Heroes and villains are simply a human construct just like time and everything else. Who ends up being described as a hero or a villain is biased and is based solely on whoever is telling the story.
Look at our history, at every war that has ever been fought. The winning side is portrayed as good sand those who opposed them are considered evil. Take the American Revolution for example; it's named after America for a reason, because America won. In American history we have portrayed ourselves as patriots, fighting against an unjust ruler. We fought bravely and due to the intelligence of our leaders and the strength of our troops we were able to defeat the British and become independent. Do you know how they teach the American Revolution in Britain? They teach that King George just let the colonies go. It's all about who tells the story.
Fairytales are always told from the heroes perspective. The reader only learns about the hero and the hero's perspective, not the villains. If the story was told from the villain's perspective, they would most likely be seen as the hero. Take Sleeping Beauty, because Disney has made a film from the villain's perspective. In the original animated film, we see the villain Maleficent curse an innocent child because she wasn't invited to the child's christening. She is made to appear cruel and petty while the king is made to seem like the victim. In the newer movie Maleficent we are told a much different story about a fairy who is betrayed again and again by a man who hurts her only to better his own life and become king. We see how Maleficent is hurt and is consumed by her own pain and suffering but still comes to love the child she cursed and eventually saves the child from said curse. In that movie, Maleficent is the hero rather than the villain all because it is told from a different perspective.
Sometimes the villain is in the right and the heroes are in the wrong. In Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame we see the battle against Thanos take place. Thanos fights to bring the universe to balance, to make life better for all living creatures. Thanos does whatever it takes to make life better for all, even sacrificing the person he loves most, because he knows sacrificing her life will make life better for trillions of people. He commits a selfless act because he believes he is in the right and he must fulfill his destiny no matter the cost. The story however, is told from the perspective of the Avengers, who fight against Thanos to keep from erasing half of all living creatures. The Avengers fail at stopping Thanos and end up killing him when he is unarmed and not threatening them anymore. The Avengers then break the laws of time to try and fix their own mistake and bring everyone they lost back. They do all this because they miss the ones who were erased by Thanos, and while that may seem selfless because they are fighting to bring others back, they do it because they can no longer live without those they've lost. They fight to better their own lives even though the universe would once again become unbalanced. The Avengers are shown as the heroes despite their unheroic qualities while Thanos is portrayed as the villain even though fights for a heroic reason.
Even in everyday life you feel it is your story and those that wrong you are the villains. You don't consider yourself to be a villain, if you do something that could be considered wrong you feel it was done for the right reason. Every day people fight for what they think is right and every day people rise up to fight against them. Racists don't think they're in the wrong, anti-feminists don't think they're in the wrong, homophobes don't think they're in the wrong, even serial killers won't think they're in the wrong, because they are seeing life through their own perspective.
There are no true heroes or villains. Life isn't just black and white and there is no true right or wrong. There are only different perspectives and one can only hope that the story ends up being told from theirs.
This is a very complex argument about this topic!
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