I can't bring myself to think Nolan is a bad person.

I know this will be a very controversial take but just hear me out.

Viltrumites have a wholly different perspective to humans. He precieves time differently and almost everything lives laughably short lives compared to him. He was raised in Viltrum culture were for hundreds of years he was conditioned to believe the lives of the strong had more value.

He watched his entire race nearly be exterminated and knew Earth was the last hope for his people. If he gave up on his mission he would be turning his back on everything he ever knew. He knew the Empire would come for Earth anyway. So even if he decided to defect earlier, it's not like he could hope to fight the empire off. And no matter what he did his family would've resented him.

Despite all of this, in the end he still chose to betray the empire. Yes he murdered people, and I'm sure I might think differently if it was my family member on that train, but I think it's very understandable in this case. I know that's crazy to say but again, his entire perspective and morality was just very different from a humans.

The reality is almost none of us would've betrayed the empire if we were in his shoes. You're lying if you say otherwise. The fact that he did, says alot about his inherently good character.