Is Zodiark evil?

[LineageRazor]

As others have mentioned, Hydaelyn has never given us much cause to doubt that she's "good". We even get to see things a bit from her perspective through her lines in the "Answers" theme, which paints her as one who loves her children, wishes for them to thrive and be free, and is pained when they suffer.

Zodiark is much more mysterious; everything we know about him we know through his effects on other characters. We know that Hydaelyn (apparently a GOOD entity) felt the need to cast him out and seal him away - but even that does not necessarily indicate that he's evil, merely that Hydaelyn felt he was incompatible with the world she envisioned. We know that the Ascians do awful things in his name, but we do not know whether he endorses those actions.

He may turn out to be much like Promathea in FFXI - dark, but not evil, and an entity whose very being threatens the current order of the world. We may need to oppose him simply because his existence is harmful, not because he is bad as an individual. Really the worst that could be said about Promathea was that he was selfish - willing to hurt his companion Altana (and, as it turns out, doom the world to eventual consumption by the Cloud of Darkness) in order to fill his ultimate ambition of self-destruction. Zodiark may be the same way; we know that he coveted power, and perhaps that put him at odds with the well-being of the world.

Of course, there's CERTAINLY plenty of room to make Zodark Capital E EEEEEVIL, as well. He doesn't HAVE to be a morally complicated or ambiguous character. It's pretty likely that we'll encounter and have to defeat the guy eventually, either way, so we'll find out the truth in due time. It's worth noting that he's sealed in the moon - just like the ultimate villain in FFIV. And THAT villain had very little in the way of moral complexity, whether you're referring to Zemus (who wished to commit genocide in order to colonize the planet) or Zeromus (literally the incarnation of the evil that lies within the hearts of humanity).