spaced

It’s Sunday morning, and I have nothing better to do than write a treatise about Paige McCullers.

(Please note that I am NOT tagging this emaya, because seriously.  Why?  I will never understand why people do that sort of thing.)

Ship Paily or don’t, but if you’re really focussed on the attempted drowning thing as the only reason that Paige is a bad person/bad for Emily, I think you’ve got blinders on. 

At the time that Paige pushed Emily’s head under water, she was dealing with some deeply internalized feelings of self-hatred.  She was closeted, she felt insane pressure from her father, not only about her sexuality but also her swimming and her future.  Have you guys ever felt the double shame of not only knowing who you are and being afraid to say anything, but also know that if you say something you could lose your family?  That can do horrible things to an adult, let alone a teenager also dealing with everything else a teenager deals with.  Meanwhile Emily is basically a shining beacon of everything Paige wants to be but can’t.

Did she handle it wrong?  Yep.  Would she have really killed Emily?  I highly doubt it.  Either way, it has been a year (or whatever, I’m so unclear on time in Rosewood).  Paige has grown up.  She’s come out to her family and made peace with herself and has spent the last However Long in love with someone who (she thought) doesn’t love her.  She’s building her identity.  Did you see how torn up she was when she thought she took advantage of Emily? 

I’m not trying to excuse Paige’s behavior.  Violence is not an okay solution.  But it certainly makes her a more complex character.  I know they’re going to talk more about Paige having a violent past in upcoming episodes.  Good.  Because, again, it makes her a more complex character.  Flawed characters are interesting.  They’re the ones we root for, because when they get redemption we can see it for ourselves.  ’Cause we’re flawed too.

My point is not that Paige was justified in what she did to Emily.  My point is that everyone on this show has their bad sides and dirty little secrets, and that all the relationships are pretty complicated, and complicated is good.  Spencer accused Toby of murder and tried to get him put into prison.  She made his life a living hell, and now they’re a couple.  This is Pretty Little Liars.  

But, you know.  I’ve been a shipper of various things for fifteen years.  I get it.  Haters gonna hate and stuff.  I wish they’d at least do it in other tags.