This is me being a picky reader but…

Idk, but I think the white-haired dude might be doing all that he's doing to overthrow Orlov and steal all the power. I suppose because he might feel overshadowed or just craves more power. He's main motivation is likely jealousy. Just my opinion though. It is a classic trope too. A villain being a villain because of jealousy. ╮(￣▽￣)╭

Oh, I don’t doubt it’s because of jealousy. What I don’t understand is how jealousy can drive someone to not only commit murder, but risk all the power they currently have when they are the second most powerful family amongst all of the aristocracy. It’s like- the motivation isn’t strong enough to justify the behavior.

If someone has an ice cream and I want to eat it, I’m not going to murder them to get it… However, (hypothetically) if I was starving in a Third World country, and that ice cream was a difference between me, living and dying, I might consider it. I wouldn’t do it if the person eating it was a mom with kids. But if they were a rapist or somebody who kidnapped children to use in armies, I wouldn’t even hesitate I just kill them and eat their ice cream.

It makes more sense for his motivation to be jealousy if he’s the second-most powerful, imo. Always feeling inferior, never being the best… depending on their personality and upbringing, those can be very impactful factors for some people. There’s a reason why it’s a widespread trope ╮(￣▽￣)╭

And with that, you’ve prooven my point exactly. Does the author delve into the villain’s mindset, where he always feels inferior? No. Does the author give us the backstory of the villain, where we come to sympathize or at least understand his motivations? No. Are we having to infer that the cause of his jealousy “could be” what you said, because the cause is never provided to us? YES. And that’s the problem. Hence we have a classic Disney-ish villian.