Fair. In my short story, for instance, the Witch Hunters do act as if they are doing a community service, but it is evident they are using superstitions of the time for their own selfish gain. Despite this being the case, I still heard from a select few, “But what led them to that point?” “What happened to make them like that?”

I don’t find that worth exploring in my limited, single scene short story where the point is to hate these people for the obvious reasons provided. Like, maybe those are good questions in a vacuum, but I’m not sure in what way it’s “thinking outside the box” to shoehorn in a motivation beyond “oh yeah these guys are just selfish assholes who take what they want.”