Why Aria and Ezra Haunt Us in 'Pretty Little Liars'
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2021
- Today is a video essay about all the creepy age-gap relationships and teacher-student trope in PLL. 'Ezria' is the relationship between Aria Montgomery and Ezra Fitz, so I want to discuss why their relationship sent such a misleading and dangerous message. Unfortunately their relationship is not the only exploitative and gross one on the show.
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My pretty little liars playlist: ✨
• PRETTY LITTLE LIARS
the false narrative of Aria Montgomery: a Pretty Little Liars video essay....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX1za...
why the PRETTY LITTLE LIARS finale ruined the show: Who should have been AD?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYrre....
how the writers murdered Emily Fields- deep dive video essay
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJbuH...
Everything Wrong with PRETTY LITTLE LIARS... 10 years later www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AfR2....
PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: my unpopular opinions 😉... let's get scandalous
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zBcT....
the unexplored plot lines of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQLW5....
a deep dive into all the A reveals...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nQdP...
Pretty Little Liars: overrated and underrated moments 🤔
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwcI...
the downfall of Hanna Marin... a pretty little liars video essay
• The Downfall of Hanna ...
OTHER TOPICS:
REVENGE. series review
www.youtube.com/watch?v=60tgz...
Desperate Housewives playlist:
th-cam.com/users/playlist?list...
Euphoria (Cassie Howard analysis)
• Cassie Howard: The Cha...
Fate: the Winx Saga
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-d2T...
my Pretty Little Liars playlist:
th-cam.com/users/playlist?list...
'You': why we root for Joe Goldberg:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTPXN...
Emily in Paris:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhfdK...
Scream Queens
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0784...
revisiting Reign:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bmpP...
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all the A reveals. Big A. Uber A. AD. Alex Drake, Mona, CeCe Drake, who should have been the final A? best and worst A reveals. season finales. A revealed. - บันเทิง
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People need to understand that fiction isn't just fiction.
It teaches us about life and shapes us as human beings. Movies and shows I watched as a child helped me to develop to be the person I am today. There is a reason why children's movies try to teach them about right or wrong. Because what we see and love does influence us.
And Pretty little Liars DID influence us. A lot of my class mates loved Ezra and Aria. They literally called me crazy for not liking it.
Shows and movies should take more responsibility on what kind of messages they bring across. If they don't, abusive/unhealthy relationship will be a lot more commen in real life because people get taught that red flags are romantic gestures
THANK YOU. Everytime i hear people saying "it's just fiction" i just cringe at how ignorant they are. Fiction plays a huge role in raising us, in fact i'd argue it plays a bigger role than our own parents.
I'm torn on this topic, myself. I worry that it's too much to expect popular media to only make shows that are perfectly wholesome and teach good messages, and also too much to expect teens and young adults to only get into shows with the low-stakes conflicts that define purely good and wholesome shows. I'd venture to say most teens/young adults wouldn't see much of themselves or their lives reflected in those kinds of stories, even if we modernized it.
On the other hand, narratives like this can actually be dangerous. Teacher/student relationships are an enormous concern in the US (don't know about anywhere else) and older, predatory men taking advantage of young girls is something that literally happens on a large scale. I haven't talked to too many people who presented feminine in their high school years who didn't have some kind of incident where someone who was way too old for them tried to take advantage. They tell this story like it's something that could *never* have happened to their audience members in the same demographic, and like it couldn't *possibly* have caused trauma for some of them already. And while the stereotype of older man/younger girl is how the dynamic is usually thought of, I want to make sure I acknowledge that these things can happen with victims and perpetrators of any sex/gender.
PLL got a lot of stuff dangerously wrong. Even though I'm not sure how easy it would be to prove that PLL directly caused more young people to put themselves in harm's way (the age-gap relationship with minors is apparently so normalized in the showrunners' social circles that they fully lack the awareness that it's supposed to be a bad thing), I agree that it was irresponsible to show a relationship like this to girls in the age demographic most vulnerable to exploitation. Teenagers seem to occupy this gray area where we kind of understand they don't need the same protection as young children and do need a degree of freedom to learn about themselves and others, but we can't seem to figure out what they should be held accountable for. The narrative of "hot teen babe seduces older man by virtue of (*checks notes*) having boobs" is so insidiously pervasive in society. I don't think PLL told kids a different story than one they'd been exposed to just by virtue of being alive, we have school dress codes centered around the idea that underaged girls can dress or look "too sexy" and anyone who grew up in religious modesty culture has more than been exposed to this idea that the female body is just criminally hot. Anyone who's ever shopped in the "junior girls" section of a clothing store can see they make oddly form-fitting clothes and shorts that are uncomfortably short for girls in that age demographic. I feel like the narratives surrounding too-much-older partners in PLL is more a symptom of the problem than a cause, but it could be a symptom that perpetuates the spread of disease (like how coughing can spread a cold).
TL;DR, I think the showrunners could have done themselves a great service by eventually portraying Ezria as the toxic thing it was rather than portraying the toxicity as something that just needs to be accepted for the sake of ✨twue wuv✨, and the "It's just fiction" retort would hold up better if the show was meant to be for an age demographic that should hopefully know better...but I don't think the story was new or groundbreaking in terms of how vile it is.
Agreed. The art-reality dynamic is a feedback loop. (1) Writers pick up ideas from the culture in which they're raised. (2) These unconscious assumptions are reflected in their work. (3) Because their work becomes a part of pop-culture, these assumptions are presented to the audience as an aspect of reality. (4) Since viewership is passive, we don't typically think to ask ourselves the "why" of what we're seeing, but simply accept it as though it were true.
It's like the Pickle-Rick episode of Rick and Morty (not a huge fan but my brother loves it). At the end of the episode my brother turns to me and says: "The thing is--Rick was right." I struggled not to look at him like he was stupid. Rick and Morty is fiction. The writer clearly believes that Rick's position was the correct one, and so that's how he wrote it. That doesn't mean that Rick would've been right in real life. It doesn't mean that something which seems reasonable in a situation that absurd would be true in a more likely scenario.
@@enriquesanchez9016 If fiction is raising you more than your parents, your parents failed. Fiction IS fiction. Fiction that is angled at YOUNG CHILDREN AND TEENS is a slightly different matter. Adult fiction can tackle whatever messed up stuff it wants, in whatever way it wants. I read and watched plenty of screwed up stuff and didn't go get in a relationship with an adult. The show deserves to be called out for being angled at a young impressionable audience, but PARENTS should be teaching their children that this stuff is FAKE and not automatically okay.
@@sunnycastiglioni7512 Of course shows don't have to only portray wholesome content but then it shouldn't be portrayed as such.
If Ezra did get punished for his actions or when it was portrayed that he was wrong and the entire student/teacher relationship was harmful for Aria, I wouldn't have an issue with it. I think it's important to cover topics like that but it should be done in the right way and PLL like you said, didn't do it right.
you know its wrong when Ian Harding literally wrote in his biography something like "I played the most beloved peodophile in America"
Holy shit!! Is there somewhere I can read about Ian Harding’s take on his own character?
Did he know when he audition and read the script?
@@Noa...... well when the show started they were working off the book, and I read the first few books and some things like ezra and aria are different. so if he read the book I think hed assume hed be portrayed as creepy and as a bad guy, but then in the show it was romantized
@@Noa...... I mean when you audition they only give you like a scene or two from the pilot and that’s it. He most likely didn’t know how romanticized it would become.
@@alondraa.3522 Fair point.
I always thought it was weird how the show tried to convince you that Aria was the most mature of the liars when she really wasn’t. She very much acts like a 16 year old but the show wants you to believe that because she’s into literature and goes to bars that she’s more mature somehow
they tried to make her artsy and...it didn't work for me lol
@@elsie1998 right she didn’t seem into the arts 😂😂
The most mature liar was Emily
@@elsie1998 she was so much more artsy in the books! But in the show all of Aria’s personality is “eZrA 🤪”
Aria always came across pretentious to me
A groomers favourite line is "you're so mature for your age"
true
Always
Or “age is just a number”
@@buff_0292 and prison is just a building 😍🙈
😬I remember freshman year of highschool my friend dated a senior, and he would always say this. During lunch and what was supposed to be okay rehearsal, she would sit on his lap and make out with him. I didn’t know until after they broke up, but he asked another one of my friends to take pictures of her in a romper while she was at school specifically stating “without her knowing🙈”. I feel so disgusted whenever I think about him because he still hangs out with some people my age and they are his closest friends. Also, a couple months ago on his Instagram story he had a girlfriend but posted something like “it sucks to want to be with someone when the world isn’t accepting of it” which is wrong on so many levels.
Even Ezra's actor, Ian Harding, was uncomfortable with how Ezra and Aria's relationship was romanticised. Reportedly, one company dropped advertising over Emily's same sex relationship, but seemingly had zero qualms with an underage girl and her teacher being romantically involved!
...why am i not surprised by this? OF COURSE they're gonna make a big deal about homosexuality but somehow a grooming relationship is perfectly ok. Homophobia makes people so incoherent, it's insane.
Insane and literally nonsensical. One is a consensual relationship between two equals, yet it is the one to be questioned.
"Americas favorite pedophile"
I'm gonna keep saying it. Hanna and Caleb were the best and most healthy couple. He was her age, a teenage boy having money problems and his own seperate life. They had the cutest development and a great first time in a camping trip that was romantic, unlike a quicky in a dirty bar restroom ezria had.. People are sleeping on Caleb.
Agreed. They were my fave ship
YAAAS HALEB FOR THE WIIIN. But for real they were the first relationship in the show that actually made me smile, because up until that point Emily's relationship with Maya ended very badly, her relationship with Paige started off terribly (how is she ok dating someone who tried to drown her ? Wtf), and well Arya and Ezra are terrible. Caleb is amazing and I thought it was so hypocritical that everyone was wary of him at the beginning because of his different socio-economical status. Caleb is the best.
They really were I hated how the writers tried to make spencer x caleb a thing 🤮 (also spencer x Toby was adorable)
@@shanouboubou it was so funny how they decided that the homophobic bully is gay herself 💀
Spoby is better
I love the audacity of the writers that they make Toby (abuse victim and an absolute sweetheart) a member of the A Team, but leave Ezra (an Abuser and creep) as all innocent
Yeah I really didn't like that at all that's just so wrong it 🤢🤮🤯😬😡🤬🤪
It really innocent, he did turn out a creepy stalker who knew Aria before she knew him
Yeahhh but Toby wasn’t exactly a sweetheart. He wasn’t as bad as Ezra but he was kinda problematic too.
@R Rajan He was emotionally manipulative with Spencer quite a lot. He teamed up with A, and while it was to get intel, he still participated in torturing the girls (and never actually accomplished anything in terms of getting information, so it was all for nothing). He let Spencer believe he was dead, which was obviously traumatic, and after that arc was said and done, he'd still punish her by leaving without any communication when he was mad at her. Even though she asked him not to do it and basically told him it was kinda triggering for her, he still did it anyway. He wasn't a great person a lot of the time, at least not when it came to his girlfriend.
@R Rajan Yeah, other than the A Team/faking his own death part, a lot of it was more subtle or at least not the sole conflict of an episode, just kinda showing up here and there. It's easy to miss but definitely there. Drove me crazy that he kept being lauded as this big hero and Spencer's one true love when he was neither of those things.
I honestly can't believe the parents blaming Spencer for creepy adult men being inappropriate to her. That's so awful and gross.
THIS. Wren and Ian (which was even worse considering she was in 8th grade🤮) came onto her. No one told them to cheat on Melissa and hit on her underaged sister. Yet her parents (and most in the fandom🤦🏾♀️) blame her
Troian Bellisario called out the victim blaming towards her character and blamed the grown men who went after an underage Spencer
Edit: spelling mistake
8th grade is for building lego sets, team sports, music, and learning make-up not dealing with grown men invited into your house by your parents who don’t care about your safety. Even the adult child (the older sister) should not have the parents helping her and her college boyfriend play house in their parents house. Adult parents are not loving or kind to help their kid sleep with someone who isn’t their committed spouse. They are fools and enablers.
@@violetrose674 It's terrible writing, but I think the idea is that Wren was seen as the less favored one next to her "Golden" sister so the parents would always be quick to blame her for any wrongdoing first. For the man, it was bad. For Wren, it was more proof to the parents she was "rotten".
The problem too is that most teenagers see themselves as adults not children (at least I did). They see themselves as on the same level as young adults maturity-wise and experience-wise, so don’t see an adult pursuing them as predatory, but actually completely normal (and tv shows like PLL don’t help to change that idea). It’s only when those teenagers grow up and look at those interactions/relationships retrospectively that they finally see that they were groomed/manipulated/abused. Great analysis as always!
Absolutely. I know the son of one man I'm working with. The boy is 18, has graduated and is now working for the first time. He's the oldest of three sons and will later be given his father's spot as the head of his families workplace.
And he thinks of himself so highly and mature! (He's not. He's rude, impatient and never admits his mistakes) I mean, legally he's an adult, but he lacks so much experience. And when I see him act that way, I can only think about this issue.
Most characters in those stories are younger than 18 and they are described as mature? Heck, No! They're still kids, let them live their lives.
Yeah, this is a really good point.I had a friend in high school who went out with boys several years older than her and none of us ever questioned it. But now I look back and this "Ummmm, yeah, inviting a 25 year old to our prom is hella weird, it's a good thing he didn't come even though she was crushed". Ugh. Also we had a substitute that was one of those like, pretty boy types? And almost all the girls thought he was so gorgeous, and I shit you not, I saw a horde of female student following behind him in the halls once between classes, giggling while he smirked like the absolute arrogant creep he was. And I used to get made fun of for being one of the only girls that didn't have any interest in him. (Which I now realize it partly because I'm gay, but also because he was just plain creepy.) But once in class we were taking notes from an overhead and I was always a slow writer, so the teacher would have to bring me the overhead sheets to finish individually. He came over to my desk when I asked for it and fully slid it across my desk while smiling in a pretty flirty manner. My friend asked me after what was wrong with me that I didn't fall all over myself and smile back or wink or something, but I just said I thought he was weird. Now, looking back, I realize exactly what my friend saw, but from the lens of how inapproriate it is for a teacher to flirt with a student that openly. And I wasn't even into it then, so it's even creepier now.
Shows like PLL definitely made this mindset worse for me. Looking back, I realize I chatted romantically/sexually with many adult men when I was 16. I felt very mature at the time and I felt cool, valued, worthy because older men paid attention to me and wanted me. That's so crazy to me now. These men were predators and should not have been talking to me. I'm just glad I didn't meet with any of them or take it further. I can only imagine how this would've panned out if a man had approached me in real life. I honestly think many girls are this way and shows like PLL, which encourage and essentially promote this behavior, are actually very dangerous in that sense.
Well I think that’s school and parents fault also the media we act too “childish” people say grow up we act to “grown” act your age that’s confusing
@@Jessica.Shawnte yeah I agree. I mean adolescence is definitely a weird limbo - we have all of these responsibilities, like jobs, school, extracurriculars, etc - but not the freedom that comes with adulthood. it’s easy for teens (especially around the 16 year mark) to overestimate their maturity because of societal expectations and personal responsibilities
Isn't it interesting how they made a point to state that Alison was "obsessed" with the book _Lolita_ ? Like, do they know what the book is about??? It's like they were hinting at Ali being abused by an older man, but at the same time they romanticized other inappropriate relationships???
This. Omg when they brought that up on the show I thought the girls would start to realize how men have groomed them and not want to end up like Ali but they didn’t lol
that always made me feel so icky, teen girls dont need introduction to that book. Its already romanticised online enough in teen spaces (see: lana del rey fans on tumblr back in the day)
yes or they totally missed the point of lolita
They do, that was actually supposed to be clever but all of that gets thrown out the window when the show is also simultaneously romanticizing and excusing those things. It feels like too many ppl where in the writers room with many different voices
5:19 This is why Ezra as A would have been the ultimate ending -it would have been so evil, a slap to face, and a lesson in how one can grow so swooned and manipulated by an abuser. They really missed an opportunity there. As the audience we were seeing it all through Aria (the victim)’s eyes. Love bombed, constant forgiving & forgetting. We were literally groomed alongside her to normalize it. I was so convinced this “twist” was what the show was creeping toward as the finale neared. Because why else would they romanticize a predatory relationship (one that was confirmed as predatory before he even met her. We saw how really f*cked up & abusive this relationship was for Aria in season 4. Y’all that period of the show revealed Ezra as truly sinister. It was so good and so scary. And overtime they got us to forget it ALL!) Ezra was the ultimate predator. In my mind he’ll always be the true A
I think about this every time I remember Spencer’s relationship with Wren. Like how when Melissa found Wren and Spencer kissing and she called off the engagement and then proceeded to yell at Spencer (in front of their mom) about how Spencer just let it happen even though Spencer says he was the one who made the first move (which he did) and then their mom was just like, knock it off and get ready for school. I don’t like the way that was handled.
for sure!! they treated her like it was her fault and there were no consequences for wren kissing a literal child. watching it back now at 20 years old, it just makes me sad for her. I wish someone would have helped her and blamed the adult man instead of the kid :(
Agreed! This show really normalized victim blaming.
Not to mention Wren was 2 years older than Ezra...Alot of people were perfectly okay with Wren and Spencer...but through hissy fits over Ezra and Aria...claiming abuse of power and he was a predator. Wren was 8 years older than Spencer and was a MEDICAL doctor...surely he understood that Spencer was a minor and he was a grown man lusting after a minor.
It was even worse in the books, as the parents were just as angry as melissa, at spencer. sarah sheppard was the original sinner when it comes to normalizing teen/adult releationships.
@@MajorOctofuss Which makes no sense why they would automatically jump on Spencer...but i get the feeling Melissa in the books made her parents feel like Spencer was always jealous of her...which Spencer was competitive and did try to outdo her sister for her parents attention. They should have believed Spencer when she e told them Wren sought her out by i guess by then she had already developed feelings? It all happened so quickly...its weird.
It's very clear Ezria were the writer's favorite couple. Also, side note, your hair looks amazing in this video.
thankyouuuuuu
Thats what I saw too. I. Marlene King was one hundred percent behind this relationship.
@@dgaller06 idk if its true but ive seen somewhere that someone said that marlene said her dream relationship is like ezrias. which i dont doubt by the way the writers treated them compared to the other couples.
Had to have been.. in the books they were together for a little bit and then he went away and Aria got with Noel. So, if Marlene wasn’t a fan of Ezria she would’ve written it more like the books and had Aria get with someone else permanently instead of being with Ezra throughout most of the show. The fact she kept them together shows she supported them.
You can tell by the way they villainised Noel to make Ezra the good guy, Noel was the love of Aria's life in the books and they marry in the end... just insane.
I remember watching PLL and wondering why the police didn't arrest or were even creeped out when Spencer told them that she had a relationship with Melissa's ex/eloped husband (forgot his name) when she was 15 and he was like 21. I was like "did they really just gloss over the fact that a 21-year-old MAN had a relationship with a 15-year-old GIRL?" but then I remembered that the writers were trying to romanticize Ezria.
I mean he was dead what they was supposed to do🤷🏾♀️
@@Jessica.Shawnte I'm like 96% sure she told the police when they found that bloody trophy (i think it was a trophy) in the drama room. This was when they thought Ian was A and that he killed Allison.
@@nyny0233 oh yea I think your right
I think he was definitely older than 21. He's at least like 24
@@pinkmapviolin I thought he was younger than 21 because Melissa and Jason was in the same grade along side Garrett and CeCe is a year older than them so the means they graduated that year
What I could never understand was Aria's parents acting like they disapproved of the relationship, but could not do anything about it. _The hell they couldn't._ Yes, Aria was 16 and therefore of age, but by Pennsylvania state law, it was still a felony for Ezra, as a teacher, to have a sexual relationship with a student under 18, on account of his position of authority over her. (Yes, the show made me so mad about this that I looked it up.)
If i remember correctly I think Aria threatened her father( cause he basically did the same thing with his student, Meredith)
A little late but, they never really did anything cause Aria's mom was afraid of Aria running away and also cause aria was throwing a big fit about it. Not really excuses but her mom did say she was worried about running away.
@@elishamartinez6262 if they really have a damn they would’ve done everything in their power to keep their daughter in check, considering they led her into the arms of a groomer it’s so sick
It didn’t become sexual until after he was her teacher.
@@zirael5750True except the fathers mistress wasn't a child but yes the power dynamic
I actually thought that Aria would have been great with Ezra's younger brother. They had a lot of chemistry and seemed to become friends instantly. I found it so odd that the writers did that because it just shows how good Aria's life could have been if she had dated someone that was an appropriate age for her.
Definitely. I feel like the writers wanted the girls to be teenagers to appeal to younger audiences but at the same time, they were aware that the actresses are adults so they didn’t see “adults” in a relationship as a problem. This whole mess could have been avoided by making them college students as that’s what they look like and act like anyways...
I agree
@@excessivelyfangirlingbookw3339 Euphoria should've been in college
I'm rewatching PLL with my sister and I was astounded at just how many inappropriate relationships there were! Considering most of the female characters are in high school, so many of the relationships were wrong. Obviously Aria and Ezra, but also Wren and Spencer, Ian and Spencer, Jenna and Garrett, etc. etc. Most of these guys are Melissa's age who is established to be quite a few years older than Spencer (I think they have Melissa in grad school when Spencer is a junior in high school!) And obviously Wren was in medical school, making him at least 22 most likely when Spencer is like 16.
also alison dating ezra when she was 15!!
Lol and I am here living in Europe xd
Ian was the only one who had a comment made about him being a creep into younger girls(don't remember who said it), but that was after people thought he had killed Ali (I believe, the plot was much to remember). Rewatching it this year I kept thinking so what about Wren and Spencer, Aria and Ezra, even Ezra and young Ali???? But all of a sudden the show doesn't recognize illegal relationships. In fact, when they are on higher grades of high school it seemed like they had more and more age inappropriate relationships. I guess the writers thought they could get away with it more by then.
@@fa_sollasido To be fair he did think she was 21. But from her side it was very weird
I had an assistant professor at uni, he was in his 30s and we were age 19-21. I remember so many students (me included) had a crush on him, but he always kept his distance. It might have felt disappointing then, but gosh I’m so grateful to him. Even if we were adults legally, it’s never a good idea to date someone in the position of power.
There’s a book ‘My Dark Vanessa’ that is in short a Lolita’s story told from the girl’s POV without shining away from all the ugliness. Though not a fun read, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
what a respectful guy!
We had a teacher like that as well. We were 17-19 and he was about 40, very fit, handsome, funny, cultured. So many had crushes on him and he was very personable and a good teacher. Many girls in different classes and even some guys liked him and one girl even propositioned him but he never did anything and never was alone/in private with any student. Back then we were all so heartbroken but now at 28 I really appreciate him and how he acted.
The amount of predatory relationships and interactions in the show is disgusting:
Ian & Alison
Ian & Spencer
Wren & Spencer
Wren & Hanna
Ezra & Aria
Zack & Hanna
Holbrook & Hanna
Byron & Meredith
Samara and Emily.
Jenna & Garrett
Alison and detective Wildon
and theres a lot more too
Then again it’s pretty little liars I mean what do ppl expect from the toxicity of the show
When Ezra dated Alison it feels way creepier than his relationship with Aria (wasn't Alison like 14 or 15?) and it makes his relationship with Aria creepier because it's a pattern and he knew her age. Even with the over romanticization of their relationship, that part felt so wrong
To many minor encounters with this show
@@lucybetham5687yes it’s really creepy it makes you think if the creators have something going on cause whyare they romanticising it so much also cause Ezra and aria plan to adopt a child in the last episode which is concerning to me
Yes . I think I remember Allison lying about her age when they first met but still he knew about arias age and pretended he did don’t . I’m sure I remember a scene where he asked her age or said something like I didn’t know you age so it isn’t my fault and stuff like that but then you find out he did know arias age and at one point he was going to break it off cause of fear of going to jail or losing his job but it’s like he wasn’t concerned what he was doing was wrong it was more so I may get in trouble or face consequences .
It's also weird how allison's actress was younger in real life compared to 20 something year old Lucy hale.
literally felt like an entire show groomed an entire generation of underage girls into not seeing these things as red flags
I 100% agree
I was groomed last year, i was 17 and he was 24. I didn't watch a lot of PLL but i always liked the relationship until i got groomed. It's never okay, if you're a minor please please PLEASE don't date someone that much older than you, it can be so damaging. I am in therapy now.
I'm so sorry. Hope you're doing okay
Damn, I didn't know that the teacher went to jail in the books and Aria ended up with Noel!
The writers should've sticked to that... or at least make Ezra A. Or both. :)
yes the tv show did so many of the characters dirty from the book :( i definitely didn’t want the show to follow the books completely because there was definitely some shitty storyline’s in the books but i would’ve liked it if they had of tried to get noel and aria together.
Yas, would have been so much more interesting. I love a good interesting villain.
I read the books a WHILE ago but if my memory is correct I believe he was arrested after getting caught hooking up with her and later he hooks up with another student and moves to Rhode Island or something. I don't think he ends up in jail but he doesn't stick around long in the series.
@@hannahmerritt9523 yes he hooked up with that klaudia girl that noel dated after him and aria broke up.
@@ellaf6454 klaudia was insane oh my lord I cringe thinking about her
So, I became a teaching assistant at around 23. I generally taught first year undergrads who were around 18/19. They literally felt like children to me; partially because there's already a huge maturity gap and partially because I was their TEACHER.
I'm 28 now, and the idea of flirting with an 18 year old (far less a 16 year old) gives me hives.
We appreciate you for existing (coming from someone whose teachers assistant groomed me at 13)
my biggest pet peeve is that when the parents find out about their relationship, it's a big stink about "teachers shouldn't date students", not a single comment about how young she is! Objectively, age is the much bigger problem!!!!! Even her mom and dad don't seem to care! Can't believe the parents DECLINED calling the police to not bother Aria further... As though dating Ezra wasn't also traumatizing (Also he coerced and guilt tripped her several times when she wanted out? Like the cabin trip. Just saying)
literally, she was too damn young, she should have been with someone her own age
The fact that they were stuck on the whole "teachers shouldn't date students" thing over the whole "Aria is a 16 year old minor" thing is hilarious because of Aria's dad having been in a teacher/student relationship with one of his college students. :P
@@rianbeegles3349 I think they played up the student teacher angle BECAUSE of the dad’s past. They focused on the issue being student/teacher cause then they could show how Byron was a “hypocrite” and make him seem like the bad guy. And further excuse the inappropriate power dynamic between EzraxAria. And also the angle of, ‘at least Ezra wasn’t married and cheating on his wife like Byron did’.
Actually Aria's dad mentioned it but he was made to be a villain
@@chichi3183 yeah, exactly! I totally forgot about that but you're right, if I remember he did make a comment about calling the police and was talked out of it! As if not calling the police was an option T~T
They really wanted the girls to date man and not school boys, it's problematic on so many levels... And writer STILL do that, i remember watching the first episode of Riverdale and being so confused because... Again?? A student dating a teacher? Seriously, Ezra and Wren should have been A...
When I first watched the show, I thought Wren was A because I found him creepy and opportunistic in the way he suddenly get close to Hanna after being close to Spencer. Also his connection to Radley. I wish I had been right. Also I wish his character was more fleshed out. The actor was very good, I would have liked to see more of his creepy self.
Yeah but at least in riverdale they did show that its wrong
i like however in riverdale they ended the relationship in a few episodes, she died, and they didnt end up getting married like ezria did.
it’s a huge problem how they make it seem like the girls are mature and even keeled enough to date grown men but from what we see of the boys a lot of them are made out to be childish and dumb, just with the way they speak and stuff :/ feels like a little bit of that ‘boys will be boys’ bullshit, meanwhile the girls feel and act more like adults when they’re NOT
I don't like defending riverdale because it's such garbage, but they did have adults around Archie interfere, and later on she's killed by a serial killer for being a predator. So I don't really think it showed it as positive. The episode where she leaves, it's shown her immediately preying on other teenage boys. Indicating this is a pattern.
About the age gap, my mom always says that when an older person tries to have a relationship with you, you should ask yourself why they're trying to date someone *your* age instead of *theirs*. Why can't (or doesn't want) an adult man get a girlfriend his age?? 👀 It opened my mind
i agree!
Me watching Ezria at 10: 😍
Me watching Ezria at 20: 😬
Mood
As a 14 year old I find it completely creepy and weird how ppl my age find it cute. It’s not cute at all . Idk why teen shows do this it’s wrong in many ways.
Diego's action at the beginning is exactly what we all did when we realized Ezra and Aria were student and teacher... Nosedive down. The lizard version of a facepalm 😂😅
lmao literally, after hearing the topic he was like "i'm out"
😂😂😂
@@SerenaSkybourne you: "My topic today: Ezra"
Diego: "Over and out"
Holden was such a missed opportunity. He's such an interesting character with so much opportunity for conflict, character development and sweet heartfelt moments. It would have been super interesting to see Aria trying to navigate the balance between supporting someone doing what they love and also looking out for their health and safety.
This! I was hoping they’d get together, but they kept shoving ezria down our damn throats.
The reason I was shipping Ezra and Aria when I was like 12 when I started watching the show was literally because i thought they were so cute together and because the actors had chemistry, when I grew up and now with my 22 I find this relationship extremely creppy. Ezra was basically a predator and stalked younger girls like Aria and Alison. You are a grown ass man you really need to not make childish moves and you need to be really careful with stuff like that, you have to make sure she is legal and not underage. Their relationship was toxic and it was literally the grossest thing ever. Even though I liked Samara and Emily, Samara was way too old for her she was like in her mid 20s and Emily was 16, it was illegal but like they were cute and OMG Samara was so nice to Emily. The only reason I like Wren is because the actor who plays him puts a lot of charisma and life into a character that is honestly a creep. He kissed Spencer and Hanna, girls who were underage and he openly felt offended when they refused something more. Cece and Jason omg, she basically dated her half brother/ adoptive brother/cousin and it was just gross, I had my lunch thrown out of me when she said: I know what you are gonna say it's screwed that I dated my brother, gurl it's not just screwed it's gross, creppy and so awkward like even though you didn't have anything more than a kiss it's still your brother.
Yes, all the men in the show hit on most the girls, totally abuse and problematic
Jenna and Toby, Emily and Thalia? Yeah there were a LOT
i am currently watching skins UK for the first time and there’s a teacher-student relationship where the actor who plays the student is ACTUALLY a teenager and you can clearly see that he is a child and it’s very disturbing to watch him be with a grown woman in her 20’s or 30’s. that’s literally the only accurate portrayal of an age gap i’ve ever seen on screen.
i'm watching cruel summer on freeform and the protagonist (15yo) falls for the assistant principal, and so far they've portrayed the creepiness of it all very well (and he also kidnaps her, so it amplifies the whole creepy factor)
oh god i remember that it's so disturbing
Is skins any good?
@@mxxx9561 it's pretty good, hasn't aged perfectly but it's definitely watchable
@@xbluebellsx7492 oh definitely, cruel summer is portraying the grooming really well.
Even if Ezra was shoot, that still doesn't justify his betrayal and creepiness.
exactly
I am SO glad you're talking about this! The premise of Ezria is so gross, especially after 'he knew about the girls before he started dating Aria'. I dont know why they rewarded Ezra with a happy ending and no consequences?!
i know!! so bad
One of the most disturbing parts of their relationship to me isn't really her age or that he's her teacher, but that she was in such a stressful and vulnerable place in her life when they first started dating. I mean, she just found out that one of her best friends was in fact murdered, she started getting threatening texts from someone unknown who knows all her dirty secrets and on top of that her parents are getting a divorce and her home life isn't really that stable. It just makes everything with Ezra so much worse.
oh my days the fights they had were so disturbing im not even kidding, like Riverdale did it too but they had the relationship die in a more or less appropriate way BUT pll literally had Ezra and Aria get married there is no bigger way to romanticize, that kind of FORBIDDEN relationship, then to have them get married. its just scary how they made characters like Liam, Hackett, Byron and Ella look like the bad guys for thinking its disturbing and weird and literally creepy when it is it really is.
its weird to think that riverdale literally handled something better than pll
They kind of did it better, yeah, because there was no happy ending etc. But even over there, the writers wanted you to root for Grundy and Archie, because it felt like the secret being revealed by Alice and Fred was something unfortunate. Plus, Betty wants to protect Archie and Grundy, apparently not seeing what's wrong. Also, Alice immediately starts grilling Archie, while he was the victim here. What I did see was that this was all done immediately in episode 4 of season 1. And they frame Mrs. Grundy as creepy in season 2, because she continues the same thing all over again with Ben. And she gets killed eventually, which feels like justice. So while they did do some things better, like the framing of Grundy and the final retribution, they dropped the ball on other things like the actions of Betty, Alice and Archie.
@@RuuBjAh1 i just think the way the whole forbidden student teacher love trope is shown in so disturbing like young kids watch these shows including me i was young when i started to watch these and had it not been earlier taught to me that these types of relationships are wrong i mightve ended up in the wrong hands like many others who watched ygm but yeah riverdale didnt do a good job but they didn't romanticise it so bas that grundy and archie ended up together and jug in thr beginning was SO against it more then arias friends were about ezra
@@RuuBjAh1 i disagree. they did not want you to root for grundy and archie lmao at all. yeah alice didn't do the right thing... but when does she ever? she's known to be a crazy woman who hates archie in season 1.
@Becky Wen I disagree. Yeah, Alice was authoritarian and disliked Archie, but in the first season, she didn't seem crazy at all. That happened later when the writers decided to mess up her character.
ok wait, the book doesn't have Aria and Ezra in end game??? What's wrong with the directors???? I watched the first season as a teen and I wasn't finding the relationship problematic. But now, I'm so against relationship with big age gaps and especially when there is a power imbalance. This is just plain gross. I think parents really should start teaching their kids what's wrong with these kind of relationship early on so that the kids realize they are taken advantaged of.
Aria is annoyed by Ezra in the books and I loved it
There are 16 (18 if you count the bonus ones) books within the series! Aria is on/off with Ezra in the few first books and that’s about it. Noel is her main love interest, and they last for 10 books until the end! (Albeit having some bumps every now and then)
the taboo-ness was attracting audiences and helped the show do numbers, tbh. showrunners will do whatever they can to keep those numbers. it was like 50SOG for teens.
@@addy1071 So let's glorify pedophilia because ratings? Holy shit this world is even worse than i thought.
@@enriquesanchez9016 it’s like how shows like 13 Reasons Why keep getting renewed - taboo topics approached in the worst possible way seems to be the message every network or service wants to send to (very!) impressionable teens. And conversely, teens often don’t get how harmful the subject matter’s presentation is, so when it’s presented in a new way (scenes they haven’t seen before in past shows) they may tend to eat it up because it’s new! they’re curious! and it then turns into those “good ratings” and the execs say “let’s send MORE of this message to them”
Something that is very fun to do is to look at pictures of Lucy Hale from 2005 next to pictures of Ian Harding in season 1, because that is what the age difference actually should have looked like. So much creepier.
"he can't be held accountable"
sounds like rape culture to me mArLeNe
Ezria's relationship made me so uncomfortable that at some point I literally started skipping all of their scenes together. Plus their storylines were just boring.
There is something so profoundly creepy about a group of adult writers changing their source material to be unrecognisable just to push a pro-grooming relationship…
A lot of the relationships in PLL were very problematic. But the way Ezria was pushed and romanticized to the extreme is super disturbing. It was disturbing from the start when they had us believe he didn't know her age - cause he should have shut it down and kept shutting it down the second he found out - but even more so once it was revealed that he knew who she was before he met her and that he dated Alison too. This wasn't them being the exception (there isn't ever actually an exception. If you are a teenager dating an adult you are being groomed) or being "soulmates" it was a pattern of predatory behavior, and we were supposed to not only be okay with that, but see it as an ideal?
Also, to the people saying Aria should have known better, or putting this on her? No. It is NEVER the childs fault for being targeted by someone predatory. They should be getting help to get out of a situation like that, not be blamed for it happening in the first place.
IF THE TOPIC OF THIS VIDEO DIDN'T ALREADY REEL ME IN LET ME TELL YOU DIEGO DEFINITELY DID LMAOO WHAT A CUTIE
HES SO SWEET
Diego rly stole the show, hes so HANDSOME I wanna see more
hehe hes a model boy
@@SerenaSkybourne I love him! Does he just wander around?
this video is so important, i remember romanticising this type of relationship and to be just like her - it could be so dangerous to younger people
How would you have liked Aria and Ezra's relationship to evolve? (For me, it's Ezra in jail)
Ezra definitively should've gone to jail or at least lose his job, LIKE IN THE BOOK. The book clearly depicted that "relationship" as problematic but Marlene decided to romanticize it.
Either Ezra as A OR Ezra acting responsibly and distancing himself from Aria regardless of his feelings. Maybe helping the girls now and then but maintaining the appropriate distance. THEN after the time jump, maybe explore if they really had a connection.
Same, jail time would have made the plot FAR more realistic, even if it wasn't exactly the most grounded show to begin with.
I was so happy during the scene were Ezra was arrested and led out of the school with cuffs on staring at Aria so ppl knew it was about her. I wanted him to go to jail because it was so weird that everyone was eventually ok with them being together. It's supposed to be a relationship that's secretive, risky, and tabboo but by season 3 everyone either knew or suspected and they didn't care. I was so surprised when the principal had his doubts but didn't act on them. He literally asked Aria if she and Ezra were in a sexual relationship, she said no and he TOOK HER FOR HER WORD. He never thought to look into it because why would you instantly believe the 16 year old your questioning? Sadly, that scene was just Aria's imagination😭
I want the other people on the show to be as uncomfortable and against the couple as they should be. Like why are the school administrators not up in arms basically destroying any potential career for Ezra where he is near children. Get this man at least vilified by the general public if not on the sex offenders registry.
i and many of my friends romanticized and sought out relationships with older men when we were teenagers. i never got involved with an older man, but my friends who did got very hurt 100% of the time. one of them had a boyfriend who was 26 when they were 16 and he would belittle them and say things like “stop acting like such a high schooler” when they were LITERALLY. IN. HIGH SCHOOL. relationships between teenagers and adults are never okay. a lot of the adults who get into relationships with teens do so because they’re looking for someone to groom, manipulate, or create a codependent relationship with. courtney stodden’s story is a perfect example of a codependent teen-adult relationship that stunted their growth.
i support age gap relationships between consenting adults who have already lived independent lives from each other, have a strong sense of self, and know how to communicate with each other healthily as adults and can acknowledge that being in different life stages can present unique challenges to a relationship.
Once they revealed that Ezra always knew who and how old Aria was, that took away the last little shred of tolerance I had for their relationship. I really hate how they made up so much as they went along because Ezria, no matter how inappropriate, could have been redeemed in the future if he really didn't know how old she was when they met/connected. Still icky, but it is fiction and you could argue that maybe it really was true love that way.
Thank you for also bringing up the fact that Spencer's sister was CONSTANTLY VICTIM-BLAMING HER (in all fairness the parents seemed to never really back up Spencer either). Her CREEPY boyfriends would prey on her younger sister and she'd get mad at HER instead of her actual BOYFRIEND for preying on her younger sister. At LEAST twice that I can remember. The show was just insanity, and it's insane how many 11/12 year olds (including myself) consumed this content romanticizing and glamorizing so many of these creepy, inherently abusive relationships.
This is an important topic. I was involved with a 25 y.o. when I was 17, and I thought that I was special, mature, unlike other girls on my age. Now, being 25 myself, I look back and see an extremely unhealthy and emotionally abusive relationship. I don't blame any particular tv show for it, but it certainly doesn't help to see this kind of relationship romanticized.
i agree
Aria and Ezra’s relationship was interesting at first,but then they kept breaking up and then getting back together.Everything was so secretive and it just got boring .Ezra’s book and how he knew all the girls was an interesting storyline but I think they should’ve added that in season 2 since they were going to keep this gross relationship. The writers really messed up when they made Aria and Ezra get back together after she found out about the book.I also wish the girls had more of a reaction when they found out about Aria’s and Ezra’s relationship.The girls should’ve told aria to break up with him.Or try and find out his intentions somehow and realize how weird a creepy he was.Then maybe they would have found out about the book earlier.Or the girls should have told aria’s parents if she didn’t stop the relationship or at least get him fired from the school somehow.Aria is also really weird for kissing Ezra’s younger brother.Overall I think she should have ended up with Noel Khan.
It feels like Aria’s character was really stunted by her relationship with Ezra. Like after they get together, he keeps telling her how mature she is, and she never actually seems to mature after that point, which is sad
The Ezra and Aria relationship felt like a teenage girl's fantasy fanfic
You hit the nail on the head!! Can you please do more deep dives exposing just how toxic Spoby & Emison were?
Toby joined the A team, and Spencer found out on their anniversary. He inadvertently caused her to spiral and have an emotional & mental breakdown, sending her to an institution. Not to mentioned Spencer joined the A team for him as a double agent and kidnapped Malcom for the sake of Toby. Then everyone forgets about that. And there was a lot of secret keeping on both sides once he became a cop which also wasn’t healthy.
As for Emison: Alison bullied and taunted Emily about her sexuality, make her feel ashamed and insecure about it. It reinforces the whole bully/victim trope that is so common with lgbt couple on screen. Alison had put Emily and the other through so much, but Emily runs back into her arms. Then after her return to Rosewood Alison became a helpless victim that needed Emily 24/7 and Emily was there for her beckoning call. Plus the whole egg/insemenation storyline was warped and served as a plot device to put them together.
The writers convinced us these relationships were okay because the actors were attractive and had off screen chemistry, and kept them together for the almighty dollar. The relationships were far les toxic and way more realistic within the books. I still love the show and it’ll forever be my favorite/guilty pleasure but I’m not gonna blindly accept and watch all the toxicity that occurs within it.
it also basically manipulated sasha pieterse into being okay with her creepy groomer husband
Yesss do you know how old she was when they meet?
@@samanthabell6095 according to reddit and stuff people there found on facebook she was around 8 and he was 14 or 15
@@hidansektas I had a feeling it was weird but I didn’t know all that😖. Have you ever noticed they’re never apart?
@@Teddy-wd3ro yup that too! when i found out i scrolled really far down sashas instagram and they've obviously hung out a lot even when she was a minor. and i feel like once she turned 18-19 he was quick to propose and lock her down and they even have a kid now
in a bizarre way he kiinda stopped her career too cause she was getting really popular while he is a random actor without much success . i remember telling a friend "hes gonns knock her up so quickly so she wont leave and pursue her career a bit more"and it came true
@@hidansektas ya I remember they got engaged when she was about 19 and I saw a recent post of Sasha’s saying I hope everyone finds a love like ours and yikes I don’t know about that I hope not.
"creepy adults everywhere" sums up the show pretty well
We didn't see her fall for Ezra either. They hooked up in a bathroom and suddenly they are soul mates???
The moment I found out he dated Allison previously and knew Aria was underage, this shit(ship) went to crumbs for me. He basically stalked and groomed her into a relationship. And it’s even worse the writers made her end up with him. Seems like Stockholm syndrome.
After the time jump, they should’ve developed her and Jason because the chemistry was already there. Overall, I have a problem with the developments of all the main relationships and how it ended but Ezria was the most abysmal.
The only people that actually addressed to ezra and aria were her parents and they were made seem as THE BAD GUYS
i pointed it out on instagram and someone replied saying: "what's wrong with dating your student when you love someone you don't see their age ezria was the most beautiful couple of pll" based on her pfp i assume she's in her 20s THAT'S SO WEIRD AND CONCERNING
When I was 16 dating a 20 year old we dated for 1.5 years and he already had a kid. I was basically a stepmom and still in HS. He would talk about us having a child and it was not forced or even a bad relationship even looking back but he was in a different point in life than I was and I had no business coparenting at 16
with the Malcolm storyline, I was hoping she would at least realize that he now had a kid, and this was all too much for her, and leave him.
Can I just point out that when Ezra meets Alison for the first time he tells her that he reads "Tender is the Night" every summer, and if I remember correctly the main character of that book, a married man with a family, has an affair with a 16 year old, and his own wife is also much younger than he is, so maybe that book did a number on Ezra...? Theory?
I'll admit I shipped Ezria back in the day when I was a teen myself. I remember my mom always saying it was creepy and me retorting that "They're in love" and "Ezra liked her before he knew she was underage". My mind did change somewhat when I found out that my 2nd retort was a freaking LIE, but I still didn't see it as the nightmare it truly was. Luckily I didn't get into any dangerous relationships myself but the show kinda messed with my 16 year old head!
As a 14 year old I’ll admit I never liked Ezra from the start.I never really understood why ppl ship them.
I commented this before on another video but this story haunts me. My fiancé is a primary school teacher and his first year on the job (aged about 22), one of his students kept telling him that he looked like Mr. Fitz. She was in third class, so would have been 8 or 9 years old. 😭
This is the effect that storylines like this have on young kids. It caused her to see her relationship with her real life teacher in a potentially different light. So irresponsible of the writers.
I just want to see a student-teacher relationship/age gap relationship depicted realistically. It's not what TV portrays it to be. Teenagers are not as mature as TV portrays them to be. We need to start really showing WHY these relationships are so harmful. Telling an honest story doesn't make your story less interesting or dramatic. There's plenty of drama in revealing the truth of unhealthy relationships based on unbalanced power dynamics.
I highly recommend Cruel Summer (which is currently airing on Freeform). While the man in the relationship isn't a teacher, he's an assistant principal (which is honestly a lot worse IMO). The show illustrates what grooming is and how utterly wrong he is for pursuing a relationship with a minor. My skin crawls so much watching the show, but I think that's why it works so well: it shows exactly why relationships like this aren't romantic - they're creepy and predatory.
@@owlthebooks Thanks for the recommendation. This really needs to be the standard for how these relationships are portrayed.
@@JustAHorrorShow Riverdale, of all shows, also did this correctly with the Archie/Grundy thing.
I was ride or die for them until 4B. I was a fanfic writer, a founder of the Ezria fandom on Twitter, and just adored their relationship until 4B where it was clear that their entire relationship was manipulative and predatory, even more so than any previous critic could have predicted.
One of my biggest problems with Ezria is the framing in general. It wasn't only framed as romantic but as the pursuit of a teenage girl on a predatory male who has groomed her into thinking she's in control. Ezra essentially put all of the so called power into Aria's hands while he was abusing his power over her and, in retrospect, that makes it SO MUCH WORSE because it makes it seem like adults who abuse and groom teenagers are just giving into the passion of said teenager. Too many of my friends in the Ezria fandom were manipulated into thinking that the adult men that were pursuing and preying on them because "they were mature for their age." And that's why I think no other relationship worked for her because she was so invested into this grown ass man.
The only part of the redemption arc that I appreciated was the last minute storyline in 7B when it was revealed that Aria almost had Ezra arrested in 4B and Ezra told her to submit the report to the police, realizing that HE was the abuser in the situation and this was because IAN HARDING wanted to address it. It was so random and so thrown in at the last minute but I'm glad it was included.
Thank you for this video and all of your PLL videos. I really appreciate them and glad I'm not the only one who things about the wasted potential of this show.
i'm so glad that someone is finally talking about this lol
i wish more people would talk about it!
I liked aria with Jason the most i do not know why but i did.
Yeah me to I really wanted aria with Jason 🥰😘😍
I liked them cause he seemed to genuinely like her and was very sweet to her. And even though the age gap created a power imbalance, I don’t remember him ever using his age and experience to manipulate her(like Ezra commonly did). But we never got to see them together, so we don’t know what their relationship would have been. But he was sweet and genuinely cared about Aria, so he was always my favorite.
I LOVED how you mentioned the fact that they could’ve just found another plot line, but no, they chose to normalize and romanticize the creepy and gross relationships! Really lazy and bad writers, i also believe that fan service played a HUGE role in keeping ezria a thing until the end
At one point the writers didn't care if the relationship was wrong or if they were giving a bad message, they just wrote what they fans wanted to see
Marlene was hugely guilty of fan service! Just look at how everyone ended up with their original couples in the end, totally unrealistic and boring. Completely unimaginative
Oh my god! I'm so glad you brought this up! Cuz this fully sent a wrong message to me when I was a young teen
definitely! its so toxic
Loved the video, just wanted to say that Serena's last video was probably the most British thing she's ever done and I love it
lmao thankyou
I still can't get over how great the casting was for the "second Jason". He an Allison favor each other a lot, and look like brother and sister.
The way I clicked immediately
Me too, I've had issues with this plot point for years!
same
The only time I ever enjoyed Ezra on screen was when he was getting beaten up by the prisoners in the jailhouse rock dream
lmao this is so relatable
Freeform sure redeem themselves currently with Cruel Summer.
true
I was never into Ezria's relationship, and it would have been much more fun if, as you said, the writers had some balls and actually made him devastatingly sneaky evil or something. I never understood how she could get back to him and trust him after what he had done, and known, behind her back. Would be a huge deal breaker for me. Again, the writers just wanted to be clever and smarter than us and the books, and it lead to vanilla bisquits.
I also can't believe how Ezra and Aria would go on dates and hang out around Rosewood after they told Bryon and Ella, as though the police and other people from school can't see! And then when Ezra shows up to the masquerade ball AT SCHOOL and they kiss in the middle of the school dance??? I'm truly gobsmacked at the audacity.
So creepy… Ezra and Aria really tricked us as a young audience into believing that this relationship made sense and was the ultimate ship/true love. Also side note lol u look stunning!! I love your eyeshadow shade
tysm honey!!
They could have so easily made him just like a teacher's aide or assistant that is like 18-19 and it would still have had the whole "forbidden" thing without it being creepy. Or, you know, just treat is as the bad creepy relationship that it is instead of acting as tho it was romantic and sweet
They also could have had them be college students too. They barely are in school unless the plot wants it and they travel all across the city/state at all hours of the day with no or very little push back from their parents. The only thing that would change is make it less creepy. The girls' characters and arcs wouldn't change. Plus they look early 20s anyway
Honestly with PLL it felt like every episode was written and acted a week before it aired, not just because of the lazy writing and pointless build-ups but also because the writers were so focused on Ezria and probably thinking that the risqué-element of their relationship was what kept the audience intrigued. Which also explains why we can't/don't imagine Aria in a relationship with anybody else. I take it that the writers thought their deviation from the books and adding more dramatic on-and-offs of the couple was keeping the show's viewership high.
I’m still gonna say my point:
We didn’t like Aria Montgomery and Ezra Fitzgerald, we liked Lucy Hale and Ian Harding.
Their physical attractiveness and amazing chemistry is the only reason Ezria became the fan favorite ship.
“Ezria” disturbs me on such a visceral level as someone who never watched PLL when it was first airing and started watching it as an adult. You’re absolutely right about everything but I also picked up very early on that Aria’s entire life outside of everything going on with “A”, and her friends, revolves completely around Ezra. That man is her entire world. What is disturbing is that’s not entirely inaccurate to the real world- groomers and abusers absolutely want their victims to solely focus on them and have their entire life revolve around them. I hate how the show romanticizes their relationship.
I remember that the show was on while I was in middle school and I thought the teacher/student relationship was so gross and weird because she was underage and I thought it was so weird that I never heard anyone else talk about it. I just didnt say anything and avoided the show because I felt like I was missing something somehow?
It was my least favorite couple and it drove me crazy how it was the shows favorite couple. They were so boring and it was gross. All of it was gross. Idk why they were given so much screen time when Spencer and Toby/ Emily and Mia/ Hanna and Caleb were so much better. Hell I would've love more of Mike and Mona together being cute over Ezra and Aria.
I know I'm double commenting here but talking about this reminded me of some of the stuff that happened on the actual set that I have never seen talked about by anyone else...namely that Shay Mitchell was in her 20s when they had her actively making out with pre-teen Sasha Pieterse on-set. They had a few suggestive scenes that, at a first glance, look kind of sweet, but become almost sinister when you realize that a lot of the cast members claim not to have known Pieterse's age on-set for quite some time. Since most of the cast members were relatively within the 20s-30s age group, I can kinda see them assuming she was around their age...it's weird to me to think they could have been interacting with her for so many hours a day and not realized she was still going through puberty, especially since there would have been laws around things like how many hours a day they're allowed to have her on-set and I think she would technically, legally need to have a guardian present...all of which are things that would have affected their day to day lives in a very noticeable way...but maybe that affect was minimized because Allison's role on the show was also pretty minimal for the first 3-4 seasons and the laws concerning having a guardian present are often ignored or circumvented in Hollywood.
Yet, I have seen far more people asking Shay Mitchell what it's like to kiss girls from a presumably straight perspective than how she felt knowing that the showrunners had her actively making out with a child and never bothered to tell her that??? If I were her I would honestly be so pissed off and possibly traumatized by that. It's obvious that society still views consentual same-sex attraction and activities as being weirder or more taboo than adult/teenager relationships.
I’ve been binging your videos. DUDE. I found a picture of my room from like 2010 with a PPL poster and I was like oh god. I read the the books first and was so excited for the show. Now I’m 24 and I can’t get over how problematic their relationship was. He was so wrong for her and groomed her. I didn’t see it like that at all! I guess that’s part of growing up. For real though your reviews are so accurate! Keep up the good work💜
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Honestly, EVEN if Aria was >18 and Ezra was a college professor, it would still be wrong to glamorize their relationship. I always find that any form of authority that a partner holds over another is potentially so dangerous and destructive to the relationship and the other person. It doesn't matter if the teacher looks like Gollum or Captain America--every student-teacher relationship is terrible on every level.
Romanticizing student/teacher relationships is one of my pet peeves in storytelling, so I was thrilled when the mini series The Teacher came out. It actually goes into the manipulation and inappropriate behavior of a teacher pursuing a student and the emotional trauma of the victim. It's definitely for more mature audiences, but I highly recommend checking it out!
360 degree flip means there is no change, it's full circle - you go back where you were
What you meant is 180 degree
Haha thankyou, I realised after uploading 😂
This show was in its run when I was 15-16, freshly dating someone four years older than me. They were a genuinely kind person, but it still did screw me up because you're experiencing such different life milestones, and the effects run deeper than anyone thinks. This show made me think it was okay at the time. If I'd been shown messages that this wasn't okay, I think my young adulthood would have turned out a lot different.
I'm fourteen (so still rly young) and around two years ago I had a crush on my English teacher. I literally tried to be around them all the time, dressed up whenever i knew i had their class, and I used to pretend I needed extra help so that they could help me more. Looking back (even though it's only been two years), that's pretty darn weird. I was basically obsessed with my teacher and PLL had a big impact on it (Wattpad txs books had an effect on it too, so i'm not going to act like it was just PLL).
It took me a long time to finally realize that teenage/adult relationships and student/teacher relationships were not okay. It's embarrassing that it took me so long, but these types of things were completely normalized when I was a kid in High School. Most of the girls were always dating older men, hell one of my friends married a man old enough to be her father when we were in our last year of high school. Many people lusted after the TA's and no one blinked an eye when you heard they were dating a student. There were rumors about some of the older male teachers having dated students as well in the past. So it was very much normalized and I don't know how much of that has to do with it being a small town, but I'm sure it didn't help. And it definitely didn't help me see things clearly when so many of the shows I watched would depict these types of relationships as well. So admittedly it took me a further decade to finally realize how problematic and toxic these ideas and stories are. It makes me sick thinking back on it. It makes me sick thinking that there were children watching this show, still going to school, and thinking what they saw was okay, and that it was romantic and something to aim for. It makes me wonder how many young girls and even boys this show influenced where they actually got into relationships with teachers. I wonder how many predatory teachers used this show as a reference? Ugh!
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Now normally I don't have an issue with problematic things or relationships shown on television and I do believe a parent should be paying attention to what their child consumes so they can explain things, but when you aim a show at teenagers and young adults I fully believe you have a responsibility in how you depict these things. Especially when you are depicting a story set in an ordinary world that's not fantastical where you can't say "Oh that vampires mind was frozen at the age they were turned so they are still mentally 17 years old" or "this fantastical medieval society is taking inspiration from real medieval society and chose to depict the realities of noble's entering into arranged marriages, thus age gaps". So yeah I don't agree with how they depicted this relationship as a good thing, an inspiration, and something to achieve. What were these writers even thinking?!!!
I noticed this in a lot of other teen shows from that era. In gossip girl serena dates two of her professors at different points and she was like 16 in one of them! And then her mom was totally villainised for sending him to jail! There are a lot of weird unsettling relationships in tv shows like Blair and Chuck and him being abusive and rapey. I don’t like most of the relationships in Pretty Little Liars for this reason most of them are so weird and creepy with obvious power imbalances. The only couple I liked was Emily and Maya. even Caleb was like stalking Hanna at the beginning of their relationship and Toby was A at one point too and made Spencer have a mental breakdown. We really can’t win:/
PLL made the creepy Ezria ship most of Aria's showtime. Almost EVERYTHING in her life revolves around him and it's creepy.
Ian Harding was against it himself, to the point of saying he played 'America's Most Beloved Pedophile' in his book Rare Birds, which says something.
The way they introduced Ezria was also based off of how they introduced MerDer in the pilot of Grey's Anatomy.
diego is so cute &&& i’m so glad someone FINALLY talked about this
thankyou!
half a minute in, already had to like for diego. diego, if you're reading this: i love you and i'd die for you.
cutest comment
I am so grateful for you delving into this. I was obsessed with PLL and watched it every week with my family. But the teacher-student dynamic makes me so uneasy and I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that somebody vulnerable is going to think this is OK
The way I need this in my life
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i was an avid pll watcher as a teenager and it normalised a LOT of things for me that were not normal. i especially struggled with hanna’s ed storyline, i was going through an ed myself at the time and the whole ‘she didn’t eat and now she’s beautiful!’ narrative made me feel good about what i was doing. the predatory behaviour is just on a whole other level and, as you said, is straight up made out to be romantic. this great forbidden love story that defies all laws and disapprovals. absolutely fucking not.
also, i love diego. diego is adorable.