Why would I possibly feel that way? He was a rapist and a murderer. Crappy circumstances or not, he made that decision. That is not the mark of a victim.

I hope you others feel that the character was primarily a victim way back when, instead of a dirtbag.

He's both. It is what it is, I feel no particular inclination to judge him better or worse on some cosmological scale. I would be glad that he was there when it mattered. Splintering the starline network is a far better solution than just cutting off one link.

Regardless of his past, if he's been around since before this modern era - a period so long that the tradition of a century being a prerequisite for master is well-established - he's had enough time to rewrite his brain many times over with natural processes alone, never mind psychiatric medication, psychological counseling, or other forms of modification. He's had more time for personal growth than any other human that has existed (in the real world).

"People change" is an understatement here. I would go so far as to say that, through incremental change, the Confessor is an entirely different person from the younger man in his history, connected by a long causal chain and a continued possession of the same body, but nothing else.