Belle Taylor - Jessica Tovey

[Jody]

When I watch older clips of Belle it makes me miss how fiesty she used to be. I do love the way shes more grownup now but I wish the writers would bring back some of that fiesty attitude. Theres no reason she can't be mature and still be a bit like her old self. Once the PTSD storyline is over it will be the perfect time to bring it back.

[John]

When I watch older clips of Belle it makes me miss how fiesty she used to be. I do love the way shes more grownup now but I wish the writers would bring back some of that fiesty attitude. Theres no reason she can't be mature and still be a bit like her old self. Once the PTSD storyline is over it will be the perfect time to bring it back.

In fact her feistiness may be her way back.

[bailey4]

I find the writing of Belle to be very consistent. She is a very driven character with "tunnel vision" very much prone to becoming obsessed with people or issues. She doesn't tend to realise the damage these obsessions can cause to others until it is too late. In fact at the moment she isn't really aware of the damage she is doing to herself.

Couldn't agree more with you there....love her or hate her, there's no denying she's consistent, and I think she's one of the few characters that made it through the 2006/07 period without undergoing some sort of huge personality change just for the sake of a storyline.

Although her relationship with Aden ultimately seeped its way into the development storyline I think it was very much a story which established Belle as an individual, showing what she believes to be right and wrong, and the way the line blurs when one or the other is compromised - which was much needed in my opinion, it gave her something other than Aden as a focus and the danger of coupling two characters together is that they can lose all focus of other things going on around them and become too dependant on each other.

What's really keeping me hooked on Belle at the moment though is the fallout from her attack and the way in which she's coping with it (or isn't as the case may be)....not to my recollection have we seen such a drawn out post-traumatic-stress type disorder played out in the show and its nice to see it being handled with care and not resolving itself overnight (as was the case with Ric earlier in the year...) - I hope they address the fact that it surely can't just be the development storyline thats causing it, and address other areas in her life which are factors into her downward spiral.

I think you hit the nail in the coffin on this one ...everything you have said is exactly the reasons why i love Belle's character! I don't ever recall one time where her character has bored me or made me think differently of her. Her storyline with the development site and her post-traumatic stress disorder is giving the audience a chance to see another side of Belle, an almost vulnerable side, then the feistiness that we also love to see within her. I think we will get to see that one day, and hopefully soon.

Belle's post-traumatic stress disorder along with the development storyline have been some of the best storytelling that i've ever seen on home and away (for me anyway). The post-traumatic stress storyline especially has given me a whole nother perspective on the illness that no article or book would have given me, so i thank the writers for playing it out the way they have, and not resolving it in a day or week or so, like you said Foxy. Another thing also, this may sound stupid, but i also love the fact that they made her character look the part to if you get my drift. I have read a lot that Belle has been looking quite, "messy" and "not looking so nice" I think that if we got a character who was going through all this trauma and still looked all dolled up then it wouldn't of been realistic. The fact that she did look "messy" was a connotation of what she was going through at that time and it made Belle's character even more believable for me. I hope that made sense

[Red Ranger 1]

Gosh, I can't believe I've never looked in here before.It's really intense, isn't it?

Up until recently, I'd always been very fond of Belle.But the last few months I've just gone right off her. I remember her when she first came in and some people didn't seem to like her because she'd split up two popular couples(Ric and Cassie and Lucas and Mattie).And having her possibly indirectly accidentally cause Flynn to die a bit earlier probably didn't get many people onside.But I really liked her and I wished Sal had let her stay.She seemed so feisty and independent but you could tell how vulnerable she was underneath.She seemed genuinely surprised to realise Irene and Ric cared for her and she was probably more affected by some of Cassie and Mattie's comments than she'd have liked to admit so I was glad they eventually became friends.(I liked it when the boys left her and Mattie alone so they could thrash it out and they pretended to be fighting when they came back...which, of course, meant job done.)And remember when she'd been needling Ric about Cassie cheating on him and then Drew did the same to her, so she went round to his house and got drunk so they all had to cover for her?

But this last six months or so I've just started to like her less and less.The famous "scene on the rocks" with Aden was, in my opinion, one of Belle's worst moments.I've banged on a lot about Aden's behaviour during the Axel incident but it was hardly Belle's finest hour either.Aden's just put someone in hospital so she starts flirting with him?At the start of the episode she was visibly shaken but then she covered up the fact that Aden had arguably committed a serious crime.And just prior to that scene she made a rather ambiguous comment.After Tony's given Aden a lecture and he's ignored it, Belle said (and I apologise if I'm paraphrasing)"One minute you're defending Melody and I think you're all right, then you go and spoil it by acting like a loser."Now most people would assume she meant "You seemed really worried about Melody and I thought you were all right but then you just used it as an excuse to beat up Axel."But although he seemed angry on her behalf in the Den, it's hard to call that Aden "defending Melody".Worryingly, a more likely interpretation of the comment is "I liked that you beat up Axel for what he did to Melody but then you spoilt it by acting like a jerk to Tony."It quickly became obvious that, as with Drew, she was going to stand by Aden whatever he did.Whether that's strength or weakness is a matter of opinion but I know what I think.

Then there was the cheating on Angelo.Okay, Aden was the one that pressured her into sleeping with him and emotionally blackmailed her into keeping it going but at least he wanted to be straight with everyone.Belle actually seemed to be stringing them both along, telling Aden she was going to break up with Angelo and constantly coming up with excuses to keep Angelo onside.Anything Angelo did afterwards is irrelevant in my opinion because it didn't affect Belle's behaviour.The frustrating thing is that after the trial, when Belle was ignoring Angelo's calls, Irene told her to be honest with him and if she had been she'd have saved everyone a lot of heartache.But instead she slept with him in a moment of weakness and made everything a hundred times worse.

And as for the development storyline...I'm probably missing the point but I couldn't care less about the whole thing.Toxic waste had been there for years, the developers were removing it anyway, yet Belle kept acting as though it was something really urgent and instead of waiting for a thorough investigation she wanted everything done now, this very minute.It just made her seem immature and annoying. Maybe they make it clear in the episodes I haven't seen but half the time I couldn't even work out what she wanted:Was it about saving lives, exposing those responsible or just proving she was right? She seemed to spend the whole incident treating everyone really badly.She blew up at Angelo for doing his job and breaking up a violent protest, even though he'd repeatedly warned her to leave before things got nasty, and continued to treat him as the enemy after he stuck his neck out to keep her out of trouble.She wanted Aden to steal for her and help her break into the place when he was either facing trial or on a good behaviour bond and would have been in serious trouble if he'd been caught.She had a go at Rachel for doing the right thing and respecting her patient's privacy and then had the audacity to claim she wouldn't have minded Rachel handing out her details to some random girl on a crusade.The only way she could get the police to help her was by sleeping with one of them. She didn't have the sense to use Annie's soil analysis as evidence and half the time she just seemed to use it as an excuse to hang around Aden.(Why exactly did she go round to his place just so he could watch her look stuff on the computer, take him to the hospital with her and then ask Annie to lie to Angelo about it?)And all because Belle was apparently the only person who could save Summer Bay from, er, being exactly the same as it had been for at least ten years, possibly more.

As for the PTSD storyline...well, when they put Aden in the clinic I correctly predicted he'd be magically cured in two months max(turned out to be less than one).So I can't help suspecting this is one of those conditions which would be really serious in real life but in Home and Away world will be over and done with in a couple of weeks.

It's interesting that I haven't liked any of her relationships since she split up with Lucas.I liked her with Ric and I liked her with Drew the first time round but there was no way they should have got back together after he slept with Amanda.The fact they never seemed to be happy afterwards just made the fact they trampled over Lucas to be together all the more annoying.My views on her and Aden are on record in several places but let's just say I don't think they're any better.Ironically, her and Angelo had promise but she ruined it by pining for Aden the whole time.Can I put in a vote for her and Geoff?I first suggested it on a thread on which couples you'd like to see together, when she was breaking up with Drew and before Nic and Mel when he'd never had a girlfriend.And then they had their first proper scene together since he was first living there and she was embarassing him into leaving(bar him shouting at her in a corridor for arguing with Don)and I suddenly thought "My god, they've actually got chemistry!"And on the rare occasion they have a scene together, I just think how sweet they are.It could happen.

It's never going to happen, is it?

[John]

Gosh, I can't believe I've never looked in here before.It's really intense, isn't it?

Up until recently, I'd always been very fond of Belle.But the last few months I've just gone right off her. I remember her when she first came in and some people didn't seem to like her because she'd split up two popular couples(Ric and Cassie and Lucas and Mattie).And having her possibly indirectly accidentally cause Flynn to die a bit earlier probably didn't get many people onside.But I really liked her and I wished Sal had let her stay.She seemed so feisty and independent but you could tell how vulnerable she was underneath.She seemed genuinely surprised to realise Irene and Ric cared for her and she was probably more affected by some of Cassie and Mattie's comments than she'd have liked to admit so I was glad they eventually became friends.(I liked it when the boys left her and Mattie alone so they could thrash it out and they pretended to be fighting when they came back...which, of course, meant job done.)And remember when she'd been needling Ric about Cassie cheating on him and then Drew did the same to her, so she went round to his house and got drunk so they all had to cover for her?

But this last six months or so I've just started to like her less and less.The famous "scene on the rocks" with Aden was, in my opinion, one of Belle's worst moments.I've banged on a lot about Aden's behaviour during the Axel incident but it was hardly Belle's finest hour either.Aden's just put someone in hospital so she starts flirting with him?At the start of the episode she was visibly shaken but then she covered up the fact that Aden had arguably committed a serious crime.And just prior to that scene she made a rather ambiguous comment.After Tony's given Aden a lecture and he's ignored it, Belle said (and I apologise if I'm paraphrasing)"One minute you're defending Melody and I think you're all right, then you go and spoil it by acting like a loser."Now most people would assume she meant "You seemed really worried about Melody and I thought you were all right but then you just used it as an excuse to beat up Axel."But although he seemed angry on her behalf in the Den, it's hard to call that Aden "defending Melody".Worryingly, a more likely interpretation of the comment is "I liked that you beat up Axel for what he did to Melody but then you spoilt it by acting like a jerk to Tony."It quickly became obvious that, as with Drew, she was going to stand by Aden whatever he did.Whether that's strength or weakness is a matter of opinion but I know what I think.

Then there was the cheating on Angelo.Okay, Aden was the one that pressured her into sleeping with him and emotionally blackmailed her into keeping it going but at least he wanted to be straight with everyone.Belle actually seemed to be stringing them both along, telling Aden she was going to break up with Angelo and constantly coming up with excuses to keep Angelo onside.Anything Angelo did afterwards is irrelevant in my opinion because it didn't affect Belle's behaviour.The frustrating thing is that after the trial, when Belle was ignoring Angelo's calls, Irene told her to be honest with him and if she had been she'd have saved everyone a lot of heartache.But instead she slept with him in a moment of weakness and made everything a hundred times worse.

And as for the development storyline...I'm probably missing the point but I couldn't care less about the whole thing.Toxic waste had been there for years, the developers were removing it anyway, yet Belle kept acting as though it was something really urgent and instead of waiting for a thorough investigation she wanted everything done now, this very minute.It just made her seem immature and annoying. Maybe they make it clear in the episodes I haven't seen but half the time I couldn't even work out what she wanted:Was it about saving lives, exposing those responsible or just proving she was right? She seemed to spend the whole incident treating everyone really badly.She blew up at Angelo for doing his job and breaking up a violent protest, even though he'd repeatedly warned her to leave before things got nasty, and continued to treat him as the enemy after he stuck his neck out to keep her out of trouble.She wanted Aden to steal for her and help her break into the place when he was either facing trial or on a good behaviour bond and would have been in serious trouble if he'd been caught.She had a go at Rachel for doing the right thing and respecting her patient's privacy and then had the audacity to claim she wouldn't have minded Rachel handing out her details to some random girl on a crusade.The only way she could get the police to help her was by sleeping with one of them. She didn't have the sense to use Annie's soil analysis as evidence and half the time she just seemed to use it as an excuse to hang around Aden.(Why exactly did she go round to his place just so he could watch her look stuff on the computer, take him to the hospital with her and then ask Annie to lie to Angelo about it?)And all because Belle was apparently the only person who could save Summer Bay from, er, being exactly the same as it had been for at least ten years, possibly more.

As for the PTSD storyline...well, when they put Aden in the clinic I correctly predicted he'd be magically cured in two months max(turned out to be less than one).So I can't help suspecting this is one of those conditions which would be really serious in real life but in Home and Away world will be over and done with in a couple of weeks.

It's interesting that I haven't liked any of her relationships since she split up with Lucas.I liked her with Ric and I liked her with Drew the first time round but there was no way they should have got back together after he slept with Amanda.The fact they never seemed to be happy afterwards just made the fact they trampled over Lucas to be together all the more annoying.My views on her and Aden are on record in several places but let's just say I don't think they're any better.Ironically, her and Angelo had promise but she ruined it by pining for Aden the whole time.Can I put in a vote for her and Geoff?I first suggested it on a thread on which couples you'd like to see together, when she was breaking up with Drew and before Nic and Mel when he'd never had a girlfriend.And then they had their first proper scene together since he was first living there and she was embarassing him into leaving(bar him shouting at her in a corridor for arguing with Don)and I suddenly thought "My god, they've actually got chemistry!"And on the rare occasion they have a scene together, I just think how sweet they are.It could happen.

It's never going to happen, is it?

Welcome Red Ranger!! It is rather intense at times but a number of us are really enjoying this thread.

It is interesting how people can look at the same things and see them very differently. A bit like that old story about the road accident witnesses viewing from different street corners.

I see both Belle and Aden as having similar personalities. Both try to mask a basic vulnerability with a feisty and agressive approach to life. They both suffer from a lack of self worth. That's what propels their feistiness as a cover up.

In the relationship between them we have two damaged, vulnerable people trying to lean on each other for support. It is compelling drama because of the constant potential for disastrous consequences both to them and those around them. Neither of them is really strong enough to be supporting the other. None of us always make decisions on who we love on the basis of who would be best for us.

I see the compelling drama in the "failing" relationship. It may just annoy others.

I see Belle's obsession with the toxic waste as a quest for self worth in her own mind by doing something which she sees as making her valuable in the community. Both she and the community would gain.

I can't agree with your view of the importance of the toxic waste. Just because a disastrous situation has gone on for a long time isn't a reason in my mind to do nothing about it. The longer the problem exists the greater the impact and the more compelling the need for a solution. (Where I live we have a very similar issue with asbestosis where people are dieing after 30 years.The power industry knew about it but didn't do anything. )

I agree that Belle's obsession with the cause has become unhealthy and self destructive even though the cause is good. This obsession and it's consequences are at the heart of the compelling drama for me. Her relationship with Aden will only be a component in the story sometimes for good and sometimes not. With all the best will in the world they simply may not be able to support one another adequately.

We'll have to wait and see how all this plays out.

One point of agreement I do have with you is the idea of a relationship between Belle and Geoff. But then I really liked her with Lucas.

[Slade]

Ok Mr Red Ranger again you have made some very interesting and telling points. Some of them highlight the reasons why she has fallen out of favour for some of the people who liked her previously and why I personally don’t understand why she is so popular at the moment.

I’m going to play Devil’s advocate.

But this last six months or so I've just started to like her less and less.The famous "scene on the rocks" with Aden was, in my opinion, one of Belle's worst moments.I've banged on a lot about Aden's behaviour during the Axel incident but it was hardly Belle's finest hour either.Aden's just put someone in hospital so she starts flirting with him?At the start of the episode she was visibly shaken but then she covered up the fact that Aden had arguably committed a serious crime.

Anyway I get the impression from this that your dislike of her started from their final scene at the Rockpool, mainly because of you know who. Indeed I remember you stating on another thread how disappointed with her you were and any character associated with him gets the life sucked out of them.

Now I actually think this is unfair because as you’ve already stated Tony already knew and Geoff even admitted to him earlier on in the episode that he was a witness. He actually could have stepped in and stopped him. Had he done so then perhaps Axel might not have needed to go to hospital. Yes I know he sought him out in the Den and he was angry about what he did to Melody but he had enough presence of mind to admit to Tony afterwards that it was wrong for him to just sit back and observe from the sidelines. Moreover he is supposed to be a devout Christian. Very Christian behaviour, don’t you think? Also based on what you said do you not think that both of them had a duty to go to the police (as they both tried to convince Melody to do the same thing regarding the incident with Axel in the same episode)? Failing that perhaps they should have at least alerted Roman to the fact. Furthermore earlier on in the episode, Nicole overheard Aden admit to Belle that he beat Axel up and she used his trust (of her keeping quiet) as an excuse to arrange a date with him. So you could argue in her own way she was just as bad.

Finally Belle was the one who found Axel and practically dragged him to the hospital by herself (although I’d assume it must be pretty close because Jai took Annie there a while back). So she can’t be all bad.

[John]

This is probably off topic but I obviously missed the events surrounding Axel's death while away caravanning. ( I don't know where else to ask )

Could someone correct me if I'm wrong and fill in any gaps.

- Axel drunkenly "attacked" Melody

- Aden beat up on Axel. ( I assumed that, it wasn't confirmed before I left)

- Jai and Axel stole Mattie's scooter and Axel was killed in an accident. ( This is where I'm short on detail )

- Melody blamed herself because she "prayed God's wrath" on Axel

I've always assumed that Axel's death and the events surrounding it were more important to the Melody storyline than to the Aden/Belle one.

[Jody]

None of us make decisions on who we love on the basis of who would be best for us.

I totally agree with this.

It's also been said that one of the reasons they shouldn't be in relationship is because they make bad decisions(not even having to do with their relationship, but about other stuff) when together. I think if that was the case then there should be no relationships at all in Summerbay.

This is probably off topic but I obviously missed the events surrounding Axel's death while away caravanning. ( I don't know where else to ask )

Could someone correct me if I'm wrong and fill in any gaps.

- Axel drunkenly "attacked" Melody

- Aden beat up on Axel. ( I assumed that, it wasn't confirmed before I left)

- Jai and Axel stole Mattie's scooter and Axel was killed in an accident. ( This is where I'm short on detail )

- Melody blamed herself because she "prayed God's wrath" on Axel

I've always assumed that Axel's death and the events surrounding it were more important to the Melody storyline than to the Aden/Belle one.

Yeah, you got it all right. Axel's death only played a part in Aden's storyline later on. It's what caused Larry to go on the run. And later on caused even more tension in that Larry/Aden scene just before the kidnapping. It was more to do with Larry and Aden's relationship than Aden and Belle's.

The one problem I do have with the Aden and Belle relationship is that, more often then not, Belle has become known only as Aden's girlfriend. Another reason I love the developement storyline is because we got see her be passionate about something that wasn't her relationship. Both Aden and Belle, as well as being great as a couple, are amazing characters seperately. I want the writers to remember that and not make them into Jack (just the best example I could think of to prove my point)who only exists because hes apart of a popular pairing yet is brings nothing when alone.

[bailey4]

Both Aden and Belle, as well as being great as a couple, are amazing characters seperately. I want the writers to remember that and not make them into Jack (just the best example I could think of to prove my point)who only exists because hes apart of a popular pairing yet is brings nothing when alone.

Very, very good point Jody

[cicerid]

Then there was the cheating on Angelo.Okay, Aden was the one that pressured her into sleeping with him and emotionally blackmailed her into keeping it going

Maybe I missed some episode/scene but how/when did Aden emotionally blackmail Belle into keeping their ralationship going alongiside her relationship with Angelo?