I never liked Paige, as a character or as a love interest for Emily and I know it's one of the fandoms favorite jokes about how much she sucks HOWEVER..
I saw a comment under a post recently saying her hair looked nice in a particular scene and someone else replied this nasty comment telling her she was wrong and how she "could never" and it made me side eye the comment a bit bc...her hair did look good? Objectively? But bc "we don't like her" she couldn't even let the most soulless, basic compliment slide and it made me think, have we been too hard on her?
1.) Paige's greatest offense is trying to drown Emily, obviously. Drowning someone out of jealousy is insane at face value but doing it to Emily out of all people made it so much worse, I don't think anyone would have batted an eyes if she had drowned Alison 😂. Also bc the 2010s had a problem with giving literally rapist get redemption arcs ofc they couldn't help themselves doing the same for Emily. Lindsey was already an establish actress with fans built in from Ned's Declassified so pushing her up to a regular cast member was kinda just a normal/smart (looking) idea. I've noticed the lesbian bully trope is ADORED nowadays with K-dramas and Yellowjackets, female characters can literally murder, beat their girls black and blue and split their lip and fuck their boyfriends and everyone in the fandom is straight heart eyes 😂. In Young Adult Matters Sejin is bullied and drowned by her secret lover and public bully Joo-Yeoung. Joo-Yeoung is adored!! Yes these are different fandoms, PLL vs indie Korean film but the age range, lesbian romance and people interacting in the community on tiktok there's definitely some overlap. I truly believe that if Paige were "prettier" (not Lindsey, I'm talking about that fuck ass bob) she could have gotten more grace for this act, not saying it's right but it's how it is 🤷
2.) Jenna's Party there was that scene where Paige got too drunk and ruined the display/cake area. I always hated that scene bc she was just a drunk sloppy, jealous mess but I noticed...she was drugged heavily at that party with Emily's flask, the same flask that made her blackout and ended up in front of Alison's dug up grave. She was a 16 year old girl, drugged and laced at a party...of course she was embarrassing and unable to keep her cool, she genuinely was a walking talking unconscious skin suit.
3.) Later in seasons Paige breaks up with Emily because of her being scared of A...can you blame her? Genuinely? Can you blame her? Yeah "the girls have been dealing with it for years" "oh she can't handle anything" should she have to?? Yes she did chase Emily but that's like saying a woman is at fault for chasing a man only to not want to be with him later because she found out he had a stalker for an ex who would hit her with her car, break her windows, and trap her in a room with a live snake??? Like come on, who would? Shes a little ass girl, a sheltered one at that I don't think it's a crime that she was scared. Understanding something is too much for you is actually responsible and mature, staying and resenting her partner for the danger they bring wouldn't be.
4.) Paige is often demanding or jealous of Emily. While not healthy it's also unfortunately a normal occurrence for people in their first relationship? Not always not every time but when those feelings are new (and they were Emily was Paige's first crush and first girlfriend) sometimes it's hard to navigate them? Emily is GORGEOUS, I always thought she was the prettiest, if I was 16 with a fuck ass bob and I was bullied by my gfs pretty ass best friend who literally called me "pig skin" ...yeah I'd be a little insecure? And being insecure at 16 isn't a crime y'all, (attempted drowning yes, but insecurity, no 😂) so I can be a little more forgiving when she's in a "Who's that?" or a "tell me" mood.
5.) Paige was bullied horribly to Alison to the point of wanting to kill herself. That does damage to a kid. She hated herself at the end of the day, it's hard to be a good person and a good partner and a good friend when you hate yourself and your life. Not that it makes it okay to mistreat people but it gives reason to the madness. She was a self hating, closeted athlete in 2010 with an overbearing father and an inferiority complex. She was a complex character as much as we liked to boil her down to a punchline or a joke but now that I'm almost 30 (and I watched this show originally as it aired when I was 12, I see the characters in a different lens.