He WASN'T the rightful king, it was written into the friggin' lore that he was burned as punishment by the gods for his usurpation!
Their ridiculous retcon that turned the blood-drinking rape-murderer into the True Hero King of Elves was asinine and made no sense.
This is why I'm entirely done with GW; I've seen better writing in a Twilight Fan-Fiction forum.
The first point has been slightly obfuscated over time. Although that's always been the line in the HE books, the DE books have tended to take the view that he was betrayed and the flames were treacherously cursed or something. He also didn't wear the magical wards that Phoenix Kings do before stepping in, which is why none of the others were burned - well, except Aenarion, who was burned and revived, and Morvael, who used it to commit suicide. So it's not impossible, albeit unlikely, that if Malekith had stayed in the Flame he might have done the same as Aenarion.
Plus of course there's the point, long-debated in the fandom, that while Malekith did kill Bel Shanaar and that was bad, he wouldn't necessarily have been the wrong choice to succeed
Aenarion. Or indeed to succeed Bel Shanaar, had he not murdered him. What seemed to drive Malekith off the rails was not only that he didn't get to succeed his father but that Bel Shanaar was trying to cut him out of the succession
again, despite Malekith being to all appearances the best candidate.
Being entirely honest about it, the broad shape of the elven plot is something I had felt would be the appropriate ending for them since well before End Times was even really a thing. Tyrion drawing the Sword of Khaine, Teclis ultimately making an alliance with Malekith and installing him as Phoenix King, the whole enterprise sealing the final doom of the Elves. That is not to defend anything specific that happened during the End Times, which for all I know might have been complete garbage (I've only read
Nagash, and wasn't impressed), but I don't think the underlying idea is entirely terrible.
