#soap stuff

The real truth is no ONE character is a soap. Soaps are successfully made up of a myriad of characters that each have a specific role within the narrative of a story. 

The plain fact is that the reason we as an audience feel a Robert shaped hole in the soap, is that the role that he played isn’t being filled in by any other character. 

Robert is an iconic character with a rich past who became part of an iconic, staple couple of the show. Aside from that, though, he was the bad boy we loved and rooted for even when he was terrible. He was an instigator and his actions always, always propelled the story forward. That was his role. He made things happened, he forwarded the plot, and he both was the center and supported others. 

They badly need to fill in that role quick. 

This happened on Days a few years back when Alison Sweeney chose to leave the show after 20 years as Sami Brady. That role had not been filled for a long time and you could feel it. Thankfully, they’ve FINALLY chosen to have that specific character role filled in by Gabi and it made such a difference on the show, imo. 

The most logical character to do that with on Emmerdale, imo, is Charity. She is very much like Robert in so many ways but especially in the fact that she has ALWAYS made things happen. Now, I think they need to separate her from Vanessa (which could be a good beat to their story to make people care and root for them as a couple again)