Talk:Gazef Stronoff/@comment-36873764-20180910083406/@comment-5728015-20180920212924

If you think Ainz is 100% irredeemably evil, you really haven't seen much evil in your life; if he were a D&D character, he would likely qualify as 'Lawful Good', though admittedly much closer to 'True Neutral' than the classic Paladin. This is mainly due to his somewhat erratic nature - the standard true neutral character is all about balance, between good and evil, law and chaos, essentially an all-around "gray" character that mostly sticks to behavior outside of the extremes of either scale: Ainz, on the other hand, generally does the opposite, with all of his actions in the extreme ends of the scales, so that the net total for both ends up near zero, but he is still more lawful than chaotic (Believes in order, takes his promises and vows extremely seriously), and more good than evil (Dislikes the unnecessary suffering of the innocent, is generally averse to cruelty, hates racial discrimination, prefers victory with minimum casualties so long as the surviving enemy forces are unlikely to cause further problems).

Ultimately, he's an extreme pragmatist, with a slight hint of morality - he believes in massive short-term sacrifices if they result in even greater long-term gain, is willing to kill good, just leaders if their weak rule results in a corrupt, unstable government teetering in the brick of collapse, and is willing to wipe out entire countries if he sees doing so as a necessary foundation for his future reorganization of the world under his rule - but under his rule, people will likely lead better, happier lives, with little to no poverty, hunger, inequality, discrimination, crime, violence or corruption.

He may not care about the lives of individual citizens, but he cares about having a functional, efficient society, and he cares about the promises he has made, and the laws he created, which simply happen to also lead to a better life for the majority of the people.

He was willing to let the crown-prince slaughter the people of Carne Village, because their existence provided zero benefit to him or his goals - in a nation run by him, everyone, regardless of status, race or wealth, will be given the chance to reach their true potential; not because he is generous or kind, but because doing so creates the greatest benefit for him. And, as productive citizens of his kingdom, they have real value to him, and he will care for them and protect them, because not caring for them would be a waste, and letting someone harm them would be akin to letting someone steal from him. Happy citizens are more productive, and more loyal.

If he ends up successfully conquering the world, he will likely end up being a model 'benevolent dictator', something that can't exist in our reality due to no human being all-powerful and incorruptible. But in the Overlord universe, Ainz has no true threats that could harm him, has no natural limit to his lifespan, no one capable of offering him anything to corrupt him, followers who will never betray him, and an army of undead enforcers lacking any free will to be corrupted. As such, the world under his rule would likely end up as a kind of Utopia, with peace, prosperity and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens who follow the rules, and brutal, horrific death for anyone who would dare do anything to disturb that peace.

The path to get there might not exactly be pretty, strewn with corpses and painted with blood as it is likely to be, but it still seems a whole lot better than what that world has been like up to now, filled with endless, pointless warfare, the rich and mighty trampling the poor and weak, different races murdering each other because they look different, crime, corruption and violence running rampant, and no end in sight.

So, I don't exactly think Ainz is particularly evil - he does some evil things, and may be a bit overly apathetic concerning the lives of those that don't follow him, but overall, his actions mostly serve to benefit the world in the long-term, even if they are somewhat unpalatable in the short-term.

Demiurgus, on the other hand, is definitely far more evil than necessary, even if the goal of all his actions *is* to be as evil as possible, so that Ainz can eventually "defeat" him and be recognized as the world's savior. I feel like he's somewhat taking advantage of the plan to be as evil as he wants, doing things he knows Ainz wouldn't necessarily approve of, even if he is doing so because he believes then to be in Ainz's best interest.