iāve been playing p5r lately (iām in my second playthrough, almost 200 hours of playtime) and i have so much feelings for maruki as a character. the discourse around his character reminds me so much of edelgard from fire emblem: three houses in the sense that the onus of their character leans on the extreme side of things. and that makes me appreciate them more! they also both show the āroad to hell is paved with good intentionsā tropeābecause they do mean well and their ideologies are something i personally get behind with (ending nobility for equal opportunities and happiness for everyone), and so i consider them mainly as antagonists rather than villains because what they fight for is noble, albeit that against the protagonistsā own ideals.
anyway. going back, i have a lot more to say about maruki himself (aside from the rambling i have with his character in comparison with edelgard that i might be able to truly flesh out when i finish this current playthrough lol)
but tl;dr: maruki best boy. they can never make me hate maruki.