User blog comment:BeholderofStuff/A CATEGORY REQUEST/@comment-1705775-20151121144027/@comment-27818776-20151121213000

Again, most of that revolves around people interpreting the antagonists in different ways. More of ten than not those "Pet the Dog" moments were proven to be either pragmatic or just apart of their ulterior motives. Like I mentioned before, it all depends on the heinous standard of the work. A CM is, by definition, a step above typical villainy; really, you can say that they exist on a whole other level.

Most of the antagonists that you mentioned either weren't as heinous as the other antagonists in their works, or they had levels of tragedy to them that prevented them from being COMPLETE monsters. Honestly, I don't know that much regarding the trope, Dreadnine's really the expert on it.