Less than a week before the battle, she was struggling to push her shield out enough to cover one person, and had tenuous control over it. This much power being available to Bella was not realistic to me, based on what was written before. That's why Simon and Schuster introduced kryptonite, because it wasn't interesting for Superman to be completely invulnerable. Every superhero has his or her own kryptonite, otherwise the story gets boring. All comic book writers know this, and the story crossed over from vampires to superheroes the moment we got introduced to the LSV - Legion of Super Vamps. Making your character super-powerful destroys the drama of the story. But this is also part of the pathetic nature of this ending. Yes, I know that Bella and her shield tip the balance so that Aro won't have the easy victory he's been used to. The question is, how much does he weigh that against the threat of the assembled vampires and werewolves? He cares for them only as far as they enhance his power. So I wouldn't say he has love for his troops, even though he refers to them as his children. Aro was willing to kill his own sister, in order to further his ambitions. I think SM did alright with realizing this dilemma. He might take the Cullens down, but at too great a price.

It's really not in his best interest at all. Aro has some sort of love for his precious guard, so he's not likely to put them into a situation where he will lose many of them.

The problem with that is that Voldemort doesn't give a crap about his followers.

Book after breaking dawn