An interesting motive?

[Sandstone-Shadow]

So I'm working on the characters in my story and finding several possible motives for them, but I'm not sure which one would be the most interesting to read about. Enough of a preamble, here we go.

My main character wants to become the apprentice of her people's leader, meaning that she would be leader someday as well. I have two options for her. One, she wants to become leader's apprentice because that has always been her dream. Or two, she wants to become leader's apprentice because she doesn't trust anyone else to lead. I'm starting to lean toward option two, but here's my question regarding that: can she not care about her people and still trust only herself to lead? What I mean is, if she doesn't care about her people, then why should she care how they're led? Or am I thinking too much about that?

And then here is my second motive question; in ancient times, there was fighting between two races. Is a simple "fight for dominance of the land" motive interesting, or should I come up with something else?

 

[Charizard Morph]

Q1:
Why not both? She has a dream to lead and doesn't trust that anyone else can do it properly. It would make sense. As for caring about people, i'm not really sure. Most leaders who don't care about their subjects end up as Tyrants.

Q2:
It depends. If it's the side you're writing from that starts the war it could be interesting, but if they're attacked, don't bother unless you're sure you can pull it off withough it being cliche or mary sue (Read cry of the Icemark, then Lighthouse land. Icemark good, Lighthouse Land was okay, but it didn't really hold me. Both have wars over land, and are a good contrast. Both are written from the side of the victim though.)

 

[Minnow]

Well, it depends on on selfish/evil you want her to be. In one case, she could care only or mostly about herself and thus wish to rise to power in order to seize control of the people, using them for her own goals. Not trusting anyone else to lead could just mean that she's afraid if anyone else comes to power before her then it would ruin her chances, maybe there's a perfect opportunity now that she wants to take advantage of.

In a different case, she could simply not care for her people now, but wants to make it a better place, or at least into something she would care about. And she believes only she knows what needs to be done to fix it. (i.e. she doesn't have to care about the country or the people itself in order to want to change things, for better of worse.)

Either way, she'd end up being extremely arrogant, thinking that she is the only one in the world who can lead her country the right way. If I was writing it I'd probably end up with the first option I laid out because, well, I'm like that, but also because that would lend itself more to the arrogance, but that's just me.

I'd suggest going with the motive of always having wanted to be the leader, but flesh it out a bit more, so it's not just a "some girl with a dream to lead" thing. Otherwise I think she would end up seeming to proud, unless that's what you're going for.

As for the second question, I think it would be interesting if the motive, while still basically land dominance, was complicated. Perhaps by invaluable resources or some sort of impending threat or something like that. It makes the most sense, I guess, since, way back when, it was so dangerous and downright wasteful to war without good reason, which, back then, was primarily land and resources.

If you wanted to do it a different way, however, there are myriad ways a war can start, politics, discrimination, rebellion, defense and counterattack, terrorism, conquerlust, you get the idea.

 

[opaltiger]

Or two, she wants to become leader's apprentice because she doesn't trust anyone else to lead.

This sounds several times more interesting.

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Not trusting anyone else to lead could just mean that she's afraid if anyone else comes to power before her then it would ruin her chances, maybe there's a perfect opportunity now that she wants to take advantage of.

This pretty accurately sums up the situation, I think... so, perhaps it started as just a dream, and the more that she thought about it, the more that she realized that she has to lead because she doesn't trust anyone else to. So I think I'd focus on more of the latter, since that's more interesting. I can also do more with it; from her point of view, I can point out all the flaws in other characters because that's what she sees, and that's why they couldn't lead as well as her... hmm.

I'm also thinking that it's more so that she doesn't care about individual people; I think she cares about her people as a whole, but point to any individual and she doesn't really care. Maybe. I'm not quite sure yet. Maybe she doesn't care about them but wants to make them better so she can care about them or something. Hmm.

As for the war... well, I'm not really writing from either side's point of view; more likely what will happen is the attackers are going to tell the story to the main character, so it will be from their side, but their version won't be very biased... or, it's probably more interesting if it is. The attackers regret starting the war, however.

 

[OrangeAipom]

She can care for the people, but not trust anyone to lead. :/ The people may be good-intentioned, but they're stupid, so they're not going to lead well.

 

[Minnow]

It's still rather arrogant and cynical. What right would she have to say every citizen of her country is an idiot, and she's not?

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

She can care for the people, but not trust anyone to lead. :/ The people may be good-intentioned, but they're stupid, so they're not going to lead well.

I agree, but this wasn't my problem; she doesn't care about her people, but still only trusts herself to lead. I wasn't sure if it made sense that she wants to lead; if she doesn't care about her people, then why does she try so hard to make sure that they're led right?

It's still rather arrogant and cynical. What right would she have to say every citizen of her country is an idiot, and she's not?

Well, she is a bit arrogant and cynical. =P She really doesn't have that right, but that's how she feels. Thanks for your feedback, guys. =D