101 Awesome Ladies: #2 Paige McCullers

[impy]

 
 
 
 
 
 

Well, that was unexpected. Totally awesome lady #2 is Paige McCullers from Pretty Little Liars.



  I have a weird love/hate relationship with this particular Paige. When she first shows up on PLL, she's sporting a most unfortunate haircut (it's distractingly bad, I'm sorry to be that person) and she also tries to drown Emily. Sort... of? She holds Emily's head underwater (they're both swimmers) and yeah, it's not a good look.

Sooooo... even as they slowly (and I do mean slowly) inched away from Paige being in need of a really, really good shrink, I couldn't get on board with the good ship Paily. I think it's insane that we're so starved for non-hetero couples that we still have to have the person who straight up assaulted you fall in love with you and then turn into a viable love interest be an option.

  It didn't help that I still think that Paige/Samara ended incredibly stupidly and felt super rushed to get us back to Paige.


And yet...




  I dragged my feet as Paige returned with marginally better hair. I dragged my feet as she and Emily fell into coupledom and it was still entirely too easy to see Paige as the bad guy with rage issues (an entire arc hinged on suspecting Paige to be A) and I have to admit that at the time, I wouldn't have been upset about that revelation except for the part where Emily would be upset.


And yet...



   We find out that Allison tortured Paige, much like she tortured everyone else in Rosewood. And like one of my other favorites, Lucas, Paige wasn't inclined to cut Ali any slack when she wound up missing and ultimately dead because death does not magically transform an awful person into a saint.


I honestly think it's that simple truth that made me start to admire Paige. I have my own personal problem with someone dying, and them having been an awful person to a LOT of people and yet, bam, they're gone "tragically young" and suddenly every bad thing they ever did is erased, even if the people they did those things to still carry the scars years after. Someone's death doesn't erase all the horrible things they did, nor does someone's age. So it's refreshing to see that in play on screen, especially on a show that has shown their main MIA character to be an awful human being at times.
  It doesn't erase her incredible fuckup, but it does put her in a very small circle of people who make sense in Rosewood. (Relevant gif is relevant.)



And then other things started to happen. I suspect a lot of this can be laid at the feet of Lindsey Shaw because, well, sometimes you don't get much to work with so you make your own luck. Also, the writing on Paige/Emily is wildly inconsistent and that's just wildly unfair because none of the other couples have that problem.


  Paige realizes that Emily is being hurt by someone and makes it her mission to keep Emily safe. She becomes one of the few characters to react in a semi believable way. You find out your girlfriend is being stalked, you want her going to the police.


   When someone kidnaps you and attempts to murder you (and you know they're capable of it because they killed the last girl who stood in your shoes) you don't just get over it. You take time and become very wary of situations that even seem vaguely similar because you're not going back there, ever. I loved that they didn't rush this as much as they probably could have. Paige has time to react to a very weird, very strange, and exceptionally awful situation. While time is a luxury on PLL, Paige gets some to sort through the aftermath of being nearly murdered, and wants time for Emily to deal with all the crazy things she's being put through and has gone through ever since Ali first appeared in their lives.




  When it becomes obvious that the Rosewood PD is currently being run by idiots, she teams up with Caleb to keep their girlfriends safe. (I would've watched the hell out of that web series, ABC Fam. Make it happen!)



   When she finds out that Ali is actually still alive and this knowledge is already starting to cause Emily to change (and Em admits that it's dangerous for anyone to know about Ali) she makes a choice.

She tips off the Rosewood PD (who aren't being run by corrupt cops at the moment). Things go about as well as you'd expect, given that ultimatums were given out like candy on Halloween on this particular subject.



And yet...

   I think I've fallen for Paige. I like that she's incredibly flawed (that first one notwithstanding, anyway) and that when she's put in this insane situation, her reactions make a lot of sense. One of her big plans? Getting the fuck outta Rosewood and taking Emily with her. A can't terrorize you so easily across the country. Y'know, in theory anyway.


   She calls BS on things and works to help Emily. She oversteps her bounds. She honestly cares about Emily. She works on becoming friends (or at least friendly) with Emily's friends when that becomes an issue. She makes friends and alliances with those friends' Sos. She tries to take down A. She's brave even when she doesn't think so.



   I don't do much in the way of PLL fandom. I mostly just stick around for gifs and occasionally seek out reactions after big reveals. (I don't find tumblr to be a great place for fandom outside of gifs, really.) But it kills me that people would rather have Ali/Emily happen than Paige/Emily. I'd be sorta fine with a new love interest* because Paige had to know that turning Ali in would result in Emily running, but Ali/Emily is just a disaster waiting to happen.
  Finally, if one were to make a Care of Paige McCullers manual, it would be pretty short. Paige needs/wants Emily for true happiness, and would very much like to not have anything to do with Ali. Some pool time would be great as well, but Em is pretty much need/want 1-257. Sometimes above oxygen, but in a less creepy way.




*- Rumour has it that they're bringing in Chloe Bridges and I just can't see her face without wondering what, exactly, went wrong.


Tl;dr: Paige starts off one thing and then over time grows into someone else and I didn't expect it, so it's actually pretty amazing to have to change my opinion so completely on her.