Why does nobody talk about writing a villain who genuinely believes they're the hero?

I wrote a short story where the antagonist donates to charity and volunteers at shelters, but his main goal is to enforce a strict genetic purity law. I showed it to my writing group and half of them said he was too sympathetic while the other half said he was still obviously evil. It made me wonder if we're too scared to let villains have real human qualities or if there's a line you just can't cross. Has anyone else tried this approach and gotten mixed reactions from readers?

2 comments

2 Comments

josephf109d ago

My buddy wrote a villain who rescues cats... then his whole writing group hated him for it.

dixon.rose8d agoMost Upvoted

Maybe he just proved that even bad guys have better luck with strays than writers do with criticism.