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“john’s just somebody that came into your life when i wasn’t there, and if i had been, he’d have meant nothing to you”

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i'm not sure what i'm trying to articulate here but i think a lot of people would have way more fun if they saw fandom less as this singular entity with hive mind and always correct opinions and right takes and more like. playing dolls with your friends. because sometimes your friends will have opinions you don't agree with and neither of you will be in the wrong. you don't have to feel bad for not liking something they do and vice versa.

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ok bear with me i’m ill and inarticulate but. i really like that aaron is admitting his doubts about john as something that feels separate to robert and his feelings for robert. like aaron explicitly states he doesn’t want to be with robert - and right now i really don’t think he wants to be and that makes sense - but his whole, i’m not sure i’m doing the right thing being with john at all was so good because the cracks are there and have been there. even before robert came back john was the wrong fit. and aaron being able to admit to that and say himself that he’s not sure about the move and he’s not sure about john is so good because all those doubts we’ve been sure aaron has are coming to the surface, and it’s not all about robert: it’s about what aaron wants and needs out of a relationship and his uncertainty about being with a man who wants to take him away from his family and the support system he relies on, and aaron not being sure he wants that. robert coming back could make it a very black and white choice between john and robert but I’m really happy that we’re getting a situation where aaron doesn’t want to be with robert right now - regardless of how much he loves him - for a laundry list of reasons but he’s also not sure he wants to be with john. and so when he does chose robert there’s no doubts or being second best here, because aaron knows john was the wrong choice and he saw it for himself before everything came out about the murdering etc. 10/10 emmerdale im happy with you

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Emmerdale | 03.09.25

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Vic's reaction to Robert saying they slept together just being 🙄 really 🙄 is fucking hilarious but I love her assuming it'd just happened before Robert stormed back in, it somehow makes it funnier. Like did you just get railed by your brothers husband? Is that why you almost took my front door off its hinges?

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Robert needs to learn his own worth - and that's not done by getting into a relationship with some random guest star. And another man/woman should never again be the reason for Aaron changing his mind about Robert and wanting him back.

What Robert needs is friendships, people to look out for him and help build him back up. He needs a community that doesn't see him as less than. He needs to succeed at something. He needs professional help. He needs people to forgive him, not just for going to prison and divorcing Aaron, but for his whole past. And finally, he needs to let go of the words his father said. God I hope he gets all of it.

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Just go, Robert.

Emmerdale, 3 September 2025

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robert being pushy and obsessive about aaron is nothing new at all but it’s made even worse by the fact that aaron did sleep with him. like that’s very important. aaron slept with robert while he was in the middle of a nervous breakdown. u can’t even say robert’s possessiveness is misplaced here. aaron gave an alcoholic a bottle of whiskey then told him to go to rehab

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If I look past the fact that the majority of today’s scenes felt like retreading the same ground for absolutely no reason, what I did really enjoy was Robert reminding us just how well he knows Aaron.

He understands it isn’t as simple as choosing John over him, that Aaron does and always will love him but he’s stubborn and afraid. I think it’s really important that Robert also recognises what most of us have understood all along. I just wish he’d stop pushing so damn hard because Aaron isn’t ready to give him what he wants yet. At least not fully.

Also I could have wept for joy at that voicemail from Aaron. Finally we’re getting to see things from his perspective a little more, rather than having to fill in the gaps ourselves largely based on Danny’s performances.

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my heart was racing until the “kiss” and then I was back to hating the world again.

haven’t been as sad about a wrong spoiler since the 2016 hand holding in court which never happened

anyway I hated how plotty the scene was and how it totally undermined their gorgeous goodbye scene. but it is what it is I guess? I’m sure other people will feel differently but I wish the writing for Aaron was more consistent.

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Emmerdale | 02.09.25

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Do you think Robert loves Aaron more than Aaron loves him? I'm not asking that to stir up any trouble so feel free to ignore this ask if you want to. I'm just really starting to struggle with how they are writing Aaron and I always find your responses very well structured and eloquent and I know you always give balanced insightful answers so I just wondered what your thoughts are?

Short answer: No.

Long answer:

I think we have to view this as like...a 6 year long story. Sure we're getting sad mopey insanely in love pining Robert right now, whose only reason to exist is Aaron and with how Aaron's been lately, it may seem imbalanced.

But we have to remember that six years ago when Robert turned himself in, when he got sentenced to 14 years, when he cut Aaron off, when he divorced him...

We got Aaron trying to hurl himself into oncoming traffic to get to him. We got Aaron trying to stage a one man prison break. We got sad, mopey, depressed Aaron sleeping on the sofa and curling toward's Robert's side of the bed because he couldn't physically sleep in their bed with out him. We got him not being able to sleep. We got him stalking Wendy and taking a golf club to her house to smash it up specifically saying "this is for Robert". We really got like 2 and a half months of him just fully self destructing. We got him freaking out at Vic's letter and asking first and foremost if Robert was okay, if anyone had hurt him. We got him crying in Robert's car. We got him unable to go and see Vic and Harry because he and Robert wanted a baby so badly and that was supposed to be them. We got that conversation in the woods with Cain. "All I wanted was him and I get nothing." We got him talking about how Robert was his whole life, his future and how lost he was with that just being ripped away.

And yes, after all of that, they did have him move on. They had to. Ryan wasn't coming back. But still, they kept that love alive.

We saw it every time they let him talk about Robert, how emotional he got. We saw it every time they had him defend Robert, to Ben, to John. We saw it when he couldn't help with Robert's appeal when it first got brought up because it was clear he didn't want to get his hopes up and that he was burying his feelings with anger. We saw it when Ben literally died and Aaron was leaving town and said "this place hasn't been the same since Robert went to prison". We saw it when he said "maybe I like the memories" about the Mill. We saw it every time he couldn't talk about Robert when he returned in 2023 because his whole thing at the time was trying not to care about anything and anyone for fear of losing more. We saw it when Ross came back and Seb was brought up and he told Vic that Robert and Seb and their little family was everything.

And then Robert returned and we saw that love on the bridge when he started to let some of that pent up anger out and said insane things like "So did I! We were both living it" about Robert's life sentence. We saw it when he kissed him. We saw it when he had him sent back to prison because he knew he couldn't stop himself from going to find him otherwise. We saw it in his face during that prison visiting scene when Robert was talking about wanting to be "them" again and have it all back. We saw it when he said "and you, how are you?". We saw it when he said "people still care about you." We saw it when he said "I've missed you" and gave into it all and slept with him. we saw it in that "In a different life" comment and in "see you later Mr Sugden".

It's been there all along. It's just that right now it's locked up behind tall walls that he built up around his heart for the past six years, brick by brick. And Robert keeps threatening to topple it all down with the intensity of his love for Aaron now that he's back.

And, I don't think they've shown Aaron's side of all of this super well in terms of John, as we've discussed. It's obviously very frustrating. But that's why I liked that they had Mack spell it out. Aaron is running away because he loves Robert. Everyone knows they're inevitable. Even Aaron. That's why he's pushing him away so hard and using John as a human shield.

Now, again, they could definitely show him wavering on John more. They should show that and they really haven't. I think that's been a mistake. Even though I sort of get why they're doing it. Aaron's very good at doubling down and hurting himself to avoid other things that he thinks will hurt him more. And that's clearly about to backfire massively on him by next week when he's getting pulled over a cliff by said human shield.

And I have to believe, I have to hope...I need them to allow Aaron to express all of the above in actual words to Robert. I'm banking on it, because otherwise, I don't know how this is all going to work. And I'm hoping that because Danny referenced Aaron's anger that he hasn't worked through about the divorce that all of that is still to come. They're clearly aware of it all from how things started on the bridge and the prison visit and even Robert bringing it up in their pub goodbye scene. So I have to believe that they'll get back to it.

Do I think we'll get everything we want out of this going forward? Almost certainly not. Haha. But I hope hope hope we get enough that it works.

But certainly, I think that Aaron loves Robert just as much as Robert loves Aaron, he's just trying really hard to push that down right now because he's scared of it.

He's said it before. "I love you so much I don't know what to do with it sometimes" and "I meant I was scared how much I love you and knowing that I might have lost you for good".

We just need him to be able to verbalize that again but encompassing all six years worth of pain and loss and love.

We know Robron is the endgame, we know they're aware of all of this. We know they've always taken extra care with the Robron of it all. I want to have hope that they'll give us enough to make this all work.

So back to my short answer: No, I don't think Robert loves Aaron more than Aaron loves Robert.

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The only solace I can find after being forced to watch Aaron and John be intimate again is that it’s probably the last time we’ll ever have to see that.

One incredibly beige “love” scene for the road.

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All the teasers for week of September 15.

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From DigitalSpy.

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EMMERDALE 02.09.2025