Alter the plot. It’s obvious that you continue to insist on using these characters. However with a few artistic tweaks you can save the concept entirely. Have the villains simply be misguided patriots forced into making their own nation vs. the will of an oppressive over-government, construed of all the people they turn their wrath against in their immediate surroundings. Their brutal physical and sexual violence towards their oppressors will then be explained as a reaction to harsh government policies and taxation, to show that both sides are wrong.