#If I was an Emmerdale writer this would happen

[sugdenlovesdingle]

So...when is Ryan Hawley rejoining Emmerdale? We need a Robron Reunion soon right? Seb is growing up without his Dads, Aaron is stuck in the village and Robert is stuck on the IoW! Of course, when Robert and Aaron come face to face, they will not see eye to eye. So, what would you prefer? A massive blow up like Chrissie and Robert causing havoc in the village or a slow burn like before the 2018 reunion - but obviously with a sane, Maxine written SL? If RWRB fans can manifest a sequel into reality, 911 Buddie fans have the Buckley-Diaz family within reach, we can dream about a Robron wedding in Las Vegas right? 😝😂

lol I don't think buddie fans are really the best example here.

but yes, he's done the guest parts on other shows, he's done voice over work, he's made two kids - time to go back!

Though Maxine isn't a writer on emmerdale anymore (something about rats and sinking ships) but since we're fully 🤡🤡🤡 here maybe she'll do a guest ep for a special occasion!

Like Aaron being shifty for weeks, secret phone calls and texts, snapping at Vinny when he tries to look at his screen. Telling him it's none of his business when he asks what he's hiding. And then one random tuesday he'll announce he's going away for a couple of days and no, he won't tell where to.

And then we get Aaron getting in his car and adjusting the mirrors For Reasons and we see he has one of those picture key chain thingies hanging from his rear-view mirror with their wedding pic with Seb in it and he drives away (this would actually work with the bts pic Danny posted where he's filming with/in Aaron's car!). And there's a few shots of him driving until he pulls up to a random house somewhere. He parks his car and gets out, walks up to the house and rings the doorbell, a person we don't know opens the door. "Hi Aaron. He's waiting for you."

Aaron goes in and we see a little boy watching tv and clutching a giraffe plushie, and a packed backpack next to him.

The person tries to get the kid's attention but he's focused on the tv and they sort of apologise to Aaron who just shrugs and sits down next to him.

"Hey mate, what are you watching?"

And the boy quickly looks at him and smiles and then starts telling him all about the thing he's watching.

And Aaron just lets him ramble and just has this *fond* look in his eyes the whole time.

*some other stuff happens, tom is still abusing belle, everyone is miserable*

When we come back to Aaron and the boy, the show he was watching has ended and he's sitting next to Aaron who has his arm around him.

"So are you ready to go home?"

the boy nods and we see a shot of the person who let Aaron in smiling at the two of them.

"Alright, lets go then. Go say bye."

The boy walks up to the person and says bye and they bend down to hug him.

"Bye Sebastian, it's been a pleasure having you here but I'm sure you'll be very happy back with your dads again."

*gasp* *shock* The boy is Seb!

They leave and we see Aaron strap Seb into a car seat and triple check all of the straps and buckles until he's satisfied and he gets behind the wheel and starts the car.

He tells Seb to wave at the person as they drive away and we see them round the corner and disappear from view.

Then there's some more shots of Aaron driving but it's notably a very different road/route than before and we see him maybe check google maps on his phone a lot, indicating that he doesn't know the road where they're going.

It's implied they've been on road a long time and they stop at a mcdonalds or something to get something to eat and Seb gets to play in the ballpit for a while.

Aaron is still on his phone A LOT and texting someone until his phone rings in his hand. He answers in typical Aaron style with a few one word answers and then hangs up, and tells Seb they have to go again.

When they get into the car he tells Seb it's only short drive now and we see them drive to a bus station and pull over.

Aaron smiles at something in front of them and gets out of the car, standing by the door, not quite believing his eyes.

"You took your time." someone out of view tells him and he laughs.

"Shut up and get over here you."

And we see him stepping away from the car, walking towards someone, and when the other person is within reach, he grabs a suit jacket and the camera focuses on his hands - fists balled into the fabric.

"I've missed you mister Dingle."

And the camera *FINALLY* pans up and we see Robert half smiling, half crying, pulling back a little to REALLY look at Aaron.

And he cups his face and wipes away a stray tear with his thumb.

"I missed you too mister Sugden"

*credits roll, the nation rejoices, all is right in the world again, robron are reunited*

[scrapyardboyfriends]

lmao i'm just catching up on emmerdale and jacob's like 'there's been something between us for ages vic - we can't deny it.' and i'm like since when???? lmaooo. he even tried to say there's been tension since she split up with david lol. THESE WRITERS hahaha. they just make up BS and then expect us to believe something that was NOT present on screen lol

Yeah...I'm still trying to figure that one out. Like I know I haven't really been watching but I still feel like I would have seen something about that if it had been happening for a while.

These producers truly have no idea how to construct a believable story. Everything is short term. There's no proper build up to stories. Things just happen abruptly and then either end abruptly or get put on hold for two months and then brought back up abruptly (see the Sharma storyline). It makes it very hard to invest in anything.

[aquila1nz]

I posted 305 times in 2022

That's 105 more posts than 2021!

25 posts created (8%)

280 posts reblogged (92%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@piratekane

@wirepaladin

@sixth-light

@damnamour

@petralemaitre

I tagged 293 of my posts in 2022

Only 4% of my posts had no tags

#shortland street - 34 posts

#sara wiseman - 28 posts

#samira/francesca - 21 posts

#roxie mohebbi - 18 posts

#killing eve - 13 posts

#a league of their own - 12 posts

#motherland fort salem - 12 posts

#fandom - 11 posts

#emmerdale - 10 posts

#shortland st - 10 posts

Longest Tag: 91 characters

#but seriously thank you to that writers room and everyone whose been making all this happen

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

This scene is everything I needed it to be. Especially since we didn't get to see what lead to the kiss at the wedding.

I love Samira's nervousness, a sign she does want this; and Francesca's jokes, but also her upfrontness as she keeps bringing the discussion back around to them kissing. I think Francesca's been aware that she's attracted to Samira for longer, and has been holding back for all those reasons of age and authority position. But Samira has had a crush on Francesca since she first arrived, has she been explaining it away up until now? Give me backstory!

I had worried that this was going to be a one-off that the show quickly backed away from, it's certainly happened before. But no, this is a relationship that has plenty of room for the show to explore, I'm not sure we're looking at a happily ever after, but I would like to see some happy at some point for them. But first, the circling.

This isn't an end, it's very much a beginning.

"Another time. A happier time, I hope."

24 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

#4

See the full post

30 notes - Posted February 19, 2022

#3

See the full post

32 notes - Posted February 4, 2022

#2

It looks like Anne Lister's thermometer has had a major upgrade for season 2.

50 notes - Posted February 3, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

97 notes - Posted February 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[thelovetheystole]

Blind items from Metro, no newsletter next week as the writer will be on holiday, so these are the last teasers for a bit.

I would love it if this was to do with whatever Lucy said was coming up for Chas and Aaron... But it could also be Belle of course.

Baby Evan?

Still waiting on whatever will happen to Nate, could this be about him?

Can't see this being Emmerdale atm...

Paddy and Mandy, or more likely perhaps Kim and Will?

[aerialtaluniverse]

This year has whizzed by, I can’t believe how quickly its flown. Looking back, 2023 has been a much better year than 2022, but the anxiety and OCD still remain. I really want to stop it as it’s the feelings of dread, and something bad happening, that cripple me. Going to try and manage it more next year.

But, yes, it’s been a much better year. It was lovely to get away to Harrogate for a few days, and to visit the British Library in Boston Spa to do some research. Was also a thrill to visit Esholt where Emmerdale used to be filmed - so surreal!

It was also wonderful to be invited to a volunteer’s garden party hosted by the Duchess of Northumberland at the Alnwick Garden. My Mam was my plus one and it was so special, love her and Dad so much, and Dad had a lovely big birthday in June. I also saw Miriam Margolyes at the City Hall in Newcastle - she’s filth and I love it! But also, an amazing story teller and so captivating, I love her.

Still doing my job and I love it, it can be a bit stressful doing all the things I do as I’m only doing a few days, but still love it. It’s an amazing place with so many brilliant people. The insecurities still remain, but hopefully next year I’m still doing what I’m doing. I love it. It was quite overwhelming to get praise for things I did, makes it all worthwhile.

Have loved gardening for my Nana, loved seeing the garden full of flowers from seed. I love her so so so much. Haven’t baked much this year, but would like to do more cooking next year. I got back into writing in the Autumn as I sent my script off to the BBC Writers Room. I know nothing will happen as it isn’t great, but had nothing to lose. I’m planning on keeping at it though as I loved revisiting it again.

The Tories are still in the shitter hahahahaha! There’ll be an election in 2024 which will be horrible, just hope Labour win even though I doubt they will as I’m very pessimistic about those polls. Losing Paul O’Grady in March was a shocker, finding out the day after my 30th birthday (he died on my actual birthday) that he had died was devastating and so shocking. What a talent!

Still very much single, haha! I’m not really bothered about finding anyone - not something on my list really. 31 in March, I really am getting old argh. Hope 2024 is a good year. I still need to be more kind to myself. As with last year, I pray and hope all of my family stay safe. Mam has had me worried, especially in November when she fainted, but need to keep an eye out. But, yes, I hope and pray all of my family stay safe. I love them so much - Mam, Dad, Nana, Auntie Lilian, Trevor, Jan, Pam, everyone. Hope everyone is ok in 2024. 

Happy New Year to everyone! xxx

[aarobfans]

Robert Returns to Comfort Aaron

[likethemtrashy]

I read alot of comments about Ben being self-destructive is repetitive or saying he's being childish and selfish. With Soaps, characters storylines can be whatever the writers see fit but main thing that remains (or should till the writers assassinate that character's identity) is that character still maintain their traits or characteristic that we identify as who they are.

Now, it's a soap so alot of things are, of course exaggerated for drama and you can't really compare to something he did two storylines away to now because that's what they are - plots for the character. If we put that aside to focus on this story and for the actual point that is being carried across is that Ben is self harming. Media has painted that self harming is just inflicting physical injuries on oneself but it's actually more than that. It's sobataging any happiness in your life, it's saying mean words to hurt anyone so they can hate you, having sex as a means of punishing yourself. Any way that you can somehow Inflict pain unto yourself- physically or emotionally is self harming behaviour.

Ben ways of dealing with any pain in his life is to simple to press the self destruct button. He is taking drugs, sleeping with a guy, pushing people away and hurting them so they can hate him, anything that he can use to destroy himself he is going to do. He doesn't know any healthy way of dealing with his problems. So we are witnessing him literally spiraling. Yes it's ugly, these things always are when you are in pain.

As most stories that may or may not lead to anything, I hope the point here given the main focus that we know is the reason for his behaviour (being r*ped as the main issue) and what we are seeing is the writers planning to go somewhere with this for Ben to get professional help.

We've seen Aaron from Emmerdale go through similar with help and while still kept him the same by trying to talk through what he feels even when he's being self destructive or leaves so he can calm down.

I would like to see some changes similar to Ben but also the factors are abit different - the Dingles are not gangsters. Ben is the son of Phil Mitchell. I don't know much of the history of the characters on the show but I do know soaps and their writing. In any case, this may take that dramatic route in wrapping up this story but I hope something atleast comes of it for Ben's character.

Self harming is "repetitive" it will always be until you learn a different way to cope and even then it's something you have to deal to not relapse. There are no quick fixes and where soap writers and Ben's character are concern, this is apart of the character's behaviour. We the viewers a merely the bystanders to their story. With that said, I hope Ben will get professional help. There are so many discussion to have around this story and it's what I find interesting about it.

Tldr; self destructive behaviour is another way to self harm. Ben falling back in the same behaviour is not surprising to me, especially with what's happened to him. Hopefully the writers will let Ben get some professional help. Repetitive destructive behaviour will not disappear if it's apart of their character traits but writers getting a high off making Ben sad can also be too much so I hope all what's happening will lead to some changes where Ben is concern otherwise it will be under the rug as just another plot.

[isagrimorie]

I’m so glad I got the 2021 Doctor Who Yearbook because it has the Jodie Whittaker interview and features on series 12 episodes but most importantly, has an interview with Maxine Alderton!

I knew that Maxine Alderton was a writer for Emmerdale, I think one of Britain’s long running soaps (which is apparently based in Yorkshire?). I didn’t know she actually is a beloved Emmerdale writer and even earned the nickname ‘Queen Maxine’ from Emmerdale fans, and you know what? She earned it.

The first time I read about Maxine Alderton was in Reddit where, of course, they began to sneer at Alderton’s credentials as (an awarded and prolific) Soap writer forgetting that their beloved Terrance Dicks and Russell T Davies trace their writing roots from Soap Operas.

Alderton even pointed out how writing for soaps was a great prep for writing for Doctor Who: “You’re constantly writing in soap, so you’re constantly using that muscle. We’re used to changes, like characters not being available, having to rewrite a scene with someone else, hitting tight deadlines -- we’re very flexible and pretty much bombproof.”

This is also why Maxine was able to write for a real big cast without losing  focus on who the main cast are and the Doctor at the center.

Also, it seemed Alderton was an X-Files fan but was actually she was more, surprisingly (to me) drawn to Torchwood.

Chris Chibnall apparently gave Maxine Alderton a blank canvas to write the episode, I don’t think he even gave Ed Hime and what’s that dude’s name... Praxeus and Kerblam guy that kind of freedom.

Maxine Alderton chose Mary Shelley and Frankenstein because: ‘it was the birth of science fiction. I feel so cmfortable with that era; it’s intense and romantic. I thought that if anything would be my one shot to get into the show, it was the most natural choice.”

I love how Maxine described her younger self as a ‘dramatic English lit student’, she did a whole module on the Romantics and it’s during her research when she hit on Byron’s Darkness and immediately thought ‘She was the Universe‘ has to be the Doctor.

I’m also really glad that Maxine was fond of Claire, I could feel it whenever I watch Haunting of Villa Diodati.

“In preparation for writing her script, Maxine did a complete rewatch of the revived show-- “I wept when the Tenth Doctor left” -- and saw every Cybermen episode, including 2017′s World Enough and Time. “I was trying to connect with the emotional angle because that was going to be Thirteen’s freshest battle with them. What happened to Bill in that episode was particularly difficult to watch with the body horror. The Doctor would be thinking of that.”

I know it’s already been said, even by Jodie herself but having the writer herself mention that was the intent of “I won’t lose anyone else to that!” was because of Bill, was because at that moment Bill Potts was alive in the Doctor’s head.

“I think what really interested me was the burden the Doctor carries,” says Maxine thoughtfully, “of having been alive for so long, to have faced battles and witnessed so much. I wanted to see how that worked alongside the lightness Jodie brings to Thirteen.”

God, I love this. I love the way Maxine talks about the Doctor. I need her to be a major part of series 13 now that Vinay Patel (as far as I remember) is moving on to produce his own show.

And! And, people who said that Mary Shelley wrote the Monster/Creature in Frankenstein as what she hoped Ashad was? It’s what Maxine intended!

[lonelier-version-of-you]

i feel so confused with this whole thing about jon sen like whats gone on or whats about to happen sorry for asking??

It's no problem, anon! I'm happy to explain. :) (And I do apologise for however long this has been in my inbox, if it's taken me a while to answer this it's just because I've been busy.)

OK, so Jon Sen is a TV producer. Right now, he's the Executive Producer of EastEnders, and the Senior Executive Producer is a woman named Kate Oates (who is also the Head of Continuing Drama at the BBC, which basically means she's responsible for keeping all the BBC soaps - Casualty, Holby, EastEnders, Doctors - running). So they work together to run EastEnders, and Kate Oates is Jon Sen's boss.

But yesterday, it was officially announced that Jon Sen has left his job at EastEnders, and he's gonna become the new Executive Producer for Casualty instead.

The thing is, a lot of people think that EastEnders hasn't been very good since Jon Sen took over. And I would have to agree - the quality of that show is very bad right now. So a lot of people are worried this means Jon Sen is going to "ruin" Casualty too.

But what people are forgetting is that EastEnders was in a very bad state before Jon Sen took over. So he didn't make it any better, but it's not like the show was good before and then he came along and ruined it, or anything like that.

Also, Jon Sen has worked on Casualty before, as a writer, director, and a story producer. (Here's the link to his IMDB, if you're interested in seeing what episodes he worked on: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0784010/) And he worked on some pretty good episodes! So I think it's worth it to also look at his actual Casualty work before we start assuming he'll be bad based off his work on EastEnders. After all, they're very different shows - EastEnders is a normal 30-minute (20 minutes at the moment because of filming restrictions) soap, and it's on 4 times a week. Casualty is a 50-minute (40 minutes at the moment) medical drama, and it's on once a week. It's perfectly possible that someone could be bad at producing a show like EastEnders, but still be good at producing a show like Casualty.

Plus, some of the problems with EastEnders that people assume are Jon Sen's fault actually seem more likely to be things Kate Oates is responsible for. For example, there's been a really awful storyline that started out as a serious storyline about the character Chantelle Atkins being abused by her husband Gray and eventually he ended up killing her - but then after Chantelle died, Gray randomly turned into a serial killer and the writers seemed to completely forget that it was supposed to be an abuse storyline. Understandably, a lot of people (including me) are bothered by this and think it feels really disrespectful.

But there were similar problems when Kate Oates was the producer of Coronation Street (she also used to be the producer of Emmerdale, but I didn't watch it back then so I don't have anything to say about that part). There were still serious storylines that ended up turning into silly sensationalist drama. There was still a long-running serial killer storyline that was dragged on way too long. The show was still unnecessarily dark, and characters were still killed off for no reason.

There have even been some similar issues on Holby and Casualty, to some degree, which, like I said earlier, Kate Oates also has some influence on both of those shows. But she doesn't have as much control at Casualty or Holby as she does at EastEnders, so Jon Sen is going to be working with less influence from her at Casualty. So it's unlikely that the problems that are affecting EastEnders right now will be affecting Casualty any more than they already do.

Casualty also still has the same Series Producer (Loretta Preece), so she'll still have influence on the show too. It'll be her and Jon Sen working together to make the show. So it's not like they're suddenly bringing a bunch of new people in to make the show, it's still the same producer team as before except with 1 new person, which means the show will probably stay the same in a lot of ways.

Basically - Jon Sen has been the producer for a really bad era of EastEnders, but the problems with EastEnders right now are a lot more extensive than just Jon Sen, so he's not completely to blame for that. He's also worked on Casualty before and written/directed/produced some good episodes, which is worth considering. Casualty probably just isn't going to change much either way with Jon Sen as the Executive Producer. It's unlikely to suddenly get hugely better, but I doubt it would suddenly get much worse either. Jon Sen probably won't be the greatest Casualty producer ever or anything like that, but the people panicking that he's going to "ruin" the show don't need to panic that much.

[saras-almanac]

writers month #6: together - robert/aaron [emmerdale]

writers’ month prompt 6: ocean

Summary: Robert and Aaron talk after Robert’s released from prison. Robert plans to clear the air and apologize, but Aaron wants more. 

Notes: Anyone surprised that I’m behind. Whatever. I’m sorry for the reunion 3.0 sadness. I just apparently won’t get over these ideas. On the plus side, I’m really enjoying these little prompts and some of them I want to expand into longer fics in the future. Cause you know I always need more things to do... 

Robert stared out over the water, the waves a lulling sound. There were hardly any people around and Robert shoved his hands into his pockets.

It had been almost two years since he’d been imprisoned and the freedom he now had was still a bit foreign to him. It wasn’t that prison changed him too much; he could still recognize himself for the most part.

But it didn’t make him any less anxious over his meeting with Aaron and what he was going to see when he looked at Robert. Would he still see the man he’d fallen in love with? Or would he see the monster who murdered someone? Or would he only be able to see the hollowed-out version of the man Robert felt like he was?

Robert had been released a few months ago, purposely staying in Leeds because he wasn’t going to be able to live in that village for a long time yet.

It was funny how Robert felt he’d never be able to go back after his father sent him away. He did and then, irony of ironies, he never thought he’d be able to leave—not after Aaron. Now here he was again, at a crossroads with the village he grew up in: unsure if he belonged while also feeling like no where else made sense anymore. It was easier to just stay away and not have to figure that out.

Robert had written Aaron another letter after his release. He’d debated over it for weeks while still inside—whether he should, whether Aaron would want to hear from him again, whether he even had the right to contact Aaron again. It wasn’t like Robert was hoping Aaron would take him back, at least not really. But he did hope that apologizing in person might make up for some of it, that maybe seeing Robert face-to-face would help Aaron understand how desperately Robert needed to cut ties for his own sanity, even if it tore his own heart in two to do it.

So Robert had written to him, a short letter telling him that he was released and staying in Leeds and asking if he’d be willing to meet up for a chat. He assured Aaron that he didn’t want to ruin anything for him and would completely understand if Aaron had no interest in meeting him. He just wanted to apologize in person, but it was up to Aaron whether he wanted to do that or not.

Victoria had given Aaron the letter for Robert and the next time he saw her, she brought with her a letter in return. True to Aaron’s form, it didn’t say much more than Aaron agreeing to a meeting and naming the time and place. The only other line was “Let Vic know if the time doesn’t work.”

That was last week and now Robert was here, waiting on his ex-husband and trying not to vibrate out of his skin from nerves. He wasn’t sure why Aaron has asked to meet him here, at the beach and overlooking the ocean, but it’s where they were meeting.

“Robert.” Aaron stood beside him, staring at him but his face was blank.

Robert’s mouth went dry and all the words he’d been practicing flew out of his head. “Er—Hi. Aaron.”

“You’re looking… all right. You okay?” Aaron asked, his voice a bit quieter than before.

Robert nodded. “I’m out, so can’t complain. You… You doing okay?”

Aaron sighed and looked out over the water. “Depends.”

Robert swallowed. “Depends on what?”

“On what you’re about to say to me.”

“Oh,” Robert looked down, kicking at a small pebble with his shoe. “I just… Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. I know it’s not fair of me to expect this of ya, not after everything I did. But I, I wanted to be able to apologize, officially, and not through a letter for what I did. I know that I hurt you—more than I had any right to—but I had to, for my own sanity. With the move and the fear that brought on, I just, I couldn’t keep it up.”

Aaron was quiet for a moment. “You didn’t say anything about fear in your letter.”

“You read it?”

“Of course I did,” Aaron said. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”

“You had every right not to,” Robert said. “But no, I didn’t mention it there.”

“Why not?”

“Cause it wasn’t your problem,” Robert said. “It was my chance to apologize and hopefully give you some sort of closure over what happened. So you could move on. It wasn’t the place for me to unload on you.”

Aaron nodded. “So what, you kept your fear to yourself then?”

“Yeah,” Robert said.

“What were you afraid of?”

What he wasn’t afraid of would be an easier question to answer at this point. Robert looked out over the water. “Being left behind.”

“What do ya mean?”

“I just… I knew how much you and Vic would try to visit me when I was inside. And after finding out they were moving me, I just couldn’t face that. It’d be too much money and time for you, and…”

“And?” Aaron prompted after a few seconds.

“And I knew that it’d only be a matter of time before you stopped coming at all,” Robert said. “I wouldn’t have been able to handle that in the first place, let alone all the worry as I waited for that day to come. Would you have told me that you weren’t coming anymore?”

“Robert,” Aaron said firmly. “I’d have never done that.”

“Then that’d mean you just kept coming out of some… what obligation to some man you used to know?” Robert asked.

“Not just some man,” Aaron argued. “My husband. Who I love and promised that I was gonna be there for him.”

“But then you wouldn’t have been able to live at all, Aaron. No life for as long as I was locked up,” Robert said. “I never wanted that for you.”

“I thought ya knew how much you mattered to me,” Aaron said quietly. “That I have no life without you.”

Robert’s throat burned and he couldn’t turn to face Aaron. It was what Robert had dreamed of hearing those lonely, cold nights in his cell. Aaron assuring him that he would still choose Robert, even a Robert locked up for fourteen years, than anyone else. But Robert couldn’t let Aaron make that choice; it’d have been too selfish.

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry for how I hurt you,” Robert said softly.

“I’m sorry that I ever gave you any reason to doubt my commitment to you,” Aaron said after a minute.

Robert turned to look at him, surprised to see tears in his eyes. “You did nothing wrong.”

“I made my husband think that he had to go through this alone. Obviously, I did.”

“I thought I was doing the right thing for you. Not being selfish for once,” Robert said.

“I wanted you to be selfish,” Aaron said. “I wanted you. If that was only for a visit a month, I’d have happily taken it.”

“You’d have thrown your life away,” Robert said.

“You say it like you weren’t—aren’t my life, Robert,” Aaron said. “I meant it when I said I don’t have one without you.”

“That’s not true,” Robert said.

“All right, fine. You’re right. I can live without you, but I don’t want to,” Aaron said, his voice a little agitated and the beginnings of an angry frown on his face.

“It’s not—This doesn’t,” Robert cleared his throat. “It doesn’t change anything.”

Aaron sighed. “Whether we’re together or not, I’m not going to stop loving you. So why not just be together?”

Robert looked down again, unable to look at Aaron for another minute. “I—Why are you saying all this?”

“Because it’s true,” Aaron said. “And I’ve had a lot of time to practice my big romantic speech.”

Robert chuckled weakly. “This isn’t off the cuff?”

“Not all of us have your charm and skill with words. Some of us have to practice to make sure our idiot husbands actually hear what we’re saying,” Aaron said.

“And what if this idiot is terrified of things going wrong again?” Robert whispered.

Aaron’s hand reached out and gently rested on Robert’s forearm. “It won’t.”

“You can’t know that for sure,” Robert said.

“What I do know is that I’m not going to lose you again,” Aaron said.

“That sounds a bit like a threat,” Robert said.

“Maybe it is,” Aaron said. “But I’m serious, Robert. I want to be back with you.”

“People will have something to say about that,” Robert said.

“I don’t care,” Aaron said. “What do you want?”

Robert let out a breath. “I want you.”

Aaron squeezed his arm and Robert could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “Good.”

Aaron pulled him in, or maybe Robert rushed in, either way they ended wrapped around each other, clinging tightly. It was the first time Robert could truly breathe in two years. Maybe everything was really going to be all right.

[thegirl20]

5 Works Tag Game

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I was tagged to do this by @royalarmyofoz​ (haii Meg!!). What this has made me realise is that 2020 has not been a very productive year for me. And certainly not very varied in terms of fandom! There were long periods of time where I could hardly write due to crippling pandemic related anxiety, so I suppose I’m grateful that there’s anything to choose from at all. 😉

Do you feel like I feel (or am I all alone?) - Yennefer x Tissaia - The Witcher

Due to the aforementioned pandemic related anxiety, it really surprises me that I wrote a fic based during the pandemic, the plot of which relied very heavily on the whole lockdown situation. This is my ‘and they were zoommates’ fic. Essentially, once I saw this tumblr post, I could not get the idea to leave me alone. Also I really wanted to make Sabrina a cat. 

Holding you, I held everything - Yennefer x Tissaia - The Witcher

I’m including this because it was my first foray into writing Yennefer and Tissaia as a couple. I wrote it entirely because I wanted Tissaia to introduce Yen as her wife. And I got some lovely comments on it, which inspired me to write all the other Yen and Tissaia fics that followed. Oh, and this one spawned a series, of which this is currently the last work, despite being the first one to be written. 

Dewy eyes and lashes long (for my love) - Charity x Vanessa - Emmerdale 

It makes me sad that I had cause to write this. But I felt a strong, pulling need to deal with the aftermath of a cancelled wedding that I knew the show wouldn’t address in any depth. I made a guess at how the evening would pan out, and I guessed totally wrong. But part of me likes to think that this version happened in some universe. 

There you are, turning winter into spring - Yennefer x Tissaia - The Witcher

This is an utterly ridiculous soulmate AU. And I had an absolute ball writing it. It came about as a result of a discussion in discord about embarrassing soulmate tattoos and it’s silly and tropey and fluffy, and I kind of love it. Sabrina’s boobs have a minor starring role in this one, which is never a bad thing.  

When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long - Yennefer x Tissaia - The Witcher

This is another one that came about due to a discord discussion. @mindmypensieve came to me with an idea she’d had for a story, and something clicked in my brain and I had to write it. Of course it turned out completely different than the story she’d envisioned. I had a lot of fun writing Yennefer as a disembodied voice for much of this one. It’s harder than you’d think!!

Tagging @piratekane, @heartsways, @mindmypensieve, @loudestdork, @riverstyxgoddess, @emmahay, @novak-fan - only if you fancy it!!

[sugdenlovesdingle]

Aaron single parenting a traumatised/angry child he's not related to by being there for them 24/7 in a storyline that would not be a callback to him being raised by paddy in his teen years??

Emmerdale writers answer my phonecalls, I just wanna run some stuff by you!!!

🤞🤞🤞🤞

The way I need this to happen!!

[scrapyardboyfriends]

Its just so wild to me that two years ago Aaron was a happily married man co-parenting his step son with his husband and planning on possibly adding to the family Via Surrogacy now all he does is moan about Liv like literally that's all he does I dont even consider whatever he has with Ben a storyline because there has been zero investment from either the writers or the actors

If Emmerdale have no plans on ever bringing her back I also think Killing Rebecca and giving Aaron Seb would of been a way more interesting storyline,

For sure. And I mean, for me, it's not even like "oh Aaron deserves his son!" etc. Like sure, fine, I want that for him. But he as a character deserves something that progresses him forward and doesn't just leave him in this weird stasis.

Again, this is happening to basically every character to be honest and the whole show is trash so like, I'm not even mad about anything, like legitimately angry. I'm just sort of sad about it because the show could just be so much better and it has been in the past. And now...sigh.

[forgottenlivesobverse]

Today we have a Q&A with Lance Parkin, author of multiple Doctor Who novels and a contributor to Forgotten Lives. Lance’s story ‘Past Lives’ features the Camfield Doctor (who has a guest cameo in his novel Cold Fusion) and begins like this:

‘The Doctor sipped the y’bador, which was too hot, too sweet, left much too much of a sour aftertaste, and which he instantly fell in love with.

‘“Well, everywhere in the galaxy was affected,” the Commissioner replied. “You say ‘untouched’, but everywhere was touched.”

‘He sounded defensive. The Doctor smiled and nodded.’

FL: Tell us a little about yourself.

LP: I have gone from the child prodigy who wrote a Doctor Who novel to someone who needs a stiff upper lip to think that his debut novel is older now that its author was when he wrote it. Went from Doctor Who novels to storyliner on Emmerdale, managed to translate that into a complete lack of further TV career at the exact moment Doctor Who came back to TV. I’ve had a book published at least every year since, including biographies of Alan Moore (which I think is my best book so far, I’m probably not the person to ask) and Gene Roddenberry. Met a lot of very interesting people and had a lot of opportunities as a result.  

FL: What attracted you to this project?

LP: Well … a long time ago, I wrote an article for a fanzine called Matrix, ‘Past Lives’, that suggested that if you look at all the evidence, especially The Brain of Morbius, then Hartnell is probably not the ‘first’ Doctor. There’s at least room for incarnations we don’t know about. This was, at the time, delicious heresy. It got a huge reaction, it was reprinted in Licence Denied, the Paul Cornell curated ‘best of the fanzines’ book that Virgin published. The appeal to me wasn’t just finding a loophole that broke the most basic fact of Doctor Who, it was that it opened up huge new vistas for the character, you didn’t have to imagine that everything that had happened in the Doctor’s past had happened to William Hartnell with slightly darker hair. So the appeal of this project is a bunch of people get together and show us some of that huge, hidden universe.

FL: These Doctors only exist in a couple of photos. How did you approach the characterisation of your incarnation?

LP: Mine’s ‘played’ by Douglas Camfield. Some of it is based on Camfield himself – he was notorious for planning everything very carefully, and having binders full of ideas for turning the script into a piece of television. So there’s a nod towards that. I slipped a flashback scene featuring the Camfield incarnation into my now-ancient Doctor Who Missing Adventure novel Cold Fusion, but only really picked Camfield because he had a beard, so I could go ‘the Doctor had a beard’ and everyone would realise it wasn’t one of the TV ones, but I do establish the Doctor’s married in that. I also tried to think about what the show would be like if it was modern Doctor Who but made in 1958 or whenever, I kept coming back to the idea of it being a sort of Graham Greene thing set in a world picking itself up from a devastating war. So what role does the Doctor have in that? I struggled with that at first.

FL: The stories are intended to represent a ‘prehistory’ of Doctor Who before 1963. How did that affect your approach?

LP: That’s the central paradox of this collection – how do you make this character recognisably ‘the Doctor’ but set it before the show starts? How do you have them work for the Time Lords but be a hero, not a lackey? A moral force, and experienced, but clearly not as developed as they become later? How do you fit it in with continuity – continuity that probably doesn’t let you say ‘Time Lord’? – but retain the joy of all this, which is that it’s a whole new space for Doctor Who stories sort of free from all that? How do you tell a short story that stands for and sets up a whole era? I wanted it to be a sort of pilot episode, or a teaser at least. I want people to wish they’d seen all 30 stories with this guy, not just this glimpse. As I was writing it, Paul Hanley put up his notes about his depiction of the Camfield Doctor, and said he saw this one as a sort of monster hunter, and that was sort of what I was doing, but he’d summed it up in two words, so that’s what crystallised it for me. So, to answer your question: he hunts monsters.

FL: What’s your story about?

LP: The Doctor glances across a tea room and sees an irredeemable monster. So what does he do?

FL: Who would be your ideal casting for a pre-Hartnell Doctor?

LP: I spent a lot of time thinking about this, then had a eureka moment and said ‘Peter Cushing!’, and slapped myself on the back, then about two seconds later I remembered that I wasn’t the first person to come up with that answer. Peter Cushing, but with the room to play it for the broader, older audience Doctor Who has now compared with 1965.

FL: What other projects are you working on at present?

LP: My next Doctor Who thing is, um, actually not sure what I can say. It’s a comic strip, but not an official one. Very proud of it. That was the thing I can say most about at the moment, unfortunately. I’m finishing up a novel called The Fourth Person, I have another called Cragside which is now on its fourth total redraft, and I’m working on a non-fiction project. It’s 25 years since my first Who novel was published, and I’m keeping busy as a writer, which is wonderful.  

[softlass27]

Directors cut of One More Word and you Wont Survive 🙏

Gah, this fic is so long, but I shall try and break it down!

So the initial idea came from a brief conversation I had with @soft-husbands about how ridiculous it was that in 2018 the writers had Lachlan kidnap Rebecca (who literally no one cared about) instead of Robert, which would have been a much better storyline. Since I needed to write something for her in a gift exchange, I decided to do my own version of it!

These are the key points/main ideas that were the most important for me:

Aftermath

One thing I knew I definitely wanted to do – even before I’d really worked out the exact plot – was include a lot of the actual aftermath of the kidnapping, and really show how it mentally affected Robert (as well as Aaron). I didn’t want to write one of those fics where you just have the drama, and then maybe one scene at the end where everything’s suddenly okay again. Which, y’know, is what the Emmerdale writers tend to do. 🤷 

So that’s why the fic is literally divided into two halves – the action and the aftermath. And I loved writing the second half – looking at Robert’s mental state, showing other characters’ reactions, lots of communicating between him and Aaron etc.

I didn’t want Robert to just be fine straight away, I wanted him to take some time to settle back into things again, to go to counselling and to work towards recovering from what he’d been through. I kept it mostly quite upbeat and hopeful – I couldn’t bring myself to make it too angsty – but I did have Robert struggle to come to terms with what had happened to him.

On top of that, I wanted Aaron to be his rock. The writers never really gave Aaron a chance to be the strong one in the relationship, not for longer than a couple of episodes or so, and I wish we could’ve seen it. It would’ve been great to watch, but also a nice switch for Danny and Ryan (who would’ve both smashed it!).

And of course this was an excuse for me to write lots of soft fluffy husbands content, which as you all know, is my jam.

Lachlan

So in the show, I thought the writers did a good job of building up Lachlan’s psychotic tendencies. In late 2017, he did begin to seem quite scary, you could see they were building up to him properly snapping.

But then as soon as he actually did start killing people, he became kind of… meh. They’d done all this buildup to make him as deranged as possible, but from the Whites car crash onwards, his character lost all that great creepiness and just became a bit of a wet wipe. His killing of Gerry was completely lame, his kidnapping of Rebecca was rubbish and so was the aftermath. He spent most of his time flapping about what to do and obsessing over Belle, and honestly he became one of the most boring soap villains they’ve ever done. By the time he was arrested and went to prison, they’d lost so much momentum it was kind of a pitiful ending for him.

Maybe it’s because I watch a lot of crime stuff (both true and fictional), but I just wanted more. I wanted him to be terrifying, to be unhinged and scarily cold. And it made sense to me that he would really show this side of himself by kidnapping and torturing Robert. Robert’s been his number one enemy from the beginning – he hates him more than anyone and essentially blames him for every single thing that went wrong in his life. In terms of storytelling, it only seemed right that his final showdown would be with Robert and no one else. It’s what both characters deserved.

So that’s what I wrote. I did a big final “fight to the death” between the two, and I tried to make Lachlan this cold-blooded psychopath who got off on making Robert suffer as much as possible – for as long as possible. All those years of built-up resentment finally spilled out of him and it made him totally lose the plot. But at the same time, he was able to switch that off and act completely normal when he was with Belle. I tried to show this in a few scenes, like including a moment where he told Robert – his kidnapped victim – he had to go because Belle was expecting him to go for breakfast with her family.

I really enjoyed doing it, but at the same time I was terrified that the way I was writing him would seem ridiculous, like he’d come off as a bit of a silly pantomime villain. It seems to have paid off though, judging by peoples’ reactions, so I’m quite happy with how my Lachlan turned out :)

Chas/Paddy/Liv

I knew from the beginning that Chas, Paddy and Liv would all be on the “wrong” side of the story, so to speak. They’d be the sort of “lesser” villains, the ones causing conflict on Aaron’s end and in the second half of the story.

On the show, I never really believed that any of them actually accepted Robert as family after reunion 2.0, to me it seemed like Chaddy were just civil with him as long as he made Aaron happy. And I never bought into the whole “roblivion” concept during boyfriends era, so I was even less convinced of it in husbands era. I always found it shallow and fake on Liv’s end.

This was pretty much proved right by Chas, Paddy and Liv’s behaviour during the aftermath of Robert’s exit – all three of them showed their true colours and their true feelings about him very quickly. 

Considering every time things got rough for Robron on the show, Chaddy and Liv either turned on Robert or just acted like he never existed/meant anything and actively tried to push Aaron to “grow up” and move on from him, it made perfect sense to me to have them suspect the worst of Robert in my story. To assume that him disappearing meant that he’d done something wrong, rather than he was in trouble.

(Fun fact: the scene where Robert has that big showdown with Chaddy in the pub was actually one of the first ones I wrote. Ah, priorities.)

I wanted Aaron to be strong, to never doubt that Robert was in trouble and to unapologetically stick by him in the aftermath. I wanted him to stand up to Chaddy and to put Robert before Liv for once (judging by quite a few comments that I got, lots of other people did too, so I’m glad I went for it!). I also wanted him to make it very clear that his main family unit – his priority – was Robert and Seb, not the Dingles’ feelings. Anyone who disagreed with him could fuck right off as far as he was concerned.

By the end of the story, Aaron has very much allied himself with the Sugden family, that’s why we saw lots of him with Diane and Vic. I really wanted to call back to the “Who Shot Robert” era, where they both stepped up and rallied around Robert 100%, only this time with the bonus of Aaron being on their side, too.

Rebecca/Ross/Seb

I mean… this is quite self-explanatory, but I knew from the beginning that Rebecca would die and Ross would end up going to Liverpool miserable and alone. No happy ending for either of them because they didn’t fucking deserve it.

And of course, this would mean that Seb would stay with his dads where he belongs. I will never get tired to coming up with new ways for this to happen (just you wait for Aaron week).

The ending

Since I was writing this fic for the engagement anniversary gift exchange, I thought it’d be fun to include an actual engagement at the end of it. I hadn’t necessarily planned to make it another lay-by proposal, but when I looked at my story timeline (yes, I did make an actual timeline lmao) and I realised that the 4th December wasn’t very far away, I knew I HAD to get them back to that spot. It was only right!

So I’m probably in the minority here, but I’m not actually a huge fan of proposal 2.0. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice and super cute, but the whole “trying to propose to each other at the same time” gimmick just wasn’t really for me. I thought it was a bit unrealistic that they’d both separately just randomly come up with the same idea at the same time (I know, I’m sorry). And since we’d already had Robert do it the first time, I kind of wanted the second one to be totally Aaron’s thing, let him have a proper turn.

So I took elements of proposal 2.0 that I liked – the location, some of the dialogue – and took out the bits that I didn’t – Robert trying to propose, Aaron’s funfair lie (I’m sorry but that was just dumb), the jinx thing, other people (Chaddy and Liv) being so involved. Thereby creating my own perfect version of proposal 2.0 (what can I say, I am a self-indulgent girl).

I think in this universe, after everything they’d been through, after Aaron’s terror of losing Robert for good, it seemed right that he would be the one to do the asking. And because we know he’s a sentimental sod, it made sense that he would wait until their lay-by anniversary to do it.

[tirsu]

Ugh to all that Aaron and Mac flirting. What the hell is wrong wiht Emmerdale? They really do love their unhealthy relationship (seen as very romantic).

Aaron just got other abuser out of his life (accidentally, thanks asshole Robert doing something right), he doesn’t need new one. How about Ethan? He seems to be nice. He and Aaron could go to dates to see if there would be something between them. (Yeah, I know, too boring to Emmerdale’s writers.)

Also, could Adam please come back? I miss his relationships with Victoria and Aaron. 

And I do hope that Luke is bi. Just for Victoria’s sake (other way, I wouldn’t care what his sexual orientation is) - that family has put her through lot of shit and she deserves all the happiness there is. Luke using her as his beard would be just cruel from Emmerdale after all that has happened with Posners, especially wiht L*e and Wendy.