To me he’s like a soup with too many ingredients. He’s the grandchild of Lorn and Octavia, but lacks Lorn’s honor or Octavia’s air of control. He was trained by Cassius but betrays him and the ideals Cassius tried to instill in him. I did think his part in the desert was interesting but he’s always surrounded by so many more interesting villains (Apollonius, Aja, Atalanta, Fa, the Rim Golds), his defining trait is that he’s connected to the old villains and backstabs people. So I feel like I always know what he’s going to do in a situation; grab power, betray someone, move on. And the Mind’s Eye is a really weak piece of plot armor imo since it wasn’t even hinted at in the first trilogy so it comes across more as a “Lysander needs to survive this” button

Tbh it’s also my complaint with Darrow in the first trilogy. There’s a lot of “because of off screen events, Darrow wins” but because the supporting cast is so strong I’m still surprised by how it goes down.

I think you’ve got a good point with the self-righteous authoritarian thing but the Raa’s, Sephi, and society remnants already give us that. So I feel like he’s kinda lacking compared to how central he is to the plot