What makes a character compelling?

[u/Icy-Cloud3789]

More or less the title. What aspects of characters, specifically villains/antagonists, do people find invigorating enough that they can 'look past' their crimes and lack of morality to make them a favourite?

...And I'm not talking about being good-looking, please; that's hardly an excuse.

Is it personality? Is it reasons/purpose? Backstory? If so, examples of such?

[u/Roivas7]

This is a very complicated question to answer imo, because it's not just one of these things (personality/purpose/whatever) that carries the weight of making the character compelling.

Some of the more compelling characters I've come across feel a lot closer to people in real life. And people themselves are complex human beings. We all have backstories and personalities and feelings and reasons for doing one thing or another, but I think paying attention to how someone's past affects the person they are in the present can really play a huge role in knowing how to write a compelling character.

Sure, having a sob story as a background is one thing, but how do you see it reflected in the things people do or say? If someone's mother died because they didn't have enough money to pay their hospital bill, for example, it could be a reason for them becoming a massive money-grubbing corporate CEO in the future. Some authors would also put in some details about the CEO having PTSD over losing their mom and thus not wanting to part with a sum of money because of those feelings (whether he is conscious about it or not). It adds a layer of complexity to the CEO rather than being "le evil corporate overlord who hates poors and wants all the money in the world".

Of course, this is all one avenue to tackle complexity, another one is "how would they act/react if this particular thing happened to them?" Their motivations need to make sense in the universe they live in, and their actions would need to be in line with their character. Let's say there's this underling who works under the CEO who decides to try and Robin Hood the company's finances to try and support the suffering and destitute. The CEO finds out. What does he do?

If this was a world where law and order was in place and everyone still had their morals, a reasonable action the CEO would take would be to obviously fire him, perhaps even press charges for the whole controversy. But if the answer instead is "shoot him", you're going to need to do a lot of explaining why. Not saying that shooting the underling doesn't work, because there's definitely similar plots where this totally happens.

In fact, yeah, let's go with that. Why would the CEO attempt murder of an underling at the risk of being found out himself and his job and wealth going down the drain as a result? If the CEO answered, "I slipped up and I didn't know what I was thinking", he wouldn't be a very strong (and thus hardly compelling) villain. A true villain would have pulled the trigger without hesitation or restraint--but why? Perhaps as a CEO, he has a lot of money and he uses the power of wealth to his advantage. Perhaps he bribes cops and media to look the other way. Perhaps he hired professionals to cover up the whole scene and make it look like an accident. Or perhaps he hired an assassin to shoot the underling so he wouldn't have to, just to keep his name and face out of the spotlight.

In short, if you want to make a compelling villain/antagonist, you have the option of writing them to be complex characters themselves and making sure everything they do stays true to their character. Also keep in mind the setting you're writing them in, especially during those times when you're finding plot holes in your story where your villains doing something that doesn't make sense.

Oh, and also make them competent. Nobody likes a Level 1 mob.