User blog comment:Sans2345/PE Proposal: SCP-173/@comment-2059440-20190902015729

again, is it sapient (human level or above intellect)? because there's no way that a non-sapient character can ever be Pure Evil.. in order to be "Pure Evil" a character has to understand ethics and willingly reject what the majority of their setting or culture states as "good" or even "decent" behavior.. without sapience a character is literally acting on the level of an animal or a child.. with no thought on ethics.

even highly intelligent animals don't count as they have no quite grasped abstract thought - which is necessary for doing "evil" (in this case doing evil can be seen as knowing what is right and deliberately doing the opposite).

same a legality - in order to be guilty of a crime someone has to be proven to understand that they were doing wrong in the first place or that they knew such crimes were a thing, if they are proven to lack the ability to know anything about right or wrong they can't face as severe a punishment as a criminal who is shown to know right from wrong.