Chrissie. The OG casualty of robron, the trophy wife who wanted it all and wanted the hot shot husband except the one person who never really wanted that was robert. The woman who wanted to marry a version of Robert that didn't exist and live a perfect life where she could be beautiful on the arms of a beautiful man who adored her. Well, RIP. I will forever love Chrissie for giving us lines such as "I promise, I won't ever cheat on you with another woman" from robert (really relying on that technicality robbo), "you had an affair with a man" and "there's only one person in my marriage sleeping with another man and it's not me!". She really drew the short straw, ending up dead at the hands of her own son...

Finn, the second casualty, a very short-lived romantic interest who was used by Aaron to make Robert jealous in the early days. He suffered an atrocious date with Aaron while Robert watched, after which Aaron ruined Robert's car mirrors and then they fucked. We appreciate your sacrifice, Finn, as you gave us one of the most iconic robron kisses, including two wall shoves.

Rebecca. The other beautiful White woman who looked upon robert and thought "I can fix him" and then realised she absolutely couldn't. Try as she might, and she really tried, there truly was "no one else" for our dear insane robert and she got the shortest straw of them all, coming 2nd in Robert's mind to both Chrissie and Aaron. The mother of Robert's son then left Emmerdale and died off-screen of "complications" iirc.

Lawrence, the THIRD White to see Robert and think "I can fix him" (what is up with this family and wanting to bang robert)... okay not technically a casualty of robron but definitely a casualty of how insane Rob became while he and Aaron were apart... I also couldn't leave him off the list, the storyline was too insane, especially as I had completely repressed all memories of it happening until my darling claudia reminded me and I burst out laughing while on public transportation.

Alex, oh Alex... Dr Hair, the most boring man to watch on screen. The chemistry between him and Aaron really wasn't there and he was more of a palate cleanser until he realised that he truly does just want to be with Robert. Aaron was ready to break up but then Alex accidentally killed a man so Aaron felt bad. Gave us iconic moments such as Robert's iconic "I hope my husband makes you very happy" and being dumped in a gay bar while "crazy in love" plays in the background.

Mike the Chef, aka the hot irish gay guy Bernice tries to set Robert up with on their night out to forget Aaron. Had a pug named Gary, and also tried to pull Robert in a ploy to make Aaron jealous. And it almost worked!! He had to go home alone after Robert bailed on fucking him because he loved Aaron too much, giving us the most perfect reunion ever while Aaron declares his love and cries.

John, you'll be in mediocre company!

Ever since the very first time - yes even during Afair era - the game goes:

Robert fucks up

Aaron gets mad

Robert grovels

Aaron gets mean

Robert pushes back

Aaron relents and they fall back together

If anything Robert is not playing the game. He’s trying I think - going to the wedding (grovelling) telling John about the kiss (pushing back) returning to the village. But his heart is not really in it. Because without Aaron realizing Robert changed. He changed on Christmas 2017 when he told Aaron he would rather Aaron be happy. That he was just going to try to be good. Even if just for Seb.

When they get back in 2018 - asking Aaron to hold Seb - making Aaron’s Valentine’s Day meal for him and Alex - going out on a meaningless date..

Aaron sees these actions as Robert playing their game (grovelling and or pushing back)

But Robert was falling into another routine. One where he doesn’t want to be the man he was when Aaron meet him. And while for Aaron that getting together was him giving in to Robert again for Robert it was Aaron coming home.

When he gets a date this time he wants to try to do what worked in 2018 but his heart is not in it. He can’t do it. He’s not that man anymore

This is not a game for Robert - hasn’t been since 2017 - and he can’t get himself to play it anymore.

But for Aaron all they are doing is their old dance! He’s following the steps! He told Robert he was following the steps! And Robert is trying so hard for him.

I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while now and say hi to all of my followers, old and new...

I have no idea why you guys are here, but I’m very thankful that you are and I hope you know how much I appreciate you all! And it makes me happy to know you’ve chosen to see my content on your dashboard; to think that I have something I can contribute to you!

To make it easier to find my stuff (fics, meta, newer ships, older ones, whatever), I’ve put everything on my content masterlist which you can now always access from my pinned post (where you can also find explanations and screenshots on using the masterlist).

I also thought I might mention: I’ve been struggling with some medical stuff. I’m not as around as I’d like to be. I’m doing my best to still help others by queuing up posts and reblogging Buddie content to the @dailybuddie, but especially as the new season start, there’s a chance I’d miss things. Please never hesitate to send me posts I might have missed and I will happily reblog and support you!

It also means I’m way behind on Tumblr games of all sorts (and other things), but know I will do my best to catch up whenever I can and in the meantime, I am always happy and appreciated being included.

Thank you all for making this year nicer and this blog a place that feels like it’s always positive. Keep being lovely and may 2021 be good to all of us and bring with it nothing but kindness and good! xoxoxox

Alice.

It proved over and over again how much they were it for each other and how devoted they were to each other, even when things got bad enough that they exploded at one another because their respective mental health difficulties hit rock bottom and they hurt each other in ways they never meant to. It was still out of love, so much love that they didn’t know what to do with it, that that happened. 

Even the ONS (though you can hardly call it that when Robert was in no fit state to clearly, willingly and enthusiastically consent to sex and by his own admission was too drunk to remember what happened the next day, but I digress) was about how much Robert loved Aaron and how much it physically and emotionally hurt to think he’d lost him.

Victora will be conflicted as she will want to support and care for her brother despite the terrible thing(s) he has done. Just look at the way she stuck by him when literally everyone else in the village was a suspect in his attempted murder. But she will likely want to totally sack Adam off for making a similar mistake. Will she be able to stay mad at Adam when her biasses towards Robert would show that she should forgive him? 

Aaron will be conflicted as he will see the actions of his best mate from a point of sympathy. Sure he makes a mistake- but he did so when he was upset and heartbroken and Aaron will recognise the fact that Adam is sorry and regretful. But will he be able to recognise the same thing in his husband? I have seen some people be perturbed by the fact that Aaron seems to be set up for taking Rob back very quickly, and I can’t help but think that it might be a conversation with Adam or Vic that makes Aaron think he ought to give Rob another chance. 

Robert will be conflicted because he will want to eviscerate Adam for hurting his baby sister. He’ll want to put Adam so deep in the ground no archaeologist could find his bones. Similarly, Adam will think that Robert needs the shit beaten out of him and then to be removed from Aaron’s life forever. But neither man can be too pissed off with the other without judging themselves as well. I think this will be especially interesting with these two characters in particular as they both react badly to feeling guilty. 

Each character has a reason to forgive the others and to not do so. Any conversation where advice is given can be switched to be about the other characters, and I think lots of these scenes will happen with an implicit ‘do as I say, not as I do’. I also think it is very interesting to be exploring these dynamics with the younger members of the village. As someone in my mid-twenties, I know that any piece of advice I offer can be immediately discarded by saying ‘well, Lizzie, how about you listen to your own advice for once.’ The reality is, very few of us younger adults have our lives together despite loud protestations that we do. 

Robert got sent down and Aaron was given a life sentence of not living with the love of his life, of having the happiness of being with Robert taken from him. He was resigned to a life of having a piece of himself missing, the part of him that felt seen and known and loved was taken away. Now he's spent years accepting it, accepting that it will never be as good, it will never feel as good, as when he was with Robert. Not only that, but Robert divorced him and left him on his own.

And then Robert has the audacity to come back? To show up and say he wants him back, say they can have it all again? When all Aaron knows is the pain of losing him?