Aelin only has two friends

And the rest are followers.

This is my major problem with the series, and Aelin to begin with, because I liked the rest very much.

Of all of Aelin's close relationships, I only enjoy the og trio. And the reason is simple: they are the only ones pushing back at each other. If one of them does something wrong, the rest will say it. Even Chaol, who practically venerates Dorian, will push back at him if he doesn't agrees with him, or simply ignore him like in heir of fire because he is to busy being in love to do something useful. I really enjoy the trio's interactions because theu show love and care with each other (I cry with Aelin every time they say bye to each other), but also chritisism that only a true friend will give you.

My biggest problem (and I feel it's a SJM problem in general, because I see it in most of her books) is that her "closest" friends never challenge her. When Lysandra appeard for the first time I really though "Yeah, a whitty fun friend, this is going to be a great time". But by the time we reach empire of storms, she becomes a yes mam', and all the whit and fun from when they were frenemies is over. She lives for Aelin. In the last two books she does a total of two things for herself, one of them getting with Aedion, the other being angry at him.

Theb we have Aedion, who gives a bit more of pushback, but not much. I think this is why I still like him a bit, he gets a bit angry with Aelin one of the multiple times she betrays his trust. And even in those cases, Aelin just leaves him to think, and doesn't even try to fix her wrongs, because the next day Aedion will still forgive her and be her loyal follower.

We don't even talk about Fenrys, because she just becomes Aelin's dog, literally.

And the worst one of all is Rowan. I think we were all so tired of toxic masculinity, that we forgot you are supposed to have a partner, not a follower. Their relationship in heir of fire (when he was supposed to be a mentor), is fine. He challenges her excessively, to a point it is unfair, and we can even hate him a bit until they start to grow, and learn to be equals, with dtill little push backs when misbehaving. And then they fall in love and he because yes 'mam numer 2. Aelin constantly lies, betrays his trust, schemes behind his back and even married him as part of a bigger plot she is planning, and the most we get for him is a "please don't do it again",which Aelin ignores because he never gets really angry and her actions have no consequences.

And that's s oroblem with most of the couples in the series. What do you mean Chaol is not even a bit pissed at Yrene for hiding her pregnancy, knowing that if Chaol died in batter, her and the baby would also die? Lorcan is still loyal to death, while Elide is angry, and incredibly cruel towards him? I don't know, at the end the only ships I fund interesting were the ones that didn't got together until the very end (Manon and Dorian and Aedion and Lysandra, as toxic as Aedion was, at least someone was getting a pushback), because I didn't got to see them become just agreement never challenge.

All in all, I ended up not rooting that much for Aelin, as her relationship with her "friends" infuriated me, and the lack of backlash she faced from them. I loved her at the beginning, during the first few books. It was cool to see her hardship, and her inner hesitation about trusting people arround her, and also feeling bad about betraying them. I miss her trying to find a place and getting people to like her. Even Manon gets pushback from her literal followers, and thats why her episodes trying to get to power were so cool, and her managing Dorian and the Corchans to belive her. I just hope I could have rooted more for Aelin by the end of the series, and enjoy more her personal relationships.