The Zero Hour mission seems to demonstrate that Mithrax is in fact NOT a Guardian. Mithrax doesn't want anything to do with the Kell of Kells prophecy Your friend has a blatant bias against Variks after Forsaken and seems to throw out everything Variks had done up to that point It's also laughable how you think Variks would so willingly endanger his own kind. Mithrax doesn't like Variks because of how he clings to pre-Whirlwind culture, which does not inherently pose Variks against us. People forget that the Variks lore book also shows him grieving the destruction of the City by the Red Legion. As for Variks leaving the Prison... context matters. Every single notable Fallen leader had been killed. Variks left because he felt he was the only one who could stop the Fallen falling even further and completely forgetting their culture. He isn't wrong. Look at Fikrul and his anarchistic Scorn. Look at Kell's Scourge and their arms race. Look at the Spider, who actively embrace's Earth's Golden Age culture instead. The Fallen are desperate. If Variks hadn't acted when he did, any hope of the Fallen returning to their old ways would have been lost. There are stil those willing to embrace a leader like him, despite his reputation as a traitor.