I hate the opinion that Alison was better when she was haunting the narrative than truly in the show. Like, I'm rewatching, and it doesn't seem like she's all that different. I've seen her referred to as a "limp noodle," and I'm confused. A big driving force of her character was safety. All the manipulation and lies were to ensure she was safe, because she didn't feel safe at home. Then, after Mona's reign as 'A', she gained some humility. We also know that a lot of that comes from Charlotte's influence, both as Cece and 'A'. Then, slowly, her shift focuses on safety through family. If you only liked Alison for her performance as a mean girl, you didn't like Alison. You liked the trauma response she was giving the world.
There's a reason, even at her most influential as Queen Bee, her colors and style were light and soft. Alison is not, at her core, a hardened bitch. She is fragile, yes, like a bomb, but really... her core is angel cake. We see that around the end of the 5th season, hell, we see that when she pulls the girls out of danger consistently. She's always been the type of person to save people, but her parents conditioned her to lie and manipulate to survive. She broke that conditioning. That's something so gratifying to see.
Now, of course, she still slips up and withholds information, has her bite in moments, and manipulates subtly later. But I think that's expected, and sometimes–even smart. She just traded being the leader of the pack to another cog... that often sits back and observes, then reacts if needed. Which, again, I think is oddly very smart of the writers. Then again, PLL's problem was never character development/fleshing out their "dolls" (so to speak). Just plotholes, lol.
People don't exist in a vacuum, and neither does Ali.
