frelling_tralk

I didn't even used to mind the creepiness of the age gap between Aria and Ezra the way that most people did, but season 4 just introduced such a huge level of squick with Ezra dating Allison at 14/15(!) and then deliberately seeking out a 16 year old Aria to write a book behind her back, then all it takes is Ezra getting shot for the show to handwave all that away?! And when Ezra did take his job back at the school, Aria was telling Bryan that she knows that they can no longer date, so it just seems very very strange the way they've been rushed back together and he's coming over to spend time with her family. It wouldn't be so bad if they were creepy hot together even lol, but the show seems so unaware of them being anything but a great romance. And eh, starting from season 3/4, I've just found them really boring together tbh and hate how much that relationship separates Aria from the main storylines

Allison was at her shadiest these past few episodes when she went to the police without the others, and when we found out that she was in league with her confessed "kidnapper", but I was emphasising with her more earlier on when she was doing stuff like having Noel beak in in order to have an adult believe her, or when she was scared and trying to get Mona to back off, only to fall back into her old habits and get caught out on tape. It felt like the other four were very much united against her in those moments, that they never trusted her at all, and they were constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Which is probably the healthiest mindset to have around Allison heh, but I can see her POV in everything that she went through after the A threats and the attempted murder (and she still doesn't know who cracked her on the back of the head) is going to make her very aware of self-preservation. From the first her friends have had one another to unite against the A threats, and so just view Allison's attempts to protect herself as her being the same old manipulative Allison, but I can't help emphasising with Allison and seeing her as being forced into that position after she fled town and had to start looking out for herself only. To me it felt like she did have a genuine desire to start over at first, and she did regret her 14 year old mean girl behaviour, who knows where the writers will be taking her next though now that Spencer has been arrested

And it's definitely not going to be the same without Mona :(