Cannot add effect to image style without recoverable fatal error

As mentioned in the subject, I can't seem to add any effects to image styles without receiving a recoverable fatal error:

Recoverable fatal error: Argument 3 passed to l() must be of the type array, null given, called in ...\devdesktop\giftofgeek\includes\menu.inc on line 2613 and defined in l() (line 2480 of ...\Sites\devdesktop\giftofgeek\includes\common.inc).

FYI, I am following the advanced drupal dev tutorial on 7.41. using a local Acquia 2 install. This functionality worked in previous steps on the tutorial. I've been backing up as instructed.

It looks like when I check my backups, this functionality is broken somewhere between backup #13 and backup #14.

Any ideas? This is the most related post I could find by googling and somebody supplied a patch. But, unfortunately the patch is for a module that I don't have installed, so I don't think this is going to be helpful for me.

Also after looking at the code myself, it looks like the function l() is expecting an array() as the third argument. But that argument appears to be optional (I think? I don't know much php), so this error is confusing to me.

l() definition from common.inc:

function l($text, $path, array $options = array()) {
global $language_url;
static $use_theme = NULL;

// Merge in defaults.
$options += array(
'attributes' => array(),
'html' => FALSE,
);

// Append active class.
if (($path == $_GET['q'] || ($path == '' && drupal_is_front_page())) &&
(empty($options['language']) || $options['language']->language == $language_url->language)) {
$options['attributes']['class'][] = 'active';
}

offending code from menu.inc:
foreach ($active_trail as $parent) {
$breadcrumb[] = l($parent['title'], $parent['href'], $parent['localized_options']);
}

So, the problem appears to be with localized_options, if you ask me. I've tried searching common.inc for where this variable gets set, but it's in many many places and it's too overwhelming for me to track down, without even knowing how this button even connects to this file.

Maybe a similar problem with another module here? https://www.drupal.org/node/1806944

I tried some of the proposed solutions with no luck.

I could really use some help, I've been troubleshooting this for multiple evenings now and I can't proceed in the tutorials without fixing this. :(