one thing i love about nahri, shannon and the daeva trilogy is how she isn't described as automatically beautiful. each man who described nahri as beautiful were only truly stuck by her beauty after spending, a shit ton of time with her. like when dara, muthadir, and alizayd first meet her, they aren't like "oh wow, shes striking and gorgeous and i need her, want her, or i will be destroyed"
they understood her as a person, saw her ferociousness and only then was her beauty evident. and i just like that so much, its so important for leads to be not be drop dead gorgeous like Aelin or Inej or Zoya.
Mare, Nahri and Alina hold a special place in my heart for not being societally correct and physically first sight gorgeous gorgeous girls but still standing up for themselves and having their own stories both love and personal.