I didn't say he was evil though. I said I don't think he was good. Or maybe I should have said "as good as" some fans seem to think he is.
So, just merely flawed? Who isn't? It just seems you don't think he even pulls ahead of Zahard at all (no real winner between the two?), based on your last comment, so I'm genuinely confused. Zahard has set the bar extremely low. Even an average, flawed dude is leaps and bounds better than Zahard by any measure, particularly morally. Unless there's some as-yet unknown info about V that changes his character entirely from what we know, which is admittedly very little, then V is by far a better person. But we DO know a bunch about Zahard, so we can make judgements off of that, and the likelihood someone could be worse to someone else than the person that killed her baby before her own eyes. Not very likely!
V was portrayed as Zahard's foil yes but it doesn't mean he was better, greater, stronger than Zahard etc or even his equal. Zahard was the acknowledged leader, who was trusted by his companions and discord happened because he fell from grace.
I have to disagree due to hints and nuance in what we do know, but again admittedly there are a lot of gaps. But, we have the start of a picture. And there are hints that Zahard's 'fall from grace' as you put it wasn't just overnight, but gradual as well. We can certainly compare Zahard at the end of the climb to V at the end of the climb as they shared that snapshot in time, and that is the time period that affected Arlen the most, who is what we're using as a measure of who was better or worse a person.
* Was V "better" than Zahard (morally) - at least a younger, less-twisted, less jaded version of Eduan thinks so. He thinks V would have been more magnanimous than Zahard (which is probably the case). This is an Eduan that knows Zahard is now the king and what he has heard from those coming to data floor, but doesn't know V from a personal perspective past the data floor, but he's saying at that point in time, from his POV, V would have been a better king. While V could have also changed for the worst post-data floor, it is made to seem like ANYONE would be better than Zahard, particularly V. The flipside is a rather-jaded, jealous-sounding Gustang says V was crap, OK, but doesn't exactly compare him to Zahard, who he later wages war on. Seems like a wash at best (comparing their personal opinion's on V), from biased people, but I will say Eduan's account sounds more objective and less personal. Eduan's account was like he was recalling the weather back then. Gustang's was like a slighted lover, and came with his typical condescending to everyone he sees as below him attitude. For all we know Gustang is mad at V solely because he suicided, whereas if he stayed alive he could have possibly aided to vanquish Zahard. OR maybe it's as simple as a suicided V hurt Arlen, who Gustang has an obvious soft spot for, so he's basically calling him selfish for that decision (possibly not knowing all the facts himself). As such, V's suicide would be an interpersonal failure and not so much a blight on how benevolent a king he would have made - those are two separate things entirely.
* Was V "worse" than Zahard (morally) - this is a low bar, as Zahard was/is outright evil - I don't think you can really argue against that. It would take an even more demented form of evil for V to have been worse, which, while possible, isn't very likely going on the little bio/backstory we do have. Add in the 'MC's parents are generally good guys' trope which seems to be accurate so far, until we know otherwise. While this is all speculation, we don't have any reason to believe V was worse than Zahard, while we have plenty of info on Zahard to point us in the direction it was in fact Zahard to be the more despotic asshole between the two (hello, one of his first acts as king was to kill his friend's baby). As we are speculating, it just seems way more likely at current trajectory that Zahard was (and is) a worse human being in every measure than V, implying V was 'better' by extension (if one is worse, then the other is better). Even V's failure as a husband doesn't come close to ranking him as lowly a being as what we know Zahard did willingly - V wasn't even trying to be a 'bad' husband from the little we know so far, but rather the opposite. V, as far as we know, didn't kill himself for selfish, certainly not *evil*, reasons, but the story is he THOUGHT it would lead to the best outcome for Arlen. That's undeniable unless we get further info that throws that on its head.
* Was V weaker or stronger than Zahard - we have *no* metric, not even a hint at this. Zahard was said to be stronger than the other FH's. V and Arlen obviously abstained, and aren't even counted as FHs. We have no evidence they (V and Z) even personally fought or clashed swords over Zahard being king, or prior. Maybe at most it was a verbal disagreement, if even that. In fact, if Kingship required something heinous to be a king that you are opposed to being, why would V even participate or try for kingship? If it was a 'race' to gain some item or accomplish some task why would V put in effort - again, he didn't want to be the king; he didn't think ANYONE should be a king over the others, even himself (per bio/Eduan). The story goes that V was apathetic about being king, so he might very well have never come into conflict with Zahard until AFTER Zahard already pulled the trigger on whatever event that made him King, which we know he wanted for himself. We know that V had a stronger tension than Zahard, implying he could hit harder than him with shinsoo, so there's that. Does this mean either was *definitively* stronger than the other, or the same - we simply don't know. But there's no reason to insist that A was stronger than B, and as of right now the story leaves enough room for any PL ranking between the two (stronger, weaker, or equal). Post-kingship, it wouldn't matter if V was stronger or equal or not as he didn't have the immortality and invulnerability that came from multiple contracts (at least one of which we know V turned down willingly, probably both). We also have evidence that V solo'd (well, maybe with Arlen, maybe not, but she was pregnant at one point) the war efforts from a combined forces of 10 other FH's and Zahard himself, and one of those FH's was Arie Hon. We were told they went to war. And yet the ten IMMORTAL family heads and their armies along with IMMORTAL, INVULNERABLE KING Zahard could not end V, who was completely exposed and mortal. That's an accomplishment in of itself, and hints that he had the muscle to back up such outstanding circumstances. Zahard never solo'd a dog-pile of other FH's that we've ever been told. Also, even though Eduan speaks of V as a better king in terms of temperament, the mere fact that he thought of him as king material would imply V was also worth strength-wise. Or else why nominate a weaker king? At least he'd want him to be equivalent in power, logically-speaking. V had to have some latent leadership or strength qualities that he didn't flex like Zahard did for selfish purposes.
* Was Zahard a "trusted" and "acknowledged" leader as you say - well, I don't even think that is accurate even (at least not at first!). We KNOW that V and Arlen, parents of the protagonist of the story, didn't accept him as king from the beginning to the bitter end. We know others have implied there's something 'false' about his kingship as well, even the 'god' on the outside thinks so (his agenda unknown). We know Arie Hon didn't accept Zahard until he HAD to, begrudgingly, after multiple failed attempts to not be under Zahard in the rankings. I doubt he has forgotten those losses. We also know that it was said the FH's were not on the same page at first, meaning a divide then as well, meaning they didn't instinctively all rally behind Zahard as king initially. The story/bio hints there was an event that caused them to coalesce around Zahard, reason unknown, but at least at first Zahard was not just automatically accepted as king. All this together strongly suggests that everyone ultimately *submitted* to him, not that he is a good leader per se. He was just too strong to go against, and after the king contract he was cemented as king, what else could they do?
The kind of character the fandom is imagining isn't one who would kill himself, leaving his family like that. The intent only looks good on paper. You kill yourself because you have given up and don't have the strength to go on. So it only "looks good" but it isn't. Because he didn't have the strength to strive more for her happiness. Why didn't he go with her and talk etc?
This seems full of assumptions that are unfounded to me. Maybe they talked. Maybe they talked many times. They probably did talk, why wouldn't they? Honestly, what basis do you have for the assumption they didn't speak about things at length? What would lead someone to suicide - real or fictional - is a complicated thing, and usually not an impulsive idea but something that takes time to get to. Maybe V had exhausted all hope and was tired of seeing his wife miserable (self-harming), with a situation that looked hopeless (they couldn't overcome the king contract, easily if at all, or the dog-pile of other FH's against them and their immortality, while V had none which means putting his ass on the line every day). It looked like an unwinnable situation in every way. It would take something like a miracle, like a god's herald bringing in a game-changing weapon for instance, to pull out a win, and they had no reason to believe that would change or such an event would just magically happen (Enryu's help came too late - probably because he didn't catch wind of what was going on with Zahard until Arlen got 'out'). We don't have any idea how long the families warred against each other, and as such this could have gone on for a very, very long time (most happening in the tower back then was implied to have happened over an extremely long period of time - even founding the empire and 'genesis' periods were said to be a long time). That could have ate away at them both. Imagine warring for centuries with no end in sight, and a mopey, depressed (and suicidal!) wife. Hell, even a year of such behavior could have been nightmarish, but everything is more protracted in tower time.
So, exactly what you say wouldn't be the case could have very well been the case. Rather, it's most likely the case, and no reason to knee-jerk assume the opposite. All we have is bits and pieces, and no reason to bet against V at his words in his suicide letter. Until proven otherwise, we have to agree with V's stated intent - to die for Arlen was - *what he thought* - the best course of action for her in the long run, particularly considering the circumstances (king contract, outnumbered, immortality of them and not him, son not coming back to life, etc) which when looked at piece by piece it does add up. Not that it was 'smart' or that it had the intended effect (of course it didn't), but that he WANTED it to work. His intent was good, more than just on paper. It was his best effort from a person with less and less options. And, by the way, we have no hints that Arlen particularly held it against him. For all we know, she was understanding, or at least knew what he was trying to do, even though it didn't help her emotionally, but seemed to make things progress worse. Assuming the opposite is counter-narrative, counter-canon, and currently unfounded.
It is important to note that Arlen was ALREADY suicidal and suffering BEFORE V killed himself (this is literally the reason for V's suicide we are told). There is no indication this was short-lived or improving. Rather, she tried "many times." Witnessing this for who knows how many long, long years, V was seemingly out of options. V didn't cause the bulk of her grief, or her desire to die. He may have added to it, but the bulk of that was already in place thanks to Zahard, who you seem to say isn't that much worse than V...
Seems to me that the story if taken on its face he's just a guy at the end of his rope, running out of options, mortal and aging, with an immortally-suffering loved one. He did the best he could think of with what he had. His goal was to END her suffering, not make it worse. That's not "on paper" only. Things don't have to work out as intended for it not be a good intent. Canon as of now is that V had pure selfless intent in his suicide, and it was entirely for Arlen's sake, even if it ended up not helping as intended.
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