I always remember Alison asking Aria, “You know why I picked you right?” And for years I’ve wondered what the answer is. Barring the fact that these writers love putting in dialogue that sounds significant and then dropping it without so much as a by-your-leave, I think it might have been something along the lines of “you’re just like me.”
Making her lie was giving her the OK @ 14/15 that it was ok what byron was doing with his student & no wonder she followed his footsteps & seen nothing wrong w it
@@amberbernay I agree with you. But I wouldn't call it following in his steps since Aria was the minor here. She was the student, not the teacher. It's a little different.
@@idontevenhaveapla7224 It’s pretty much the same. W/ making her lying she seen it as okay for student/teacher relationships to exist. That was my point. So when i say following in his footsteps i mean the inappropriate relationship that shouldn’t exist.
It truly was glorification of pedophilia. I have NO IDEA how Marlene got away with it, especially as that "relationship" was depicted in the books as fucked up. She took a clearly problematic relationship and decided to glorify it to a huge audience of young viewers. And so many people felt for it.
seriously as a person who was dating someone older while in high school, pll validated that to me and my peers, but looking back with the knowledge of an adult, I don't know how the show or I got away with that sort of thing.
It’s honestly stupid how they judge everyone for their past and mistakes and background without looking at themselves. They literally blinded a girl...
@@rikusalenius4265 yeah, but even though Alison was the one that did those things, they were still apart of it. It’s not like the other girls are completely innocent. I don’t know about you but if I were blinded/bullied by a girl while her friends just watched, I would resent her friends too.
@@nachogames101 i understand i would probably be too, even if you dont take part in bullying if you dont even try to stop it then youre atleast partly responsible like youre condoning that behaviour.
I always felt so bad for Aria. Her friends would be out looking for leads on A, having fun together, on dates, etc and she'd just be stuck at her grown English teachers apartment fighting with him while he lies about his past
Omg I never thought of this but it is so true. Bc Ezra a manipulative bitch and whenever Aria wanted to hang out w her fam or see her friends, Ezra would be like “we shld rlly spend time together, are you sure you can’t just cancel?” like geez let the girl live her life
@@zach5438 probably why the Turkish version made him be A. Wish that the us version had had the balls to make him the villain but they didn’t because of the crazy Ezaria shippers.
I'm not sure how Ezra can NOT be seen as predatory given that he knew EXACTLY who Aria was, age and all when they met, yet proceeded to engage in a relationship with her. They try and excuse it away by making him say things like he didn't know he was gonna fall in love with her as if that somehow excuses the inappropriateness of him getting involved with her in the first place. Not to mention that Aria's reactions to varying degrees of their relationship demonstrates her lack of maturity in these areas, yet she sees herself as mature "for her age" Yo, when I was 16 I was with a 21 year old and I promise you as mature as I thought I was, I wish I could smack my 16 year old self for thinking such a thing. But that aside, Ezra was old enough to know better and also in the books that whole thing ends waaay sooner AND Aria actually is with Noel for a whole lot longer...to me this demonstrates their lack of interest to stay true to the source material AND demonstrates how Hollywood and the culture today is trying to perpetuate these sort of relationships as NORMAL which trickles down to not only more sexual exploitation in general, but in girls at younger and younger ages. It's sick.
I remember being called crazy by everyone, who watched the show for hating Ezra and the pairing in general, which really shows how problematic it is to glorify a relationship like that. I'm glad that at least now there are a lot of people, who agree on that. I used to feel like a snowflake.
Thank you so much for saying that! As someone that read the series and watched the show as a young kid/teen, I always just thought because everyone was older that the relationships were appropriate regardless of titles. Looking back, I realize how wrong, predatory, and inappropriate several of the romantic relationships on the show were. It's also worth noting that the show's narrative paints these relationships as right or necessary (when they are NOT) which sends a horrible message to young, impressionable viewers.
@@kellygreengables3936 yeah, like there were an overwhelming amount of relationships between waaay older guys/girls (I forget that Emily dated two older ladies) and the girls, many in whom didn't even exist in the books. It was frustrating to watch all that unfold, knowing that it was being glorified. Especially that it wasn't dealt with appropriately. Like teen girls see that and in their minds they're seeing a portrayal that is wrong construed as romantic and it sets girls up in the real world for being groomed and giving them a distorted view of what a healthy relationship is. I did really like Aria and Jason as a relationship later in the show better than Ezria, but even that attraction was wrong early on in the show because of the age gap, but like their ONLY reason for not pursuing it wasn't the age gap, but the sheer fact that he is Ali's brother and because everyone says he's "creepy".....as if Ezra isn't creepy.... On a side note, it really pissed me off the way Ezria reacted to the whole Nicole thing. Such garbage!
Up until the Ezra reveal he was irrelevant and clueless about what was going on in the whole show with “A” and had no ties to main story.I get being pissed that this couple was together but does that really blind you from seeing what was going on at the time.it’s not hard to see Ezra as not predatory when during the whole show(with the exception of those few episodes in 4B) he basically did nothing but help them.Even with his initial wrong intention all that ever did was save the liars lives.
The writers “This is why she can’t be with Jason he has this creepy side” Ezra : *knowingly makes out with a 15 year old and starts a relationship with her*
Talking about Jason I so pissed we never know if it's really Alisson who takes the pictures of Aria like he said and why i mean your dead friend takes pictures of you while you sleeping and when you discover she's alive you don't even ask her why ?!
her trying to be a stepmom could’ve been a really great segue for her to realize how much younger than him she is and how unsafe she is. what if the 3 of them were out together and a stranger assumed they were BOTH ezra’s kids, and it made her realize she’s just a kid and he’s an adult and this isn’t safe? i think that could’ve been a great storyline and helped end that problematic relationship
@AcademiaNut what infuriated me was when he was revealed to be a stalker and they didn't use that as a way to emphasize that he is a predator and his whole relationship with Aria was wrong. The writers went all those seasons glorifying pedophilia and had a prime opportunity to at least attempt to right their wrongs, then instead they just made it worse by saying not only is it fine for him to have a student-teacher relationship, it's also fine for him to stalk all the girls ??? wtf???? they should've realized they'd made a massive error with the way their relationship was portrayed and found a way for him to actually be reprimanded when they had such an easy chance
@@_namasteshay RIGHT!! alison was around 14 when she was with Ezra (assuming bc her birthday is in June) and she went missing in 2009 so i’d assume she turned 15 June of 2009 and went missing that same year, but anyways yeah if what i said was correct she would have been 14 while she was with Ezra
The main problem with the writing of PLL is that the writers didn’t utilize the characters and the potential storylines because they wanted to maintain “a show about the power of friendship”, BUT literally forgot to make the girls friends and portray friendship
For real, the only bonding I really saw was between Hannah and Emily, the friend group as a whole most likely would have drifted apart after high school irl and thats fine, they really ruined the show because of it. They could still portray the importance of friendship even if one of the girls turned on the others, they literally bonded over their mistreatment from Ali, it could have brought the others closer together
Aria's parents treated her like an adult when she clearly wasn't and that definitely made her susceptibility to being groomed worse because it made her "mature." Byron making Aria stay quiet about his affair was disgusting. And Ella blaming ARIA for keeping it a secret was so stupid. As a kid watching the show I thought they were such chill parents, but they're just bad parents who aren't taking any interest or worry in Aria's life.
@@violetrose674 A sent Ella a letter about the affair. Aria assumed that the letter said that Aria was keeping it a secret. After a couple of days Aria apologizes for it and Ella asks what she means, Aria tells her, and Ella gets mad at her and I think completely stops talking to her for a while.
Agree they made it seem she would be A the writer was an ass for actually sayings he was A without sayings I she would be ask liek give me a hint and then she put lightning bolts and Aria would wear a sweater with it or she posted the black swan art style as a tip for A and then a couple week Aria would be dress as A not to mention she lied say we saw A in the first episode and while yes we saw Mona she wasn’t main A
omg i'd never thought about Aria being so cruel towards Hanna bc of the fact that she was confronted with the reality of older men hitting on young girls being predatory and disgusting. That was such a good observation. She was hell-bent on not acting her age if we can call it that
Aria was like “oh A’s going to reveal my immoral relationship” and poor Emily was just sitting in the corner thinking “A’s literally going to out me but tell me more about your problem that is entirely of your own making”.
Hanna got hit by a car and her mother almost framed and executed, Emily had her girlfriend killed and almost died herself, as well as being attacked in the greenhouse, drugged and outed as LGBTQ, Spencer thought her boyfriend died, thought her boyfriend betrayed her, went through a drug addiction and Aria is just sitting there almost completley untouched asides from the Halloween train episode
@@stuffwithsoph8264 This just shows that Aria was written to be A. Of course she wouldn't do anything bad to herself. Remember that spinning bottle scene?
Out you, take away your future career in professional swimming, take away your feeling of safety by crashing a car into your home, your girlfriend dies! Your grades are slipping. ... Emily had it rough!
Next topic suggestion: Melissa Hastings. Her character was the most interesting outside the liars. Feel like she had so many secrets and unwrapped storylines. I honestly thought Melissa might be A. She needed more screen time. Also Torrey devitto is an incredible actress!!!
yesss i definitely thought she was gonna be some sort of villain and she had a motive too. Her boyfriend was all over Allison (at the time I thought she killed Allison because of it) or she could've been A or part of A because Spencer kept going after her fiances and wanted revenge.
She annoyed me because she was standoffish and bitchy in 99.9% of her scenes. I would have liked to see a softer side of her character without it being ruined by her immediately jumping to another conclusion and screaming at Spencer
@AcademiaNut naw he's the villain cuz he prioritized his grades and petty gains over aria's safety and well being when he knew a teacher was molesting a student 💀💀
@AcademiaNut I didn't mean he's better than Ezra, fucking Ezra is highkey one of the worst characters in the show 💀💀 groomed and r*ped aria and used her and stalked her and her friends
It still confuses me as to why Eddie Lamb thought he recognised Aria in Radley. Like was Aria secretly in Radley as a child, or has she got a secret twin? Or was it a plot hole?
Of all of the twins, like??? Allison made the most sense, but Aria made the second most! BUT THEN WE GOT A RANDOM SPENCER TWIN IN THE LAST EPISODE? Fuck Marlene King, tbh.
@@gokcenakdag8189 nah i’m not gonna lie tho Sasha did look around 16 as Ali in season one. Some people just look a little older and it does happen but she did NOT look like most 14 year old girls I’ve ever seen when I was that age, or myself. I do agree that she looked MAX 16 tho, definitely & without a doubt underage
Honestly I think Ezra and Aria should have been AD, with Ezra being the one to pull the strings, showing how creepy and manipulative their relationship actually is.
Especially with how he started telling her that she needed to grow apart from her friends and if they were to continue on in a relationship she needed to trust him and really only him. Could have been the perfect seque into the change from the more tame-ish A stuff after Mona’s reveal to the actual nitty gritty stuff like Mona being ‘murdered’, the girls being framed for murder, the dollhouse, because after aria started trusting and confiding in only Ezra and started drifting away from her friends she could have been convinced to do worse and worse things to them because they were no longer her friends, and any attempt made to try and bring her back into the friendship would have been framed by Ezra as an attempt to break them apart.
OH MY GOD I forgot about how Byron and Ella tried to tell her what to wear to school after finding out about E***. That's just straight up victim blaming, wtf????
I literally remember the exchange being something like “Oh now you have a problem with my clothes?” and her dad being like “Well cause now we know who you’re wearing them for” something along those lines .. her dads a creep
I noticed that in Season 1, Ezra freaks out when he finds out that Aria was looking at one college in California, BUT THEN a couple seasons later HE BREAKS UP WITH HER during her senior year of high school because HE thinks Aria should be experimenting during college or whatever. Ughhhhhhhhh I truly hate him.
Maybe Aria was so obsessive about Ezra from the beginning because she had always known about Ezra and Alison's relationship? That would be an interesting reason why she was so focused on Ezra, because if she had really been A originally, then a tendency to obsession would definitely have been there. A's entire personality was built on the obsession with Alison...
in my heart i’ll still always believe aria was meant to be A, there are just too many hints. like when mona straight up called her “Big A” lmao i just want to believe that’s why eddie lamb recognized her, why mona was scared of her, and why A *always* let her off the hook
I know this is off topic but I loved Mona and Mike together SO much. Mona was the best character and deserved happiness, as did Mike. I think the relationship brought out the best in both of them and I'm kinda mad that they weren't endgame.
Mike also valued Mona for her unusual intelligence. She was wicked smart but a bit more callous about it, which isn't uncommon for someone who is naturally a genius and doesn't have to study as hard as someone else on their level. Spencer is a good example. She works hard to be at Mona's level and sometimes falls short. Having Mike not only accept that but like that about her is great to see. He values all of her instead of picking what he likes about her. Hanna was her best friend for a year abd had no idea she was smart and probably wouldn't have been as close to her if she did know.
something that always annoyed me was when ezra quit his job at the high school and literally on his last day in the school car park 5 minutes after he’s officially left his position they’re making out. like the principal was still in school he could’ve seen that and it would’ve looked like there was a relationship previously
Yesss that annoyed me too because like they were literally still at school and it was weird how no one saw it cos it’s the end of day and people gonna be walking around and stuff
This always bothered me too! Don’t know if you are a fan of the Aria has mental illness theories BUT something that struck me was like what if when they are doing all this really obvious stuff where they would’ve been caught it’s like when she hallucinates later on in the series? I mean they didn’t frame it that way but they could have
I was 12 when Pretty Little Liars first aired and I did not understand at the time just how creepy Aria and Ezra’s “relationship? Was because, in my little baby brain, they were all older than me so it was all the same. Now that I’m an adult, I can see just how bad the whole thing was.
also I think the casting was very purposeful and bad. Lucy Hale was 21, so she doesn’t look like a teenager really does, and the dude playing Ezra looked too young. so their relationship doesn’t even strike people who don’t know the details as weird, because they look the same age, since they kinda are. it would not look like that irl
In the books, Aria is vegetarian because she ate a puffin burger in Iceland and she felt really bad when she found out what it was made of. And after that, she thought of sweet little baby puffins every time she saw meat.
I can’t believe I used to see nothing wrong with aria and Ezra’s relationship makes me mad at my younger self if that makes sense because I fell for this romanticised abusive manipulative relationship
You shouldn't me mad at yourself - that's why it's so wrong it was on tv because adults literally tricked younger teens and kids into thinking this is okay.
Omg you’re so right. I was the same. I started watching the show when I was 15 and it ended when I was like 17. Back then I never thought anything was wrong and even rooted for them. It makes me realise now, as I’m almost 20, that when you’re a teenager the brain just downplays stuff. Significantly. I don’t understand why these kinds of shows are catered to teens then? Because it clearly messes with your head and makes you see things in a certain way, even when you shouldn’t.
Same. I used to think things like "Why can't they just be happy for her? They're in love, it's different to if they were just having sex. She's consenting and everything." But now I look back on it, and I think about it all and it's just so wrong! He was not only a grown man dating a teenage girl, but he was also her teacher! AND HE ALSO PURPOSEFULLY SOUGHT HER OUT TO MANIPULATE HER INTO A RELATIONSHIP IN ORDER TO GET MATERIAL FOR HIS BOOK, AFTER ALSO SLEEPING WITH ALLISON! Like, WTF?! How did I think this was okay? How did I root for this?
@@skygirl9270 Exactly like I’m only 15 now and I started watching the show at 12 never really thought anything bad about it until I started watching videos about them like this one
Aria has so much potential and the clues that she could have been A and with Alison would have been so badass I could imagine her an Aliso being a dynamic duo. Since in the series it was said Alison respected Aria and even treated her like a real friend compared to the other girls. Also I think I’m the series it was mentioned that Aria scared Alison too.
@@SerenaSkybourne I have mentioned this in the how ppl ruined the fínale video as well also mentioned that both Alison and Aria could have been worked together as well the whole time. Being both villain and Ezra also being in on it . Basically all that could have been better than that shitty finale 😩
Yes Alison said it I don’t remember the episode but you can see by Theo interaction that their dynamic is of mutual respect and it on the same level. Like the scene where Alison is discussing Aria’s crush and how she got rid of the other girl for her. So many other things Ali did for Aria too. Alison and Aria’s relationship was better than Alison’s with the other girls
I literally forgot Aria kills someone on the show (Shana) and I also rewatched Season 5 recently and I noticed that unlike Emily and Hanna she was not able to get over it in like 2 episodes. She actually watches her funeral and cries, she literally barricaded the window when she heard the violine in Mike’s room and even had to speak with Jenna about her and she even had a nightmare and hallucinations of Shana being alive. It’s kinda interesting to see that Aria is not as strong emotionally, as she thinks she is .
She’s literally the only girl to have a turmoil which is hard to believe considering all they have been through. Even so she did get over it quick... imagine killing someone and brushing it off, yikes
I think Hanna killing Alison’a cray-cray husband and the depiction of her PTSD regarding this and also the aftermath of her being kidnapped was much more brutal and slightly more realistic...
You know what's bad? When I was 17 I dated a 22 year old and he kinda looked like Ezra. Now, he wasn't severely abusive towards me but in general the relationship wasn't healthy or appropriate. What happened in the show made me, as a teenager, think that this was ok. It wasn't. Edit: for context, I am now 25. I started watching PLL when I was 15.
Aria with Noel (before he went dark) or even Holden were so much cuter than her with Ezra. The fact that they were the same age, their relationships could have been cute high school romances. I wanted her to have teenage problems
ARIA WAS A TO BEGIN WITH!! Aria absolutly should have been "Big A". It makes so much sense. Shes the MAIN main character. They could have done sooo much and given her such huge and important storylines.
Didn’t the writers original make Aria “A”, but the fandom found out too soon, so they changed who it was?? Idk, I think I heard that somewhere before. If it’s true, My theory is that because the writers had to change who A was, it made the whole storyline off. And during the series, they were never able to fix the storyline, and get something cohesive. Man, could’ve been such a better show 😩
If they had planned for Aria to be A, they should've kept her as A. Changing it just bc fans figured it out is stupid imo. As long as the build-up to the final reveal is good, it shouldn't matter that people figure it out too fast.
I knew Marlene was reading fan theories and changed so much when she realized the most popular theory was correct… but now that you mentioned Aria having DID, it makes so much sense that this was probably 100% where they were going until realizing how bad it would look taking someone battling a severe condition like that, and making them a villain. Especially after already getting a lot of backlash for making a trans character the villain.
I feel like Emily feels the most throughout the series honestly, the fact that she lost her father, her feelings for Alison had to be repressed for so many years, etc….
Also she goes through a lot of injuries that effect her future (swim future, scholarships, money)...whereas the other girls get hurt and it doesnt effect any of their futures
i actually think it makes sense that aria was so committed to making it work like they were soulmates even tho they barely knew each other, and for it to feel like almost aria is the main pursuer in the beginning of the relationship. that makes sense to how a naive teenage girl would act. she sees it as that deep bc shes a kid. also, erza letting her seek him out constantly gave her the idea that she was the person in control of the relationship, not the prey. i actually think they set it up so beautifully to be a really heart wrenching and realistic portrayal of grooming- everything seems amazing until it isnt. everything seems perfect until the mask drops, and you realize whats happening to you. by giving them a happy ending, and just due to how they handled them every season, they ruined that
I never bought into Aria being the "compassionate" one. That was Mona's theory, but who's to say she was right? I think Alison was intrigued by Aria, who was one of the very few who actually stood up to her. Alison was able to manipulate the other girls, including Super Spencer, pretty easily. Not true with Aria, which is why I think your Aria-Alison AD theory fits so perfectly. If we look through the lens of Aria NOT being compassionate, her character becomes much more interesting. She picked up Ezra in the bar. She pretended to be a college student, so she obviously suspected his age. She pursued him, rather aggressively, and refused to let him break up with her. Now, your points about him being the adult are absolutely right. If Aria was meant to be the villain, however, this paints that scene in an entirely new light. What if she knew that Ezra had once been involved with Alison? Aria was no stranger to manipulation. She played her parents against each other, she emotionally blackmailed her brother, was often unkind to the other girls, and used any number of guys to make Ezra jealous. The writers were so invested in Aria being the sweet one, but what I think is SO BRILLIANT is that Lucy Hale never played her that way - which goes to show what a terrific actress she is. There was always -- ALWAYS -- an undercurrent in her performance which led the viewer to question just how much Aria should be trusted. Maybe Aria was meant to be A and maybe she wasn't, but Lucy always played her with a thrumming ambivalence. The other three girls were very 'what you see is what you get,' but that was never true for Aria. Awesome deep dive. Aria is by far the most interesting character, as well as the one with the most wasted potential. Thank you so, so much for doing these videos. I love PLL, but it was such a frustrating experience, being a fan. Your deep dives make me remember all the reasons I love the show while allowing me to give voice to how utterly disappointing it ultimately was. This is pure fan service, and you are awesome.
Why really annoys me is that Ezra literally admitted that he used her and manipulated her for his book and all it took was him getting shot in the stomach for her to forgive him like what?
Right her family never talked about their trip besides they were closer.. and Iceland is a very particular weird place to up and move to... if they were going with the whole Aria is A thing I think they would’ve made Byron included he’s just too creepy
Not to mention 'A' took a break when Aria "left for Iceland". They really missed the boat on that one. They 100% should have had her or her father have spent that year in Radley and been intimately involved in the 'A' storyline. Why did Mona wait for Aria to return to start texting again anyways?
@@chuusad5323 aria had potential (the character was interesting in the beginning with they mystery around her she had so much potential ) after saison two for me the ruined aria character by only focusing her with creepy ezra (he is creepy for me and ezria too wish they were villains) all her storyline was only about ezra from saison 3 which was so boring to watch they ruined this mystery around her with that ezria thing so Spencer character started to be the most enjoyable and interesting to watch (troian did an amazing work too she is so talented) I think ppl is best in ruining characters (alison by making her good weak and boring than be bad and be A) (Emily only focusing on her relationship "Toxic"other constructing her a storyline) (cece the whole trans thing makes no sense) (Noel to make creepy unsane boring ezria happen) (aria by not making her a villain or a and only focusing her storyline with Ezra) (and the worst of this show ruined is the whole hastings dileurentis Drake family tree it is so unsane) otherwise I think aria and alison together as a (or both alone) would have been great (and I forgot to mention Marlene king destroyed the whole show with her plot holes) (and she also ruined spanna with spaleb who for is ranked in the top 5 thins who ruined the show)
I’ve noticed the Writers must’ve really wanted Aria to be a writer because almost every other guy brought out her other talents for instance her and Noel had music Aria and Jason had photography it’s weird because Aria seemed happier with her other talents
The other thing I found weird about this is that Aria is practically never shown writing. She and others talk about it but it's never shown on screen (the only potential instance that I can think of is in S6&7 whilst writing the book with Ezra but even then it's barely shown if at all). We see her singing with Noel and taking photos after the Dollhouse yet both were dropped so quickly. The only reason the writers pushed the writing aspect so hard is because of Ezria, they clearly didn't care much about it as a standalone talent
@@zen9728 I feel like they pushed journalism because they wanted to make it seem like adults and minors can like the same stuff to make it there relationship seem normal none of his other exes had the same passion 2 of them were teachers but Ezra wanted to be a author teaching was just for money
Also they toned down her character & hobbies in the show. In the books she was very artsy; painting, drawing, sewing knitting etc....and they barely showed any artistic skills in the show, and when they did it was just a little plot that went away? She spent season 6a developing her skills as a photographer and getting her work in an art gallery just for the writers to not send her to an art school because they wanted her to be a writer...because all roads leas back to Ezra 🙄
I feel like sometimes the liars see A as the biggest threat and will do anything for them but other times it’s like they don’t care and A is just this mysterious figure who sends them weird messages
Not only that but she was very snappy and quick to get nasty/throw anyone under the bus whenever she was "upset", she often raised her voice & got violent like how many times did she destroy someone's property?. absolutely hated her character/entitlement & how she was never held accountable
I never realized that until the episode i saw when Hanna was trying to talk to Aria about Zac (zach? Zack? Zak???) hitting on her and Aria literally rips her apart without fully listening to what the situation was...it made me dislike Aria after that
If Aria wasn’t a villain in the end, they could have made the DID theory relevant, building her history up and explaining some weird things that didn’t add up without stigmatising the disorder.
Another cool thing that the writers could have done is Aria going against Alison and still letting Alison be A. Aria being fed up with Ali and that battle of Alison vs Aria and the other girls.
I remember way too much of ppl but with Holden she sees the bruises on him, sees him taking his medication and assumes he's doing drugs. Then she finds out about his heart condition from her mom and goes to stop him from competing (cause he ended up telling her that hes competing in tangsoodo not doing drugs) and then at the tournament he tells her that its just something he has to live with that it can rupture anytime regardless of what he's doing so he doesn't want to live a sheltered life especially cause it could be shorter than others. So I actually really liked this side story
Clearly Ezria is the writer's favourite couple and I refuse to believe that lmao, you're telling me that from all the producers ,who were adults no one realized how wrong this relationship is? How did that happen? I get that student - teacher relationship might seem "interesting and entertaining" but the Pll writers were trying to convince us into thinking that Ezria is an epic love story that we should support knowing that their audience was mostly teenage girls, Ezria should NOT be romanticized, especially after that whole book, stalking and dating Alison storylines , the fact that they were romanticized just disgusts me
Every time I rewatch PLL I'm a couple of years older and Aria and Ezra's relationship grosses me out even more. It worries me that young girls will have watched it and thought it was fine. In reality it's creepy and should no way have been romanticised the way it was
I think Aria constantly going back to Ezra makes sense realistically, a lot of predators have an inexplicable hold over their prey. I feel like it also made sense that the other girls didn't say anything besides that the teacher was hot. I know when I was younger I had the assumption that all adults are mature and good, until proven otherwise, so it made sense that they didn't pick on Ezra when then pointed out the other guys Aria was dating were shady from that perspective. What I think should've happened, and what would've really helped a lot of young girls, was if the parents took it seriously and called the police; if Ezra was portrayed as a predator and not a caring guy; for Aria to realise it was all too much with the stepson stuff; and even seeing Aria go through therapy to understand the extent of how Ezra took advantage of her AND her being reassured that none of it was her fault. They had so much potential to dismantle the teacher-student trope but instead just gave it more legs to stand on.
My favorite thing about Aria is the fan theories about her being A, that's what made me pay more attention to her in the show also I wish Aria and Ali had more scenes together, never understood their friendship dynamic?
I loved the incredible irony that the writers put in so much effort to comparing them to Daisy and Gatsby. Even having his last name be Fitzgerald like the author and having them dress as the couple for Halloween. Because they clearly want to suggest that it means they're a fairy tale couple that are made for each other but really they parallel the characters by also having Aria cheat with Ezra and them both being incredibly selfish in putting their relationship above everyone else. The book does not condone how self obsessed they are and goes out of its way to show that they're shallow and childish and then those two are the exact same but for the complete opposite reasons that the writers intended. Beautiful irony
I mean especially given how terrible Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship actually is. It’s an example of 2 people romanticizing their significant other while never truly understanding them at all
The way Aria's friends reacted to Ezra is believable for teen girls but the teachers not noticing isn't, abd the way Aria's mum in particular (a teacher) reacted is ridiculous. I had a friendship with a teacher when I was in high school. It wasn't inappropriate but when other teachers noticed how familiar I was with him I had multiple teachers question me. I was a 'troubled student' after all. Most teachers knew my family was dysfunctional and could see me getting worse. Perfect target for a predator really. Of course, Ryan was genuinely nice and used the fact that he worked at my local video store to bond over movies and get through to me in a way other teachers were trying to. He also used movies to help me with English since I was dyslexic and struggling in class. He also strictly never spent time with me in private, not that I ever noticed at the time since I wasn't trying to hide either. Girls my age tho had a different reaction to my friendship with them. He was 8 years older than me, and admittedly very good looking. Girls all wanted to know if we were dating and when they found out we weren't (never even crossed my mind but it made the convos with other teachers make sense), they told me I was 'wasting my chance'. They then tried to find out how we knew each other outside school since he strictly wouldn't let any student call him by his name except me. I lied that my dyslexia mixed his and another teachers name together (which it did) so he gave me permission to call him Ryan instead to help. But man, those girls thought they had a chance with a full grown man and that nothing was wrong with that. Shows like PLL encourage that thought and try to normalise it. Looking back I'm lucky Ryan was nothing like Ezra and genuinely wanted to help a young girl who was struggling with life at the time. And I'm lucky that the other teachers looked out for me just encase Ryan did try to overstep since at that young age I didn't even see a line. I wasn't looking for one and just liked having someone seem to value what I had to say, even if it was trashing certain movies and geeking about others.
I’ve always had such a shady feeling about aria. Idk something about her screamed to me “there’s more to this character than we know” it would have been AMAZING if she were a villain it would cover all the plot holes the writers left on her. excellent analysis on aria I really enjoy your content 👍
To this day whenever you bring up how gross and illegal aria and Ezrias relationship is people will still defend it, the show really normalised grooming and to me it’s just gross.
I’m actually angry at how much both the writers and the fandom put Ezria on a pedestal whilst they completely ruined the undoubtably superior ship, Haleb.
Haleb shouldve gotten more screentime than Ezria. At first i started watching the show for Ezria (before i found out how creepy that relationship was) and i stayed for Haleb, even when they weren't together
Haleb is overrated. It lost a lot of its charm after Caleb came back from Ravenswood. Mike and Hanna were the best couple in the books. They destroyed Spoby, but we need to acknowledge the actual superior ship. Emaya
I feel like the girls blamed A too much , A was evil and horrible but the girls did a lot of stuff on they’re own. They were bullies/bystanders and were being sneaky and doing wrong things. Ali was sneaky and very manipulative she had multiple identity crisis problems
Yeah. The thing is, most of A's threats were to reveal the bad things they did... Of course, there was also threats of murder and all that, but a lot of the time the threats were literally of exposing them for bad things...
If we're being fair, most of the time that happened was because A coerced them into a corner and they had to act drastically to get themselves out. For example, Hanna only killed Archer because he was going to hurt Ali. The only times I can think of that weren't like this was when they blinded Jenna, but Ali told them it was a stink bomb. Most of this comes from Ali or A's manipulations
@@violetrose674 yeah but they stood there and watched ali bully ppl and didn’t say or do anything. and i know ppl will go “oh but they were manipulated and also being harassed by ali,” but that doesn’t erase the fact they didn’t help other ppl, and the four of them could’ve brought alison down easily. and none of them took accountability for ignoring ali’s behavior even if they were scared
Aria is my least favorite liar, I could just never relate to her. Nothing about her even being a teenage girl was something I could relate to her. Aria seemed to get everything she wanted, she could manipulate everyone around her. Aria just seemed to want everyone to work around her schedule, she always seemed to choose boys over her friends. Aria liked to use her family drama for reasons she got away with certain things. Her brother Mike and Mona were seeing each other and Aria just couldn’t let that happen, because she didn’t want them too. I will die on the hill that Aria should have been A, I loved your video on Aria and Ali being AD. I think Aria and Ali are closer characters than we are told
I still hate that they never went with the Ezra being A storyline, because that would’ve made so much sense why Aria and Ezra were together and why he was so invested. Wasted potential tbh
True! That scene where he yelled at the girls to get out of his apartment, he was truly scary. Like, I had hairs standing up on my neck lol. Ian Harding would have delivered an amazing villain.
there's so many moments when A actually helped Aria meanwhile the other girls were going through it. I noticed that throughout the show & was super sure Aria would be A or some type of baddie, still annoyed that they didn't make her A 🤦🏾♀️
Yeah that’s not necessarily a bad thing, like how in to kill a mockingbird jem and scout call their father atticus. Not really common, but not necessarily negative either
I'm pretty sure when Spencer's actress talked to the writers about how poorly they were portraying mental health, they forced the Spencer breakdown storyline. They clearly wanted drama over anything else so the ending with Aria might have been very possible, but it was changed last minute for some reason.
nothing kills me more about ezria is that aria wasn’t this “exception” to ezra as they make her seem LOL. the moment they made his backstory knowing alison & being interested in her, aria was confirmation that he’s gross 🤢
Aria’s relationship with Alison always perplexed me because with the others, Ali always had a “connection” with them. Spencer challenged Ali mentally and intellectually, Emily was the one person who loved her unconditionally, she shaped Hanna into how she viewed herself physically, but with Aria it was like she left her out to bring out her dark side. Like there are barely any flashbacks with just her and Ali. It’s like Ali ostracised her purposefully fully to make sure that when she disappeared that Aria would the aloof one that she could use to continue manipulating the liars. Idk
Also; this was mentioned in a previous video how Aria usually always wore flared out skirts or ballerina type dresses. That kinda stops the closer her wedding gets and her dress is really quite the opposite to what she'd been styled in up to that point.
Aria was so sheltered because of Ezra. They spent so much time in Ezra's apartment and they never had proper dates because he was a secret obviously and that's the reason she freaked out about not having the same taste in movies because that's probably all her and Ezra did together was watch movies and eat Chinese food together and have sex. Like their relationship for a good portion of time was so tied to his apartment and just doing the same thing everyday and she was missing out on so many opportunities. Whenever she wanted to do something, she had to do it by herself or find something that was far away from Rosewood so they wouldn't be caught, she couldn't bring him to dances or go on public dates.
Thank you for talking about the fact that the writers would purposely ruin male characters because the fans were shipping them with aria. The change in personality of the male love interest being kind and genuine into douchey disrespectful characters felt like whiplash upon rewatch. I loved both Jason and Noel pre creep factor. It wouldve been nice if they had written it so the liars were super against ezra and wouldve asked a million questions the same way they had with caleb or even more extreme. Then allowing for a less creepy Jason or Noel. They couldve even kept Noel as a self serving jerk where he does the blackmail but he does genuinely like aria. That way when she turns him down again he could have a more natural growth into a douche. And then his comments about her liking "older men" couldve stayed because shes with Jason now and that didnt have to be long term either. it wouldve been nice for them to be a fling and then get back together as end game so we could see aria single and her interact with the liars a lot more. idk just some random thoughts.
My personal belief for the "you and me are are going to be closest of all" line from Alex is because Aria was on the AD team previously, or because Alex was going to murder Ezra and had already murdered Wren.
It’s crazy how they made the only problem with Ezria seem like it’s just the fact that he was her teacher. She was a CHILD and he groomed and manipulated her for his book.
the first part made it an issue, but the second part made it worse. ezra was a predator and plenty of people let him get away with it bacause he was cute (if a ugly person did that the show would have been a lot different)
Honestly there was something wrong with most of the grown ups in Rosewood. Poor Spencer had two of her grown sister's boyfriends hit on her and everyone blamed her. Jenna ( a blind teenage girl) goes to a clothing shop and buys lingerie to wear for her boyfriend ( who ends up also being in his twenties and grown up) and the ladies at the shop just smile and don't ask any questions. Or how Arias mom thinks that Spencer is the one with Ezra and seems more vaguely irritated than actually worried. Or when Aria's mom's boyfriend hits on the girls and she acts like it's only bad because it means he wants to cheat on her , not you know, that he hit on teenagers. Or any of the other grown men that hit on the girls . The only good dad was Spencer's.
I love the final point about the writer backtracking on giving Aria DID, there's an entire plot thread about her "file at radley" and the one nurse that speaks to her like he's known her personally. I don't remember what season it was but then it's never mentioned again.
They had the opportunity for Aria to be single when Ezra was revealed to be writing a book on Allison, but they just pushed that whole thing aside like it didn't happen. It would have been the perfect time to show how these relationships are not a thing to look up to!
For your Hanna video, I wanted to comment that she is one of my favorite characters in the entire show. First, I love her relationship with an actual good person. I like how there wasn't that much drama between them and how he is pretty normal because he wasn't a grown-ass adult with a minor, or joining the A team constantly. The way she didn't give up on Mona shows how strong and forgiving of a person she actually is. I hate how the show spent so much time trying to constantly tell us how good people Aria and Emily are when Hanna is an actual good person. She could be selfish at times and was not able to keep her temper in check, but I still love her. I feel like she was probably bullied the most by Alison because of how cruel Alison was to Hanna about her weight ( Allison constantly telling her " isn't that enough" when she was just trying to eat a fricking cookie). I liked how she was smart and she wasn't marketed as the " smart one' like Spencer. She was so smart and I wish someone would have acknowledged it. The way she did really good on the SATs and forgot what it was called was hilarious.
I've always thought that the reason Aria went into a relationship with Ezra was because she had seen her father cheat on her mother with HIS STUDENT and thought that it was in fact okay to date a teacher as long as he wasn't in a relationship because I remember in s4 Aria gets a bad dream about Ezra going to jail because he slept with his student and a minor at that. So she knew it was actually illegal but still she was with him. I mean Byron got so angry at Aria and restricted her movement but didn't bother explaining to her how wrong it was . He had every right to be angry at Ezra but I thought it was bit hypocritical of him considering he had done the same thing with his student(albeit she was an adult) and never even considered the affect his action had on his teenage daughter.
when i watched PLL as a tween/teen i never really considered that an adaptation (show/movie) would ever stray from the source material, and as a big fan of the books and a lover of noel, i waited SEASONS for aria and noel to have their happily ever after and they just ruined noel’s character entirely, biggest disappointment for my inner child
When I was watching the show at 15, I always found Ezra and Aria’s relationship fine because the actors are similar in age (I swear the actor who plays Erza is like 2-3 years older than Lucy Hale). Now watching it as a 21 year old, it makes me so uncomfortable and I’m really surprised no consequences happened to this relationship.
Eh, not really. It’s actually Sean (Hanna’s first boyfriend who was obsessed with his virginity both on the show and the books, but he dated Aria in the books as well) who catches Aria and Ezra hooking up at school, takes a picture of them and reports it to the school authorities, so the police goes to Ezra’s apartment to arrest him and arrive just when him and Aria were naked in his bed lol. So yeah.
@@julietafernandez6350 Oh no I was refering to Ruthess when Ezra comes back, not saying Aria just up and realized Ezra was a creep. In the show they would'nt let her move on but in the book she did with Noel. She tried to fall back into the toxic pattern after Noel dumped her but Ezra cheated with Klaudia after an argument. I was saying that Ezra was viewed a more of a creep in the books and Aria moves on but in the show they never let her.
I will never forgive the writers for not making her the final A & also for giving me a false impression of the student teacher relationship, basically making me think that inappropriate relationships like that is okay
Damn I didn’t realize how toxic this show was. I still love it to pieces because it makes me nostalgic and it’s a escape, but it’s dangerous for girls who don’t know to acknowledge the show’s faults
omg you're SO right, I'd never thought about the girls' reaction to Emily and Toby vs Aria and Ezra before. They really did under react SO hard. I really liked the Aria and Jason flirtation, and would've loved to see Aria and Holden fall in love for real. It's insane how I shipped Ezria when I watched it as a teen? How did the show do that to us, that's so bad?! I recently rewatched it (I'm 26 now) and it was so uncomfortable, omg. 100% agree with you that they could've used her growing responsibility with Malcolm as a way to help her see that the relationship was wrong but once again, it was a storyline that was brought up for chaos, and then was just dropped without any residual fallout from it. (which happens with a LOT of PLL storylines) I read an 'Aria is A' theory when the show was airing and other than Wren being A, it was my favourite fan theory ever because I really loved Aria, she's such an interesting character and I felt like there were so many hints at her being a villain, that all just ended up being unanswered plot holes. Ugh, this show.
I was a preteen who watched the show back in 2011-2012 i adored the relationship Ezra and Aria had. Thinking back on it now TERRIFIES me because not only is that absolutely disgusting but it was also glamorized to the point Ezra was her happily ever after? In around 2015 i got back into the show and i still didn't fully realize how gross Ezria was but i remember being more into Aria and Jason (mostly because I had a huge crush on jason) but i was literally bullied by my PLL friends because I didn't ship Ezria? Jesus christ what were we doing 😭 I'm so glad i came to the realization soon after that older men should never pursue actual teens. Now at 20 years old I'm so angry at the writers for not letting Aria and the girls realize how toxic Ezra was. PS i love your videos! And your cat!!
