Em (#1 Connor Reynolds Stan)

I don't get why people hate that AGGGTM show changed Ant to Robin. I think it was actually one of the best changes that the show has made.

Obviously, the storyline regarding Pip's fallout with Lauren changed, but it makes more sense with the bigger role that Max has been given. In the books, Ant was just Pip's friend who was being a dick to her and Connor about Jamie's disappearance. Even before that, I found that he really didn't have a deep connection with her and was always rude, so him turning against her didn't really surprise me. I was more surprised by Lauren, because I had found her to be a fun character in book 1 and didn't really notice any discrepancies in her behaviour.

In the show, things are different. Lauren is attracted to Ant in season one (though he is not part of their friend group) but the attraction ends after Ant hooks up with Stella Chapman. Robin Hastings (Max's cousin) is then introduced in season 2 as Lauren's new love interest, which creates tension between the friend group, as Pip rightfully does not trust Robin. Lauren, however, insists that he's different and wants Pip to give him a chance.

And so she does. She tries using him to investigate into Max's whereabouts on the night Jamie disappeared, which seemingly succeeds when Max claims to Robin that he was at the golf club. However, we then find out that Max knew that Pip made Robin ask him about his whereabouts, and instructs him to steal her phone so that he can delete the recording of him confessing to Pip that he raped Becca Bell.

And Robin had the chance to refuse and tell Pip about Max, but he doesn't. He could've shown Pip that she can trust him; that he's not like Max and doesn't agree with his actions, but he ultimately chooses to help Max in destroying vital evidence that proves Max's guilt.

Ant never got moments like this - he was just a dickhead who was ghosting their friend group along with Lauren. His betrayal did hurt her, but his role in her life was just being her friend. He didn't have any connection to Max and just turned against her because the internet told him that she was a liar along with Connor.

Robin, however, was not her friend but had managed to take her close friend away from her. A lot of people tend to discredit Pip's friendship with Lauren, because Lauren ended up choosing a boy over her friends, but Pip still cared about her. She had always been there for her when she could, such as comforting her with Cara after she got broken up with in the first book, or going out with her in the middle of the night to pee in season one. Pip ultimately loves Lauren and wants the best for her. She kept trying to maintain their friendship until the fallout, because Pip just couldn't handle it anymore.

Though many will claim that Robin was unnecessary, he was needed. As the show provided more focus on Max (since the books didn't get that chance due to limited POV), having a relative of Max's invade Pip's group and steal away one of her close friends was vital in Pip's character arc. It makes her rage towards the system's injustice more evident because not only has Max been proven not guilty, but now his cousin is taunting her, showing that he was always on his side . Along with that, he has also convinced her close friend to side with him, angering Pip more when Lauren attends dinner with Max's family after the trial.

The system is unfair: that's a key message throughout the series. A rapist has just been let off and his cousin is taunting her for it. Despite all the evidence against him, all charges against Max were dismissed and he can return to a normal life, which Pip sees when passing through town with Ravi before Stanley's funeral, where Max is surrounded by others despite him being accused of rape.

In her eyes, Max will never face proper consequences because the system benefits him and fails everyone else, including her and her friends. Hawkins didn't listen to her when she said to prioritise Jamie's case and it ended in Stanley's death and her being traumatised from witnessing it. He mocks her for mourning Stanley while sitting there, surrounded by people who seemingly don't care that he's a rapist, just like how Robin didn't care.

Therefore, by providing more focus on Max in series two, it meant that Ant was not necessary for the plot but Robin was. In the book's context, Ant was needed since his role as Pip's friend was established in book one and Max's trial wasn't as prominent as the show. However, as I mentioned before, this is not the case for the TV show, so swapping him out with Robin, who is Max's cousin and has a close relationship with him, was necessary to link Pip's friend group fallout with Max and the trial.

Though Max is not physically involved himself in the fallout, Robin's insistence of his innocence ultimately contributes to it, because Robin doesn't even entertain the idea that Max is guilty unlike Max's mother, who slowly realises that Max is guilty.

After the verdict, Robin provokes her, just like how Ant did in the books. However, unlike Ant, who provoked her about her faking Jamie's disappearance, Robin is claiming that Max is innocent, which Pip knows he's not. Robin might even know it, too, since Max had wanted him to steal her phone so he could delete evidence against him. But Robin ultimately chooses his family instead of the truth - that his cousin is a rapist and the system has failed his victims. Pip imagines Max when she attacks Robin because they're no different in her eye - one is a rapist and the other is his protector. His presence triggers her and she cannot see the differences between the two, because there are no differences between them in her perspective.

We don't know Ant's opinion on the verdict, because Ant has no importance to the Max storyline. If the show had kept him, it would've struggled with connecting the storyline to Pip's friend group, because Ant ultimately contributes nothing to it.

Changing it to Robin, who is directly linked to it through his relation to Max and his insistence on his innocence, ultimately reinforces the narrative that nothing ever happens to people like Max Hastings, no matter the evidence presented against them. People like Max can ruin lives and still be supported by their family and friends, because they don't care to look past the perfect image they've created for them. It is up to the ordinary person to go against the corrupt system to ultimately bring them down.

Conclusion

People will read this and disagree with me, because despite series two being more accurate to the book than series one, it was still missing aspects like Ant. However, I believe that while Ant was needed in the books, Robin was ultimately needed for the show due to the greater focus on Max's trial.

Of course, you're free to still be upset by the change, but that opinion isn't shared on this blog. I think Robin was better for the plot and is a better written character than Ant.