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Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Emily Fields (Pretty Little Liars)
Today's post is short but sweet, because the arc concerned is relatively simple. Emily is my favourite character in Pretty Little Liars, and her story never fails to make me happy. She started the series deeply closeted, paralysed with fear at how her parents and friends would react if they knew she was a lesbian. Pretty Little Liars is a show about how teenage girls' secrets can be used to control them, and each of the four main characters began the series with one central secret, the revelation of which was their greatest fear. Emily's was her sexual orientation.
The nature of the show - with one of its themes being that secrets will eventually come out, and the only way to protect yourself against this is to control the narrative, to control the story you tell about yourself, and to reveal your secrets at a time and in a manner of your choosing. Emily manages this only partly - she's essentially forced out of the closet by forces beyond her control, but once her secret is out, and once she sees that it hasn't ruined her life, that her friends still love her, that her family (after some initial ugliness) still loves her, and that sky hasn't fallen, she seems to grow in confidence.
One of the things I find most refreshing about Pretty Little Liars is that of the four girls, Emily, the sole lesbian, is absolutely beating away love interests with a stick, whereas her heterosexual friends have far fewer options. It's a nice reversal from how such things normally happen on TV shows.
In terms of Emily's arc, what I find the most satisfying of all is that it's not simply a coming out story. Her coming-out happens very early on in the piece, and she's pretty comfortable with that by about mid-way through the first season. Rather, her arc is about confidence, standing up for herself, and not letting bullies walk all over her. Emily is like a frightened rabbit at the beginning of series, and by the fifth season she is fiercely brave, and will go to any lengths to keep those she cares about safe. Most importantly, she's learnt to stand up for herself. She's clear about her boundaries, and if those boundaries are violated, even by people she loves deeply, she calls them out and walks away. At the same time, this hard-won bravery is never at the expense of Emily's kindness and empathy, and words cannot express how much I love seeing a character whose kind heart is her strength, not her weakness. At one point in the series, in fact, the girls' faceless tormenter makes some cryptic threat about 'taking out the weak link', and everyone just assumes it's Emily, because the soft-hearted one has to be weak, right? And the 'weak link' ends up being Spencer, the cool-headed, razor-sharp rationalist of the group. I love what that says about strength.
( The other days )
Emily Fields (Pretty Little Liars)
Today's post is short but sweet, because the arc concerned is relatively simple. Emily is my favourite character in Pretty Little Liars, and her story never fails to make me happy. She started the series deeply closeted, paralysed with fear at how her parents and friends would react if they knew she was a lesbian. Pretty Little Liars is a show about how teenage girls' secrets can be used to control them, and each of the four main characters began the series with one central secret, the revelation of which was their greatest fear. Emily's was her sexual orientation.
The nature of the show - with one of its themes being that secrets will eventually come out, and the only way to protect yourself against this is to control the narrative, to control the story you tell about yourself, and to reveal your secrets at a time and in a manner of your choosing. Emily manages this only partly - she's essentially forced out of the closet by forces beyond her control, but once her secret is out, and once she sees that it hasn't ruined her life, that her friends still love her, that her family (after some initial ugliness) still loves her, and that sky hasn't fallen, she seems to grow in confidence.
One of the things I find most refreshing about Pretty Little Liars is that of the four girls, Emily, the sole lesbian, is absolutely beating away love interests with a stick, whereas her heterosexual friends have far fewer options. It's a nice reversal from how such things normally happen on TV shows.
In terms of Emily's arc, what I find the most satisfying of all is that it's not simply a coming out story. Her coming-out happens very early on in the piece, and she's pretty comfortable with that by about mid-way through the first season. Rather, her arc is about confidence, standing up for herself, and not letting bullies walk all over her. Emily is like a frightened rabbit at the beginning of series, and by the fifth season she is fiercely brave, and will go to any lengths to keep those she cares about safe. Most importantly, she's learnt to stand up for herself. She's clear about her boundaries, and if those boundaries are violated, even by people she loves deeply, she calls them out and walks away. At the same time, this hard-won bravery is never at the expense of Emily's kindness and empathy, and words cannot express how much I love seeing a character whose kind heart is her strength, not her weakness. At one point in the series, in fact, the girls' faceless tormenter makes some cryptic threat about 'taking out the weak link', and everyone just assumes it's Emily, because the soft-hearted one has to be weak, right? And the 'weak link' ends up being Spencer, the cool-headed, razor-sharp rationalist of the group. I love what that says about strength.
( The other days )
