Quote Originally Posted by Lurina View Post
You're mistaking awkward writing for deliberate intent. The tone makes it obvious the writers did not want Venat to come across as a villain - Yoshi-P literally said "she's not a villain" in the liveletter Q&A.
It doesn't matter what they intended, it's what they did and what we got that matters. (Which is ironic because that's true for Venat herself too) The writers clearly wanted her to be a messiah figure, but they wrote her as a genocidal maniac who glorifies suffering for the sake of it. I believe you when you say that the writers aren't on the same page as their writing, they wrote this evil character and portrayed her a tragic hero and expected people to buy it. Thus she is indeed a villain in all but name, and a lot of people bought the lie, hook line and sinker.