How and Why does Evil Cannot Comprehend Good manifest in different sorts of villains?
Greedy villains may content themselves with bribing the hero. After all, justice and revenge aren't shiny and don't get a good exchange rate. Yet The Hero goes and turns down the Briefcase Full of Money or a share in the proceeds of a robbery. Indeed, villains solely motivated by greed, power or ambition can never find true happiness, and even if they become successful, they'll inevitably squander those gains for more power.
The Green-Eyed Monster and those Driven by Envy often think The Hero is equally preoccupied with whatever inspired their envy. Villains can be expected to think the person they envy is as jealous with them as the other way around, and even that they deliberately excel in order to rub the envious character's nose into it.
The Fundamentalist-type Knight Templar won't realize that other people differ about the relative values of what they support versus what they're willing to sacrifice for its sake, wrongly assume they're the "good guy" (when they're obviously not), and don't understand why Pay Evil unto Evil in the name of "law, order and justice" would be morally wrong. Most Knight Templars are convinced that Might Makes Right, and that since they are good they only kill the evil, so if you beat them but don't kill them, you are good too. Trying to reason with one isn't much good either, because many Knight Templar types believe that you're With Us or Against Us. After all, they are certain that only their cause is noble, and those in their way is at best a deluded fool who needs to be "purged" or at worst, an evildoer who needs to die.
When the Hero interrupts an Attempted Rape, the would-be rapist may propose an easy solution: join in! Cue heroic beatdown.
Those setting up a heroics scam in order to achieve the fame and glory they seek at all costs want a large reward for the "heroics" they did, but they never realize what it truly means to be a superhero. They only focus on the "super" part of a superhero, not realizing that it takes real qualities like morality, self-sacrifice, humility and Good Feels Good in order to become a true hero. True heroes always care about the people they are saving and, while they may be susceptible to thrill-seeking and the limelight, they don't let that override their sense of duty and empathy.
Innocent Bystanders and Mooks leave the villain even more certain. A Doomed Moral Victor's inspiration or a Heroic Bystander will flabbergast these villains, as will a Mook's Heel–Face Turn that is inspired by the hero's example, or a Mook who proves that Even Evil Has Standards. Indeed, he may help the Mook along by threatening their loved ones.
Never underestimate The Power of Love and The Power of Friendship. True friendship requires acts of kindness and thoughtfulness, which is selfless and understanding. Being self-centered makes it nearly impossible for a villain to understand or embrace the necessary demands of friendship and love, as they find such concepts to be laughable and/or as distractions. They tend to believe in self-preservation and individualism above all things, act in their own self-interest, believe competition makes them more successful, and assume heroes "enslave" people to an arbitrary system of rules and dogma. Pride is by nature competitive, pitting the arrogant villain against everyone — they simply can't understand The Power of Friendship, which is a form of love, placing it beyond the realm of their understanding. Plus, while the villain may be surrounded by countless lackeys and toadies whom he keeps them in line via threats or outright violence, the hero has True Companions, love interests and friends who are willing to help them even in dire situations and enable them to defeat the baddies.
The Social Darwinist of the Might Makes Right variety thinks Misery Builds Character and believes that competition, suffering and struggle make the individual, and possibly society as a whole, superior. They believe in Evil Virtues like cunning, ruthlessness, opportunism and the ability to endure and survive by any means necessary, and view the world as a harsh and cynical place in which Hobbes Was Right. However, they tend to undervalue things like love, kindness or pacifism. Their attitude drives away everyone, preventing them from making genuine friendships, and thus are truly Lonely at the Top because they always think cooperation makes one look weak. This belief in cutthroat dog-eat-dog-ism and hidden agendas also renders them incapable of understanding true love.
Utopia Justifies the Means fanatics and other such Well Intentioned Extremists will often kid themselves into denying the possibility of any ethos that isn't by-any-means-necessary both to salve their aching consciences when they cross the Moral Event Horizon and to chalk up any obvious good their ideological opponents do to mere Pragmatic Villainy.
The Nietzsche Wannabe aka Straw Nihilist always assumes it's a Crapsack World out there, and often uses No Good Deed Goes Unpunished and Being Good Sucks as Freudian Excuses on why they have a nihilistic outlook on life.
Those stuck in Chronic Villainy tend to relapse back to their evil ways and believe that joining the good side makes them soft and weak, hence why they choose being the ruthless villain, but this stops them from seeking redemption. They would be very happy to redeem themselves, but their anger or self-hatred means that they can never accept being good.
In moral situations, villains being rebuked for doing something wrong can make them worse than before. The hero showing displeasure for their wickedness can demonstrate how the villain cannot handle it, occasionally leading to a Villainous Breakdown.
The God of Evil, Satan, or other beings that are Made of Evil are normally shown as being incapable of understanding things like compassion or goodness. In this case, pure evil cannot understand something that their nature renders them unable to experience themselves. This is Older Than Feudalism: The Bible often depicts the Devil in this fashion, where he's unable to appeal to anything other than selfish desires when manipulating humans. This is often the reason a Deal with the Devil fails; the deal maker's inability to understand good leaves a loophole that someone who can is able to take advantage of, or simply offer something that doesn't truly matter to the target. Likewise, The Corrupter has a tendency for entering bargains with the intent of helping the other person in the short term, but screwing them over in the long term. However, they are more likely to go into a Villainous Breakdown if they are definitively rejected and/or if The Hero somehow manages to Take a Third Option. Also, their obsession with pointlessly backstabbing others they deal with means that over time, fewer and fewer people are willing to enter into deals with them, until they eventually run out of the souls they need to scam.
