My response to a lot of the ‘is Zaheer a good villain‘ discourse is that zaheer ‘s plan didn’t stop with the Earth Queen and Korra. sure Korra was his top goal but ideally all four would escape and they’d continue to rid the world of leaders and such. They’d continue their work.
I think what works about Zaheer as a villain is that his pursuit of Korra is personal. Like Amon would always do the equalist revolution even if Korra didn’t arrive in Republic City. Unalaq sees Korra as a tool. Zaheer is a better done version of Unalaq where he takes issue with Korra’s very existence . That is what makes book 3 work for me. Zaheer has some points but the wrong methods and a limited foresight. The questions asked is what is Korra willing to risk for the new airbenders? The answer is everything.
I think Zaheer as a villain is pretty consistent. He isn’t emotional about Korra. He offers her advice and helps her work through her issues as it is better in that moment for the world at the moment to get ride of Kuvira. Zaheer knows Korra is more powerful than she knows. And that’s why, if he had the option to do it all again, I think he would. Because I think he still sees power centred in individuals as inherently bad. He’s using Korra as a means to ends in book4, get rid of Kuvira, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t try again after. But that’s just my interpretation of his mentality and philosophy— there is an issue with how vague/interpretable the political philosophies are in the legend of korra.
I just think some of the nuance of whether or not Zaheer is a good villain is lost if we focus on his depiction of an anarcho communist and his politics not how he works in the story. I think Zaheer is one of the best villains in the legend of korra because of his role in the story itself and what he means to Korra as a character, not his politics.