#I think the biggest issue is the fact I'm trying to write this for Valentine's Day and it's already knocking the door...

[tuliharja]

I feel like that Picard meme when I'm trying to desperate write Star Wars Rebel's fanfic to my friend and my knowledge of Star Wars as a whole topic is based on that one series (and not even all seasons!) and some very shaky memories of the movies.

Like, I've so many questions related to the fact, how things are addressed in Star Wars.

Like, what are droid's wrench-like hands called? Are those just hands?

Do imperial troops shoot lasers? Bullets? Like whut?

Also, those white stormtroopers...does the rebels call them stormtroopers or bucket heads?

Hows do the Force work apart from the fact Jedis and Padawans can use light sabers and make things float?

Is there cussing in Star Wars? I want to Zeb have potty mouth.

What are the ships called? Like, imperial ships? Enemy ships? How I should refer to those from the rebels' point of view?

And all the other little details keep coming to my mind, even though I'm pretty sure my friend won't mind as long as I'll make enough 'kaboom' and 'boom' scenes. Or, they'll laugh their butt off for all the 'mistakes' I make or be super impressed I could actually write a Star Wars fic, despite the fact my knowledge of it is very...very...bad.

But hey. It's fiction! So, I get to make my own rules!

(Not really, because I'll dread all the 'mistakes' I might make, even though I'm sure they won't notice those.)

Haha, I forgot how fun writing fanfiction can be, but at the same time stressing.

Watch me writing A + Star Wars fanfiction, while circling around all the little details masterfully~.

[scrapyardboyfriends]

I totally agree with you about the cheating. The timing of it absolutely sucked, but if we had to have it (and we probably did at some point) I'm so glad it wasn't about Robert having feelings for someone else and all about his overwhelming love for Aaron, but how can we move on and forget about it when Robron (and us) are stuck with two permanent reminders of what happened? It's the baby part of the storyline that has never made sense to me and still doesn't. Where are they going with it?

Well I think we can move on because Robron have moved on. In theory anyway. I get that that doesn’t work for everyone. But Aaron has moved on. He’s accepted Seb into his life and he’s expressed that he’s happy. As for Rebecca, she’s not a threat to them anymore and while her scenes may still annoy us because the writing for her is still sometimes awful, she’s just sort of there. I don’t know, neither one of them bother me anymore because I just let all of it go because I didn’t personally want to be miserable anymore. I can’t tell you how to feel about it anon. That’s just what worked for me and it’s made everything a lot better. I mean, I still sometimes think too hard about where they’re going with things and Rebecca’s story/character still drives me mad but, I’m trying just to go with the flow. 

With regards to the baby part of the storyline, I obviously don’t know what was going through the minds of the storyliners when they came up with this, but I feel like they didn’t start from a standpoint of ‘how do we give robron a baby?’ and go from there. I feel like it was more that a baby as a plot device, ticked a lot of plot boxes for them and a convenient little byproduct of it was that there would in fact be a baby at the end. I don’t think they put enough forethought into the far reaching ramifications of that and reaction to that, but well, we are where we are now. 

Plot Box #1 - The baby was a permanent consequence of Robert’s actionsThe baby’s existence forced Robert to confront his mistake more than I think he usually might have. He doesn’t usually suffer such long term consequences for his actions, which is why he keeps making the same mistakes. The baby was out of his control and I think it scared the hell out of him, but it didn’t let him erase what he had done. 

Plot Box #2 - The baby was a catalyst for the break upWhen Robron got back together the first time, they had so many issues that they never dealt with, their communications issues being chief among them. I remember screaming at the screen during the Chill Era for them to just sit down and have a proper conversation. They never really did. The existence of the baby completely broke their communication down to nothing, thereby highlighting it but also highlighting their codependency and Aaron knew he needed to have a break to work on himself without having to worry about how it would effect Robert and their relationship. 

The moment Robert found out that the baby was actually going to be a permanent reality, he shut down. He couldn’t talk about it. I think in the early days, he was conflicted about it. I think he did maybe want to be a dad but it scared him but he was more terrified of what it would do to his relationship because one of the conditions to Aaron forgiving him for the ons was that the baby wasn’t going to be a part of their future. So Robert just decided he wanted nothing to do with the baby because he thought that’s what Aaron really wanted and he didn’t want to hurt Aaron or lose him. Aaron on the other hand, was trying to be supportive because he didn’t want to risk losing Robert. At the same time, I think he knew that Robert felt more than what he was letting on and that lack of honesty drove him crazy. He just didn’t know where Robert really stood on the issue so then he didn’t know where he stood with Robert but he didn’t want to voice all of this to him because he didn’t want to rock the boat so he internalized it. I think the breakdown in communication, which probably led to Aaron feeling like he had a lack of support for the other stuff he was going through (prison trauma and gordon stuff) because he didn’t want to bring that up so he wasn’t a burden, is what led to the self harm. And the self harm plus Robert’s inability to properly deal with the baby concept plus Aaron’s anger toward that with the wrench throwing, was finally Aaron’s wake up call that they needed a break. And they did need that break, both of them, to figure out how to be better, healthier people on their own before they got back together. And they did both get there in the end. Even if it took Robert a lot longer to get there than Aaron. 

Plot Box #3 - The baby was a tie to the WhitesThe biggest problem in the Hell Plot for me was always the fact that they wanted to involve Robert in the Whites’ exit. It never worked for me. They had to drag it out so long because of the pregnancy and they just had him do too many insane things (robrence for one). But those feelings aside, the baby was key to Robert scoring a place back in that family so he could try and destroy it. Without the baby, they had no reason to trust him again and so he wouldn’t have been able to fulfill his plotly duties and steer them toward their exit. (Of course I think their exit would have been way better if it had focused on Lachlan and his descent into darkness but whatever…we are where we are now)

Plot Box #4 - The baby was a catalyst for Robert changingRobert’s scheming was getting way out of control but the moment the baby was born, it gave him a reason to stop. Now, I mean, I hate this part because this was what ruined Seb (besides his name) for me for a good long while. There was just too much of an abrupt change between Robert nearly willing to sleep with Lawrence to keep up his scheming and Robert stopping his manipulation altogether to become super robot dad for a week before he lost access. That one week just did nothing for me and made me resent the little guy even more because none of it felt believable and because none of it felt believable, Robert’s insistence on getting him back felt really emotionally empty for me. That’s why the scenes of Robert struggling a bit after the crash really helped me a whole lot with Seb as a concept. The baby also was just a catalyst for Robert to become a better person, besides just a reason to stop the scheming with the Whites. They tied it into Aaron with having him tell Robert multiple times that he needed to step up for his son. That along with the Christmas coma and realizing he needed to let Aaron go were what really allowed Robert to finally become this better, healthier version of himself. 

Plot Box #5 - The baby was a catalyst for the Whites’ exitThe baby may have stopped Robert scheming to start his transition into being a better human but his arrival also kicked off the period of time where all of Robert’s schemes were discovered. Seb put Lachlan on edge even more, which led to the attic and Seb being taken by Gerry, which led to Rebecca telling the rest of her family about the fraud, which snowballed into the rest of Robert’s schemes coming out. This led to Rebecca feeling like she needed to get away with Seb and go to the other side of the world to get away from Robert, which of course led to the double kidnapping and ultimately the opportunity for Lachlan to cause the crash. Seb is very powerful. Haha

Plot Box #6 - The baby ultimately steered Robron toward their reunionAaron and Robert hadn’t spoken in like two months before Seb was born but then all of a sudden they were sharing scenes again. Aaron was talking Robert into staying to step up for his son and having little chats with him around the village even if it did still seem a little bit painful for him. Then once super robot dad week was over and Robert was on a mission to get access to his son back, Aaron was there to be a support for him. After the crash, Aaron was there again to give Robert more motivation to be there for Seb since he was all he had at the moment. Then of course we had the start of the two reunion weeks where Aaron finally holds Seb for the first time and I guess sees that he’s not so bad. This leads to the babysitting, which leads to frustrated Alex, which leads to Valentine’s Day and Aaron again being a support to Robert about Seb stuff. And then obviously Valentine’s Day reawakens all of the feelings and led them to reuniting the following week, with Aaron fully on board to take on Seb. (Sure it may not have been the transition of feelings on screen we may have all hoped for but it’s sort of there if you look hard enough and again, we are where we are now and he’s happy)

And in the end, at least for the moment, yes, Robron have a baby and if you’re not thinking about all of the sociopolitical ramifications of that, you probably think, aww well that’s nice. Haha. I don’t know. I’m not really sure what they were thinking about in terms of the end result with a baby, partly because I guess we’re not at the end of that story yet. For the moment, I think it is what it is. They have a kid and everyone seems to be embracing that what with the Dingle scenes yesterday. 

For sure, unless there’s some magical solution to this that they’re going to pull out in the end (which I doubt), I think they didn’t think hard enough about the future ramifications of this story and the reaction it would get, because from a Plot standpoint, a baby was going to work hard and do everything they needed it to do. I just don’t think they expected people to be as upset as some people are. And I don’t know what to say to those people who are still upset and bitter about the whole thing because I respect their principles and the issues they have with it, but again, for me, I just didn’t want to be angry and bitter about it anymore so I’ve tried really hard to let it go. Who knows how I’ll feel once we get whatever conclusion we’re going to get with the Lachlan/Rebecca stuff, but for now, I’m just letting myself enjoy what we’re getting.