Motive Decay: Difference between revisions

* Mandatory ''[[Doctor Who]]'' example: When they first appeared, the Cybermen, who at the time appeared roughly half-human, not mostly machine, had plausible motive for their villainy: they had become fixated with survival at all costs. By their fourth appearance the rails had begun to come off this idea and from then on, [[Depending on the Writer|they've have various different motivations ascribed to them]].

** There's also the Silurians, who in their first appearance were three-dimensional characters who had an equal claim as humans to live on Earth. Most of them wanted a peaceful solution to the issue, and it was just a few bad apples who led to it ending in tragedy. Their next appearance portrayed the entire race as genocidal maniacs. When a newly awakened subspecies of Silurians appeared in the new series some thirty years later, they shifted back to the original portrayal.

* ''[[Farscape]]'' has a positive example. Captain Crais's original motive for hunting down Crichton was to avenge the accidental death of his brother. This was something a simple discussion with Crichton could have cleared up, so the writers let them ''have'' that conversation, but in the context of a duel to the death that left Crais angry for a better reason: John won the fight and nearly killed him. Later, when Crais had more or less [[Heel Face Turn|Heel Face Turned]], he had ''another'' new motive for getting rid of Crichton: they were both in love with Aeryn.

** Well, that and to get revenge on Scorpius who stole his ship, publicly shamed him, stole his life mission, and forced him into being a fugitive of the Peacekeepers.