A lot of our categories are organized as "Hero ___", "Villain ___", and "Praetorian ___". However, the meaning of these categories is broken.
Consider:
Questing Badge is listed as Hero and Villain
Prepared Badge is listed as Praetorian
If you start as a Hero or Villain, you can earn Questing by earning 1000 badges. If you start as Praetorian, you can earn Prepared by earning 1000 badges. These are two distinct badges. (Unlike other badges that are aliases for one another.) They
cannot be earned
unless you start as the right faction.
Consider:
Ambitious Badge is listed as Praetorian
Sparky Badge is listed as Hero and Villain
Ambitious is
found in Praetoria, which is likely the only reason that it's Praetorian-only. If they open Praetoria up to Heroes and Villains, they'll probably be able to earn this badge as-is. Sparky can be earned by anyone, regardless of their origin.
Consider:
Positon's Ally Badge is listed as Hero
Positron's Betrayer Badge is listed as Villain
These are both the same badge; they are merely aliases. A character of any alignment origin (Hero, Villain, Praetorian) can earn either one. The name changes based on your current alignment.
So depending on context, "Hero ____" can mean "This is only accessible to those who started the game as a Hero"; "This is accessible to any character who at some point becomes a Hero"; or "This is the name for this badge when worn by someone whose current alignment is Hero". Similar for Villain and Praetorian.
It's also worth pointing out that the vast, vast majority of badges now can be earned by both hero and villain. The former division by Hero and Villain was helpful because most badges were one-side-only. Now that both can earn most, that division is less useful. Perhaps categories like "Hero Exploration Badges" should be reserved for those badges that are only available to heroes, while "Exploration Badges" can be used for those available to everyone. Why divide things that need not be divided?
I honestly don't have any good suggestions on how to fully resolve all this, but I think it's something we should think about.