#pll meta

[buffyspeak]

it feels very clear to me that the reason the mona reveal was so impactful where the other 'a' reveals were just. bizarre was because the liars genuinely DID do wrong to her when alison was around. don't get me wrong, i don't believe they deserved what she did to them - but they weren't even bystanders of alison's bullying, they were enablers, and probably at times active participants of their own accord. this is tempered by sympathetic moments with the liars regarding mona (such as aria, in the flashbacks, arguing that maybe they should wait for mona before alison steers her away, or emily apologizing to her in late season 2), but it's undeniable that the early seasons were permeated with a strong theme of having to reckon with one's past mistakes. the liars had genuine flaws, made genuine bad decisions, and even as we rooted for them, as we sympathized with them, we also understood why they were targets. (again - not that they deserved what she did. but that it made narrative SENSE.)

even outside Everything Else (TM) regarding the disastrous storyline, charlotte targeting the girls made like.... 0 sense. she says she started because she realized the girls were happy alison was gone and wanted to make them pay, but by this point in the story, we, as an audience, have seen the girls grieve for alison, then fight to uncover the truth for her, then fight to protect her. yes, they all had complicated feelings - but literally who wouldn't? charlotte's reasoning just falls flat.

i never watched most of 6b and 7, but i've long since spoiled myself so i know about alex drake lmao. and it's once again just... not narratively appealing to me. like, i guess it at least makes a little more sense than charlotte did, her wanting to uncover the truth about charlotte and begrudging the life spencer had, but once again, it's just made up of plot convolution and has nothing to do with the actions of the liars themselves.

like. the liars had genuine culpability in how mona was treated before she turned the tables on them. that's what made the original story interesting! but eventually the show got so wrapped up in Big Plot Twists (tm) that it lost the heart of what made the mystery and tragedy impactful.

[jaggedwolf]

PLL Set Design

[nocakesformissedith]

from @its-kaylyn

[shortkingvi]

ruby alison dilaurentised her entire team

[cabeswaterdrowned]

For PLL: ❤️🧡💕

For Gilmore Girls: ❤️💚💖

Pll

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

I think it’s between Emily and Aria, and they get mischaracterized kind of in the opposite directions yet also some of the same ones. I think general takes on Emily make her out to be more the nice sweet vanilla one when in the show there are times when she’s really prideful and judgemental and has a lot of repressed anger and abandonment/commitment that can come out in a pretty dysfunctional way in her relationships, and there’s a lot there that’s really interesting to explore imo so her being dismissed as the nice sweet one with no interesting flaws can rub me the wrong way, and then with Aria I think there are times when she gets similar treatment but then a lot of the time fans who hate her either acknowledge her actual flaws but exaggerate them x100 and make them the only thing about her or they straight up invent new flaws she does not have rather than explore the interesting ones in canon. I think in general I’ll lean towards Aria because I think hardcore Emily lovers at least tend to have a good handle on her vs not all hardcore Aria lovers are the same way to me, and also I think Aria’s rep from a general audience standpoint as being the most coddled/ having nothing bad happen to her in the show is like. Very warped view of her character and the show lol. I don’t see people saying that about Emily even if they think she’s uninteresting.

🧡: What is a popular (serious) theory you disagree with?

I mean I think Aria as A is a fun idea to explore sometimes and I like exploring her dark side in general, but I don’t think it’s a really plausible theory for the show itself. Aria being on the A team maybe, but not her being A herself operating alone.

💕: What is an unpopular ship that you like? 

Defining this as ships that actively get hate rather than rarepairs or ships that are more polarizing … I like Spaleb more than the average viewer for sure, they’re far from otp status but I find them more compelling than any of the other m/f ships.

Gilmore Girls

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

hmm… I’m going to say Emily and Richard I love Emily and really like Richard but a lot of the takes on them as actually the in the right party re: Lorelai and later seasons Rory is :// to me.

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

I feel like in discussions about Rory’s privilege you have her haters who are really un-nuanced about her privilege level and think there is like. Zero difference between how Rory grew up and how Logan or Paris did, and then on the other hand you have her defenders who make valid points about the struggles she did grow up with, but I will say it sometimes really shows when said defenders are white and don’t think about the level of white privilege in things like her treatment in jail the community service, there’s a lot to unpack there and I do think Rory is very much responsible for her choices during that era as much as I am far from a big fan of Logan and prefer Literati to Rogan by a lot I do think when other Rory Stans who are Literati’s try to spin that era as Logan making Rory do everything they don’t like her to be doing it’s a bit infantilizing/taking away her agency and refusing to interact with specific parts of her character. But then I also can’t stand a certain faction of fans who call the female leads of the show out for privilege and white feminism and then hand out cookies left and right to chars like Logan and Christopher for the bare minimum so like, actually discussing how white privilege effects Rory and Lorelai does have an unfortunate slippery slope effect with the wrong kinds of people. This got off topic but basically I think different people are either too critical or not critical enough of Rory re: privilege and types of privilege.

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

Are we talking opinion most contrary to general public perception or most unpopular according to tumblr opinions? I’ll try for one that I think could count for both as much as I strongly dislike Rory/Dean as a ship I would not write out the infidelity plot in end of s4/early s5 I think it actually worked really well for Rory’s character… there’s narrative framing stuff that I could’ve gone for changing but that goes into like. Dean’s framing over the course of the show being unduly positive. But basically I do think that plot needed to happen.

Ty!

[terrifyingstories3]

caleb doesn't understand hanna not talking about him in therapy because if he went to therapy he would just talk about her for hours

[restlessnonbeliever]

#i could write an essay about this#but i’ll just say: mona looking past the living alison doll she created so she can look at the real (hallucination) alison#which hanna doesn’t see bc she hasn’t realized yet that mona made her into a living alison doll that would love her#this ot3 dynamic makes me INSANE!!!! (its-kaylyn)

[the-unsea]

I’ve been thinking about my trajectory of shipping in my life.  The first couple I can remember ‘shipping’, as in they weren’t together on the show and I wanted to see it happen, was Joanie and Chachi on Happy Days.   They would eventually get married in the final season.

As I got a little older, I started liking more ‘grown up shows’.   Scarecrow and Mrs. King started a love for crime solving partnerships, it would lead to Hunter and DeeDee, then Harm and Mac.   

Bickering co-workers started with Tony and Angela from Who’s The Boss, which would lead to Rebecca and Sam from Cheers and then to Donna and Josh on The West Wing, and Chandler and Monica from Friends.

I was really invested in online fandom from about 1999-2007.   By that time, I had 4 kids and not a lot of time to focus on watching anything.

Sometime in the spring of 2018, I got so fed up with the usual posts on Twitter and Facebook being about politics and how terrible the world was.  At that time I had also become really, really invested in Lyatt (Timeless), in a way I hadn’t been since Harm and Mac in 1998.  I found my way to Tumblr, and that led me to Bellarke (The 100).   You’ll notice I have now given them a shipper name, when I was first in fandom we didn’t do shipper names.

But, since falling back into fandom, (and the huge exception to this is Naley)  I have since become obsessed with the hero/villain concept.  Darklina, Damerya, Haladriel!  I mean my hubs and my kid have been on me for 20 years to watch LOTR, and I haven’t yet!   And now my latest obsession seems to be Chuck and Blair!    I can’t help but wonder what it says about me that the older I get the more I seem to fall for the bad guy in the scenario.  I was never that way in the past.

[lingeringscars]

spencer having a home. spencer feeling safe. spencer being around people that make her feel comfortable. spencer being loved for everything that she is. spencer getting to spread the warmth that she has inside of her to people that share it. spencer getting to receive warmth and love and care. i

[jaggedwolf]

So to see Hanna actually engage in a therapeutic experience (involving, note, scary warnings and a lot of shadow back-talk; exactly what Hanna would actually experience in this environment) and then come out the other side having gained a fair measure of control—over the Alison we’ve all got in there, that speaks for her troubles; a major reason they all loved her in the first place was how she embodied those energies for them, so she could stay clean—is itself fairly therapeutic to watch.   You don’t think of Hanna as being the heavy lifter, generally, but that was hard work, down to the huge defensive pushback right before she broke. I don’t think this particular move is necessary for the other girls—although Spencer’s going to need something similar just because her rage is so controlled, and therefore uncontrollable—but it’s the truth that of all of them, Hanna missed Ali the most and has the most to gain by saying goodbye.   For Spencer it’s as simple as letting go of ambition long enough to let somebody else win. For Aria it’s looking herself in the mirror and realizing she’s just a kid. For Emily, it’s learning that getting half of what you want is bullshit compared to wanting something you deserve. But for Hanna, it’s ripping herself down the middle and throwing away half: Standing in the wreckage of what’s left, and continuing to stand.   You think that letting go of grief is going to be this sweet goodbye thing and the person floats away into the clouds and a tear rolls down your cheek, but if it were that easy you would just do it. Grief counseling works the same no matter how you felt about the person, obviously, but the toughest ones are the ones that are both, because it’s not a quiet sad cloudy tear, it’s a burning acid storm.   The hardest ghosts to give up, the ones we hold onto the longest, are the ones that hurt us the most, because they’re knit the furthest down into our bones; they hold on strongest, jealously clinging, when it’s time to go. When you love somebody, that’s about them—but when somebody abuses you, that’s about you, so your memories of them are more powerful than the person ever was, because it’s part of what makes you who you are.   Letting go of somebody you hated and loved means doing major surgery on your own self, burning off the parts that don’t work without losing anything you should keep. You can do the easy part after the hard part. This was the hard part.

Jacob Clifton, Destroy Everything You Touch Today: Watching Pretty Little Liars 2A

[zalrb]

i think part of the appeal for PLL, at least for me where it’s nostalgic and what i watched in middle school, it’s earnestly bad? it’s not really self parodying the way riverdale or something like that is. it’s absolute trash but it’s very earnestly trash and not trying to lampshade the fact that it’s trash. that’s just my take anyway

yeah that makes sense, although i feel like riverdale being self-parodying is like, i don't know, you cant' take yourself seriously if you self-parody and from what i'd seen of riverdale it took itself way too seriously to be as meta as people told me it was.

[cancerian-woman]

Now I have to know, what are your favorite rare pair ships? What are some that surprised you but you can see?

that's fun!

Tyler and Kim (the hybrid girl from his pack). Kim was really short-lived character, but I think she and Tyler would've been perfect longterm!

Tyler and Rebekah. A temporary fling between the two of them would've been fun for the drama.

Elena and Liam. It was nice to actually see her have interest in anyone other than the Salvatores. I don't he was as bad as the majority of the fandom makes him out to be. I said it once a while ago that Elena's storyline was wrapped after they made her chose a brother and stopped being a doppelganger but that's another post (daily fuck you to julie plague) Elena has really interesting ships. I do like Elena and Lucien too though! That i'm learning about.

Peyton and Jake - Not as rare as the others but very small compared to most OTH ships. Owen and Brooke is one of my favorites too

Last one Samara and Emily from PLL.

Tbh, I don't think I've been super surprised by ships. I think I'm more surprised when people aren't accepting to headcanons or fanon. Living under the idea that canon is the only way media can be presented. If I am super unaware of a ship, I like to read metas so I can learn what someone else could've seen that I missed. I think that's one of the fun parts in fandom. Learning ideas from another. I hope answered this right!

Thank you for the ask!

[thequeenintheeast]

Yeah didn’t notice Kelly at pool with killer. Bloody rose is def Karen or Kelly as we’re still not quite sure if they switched or not.

Killer is small I def think a girl we knocked out Jenn and Kelly from them being seen elsewhere when bloody rose attacked the girls individually.

I’m committed to male accomplice being Shawn def Shawn because Noa cheated then lied. He hasn’t been to any party or group thing this season and he’s really laying the I love you so much….ill always choose you Noa stick way to thick. Like he’s trying to get her to tell the truth.

Also Greg is getting set up for a hero moment so I’m thinking he shows up to save Faren and Kelly at the pool.

PLL OS Summer School 2x06-2x08 Trailer Breakdown

*Spoilers for PLL Summer School 2x01-2x05 + the 2x06-2x08 trailer

Okay, well I've been assured that I am not talking only to myself, so let's do this.

So, while the timeline of events isn't 100% clear, I have been able to group together stuff that I think is related and/or stuff that I think will happen in the same episode.

First up, we see the girl's discussing the tests. Based on their outfits, this is at the top of 2x06. This is the convo where they acknowledge Imogen & Tabby are 'next'.

Chronologically, I think the next few things we've got (but I'm not 100% sure on the order) are- The girls compiling their suspect list, Imogen accusing Dr. Sullivan of being Bloody Rose, Imogen & Tabby staying over at their love interests, Imogen & Tabby's summer school "walk of shame," and Redemption House being put together. While Imogen wears the same outfit in all of these scenes (presumably over the course of two days), Tabby's outfit changes, which is why I think the list of suspects scene is before the others, since she's wearing the blue shirt for her date and the morning after. I think Imogen accuses Dr. Sullivan either directly before or after they compile their list, as she has lipstick on in both those scenes, but does not in the scenes the following morning. (Also the shot of them building Redemption House could come whenever, I just think it's generally in this time).

Their list is - Dr. Sullivan, Kelly Beasley, Mrs. Beasley, Mrs. Langsberry, Deputy Maroon, and Rose Waters (you can't see her name in these screencaps, but you can at another angle). These are all characters the viewers are pretty suspicious of (except Deputy Maroon. I didn't even remember who that was).

Here's Imogen accusing Dr. Sullivan of being Bloody Rose. We don't have a lot to anchor when this happens, just Imogen's outfit and lipstick.

These are the outfits we see them in for the "walk of shame," so definitely the night before the following shots.

^^this shot of Redemption House is cut with other shots when it seems to be open, but I don't believe they're from the same scene. I think this is earlier.

Next we have Kelly announcing Redemption House to the class. The way the trailer is cut, it implies this happens during the morning after the "walk of shame" scene, but it's definitely a different day, because the teacher is dressed differently.

This is also a difficult shot to anchor in time, but I think it must be pretty early 2x06, since so much of the trailer focuses on Redemption House. I think this may actually be the day before the shots it's cut with, but I'm not sure.

Next up, we've got the girls with Redemption House (in Imogen's house). We see them standing outside during the day, and lines of people going in. We also see them inside the house, and then outside at night, all in the same outfits.

Since there's a limit to how many photos I can add to a post, I'm only going to show a little bit of the house, but I'll talk about the rest.

There are a lot of shots from inside the house, but I don't want to waste all my image space on it. The house appears to be specifically themed after the girls season 1 storylines, implying someone has a lot of access to the details of what happened to each girl. I think we get glimpses of scenes based on several of the girls- Mouse on her laptop with Steve, a party where a girl (I think representing Tabby or Imogen) appears to be drinking/dancing, what looks like a drug den (for Noa), two shirtless football players (played by Henry and (I think) Greg) and I'm not sure if this is related to one of the girls or if this is more a sexuality shaming thing. It appears that the girls walk through the house, then an enraged Imogen blows out the power.

Okay, so the next "group" of scenes are- Noa suggesting Christian and Johnny be added to the suspect list, Tabby frightened and falling down Christian's basement stairs, all the girls (and Christian) except Tabby at the Orpheum, seemingly being chased by a mob (that appears to be the online version of the Bloody Rose cult). Again, I've grouped and ordered these in this way based on clothing and context. I assume Tabby is not with the other girls because she has possibly been injured earlier in the episode.

Noa suggests Christian and Johnny as suspects. This shot of Tabby is not 100% guaranteed to be from this scene (though they imply it with the editing), but I think it probably is. We also see Mouse in this scene sitting in front of Noa.

Tabby is wearing this same outfit when she falls down the stairs to Christian's basement.

There are quite a few shots of this sequence where The Orpheum appears to be under siege, which I believe happens later the same day as the previous two scenes. Noa is dressed differently from the scene where she mentions Christian and Johnny, but Mouse is definitely wearing the same top in this sequence as she is when she's sitting in front of Noa, so I think this is that evening. These scenes being in this order would also explain Tabby's absence from the chase sequence.

So I feel reasonably confident about the chronology of the stuff before this point. The rest of this, not so much. I have compiled some shots that are scattered through the trailer that appear to be from the same scene, but where exactly they fall in the timeline is difficult to say.

First, Kelly with Bloody Rose at the pool. I think these shots of Faran might go with this scene (or she may find Kelly after this scene?), because she is at the pool at night.

Not pictured- a shot of what looks like Kelly floating facedown in the pool, Kelly looking back over her shoulder, and another similar shot of Faran. These shots are not shown together in the trailer, but the Kelly shots are definitely connected & I also believe these Faran shots are related. There is also a shot of Bloody Rose standing outside a chainlink fence, which may be here, but I'm not sure.

Next up, Imogen's "test" and a scuffle with Rose. These shots are also split up throughout the trailer, but all appear to be from the same scene. Imogen enters a bedroom (her mother's?) filled with candles. We get a glimpse of her "final girl" letter. She is then attacked by Bloody Rose.

You cannot see it in these shots, but there is a crucifix hanging over the bed, which definitely felt very Mrs. Beasley-ish, but I think this is Imogen's house.

Now on to the stuff that is even more disconnected. I think we might be getting more nightmares from Imogen. There is a very incriminating shot of Dr. Sullivan that I don't believe they would ever show us in a trailer if it were real, where she has the Bloody Rose mask. Everything about this particular shot feels fake, so I think Imogen (who we know is suspicious of Dr. Sullivan) dreams this.

Additionally, I'm wondering if Imogen has a dream about murdering Johnny. There is a shot of the creamery floor, and someone wearing the creamery uniform (that we've only seen Johnny in) being dragged as dead weight (I think being dragged by Imogen). This could be real, but I wonder if it's not related to the shot from the earlier trailer where Imogen and Johnny are hugging and she looks very upset (perhaps she dreams that she stabs him, then wakes up upset?)

If this is real, things are not looking good for Johnny.

Then we have a shot of Noa through a hole (the eye hole in the Bloody Rose mask?)

I really don't think there's much in the trailer that links with this shot of Noa, so who knows.

There's a shot of Mrs. Beasley saying, "I pray those girls suffer and burn."

No idea when this is, but Faran also says Mrs. Beasley is her top suspect. The more they point at people, the less I think they did it.

There's a shot of Tabby waking up (looks a lot like the shot of Mouse from the last episode) in what I assume is Christian's bedroom. It's not a location we're familiar with.

Tabby is wearing a different top here from any of the other scenes, and I'm not sure what to make of that. This could be Christian's shirt that she wears after their date shown earlier (Imogen appears to be wearing one of Johnny's shirts in his bed earlier in the trailer, so that would track), or it could be an entirely different day/night.

Here we have a scene where Mouse & Ash seem to be talking about Redemption House. He calls it, "an apocalyptic level of hate." I think this is likely in 2x06 and pretty early in 2x06, but Mouse's outfit doesn't match anything else she wears and Ash does not appear anywhere else in the trailer, so I have no way to confirm this.

Weirdly, Mouse actually seems to be wearing an outfit we saw her in earlier in the season (when she finds the rose), so I don't know if this was originally supposed to be in an earlier episode and it's gotten moved, or what. I do wonder if it's a re-ordered scene, because Kelly was passing out those flyers several episodes ago.

There's a few shots I want to note that I couldn't fit into this post because of the tumblr limits.

A shot of Christian (he's just wearing his Orpheum uniform, so nothing new to discuss there)

A shot of Johnny (also just wearing his uniform)

A shot of Mouse looking out of her window at night. It's a little difficult to see anything, so I didn't use one of my image slots on it.

The only stuff from the original "Weeks Ahead" trailer that we haven't seen yet are the shots from the Pride event at the pool, Imogen and Johnny hugging at work, and the girls walking into a location that I do not recognize at all.

So that's what is in the trailer, here's my takeaways.

If everyone is getting a test this season, I think Tabby's will be next and Imogen's will be last. Imogen and Rose in her mother's bedroom feels a bit like Archie chasing Imogen in season 1.

This trailer points so hard at Dr. Sullivan and Mrs. Beasley, that makes me feel they are likely red herrings. I've liked the Mrs. Beasley theory for a long time, but Faran directly calling it out in the trailer is pretty blunt.

No sign of several characters that presumably do have scenes, since their arcs are completely unresolved. No Jen or Shawn. No Wes. No Rebecca or Imogen's dad. No Mrs. Langsberry (unless her name being written down counts). No Mouse's grandmother. Obviously they have to deal with the Jen/Noa/Shawn stuff, so interesting that we see none of it. I also don't know why they would introduce Rebecca and then never have her reappear, so that would be weird. I definitely expect to see more of Wes, but that's also because he is one of my top suspects.

I'm wondering if Jen is a big part of the online Bloody Rose Cult. Out of the new love interests, we've spent the most time on her outside of her romance from Noa (her stealing, her mom being an addict, her dad being a "rich pharma bro," the bail money, etc.) and regardless of how honest (or not) that she's being, it would be weird for none of that to be plot relevant. The way she asked Noa about the Millwood Massacre in her first episode raised some red flags (it felt like she was pretending not to really know what that was about), and we know she's not from Millwood, but has come here for summer school (which could easily be on purpose), so I'm wondering how that could fit in. The shot of Noa (that looks like it's maybe through Rose's mask) could be her finding a BR mask in Jen's things. The Bloody Rose Cult people seem to be wearing various versions of the mask when they are chasing the girls. Jen also has a similar fashion sense to a lot of the online cult members we've seen.

I haven't forgotten about Chip's mom. I understand why a lot of people are suspicious of her (and she fits some major horror tropes), I just don't like that we haven't seen her like at all this season. So I don't know how to feel about that. But Tabby's arc surrounding Chip doesn't feel totally complete (the way she experienced flashbacks of him when working on her short and how she's still feeling the consequences of his betrayal in a way that Imogen doesn't appear to be), so I do acknowledge that.

We get very little Ash, Henry, or Greg in this trailer, so I have taken note of that as well. It doesn't specifically make me any more suspicious of any of these characters than I already was, because they don't really have a lot going on outside of the girls. Henry not having much left to do this season wouldn't surprise me. Greg will be around, I think, but he does still feel like a background character. I've mentioned my mental tug of war around Ash and his screen time several times, but considering how background Mouse has felt for a lot of this season, it's not entirely weird.

Probably not important, but based off of his bedroom, Johnny is really into music & I'm still holding out hope they might let him sing at some point. I don't see where that fits, but let me dream.

Also, speaking of his room- Johnny's room is absolutely packed with album covers, posters of bands and musicians, musical instruments, etc. and the set design is pretty maximalist in general in this show, so it can be hard to know what matters, so this probably doesn't. But he also has a giant ass poster of Edgar Allen Poe on his wall?? which like... is probably just a set design choice, but feels weirdly out of step with the rest of his room.

I don't think this trailer has vastly shifted any of my opinions, but I will be excited to see how correct I am about my timeline and guesses.

As always, if you have any thoughts opinions you'd like to share, let me know!

[b-etter]

Why do they keep making new Scream movies?? Don't they already have enough meta commentaries on the slasher genre???

PLL Original Sin did the same thing with the overwhelming movie references

Meta is cool and whatnot, but Scream meta was cool about 4 movies ago

Unless, of course, money

They should talk more about that on the next movie

They probably already said something similar about the Stab franchise, who knows

Ghostface will always be my fav slasher, but I'm never gonna need more than the first movie for that

[cabeswaterdrowned]

For the ship game: Aria/Alison and Aria/Alex Drake

Aria x Alison

Whether I ship it or not: I obviously do a lot! They’re one of my favorite pll pairings/dynamics. I’d say they’re my favorite Aria ship rn (sometimes Sparia ties with it depending on my mood) and in my top 2 Alison ships (with Monison).

Why I ship it or not: They’re just a very intriguing relationship, I love anytime pll creates a sort of homoerotic mirroring effect between the girls so things like Aria wearing the red coat, parallels between their home lives (their being groomed by Ezra, their home lives where one of their parents was unfaithful but even though that was Byron for the Montgomery’s and Jessica for the Dilaurentis’ the gendered dynamics in the marriage are similar imo, and both girls are kind of regarded as More Adult (the correlation between that and them being groomed Spencer is also a comparison there rather than Hanna and Emily who have comparatively more stable/supportive guardians but this isn’t about Sparia or Spalison I just had to mention it), and being kind of the vortex of controversy and attention (although those aren’t really positive) while their brothers are kind of sidelined. So in terms of that theirs a lot going on to dig into, and then Alison’s treatment of Aria in the flashbacks is very interesting because she treats her so much more like an equal than the other girls, I mean she does see Spencer as an equal in a way but that’s based on their rivalry and with an understanding that Alison wants the upper hand. With Aria she just seems like she wants her to be there in a way that’s .. simpler isn’t the right word. But I think Alison likes being reflected in Aria vs her conflicted feelings about being reflected in Spencer or Hanna and that’s interesting to me. I also think I enjoy when Aria’s forgiving nature and open mindedness is brought out in her dynamics with morally ambiguous women which I think is why aside from Spencer most of my ships I feel strongly about for her are with more morally duplicitous female chars, Alison Mona Jenna Alex in descending order tbh. (I also find Aria’s sharp edge / parts of her char that conflict with her “sweet/nice” image very interesting and those are also emphasized in these and by her finding Alison so compelling by). And all the liars visions of Alison are very interesting and more than a little gay, but Aria’s “you know why I picked you right” scene is especially ripe for analysis imo.

My opinion on their canon potential (chemistry, canon interactions, etc): Oh I think there’s quite a lot of canon basis for especially Alison’s side of it between the photographs she secretly took while Aria was sleeping, which when we think Jason took them were meant to assume is out of a warped sense of romance and then his words about Alison’s tendencies to hide things really sound like they’re about internalized biphobia and being in the closet, the cosplaying as an Aria look alike and then taking on aspects of an Aria persona with Ezra, a lot of her treatment of Aria being a lot more.. seeing her as an equal rather than a subject or rival. On Ali’s side it’s very easy to make the argument imo. On Aria’s side the relationship is super intriguing and I can read stuff romantically but in the way you can kind of read all the liars as at least a bit in love with Alison / they all kind of talk about her and imagine her in hallucinations in that way. In terms of chemistry I think theirs is good, it’s maybe not the most chemistry in any pairing between the girls like I think if you compared Sasha’s scenes with Janel or Troian with her scenes with Lucy she probably has a higher level of chemistry with the former two (but also that’s a bit unfair because Janel and Troian just have copious amounts of chemistry with like. Everyone (except Keenan in Troian’s case)). But there are plenty of scenes especially in the flashbacks (the first secret is crazy in this regard) where I’m like. Girlfriend behavior, maybe accompanied by close face watch (the scene where they wreck Byron’s office especially + all of the first secret especially).

My opinion on fanon interpretations/fandom around it (Favorite widespread hcs, pet-peeves, etc): Mostly that it’s massively underrated? Attribute that partially to I think a lot of fans are disdainful of Aria and don’t really think of her as a char Alison would be fascinated by or give a lot of thought to that, and Alison’s really polarizing as well, plus the fact the writers didn’t do much with the dynamic after Alison came back with the exception of 7.04. But I don’t remember a take about them I thought was *wrong* I just think they’re underrated/underexplored.

Aria x Alex

Whether I ship it or not: I ship it, not majorly because Alex as a concept isn’t super developed, but the things I like most about her are related to her fixation with Aria and the choices she made regarding her in 7b.

Why I ship it or not: I enjoy Aria’s whole 7b plot a lot and Alex is a contributing factor to it, and also like I said the Aria obsession piece made Alex more interesting to me and the Sparia compare/contrast is fun.

My opinion on their canon potential (chemistry, canon interactions, etc): well they don’t interact on screen a ton but Troian essentially plays Alex like Spencer but very British and more explicitly sapphic, “I’m so evil and skanky and I think I’m kind of gay”, so yeah I think they’re good on the chemistry front. And Alex Drake’s actions really only make sense if she was into Aria because why else would she kidnap Ezra of all people? Rather than idk, Peter Hastings? Too funny

My opinion on fanon interpretations/fandom around it (Favorite widespread hcs, pet-peeves, etc): n / a I haven’t seen that much and what I did see I mostly agreed with.

thank you!

(Send me a ship and I’ll answer these questions about them)

[thousand-page-dreams]

Ultimately, I think it's great that the girls are able to form a stronger, healthier friend group without Alison. Nobody is the leader, and they all matter.

In the flashbacks, it's shown that Alison picks on and insults Hanna constantly. In some moments, Alison shows warmth to the other girls, or at least appears to be having fun with them.

But with Hanna...there's hardly any. Any "affection" from Alison is backhanded.

For example: "You'll find someone who loves you...just maybe later than the rest of us."

The girls stood by while Alison bullied their classmates. The show implies that their silence makes them complicit. Almost all of the girls try to make up for this by befriending Alison's targets after her dissappearance.

(It's interesting that Aria is the exception but that's for another post.)

Aria stands up for Hanna to Alison once in one of the flashbacks, so I'd like to think this happened more than once. We only see bits and pieces of the original friend group, after all. Aria is also the least featured in the flashbacks.

But Spencer and Emily say nothing. Spencer fights back against Alison multiple times, but not usually on behalf of other people.

Should Hanna have stood up for herself? Absolutely.

Were the rest of the group also mistreated by Alison? For Spencer and Emily, of course. I think it's more complicated in Aria's case, though.

However, the other girls never apologize or even acknowledge their complicity. A conversation about it would've been nice when they reunited.

Another way to show how different they are from Ali: accountability and open communication.