Tony Ellis,
Right, there is no proof that Sev1 failed. But I think there is a sense of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"--and since Sev2 has been opitimized, then it stands to reason that Sev1 was flawed.
Then again: the influences on Sev2 come from both camps, New Sun and Entropy Gang. So the tampering/tempting isn't one-sided. Leading us back to the belief that Sev1 didn't fail; that his success at the Test is what triggered the Entropy Gang to start messing with his past; and to counter this the New Sun people began giving little assists in his past. All of which escalation produced a new, improved Severian.
Sev1 is the father of the man; Sev2 is the new son.
(Ooo, which feeds back into that whole "The Tale of the Student and his Son": we can let the Student be Sev1 and assign the Son to Sev2.)
=mantis=