Was Ravana an ideal brother for he risked his life to avenge his sister’s dishonor?

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Hare Krishna. Was Ravana an ideal brother because he risked even his own life to protect the honour of Shurpanakha? Answer, reality can be very easily misrepresented. And in this particular case, Shurpanakha’s honour was the furthest thing from Ravana’s mind when he actually came to abduct Sita.
When Shurpanakha talked about her being dishonoured by Rama and Lakshmana, Ravana was initially infuriated and wanted to punish those who had offended her. But as soon as he heard that those who had cut off her nose were Rama and Lakshmana, immediately his temper went down. Because he knew that Rama and Lakshmana were very powerful, accompanied the sole survivor from the destruction at Janasthan, had told Ravana about the power of Rama in single-handedly destroying the entire battalion.
And yet, it was that Ravana decided to get back at Rama. But it was not because Shurpanakha had been dishonoured, it was because Shurpanakha incited Ravana’s lust for Sita by describing in sensuous terms the beauty of Sita. So, it was not avenging or revenging Shurpanakha’s dishonour, but it was gratifying his own lust that was foremost in the mind of Ravana.
If his purpose had been primarily to avenge Shurpanakha’s honour, then why is it that we see that Shurpanakha herself did not in any way support Ravana in that war. Ravana uses all his forces to fight and yet Shurpanakha is not there in that fight. Why? Because Shurpanakha knew that Ravana was not interested in protecting her.
And thus, she decided that either Ravana would succeed and destroy Rama, by which she would get her revenge, or if Rama got the better of Ravana, if Rama killed Ravana, then she would be rid of a brother who was so disgusting that he would not act for her honour, but he would act for his own lust. That’s why Shurpanakha was not at all involved in the war. And that’s one of the strongest evidences that this was not for Shurpanakha’s honour.
It is not even described once in Valmiki Ramayan that Ravana after abducting Sita told Shurpanakha about it, that this is what I have done for you. Let us see how this makes Rama suffer. And throughout the time when Rama is suffering in separation from Sita, there is no mention again of Shurpanakha getting any pleasure out of it.
So, now of course there is one additional detail that is used over here, that Rama did not violate Sita. And that’s the reason given to say that actually his interest was only getting back at Shurpanakha, getting back for Shurpanakha’s case. But if that had been the case, and Rama repeatedly presented peace proposals, he could have said that my condition is you apologize to Shurpanakha.
He didn’t present that at all in any of the peace negotiations. He just refused to return Sita. So, what was his point? He abstained from violating Sita not because he had any respect for Sita’s honour or because he had no interest in her sexually.
It was only because he had been cursed that if he ever touched a woman against her will, forced himself on a woman against her will, he would be killed. And he was afraid for his own life. So, the entire abduction of Sita was selfishly motivated.
And his restraint was not out of any higher principle. It was only because his love for his lust and his love for his life. Among those two, at that time, his love for his life won.
That prevailed. So, Ravana is by no means an ideal brother. If he had any brotherly affection for Shurpanakha, if you look at the back story that is found in the supplementary stories associated with Ramayana, in the broader Ramayana tradition, it is described that Shurpanakha was actually married to a very powerful demon named Vishwabuddhi.
And this Vishwabuddhi started becoming more and more powerful. And he was a faithful commander in Ravana’s army. But Ravana started feeling insecure that Vishwabuddhi might become so powerful that he may overthrow him.
And therefore, he sent Vishwabuddhi on an extraordinarily difficult fight against the gods. And then, in the middle of the fight, he told his other generals to withdraw. And thus, Vishwabuddhi was left all alone and slaughtered.
Initially, Shurpanakha thought that it was just a terrible casualty of war. Even Ravana seemed to grieve the death of Vishwabuddhi. But eventually, Shurpanakha came to know what had happened.
And she was infuriated that her own brother had become the cause of her becoming a widow. And after that, she decided that she was going to be the cause of the death of Ravana. Just as Ravana had subjected her to the death-like pain of losing her husband.
And thus, when she incited Ravana by describing Sita’s lust, by Sita’s lustful terms, she knew on seeing Rama’s prowess that Ravana would not be able to survive against Rama. And by letting Ravana lustfully approach Sita and abduct Sita, by getting him to do that, Shurpanakha knew that Ravana would be destroying himself. So, neither was Ravana a loving brother, nor was Shurpanakha a forgiving sister.
So, there is no special brother-sister bond that is worth noting in this particular relationship. And these kind of subversive narratives are given primarily so that there will be just some interest triggered by some controversial points being spoken.