Such a pity. It was a perfect opportunity to make Arslan his own man, yet it was all wasted by giving him back his old gang who do absolutely everything for him, even to the point of correcting his deadly mistakes. It's like this story is trying to tell a perfect king is one who can be all mellow and benevolent even under the most difficult situations because he never needs to do the difficult things by himself. That's no king but a puppet. Instead he should have got perhaps only the rogue to keep him alive and grant him access to shady places and teach him street smarts. Then he could have become like a good version of the Silver mask.

I wonder if the author didn't realise this or perhaps he thought he didn't have a choice as the story would have changed too much if he couldn't have kept writing about Arslan with his jolly crew anymore.

I agree on Silver mask's case: There was absolutely no need to try to make him more humane with the love affair. He was a better character as a deranged person with no excuses but the history of injustice and vengeance.