its so weird how pretty little liars (the tv show) made characters who were sexual abusers innocent cute boyfriends. PLL was originally a book series. Toby was a creep who inappropriately touched his sister,Jenna, and eventually commits suicide when Emily confronts him about it. The night Alison disappeared, Jenna and Alison conspired to kill Toby with a firework. It ended up blinding Jenna instead, but she was so desperate to end the abuse that she doesn’t care and is thankful Alison helped her.
In the show, Jenna LIED about being abused to send Toby to jail because he didn’t sleep with her???? Toby and Spencer form a cutesy couple?? Jenna is an evil bitchy villain for multiple seasons. She is blind for some unrelated reason.
Now, EZRA FITZ. In the show, a perfectly normal guy who dates a girl who just happens to be his student. Their relationship only has downsides because of random soap opera drama and the legal issues surrounding teacher/student relationships. Nothing to do with grooming. No power imbalance. No abuse or manipulation on Ezra’s part. In later seasons Ezra turns out to be morally fucked up — not because he’s a huge perv — but because of random soap opera shenanigans. Before that, he’s an upstanding guy. And don’t tell me the showrunners planned for him to eventually become some half-baked bad guy. They had no idea what was coming next at any point in the show. Him and Aria get married and we are supposed to be happy.
Book Ezra Fitz literally gets fucking arrested. The police break in while him and Aria are together and it’s fucking humiliating. As soon as Aria tries to get back together with him, he’s kissing another student. Because in PLL (the books) grooming is bad!
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I really implore fans of media (whatever media it is you enjoy) to understand why a story is told in the way it's told. Even bad stories have a structure and a meaning and if you know the basis of how stories are structured and how the characters fit into that structure, the more you're going to be able to understand the story and better enjoy the characters as a whole.
What is an Antagonist? An opponent, villain or Rival.
The Villain is a person whose intentions are morally corrupt or anti-human and most off deliberately harmful to those around them.
(ie. Thanos from Avengers, Billy and Stu from Scream, Henry from Stranger Things)
The Anti-Villain is a person who commits corrupt, unjust or morally wrong actions in the belief that they are doing the right thing.
(ie. Magneto from X-Men, Killmonger from Black Panther, Jason Carver from Stranger Things)
The False Antagonist is a person who's viewed by the audience or the characters as a antagonist, but through the story shows themselves to have been falsely labeled as an antagonist or a villain.
(ie. Severus Snape from Harry Potter, Alexei and Billy Hargrove from Stranger Things)
The Hidden Antagonist is a person who's intentions are not shown to be corrupt until later in the story, leading the audience and the characters into a false sense of security.
(ie. Senator Palpatine from Star Wars, Agatha Harkness from Wandavision, Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco)
The Inanimate Antagonist is a non-human force that can be anything from the weather to an illness or an object like a meteor or a car.
The Inner Antagonist is when the main character is their own Antagonist, fighting against themselves through the story.
(ie. Drug use, mental or physical illness, change in morals, desires vs needs)
The Hero Antagonist is a person who's intentions and morals are not corrupt, but they act against the Protagonist in the story.
(ie. The Roadrunner from Looney Tunes, Carl Hanratty from Catch Me If You Can, The Parents of Stranger Things)
No Antagonists is a type of story where there is no direct force working against the Protagonist. This can often be shown as someone living day to day life or there is an unclear singular force working against them.
Stories can often have and most often do, have multiple Antagonists. Some stories use these different types of forces to put even more pressure on a Protagonist and to give depth to the stories they are writing. Often times, nothing is cut and dry when it comes to a persons intentions in a piece of media, but knowing what sort of force they are within the story they are written in can help you understand the Protagonists journey on a even deeper level.
What is a Protagonist? A lead character, hero or heroine of a narrative.
The Hero Protagonist is a person who's goals are often viewed as courageous, admirable or charitable in nature and often requires a sacrifice or change in order to achieve their goals.
(ie. Captain America from Avengers, Superman from DC Comics, Frodo Baggens from Lord Of The Rings)
The Anti Hero is a person who's actions or morals may be honorable or good, but their actions go against those morals due to necessity or irresponsibility but in the end the audience is rooting for them to win.
(ie. Deadpool from Marvel Comics, Batman from DC Comics, Kali from Stranger Things)
The Tragic Hero is a Hero Protagonist that throughout their journey are corrupted by either surrounding forces or by a fatal flaw within their own character, leading them to fall from the Hero status they once held.
(ie. Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars, Jason Todd from DC Comics)
The Passive Protagonist is a person who's actions are not the leading force of the story, the driving actions of their journey are controlled and moved by other characters and forces in the story.
(ie. Forrest Gump from Forrest Gump, Karl Childers from Sling Blade, Will Byers from Stranger Things)
The Villain Protagonist is a character who is still the focus of the story, but they are not necessarily being cheered to win. These types of characters are often a window into the darker side of life whether we sympathize with them in the end or not.
(ie. Dexter from Dexter, Gru from Despicable Me, Loki from Loki, Walter White from Breaking Bad)
The Protagonist itself does not automatically mean the character is a good person and it's important to remember that when reading or writing. A protagonist is simply the Main Character, the person who the story's focus is about and people themselves are deep and involved people with lives that are different from every other person around them even in small ways.
Understanding a characters role in their story is important for understanding the character on a base level.
I highly recommend watching other videos from that channel and other media analysis channels as the more you know on how to understand a story, the more you will get out of the stories you entertain yourself with or create.
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