Wanting to get some ponies' opinions, I want to ask you guys: How evil should evil be?

I'm writing a massive story epic that touches upon several genres (romance, war, humor, and etc.) and i'm still in the development of stories, characters, and universe at the moment. And at first, I wrote the villains (a non-pony race) as being stereotypically evil just because they're the opposing force of the 'Good Guys' (Equestria). But then, I decided to make the balance of good and evil, gray. Both Equestria and ________ (sorry, dont want to spoil it) have somewhat good values. Basically, I've made them all more humanistic. Mostly everything morally bad has a rational justification and the characters have reason to do it.

I was wondering in terms of storytelling and entertainment, is it better to make the enemies more three dimensional and also create a gray morality? Because in films, sometimes having an all-round evil character gives the audience reason to root for the good guys.

Any input is well appreciated

306039 I'm a woking on a very similar project. PM me let's chat there.

306110 I like the way 'evil' is revealed to be distorted by the 'good guys' as the series progresses but the way the story, at the moment, is written is that everything that is happening is in real time. Instead of a reveal or sudden realization that the OpFor isn't that bad, I prefer more of fluid way of showing that the non-pony race does what needs to be done (it's death or the alternative) which makes them look bad in the eyes of the ponies. Basically, as the story unfolds, events that take place show the growing 'evil' in the non-pony race according to the eyes of the ponies.

As for the ponies ('Good Guys'), I have some ideas to deface them. Ranging from making difficult decisions, benefitting one group over the other to using terror for control so the ponies will outlast their enemies.

But thank you, guys... now it's time for me to get back to writing more ideas (currently having 14,000 words in the development stage of ideas )

Any antagonist should be as asymmetrical from your protagonist as to make them a valid threat, but not so much that they become a parody of themselves.

My suggestion is that you attempt to understand their motivations first, and explore their cultural differences. As Tenchi said, most people don't view themselves as evil. Attempting to describe this opposing force first will tell you where they need to go in order to be effective characters.