Ein rant cus i really love him.
Ein is genuinely a really complex character, both his genetics and environment take place in how he is as a person. With his environment being what mainly pushes him to be the way he is.
Ein was most likely groomed by micheal. Ill be outright with it, i can explain my reasoning another time but im gonna talk about why you cannot fully blame ein for his actions.
With ein being groomed by micheal, he was most likely raised in the bunny lodge, shown the wolves from a young age and forced into the belief that werewolves of todays age are too "soft" and "domestic" by micheal. This is most likely why ein knows of the wolves by the lodge, he already knows thats what he needs to be. But in order for him to become a leader, he needs to make the leader hierarchically lower than him.
Ein has the belief that
Micheal
Werewolves
Meif'wa
Humans
Are the order of who is most important in society. With micheal being seen as his master, micheal degrades zach for his lack of showing off his werewolf anatomy, this is something ein shares. Which is what makes ein see zach as lower.
When ein gets his ears taken, that is to him an equivalent to destroying your reputation, its why he resorts to potions to get power. Ein alone is weak, its why he resorts to using others, he is not a strong character. Even whilst fighting aaron, he resorts to dodging.
Despite zachs help towards ein, ein cannot help but see him as lower. Its what he is taught by micheal, its whats beaten into him. He is shown all these primal wolves and expected to have that urge, that fury and passion wolves carry. And ein attempts to be that, he needs to prove himself. If he cannot fight, he can use and tilt things into his own way. Micheal leaves him with little to no options as to where he can go, he has to use others cus no one will save him.
This idea that no one will save him carries through the entire show, ein in pdh s2 uses others and even the one person whos shows him mercy and he is so hungry for the need of power and proving his worth of life that he subsides this once chance at redemption. He believes that aphmau cannot save him, cannot help. She is only a human. Which is why he becomes so obsessed with the idea of aphmau becoming a werewolf, that she can be someone whos worth something. But she is not as powerful as she can be, he believes in using others for power, ein didnt have a crush on aph, he had an idolisation.
You cannot blame ein completely for forcing aphmau to be his, ein has seen nothing but force of this in his life. In s6 we see micheal threaten to sexually assualt/rape katelyn using travis' body. Whos to say he doesnt do this with other women aswell, even possibly eins mother or katelyns!!! Ein believes what hes doing is correct, aphmau is only a stone into making himself more powerful, she is just another person to use to him after he becomes alpha.
Its another reason why he needs aaron dead, he cannot have another werewolf stronger than him, he cannot handle that. Aaron destroys his entire idea of power, of value and destroys his morals. Ein needs him gone, he needs to prove that he is stronger that he is worth Micheal's time. Micheal is eins master, all he cares for.
But even in the end, no matter how much ein "proves" himself by the time he dies, he means NOTHING. He has been a product of his own actions, ein lives and thrives in the cycle of abuse, he needs to lower others to feel better, he has to be at the top. And its all for Micheal, and even then micheal claims that after drugging ein in s6 that EIN "got too ahead of himself" despite this being a product of Micheal forcing ein into doing stuff he did not want to.
Iii dont have much else to say. Ein needs others to feel worth anything, mainly Micheal's praise but whatever. I have severe braing fog recently so i apologise if this is weird or badly placed ext. I promise i have explainations i just cannot expand on it here
