well no, my bad, obviously h is the height of the pendulum above its lowest 'sweep' of its path, ie where theres maximum kinetic energy and lowest potential.
ive seen other sources say that V=-mgL(1-cos(theta)) which can explain the anomaly at pi/2, but why say that the length of the pendulum is in turn its height in relation to potential energy in some books?
basically would it not be correct to have V=-mgLcos(theta)?