Tag: personality tests

What does Darth Vader want?

I like to play a game with the 16 desires. I take characters, both real and imagined, and guess the priority of what they want. If the 16 desires are the foundation of our personalities, then we should be able to recognize them in others. This game helps me understand others and recognize that my desires (curiosity and romance) are not universal. We may want the same things, but for different reasons.

Let’s start with Darth Vader.

What motivates the man in the mask?

I think power is the most important thing to Darth Vader. He mentions it several times.

“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force.”

He talks multiple times about the power of the dark side. In Empire he tells Luke, “if only you knew the power of the dark side.” Then, in Return of the Jedi, he refuses Luke’s offer to run away from the empire telling Luke, “You don’t know the power of the dark side, I must obey my master”

He even pushes Lando Calrissian around because he can. “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” Vader is in complete control of the situation in Cloud City, but he leads Lando on and manipulates him to betray. Vader is definitely not honorable.

My guess is that power is Darth Vader’s primary desire. He likes power for its own sake. He pushes people around because he can. But he also submits to the dark side and the emperor, who are more powerful than he is. Secretly, however, he is looking to add to his power and destroy the emperor with Luke’s help.

“Now I am the master!”

I think Vader’s next two desires are order and family, mostly from his interaction with Luke in Empire Strike’s Back.

“Luke, you do not realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.”

Vader dislikes the chaos of the civil war between the Empire and the Rebels. He thinks he should be in control, then they could organize things to be much better. Vader is an expert at concocting plans. Organizing and planning is something he likes to do, and is good at it. He recognizes immediately that Leia hid the Death Star plans on the escape pod and comes up with a plan in A New Hope to track the Falcon and find the Rebel base.

In Empire Strikes Back, Vader creates an elaborate plan to trap Luke Skywalker by capturing and torturing his friends. Vader knows their suffering through the Force will draw Luke out of hiding. He figures out how to package Luke to deliver him neatly to the emperor by freezing him in carbonite. He’s even sitting at a dinner table when he captures Luke’s friends in Cloud City.

As for family, this one might feel like a stretch because Vader does not seem nurturing. But once he realizes his son is alive, Vader wants Luke to join the family business. Later, when Vader discovers he has a daughter, he thinks she might join him instead. For being an absentee father, Vader wants a family, but it is at odds with his desires for power and order. Vader would like to fix that.

“Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.”

Vader cares deeply for Luke because Luke is his own flesh and blood. He is even more excited that Luke will become more powerful in the Force than he is. And in the end, Vader sacrifices his life to save his son.

So here is my guess for Darth Vader’s desires. He wants:

  • Power (Domination, Control, Authority)
  • Order (Organization, Plan, Clean)
  • Family (Nurturing, raising offspring)

I think the conflict between desires brings depth to our personality. Power is what Vader wants the most, and he has multiple plans to gain more power, but those plans are at odds with his desire for a family and to take care of his children. Luke senses that conflict within him, and in the end, Vader chooses his family.

Anakin wanted power and had it. He also wanted a family, but lost his children for most of his life. And he always had elaborate plans.

The weird 16 things you can want!

In trying to figure out what motivates characters, I did the mature thing and searched online typing, “What do people want?” and read articles. I found a few theories that I had heard of before; personality types, Maslow’s’ hierarchy of needs, and the big 5 (or big 10) traits used by psychologists. But then I found a theory I had never heard of before in Dr. Steve Reese’s book, Who Am I? The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities.

Dr. Reese asked tens of thousands of people what they wanted, and then used computers to analyze their answers and find patterns. His research sorted people’s desires into 16 distinct categories.

The 16 desires:

  • Honor (Integrity, Loyalty, Trust, Tradition)
  • Romance (Beauty, Art, Attraction)
  • Family (Nurturing, raising offspring)
  • Social Contact (Friendship, Companions, Group play)
  • Acceptance (Attention, Approval, Inclusion)
  • Social Status (Exclusivity, Connection, Reputation)
  • Power (Domination, Control, Authority)
  • Independence (Freedom, Self Reliance, Determination)
  • Tranquility (Preparation, Comfort, Calm)
  • Saving (Collecting, Preserving, Valuing)
  • Eating (Food, thinking about food and planning meals)
  • Physical Activity (Exercise, Active, Moving)
  • Vengeance (Compete, Retaliate, Defeat, come from behind)
  • Idealism (Belief, sacrifice, Justice, and making things right)
  • Curiosity (Explore, Analyze, Discuss)
  • Order (Organize, Plan, Clean)

The book has changed my view of the world, how I understand people, cultures, our progression through life, and more.

It frustrates me that Steven Reiss spends a portion of his book ‘watering down’ his theory because this lens of understanding humans is groundbreaking. By watering down the theory, I am talking about the tests he includes to see how you rank in all 16 desires. But, I’m afraid I have to disagree with the idea that because you want something, you will get it, which seems to be the basis for his evaluation.

I do not think our desires can be determined by taking an inventory of our belongings. There is no guarantee that someone who wants a family will have one or that someone who wants beauty will have it. I think our desires go much deeper than our possessions or relationships. I think our desires play into every decision we make.

I also think our personalities are not just a little different from person to person. We can want entirely different things or the same things for entirely different reasons.

The theory of the 16 desires is so strong I think it deserves a deep analysis.

In my estimation, I think most people, you included, probably have three fundamental desires that can describe almost all their motivations. But one of those desires reigns supreme, governing most of the things you do and almost everything you want. I think I only have two dominant desires, Curiosity, and Romance. I’d like to say I have another, but I can’t find a clear winner. That might make me a two-dimensional character, but I do not know what I could do about that. As far as I can tell, our desires seem locked to our personalties.

I will discuss this topic much more later, but I think this post will be a handy reference to get started on analyzing desires, whether for real people, fictional characters, age groups, or cultures.