Efelychiad Pedwar

He’s a constant contradiction in the way that the soap format demands. We’ve known him since he was born, we should understand him completely but we don’t. He can be so manipulative and his motivations are complex and often twisted and filtered through his control issues, but at the same time he’s vulnerable, human, loveable and endlessly resilient. I root for him all the time even though I know he’s going to go about it all wrong.

Love when they don’t file down his sharp edges, when they let him be difficult and confusing and flawed. Love him in 2005 cheating with Sadie but also being devastated to lose Katie. Love him in 2015 manipulating Aaron into covering up Katie’s death but also falling in love with him. Love him in 2016 saving Aaron’s life and proposing to him but also flirting with Rebecca. Love him in 2017 being awful to the Whites but also genuinely heartbroken and devastated over Aaron. Love him in 2025 broken, wanting Aaron back but also missing Liv’s memorial. Love him in 2026 putting himself in danger to protect Aaron from John but also ignoring Aaron’s wishes and lying to him.

He’s capable of being a villain and a romantic lead, a murderer and hero. He’s in a constant cycle of growing and changing and yet he’s trapped forever in cycles that existed before he was even born, doomed to make the mistakes of his father.

what do you mean it's scummy??? what happened to your fear of gun?????

i can't murder him, he's my husband. turning him in is scummy....oh my god, he actually does not want to do this. he fucked up so bad by mentioning the gun to aaron. he was just upset about the money...okay i just rewatched yesterday's scene and he literally is just upset about the money. he runs in all, the money is gone! aaron's like so have you told him you're done with him then? and he's like no, because he's got a gun...and aaron's like woah gun, and rob's like no wait this conversation just got way out of control, my money...but he can't back track now! we've got no choice...

but also, i hate when people dismiss the robron-in-conflict eras as bad writing because they aren't, they're actually really, really good writing and part of what makes robron so compelling. i particularly love the rebecca arc because it's essentially a queer retelling of daphne du maurier's 1938 gothic novel 'rebecca' (and the hitchcock film adaptation) which are about living in the shadow of your lovers' perfect ex and how it can eat away at your psyche.

if you don't know, the book is about a young woman whose name we never learn. she meets dashing maxim de winter, has a whirlwind romance and gets married. thereafter she is only ever referred to as the second mrs de winter. she then moves into his estate where the memory of his late wife rebecca haunts every corner. she is constantly made to feel inferior to rebecca, who was beautiful, sophisticated, well connected and beloved by the staff (to the point of obsession-with famously sapphic overtones!). everything the second mrs de winter does is compared to what rebecca would have done and found lacking. it starts to drive her crazy until she finally uncovers the dark secret behind rebecca's death.

i honestly believe that the rebecca plot was in the works for years. from when the whites first arrive in 2014 there are references to rebecca. like in the book, she haunts the narrative. who is she? where is she? chrissy is worried she'll miss the wedding. and then when she does arrive (years later!) she's so so perfect and terrifying. she's so blonde, so beautiful, so posh. so confident that she's going to just pick up where she left off with rob. if you're poor, common, fucked up aaron dingle how are you ever going to feel like you measure up?

aaron's sure rob likes him more than chrissy because there, he's the other woman, the person rob can be himself with. and he's convinced himself that rob is gay and so has feelings for him that he can't feel for chrissy. but with rebecca, she was the other woman before him which throws that logic out the window and makes rob's bisexuality unavoidable. it's partly where the 'biphobia' from aaron comes from. because if rob's not with him because he's a man (where finn is the only competition), then he has to be with him because he's himself - which is a much more terrifying prospect to aaron 'people don't stay with me' dingle esp. when confronted with rebecca's it-girl magic.

she also gives robert a child which is something aaron can't do. the ultrasound sets him off so badly bc it's medical proof of this and also proof that rob wants those things that aaron can't give him. the baby also echoes the book where we discover that maxim murdered rebecca because she lied that she was pregnant with another man's baby and was going to force him to raise it as his own, mirroring how it's not aaron's baby and how hideous rob is to rebecca about it.

and also if you know the book, you never see rebecca as a true threat because you know the truth is that maxim and rebecca always hated each other, their marriage was a sham and the second mrs de winter (aaron!) is the one maxim (rob!) loves. albeit she has to come to terms with the fact that he's a murderer, as aaron has to come to terms with who rob is and all the darker parts of his nature. and, like the second mrs de winter, aaron does forgive him and love him in spite of it all.