I loved Alanna SO MUCH and Daine too but omg I couldn't finish the last book because of Daine/Numair, HE WAS SO MUCH OLDER THAN HER!! And don't get me wrong some of my very favorites are "strong female characters", in fact my very favorite (Dana Scully) in many ways fits the stereotype to a TEE. They are great! But sometimes they can be one-dimensional too, and they shouldn't be the be-all end-all of women in fiction. We need them, but we also need variety, and we especially need to recognize that strength doesn't just come in one package, and we're not "bad" if we're not strong. But yeah my flist mostly talks about him!! But yes Alicia is definitely b and c, SHE IS SO WELL-WRITTEN and she does have a ton of strength of character (she's my favorite too) but ugh I love how quiet she is too, that they write her as strong without falling into tropeishness.

But yeah I do the same thing tbh, specifically I JUST REALLY HATE WHEN MEN ARE ALL ~TORTURED BY THEIR PAST~ and meanwhile I... kind of enjoy it when girls are like that. We all have our things, I guess.