One of the nicest things I found about Arulmozhi Varman in PS Book 1 (thats as far as I have read)is that he did not plunder the countries he invaded for food and money, leaving what is rightfully belonging to the common man for the common man:)
Humble and kind (read otherwise by the conspirators)
Its called perspective. As I write some short stories, I realize that the author cannot freely explore all the facets of the hero, similarly for the villian... stories revolves around the good nature and the bad nature... manifested in two or more people.
The point is that the author cannot elaborate the bad deeds of the lead star.
PS is interestingly a little different though. The protagonist is vandhiya thevan, while the 'hero' is arulmozhi varman (another instance of hero worship ;)... interesting literature - though it still does not give the author the freedom to explore the possible dark-side (cmon, a king who conquers all of south india and ceylon, without affecting nobody - you must be kidding ;) of arulmozhi varman.
Hi Madan, Thanks for your email. Your school of thought is very interesting. We are all made of multifaceted mixtures of good and bad. Battle will have it's pitfalls, the people who suffer do suffer and those who inflict pain do it heartlessly. I used to work largely on Defence Food requirements (until recently) and mentioned what I found interesting in PS (which I haven't finished the first book of yet, thanks to my entire family trying to read the book all at the same time:) Have a great day and keep mailing:) Deepa