Theories: Aria

So because it is only 9 days until Pretty Little Liars returns, we're going to be posting some theories. Some will be about A, some will be about Alison, some will be about the girls in general and some will link into more than one of those categories. So we've decided that, because there are so many fan theories and suspicion, we're going to start with Miss Aria Montgomery. 

Multiple Personality Disorder?
In the pilot episode (1x01) Aria orders a cheeseburger in the bar in Hollis, where she met Ezra Fitz, however in later episodes she and Spencer have a conversation about being 'excused from dissection in Biology due to Vegetarian grounds. Also in season 4, Jake and Aria are talking and he asks her if he could take her to get a steak or something but she politely declines saying that she doesn't eat meat, at all. This could just be that Aria has changed her mind, and become a vegetarian but it doesn't seem that simple, could she have a multiple personality disorder? 

Some symptoms of a multiple personality disorder are paranoia, Anxiety, Panic attacks, Phobias, flashbacks and 'Out of body experiences'. Aria admitted to feeling like she had an 'out of body experience' when Melissa found Ian's body at the beginning of season 2. Aria had a panic attack in the girls bathroom/toilets at Rosewood High in season 3 when she thought that she saw -A. In 4x01, after the girls found a pig in the trunk of Wilden's cop car, Aria seemed to be the most paranoid - she kept looking out of the window as if she was checking nobody was coming, Mona said to Aria 'Aria you can stop looking out of the window, they aren't coming for us'. Flashbacks are a very common theme in the whole show, but most of Aria's flashbacks relate to the same thing - this is a symptom of Multiple Personality Disorder (where a theme/object is a trigger to a certain memory). When Aria and Alison found Byron cheating on Ella with Meredith, this seems to be the trigger. In other Aria-Ali flashbacks it all seems to link to that moment/discovery. Most of the Ali-Aria flashbacks are to do with this discovery - for example, in one flashback we see Aria and Ali trashing Mr Montgomery's office at Hollis, in other flashbacks we see them talking about it/Ali making remarks about it.

In season 4, Aria and Jake are watching a movie and the main character in it supposedly has a multiple personality disorder, she is seen scratching her knee. Later on in the same episode we see Aria doing the SAME thing. 

In the film, The Black Swan, the main character suffers with a personality disorder and ends up stabbing herself because she thought it was someone else out to get her. Aria is dressed as the Black Swan in UnmAsked. 

Another symptom of Multiple Personality Disorder is High Risk Sexual Behaviour - Aria and Ezra have/had a sexual relationship which is frowned upon/illegal as he is/was her teacher. This could be a hint/clue that she suffers from Multiple personality disorder, maybe Ezra does too, after all he was revealed to be -A in the season 4A finale. Could they be in it together?

After reading and watching some other fan theories, a theme that has been common is that Aria is the only one to have seen -A in certain situations but -A then quickly vanishes. Some fans think that this might be because her 'A personality' is leaking into her consciousness, instead of staying subconscious. A couple of examples could be when Garrett Reynolds' mother is taken into hospital and the girls are stood watching, and Aria notices an -A type figure stood watching them. Another example could be when the girls are sneaking into the morgue and Aria is on watch outside and she sees redcoat/-A coming down the corridor through the mirror, but then chases them and they are seemingly gone.

Another theme that is common is the pig theme, a symptom of Multiple personality disorder is that can start from a child creating a role or character to 'escape' a traumatic event or issue, if this continues throughout their lifetime, they can develop the full Multiple Personality Disorder. A couple of theories have noticed that that Aria was obsessed with her pig puppet, one theory imparticular has noted that maybe Aria's pig puppet was their escape character. The pig theme is very common throughout the series, and -A's messages (-A made Hanna eat the pig cupcakes, there was a pig in Wilden's cop car etc.). 

So what do you think? Does Aria suffer from Multiple personality disorder? Is she -A? Let us know in the comments!

Pretty Little Liars returns on January 7 at 8pm, on ABC Family