saw gifsets the other day and like, the rob-liv relationship really makes you think so much about the robron age/education divide. like, aaron was only 24 when he took liv in. and rob was 30. that is massive when talking about trying to be a parent even though 30 is still young to be raising a 14 year old. rob helps her with school work, disciplines her. he was genuinely a decent student when he was in school from what i've seen and really cared about results, had a dad who took an interest. and she gripes but she doesn't hate him. she has that kind of grudging respect that rebellious kids hold towards strict but loving adults.
i guess it's just so striking that rob's so much more a dad than a brother to her, while aaron's much more a brother than a dad.
aaron's not only much younger, he's just come out of this hideous ordeal that exposed just how horrific his childhood and adolescence really was and he just wants to love and support this miniature version of himself the way he wasn't loved and supported himself but he's so unequipped to do it. it's not even just being out of his depth, i really think that it's as simple as like, the thing he knows he was missing was love and the thing he knows he can give her is love and the rest of it doesn't really matter to him because he's still kind of a kid himself and that's the dream you have when you're young right? that if someone just listened and let you be and let you express yourself everything would be all right?
it's one area where the differences between them really work because rob isn't going to be the lovey parent and aaron isn't going to enforce any discipline or any structure. i wonder if that would be different at all now. now that rob's been to prison and aaron's actually a real adult now. and it's crazy that we're definitely going to get to find out eventually. i'm so curious πππ
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it's so cool how kev truly is the embodiment of rob's prison life, not just his prison trauma. like, you don't just go to prison and get dropped into this alternate universe hellhole where time stops and you're tormented for a set period before being spat out again. people actually live there and are human, build relationships, further their education, read, learn baking, get therapy etc. i mean, rob was traumatised in there for sure, but he also lived a life in there. and he won't talk about it, but we have kev to show us all these decontextualised glimpses of what that life was like, good and bad.
but also, it's kind of wild to consider what aaron embodies from kev's pov. he's been released because he's dying and he's come to spend those last months with the person he built a life with against all the odds. it's a continuation of kev's prison life, but only the best parts, rob, baking etc. but then he gets there to find rob back in this village where he has sooo much history and also sooo much future. and it turns out the period of time he spent with kev is just this tiny, ugly blip in this massive sprawling whole, so much of which is embodied in aaron, as rob's ex and his 'inevitable' future.
it's so tragic. even though what he said to aaron was unforgiveable, gordon is also something that he only knows about because of how close rob and aaron were. and so kev's come to die in this place where everything good in his life is just so small and meaningless and terrible. and even though he's threatened to kill aaron, it's kev who is actually going to die and aaron, the literal rest of rob's life, stared right back at him and didn't even flinch.
i genuinely think it's so wild that people were like, ooh aaron is violent and unpredictable and kev is violent and unpredictable and rob will have to manage them both as they tear strips off each other for his hand. and instead the aaron/kev battle that we're actually getting is kev on the one hand being all, i'm dying please i'm sick i'm dying robert don't leave me, and aaron on the other hand being all, yes whatever you need whatever you want, i'll hug you about the man you married after you divorced me and cut all contact, i'll be your secret to spare his feelings robert please don't leave me.
i just...π€¦ on the one hand it's like, stand up boys! but on the other hand it's like, so funny and then on the third hand it's like, you're doing all this over Robert Sugden??? the man who cold divorced one of you and ghosted the other, both after years of marriage??? AND IT'S WORKING??? HE FEELS SO BAD RIGHT NOW πππ
incredible. no notes. could not in a million years have predicted this. like, robert torn between two flopping gasping fish, but he's also a flopping gasping fish!! this is, and i say this without a shred of irony, the pinnacle of romance to me!!
i really don't understand what is wrong with mackenzie and charity though? they're both freaky as fuck, they've both impregnated/been impregnated by other people...why are the two most poly people on the show dealing with constant cheating plots?? thirds should be the bread and butter of that relationship. they should have a million kids with no idea whose is whose with whom anymore. ross should be rocking up and banging either or both of them, giving the kids a sugar high and then floating off back to rossland to do whatever schemes he's up to when he's off screen.
to be fair though charity 'who has never done a wrong thing in her life' dingle is to blame for none of this. this has mackenzie 'millennial patriarch' boyd written all over it π«. if a month in the gay bdsm bunker is not enough to cure him then all hope may be lost i fear.
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@globule's amazing vid and the references to nicola recently reminding me of how wild the robert/nicola sl was. which, from everything said here i was expecting to hate but...i actually thought it was a really deftly handled issue based sl about uk age of consent laws + character piece. which surprised me because i was under the impression that the show/village didn't support rob, or take what happened seriously, and that wasn't the case at all. i felt like the show took a really strong stance on the issue and was solidly on the side of it being a violation (see the pub scene in which everyone in the village gangs up on nicola).
importantly, i think the fact that rob didn't, and as of now still doesn't, see it as a violation is key to the point being made i.e. if the age gap is too great and/or the relationship with the minor pre-exists them reaching the age of consent, then, while consent may be freely, willingly and legally given, it's still absolutely not okay/going to be accepted by the community/damaging to the young person involved.
significantly, they did this without patronising rob or his experience of what happened which i think is particularly important for teens watching who may have similar experiences, or adults who had similar experiences as teens.
like, the two arguments people make regarding sex with a minor over the age of consent are represented by both rob and nicola:
nicola - it's legal, so what's the problem?
rob - i'm attracted to and want to have sex with this older person, so what's the problem?
but then you see nicola does actually know it's wrong because she tries to keep it a secret, thus undermining her later defensiveness about it being legal and therefore fine, and once it comes out, absolutely no one in the village is in her corner at all and she very quickly backtracks, everyone in the village who finds out gets to vocalise another view about why it's wrong. but you also get see where her attitude might come from when the guy she uses to get rid of rob also then uses her for sex and leaves in turn!
and then you have rob who, despite being into it, is clearly so out of his depth floundering around trying to date her in such a high school way, not getting hook up culture or casual sex, immediately going off to buy her a necklace with her name on it (so sweet, so sad π’) you can just see how bad the whole thing is for him even though he doesn't.
a big part of why he wants to date nicola is because his classmates are making fun of him for being a virgin and rob hates being seen as weak or less of a man or being left behind. he actually thinks sleeping with someone so much older is going to make him seem even more experienced than they are and says as much (sex always about power to him, even then). but sleeping with nicola in the end just garners him more mocking for being desperate (π) so it's also a clear message to similarly minded boys that saying yes to sleeping with an older woman won't get them the social kudos they think it will despite the fact that they may see it as an appealing option.
of course then you get to see the further damage it's done when rob's conscious take away from the situation is not that nicola has hurt him by sleeping with him in the first place, using his youth and inexperience to feel good about herself for a moment (clear to us) but that she's hurt him by refusing to continue the relationship leading to this character defining exchange:
does it make you feel good, hurting someone this much?
come and tell me when you've done it.
so the sl is entirely a psa, entirely kind and understanding of rob's age and vulnerability, entirely aware of rob as a character, how he sees relationships and status as interrelated even to begin with and why so many of his relationships involve him taking advantage of others while also inadvertently exposing him to being taken advantage of himself and how he also comes to view sex not only as means to gain status but also as a weapon he can use to crush other people by offering it and withholding it and being unfaithful.
no one should criticise those of us who are kev pilled okay. we are in a lose-lose scenario. either kev is evil and we get our hearts broken. or kev is good and he gets his heart broken and we get our hearts broken πππ
you have to be very kind to us. we are about to go through something unspeakable πππ
kev hugging a cute boy in a bar for probably the first and maybe the last time in his life and people want me to read it as creepy and possessive. he's twirling! he's stepping out with his best girl! this is the happiest he might ever be !!!
