I voted Tanya, but I wish I could change it. First thing that came to mind was her sociopathy and cold blooded effectiveness as opposed to Ainz's genuine care for the people of Nazarick. But then I realized that Tanya was thrown into a world bound for war and had been thrown around. Even though she's intelligent and has the upper hand of knowing possible outcomes to certain events (the Dunkirk situation), in the end she's just a cog in the machine. She's still a firm believer in personal freedom and that people deserve to be rewarded for their hard work and she does care for her troops despite first considering them just a meat shield.
But yeah, she has to play her part, she had to earn the respect of her troops and fight the possible intertwining of a petty higher power, meanwhile Ainz is pretty much the higher power of his own world. He already has the respect and adoration of Nazarick's people, despite Demiurge and Albedo doing the heavy thinking he always has the final word. He's the Overlord, every life he's taken he took on his own behalf. Those adventurers that ended up eaten/tortured? One word and they'd be given a peaceful death. Surely the monsters assigned to end them had a purpose, but one would argue if a person you're 100% sure was created to be a NPC is as important as a life that might as well be real, because you don't fully understand the nature of the world you've been transported to.
While Tanya does actively try to find loopholes in war law, she only considers the effectiveness of it. And I know my thinking might be off and it's written in a rather chaotic manner, but long story short I think we all look past Ainz's offenses because we know he's a nice guy, but Tanya who's a confirmed sociopath gets the short end of the stick. Funnily enough, they're both defined by misunderstandings in-universe. How many times has Ainz/Tanya done something for it to be later deemed masterful planning by someone else?
And no, LN Tanya isn't more cruel than anime Tanya. LN Tanya was happy to see Visha again after the Rhine, LN Tanya didn't relocate the insubordinate soldiers wanting them to DIE. There was the risk, but only because mages bound to an immobile location are in more danger than those allowed to move freely through the battlefield, but just because the other position leaves the mages vulnerable doesn't mean no one should do it. All three interpretations (LN / manga / anime) greatly differ when it comes to Tanya herself. |