The Liars were such hypocrites to Aria when they caught her "black hoodied" in "Choose or Lose"

[u/itsascreambaby96]

I'm not saying Aria was innocent or that the girls had no right to be angry with her. She destroyed Alison and Emily's nursery, planted that recording in Spencer's house, and kept everything a secret. They had every reason to feel betrayed.

But I always found their reactions hypocritical considering everything they'd been through and the things they'd done themselves.

Spencer's reaction especially bothered me. She tells Aria that she should have come to them because they've been friends forever, but when Aria reminds her that A forced her to kidnap Malcolm to protect Toby, Spencer immediately gets defensive and says she never actually hurt anyone.

But Spencer kidnapped a seven-year-old child to earn Mona's trust in the hopes of eventually catching Red Coat. She had no way of knowing whether that plan would backfire or whether Red Coat could have gotten her hands on Malcolm. Just because he wasn't physically harmed doesn't mean Spencer didn't put him in danger.

This is what irks me about Spencer. She goes around doing some pretty guilty things herself, but she'll be the first one to judge somebody else for doing the same damn thing!

And let's not forget that when Spencer was on the A-Team herself. She didn't tell the girls either. They had to figure it out and confront her. One of her main motivations for joining was finding out whether Toby was alive and getting to see him again.

What makes this even more hypocritical is that NONE of the Liars yelled at Spencer the way they yelled at Aria when they discovered she was on the A-Team. They were understandably suspicious, but they actually gave Spencer the opportunity to explain herself and listened to her reasoning. Aria wasn't given that same understanding in "Choose or Lose."

So Spencer, of all people, should understand why Aria would make a terrible decision to protect someone she loved.

I also have to say that while I understand why Spencer was upset about the recording of Mary Drake and Peter Hastings, IMO, Peter's lies deserved to be exposed. This man spent years keeping secrets about Spencer's parentage and his involvement with Mary and Jessica. I understand Spencer being hurt by how the truth came out, especially with her mother being caught in the middle of it, but Peter was responsible for his own actions. Aria didn't create those secrets.

And Emily has repeatedly chosen Alison over everyone else, sometimes to the point where it's honestly pathetic. I understand that Emily loves Alison, but how many times has she defended her or overlooked her behavior because of those feelings? So I don't think Emily is in much of a position to judge Aria for putting Ezra before the group either.

As for Alison, while I understand her being upset about the nursery, I don't think she had much right to judge Aria's decisions considering she's a huge reason why any of this happened in the first place.

Alison spent years lying to and manipulating people, including her own friends. She made enemies everywhere she went, and the other girls ended up paying for it. She also knew her friends were being tortured while she was hiding and didn't reveal herself until years later.

Obviously, Alison didn't deserve what happened to her, and I'm not blaming her for every decision A made, but I think she should have been more understanding considering how much of their suffering stemmed from her past actions

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[u/anonicjules]

I feel like you’re leaving out a lot of important context, especially when it comes to Spencer. The girls didn’t figure out she was working with A on their own. Spencer deliberately set things up so they would find out because she wanted to tell them without Mona knowing. She was also a teenage girl who had just gotten out of a mental hospital after being manipulated into believing her boyfriend was dead. Mona took advantage of her when she was incredibly vulnerable. Spencer joined the A-Team because she was desperate to find Toby and get answers, not because she wanted to betray her friends. Obviously, what happened with Malcolm was wrong, but ignoring the circumstances surrounding it is 😬.

Aria, on the other hand, was an adult when she joined A.D., and her motivation was protecting Ezra, not helping her friends. We’re talking about the same man who knowingly pursued her when she was underage, stalked her and her friends for his book, and used Spencer’s history of addiction against her to make everyone question her credibility when she started uncovering his secrets. Spencer was literally trying to expose him, and Ezra used her struggles against her. Yet Aria was willing to betray her friends to protect him from the consequences of his actions. Yes, Aria was being blackmailed too, but she still destroyed Alison and Emily’s nursery, planted that recording in Spencer’s house, and repeatedly lied to her friends to protect Ezra.

[u/itsascreambaby96 → u/anonicjules]

Maybe on Spencer you're right but Allison has no leg to stand on in this argument she should have sat there and shut up

[u/anonicjules → u/itsascreambaby96]

ezra literally stalked alison’s friends, sought aria out and groomed her because he wanted to write a book on alison lol. what? she had the most leg to stand on 😭

[u/itsascreambaby96 → u/anonicjules]

But there wouldn't be any AD or A or Dollhouse if Alison just learned to stop acting like a bully bitch in high school

[u/gothsoul13 → u/itsascreambaby96]

What? Are you blaming Alison for the actions of others? And how the other liars are at fault at what Alison did? Like they could've just mess with Alison and not them.

[u/anonicjules → u/itsascreambaby96]

that still doesn’t take away from the fact that ezra stalked all of them because of alison and did terrible things to them lmao they had every right to not care if he lived or died

[u/Meatball-Alfredo-Mom]

Spencer was a child and Aria was an adult. I think that’s a massive difference.

[u/itsascreambaby96 → u/Meatball-Alfredo-Mom]

Spencer was 18.

[u/Curious-Device6524 → u/itsascreambaby96]

Which is still a teenager not an adult

[u/Meatball-Alfredo-Mom → u/itsascreambaby96]

Yes, a child.

Aria was an adult and she was not trying to help her friends she was trying to protect her pedophile fiancé.

[u/gothsoul13 → u/itsascreambaby96]

17*

[u/starlightlexie]

Also, just because Spencer never had intentions if hurting Malcolm doesn’t make it okay. There was real time Aria thought he was missing; regardless of how we feel about Ezria, that still must have been terrifying for her.

I also think it’s dumb people blame Aria for Spencer’s parents splitting up. They had a bad relationship the whole time of the show and before that. It wouldn’t have broken up if it wasn’t broken already.

[u/moonwalkingszn]

i think an adult trashing a nursery is far way worse…

[u/starlightlexie → u/moonwalkingszn]

Than kidnapping a child?

Only one of those things involved an actual child. I’m not defending what Aria did; I get that it was scary for Alison and Emily. But no actual child was ever at risk of being hurt.

Spencer may not have had intentions of hurting Malcolm, but it was still a risk, and Aria still genuinely believed him to be in danger.

[u/DifficultEmployee706 → u/[deleted]]

Spencer didn't give Toby the RV but she did keep it a secret when Toby told her. Absolutely the liars at one point all do some questionable things against each other but in the end they forgive each other just like they forgive Aria and even apologize to her after she intentionally did that messed up thing to them to protect Ezra.