I read ACOTAR before Holly Blacks The Modern Faerie Tale series. I couldn’t help but compare Roiben to Rhysand, and came to the conclusion that Rhysand is the poor man’s Rath Roiben Rye. Roiben hates what he had to do and laments about the conditions of his servitude to an evil queen . But he isn’t hung up on what others think of him. He’s accepted how he’s perceived and doesn’t fault the other fairies for being wary. But for some reason when Rhysand would whine I just wanted to tell him shut the fuck up. It didn’t hit the same. And post-Nicnevin Roiben, who is high lord now, is an honorable leader that let’s his actions speak for themselves. He doesn’t have pages of apology monologues for the reader to have sympathy for him. He doesn’t need that.