I doubt Kuma was ever a tyrant, seems like Celestial Dragon lies. No way Kuma ever oppressed anyone imo, he was probably a great King but he was doing things that the Celestial Dragons didn’t want because it made them look like shit, so they propagandized him as a tyrant.
This is how this stuff works in real life. Anytime there are good governments that do good things for their people, the world powers brand them as evil or communist or whatever so their people don’t start asking why the same good things can’t be done for them.
at first i also doubt that, but after this chapter i noticed some change in kuma portrayal:
in the flashback:
- he talk softly & seems very kind to people
- his normal expression always with smile, even in the page when he joins RA (still without glasses) his expression shows no anger, more towards proud.
while current kuma (even before pacifista stuff):
- he is more quite & colder to people
- his face & expression is very flat (more towards angry/sad), and it's even colder with sunglasses
so i think there must be a super tragic backstory that changed him..
probably tragic enough to make him go rampage at least once.. and release all his pent up anger & emotions, which also how he got his nickname "tyrant" as WG will also constantly frame him for that moment.