one of the most interesting things about the human psyche is that our sympathy and hatred levels are tied to how personal or small something is

like

who did you find more 'evil': snape, or voldemort?

ones a genocidal, evil monster and...the others just a petty bully

most would chose snape. this shouldn't make sense- all this guy did (until hbp) was bully kids. voldemort killed countless people, but snape is still more infuriating. 

snape is a personal villain. we dont really relate with an evil wizard. but a cruel,  petty teacher is something we are all familiar with.

its not the scale of stuff when it comes to igniting emotions- its whether the audience can connect.

which is why asher is so hated in nfh- yeah, celeste and gaea were terrible, but asher was...human, normal. you could walk down the street and find a person like asher.

antagonists who are bullies, antagonists who are petty abusers, antagonists who are real people are instantly more effective as villains. your audience probably hasnt been targeted by an evil overlord wanting to take over the world, but theyve been the subject of ridicule by their peers.

wide scale villains are perfectly fine, but make sure you sprinkle in some minor antagonists we can really connect with

which brings up another point- what makes you feel worse: a villain who has said to have "killed hundreds of billions" or a watching a villain shoot a child point blank in the head?

shouldn't it be obvious? billions and billions vs one kid...but youre more likely to be more angry with the latter.

no matter how big the number is, sympathizing with nameless masses who aren't even fleshed out or shown dying isnt very sad. shocking, maybe, but theres no raw emotional feeling there.

but the child dying on screen is worse because that's a person, not a line or string of words. we instantly sympathize with a face or a personality, heck, even a name.

sometimes, you dont even need a face. just something tangible. take the film mulan, for example. couldnt really care less how many the huns killed, but once it cut to that little abadoned doll the girl was carrying we felt it. people died, real people we should care about. we didnt know who this girl was, but the film managed to make that nameless, faceless character someone we should feel bad for. we felt a connection.

so, if you want emotion, make it feel real. personalize it. let us connect