I know this topic has been covered repeatedly, but it always surprises me how many people quibble about whether he’s really evil-evil or anti-evil or say that it’s complicated.
Ainz’s motivations aren’t hard to understand. He’s a gamer. He played a MMO where he and his buddies killed NPCs and other players to improve their guild, level up, and collect items.
Thats fine of course, but the issue is that he took that mentality into a real world and is treating it like a game. That’s psychopathic behavior, regardless of how much he misses his friends or loves his subordinates and wants to meet their expectations.
Imagine a Stranger. This Stranger loves his family, so he’s taking his wife and kids on a trip to Disney World. On the way, the Stranger notices the car is low on gas, so stops at a gas station.
At the gas station, the Stranger realizes that his wallet is out of cash. “Hmm, this is a problem,” he muses. So he takes a hose out of his trunk and begins siphoning gas from another car.
A cop sees this and tries to intervene. “Don’t stop me, friend,” the Stranger says, “or I will be forced to do something drastic.” Naturally, the officer doesn't accept this and grabs him. So, the Stranger stabs the cop to death and drags his body behind a dumpster. It was the cop’s fault for interfering, of course
When he returns to the car, he smiles at his family. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone get in the way of our trip to Disney World.“
This person is a psychopath. There’s nothing to equivocate about this. Ainz is evil, people.