...

Used to watch some of the earlier eps with my mom and we'd admire her outfits sm like wow they did a great job with her styling

I really wish Holden had appeared more throughout the show. His friendship with Aria was fantastic, and I would've loved to see him teach her how to fight Ezra.

i watched PLL for the first time a year ago, and am starting a rewatch, so hopefully my memory is okay. one thing that really disturbs me on top of this, is that at one point when Aria wasn’t with him and was in college, she said something about him being a predator or her being groomed. super sad realization but accurate.

so the show at some point admitted that Ezra groomed her, but had them end up together… the implications of this are sooo bad. no hate to Aria, it’s understandable, but idk why the writers would have her realize/admit that and then have them wind up together yknow?

I already made a post about how Wren as Charles and CeCe as one of the twins could have worked incredibly well together, but I want to make one thing clear once and for all, guys: the problem was never the absence of the Courtney storyline or the fact that Alison wasn't A. The show already had all the ingredients needed to become incredible, even if it took a completely different direction from the books, and honestly, I think some people still struggle to understand just how much potential this show and its characters had. What pisses me off the most isn't just the disappointment, but imagining what the show COULD HAVE BEEN, because Wren, Melissa and CeCe genuinely had the potential to become some of the best characters in the entire series and iconic villains, and together they would have been absolutely diabolical. I still want to present my alternate backstory for each of them, so let me know what you think! To start with, let's remove the blood connection between Jessica and Mary and get rid of Alex Drake completely, because instead of giving Spencer the Drake storyline, we could give it to Aria.

CeCe / Alice Drake = Uber A / Red Coat

In this version, CeCe's real name is Alice Drake, one of the twin daughters of Mary Drake and Scott Montgomery, as well as Mike's biological cousin and Aria's older sister. Aria is born five years later and is adopted by Ella and Byron, Scott's brother, meaning she grows up as Mike's adoptive sister without knowing anything about her biological family. When Alice is only five years old, she kills her twin sister during an ordinary childhood argument, and what should have been a simple fight between two little girls ends up destroying an entire family. As a result, Alice is sent to Radley, where she meets a young Charles, who has already been institutionalized there for a year, and the two quickly develop a very strong bond, finding in each other someone who understands what it means to grow up surrounded by disturbing family secrets. However, their relationship isn't meant to last, because when Alice turns twelve, she is discharged from Radley and returns to live with her mother, while her father, Scott, has already died by suicide shortly after Aria's birth. The tragedy surrounding Alice's childhood, the death of her twin daughter and the collapse of his family leave Scott emotionally devastated, and his death becomes yet another buried secret, while Mary is left raising Alice and Aria grows up with another family, completely unaware of her origins.

After leaving Radley, Alice changes her name to CeCe and eventually attends Rosewood High School, where she meets Melissa, Ian, Jason, Garrett and the others. After dating Eric Kahn, she starts dating Jason and also develops a close friendship with his younger sister, Alison. But there's something deeply disturbing about this friendship, because Alison reminds CeCe of the twin sister she lost, and CeCe becomes increasingly obsessed with her, trying to turn her into the sister she always wished she could have had and influencing every aspect of her life, from her clothes and physical appearance to her personality and behavior. CeCe doesn't simply want to be close to Alison; she wants to recreate her dead twin through her. Under CeCe's influence, Alison becomes even more manipulative, cruel and calculating, while their relationship turns into something toxic, with CeCe encouraging Alison's worst instincts while simultaneously trying to keep her under control.

Things become even darker when CeCe manages to join the NAT Club through Ian and Jason and secretly becomes its real leader, using the surveillance footage to keep tabs on Alison and the other girls. Under CeCe's leadership, the NAT Club is no longer just a group of creepy teenagers secretly filming people, but the foundation of a much larger organization built around secrets, surveillance and blackmail. Then everything starts falling apart, because CeCe gets expelled from UPenn and her dreams of building a successful future come crashing down, while the obsession that initially drove her to control Alison gradually turns into resentment and eventually hatred, not only toward Alison but also toward the Liars, who become part of her life. CeCe consequently escalates her plans and starts using the NAT Club's secrets to protect herself and punish anyone who poses a threat to her.

On the night Alison disappears, CeCe meets Melissa to retrieve the NAT Club videos, and the two end up working together to cover up what happened that night, burying what they believe to be Alison's body without realizing that it is actually Bethany Young. When the body is discovered a year later, CeCe leaves Jason and moves to Los Angeles with her mother. For a while, it seems like she has finally managed to leave behind the chaos she helped create. However, just a year later, she is forced to return to Rosewood to help Melissa deal with the growing number of threats and eliminate the evidence that could expose them both. Through Wren and Melissa, she eventually comes into contact with Mona, and that's precisely when the next phase of the game begins. CeCe then turns Alison's image into a weapon, using masks and the Red Coat identity to manipulate the Liars from the shadows, becoming the mastermind behind the doll game and the most active and dangerous member of the A-Team.

Wren Kingston = Big A / Charles DiLaurentis

In this version, Wren Kingston is actually Charles DiLaurentis, the eldest child of Kenneth and Jessica DiLaurentis and the older brother of Jason and Alison. He grows up in a seemingly wealthy and respectable family, but behind that facade lies a cold household obsessed with appearances, with Kenneth becoming increasingly concerned with protecting the DiLaurentis name and Jessica struggling to maintain a fragile balance between her children and her husband. Charles is an extremely intelligent child, but also someone who is difficult to understand and manage, and his relationship with his father gradually becomes more complicated. At just five years old, Charles ends up at Radley after nearly drowning his sister Alison, an incident that profoundly changes the fate of the entire DiLaurentis family. Kenneth gradually begins distancing himself from Charles, while Jessica is the only one who still tries to maintain a connection with him, even though her affection is often limited by her need to protect the family's secrets. It is at Radley that Charles meets Alice Drake, with whom he develops an extraordinarily intense friendship, finally finding someone with whom he can share his loneliness and his sense of alienation from the outside world. Charles suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, but he also has an exceptionally high IQ and an almost insatiable curiosity, so he spends much of his time at Radley reading, studying and independently exploring different subjects, particularly the sciences, developing knowledge that will eventually allow him to pursue a career in medicine. Radley thus becomes his refuge, but also the place where he learns to observe people, understand their weaknesses and manipulate his surroundings to get what he wants.

When Alice is discharged from Radley, Charles loses the only person with whom he had ever formed a truly deep bond and tries to fill that void by befriending another patient, Bethany Young. However, their relationship is completely different from the one he had with Alice, because Bethany cannot understand him in the same way and is unwilling to become the person onto whom Charles wants to project his obsessions. Their friendship gradually deteriorates, and in an attempt to distance herself from him, Bethany starts spending time with Mrs. Cavanaugh, a new patient at Radley, finding in her a more reassuring presence and an alternative to her increasingly suffocating relationship with Charles. Unable to accept being abandoned again and losing control over someone he has grown attached to, Charles eventually kills Mrs. Cavanaugh by pushing her off the roof and blames Bethany Young for her death. Terrified of the consequences this could have for her son's future and the DiLaurentis family's reputation, Jessica does everything she can to contain the situation. She even bribes officers to cover up the case, using her position and her connections at the hospital to arrange Charles's discharge and plan a fake death. A fake funeral is held, attended by both Kenneth and Charles, who remains hidden among the crowd, while the rest of the family believes the boy is dead. After being separated from his mother, Charles is placed under the guardianship of Dr. Kingston, a wealthy English doctor who decides to take him under his wing and bring him to London. There, Charles can start over, study medicine and assume a new identity, officially becoming Wren Kingston. However, changing his name doesn't erase the resentment he has accumulated over the years or his hatred toward a family that, with the exception of Jessica, he feels abandoned him and sacrificed him to protect their public image.

As fate would have it, Wren eventually meets Melissa Hastings, a close friend of Alice's, and the two begin a romantic relationship that gives him the perfect opportunity to return to Rosewood under his new identity. Wren continues to hate the DiLaurentis family, with the exception of his mother, and tries to stay away from them to avoid being recognized. At the same time, however, he develops a particular interest in the Hastings family, the DiLaurentis family's longtime rivals, seeing them as a possible way to get closer to the world he was once denied and indirectly hurt his relatives. In reality, though, his relationship with the DiLaurentis family is far more complicated than he wants to admit, because Charles is still, in some way, obsessed with Alison, the sister he nearly drowned as a child and whom everyone now believes to be dead. Unable to approach her directly, Wren tries to connect with her friends, the Liars, using his position as a doctor in Rosewood to build relationships with them and observe the people who were part of Alison's life. Thanks to Melissa, he also finally manages to reunite with Alice after all these years, now known to everyone as CeCe Drake, and their childhood bond once again becomes a fundamental part of the game they are building together. Wren's connection to Radley also remains extremely strong, because he knows every corner of the facility and understands exactly how to exploit its flaws, secrets and the weaknesses of its staff. Through his role as a doctor and volunteer, he comes into contact with a particularly interesting patient, Mona Vanderwaal, with whom he develops a very special bond. Recognizing her intelligence and talent for manipulating others, Wren begins influencing her more and more deeply, administering excessive amounts of medication and exploiting her vulnerability to manipulate her decisions, eventually managing to take control of Mona's A game and expand it far beyond what she originally created. Wren thus becomes the undisputed leader of the A-Team, transforming the original game into a much larger and more dangerous system in which personal obsessions, family secrets and the desire for revenge become intertwined in a single web of manipulation.

Melissa Hastings = Uber A / Black Widow

Melissa Hastings is the eldest daughter of Peter and Veronica Hastings, Spencer's older sister and Jason's half-sister. She has always been the family's favorite child, the one on whom her parents place all their expectations and who seems to perfectly embody the image of success and respectability the Hastings family wants to present to the world. Her relationship with Spencer is defined by a mixture of love and hatred, because despite their bond as sisters, they both grew up in a competitive environment where achievement, prestige and the need to prove their worth always come first. Melissa attends Rosewood High School, where she meets Jason, Garrett, CeCe and Ian, with whom she begins a relationship that continues even after she enrolls at UPenn alongside CeCe. While socially she seems to have everything under control, the situation at home becomes increasingly unstable, especially because of Spencer, who starts using medication and stimulants to improve her concentration, increase her productivity and maintain exceptionally high academic performance. She eventually develops a growing dependence on these substances and begins experiencing emotional and behavioral problems. The pressure, rivalry and instability in their relationship lead to increasingly violent arguments, with Spencer even physically attacking her sister on some occasions. Things become even worse when Melissa discovers that Ian has cheated on her with both Spencer and Alison. She also learns about the existence of the NAT Club and begins to fear that the footage and the material they have collected could compromise not only her reputation but the entire Hastings family.

On the night Alison disappears, Melissa first meets with Ian, Garrett and Jenna and later with CeCe, with the aim of retrieving the NAT Club videos and preventing them from falling into the wrong hands. However, that night takes a much darker turn, because Spencer is involved in Bethany Young's death, and Bethany's body is mistaken for Alison's. Melissa finds herself forced to intervene to protect herself, her sister and CeCe, helping cover up the evidence and keep the truth hidden. A few days later, Melissa leaves for a year of study in London, where she meets a young medical student named Wren Kingston, and the two begin an intense relationship that eventually brings her back to Rosewood with him, eager to introduce him to her family. However, their relationship ends when she discovers that Wren has cheated on her with Spencer, adding yet another wound to the already troubled relationship between the two sisters. Shortly afterward, Melissa decides to get back together with Ian, but not so much out of love as because he possesses footage and evidence capable of holding the entire Hastings family hostage. Their marriage therefore also becomes a way to strengthen their alibi and prevent their secrets from coming to light. When Ian dies, however, the risk of the incriminating evidence being exposed becomes even more real, forcing Melissa to ask her friend CeCe for help getting rid of the compromising material and making sure no one can piece together what really happened.

Melissa doesn't limit herself to manipulating the people closest to her. She is willing to exploit any relationship to maintain control of the situation, even going so far as to seduce Garrett as part of a calculated strategy to keep an eye on him and monitor his movements. Melissa is also the one who brings Wren and CeCe back together and informs CeCe that Mona has been admitted to Radley, helping set the next phase of the game in motion. Her most important role, however, involves the plan to eliminate every trace of the NAT Club, an operation she devises to destroy the footage, erase the evidence and silence anyone who could pose a threat to her family. Melissa also makes use of disguises and alternate identities, including the Black Swan, which she uses to distract and threaten Jenna at the masquerade ball, and the Queen of Hearts, who is connected to the plan to kill Garrett and prevent him from revealing what he knows. Despite her importance within A's network, Melissa remains less involved in the day-to-day game, intervening mainly in the most delicate and dangerous operations, such as murders and attacks. Under the identity of Black Widow, she also develops a particularly disturbing habit: attending her victims' funerals and returning to visit their graves, almost as if she needs to personally make sure their silence is permanent. She is willing to do absolutely anything to protect her family, even if that means betraying, manipulating or eliminating anyone who gets in her way.

I cannot believe it took me so long to realize this. I'm rewatching this show for what has to be the 50th time in my life, I almost watch it every fall because it has such fall vibes. However, I didn't realize until today that these two scenes are actually played by Sara Shepard who was the author of the books. Am I the only one behind on this or are you just learning this today too?

Doing a rewatch and realizing she so obnoxious, her character was annoying and we could have done without her.
Even more realizing who ended up becoming in the end.
And using Emily, like go home, girl!
Okay, I’m done.

I’ll go first… “Gaze-bo”

I get that, at first, the Hastings were very cold to Spencer and seemed to favor Melissa over her, but she was going through it too. Your husband just had kids left and right with women. Melissa kept bringing home pedos (granted, they shouldn't have blamed Spencer for those situations; she was the kid).

She lived with knowing about Jason and cared for Spencer as her own; she didn't blow up the family (she's a much stronger woman than I; I would have had an Ali disappearance night run; everyone involved would have been getting blackmailed)

And anytime ANYONE needed legal counsel, she was there to help.

I love her; honestly, she's such a strong woman. People hype up Mrs. Marin, but she was more of a friend than a Mom and had Hannah caught up in her shenanigans

What Alison bratty moments stuck out to you the most? And/or changed your perspective about her (if you liked her or could tolerate her beforehand)?

Season 4 Episode 2 is the biggest temper tantrum moment that comes to mind for me — where she holds her breath because her mommy told her no. Her mom had every right to say no, it was a crazy request. A bunch of teens alone at Cape May? Absolutely notttt. Even as a teen watching this I was so annoyed by Alison. I found her aggravating the whole series but this moment is where I thought ‘… why does solving this mystery even matter, they should all just be happy they’re free of this behavior’

When I cringe every time these two are on screen. I am so confused on the mom and just... everything. I am alone trying to rack my brain on why, when this first came out, I was so supportive 😭. Oh man... being older sure makes you look at things so differently.

Genuinely what was the point?? To give emily further character development? to make her toughen up? In my opinion, out of all of emily's relationships on the show, her one with maya was the best and had SO much potential. You cannot convince me that emily wasn't at her happiest than when she was with maya. and the writers just decided to take that all away?

Especially since i think having emily as a figure of lesbian representation at the time was huge, and i think making the arguably "best" love interest (for emily) die was just enlarging the "lesbians cant have healthy and happy relationships and everything is doomed" rhetoric even further. Of course alison and emily end up together in the end, but i think we can all agree that relationship definitely has it's flaws. It just makes me think what might've ended up happening if not for this decision.

None of the other main liars had a love interest killed off, and they still went through similar character development i guess? I think just after rewatching season 2 for the billionth time it just seems like such an abrupt decision to kill off maya. (that scene at the end of season 2 gets me every. time. omg)

Also to add, the actor who plays maya said herself that she wasn't even aware of the choice to kill off her character until she was given the script, it's not like she had another show to do or wanted to quit acting etc, the writers just chose to kill her off, and for what? I think sometimes we need to realise that the creators and writers of many movies and tv shows etc have full creative control over what happens, (i'm looking at you ezria endgame) and that we can't just blame overall "unpredictable circumstances" that the writers didnt want the fans to predict.

idk i think it's just something to think about

So imagine you come from a rich family. you’re a college student. you go to a bar and meet this girl. you find out this girl is a teenager in high school. you then break up with her and that girl goes missing. a year later you have this oh so brilliant plan to become a teacher at the girl’s old high school to get closer to her friends for a true crime book that you’re writing. you stalk all of her friends. you then date on of her TEENAGE friends and abandon the book because you fell in love. that friend eventually finds out about the break and breaks up with you, but then you guys get back together. you guys have a on again off again relationship and now you’re dating a girl that is now appropriate. a few years later you’re working with a book company that said ex girlfriend now works at. then your current girlfriend goes missing and now you’re depressed and no longer writing a different book. that ex girlfriend goes back into town so she can help you write this book. you guys eventually makeout. then your missing girlfriend gets found. but then you break up with her and get back together with the girl you started dating when she was in high school and you were her TEACHER. then you guys get MARRIED.

The life of Ezra Fitz.

Rewatching for like the tenth time and I’m at the Halloween Train episode and I’m just so confused as to why they even added this in lmao 😭 like I get it’s a Halloween episode so it’s meant to be scary but it was just so random haha

I just finished the show and i loved it, every bit of it. Except the ending, why would they bring a useless twin who gets killed as soon as the character is introduced. I'd rather AD was someone whom we saw from the beginning, so that when they eventually got caught, we would atleast be in a dilemma about how we feel about the character. The villain could have been closer to home.

I posted them in the order I like them the liars first then parents 💕.

If Byron Montgomery has a million haters, then I am one of them.

If Byron Montgomery has 10 haters, then I am one of them.

If Byron Montgomery has one hater, that’s me.

If Byron Montgomery has no haters, that is because I am dead.

If all possible worlds are for Byron Montgomery, I am against all the worlds.

No but really I hate him the mostest

When she said she wanted to slap Jenna for the second time, I laughed out loud!! 🤪😂

so imagine you’re a male in your mid 20s, you’re a doctor, and you’re engaged to this girl. then you kiss her high school sister and the relationship is over. you become friends with said sister and kiss her multiple times. a few years later you go to a different town and meet a british twin of said sister. you then fall in love with the twin. then you tell the twin about the sister and her life. the twin sets up a plan to replace the sister. you kinda agree and even shoot the twin so they could have matching scars. eventually the twin kills you and puts your ashes into a necklace that she wears. she also tries her plan and fails.

also the twin uses your sperm and one of the sister’s friends stolen eggs to make another friend of the sister pregnant, with twins.

So I was a teenager when I watching PLL originally. I was obsessed with it I absolutely loved it. I'm rewatching it as an adult now and wow, is it bad. Like really bad. I still find it entertaining right now though and I just finished season 1.

But one thing I'm thinking is.. I always liked the girls so much and always sided with them but now, rewatching this as I'm older. They're such mean girls who treat a lot of people badly. In a lot of stories they're the villains and I kind of understand that they have enemies especially if you try to see it from outside of the girls' POV.

I feel bad for Melissa she's been going through so much in the first season and I don't feel like Spencer understands at all, her snarky dark humor towards her about real serious stuff and her sarcastic "I'm sórry!!" when she does something wrong doesn't help at all. Of course the men Melissa was with are 🤮🤢 They are. I hate them equally and I do blame them but I'm talking about how Melissa is framed to be such a bad big sister and I just don't think that's fair.

I also feel so bad for Jenna. The girls as a group (yes, being there and not doing anything and hiding it later makes you complicit) blinded Jenna, they nor Alison never took accountability for it and then they go and treat her and Toby like dirt. Full on knowing the reason why others treated Toby like that wasn't truth! Yeah they were nice later in s1 but after how they treated him?? Idk man. Jenna is not a nice girl I get that. But she got BLINDED. Blinded! It's not like a broken leg that heals over time. Of course Jenna hates them? I don't think she is that unreasonable in this?

I like Hannah but that scene where she slapped Jenna without warning? Slapping a blind girl without warning. Really. Of course Hannah had the right to be angry about this particular thing but again.. slapping a blind girl? Without warning? That just seems cruel.

I was just as immature and stupid as they were so me loving the show back then makes a lot of sense 😅🤣

There's a reason CeCe Drake and Wren Kingston were two of the strongest candidates for Big A, and I'm still pissed that the writers never properly explored their potential.

Hear me out, because I genuinely think Wren as Charles DiLaurentis and CeCe as one of the twins could've made for an INSANE storyline if it had been planned from the beginning. Imagine CeCe being sent to Radley after killing her twin sister, while Wren, secretly Charles DiLaurentis, ends up there after attempting to drown his younger sister Alison. Two kids from completely different backgrounds, both connected to disturbing family secrets, meeting in the same institution. What if that encounter changed everything? What if they formed a bond that would eventually shape the entire A-game years later?

And the best part is that this could've explained why BOTH characters had such strong connections to Radley. Wren's past was always suspicious as hell, and the show gave us so little information about him that it became genuinely frustrating. His medical background, his interactions with Mona, his strange phone calls, and the way he always seemed to know more than he should all suggested that he had a much bigger role in the story. The Charles theory didn't come out of nowhere. There were enough suspicious details to make us wonder whether Wren was hiding something much bigger.

CeCe, meanwhile, already had the connection to Alison, the knowledge of the Liars' secrets, and the manipulative personality needed to become a terrifying Big A. The problem was never that she was an unconvincing candidate. It was that the writers kept adding explanations to her backstory instead of building one coherent storyline from the beginning. Now imagine connecting all of this to the NAT Club. What if CeCe and Wren had been working together for years, using the club's surveillance footage to collect secrets and manipulate people? CeCe could've been the mastermind behind the plan, while Wren handled infiltrating the Liars' lives. She had the bigger picture, he had the connections and medical knowledge, and together they could've turned A's game into something much more calculated and disturbing.

Suddenly, the NAT Club wouldn't feel like some random creepy subplot that the writers eventually forgot about. It would've been the foundation of the entire operation. The videos, the blackmail, the secrets surrounding Alison's disappearance, Radley, and the DiLaurentis family could've all been connected. Imagine discovering that the people behind some of Rosewood's darkest secrets had known each other since childhood. THAT would've been a reveal worth waiting for.

And no, we wouldn't have needed the incest storyline or Charles becoming Charlotte. I would've much rather seen a story built around buried family secrets, twin rivalry, manipulation, and two deeply disturbed people whose paths crossed at Radley. That's what pisses me off the most. We already had Wren, CeCe, Radley, and the NAT Club. The pieces were ALL RIGHT THERE. Instead of connecting them into one overarching storyline, the writers kept introducing new twists and characters, creating plot holes that could've been avoided if they'd actually committed to the ideas they already had.

Wren as Charles and CeCe as one of the twins could've been so much more than two shocking reveals. Their childhood connection could've been the origin of a much bigger conspiracy, with Radley at the center of it all and the NAT Club acting as the bridge between their past and the A-game. Tell me that wouldn't have been FUCKING ICONIC. CeCe and Wren had the potential to become an absolutely diabolical duo, and I genuinely believe they could've made Big A's storyline so much better if the writers had known what the hell they were doing from the beginning.

Not CeCe Drake, but ALICE DRAKE = A.D.

Guys, we wouldn't have even needed Courtney or Alison as A! That's why the show could've been fucking fantastic without even following the books. We were robbed!!