#the sudgen family

[damnitiloveyou]

He's not another Dingle so that's a win right there, but this team hasn't brought in a single interesting character in their entire tenure. So who knows. A Sugden sure does sound nice though. Be a dear and fetch Robert on your way in.

[re-dracula]

Bonus 2: Victorian Class and Gender

Hannah sits down with Dr. Jen Sudgen to discuss the ideals Victorian Class and Gender, and how they come across in Dracula. This interview contains spoilers for Dracula (and we're talking last-page-of-the-book spoilers!), so if that's something you care about you should save this bonus for later. This episode was hosted by Hannah Wright and edited by Tal Minear. The transcript was done by Rook Mogavero.

Transcript here.

Here are links to the various papers, articles, and media Dr. Sugden referenced:

"The Angel in the House" by Coventry Patmore

The Royal Family in 1846 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

"Dracula and Women" by Carol Senf in the Cambridge Companion to Dracula

"The New Aspect of the Woman Question" by Sarah Grand

"What It Will Soon Come To" in Punch Magazine

"The New Woman" in Punch Magazine

"Passionate Female Literary Types" in Punch Magazine

Dr. Sugden's underrated Victorian fiction list: the works of Anthony Trollope, the works of Wilkie Collins, and Lady Audley's Secret

Here are audio dramas you should listen to:

Check out Victoriocity, a detective comedy podcast! It's set in even Greater London, 1887. In this vast metropolis, Inspector Archibald Fleet and journalist Clara Entwhistle investigate a murder, only to find themselves at the centre of a conspiracy of impossible proportions. You'll hear our beloved Jonathan Harker (Ben Galpin) in it!

Check out Fawx & Stallion, a comedy podcast about rivalry, friendship, fame, and occasionally about solving mysteries! It's set in London, 1889. When the residents of 221B Baker Street leave town for the weekend to solve one of their most famous cases, no one is left to clear a poor housekeeper’s name of a crime she didn’t commit. Well, no one except for their neighbors at 224B…

[dannymillerfansite]

Emmerdale 08.08.24 Part 5

Aaron reels as he takes it in, he's bedded his (former) brother in law! And not wanting to out this to Victoria. Aaron decides to get away as he struggles with the revelation.

Mackenzie goes to check Aaron's OK, and Aaron begs him to keep quiet that he slept with John, while Mackenzie is also amused. Aaron's desperate that Victoria never finds out, Aaron though doesn't believe it's all a coincidence and is suspicious of John's motives.

Meanwhile John has been invited to Victoria's house, he looks at Sugden family photos and learns a little about the Sudgen family and hears a little of Victoria's brothers and son, she invites him to stay the night and although he preferred to kip in his van, reluctantly agrees.

[bobbie-robron]

The lads and family they were born to...

[echofades]

I told him that I’m not hiding them for him anymore, I gave them back. That doesn’t change everything else though does it?

[into-the-roblivion]

I miss Roblivion & Seb

[theredandwhitequeen]

Emmerdale thoughts

Aaron can be a dad to Sebastian if he wants because there are lots of examples of non parents raising kids they didn’t have a biological relationship with.

1. Aaron and Paddy: called him dad

2. Paddy and Leo: from birth

3. Bob and Donna

4. Bob and Kelly

5. Brenda and the twins

6. Brenda and Gennie: adopted

6. Zak and Marlon: Uncle

7. David and Jacob: his mom let him stay

8. Sarah and Robert: age 2-14

9. Sarah and Andy -1997-2000

10. Viv and Kelly: helped raise her after her mom died

11. Nicola and Elliott: mom leaves him with jimmy and Nicola

12. Diane and Andy

13. Diane and Victoria : after Sarah died

14. Diane and Robert: after Sarah died

15. Zak and Charity: cousin

16. Zak and Chas: Uncle

17. Lisa and Sam: step mom

18. John and Adam: birth

19. Edna and Eve:

20. Eric and Amy

21. Laurel and Gabby: after Bernice ran away when Gabby was little

22. Rakesh and Amba

23. Tracy and Jacob

24. Kerry and Amelia

25. Lawrence and Chrissie

26. Robert and Lachlan for a few years.

27. Aaron and Liv

28: Cain and Noah

@itswheremydemonshide10

[karlakattz]

What happened in the night before the wedding…

(Sorry, not beta read 🙈, all mistakes are mine)

He’s tossing and turning and tossing and turning. It’s too hot and when he pushes the blanket down it gets too cold. Nothing’s right here, the bed too small, too hard, somewhere is a clock relentlessly ticking and it drives him mad. Aaron is ready to jump up and throw the goddamn thing out of the window.

He’s back in the flat above the pub. In the guest room, mind you, because his old room was supposed to be Gracie’s nursery.

Aaron sighs and rubs his face exasperated. Now he’s thinking about her and his heart aches. The little sister he never met, but is going to miss forever.

His mum’s a mess. She tries to hide it, the attempt is bad though and his dad isn’t doing much better. Aaron’s not sure how they’ll make it through tomorrow if he’s honest.

Bloody hell, he isn’t sure how he’ll make it through tomorrow!

Marrying Robert.

He’s really going to marry Robert?

It seems so unreal after all that happened. Sometimes, when he thinks about it, like now, it’s a little overwhelming. The thought of how far they’ve come. What happened in those past three and a half years was the stuff of those stupid soaps Diane loves to watch. And yet, here they are. In only a few hours he’s going to meet Robert at the altar.

He’s really going to marry Robert.

Like, for real this time. With a vicar and flowers and matching suits and all. Aaron folded invitation cards and table decoration. This is happening. And in front of the whole village no less. A gay wedding in Emmerdale. With Aaron Dingle and Robert Sudgen as grooms. Who would have seen that coming, eh? Not Aaron, that’s for sure. His mind wanders back to his teenage years, ten years back, when he was that terrified kid, lost and confused and so damn angry at the world.

I’d rather live a lonely life than a gay one, he once shouted into Paddy’s face. The memory brings a sad smile on his face.

If he’d only known then what he knows now.

Love isn’t scary, love isn’t a mug’s game. And in the end it doesn’t matter if it’s a gay love or not. Robert is his friend, his home, the anchor that keeps him from spiralling and ultimately the reason why he’s still here.

And Aaron is going to marry Robert.

How is supposed to sleep when his heart keeps hiccuping in his chest, his hands are clammy and his brain won‘t give him a break? Aaron groans in frustration, tossing and turning once more, rearranging the pillow, but it still doesn‘t feel right.

He‘s missing Robert.

This is pathetic, seriously, it’s only night! Aaron knows that, technically, he can‘t change the feeling though. There is no pillow like Robert‘s chest and no godforsaken ticking watch can replace the steady thumping of Robert‘s heart.

Minutes turn into hours, stretching endlessly.

At some point, Aaron hasn‘t even noticed, he must have dozed off, because the next thing he notices is that his head is lying on something solid, something warm and moving. Something familiar.

Long and strong arms are wrapping around him, holding him tight and Aaron grins. They are supposed to stay the night apart - his family insisted, because of bad luck or whatever and he thinks if this is a dream, it‘s a very pleasant one and he doesn‘t want it to end.

“Are you real?“ he mumbles.

“Couldn‘t sleep without your stupid beard giving me a rash,“ Robert mutters and yawns.

“Shut up,“ Aaron smiles and rubs his head contently against the body underneath him.

This is so much better.

“Go to sleep, Mr Sugden,“ his fiancé says. His soon-to-be-husband. He sounds like he‘s smiling himself.

“…‘kay.“ Aaron pauses.

He‘s going to marry Robert.

"Mr Dingle.“

[maerose-late-at-night]

the space between us (ending to ED 18/07/2019) - robron

It was ridiculous how much of a comfort it was to just sit down on his side of the bed, feeling it dip as Aaron lay down on the other.

“You’re staying firmly on your side though, so don’t even think about it.”

He sighed, blinked. The movement felt strange and slow; it chafed like there was some kind of sand residue behind his lids. He knew he couldn’t expect anything different, but still. His night at the scrapyard had left him feeling lonely and achin’ – and he desperately craved that connection to his husband right now. To feel right again.

“Fair enough,” he said. 

But when he lay down on the bed and turned out the lights, he couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes. He marveled at Aaron, at the way his body created the oh so familiar shape in the darkness. He was tense, his husband was, and the idea that he had again been the cause of it hurt. He’d promised to do so much better, this time.

Aaron grumbled after a while. “Stop it.” “What’s that, now?”

Aaron twisted around so they were – finally – face to face. “The starin’. I’ll never get to sleep if you carry on like this.”

If you carry on like this, we’re both gonna lose ya. His mind echoed. We will.

Aaron exhaled loudly, pushing a world of bitterness and worry past his lips. “We’ve been here before, and no good ever comes of it.”

Robert inched closer, grateful for the fact that it didn’t cause the other man to retreat. Reached out to touch, but didn’t. Instead, he lay his fingers just a breath away from Aaron’s skin, allowing him that space. If Aaron wanted his touch, he’d reach for him. Please, he thought. I miss ya.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not enough.” Aaron stared up at the ceiling. “I need you to commit to this, to us. Me and Liv and Seb. Even if it means setting aside you feeling angry and bein’ out for vengeance.”

“D’you know what Jimmy told me this morning?” It had been replaying in his mind all day. “He said life in general’s so much better when you and I are on the same side.” God knows where he’d be without Aaron. The months they’d spent apart had nearly killed him. “I’ll stop. I promise.”

He got a raised eyebrow for that, which, fair point, but… “I need you to believe me, Aaron.”

“I’ve believed in ya before.”

Robert stopped breathing for a second, never mind the fact that Aaron’s face had immediately pinched together with regret. Aaron turned his hand and intertwined their fingers. “I didn’t mean that. I’m just… I’m going to have to see it for myself, yeah? You’re good with words, Rob. Y’always have been.”

“I’m not going to mess this up.” He shifted closer still. “Nothing is going to break us up, husband. Especially not my own stupidity.”

Aaron smiled at that. “Ya reckon, husband?”

“I know, husband.” Robert’s other hand travelled to cup Aaron’s face. “I love you.”

“I know,” Aaron said. “You’re still not gettin’ any, though.”

Aaron turned back after that, the slope of his silhouette decidedly more relaxed than it had been. But in the middle of the night, he’d unconsciously sought out Robert. Softly murmured his name on the end of a small vulnerable sound. Let himself be held.

No better feeling in the world.

this fic on AO3: 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19870414

[sugdenlovesdingle]

To vote for the sudgen-dingle family, it's here:

https://twitter.com/yorit1/status/1453091081281851399?t=9thslr1GNDJJTded3MzoVQ&s=19

oh right - go vote if you want, people

you can just post it in the robron tag yourself though anon

[steddieonmywaywardson]

Robron Titanic AU

Did anyone ask for a Robron Titanic AU? no? well here it is anyway :P

This is something I’m currently working on as well as my other fic which I teased a while ago!

10th April 1912

Titanic. 

It’s a name that has long been talked about in the press. So many promises had been made. It’s  the most luxurious,  the fastest,  the most modern and, of course⸺the most talked about tidbit of all⸺it was, supposedly, unsinkable. 

Robert stares at the large vessel that was supposedly the ship of dreams. It looms large in the dock, dwarfing everyone and everything around it. Its four funnels stretch towards the sky. The sharp  smell of fresh paint still lingers in the air. Throngs of people are crammed onto the dockside, a mixture of those boarding and those who had simply come to see this amazing sight. Only to Robert, it wasn’t some magical ship brimming with promise and excitement. It was a life sentence for a crime he did not commit.

He knows he shouldn’t feel that way. After all, America was supposedly going to be his home. Not that they would be going ‘home,’ as such. Home was a comfortable little farmhouse in an English village called Emmerdale, close to a grocer’s store and friendly neighbours. But, of course, Emmerdale would no longer do for the Sugden family. At least, not since his mother, Patricia had developed an obsession with social climbing. His father had been in charge of a successful farm, promising them riches beyond comparison. Last winter, his father had passed away. He’d been found dead in the snow on the lane back to the famous killed, in part, by what his mother referred to as ‘the demon drink’. 

Two months before his untimely passing, it had transpired that Jack Sugden had struck it lucky on the stock market. Their newfound wealth provided the family with a comfortable lifestyle that they’d never thought possible. Enamoured by the posh restaurants and exclusive clubs in Leeds, Patricia Sudgen had turned her back on the farm and done everything she could to make it seem as though the Sugden family were ‘old money’. 

It was at one of those exclusive ladies’ clubs that Patricia had crossed paths with Ellen White. Ellen had waxed lyrical about her daughter, Christine. The Whites were something big in the jewelry industry, and were exactly the type of family that would guarantee the Sugden family name would rise a few rungs up the ladder of success. 

And that was how, at twenty-one years of age, Robert had found himself engaged to Christine. She much preferred ‘Chrissie’ but this was a name he could only use in private. Both of their mothers had agreed that ‘Chrissie’ was an unsuitable name for a society lady. They were also playing down Chrissie’s age. At almost thirty, it was considered somewhat queer that she wasn’t married. 

Robert’s dreams of a life that he wanted, a future he’d built, have all been mercilessly killed. He was to become a husband, he was to manage the Sugden family fortune and eventually take over Chrissie’s father Lawrence in the White family business. Robert wasn’t allowed to have dreams, allowed to educate himself or travel the world, as he’d so often dreamed about whilst lying in his bed back in Emmerdale. His life has been planned for the next few decades ahead. After marriage, he will provide the families with their next heirs. Chrissie will raise the children while he raises the business. Robert Sugden, the Robert Sugden he knows, will cease to exist. He’ll be left to fade into nothingness, replaced by the puppet of his own mother’s design. 

He barely looks at himself in the mirror any more.

[victorianwhitechapel]

Ada Wilson

Ada Wilson (b. Zoa Ada Bisdey Elbury)

Birth date: 1863 Attacked: March, 1888 (ca. 25, survived) & 25th June 1891 (ca. 28, survived) Death (age): August 24th 1952 (aged 89)

Complexion: ? Eyes colour: ? Hair colour: ? Height: ? Ocupation: Seamstress, tailoress, waterproof hand clothes making.

Resting place: ?

***

Early life

Zoa Ada Bisdey Elbury was born in 1863 in Bristol, to Henry Edwin Elbury and Emma Fry. They married shortly before she was born. He had been born and bred in Bristol, and she was from Somerset. Henry’s father and elder brother were both stoneware potters – he followed them into this occupation, and seemed to do reasonably well. By 1871, Henry and Emma had been married for eight years, and had three children – Ada, Charles and Henry – and a servant. They lived in what seems to have been reasonable comfort on Clarence Square, in Bedminster, Bristol.

In the circumstances, it is hard to know whether the family’s next appearance in the census – at 39 Stratfield Road, in Bromley St Leonard, signified a reversal of fortunes. If guests and auxiliaries were anything to go by, then they had a lodger in 1881, rather than a servant. There were more mouths to feed (Rose, Emma and Thomas) and Ada, now 17, was earning her living – as a tailoress.

1888 Attack

Ada Wilson lived at 9 Maidman Street, Burdett road, a small thoroughfare lying midway between the East India Dock and Bow roads in Bow, a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. On March 28, 1888, at 12:30am while she was at home she was attacked by a man of about 30 years of age, 5ft 6ins in height, with a sunburnt face and a fair moustache. He was wearing a dark coat, light trousers and a wide awake hat. According to Ada, the man was a completely unknown, and forced his way into the room and demanded money, and when she refused he stabbed her twice in the throat with a clasp knife and ran, leaving her for dead. It is reported that nearby neighbours almost captured the man, but he found his escape.

Witness and neighbour Rose Bierman, a young Jewess who lived upstairs with her mother at the same building as Ada, explained that she knew Ada was married but didn’t know her husband, and that she was always getting visitors. About the man who attacked her she said that “whether he was her husband or not I could not say.(…) Well, I don’t know who the young man was, but about midnight I heard the most terrible screams one can imagine. Running downstairs I saw Mrs. Wilson, partially dressed, wringing her hands and crying, ‘Stop that man for cutting my throat! He has stabbed me!’ She then fell fainting in the passage. I saw all that as I was coming downstairs, but as soon as I commenced to descend I noticed a young fair man rush to the front door and let himself out. He did not seem somehow to unfasten the catch as if he had been accustomed to do so before. He had a light coat on, I believe. I don’t know what kind of wound Mrs. Wilson has received, but it must have been deep, I should say, from the quantity of blood in the passage. I do not know what I shall do myself. I am now ‘keeping the feast,’ and how can I do so with what has occurred here? I am now going to remove to other lodgings.“

A couple of young women rushed up to two police-constables on duty outside the Royal Hotel, and said that a woman was being murdered. The two constables, Ronald  Saw  and  Thomas  Longhurst, immediately ran to the house indicated, and there found  Ada Wilson lying in the passage, bleeding profusely from a fearful wound in the throat. Doctor Wheeler, from the Mile End road, was instantly sent for, who, after binding up the woman’s wounds, sent her to the London Hospital (Sophia Ward), Whitechapel, where Dr William Rawes ascertained that she was in a very critical condition.

Detective-Inspectors Wildey and Dillworth had charge of the case, and looked for the attacker. Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, April 1, 1888 issue reports that “subsequent enquiries … revealed the fact that a dispute arose between the woman and a man who she states is her husband … He was pursued for some distance by a neighbour … But the would-be murderer sharply turned a corner, and was soon lost in the labyrinth of streets.” No conviction was ever obtained. By the time Ada Wilson returned home from the hospital, on April 27 1888, all hope of finding her attacker – or of proving anything in a court of law – seemed to have disappeared.

Authorities at the time of the 1888 Whitechapel murders made no link between her attack and those murders and she never was questioned again.

Mrs Wilson

On 2 January 1889, a little over eight months after returning from the hospital, she married Samuel Wilson (she was already using his surname as many women did when lived with their common-law husband but weren’t legally married) at the registry office in Bristol. Samuel was older than Ada: he said that he was thirty-three on his marriage certificate. He described himself as an engine fitter. He abandoned Ada in or around February 1891; she returned to her parents’ house in time for the 1891 census, at which point the family resided at 78 Rounton Road, Bromley St Leonard. According to the enumerator’s records, Ada was married, twenty-seven years of age, and a “waterproof hand” – making waterproof clothing from India rubber. This profession – lightly skilled, but perhaps quick to be picked up once one had the job – perhaps suggested a degree of specialisation, but Ada was still firmly in the clothing-manufacturing trade.

Ada was attacked by her husband again on June 25 1891. He was drunk and asked her money, which she didn’t have, and he asked to live with Ada again, but the proposition failed to appeal to her. “Go to work,” she said, “and be different”. He was arrested. According to the Daily News, July 8, 1891 issue, “Samuel Wilson, 40, was indicted for maliciously wounding Ada Wilson, his wife” who was also injured with a knife on her neck. Her parents were also assaulted. When the case came to the Quarter Sessions at Clerkenwell on 7 July 1891, Samuel Wilson defended himself. The chairman Mr. Richard Loveland-Loveland, said that “the prisoner was a very dangerous character, and therefore he would be sentenced to six months’ imprisonment with hard labour.” She asked for a separation.

Little  more is seen  of Samuel,  or  Ada.  Whether  they  ever  took out  their separation  order is  not  known. In December 1898 Ada’s brother Henry had a daughter and named her Zoa Lavinia  Elbury.

Later life

Zoa Ada Wilson died on August 24th 1952, aged 89 of a pneumonia, at the Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone, London; she was the widow of engineer Samuel Wilson.

Aftermath

Authorities at the time of the murders made no link between her attacks and the Whitechapel murders. Samuel Wilson was never arrested for those crimes.

***

To know more:

Casebook website - Casebook Message Boards - Press report (from Casebook) - Press report (from Casebook) - Press report (from Casebook) - Biographic details from Casebook website - Wiki Casebook - Casebook Forums

JTR Forums

Jack The Ripper.org - Press reports (from Jack The Ripper.org)

Jack The Ripper Tour

The Jack The Ripper Tour

Jack The Ripper Map

Crimenes de Whitechapel (Spanish)

Jack El Destripador (Spanish)

Red Jack (Italian)

BEGG, Paul (2013): Jack The Ripper. The Facts.

BEGG, Paul & BENNETT, John (2014): The forgotten victims.

BEGG, Paul; FIDO, Martin & SKINNER, Keith (1996): The Jack The Ripper A – Z.

EDDLESTON, John J. (2001): Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia.

FIDO, Martin (1987, 1993): The Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack The Ripper.

HINTON, Bob (1998): From Hell… The Jack The Ripper Mystery.

JAKUBOWSKI, Maxim & BRAUND, Nathan (1999): The Mammoth Book of Jack The Ripper.

MATTHEWS, Rupert (2013): Jack the Ripper’s Street of Terror: Life during the reign of Victorian London’s most brutal killer.

RIPPER, Mark: Ada Wilson. Doubly Unfortunate, in Ripperologist no. 125, April 2012.

SCOTT, Christopher (2004): Jack the Ripper: A Cast of Thousands.

SUDGEN, Phillip (1994): The Complete History of Jack The Ripper.

[rememberingthesugden-dingles]

“Robert Sugden is to return to Emmerdale.

The character – who appeared in the soap between 1986 and 2005 and returned briefly in 2009 - is to be taken on by newcomer Ryan Hawley and is to cause trouble for his brother and old adversary Andy Sugden, played by Kelvin Fletcher.

Ryan said of joining the ITV soap: “I am absolutely over the moon to be joining the show. Playing such an interesting character with a complicated history in the village is so much fun, especially as my family are all big ‘Emmerdale’ fans. I can’t say much about what’s going to happen but I am delighted to be a part of it.”

Robert – who was previously portrayed by actors Richard Smith, Christopher Smith and Karl Davies – and his adopted brother Andy have always been at loggerheads as Andy never forgave Robert for having an affair with his fiancee Katie (Sammy Winward), while Robert never coped with feeling Andy was the most cherished son.

Now, as Andy and Katie have rekindled their relationship and are planning to tie the knot once again, Robert’s arrival could be set to jeopardise their big day.

Emmerdale series producer Kate Oates said: “I’m delighted to welcome Ryan to the show. Robert is a complex character and when we were looking for someone to take over the role, Ryan had the perfect balance of charm and edge.

“Robert Sudgen’s life has moved on in many ways…but those ingrained feelings – about his father, Andy, Katie, and the village where he grew up – are sure to find an explosive outlet.”

Robert is to return to the dales in scenes set to air in late October.”

[xunknownoftheuniverse]

Why dont people just admit they hate The Sugdens getting focus and Robert being about his family. and not Aaron's family. The Dingles are 95% of the show its about time The Sudgens get scenes together showing that they are a family. 

[dannymillerfansite]

Emmerdale spoilers: Robert Sugden’s left gutted by bad news

Robert Sudgen (Ryan Hawley) has given himself a heavy dose of bad luck of late after creating the elaborate scheme with Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler) to bring down Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) and get the haulage firm back in Emmerdale. 

It backfired majorly, leaving them without a penny and without the haulage firm to their names after Graham discovered what had been going on right under his nose. 

He got his revenge by blackmailing Nicola into handing over all the passwords and details of Jimmy’s (Nick Miles) haulage firm, completely hanging them up to dry. 

In the wake of Graham’s discovery of the fraud, Robert is desperate to get the firm back on track in a bid to earn enough money to start surrogacy plans with Aaron (Danny Miller), which have been scuppered by Graham learning of their scheme.

He wants to try and recreate the firm, hoping to tempt back their loyal customers, but he’s dealt a huge blow when he misses out on a huge haulage contract that would have funded his and Aaron’s surrogacy. Their dreams have come to a crashing end and he feels utterly destroyed.

Downhearted, he and Aaron tell Chas (Lucy Pargeter) and Paddy (Dominic Brunt) about their surrogacy plans and how they can’t seem to get them off the ground. Chas is still hopeful for the two, she encourages them not to give up on their plan, and there’s no cost too high for creating their own family. Will they find a way to become parents together?

[fleetwooded]

so whats the story with these emmerdale guys? and hypothetically if someone wanted to get into them where would they start?

i am SO glad you asked!! this turned into a whole ass primer, but you did ask!!

the good news is that the emmerdale guys (aaron dingle and robert sudgen) share a truly epic love story that spans four years, three redemption arcs, a lot of character development, and a found family at the end. the BAD news is that there is umm a lot of stuff to wade through if you want the full experience.

emmerdale is a british soap, which if you’re not familiar with the format means that it airs five days a week all year long. tbh it’s an entirely different medium than television - there are no seasons, no hiatuses, no finales, just episode after episode every day, like a weird parallel universe we get a window into! it also has been airing since the 60s, and some of the characters have been on the show for 20+ years, which means that there is a LOT of backstory and history and context behind everything. you have to be ready for some very overblown plotty stuff and a lot of melodrama. also people are allowed to be ugly and have bad hair and everyone works a blue collar job and knows everyone else’s business and spends all their time in the village pub. it is fantastic! embrace the medium!!

aaron and roberts story does have some of that over the top plot and melodrama, but it also has some INCREDIBLY powerful and affecting emotional depth, especially from 2016-now. neither of them start out as good people, largely due to the extreme trauma of their respective childhoods. aaron takes out his self esteem issues on himself, robert takes out his self esteem issues on other people. this means that at first, things are pretty toxic and bad! robert is cheating on his fiancee! the writers take a couple things way too far! the good thing is that pretty much anyone can be forgiven for anything in soapland, so we get some very very satisfying redemption arcs out of it. i will not spoil the rest unless someone asks me to, but the founding tenets of their eventual relationship:

robert would do literally anything for aaron, after spending his whole life until he met him only looking out for himself

aaron never stops loving robert, even when every other person in the whole village hates him

robert is always the first person to notice when aaron is struggling, and he always tries his very hardest to help him

both of them but especially aaron have a lot of physical and emotional scars, and there is a scene where robert literally runs his fingers over aaron’s scars while aaron is lying in a hospital bed and tells him that he will love him forever

danny miller (aaron) can cry on cue. and he does. a lot!

if you’re intrigued, do not try to go watch the whole show!! there are thousands of episodes and you will be fully lost. luckily, people have uploaded their storylines to youtube to make it easy for us.

both characters come from important emmerdale families, which means that they’ve been on the show for ages, but aaron and robert have existed in their current iterations with their current actors since 2009 and 2014 respectively. this means you have a few options for entry points:

if you really want to commit, you can go back to aaron’s origin/coming out story here. tw for suicide attempts, self harm, and internalized homophobia. it is pretty nuanced and has a lot of meat on its bones for a soap coming out story, and it does give a lot of context for aaron’s later actions and destructive tendencies. also might make you cry when you get to 2018 because he has grown up SO MUCH. that playlist also includes a long storyline about his first boyfriend - if you want to skip it, which i would unless you have a lot of time on your hands, the bare bones of it: the boyfriend jackson loves aaron, aaron doesn’t know how to love anyone yet, jackson gets into a terrible accident and is paralyzed from the neck down, aaron essentially becomes his full time caregiver, jackson doesn’t want to live the rest of his life like this and eventually convinces aaron to help him end his life, aaron goes on trial for murder but does not get convicted. a lot of it is deeply angsty and not in the fun way. 

after all that, aaron ends up fleeing to france with a new boyfriend ed because he has taken the blame for a crime his best friend adam committed. he returns in 2014 all grown up, and you can watch from the return for context here or just cut to the chase and watch the robert/aaron storyline beginning here*. i wouldn’t recommend starting anytime after that because you do need to watch the morally dubious toxic stuff in order for the later stuff to have its full impact!

the other option available if you are short on time or do not want to fast forward through many scenes of robert’s wife and her family bickering is to watch this supercut instead, which spans from just before their first kiss to mid-2016. it is 18 videos of about 30 minutes each, which is about the length of an actual season of tv! easy peasy!

honestly, all of these options are still probably going to leave you with some question marks, especially with supporting characters and backstory. i am super happy to help fill anyone in on stuff! i get great pleasure out of recounting this show’s ridiculous plot! but your best bet is probably just accepting that you cant know everything and sinking into the good satisfying love story.

have fun if you decide to get into this! i promise it is worth it! ask me if you have any questions at all! also if at any point you are struggling please keep in mind that eventually they will be very happy and looking each other like this: 

*i should also mention that there are some pretty major trigger warnings in there: more self harm, child abuse/rape, and gaslighting all feature fairly heavily in some portions of the plot. also cheating and some light attempted/actual murder in the early bits.