Villain, or anti-hero?

The person i'm asking about is the leader of a crime organization(also a former Axis soldier) who is not reluctant to use extortion, protection rackets, human trafficking and such against civilians. He is also hired for executions weekly because he feels absolutely no remorse in killing criminals for the most part (nor does he experience things like PTSD and such as a result) and uses torture as punishment often. Also starts a large-scale war manually (think World War III or something like that) and wears black armor with Spikes of Villainy.

However, his opponents are worse. (though the opponents wouldn't cause as much physical damage to society/the world themselves)

Without a sense of justice, he simply removes or tortures those he considers evil  ^*

yet at the same time keeps people who he considers good/decent enough in some sort of mega-charity as compensation for the damages he causes.

Even then, he loves his spouse and his child far more than what realistically happens for the most part, and lets that spouse and child pretty much do whatever they want instead of locking them to keep them "safe" (not like he would need to anyway, though. Considering how he gave his child a handgun to protect himself, and his spouse has this magical barrier whatever that can leave her unharmed from a direct hit of a nuclear weapon.) but at the same time he's kind of a Knight Templar Parent (gun earlier, though that's kind of justified when you're living in a world like that, and how he tears little kids that sexually harass his child apart with a serrated sword.)

And he's the protagonist. Nice Is Not Good also applies.

edited 18th Oct '10 12:46:59 PM by Edmania

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

He's certainly in the grey area. My guess is he's the type who'd spark debates among readers about whether or not his actions are justified.

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.

Certainly, they are justified.

However, this does not mean they are excused.

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

I'm gonna vote VillainProtagonist on this one. Even being fairly forgiving, I don't think he'd go any higher than Type V on the anti-hero scale.

Not to worry, though, villain protagonists can still be very compelling. See: TheShield, BreakingBad, TheGodfather, and BoardwalkEmpire.

edited 18th Oct '10 8:32:14 PM by TheBadinator

^ You mean any lower?

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

Well, yeah, you get what I mean. I guess I mean "higher than" as "any more heroic than".