character desires good.
- Pride: Characters value themselves and want to feel as if they're worth something.
- Prized Possession Giveaway: A character gives something they hold dearly to another person as a gift, wishing that person to accept it.
- Pursue the Dream Job: A character desires a specific job and follows their heart.
- Rage Against the Heavens: A character wants the gods to pay for what they've done.
- Revenge: A character wants another character to pay for what they've done.
- Restart the World: A character wants to destroy the world and start over.
- Rich Boredom: A character wants to need to do something.
- Sadist: A character wants to make others suffer for their own pure enjoyment.
- Samaritan Syndrome: A character feels guilt over the people they could save, but don't.
- Screw Destiny: Characters want to go against a prophecy and prove it wrong.
- Seeks Another's Resurrection: One character seeks to resurrect another character who has died.
- Seven Deadly Sins: A classic categorization of vices into seven basic motivations.
- Seven Heavenly Virtues: A classic categorization of virtues into seven basic motivations.
- Signed Up for the Dental: The job sucks, but the benefits are worth it.
- Survivor Guilt: A character doesn't want anyone else to die in their stead.
- There's No Place Like Home: A character wants to go home again.
- They Called Me Mad!: A character is motivated by the mockery they've received in the past.
- Thrill Seeker: A character is motivated by their search for excitement.
- To Create a Playground for Evil: A character wants to make the world an eviller place.
- Totalitarian Utilitarian: A villain who wants to make everyone's lives better.
- Tragic Dream: The character is motivated by the desire for something they can never have.
- Trapped in Villainy: A villain only performs villainous acts because, if they don’t, they'll die.
- Troll: Characters who amuse themselves by provoking others.
- Undying Loyalty: A character is motivated by desire to help someone or something they care about.
- Unstoppable Rage: A character becomes furious enough to unleash everything they have on an opponent.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Characters, usually bad guys, who wish to create a better world but will go to extreme lengths to achieve it.
- Villainous Glutton: A self-indulgent villain with an insatiable appetite.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Someone who yearns for their parent or role model's approval, regardless of whether they're likely to give it.
- "Well Done, Dad!" Guy: Parents or role models who longs for the approval of their children/followers.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: A character has noble goals but goes about achieving them ruthlessly.
- Working for a Body Upgrade: Characters want their boss to repair or improve their physique/looks/abilities.
