Okay, here’s a short theory. The only evidence of Charles hurting Alison was when he tried to sink her in the bathtub, that’s it. That could’ve been an accident or a misunderstanding. He could’ve been a really troubling kid but I doubt he had any grudges against anyone at that age. Also after watching tonights episode (6:7) proved he didn’t hate Alison as a kid, he actually wasn’t mental when he was at his birthday party. I think going to Radley and being separated from his family are the things that made him mental. He wanted attention and love from his family.

Now because of all of this why is he trying to hurt Alison? Maybe because she actually got the most attention. He was jealous. He was jealous of all the love his parents gave her and not him so he tried to kill her, but when he did she ran away. He never believed she was dead so he stole the game from Mona and started blackmailing the girls hoping that it would catch Alison’s attention and she’d come back to help them.

Now, we know that Charles is A and Charles is a male, but who were those two dresses for in the Christmas episode? I think this whole time Charles wasn’t the only Dilaurentis sibling that was trapped in Radley and separated from their family, Bethany was too, in fact Bethany was also a Dilaurentis and she was jealous of Alison too so she helped Charles and became red coat. It’s either that or Bethany was Alison'ss twin and was killed by Charles to make people think that Alison’s body was found and Alison’s dead.

ALSO ANOTHER QUICK LITTLE THEORY IF THE ABOVE ABOUT BETHANY BEING A DILAURENTIS ISN’T TRUE-

If Bethany isn’t a Dilaurentis she is defiantly a Harvey. I re watched the episode in season 5 when Mona and Spencer sneaked into the Radley file room and listened to Bethany’s therapy session and she sounded EXACTLY like Sara. And by season 5 I think they knew who they were gonna cast as Sara so this must mean something. If none of this makes sense then my imagination has officially gone wild..