Aden/Justin

[Lise]

I thought I'd make a thread for these two.

I'm loving the dynamic going on between the two of them. I can't wait to see where this is all going to end up. I just hope it doesn't end badly for Aden.

[Jen]

The thing with Justin and Aden is that what they are doing is so worng/horrible/stupid but I just can't seem to look away. It's like a car wreck, it's so messed up but I just find it so compelling to watch. I have seen comments where people are saying that bringing Justin in has wrecked Aden because he has turned into this person that is unrecognisable. He appeared to be dealing with what happened with his Dad and also Belle, and finally starting to move forward, and now he's gone completely backwards. What I think, is that he hasn't dealt with it. He never did. The last time he saw his father he couldn't say that he loved him, and I don't think he ever forgave him for what he allowed to happened, and he's only been treading water with Nicole. Not making plans, not working out a future. Nothing.

Justin is the only family he really has at the moment. A whether Aden wanted to be involved or not, he is. As soon as Justin came into town and I identified himself as his brother, Aden became involved. I think the whole point of this storyline is really the lengths we would go to for family. Would we kill? Cover up for our own brother? We don't really know what we are capable of until we are put in that position. Aden, we have seen in the past, does become violent. He does consider extreme measures in order to deal with things, like kidnappings and hostages. Yes, he was supposed to get councelling for that, and maybe he dealt with some of it, but that tendency will always be a part of him. It's not something you can get rid of that easily.

Aden isn't a criminal, and neither is Justin. And I think that is what I enjoy and I find the most interesting about this whole thing. It's that, neither of them are bad people, but they are in this inescapable position, where they have dug such a deep hole of lies and cover ups that there doesn't seem to be a way out. Justin wants to confess to protect Aden and give him a future, whereas Aden considers his life a write-off anyway, whereas Justin should be able to get on with his life. They just, uh! Are the best brothers, okay? I could watch them forever. I've never really watched Supernatural, but I'm getting a bit of a Sam and Dean Winchester vibe from them. Driving around in a truck in the middle of the night. Someone could write a fanfic about that. Anyone?

Anyways, I really don't want this to end, because at this stage it doesn't look good for either of them. Can Aden be redeemed at this late stage? I don't know, I really don't. But I don't want Aden and Justin to be separated again.

[Red Ranger 1]

I was going to wait until the storyline was over before commenting but here goes.Basically comes down to like the relationship, hate the storyline.Aden and Justin are exactly like two brothers who've been separated would be like.There's a slight tension, an acknowledgement that they weren't there for each other when they should have been, but behind it all a strong bond, a desire to leave everything that's happened between them in the past and rebuild their relationship.

But at the end of the day...Aden and Justin are criminals.Whether the show's willing to show the consequences, whether the police will bother to do anything about it, they've committed a serious crime.It would be simplistic to say that Aden is a bad person but he is a person who does bad things.Justin's desire to turn himself in doesn't seem to be motivated so much by a desire to protect Aden as by a knowledge that it's the right thing to do, that he knows he's done something wrong and that the guilt is eating up at him.Aden, on the other hand, doesn't seem to feel any guilt, just a fear of being caught or of his brother being caught, which underlines one of his most unpleasant and indeed dangerous characteristics:The fact that he can justify any action, however morally reprehensible, and convince himself that he's doing what needs to be done and those who suffer as a result have brought it on themselves.

I agree that Aden never really dealt with his issues with his father.It's astonishing that people seemed to attach so much importance to their last conversation, it achieved nothing, it resolved nothing.(Apart from being a plot device so he could spend time with Belle and cry on her shoulder but that's another matter...)You have to worry too about the efficiency of a counsellor who thinks Aden is "safe" because he accepts his father doesn't deserve to die, which one would think would be the bare minimum rather than a massive breakthrough.(In fact, I think his counsellor practically told him his father didn't deserve his forgiveness.)Even though his response is the exact opposite, his attitude towards the death of his father is very similar to his reaction to the death of Axel: Someone he was once close to has died and it hasn't affected him at all, he's only bothered about the circumstances surrounding it.What this storyline seems to suggest is that deep down, for all the support he received and all the second chances he was given, Aden is still the same person who covered up his other brother beating Ric half to death when we first met him.

My biggest fear is that this is going to end with Aden and Justin walking off into the sunset, all smiles and laughs, everyone patting them on the back and wishing them well, no remorse, no consequences, no compassion for the father they treated as an inconvenience to be buried in the ground and forgotten about.And it has to be said that I think there's a rather flawed logic in Justin's belief that Aden staying with Nicole and supporting her is him wasting his life and following Justin into the army and living his life is doing something for himself.

[Jen]

I was going to wait until the storyline was over before commenting but here goes.Basically comes down to like the relationship, hate the storyline.Aden and Justin are exactly like two brothers who've been separated would be like.There's a slight tension, an acknowledgement that they weren't there for each other when they should have been, but behind it all a strong bond, a desire to leave everything that's happened between them in the past and rebuild their relationship.

I think both Todd and Matt Walker have this amazing chemistry as brothers. From the very first scene I adored how they had this awkwardness mixed with easy banter, but also this kind of this tension between them from being apart for so long, and Justin knowing what happened to Aden by his father and gradfather. There are so many ways this wouldn't have worked, and could have gone wrong but really, the casting is perfect and I think that's why I'm so invested now. I'm really screwed.

But at the end of the day...Aden and Justin are criminals.Whether the show's willing to show the consequences, whether the police will bother to do anything about it, they've committed a serious crime.It would be simplistic to say that Aden is a bad person but he is a person who does bad things.Justin's desire to turn himself in doesn't seem to be motivated so much by a desire to protect Aden as by a knowledge that it's the right thing to do, that he knows he's done something wrong and that the guilt is eating up at him.Aden, on the other hand, doesn't seem to feel any guilt, just a fear of being caught or of his brother being caught, which underlines one of his most unpleasant and indeed dangerous characteristics:The fact that he can justify any action, however morally reprehensible, and convince himself that he's doing what needs to be done and those who suffer as a result have brought it on themselves.

I think that's what makes it so compelling and interesting to watch. We want to believe that Justin and Aden were correctly motivated to do what they did. But at the end of the day it can't be let go, and I think it would be more of an injustice to the characters if they, as you put it, "walking off into the sunset, all smiles and laughs, everyone patting them on the back and wishing them well, no remorse, no consequences, no compassion for the father they treated as an inconvenience to be buried in the ground and forgotten about." I completely agree, there should be punishment, and it will be hard to watch because Aden is a popular character and we want to believe that he will get a 'happy ending' of sorts, but it wouldn't be right.

[jodlebirger]

Jen you are right, it is not right to let aden and Justin go free from the crimes they have done (bury their own father and so on..). But it was not right to do this storyline at all either! Because just no matter what happens it is so wrong. It will be wrong to let Aden go to jail because of his history - all the progress he did. Yes he might not have forgiven his father, who actually experienced exactly the same abuse as a kid, but there was more to this situation than the abuse, it was the neglect, the manipulation and all (eps 4665-4698)... And in real life a lot of people would not have been able to have a relationship with a relative when they have a history like that... No matter how they actually deep down inside do love them... sometimes the only way to move forward, is to forget about the past and not looking back.

But I think that in this case it would have been better to focus on the last bit that was missing, and that was Aden to talk properly to his father and also to do something out of his life. And bringing in justin could have been a good way to bring up his father again. And even if the actor was busy with other things, and was just able to do a few scenes they could have let him die of liver falure (because of his drinking).. and then just have a little talk to Aden or just Aden regretting that he didn't got to talk to his father before he died.

But this storyline like they have done it, is just cold. A lot of scenes of two brothers carrying around with their fathers dead body - it is so terrible wrong!!!! What about Larry, he was never painted as a totally mean person in the first place, but as someone who couldn't even help himself! And it totally destroyes adens whole time/storyline on the show. And if the brothers go free, as I think they will it is totally morally wrong. And if they had thrown aden to jail it would have been wrong to, because it would have been just an another case of proving that people with a bad past can't change (as HAA actually has said a lot of times, far too many!!!)

And I also think it is strange that this storyline don't get some negative comments/critics in Australia. The lesbian storyline which was in my opinion, not as controversial as this, caused a lot of fuss. But there are a lot of cultural differencies here I think... It would have caused a lot of discussions in my country if it was airing at 7 p.m. and was a norwegian production...But in two years time when this airs here, I don't think it will cause any problems because HAA is just a tv series which is an early afternoon filler, and doesn't rate very high (it just have a small fanbase here).

Edited April 26, 2010 by jodlebirger

[Red Ranger 1]

So, now that the storyline's over let's run over the checklist, shall we?No consequences:Check. Obviously.Yet again, no-one can be bothered to punish Aden's wrongdoing.No remorse:Check, pretty much.We got a couple of moments where Aden or Justin seems to acknowledge they did the wrong thing but they don't seem pretty sorry about it.Aden cried a bit when he heard Larry's message but that seemed to be more about bad memories than anything else and Justin's tears when they got home just seemed to be sheer relief that he didn't kill him.No compassion:Check. Neither of them really mentions Larry or his message again.He might as well not have bothered and just called an ambulance instead, after all Aden didn't listen to him last time.They didn't even bother having a funeral for him, just left town three days later.All smiles and laughs:Um, no, they seemed pretty miserable actually.Everyone patting them on the back and wishing them good luck:No again, no-one actually noticed they'd gone.

What could they have done instead?Well, some fans seemed to have wanted a big reconciliation with Aden forgiving Larry and moving on.I can see the appeal of it but, let's face it, real life is rarely that neat and tidy.It was probably too late to resurrect this storyline anyway.Maybe it did need resolution but we didn't actually get any, just an end on the basis that now Aden's definitely not going to see his father again.

So, what else?Well, they could have had the police and indeed the hospital actually do their job properly and find Larry's body before Aden and Justin did.Then we could have skipped the whole game of "hide the body" and instead the focus would have been on whether or not Justin killed his father and his inability to remember.Aden's role would have been supporting Justin and believing in him and trying to prove his innocence, instead of organising an illegal cover-up.If we had had that, Justin's gratitude would have been a lot more appropriate, whereas in the storyline as broadcast he praises Aden for dragging him into a crime that would have landed them both in jail if Morag hadn't waved her magic wand and made the charges go away.

Or, if they really insisted on having Aden and Justin break the law and still weren't prepared to send them to prison, an interesting twist would have been that they escaped any severe sentence but Justin was thrown out of the army for his actions.Then Aden would have been forced to face up to the fact that his actions had wrecked his brother's life and he would have actually had a reason for leaving with him, to help him rebuild his life and make up for what he'd done.

What did we get instead?Oh yes, Justin effectively breaking up Aden and Nicole's relationship because he thought she wasn't good enough for him and then giving him a convenient bolt hole to run away from his problems.That's some brother.

[jodlebirger]

Well, Larry could have died of an illness, and Aden and Justin could have talked about him, and Aden could have admitted that he still cared about his father, but hadn't been in contact with him because he was afraid that he could start to hate him again or go down on a self-distructive path again, it was better for him to just look forward and don't look back - the only option to survive and have a good life. This happens a lot in real life.

I think the storyline was rushed after the death of Larry mystery was resolved. It would have been better not to drag that mystery and concentrate on the aftermath. As you said RR1 we never saw a funeral or heard them talking about their father after they got off the hook. And that made the storyline even more cold and horrible. But Justin did mention Summerbay as the town were Aden buried his own father, to Nicole. And he was probably not reffering to the incident in the woods... I would have liked a big conversation about their father and their childhood before they left, and much more than you weren't there for me, and dad was just a scum, I thought that I killed him - my own father...

And for the character of Justin, I liked him especially in the beginning but he was very inconsistently written just as the whole storyline. He was the one who first called his father scum, when Aden said he deserved a chance. And suddenly it was the opposite.

Aden did need some structure and dicipline in his life... So in many ways joining the army did make sense to me.. Just didn't like the way it was done. Didn't like that Aden and Nicoles friendship was thrown away like that. And if it was real, Aden would have found out about Justins meddling and conversations with Nicole, and situation would have been worse than it was in the first place.

But when they first did this horrible storyline (bury their own father was just disgusting - don't know other english word to describe it), I liked your idea RR1, that justin could have been thrown out of the army and Aden had to make up for what he had done....

But Aden is not the only character who has done a lot of wrong things and not getting punished for them... (angelo, Tony, Charlie, Jack etc...) and I wish that the writers and producers didn't mess with morality like this... (Ups, bad English - really late )

Edited May 15, 2010 by jodlebirger