Always so thorough and well said!
My stance on Jake and Deryl goes as followed:
Jake: I feel bad for Jake, dude gets pushed around by a lot of people and when he finally gets some power he still gets thrashed by Jared and then constantly fucked with by Ella. Did he dive a lil too deep into the "I have power now" kool aid? Yeah he did. But honestly I can forgive it. He locked MC away much like what
Gtdead said was mostly in good faith (hell he was ultimately gonna let him out at some point at least thats what I gathered from what he said).
Yeah Jake made some girls strip, so what? He didn't rape them and he didn't do anything too outlandish if it was just some random chicks I doubt people here would give as much of a fuck with it but because it was Liz and Amber the story is different (even tho Liz is for the streets and Amber is...I have no formal opinion on her).
Jake leans more in the good column for me as he just wanted to do what was right for the most part and was just misguided by a dog shit teacher known as Ella and a taste for power when he took over for a brief period.
Deryl: He isn't a bad guy and I place him in the good boi column. Most of his actions were done under mind control fuckery while only a SINGLE thing was his own doing (deciding to continue the fight when he broke Ella/Jake's control) and this was only to test his power.
I fucking assure you if it was Michael or Alice doing this people would be more forgiving but for whatever reason they got a hate boner for Deryl...I mean come on the dude has all these dank powers and I was kinda happy he wanted to test them out since he expresses later on he won't be a front line combatant and more of a support (despite being a support he did give MC a run for his money with all the shit he prepped mind controlled or not he could be a potential solid counter for MC in the future).
My opinions on Michael and Alice:
Michael is a solid dude and a great friend but ultimately he is Alice's fucking lap dog who does what she says and works for her crime family to a large extent (seemingly).
Michael has probably killed a good portion of people and I can only assume many were also 'bad' guys but some were probably innocent (it just comes with the turf of being apart of a crime family). Michael is a morally questionable character although a great friend but I'm sure plenty of fucked up evil people in human history were great friends to certain people but still all around bad.
I fucking assure you if for some odd reason Michael could gain power of some sort from killing a buncha kids this power junkie would fucking do it...would he have doubts? Sure he even had doubts about bringing in the MC about the crime shit. But this is a dude who has showed a great many times of what he'll do for power even if it fucking destroys his body or kills him I wouldn't leave out the option of this man murdering kids for power or whatever else.
Alice: She's a mob boss's daughter who openly expresses she wants to crush anyone who went against her family and I can only assume this includes those who didn't openly throw their armed support behind Klaus's father and his goons.
Has she fucked with those who probably didn't deserve it? Probably but we never really see it but it's quite clear she has a few screws loose (I know you fucking midspawn lovers love that shit).
Ultimately Michael and Alice are good friends to the MC but not good people by any extent. Yeah they helped the MC and have been good friends but so what? You can get help from a evil mustache man and be the best of friends but that doesn't change that he's evil (or questionable).
If i had to place certain characters on a scale of good and evil I'm most definitely putting Alice and Michael to Lean evil but Jake and Deryl are the opposite with Deryl going Mostly Good and Jake Lean good..if you want a good example of a neutral character look no further than the flat princess herself....Mia of course.