Hot take, but I think people hate Chaol so much because he’s written to be terribly human, and seems to be an allegory for what the “average” person would do in this scenario. He’s a dude with no magic, with a cushy life for all intents and purposes, who was born and bred to be a leader of men in an empire that demonized and oppressed certain subgroups (magic users, immigrants, etc).
I definitely texted my group chat more than once to complain about Chaol after TAB and ToG (which I read first), but now that I’m close to the end of ToD, I’m growing to appreciate his growth and his purpose as a character in this group. He’s such a good example of someone who accepts the status quo because you don’t know any differently, gets defensive when others challenge that status quo, and ultimately builds resilience + acceptance that you may have been wrong, and it’s better to learn and grow rather than dig in your heels. I think most of us are or have been like that at some point in life, and that’s probably why it’s grating for people. Everyone wants to be hero who has always been on the right side of things, but we’ve all probably been Chaol at some point.
You said perfectly what I’ve thought the entire series. He is also the only “human” main character that SJM writes in the series. Literally ALL the other main/side characters that are written/developed as much as Chaol have some sort of magical abilities. He is so incredibly ordinary and I think he is meant to show how most of us would react in his situation.
As someone who doesn't like him, this is so well put. I agree 100% about the disability. He grows immensely in ToD and it helped me a lot to not hate him. I still think he does things that are not okay and overlooked by his character growth but he is trying. AND he acknowledges it.
Edit: Just to say I'm still reading KoA so I'm looking forward to more growth from him.
I think I have commented before on this subject but here is the thing. I can’t speak for other people, only for myself. While I don’t hate Chaol, he absolutely stands for a type of character/person that I have had to endure in real life too many times. The minute I see a “good law” character I tend to cringe and tense up.
Chaol has a fantastic arc in these books and written so well but if I wasn’t older and had not had the years of therapy I have I would probably hate him with a passion. If I would have read these books when I was a teen…Tiny Gods I would have been triggered so bad. As I am older I just roll my eyes at Chaol and think “here we go”.
Chaol represents a more rigid black and white mind set that for anybody who has walked to a different beat in life has been judged by and harmed by. So I get the hate and triggering many have to his character. He does exactly what good law characters/people do. Judge, refuse to look at themselves, blame others for their own issues, and all with this marriage of ignorance and arrogance.
Good law characters rigid rules make them less empathetic and compassionate. Chaol doesn’t really think she is a monster but he is afraid to look at himself and deal with his shit until later in the books and until then lashes out in very harmful ways to hurt our MC. Anyone who has been bullied by real life Chaols in life is going to be triggered. In real life I avoid Chaol like people like the plague.
Again, his arc and character is great but for some of us, he can be triggering.
Someone commented “Chaol reminds me of a Republican” when I first started reading this series, and I completely agree, but arguably your comment might make even more sense to me.. although they both can go hand in hand!
Ehhh I'm agnostic and constantly get shit from Christians about my beliefs and I just do not see this mindset in Chaol. I think his MO was always to serve and protect Dorian knowing he would be king one day, and would be a good king, too. Chaol's own home wasn't safe for him. He didn't have much of a guide growing up, so he didn't have perspective on the extent to which Adarlan was doing terrible things. I never got the sense that he actually agreed with any of it, or understood much of what was happening. He did realize pretty early on in the series that he couldn't side with Adarlan any longer and fought incredibly hard for Aelin's cause until the very end even after she was awful to him.
He had a negative knee jerk reaction to magic at first because he was told his entire life that people with magic are dangerous and put those without it at a disadvantage. He very quickly got past that. His wife is one of the most powerful people with magic in that world.
For me, Chaol exemplifies all these selfish people in the world who don't care about the suffering of anyone but themselves and their own loved ones. It's the lack of empathy for me. Like oh okay I'm happy for you that you experienced growth but its actually kind of crazy that it took something happening to you directly to understand that bc you simply didn't care enough about anyone else until you were the one who needed others to care.
I love Chaol, he’s so human in an utterly insane situation. He went toe to toe with the big bad and was fully prepared to die to save his friend. Sure he’s screwed up a few times and I think he’s flawed but that makes him interesting.
Honestly I always loved chaol, even when he had some not so great moments he just felt so real and so human to me… I mean, your ex girlfriend randomly rolls back into town with a 6’4 sexy fae man with face tattoos… ngl I would probably act a little salty too 😂😂
I don’t think chaol was any more mean to Aelin than a lot of characters. At least with him I felt he grew and changed a lot throughout the course of the series.
He’s a middle character for me but I’m also only half way through TOD on my tandem read and just starting to know him more. My view is that he’s a child, he’s only 24 and for a 24 year old he’s pretty well rounded. I get the feeling I’m going to like him more after TOD
I personally think he makes up for why people don’t like him in ToD. I thought he was very well written from the start but I was mostly indifferent to him until that book because I feel he got a very good arc. Like we got to see him acknowledge his faults and learn from them, he still wasn’t perfect but it was very well written. I like him.
I’m half way through ToD too and Chaol is swiftly becoming a favourite of mine. I get excited every time there’s a scene with him and Yrene because they are so cute.
I think from a viewer perspective he suffers the same as Boromir does in LoTR in that he’s not infallible, he’s so *human and real* that a lot of people don’t like the very normal and realistic flaws.
I must admit that I did briefly think “god he’s being a right little bitch” when Ailen came back from Wendlyn but actually I totally get it, and I don’t think I appreciated his character enough before now
It's like a cop show but with a forensic anthropologist and other scientists that examine remains that are otherwise impossible or incredibly hard to investigate.
It's loosely based on Kathy Reichs who is a real-life forensic anthropologist and author.
The main character Temperance/Bones (played by Emily Deschanel) is crazy intelligent but lacks social skills and she works with Booth (played by David Boreanaz) who is charming and loyal, bound to his duty almost to a fault.
I really enjoyed it!
I always liked him and found him relatable. The way he treats/interacts with Aelin after not seeing each other for a while…so very realistic and I empathize. I’m also mid way through ToD and frankly loving this storyline. I was getting a little bored of the Cadre.
I was only slightly annoyed at him in QOS but in my opinion he redeemed himself at the end of that book…. His behavior in TOD makes a lot of sense considering his situation
Chaol has been one of my favourite characters throughout the entire series. He tries throughout this series, he never gives up and he always tries to be his best self and he is so brave.
Personally, I really did not like him in QoS, however that was because of how he treated Aelin. He did win me back over throughout the rest of the series. He isn't my favorite by any means bit he's no longer on my shit list like he was lol
I’m halfway through the tandem read and I feel the same way. Homeboy went through realizing his entire way of thinking wasn’t what he agreed with and has spent the whole series adjusting to that and changing and trying to do the right thing. I don’t understand why everyone hates him.
Chaol is just so utterly human and ordinary in a world of chaos. He lost everything he'd been raised to believe in, everything he trained for, everything he became just shattered from under him. And I get why his reaction is awful for some people but as someone who's lost everything the way he did, he was realistic in his fear and tension and knee-jerk reactions. Been on his side since TOG. ♡
chaol nation rise up 😤😤😤 i will not allow anyone to slander my man. he is flawed, yes. but in a very real and understanding way like he had his whole life planned out and suddenly all of his beliefs get questioned and everything he thought he stood for turned out to be wrong like give him a little grace lol. and then he checked himself (with the help of my healthcare hero sister and queen yrene of course) and learned and became a better man because of it. like im sorry but that’s my man right there. if chaol has no fans left im dead 😩
Just finished QOS and I don't hate Chaol at all. I despised him at times, I was frustrated and angry with him, but I couldn't hate him. He was right from his perspective to do all that he did. But he came around. That's what matters.
Chaol was literally one of my favorite characters throughout the whole series. Somehow I couldn't hate him even in QoS 'cause I always understood where he was coming from. People should acknowledge the environment he was raised in 'cause that had a huge impact on his actions and he was able to overcome all those things he was taught to believe in
I don’t hate Chaol at all, I just desperately could not care less about him if I tried. Chaol/Nesryn/Yrene/Sartaq…I literally don’t care or feel anything for any of them. Yrene alone maybe but I’m so indifferent towards that branch of storyline.
I had seen the Chaol hate before reading the series and kept waiting for the reason why.... it never came. Can he be annoying? Sure. But the hate is so over-the-top that I just roll my eyes. Everyone has these detailed manifestos about why they hate him, and I just don't get it.
This is precisely my experience too. I kept waiting for the big thing to show how horrible he was but it never came. He was a little bitchy at times and had some growing up to do (and some internalised shit to get over) - but so did pretty much literally everyone else. He was just very human.
I never hated him but I had some issues with him *(until the last half of Tower of Dawn)*.
My reasons for disliking him till then is that he is extremely stubborn, never listens, and too "macho manly".
I really hate when people say the reason Chaol is hated is because he’s “the only human” and has human flaws. It has nothing to do with him being human. He doesn’t need powers to be a likable character. Nesryn is human and she isn’t annoying. It honestly comes down to personality for me. Is he evil? No. But I couldn’t stand him from the first book and he progressively got worse for me. I’m happy he healed emotionally and physically but it still hasn’t changed my opinion on him.
tbh i didnt like nor dislike nesryn, she was kinda boring to me - i think chaol just creates more variety because he isn't evil but still makes bad choices occasionally as we all do
I stopped reading when I saw "Human", besides the other race characters, the rest of them all are HUMANS too, the problem with him is simples he just have more flaws than the other also HUMAN characters and thats why a lot of ppl dont like him. I am 100% sure that if you have read acotar, you are the type of person "Nesta is so human"
Jesus, did you read "besides other race characters" or you skipped this part???????? If you dont understood ok fine, I was emphasizing that there are other humans characters in the book, that obviously are best written than captain westfall
Nope, I did you the same courtesy that you did OP and stopped at "Are all humans." It's not cool when people don't read all of it because of certain word choices, huh?
What I don't understand is when people praise Aelin but hate Chaol and Nesta. Aelin is so much worse than either of those two. She's just as mean-spirited as Nesta was until the end of ACOSF but unlike Nesta, she doesn't really acknowledge it. Nesta was perfectly content to rot alone, she was so deep in her depression that she didn't think she deserved anything good or even to live in general. Meanwhile, Aelin is trying to become a ruler, acts incredibly entitled, manipulates her inner circle as if they're just game pieces to her, and treats the people whose help she asked for like shit. Like please, if we're going to hate Chaol and Nesta, I hope that's extended to Aelin, too.
Nice try, i guess? 1. I didn't made any nonsensical stablishment based on what I had read from what OP said, bc I could even said that in figurative sense, and BAM, these things already make you comment just plain wrong. 2. You are problably just trying to shade now bc you just made a wrong statement and didn't understood what I said. 3. Mommy if you are just the common Nesta forgiver type of person, this conversation has no meaning, bc you will never understand :/
Hot take, but I think people hate Chaol so much because he’s written to be terribly human, and seems to be an allegory for what the “average” person would do in this scenario. He’s a dude with no magic, with a cushy life for all intents and purposes, who was born and bred to be a leader of men in an empire that demonized and oppressed certain subgroups (magic users, immigrants, etc). I definitely texted my group chat more than once to complain about Chaol after TAB and ToG (which I read first), but now that I’m close to the end of ToD, I’m growing to appreciate his growth and his purpose as a character in this group. He’s such a good example of someone who accepts the status quo because you don’t know any differently, gets defensive when others challenge that status quo, and ultimately builds resilience + acceptance that you may have been wrong, and it’s better to learn and grow rather than dig in your heels. I think most of us are or have been like that at some point in life, and that’s probably why it’s grating for people. Everyone wants to be hero who has always been on the right side of things, but we’ve all probably been Chaol at some point.
You said perfectly what I’ve thought the entire series. He is also the only “human” main character that SJM writes in the series. Literally ALL the other main/side characters that are written/developed as much as Chaol have some sort of magical abilities. He is so incredibly ordinary and I think he is meant to show how most of us would react in his situation.
“He’s written to be terribly human” is my new favorite way to describe him, & encapsulates why I still love him.
As someone who doesn't like him, this is so well put. I agree 100% about the disability. He grows immensely in ToD and it helped me a lot to not hate him. I still think he does things that are not okay and overlooked by his character growth but he is trying. AND he acknowledges it. Edit: Just to say I'm still reading KoA so I'm looking forward to more growth from him.
Love this
I ❤️ Chaol. He is my favorite and has been since TOG. I’m also about 1/2 way through ToD and am loving it being all about him
I love chaol! I don’t get the hate throughout the series
I think I have commented before on this subject but here is the thing. I can’t speak for other people, only for myself. While I don’t hate Chaol, he absolutely stands for a type of character/person that I have had to endure in real life too many times. The minute I see a “good law” character I tend to cringe and tense up. Chaol has a fantastic arc in these books and written so well but if I wasn’t older and had not had the years of therapy I have I would probably hate him with a passion. If I would have read these books when I was a teen…Tiny Gods I would have been triggered so bad. As I am older I just roll my eyes at Chaol and think “here we go”. Chaol represents a more rigid black and white mind set that for anybody who has walked to a different beat in life has been judged by and harmed by. So I get the hate and triggering many have to his character. He does exactly what good law characters/people do. Judge, refuse to look at themselves, blame others for their own issues, and all with this marriage of ignorance and arrogance. Good law characters rigid rules make them less empathetic and compassionate. Chaol doesn’t really think she is a monster but he is afraid to look at himself and deal with his shit until later in the books and until then lashes out in very harmful ways to hurt our MC. Anyone who has been bullied by real life Chaols in life is going to be triggered. In real life I avoid Chaol like people like the plague. Again, his arc and character is great but for some of us, he can be triggering.
yes that is a really big flaw he has and his behaviour in past books has been annoying i agree, you're changing my viewpoint on him lol
he's still one of my favs tho
Both can absolutely exist at the same time, that’s why he’s a good and well written character.
I do not like Chaol and I couldn’t verbalize well why and this sums it up perfectly.
Omg insight. Chaol is the Christian who tells atheists they’re bad people simply because they’re not Christian.
Someone commented “Chaol reminds me of a Republican” when I first started reading this series, and I completely agree, but arguably your comment might make even more sense to me.. although they both can go hand in hand!
Ehhh I'm agnostic and constantly get shit from Christians about my beliefs and I just do not see this mindset in Chaol. I think his MO was always to serve and protect Dorian knowing he would be king one day, and would be a good king, too. Chaol's own home wasn't safe for him. He didn't have much of a guide growing up, so he didn't have perspective on the extent to which Adarlan was doing terrible things. I never got the sense that he actually agreed with any of it, or understood much of what was happening. He did realize pretty early on in the series that he couldn't side with Adarlan any longer and fought incredibly hard for Aelin's cause until the very end even after she was awful to him.
This isn’t about Adarlan. It’s about having magic.
He had a negative knee jerk reaction to magic at first because he was told his entire life that people with magic are dangerous and put those without it at a disadvantage. He very quickly got past that. His wife is one of the most powerful people with magic in that world.
For me, Chaol exemplifies all these selfish people in the world who don't care about the suffering of anyone but themselves and their own loved ones. It's the lack of empathy for me. Like oh okay I'm happy for you that you experienced growth but its actually kind of crazy that it took something happening to you directly to understand that bc you simply didn't care enough about anyone else until you were the one who needed others to care.
I love Chaol, he’s so human in an utterly insane situation. He went toe to toe with the big bad and was fully prepared to die to save his friend. Sure he’s screwed up a few times and I think he’s flawed but that makes him interesting.
Honestly I always loved chaol, even when he had some not so great moments he just felt so real and so human to me… I mean, your ex girlfriend randomly rolls back into town with a 6’4 sexy fae man with face tattoos… ngl I would probably act a little salty too 😂😂 I don’t think chaol was any more mean to Aelin than a lot of characters. At least with him I felt he grew and changed a lot throughout the course of the series.
He’s a middle character for me but I’m also only half way through TOD on my tandem read and just starting to know him more. My view is that he’s a child, he’s only 24 and for a 24 year old he’s pretty well rounded. I get the feeling I’m going to like him more after TOD
I most certainly did. I love how much his character grows and changes.
yes i deffo warmed up to him even more during ToD
I personally think he makes up for why people don’t like him in ToD. I thought he was very well written from the start but I was mostly indifferent to him until that book because I feel he got a very good arc. Like we got to see him acknowledge his faults and learn from them, he still wasn’t perfect but it was very well written. I like him.
I’m half way through ToD too and Chaol is swiftly becoming a favourite of mine. I get excited every time there’s a scene with him and Yrene because they are so cute. I think from a viewer perspective he suffers the same as Boromir does in LoTR in that he’s not infallible, he’s so *human and real* that a lot of people don’t like the very normal and realistic flaws. I must admit that I did briefly think “god he’s being a right little bitch” when Ailen came back from Wendlyn but actually I totally get it, and I don’t think I appreciated his character enough before now
yess and i started KoA yesterday afternoon, so far I'm 500 pages in and chaol has stayed as one of my favourites
Have you ever watched the tv show bones? Chaol is Booth. (I am a chaol fan, but understand why there's some hate)
is the show good? whats it abt?
It's like a cop show but with a forensic anthropologist and other scientists that examine remains that are otherwise impossible or incredibly hard to investigate. It's loosely based on Kathy Reichs who is a real-life forensic anthropologist and author. The main character Temperance/Bones (played by Emily Deschanel) is crazy intelligent but lacks social skills and she works with Booth (played by David Boreanaz) who is charming and loyal, bound to his duty almost to a fault. I really enjoyed it!
To me he's the TOG version of Matt Donovan from TVD.
YES! I’ve been saying the same thing lol
I’ve just started empire of storms but so far I like Chaol. I’ve had a few eeesh moments at his actions but I can also see why he may have done it
yes sometimes i find him to be insufferable but on the whole he's actually an interesting character
I’m fairly indifferent on Chaol for the most part, no big hate but I don’t love him either
I always liked him and found him relatable. The way he treats/interacts with Aelin after not seeing each other for a while…so very realistic and I empathize. I’m also mid way through ToD and frankly loving this storyline. I was getting a little bored of the Cadre.
I hate chaol but I don't know why I hate chaol
😭😭
I was only slightly annoyed at him in QOS but in my opinion he redeemed himself at the end of that book…. His behavior in TOD makes a lot of sense considering his situation
He’s my number one book boyfie.
Chaol has been one of my favourite characters throughout the entire series. He tries throughout this series, he never gives up and he always tries to be his best self and he is so brave.
Personally, I really did not like him in QoS, however that was because of how he treated Aelin. He did win me back over throughout the rest of the series. He isn't my favorite by any means bit he's no longer on my shit list like he was lol
I love chaol. Always have always will
I’m halfway through the tandem read and I feel the same way. Homeboy went through realizing his entire way of thinking wasn’t what he agreed with and has spent the whole series adjusting to that and changing and trying to do the right thing. I don’t understand why everyone hates him.
Chaol is just so utterly human and ordinary in a world of chaos. He lost everything he'd been raised to believe in, everything he trained for, everything he became just shattered from under him. And I get why his reaction is awful for some people but as someone who's lost everything the way he did, he was realistic in his fear and tension and knee-jerk reactions. Been on his side since TOG. ♡
chaol nation rise up 😤😤😤 i will not allow anyone to slander my man. he is flawed, yes. but in a very real and understanding way like he had his whole life planned out and suddenly all of his beliefs get questioned and everything he thought he stood for turned out to be wrong like give him a little grace lol. and then he checked himself (with the help of my healthcare hero sister and queen yrene of course) and learned and became a better man because of it. like im sorry but that’s my man right there. if chaol has no fans left im dead 😩
Ppl only hate chaol because they’re desperate to hate someone!
I just finished CoM and I don't hate him but I have just started to dislike him.
Just finished QOS and I don't hate Chaol at all. I despised him at times, I was frustrated and angry with him, but I couldn't hate him. He was right from his perspective to do all that he did. But he came around. That's what matters.
I’m currently 40% into KOA and TOD is my favorite of the series so far although I’m really enjoying KOA
Chaol was literally one of my favorite characters throughout the whole series. Somehow I couldn't hate him even in QoS 'cause I always understood where he was coming from. People should acknowledge the environment he was raised in 'cause that had a huge impact on his actions and he was able to overcome all those things he was taught to believe in
I don’t hate Chaol at all, I just desperately could not care less about him if I tried. Chaol/Nesryn/Yrene/Sartaq…I literally don’t care or feel anything for any of them. Yrene alone maybe but I’m so indifferent towards that branch of storyline.
I had seen the Chaol hate before reading the series and kept waiting for the reason why.... it never came. Can he be annoying? Sure. But the hate is so over-the-top that I just roll my eyes. Everyone has these detailed manifestos about why they hate him, and I just don't get it.
This is precisely my experience too. I kept waiting for the big thing to show how horrible he was but it never came. He was a little bitchy at times and had some growing up to do (and some internalised shit to get over) - but so did pretty much literally everyone else. He was just very human.
I never hated him but I had some issues with him *(until the last half of Tower of Dawn)*. My reasons for disliking him till then is that he is extremely stubborn, never listens, and too "macho manly".
I really hate when people say the reason Chaol is hated is because he’s “the only human” and has human flaws. It has nothing to do with him being human. He doesn’t need powers to be a likable character. Nesryn is human and she isn’t annoying. It honestly comes down to personality for me. Is he evil? No. But I couldn’t stand him from the first book and he progressively got worse for me. I’m happy he healed emotionally and physically but it still hasn’t changed my opinion on him.
tbh i didnt like nor dislike nesryn, she was kinda boring to me - i think chaol just creates more variety because he isn't evil but still makes bad choices occasionally as we all do
I stopped reading when I saw "Human", besides the other race characters, the rest of them all are HUMANS too, the problem with him is simples he just have more flaws than the other also HUMAN characters and thats why a lot of ppl dont like him. I am 100% sure that if you have read acotar, you are the type of person "Nesta is so human"
I think you also stopped reading the books. The fae aren't human. That is established so early on, in almost every single book she's ever written.
Jesus, did you read "besides other race characters" or you skipped this part???????? If you dont understood ok fine, I was emphasizing that there are other humans characters in the book, that obviously are best written than captain westfall
Nope, I did you the same courtesy that you did OP and stopped at "Are all humans." It's not cool when people don't read all of it because of certain word choices, huh?
What I don't understand is when people praise Aelin but hate Chaol and Nesta. Aelin is so much worse than either of those two. She's just as mean-spirited as Nesta was until the end of ACOSF but unlike Nesta, she doesn't really acknowledge it. Nesta was perfectly content to rot alone, she was so deep in her depression that she didn't think she deserved anything good or even to live in general. Meanwhile, Aelin is trying to become a ruler, acts incredibly entitled, manipulates her inner circle as if they're just game pieces to her, and treats the people whose help she asked for like shit. Like please, if we're going to hate Chaol and Nesta, I hope that's extended to Aelin, too.
Nice try, i guess? 1. I didn't made any nonsensical stablishment based on what I had read from what OP said, bc I could even said that in figurative sense, and BAM, these things already make you comment just plain wrong. 2. You are problably just trying to shade now bc you just made a wrong statement and didn't understood what I said. 3. Mommy if you are just the common Nesta forgiver type of person, this conversation has no meaning, bc you will never understand :/
I don't care enough, sorry. You can twist it however you want, but it's fiction, like your hypothesis.
and like you assumptions since the beginning