Our Ambitions Remain A Wisp in a Willow

It’s a widely known point of contention whether what Othello had for Desdemona was love or infatuation, but one character whose affections remain mysterious is Iago, the catalyst of the wife-killing party that was Act V of Othello. What did he want, we will never know; in fact one could argue that was what made him so appealing. 

You manipulative cunning b- Oh wait, wrong Iago

Mysterious motivations in villains are what keep us so hooked to them in the first place. I mean, ideally, a story should be unpredictable, so that the climax has value when you are unaware of whether the hero will win or lose, or even who the hero and who the villain is and what they’re fighting for. 

Loki’s a good example of this; you never know who’s side he’s on.

What the authors who’ve commandeered such amazing and complex villains do is actually write less. 

Now don’t take this to mean that writers put less effort into their villains by keeping their motivations obscure, or by making them not struggle. In fact, these stalwarts tend to show their motivations in their struggles. 

Such villains like Loki, Iago, and Ramaraju(in the beginning) all faced heavy struggles, with their lives always being on the line. Never once where they weren’t challenged. Whenever Iago made sufficient progress in his endeavor to ruin Othello, we were always reminded of his debt to Roderigo, with Iago always being held up against a knife or some sort of lethal object. Same with the aforementioned villains, as we grew to admire them for their tenacity, and ultimately bonded with their character while hating every essence of their evil methods. 

Another good reference would be Anton Chigurh, one of the mysterious villains ever produced in a story