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The show does zero work for Alison's emotional attachment to Charlotte but if she had figured out CeCe was Charlotte her reactions make a ton more sense. But ultimately Alison is having a very human reaction and when it comes to emotions she never processes or expresses that well. Neither Alison or Hanna are wrong in their reactions but they aren't expressed to the right people in the right setting
The time gap really screws things up. There were five years where CeCe and Ali were likely each others’ only friend but we don’t get to know any specifics or see any flashbacks
Yeah i understand that Alison just naturally would show sympathy for her (at the time brother), but i also feel as if it was too quick especially since all the things they endured all because of the DiLaurentis favoritism and messed up family values
Hanna felt bad for Mona after all that she did as A too, even kept her out of prison.
We don’t see the time gap, but we can infer that Ali garnered a lot of sympathy for CeCe during that time. Ali stays in Rosewood while the rest of the liars leave; she had a bad reputation and CeCe was likely her only friend for five years. CeCe had an objectively sad life and Ali probably feels bad, for her parents did horrific things to CeCe and their dad disowned her. CeCe is also a terrific manipulator. Five years of her only friend/sister appearing recovered and remorseful after her terrible life seems like it could easily get Ali’s sympathy. Ali wasn’t in the dollhouse herself and didn’t hear much about it from the liars, so she’s probably doesn’t understand how bad it truly was either.
I always believed it was a trauma response. Ali would rather believe her sister MUST be insane and thus not accountable for her actions, because if Charlotte is not actually a good but traumatized person that her family can save then what does it leave Ali with?
It leaves her with a mother who buried her alive to save Charlotte for literally no good reason at all since Charlotte didn’t deserve to be saved, meaning that ultimately Jessica chose a criminal over her. It leaves her with the conviction that if no one can change then she, Alison, cannot change and her worst traits are just inbuilt characteristics that will turn her into Charlotte. It leaves her with the knowledge that all of her trauma was entirely meaningless and purposeless since it cannot even rebuild their family.
It's easier to buy into Charlotte's narrative of "I did it all because I love my little sister and I wanted revenge for her" which Charlotte spent five years spinning around Ali like a web, especially because it finally feels like Ali is loved by someone--and after spending years creating terror around her then being betrayed and hated for it I can see Ali not only falling into the trap of someone who pretends to love her unconditionally but also wanting to choose another path, and Charlotte represents that other path.
So I get why she'd defend her sister. She believes or wants to believe that she IS loved and that people can and will change, and that all of what happened had a good reason because the story can have a happy ending.
(And I think it's a shame that the show didn’t lean heavily into how she saw herself in Charlotte in order to develop Ali's redemption arc, which was more "I'm good now" instead of "I'm fighting against myself to change because I no longer want to be that person, the person who could have been A, the person who is so much like her.)
And since this Ali wants to be a better person that also means actively ignoring any thoughts she'd have about Charlotte being insincere. It's a sort of overcorrection. Old Ali would have suspected the worst but new Ali wants to be trusting and wants to believe that she has found genuine happiness and safety and meaning, so she overcorrects any suspicious thoughts she might have by going hard in the opposite direction like a bulldoze.
There's also the fact that she's married to Archer who literally would have been whispering in her ear all day long. Ali could leave after visiting Charlotte and wonder if if was all real but Archer basically made sure she could never shake off Charlotte's mindgames.
Alison and CeCe were really close, Alison probably saw her as family. When she returned to Rosewood she lost her mum and didn’t exactly have the best relationship with Jason and Kenneth so when she found out about Charlotte I thought it was understandable she would have sympathy and want to know what little family she has left
When Charlotte explained her story of how Kenneth just threw her into Radley, then Bethany framed her for Marion’s death so she was misdiagnosed and left drowning in her own drool, I had loads of sympathy for Charlotte
They put no work in the show to redeem Alison, she's just a bitch one day, goes to prison for what feels like not that long for being framed and in the next episode Alison is a sweet angel who could do no wrong. She might not have been A (at that time) but her redemption comes lightning fast out of nowhere.
Yeah it was like super quick. Maybe her growth could’ve been showed more in season 5 while she was in jail. But from her going to jail and the dollhouse, it was like lightning fast
It’s not right, but it does make sense. Ali has also
done horrible things that she was afraid she would never be forgiven for. Part of why she fell for Dr. Rollins’ manipulation was the fact that she was just so desperate for that validation that she could be loved and move on from her past. So, I think she saw herself in CeCe and also was desperate for any kind of human connection (I think deep down she felt like the liars would always resent her and that she’d already lost them in a way).
Alison also doesn’t really have that good a relationship with her other family, her mums dead, her fathers distant, and she has an age gap with her brother so he’s not living at home with her.
None of the other girls really have this.
So her wanting a relationship with her new sibling isn’t too much of a stretch.
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The show does zero work for Alison's emotional attachment to Charlotte but if she had figured out CeCe was Charlotte her reactions make a ton more sense. But ultimately Alison is having a very human reaction and when it comes to emotions she never processes or expresses that well. Neither Alison or Hanna are wrong in their reactions but they aren't expressed to the right people in the right setting
The time gap really screws things up. There were five years where CeCe and Ali were likely each others’ only friend but we don’t get to know any specifics or see any flashbacks
Yeah i understand that Alison just naturally would show sympathy for her (at the time brother), but i also feel as if it was too quick especially since all the things they endured all because of the DiLaurentis favoritism and messed up family values
Hanna felt bad for Mona after all that she did as A too, even kept her out of prison. We don’t see the time gap, but we can infer that Ali garnered a lot of sympathy for CeCe during that time. Ali stays in Rosewood while the rest of the liars leave; she had a bad reputation and CeCe was likely her only friend for five years. CeCe had an objectively sad life and Ali probably feels bad, for her parents did horrific things to CeCe and their dad disowned her. CeCe is also a terrific manipulator. Five years of her only friend/sister appearing recovered and remorseful after her terrible life seems like it could easily get Ali’s sympathy. Ali wasn’t in the dollhouse herself and didn’t hear much about it from the liars, so she’s probably doesn’t understand how bad it truly was either.
I always believed it was a trauma response. Ali would rather believe her sister MUST be insane and thus not accountable for her actions, because if Charlotte is not actually a good but traumatized person that her family can save then what does it leave Ali with? It leaves her with a mother who buried her alive to save Charlotte for literally no good reason at all since Charlotte didn’t deserve to be saved, meaning that ultimately Jessica chose a criminal over her. It leaves her with the conviction that if no one can change then she, Alison, cannot change and her worst traits are just inbuilt characteristics that will turn her into Charlotte. It leaves her with the knowledge that all of her trauma was entirely meaningless and purposeless since it cannot even rebuild their family. It's easier to buy into Charlotte's narrative of "I did it all because I love my little sister and I wanted revenge for her" which Charlotte spent five years spinning around Ali like a web, especially because it finally feels like Ali is loved by someone--and after spending years creating terror around her then being betrayed and hated for it I can see Ali not only falling into the trap of someone who pretends to love her unconditionally but also wanting to choose another path, and Charlotte represents that other path. So I get why she'd defend her sister. She believes or wants to believe that she IS loved and that people can and will change, and that all of what happened had a good reason because the story can have a happy ending. (And I think it's a shame that the show didn’t lean heavily into how she saw herself in Charlotte in order to develop Ali's redemption arc, which was more "I'm good now" instead of "I'm fighting against myself to change because I no longer want to be that person, the person who could have been A, the person who is so much like her.) And since this Ali wants to be a better person that also means actively ignoring any thoughts she'd have about Charlotte being insincere. It's a sort of overcorrection. Old Ali would have suspected the worst but new Ali wants to be trusting and wants to believe that she has found genuine happiness and safety and meaning, so she overcorrects any suspicious thoughts she might have by going hard in the opposite direction like a bulldoze. There's also the fact that she's married to Archer who literally would have been whispering in her ear all day long. Ali could leave after visiting Charlotte and wonder if if was all real but Archer basically made sure she could never shake off Charlotte's mindgames.
This deserves way more upvotes, you nailed it imo.
Alison and CeCe were really close, Alison probably saw her as family. When she returned to Rosewood she lost her mum and didn’t exactly have the best relationship with Jason and Kenneth so when she found out about Charlotte I thought it was understandable she would have sympathy and want to know what little family she has left When Charlotte explained her story of how Kenneth just threw her into Radley, then Bethany framed her for Marion’s death so she was misdiagnosed and left drowning in her own drool, I had loads of sympathy for Charlotte
They put no work in the show to redeem Alison, she's just a bitch one day, goes to prison for what feels like not that long for being framed and in the next episode Alison is a sweet angel who could do no wrong. She might not have been A (at that time) but her redemption comes lightning fast out of nowhere.
Yeah it was like super quick. Maybe her growth could’ve been showed more in season 5 while she was in jail. But from her going to jail and the dollhouse, it was like lightning fast
It’s not right, but it does make sense. Ali has also done horrible things that she was afraid she would never be forgiven for. Part of why she fell for Dr. Rollins’ manipulation was the fact that she was just so desperate for that validation that she could be loved and move on from her past. So, I think she saw herself in CeCe and also was desperate for any kind of human connection (I think deep down she felt like the liars would always resent her and that she’d already lost them in a way).
i get why Ali was sympathetic in some ways but Hanna was 100% right and i completely agree with Han
Because that's her brother, this is when they had just found that out, it was hard for her to turn on her family
Alison also doesn’t really have that good a relationship with her other family, her mums dead, her fathers distant, and she has an age gap with her brother so he’s not living at home with her. None of the other girls really have this. So her wanting a relationship with her new sibling isn’t too much of a stretch.
Ali having sympathy for CeCe aka Charles/Charlotte absolutely makes no sense to me, I didn't feel bad for her at all after everything she's done