So good to see you show up on the dashboard after so many years!!! How are you doing? Have you been watching the full time Ryan's been back or just keeping an eye through tumblr or something in between? You have been sorely missed 💖
Aw - thanks 💖. amazed to be noticed in my current lurk-quietly era. I’m somewhere between watching and keeping an eye through tumblr (I couldn’t understand most of what Kev said, so I just waited for relevant gifs). It was so lovely to have Ryan return after all this time - hope you are enjoying it too :)
i think the show insinuated that the next robron wedding will be a big affair with all the bells and whistles
but
i’m gen hoping it won’t be. i think it would suit robron, both where they are now as people and how they’ve been in their 2025/26 era, to have a smaller private wedding.
i’d rather it was something like their 2017 wedding where they married each other in the garage just the two of them.
either that or they go full Will Turner/Elizabeth Swan and have robron get married during absolute chaos somehow. like. I wouldn’t put it past robron to get married whilst one of them was actively ‘dying’, like in a “I want to die as your husband” kind of thing (obvs they wouldn’t actually die, but it would be the drama of the moment).
What was your turn off, disappointment with the way they wrote Robron after the reveal? In other words what make you unship them? (My wording is ridiculous but I hope you get my point)
Hullo, anon! :) Andthank you for the question. I’m not oneof those people who is amazing at laying things out in a straightforward fashion (and also not someone who gets anon questions a lot),so I don’t know if my answer will be all that enlightening, but I’ll give it ashot!
I’m going to preface this by saying that I tend to secondguess myself when I’m being as critical of a show as I am here. After this plot happened, I spent a lot oftime thinking whether I was being this negative purely because of the emotionalconnection I felt as a shipper, or whether I had a ‘legitimate’ gripe about howit was done. SPOILER – it was both!
But before I go into the nitty gritty, I should say – I loveEmmerdale. I still love and shipRobron. Maybe I’ve had to take a stepback from the actual show…but that’s something that happens when you’re enoughof a dumbass to ship a soap couple :) Soaps burn through content – and nothing is off the table. Which sometimes includes beloved powerhousesoap couples.
I get that. I acceptit. I still wish they hadn’t done thisparticular story…
OR, if they had done it…I wish they’d done it better.
I think it comes down to one thing for me, ultimately, andthat is timing. Cheating is such a soapstaple – it was bound to crop up eventually, especially when one of the charactersyou’re dealing with is Robert Sugden. And in fairness, just to mix it up, I could have seen the soap godspulling the ‘AARON is the one to cheat…because Robert is too busy scheming/notbeing there for him’ card at some point.
But that’s the thing. AT SOME POINT. Not three weeksafter a wedding where Robert singles out that very issue and sincerely andexplicitly says, “Hey, I know you are worried that I am going to cheat onyou. That is a thing that I promise youwill not happen.”
And then it ends up happening almost immediately after, andI feel like the surprise of the ‘shock twist!’ isn’t worth how much that priormoment and the build up to it, has been cheapened. Because we were clearly meant to invest inRobert and Aaron, to believe and root for them. We’d BEEN rooting for them for the entire year. And then all of that was hastily thrown outthree weeks later.
Okay, it’s a stressful three weeks. But it’s still too short a time to reach thatbreaking point that makes me ‘understand’ why the ONS happened. I feel like it underlines how flimsily thisthing was constructed. That fight – theone that tips Robert over the edge? Forme, that wasn’t ‘enough’ to explain what happened next. Maybe if the story was longer, and we’d beenwatching Aaron and Robert deal with this stuff for months…I might have beenable to see it. But the time frame wastoo short for it to build to that kind of impact.
Basically you can’t have a character who passionately swearshis fidelity (and who we are meant to believe is sincere) go back on that inless than a month without having that damage the character and therelationship. I really thought they weredoing this so that the inevitable ‘Rebecca comforts Robert’ moment could end withRobert definitively choosing to be faithful. Even the other way that could possibly play out – ‘Rebecca comfortsRobert and he makes a pass but she turns him down’…I thought that wouldn’t makeas much sense, because even if it strengthened Rebecca as a character, it put aquestion mark over Robert’s vows. THATHE JUST MADE.
Sigh.
Also, it’s not that I feel Robert should be exempted from acheating storyline just because he’d come out as bisexual…but. That moment was really important to a lot ofpeople. And still pretty fresh. And then ED had him cheat pretty muchimmediately. I just feel like no-oneeven stopped to consider the optics, until Maxine Alderton had Robert do somedamage control by flat out stating, “I didn’t cheat because I’m bisexual.”
Because yeah, everyone cheats in Emmerdale…but not everyonecheats three weeks after exchanging vows, and shortly after coming out onscreenas one-of-those-bisexuals-you-know-the-ones-who-CAN’T-stay-faithful.
So the timing didn’t gel for me within the story – and thenit didn’t gel for me outside of the story, either. Because as a viewer, it was TOO MUCH. I’d been there with Aaron through an enormousamount of trauma – I was already reaching breaking point because I thought theprison sentence was needlessly cruel. There was just no LET-UP for the character or the audience. We’d gone through Gordon, and the trial, andLiv (who I love, but was also definitely an obstacle for Robron), and theconstant destabilising effect of Rebecca. Yeah, okay, we got a perfect wedding…AND THEN PRISON IMMEDIATELYAFTERWARDS.
That is A LOT. And itfelt – thankless. This character hadgone through SO MUCH SHIT in a short space of time, he needed some joy andlight to balance it out. And frankly, SODID VIEWERS. Just a BREAK in thatrelentless misery-go-round.
But instead, on top of everything else, Aaron got ashort-lived spice addiction and a ‘can I accept my husband’s child, and raiseit with him and the woman who makes me feel incredibly insecure?’ plot. It felt like everything was twisted formaximum cruelty. And I honestly, didn’twant to watch. It was a turn off.
And since then…it’s all been very confusingly handled. Clearly, ED want Aaron and Robert ‘intact’ insome way, because they’re not doing the ‘Robert is drawn to the mother of hischild’ storyline that would pretty much be a given under these soapcircumstances. Also, they ‘softened’ theONS by having Robert drinking that night (I don’t think we were meant to seeRebecca as ‘taking advantage’ but it was a kind of ‘Robert mightn’t have donethis if he’d been completely sober’ additional mitigating circumstance). As well as all the reassurance that Aaron andRobert will be together and that there will be a second wedding.
And I guess I just don’t see the point? As a shipper, yeah, I like that ED are goingto such stupidly ridiculous lengths to posit Robert/Aaron as THE ONLY TRUE LOVESTORY, MFEO, SOULMATES…but why bother breaking them up in the first place then,if you didn’t want to treat them like any other couple? If it was just to bring in a baby for Robron,there were less clichéd ways of doing it.
And they seem so squeamish about actually exploiting theshitty situation they’ve created for drama! Since the breakup, all the baby plot has done is force Robert back ontothe endless hamster wheel of scheming for Home Farm (…why?? Does he even know???). Robert hasn’t been torn between Aaron andRebecca/baby, and Rebecca…Rebecca hasn’t struggled with anything other than frequentbathroom breaks. She’s seemingly cool whether Robert is involved or not, andhas no objections to Aaron being a third parent. Or not. She’s cool with every eventuality!
Like, ED broke these characters up to give this woman, thiswoman out of all others, a baby. Iactually find it immensely frustrating that she doesn’t have a POV onANYTHING. I feel like I know less about her than when shefirst appeared. Then, I found ittiresome that she was constantly coming between Robert and Aaron, but at leastflighty, charming, schemer-who-is-not-as-tough-as-she-thinks-she-is Ibiza DJwith sister issues is an actual CHARACTER. I didn’t like that she was ALWAYS in the middle of Robron – or that shewas retconning Chrobert, but I kind of liked HER. I found her interesting, anyway. Thatscene where she’s on the floor without her shoes and crying – I genuinely feltfor her, in spite of her flaws, and in spite of my own investment in Robert/Aaron.
As Rebecca is now, she’s a blameless victim, but she’s also notinteresting. The very least this storylinecould have done is deepen her as a character. But there’s nothing to push against with her – Robert can’t schemeagainst her because she’s too innocent. So the fun of that goes to Chrissie. Vic just supported Rebecca unconditionally from the first, so theaudience doesn’t invest in watching those two characters develop arelationship. If ED had to break upRobron due to Rebecca, shouldn’t Rebecca MATTER? It’s like ED is so afraid of any backlash, shecan’t be important in her own pregnancy plot.
Honestly, I feel like no matter how it ends, this plot hasdone a disservice to all the characters – it made Robert look weak, and givenAaron more misery (JUST WHAT HE NEEDED), and even Rebecca, who had the most togain in terms of character development…has reverted instead into just some dupewith a womb. And I feel like they all deserved better thanthat. And so did the audience.
…but I love Emmerdale :)
No, genuinely. It’s asoap, and soaps have limitations – and I try to respect that. There are going to be highs and lows in anycharacter’s storyline (like HITMEN, and GRAIN SILOS, and people dangling otherpeople off VIADUCTS because of school projects??), and the fact that ED havemade me care so much speaks to how well the storyliners, writers and actorshave done their jobs. Robron has thekind of backing as a ship that soaps don’t usually get – and I think IainMcLeod genuinely cares about them, and you can tell. I love a lot of what he and ED do, and I hopethat comes through any negativity, because underneath it, I have been incrediblyinspired by what has been put on my screen. And that comes from love.
…but I still wish they hadn’t done this particular story…
OR, if they had done it…I wish they’d done it better.
Hey! Just dropped in (randomly) to say that The Hardest Science is the best fic I've ever read. Ever! Could you see yourself writing more Robron stories, or are you too disappointed with ED right now? When I watch recent episodes, it often feels like they are not telling the truth about the characters, and just keep moving them like chest pieces where ever the Plot needs them to be. And then I need to make myself feel better by reading chapter 20 of your fic for the 11th time :)
Thank you! I really appreciate the message - it’s so incredibly nice to hear something like that about my story :)
As for writing more...hm, I don’t know. I’m not watching the show at the moment - I miss it, but I find that, weirdly, to keep shipping a soap couple you have to jump ship sometimes :) I think that’s been my main fear with the show - that it would take away my love for Robert/Aaron (and maddeningly, that it wouldn’t even realise that that’s what it was doing!). So I’ve taken a step back, and I’m lurking at the edges in wait-and-see mode - which I guess kind of applies to my writing too.
Sorry I can’t be more definitive - I loved writing Hardest Science, I’ll always love ED for inspiring me so much with Robron (even while I’m shaking my fist at the show), and I’d absolutely love to write more stories...but I can’t say for sure that I will (ha - which might be a blessing...since they might not be any good!). Thank you for asking, all the same :)
I think better people than me have put it into words, really. I keep trying to articulate it even for myself, but I never do a very good job, so I'll spare you my ramblings :) Basically...this isn't a story I'm interested in. It's actually a story that retroactively shits on all the things I loved about this pairing to begin with. And it was badly timed and poorly written to boot. It cheapens Aaron, Robert, and hell, even Rebecca as individual characters, and I hate it. I'm done, I guess.
Thank you to @oakssober for your awesome reply/reblog from my post last night! You had such good points and I am going to respond here because it got really long!
I do agree that they could do better. I get what you’re saying. There is ALWAYS room for improvement with every show especially when you are representing LGBTQ community.
But my problem with what is being said is that Emmerdale is being accused of not showing intimacy BECAUSE Aaron and Robert are an LGBTQ couple, when the truth of the matter is that Emmerdale isn’t showing real intimacy WITH ANY COUPLE.
ACTUALLY, I will argue that one of the only couples who share actual deep relationshipy scenes ARE Robert and Aaron.
Emmerdale is in a conservative time-slot, pre-watershed were many, many things cannot be shown (unlike say HO or Corrie) due to restrictions. So yes that colors how they can and do write the show.
BUT –
I can’t remember the last time I saw ANY OTHER COUPLE kiss or have a sex scene except for Pierce and Rhona - which is actually terribly frightening as it is being set up for a domestic abuse story so their scenes are insidious and riddled with a lot of just badness - and Nicola and Jimmy - which really was played more for laughs than anything else.
Charity and Frank had a dirty quick one in the woods but that’s just to set up her blackmailing him stuff and they are testing the waters so they always start couples with hot and heavy scenes.
But when was the last time David and Tracey shared a kiss or even a hug? What about Leyla and Pete – when the hell was the last time we EVEN SAW them together - Christmas? Bob and Brenda? Zak and Lisa? Doug and Diane? Kerry and Dan? Marlon and Carly took a huge step this past week by agreeing to move in together and they hugged – HUGGED – after. Not a kiss, not a celebrating upstairs wink wink but a hug. WHAT ABOUT VIC AND ADAM? Where the hell are they and when was the last time we saw ANY SIGNIFICANT kind of intimacy with them? How about fights? When was the last time we saw a couple OTHER THAN OUR Robert and Aaron fight about their relationship? Talk about it and work on it?
As a matter of fact let me ask this question and someone answer me if I am wrong because I don’t remember everything but when was the last time we saw any kind of domestic coupley scene with any other couple aside from the recent Carly and Marlon moving in together? Maybe Kerry and Dan. Normally we see them out at the pub or at work. I rarely see any of the couples at home sharing family time or couple time. Do some of them EVEN have sets for their personal homes?
Oh, and really – tell me – when was the last time any of these couples said I love you? Recently - Laurel and Ashley, of course, *my heart* and Robert and Aaron.
It’s what happens when you become an established couple, many times writers don’t feel the need to show as much of it because they are telling different stories.
BUT HERE IS THE KICKER.
Every single thing that I have just mentioned above. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. – hugs, kisses, quiet scenes together where they express their love, FIGHTS ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP, domestic scenes – WE AS A FANDOM have gotten JUST IN THE LAST 6 WEEKS ALONE.
Can they do better? Hell yes. ACROSS THE EFFING BOARD. They should write love scenes and romance and coupley moments for all their pairings. The writing is in real need of re-focusing on some of that along with the drama and the comedy.
Do I wish we could more thoughts and feelings from Aaron? Sure. But he is a tough nut to crack sometimes and not even four weeks ago, I watched him break down and CRY over losing Robert then go beat the crap out of someone because he had. So – it takes extremes for us to see that from him sometimes. Do I want Robert to be treated more fairly? Yes I do. And tbf, I think they have started to do that now but that’s another post altogether.
The point I am trying to make and why I am just so annoyed right now about what certain factions of the viewers are saying is that the lack of that for them has nothing to do with them being afraid to focus on a gay couple. Because guess what? There are two love stories they are telling on this show right now.
TWO.
Laurel and Ashley.
Robert and Aaron.
I mean, they have other couples and of course they show them but in terms of talking about the love that the characters have between each other, those are the two couples that are standing out.
So yeah I am pissed that they are being accused of marginalizing them,of being afraid because they aren’t a heterosexual couple and part of me fears that because we are never satisfied as a fandom they will stop trying (god knows I would).
More than anything I am just confused as to what exactly these viewers would CONSIDER them being treated like other couples because from where I am standing THEY ARE THE COUPLE being written FOR. Is it simply about intimacy? Because you are never going to see REALLY hot and heavy sex scenes on this show. EVER.
Is it that they aren’t talking about their feelings and relationship? Because again not a month ago they had one of the most heart wrenching and meaningful conversations ever. Monday, I am positive we will get so much of that. There’s a wedding. Seriously. A WEDDING.
