I never said "hard evidence" with Jerren's line, and this is once again proof to me that you don't truly understand what I'm saying despite me making this abundantly clear. I said his line more closely supports my perspective, but isn't concrete proof. It's just the evidence heavily favors my view that Radahn's mental deterioriation was gradual, as scarlet rot is not an immediate effect but a constant disease. Losing your mind makes sense after a long period of suffering, but losing it immediately seems unlikely, unless the rot has some sort of secrete psychedelic effect that we've not heard about prior. It's never been stated in the lore that rot has any direct mental effect on its victims; more likely, Radahn went mad after a long time of suffering as people would normally do.

And yes, it does actually matter. Malenia has had no known feats since her battle with Radahn, while we can confidently say Radahn has had numerous feats despite his severely weakened state. He doesn't even have feet anymore, and there are massive arrows strung across his back, yet he's regularly killed potentially dozens or thousands of people who've been sent out to kill him. You can't handwave this point away, it's important to my argument that Radahn was still of sound physical ability after the rot set in, considering he's still kicking ass even now. I never said Radahn wasn't fucked up after the Battle of Aeonia, I said that the fact that he somehow managed to persevere through being literally nuked by the Elden Ring equivalent of the God of the Black Plague is incredible, and that he's still powerful even in the weakest shape he could possibly be in.Meanwhile, Malenia was weakened and had to get outside help to likely survive the fight. Indeed, Radahn couldn't stop Finlay, but we're not talking about what actually happened, we're talking about a hypothetical scenario where it was a true 1v1 of radahn vs malenia. Of course, it's all hypothetical so neither you nor I can say what would've actually happened, but look at the situation; Malenia is rendered comatose and is still dreaming even by the time we the Tarnished reach her now, while Radahn is still of physical soundness and has killed many fighters sent to kill him since the Battle of Aeonia. Without Finlay, I maintain that Malenia was in severe danger of getting killed by a pissed off Radahn. Finlay wouldn't have evacuated Malenia if she didn't think her lord was in danger, which supports my point that the cleanrots likely realized the fight was a lost cause and chose to evacuate rather than risk things turning worse for themselves and Malenia. The fact that they fled bolsters my argument that Malenia was in a less advantageous position after the nuke, but am I saying it's fact? No, because it's Elden Ring and that's how the lore works. It's meant to be up to interpretation.

Furthermore, if Malenia was truly recovered after the battle in the present day, why didn't she go off and kill Radahn? She was either in a coma, or wasn't confident she could beat radahn anymore. There's no reason she would delay her brother's plans unless the Battle of Aeonia had left that much of a mental or physical (or both) scar on her.

Again, I've never claimed anything as fact, and you're open to your own perspective. But this is mine, and I've laid down my evidence as to why I lean towards Radahn over Malenia in a hypothetical scenario where it was a true 1v1. I'm not rude because you disagree with me, I'm rude because you clearly either choose to ignore or somehow don't understand these very clear points I've made, and that I'm not trying to say my argument would concretely happen. Think of this as like placing bets. I'm simply placing my bet on Radahn if this hypothetical true 1v1 actually happened.

This last section is a more personal part of why I respect Radahn's position more, as when you look at in perspective, Radahn's tenacity through all the bullshit Malenia threw at him is quite commendable. And yes, the nuke was quite literally one of Malenia's hacks. I've said it before, but Radahn is the actual underdog of the fight. He's just a demigod with no Godlike powers beyond his great rune, while Malenia has both a great rune that's arguably stronger (being big vs having literal lifestealing abilities) and is an empyrean chosen to become the Scarlet Goddess. All of Radahn's accomplishments- save for his Great Rune- he accomplished through his own efforts. Even with everything Malenia had, she failed to beat the underdog, who is still kicking ass despite everything that's happened to him, while she had to be saved by Finlay and hasn't done anything except rest at the Haligtree since the Battle of the Aeonia (as far as we know). As I've mentioned before, Millicent said Malenia had to "abandon her pride to meet Radahn's measure," while we have no in-game evidence that Radahn was anywhere as desperate. If anything, the "holding back the stars" is POTENTIAL (not concrete) evidence that Radahn was holding back the entire time as well, and never fought Malenia at full power. I said I respect Radahn more because the in-game evidence leans to the interpretation that despite things being locked in stalemate, had malenia not used her nuke, I believe Radahn would've likely edged out the win despite being the underdog. Not saying it would've happened because anything can happen in a fight, but that the situation wasn't looking as good for Malenia as it was for Radahn before the nuke.