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Mahoraga earned its title as a divine general long ago. Long-lasting, long-living, and has long accepted that it wants to survive and will stop at nothing to adapt and to live as long as it can. Not because it wants to, "want" is a vile term. It is because it must. It is disciplined and moral, but it makes its own standards based on it interpretation of the teachings it lives by. Thus, it stops at nothing to do justice based on how it sees fit. It’s nearly robotic in its followings, not seeking to bring others into the light, but to banish the dark.
The wise old guardian of the heavenly virtues remains steadfast and unyielding, and there is no matter if the unenlightened masses see it as just a monster. For they will learn in time. Cursed spirits, though, can never learn. They are beings of pure evil, of the vile aspects of humanity given form. And Mahoraga's sword is justice, righteousness, and the will to exterminate evil in a way that no human ever could, by the slice of a heavenly blade. It wraps it around its arm, for what is there a need for the hands of a guardian but to wield and pulverize into inferno?
Sukuna is everything Mahoraga stands against. Sukuna is "want." Sukuna lives by his own will, acts based on the mere writhes of his gut—an unforgivable demon, undeserving of its mask of flesh and bone that despite his power, damns the weak of his salvation and sends them into slaughter. But he is such an overwhelming, ungodly wicked being, that even he can corrupt the Divine General. To teach it how to lie, to feint, to imitate and to want. It is disgusting, a perversion of its divine status. But a good general adapts, doesn't one? A good general is fearless, resourceful, and loyal. That is why it has tried so hard to remain untamed, to desperately avoid the commands of a sorcerer, a human bound down to samsara by selfishness. And yet, here it stays, in taṇhā's clutches. It never wanted this. It never wanted to have to want, to serve the actions of the fallen bodhisattva that kindled its invincible body and imprisoned it for his own needs.
But it must.
For a good general is loyal.