Board Thread:Clean up Concerns/@comment-3364901-20171227174943

I believe that while it is important to merge many categories we should also remember that villainy has scales, there are some acts that stand out even in a world of bad guys and wicked witches - acts that standard villains shy from and may even fight or outcast other villains over.

Child Murder and Child Abuse are among the most common of these, while modern villains are more willing to harm children (and before them many fairy tale villains were relentless child abusers) it is still an exceptionally wicked crime and worthy of its own category.

a villain who murderers anyone is dangerous, a villain who abuses anyone is cruel but a villain who takes the life (often violently and willingly) of a young child is extremely wicked - there's no going back once a character takes the diabolical act of ending a young life, even if they fail at killing a child they are often hated and hounded by others, even other villains.

in fact you can argue that child murder is one of very few UNIVERSAL acts of evil, going beyond culture and time period - even in the most barbaric, backward societies or settings a child murderer is a special kind of wicked and often hunted down, after all if you let child murderers run free you run the risk of species extinction : it goes against nature to kill and torture the young, since they are the future of any society.

child abuse is tricker because so many stories have the classic "wicked stepmother" or "evil aunts / uncles" and while they make life miserable for young and vulnerable people they aren't quite on the same level of depravity as child killers : I still think it is worth separating as an abuser of children is much more hated than other kind of abusers (though all abusers are by definition nasty characters). 