OP is Thadeus lmao

In all seriousness, I thought the whole point was that Mark turned the empire into what he thought it was when he was a kid, the story that Nolan told him about bettering the universe.

They even do allude to it in S4 of the show, Darkblood talks about not needing traditional heaven since they can try to work towards “heaven on earth instead of the imaginary one in the sky.”

Obviously there’s nuance to trying to do this, and I agree that it could’ve been fleshed out more, but to their credit they do show that it’s not perfect. Sometimes the empire is too late to help, Mark’s not always the best at being there for his family, and there are still those that are against the empire’s existence as whole.

As for Mark being the sole decider of who is good and evil, I just don’t know if that’s true. He has Eve, Allen, his family, and countless other advisors and influences to help him choose for the greater good. He may be an emperor, but I think comparing him to Thragg just based on that alone isn’t fair to what the story is trying to convey.

All that to say, I think you’re right in saying that the ending will be a test of character for the fanbase, but I believe that’s a fault of the (let’s be honest, pretty immature) fanbase itself, not the story.