Ok ok before you all go sending me hate mail listen to my reasoning.
The Countess...granted she is not my favorite character....is misunderstood. It's like Sesshomaru, he's bad we all know this but he is good in his own ways also (ie. saving Rin)
Let's look at the eps so far..You have the Countess who back then was a young scientist who was full of life and hope for the future...whether or not she was in love with Enkidu, she was engaged and probably wanting children and so on.
Then suddenly she looses everything, her whole life destroyed, and for what? power and glory?
There's a quote "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" well I can tell you that I personally would have been just as bitter. If I have learned anything in Life I have certainly learned that a persons hardships can make or break them.
The Countess (who strangely reminds me of my mother) is the type of person who can no longer see a happy side in anything around her. Only thing keeping her going is the quest to right the wrongs done to her...in this case revenge on Enkidu.
When you are in a mind set such as this you can not see that you are hurting others...you only see your goal and those who are in the way need to be pushed out of the way.
As time goes on you stop realizing that the way you are acting is wrong and hateful. You say spiteful things to hurt others and it actually makes you happy. You don't realize they are spiteful.
Again, the Countess isn't my favorite character, but in the same instance I do not hate her either. I pity her and her loss. --kiyone17

Yes, I too can understand why the Countess is out to get Enkidu's head. However, I think you're missing an important point: the Countess is exploiting innocent children for her goals. Even if her goals are arguably justifiable, her means are not. Another thing, I don't think that the Countess is, as you say, so caught up in her revenge that she cannot "see that [she is] hurting others", rather, I see the Countess as being lucid and self-aware: she's got the mens rea, and that's why I don't like her very much as a character (yes, I too wanted to slap her for ep. 12).

However, I DO like the fact that the animators have created a perfectly sane "evil" femme, because, all too often, we are given female anime villains who are loonies (e.g., Queen Beryl, or Delphine from LE). While such women are always fun to watch, one gets the sense that they lack depth as characters.

Rem I do agree with you that the Countess is perfectly sane, but exploiting children... she is using them yes...but I wouldn't say exploiting. When you say that I think of child porn (perhaps I'm not quite sane, heh *twitch*)
Revenge is a funny thing...(hence why it's one of the deadly sins) You can be perfectly sane and still not be coherent of the things you do.
Of course then we also have to analize what is sane and right and wrong.

Rem thank you for responding, I'm glad to see there are others who think on these things at a deeper level.