'Emily's Dad On 'Pretty Little Liars' Is The Best

It's a fact in the fandom that Pretty Little Liars fans could talk forever about the secret identity of Charles and whether or not to trust Andrew — but, right now, Charles and Andrew are not the guys that I want to discuss. There's someone that fans — and the show itself — don't pay enough attention to, and it's about time that we did: I'm talking about Emily's dad, Wayne Fields. A war hero, and consistently supportive of his family (but sadly rarely seen on screen), I think we should all give him a medal of honor for simply being a really good dad — a train that's all too rare on this television show, sadly.

For those of you who barely remember what Emily's dad looks like, that's probably because the show doesn't bring him around that often. Wayne is in the armed forces, and has spent a good chunk of the show either stationed overseas in Afghanistan or living in Texas on an army base.

The sad part of that is that even though Emily's father is barely around, he's still hands down the best dad that the show has to offer. The rest of the dad's on Pretty Little Liars may live nearby, but they don't have all that much to offer in terms of fatherly support. Spencer's dad is so secretive that it's hard to have a real conversation with him, Hanna's dad is unavailable and favors his step daughter, and Aria's dad is only around when he's not busy dealing with the complications of his extramarital affair or in Syracuse.

Of course, Wayne isn't the winner of this Pretty Little Liars best dad competition by default. Wayne first stood out to me as an excellent father in Season 1, when Emily came out as a lesbian to her parents. Emily's had plenty of girlfriends since, but, back in the day, Emily bringing home Maya for dinner was a pretty big shock to her conservative parents. However, while Emily's mom could barely handle the fact that her daughter wanted to be with a girl, Wayne was supportive. After seeing so many of his friends get hurt during wartime, he realized that his daughter being healthy and happy was more important than anything else. Who was he to judge how she feels?

Wayne may not always be in Rosewood, but he does try to attend the events that matter the most. He escorted Emily to the Father/Daughter Dance, and, when he had to go back overseas, he broke the news Emily in-person. He also stayed with Emily in the hospital when she got injured, and has made small talk with her girlfriends in the past. Wayne has been nothing but kind and supportive to his daughter, which makes him stand head and shoulders above any of the other dads in Rosewood.

...now that I think about it, he's such a good dad, there's a real chance that he might be A. It's always the ones we don't expect, right?

Images: ABC Family (2)