Aden Jefferies - Todd Lasance

[Adellefan_2008]

There is something so addictive and attractive about a brooding, reformed bad-boy with a troubled past. Todd portrays Aden amazingly and the abuse story-line was heart-wrenching and beautiful. And it dosen't hurt that he is amazingly H.O.T.T either

I'd let him climb through my window any day.... :wub:

[Symphony]

Todd Lasance is an amazing actor; truly, I do think his character is one of the most complicated to bring off on the show; think about it -

- starts off a bad boy / bully, which perhaps most actors could do.

- then goes into the whole 'underdog' scene where you see he WANTS to open up / be helped, but is too used to being a bully

- then as his life unfolds we start feeling so sorry for him, as we see Larry is an alcoholic but still have no idea just how bad things were

- and so on, and so forth.

Truly, Todd has brought Aden to life; and deserves many congrats & huge appreciation for all the interest he has caused in home & away.

It's because of Adelle that Itoo, made my way back here!

[Red Ranger 1]

Oh boy.As ever, feel like I'm walking into the lion's den here...I'll try and be balanced.Firstly, Todd Lasance is a fine if not brilliant actor.That's probably part of the trouble.When presented with a scene where Aden reacts in an unlikeable fashion, he goes for it full throttle and makes me not like him.

I'm tempted to gloss over his 2005 appearance because I have a hard time remembering it's meant to be the same character.I did actually like him at first and I actually thought Cassie was a bit harsh on him, stomping out of his hospital room, saying he wasn't the person she thought he was and never seeing him again, even though what he did was wrong.

Then they brought him back last year and he was a bully, whatever retrospective reason they might have given for his actions.I absolutely hated him then and was annoyed by the way he kept hanging around, making everyone miserable for his own amusement and not really getting any real punishment.Not for the last time, he deserved to get in real trouble for wrecking the Campbells' farm but his mates lied for him and nothing happened.Even when he was in the car crash I didn't feel sorry for him, it was his own fault for smoking drugs and distracting Cassie.

Then they made him a regular and it was obvious he couldn't carry on the way he had.We began to look at his home life and see he didn't have a very good relationship with his father.We saw him trying to help Annie, showing that he didn't wish her any real harm.And Roman and Morag started to spend time with him and show him that there was a better way of treating people and that he could be a decent person if people treated him right.We found out about his abuse and realised much of his behaviour came from denying what happened to him.When he and Larry admitted what had happened, they both began to become better people and form a proper relationship.

I actually quite liked Aden during this period.He still had that bad boy vibe so he was recognisably the same character but he wasn't doing anything too malicious that made me dislike him.He was beginning to form bonds with people like Roman but, crucially, characters didn't suddenly start liking him for no reason and there was still tension with Irene and Geoff.And I really liked the relationship with him and Nicole and wish they'd stuck with it.I'm not trying to compare their situations but they were both basically screwed-up people, raised by parents who weren't up to the job, who tended to compensate for their insecurities by winding up other people when really they just wanted acceptance.It would have been nice to see them supporting each other instead of hooking up with someone who'd be a stabilising influence.

But then it all started to go wrong and the writers seemed to be doing everything they could to make me hate him.First there was the incident with Axel.Some people might think Axel deserved it and there were ways it could have been done that would have made Aden sympathetic.But instead he brutalised him and never once showed remorse about it.According to Belle, the doctors said it was a miracle he wasn't badly hurt.In short, Aden could easily have killed him, if he'd had internal injuries and hadn't been found in time.It reminded me of Dani telling Kane that there was no difference between what he did to her and his brothers beating him.Was Axel screaming and begging for Aden to stop while he ignored him?It just makes him no better than Axel.Except that Axel went to the police and owned up to what he did, while Aden just stood around with that smug self-satisfied look while Tony tried to explain to him that he'd done the wrong thing.It just made me hate him.And I was very disappointed with Belle's reaction:She was clearly shaken by Axel's condition and disgusted by Aden but by the end of the episode it was forgotten about.From that point on, it was literally never mentioned again, aside from Axel sporting a few bruises, until Aden was in the clinic and he told Melody's father "I was the one that put Axel in hospital for what he did to her", as though it was something to be proud of and showed he was suitable company for a vulnerable fifteen-year-old, which just shows how out of touch with the rest of the human race he is.

Then there was Belle...I'm sorry, I know I'm in the minority, but I just hated that relationship.It just didn't make sense.I couldn't see what Aden was doing to make her find him attractive other than looking good with his shirt off:He was just acting smug and arrogant, breaking into her room and kissing her, forcing his way into her bed drunk...He treated her just as badly as everyone else, then he suddenly seemed to fixate on her as this perfect girlfriend who was going to solve all his problems.The whole thing seemed to border on the abusive.

And then there was his attitude towards Larry, which seemed to veer between too trusting and too callous.When Kane put Larry in hospital, Aden didn't really seem to have any sympathy for him;I got the impression he'd have preferred to keep his set-up with Roman and only went back to Larry because it would look bad if he didn't.Then, when he found out Larry was drinking, even though he'd known he had been before he moved in, he used it as an excuse to abandon him instead of trying to get him help.Then, when Larry did sober up, he went to the hospital and told him he'd be back on the drink at the first setback...and then gave him a setback that put him back on the drink, thus indirectly causing Axel's death.Then, after doing nothing to stop Larry running away and spending the next few weeks alternately worrying about him and saying he was a useless drunk he was glad to be rid of like some sort of schizophrenic, he found him at the house and learned he'd been abused as well.And in typical self-centred Aden fashion, instead of thinking what it must have been like for Larry, he was only bothered about what that meant for him.From then on, he treated Larry the same way as he treated Axel, as a substitute for his grandfather, a legitimate target for him to take revenge on.He denied him medical attention.When Rachel turned up, he took her prisoner to stop her from helping him, even though she'd been kind to him.When Belle turned up, he gave her the same treatment.And he seemed quite prepared to finish his father off himself.It just shows why you don't want to be friends with Aden because he'll turn on you if it suits him.His actions were indefensible and there should have been no way back for him after that.If he was responsible for his actions, he should have gone to jail, if he wasn't, he should have been sectioned.Instead we got a pat "He was crazy for a bit but he's all right now", where he spent a ridiculously short amount of time in a psychiatric unit, two thirds of which he spent blaming everyone else for what happened, then made a token court appearance where they bent over backwards to let him off.Community service for attempted murder?That restores my faith in the justice system.

I genuinely believed Aden's a sociopath, with very little empathy for others.You could argue that it isn't his fault.You could argue that it makes him interesting, although he's not the sort of character I'd want hanging around the show.It's got to the stage where, for me, the more enjoyable episodes are the ones he isn't in and any character that associates with him seems to get all the life sucked out of them.

[Slade]

I was wondering how long it would take you to post on this thread Red Ranger.

I’ll start by disagreeing that the more enjoyable episodes are the ones he isn’t in because I actually think Aden’s a good character and believe he’s been the focal point for lot of controversy and drama. That aside is difficult to argue with some of your points as I feel they are perfectly valid.

The whole thing with Axel quite annoyed me to be honest. After Belle got back from the hospital and she was sitting on the sofa with Annie, she actually seemed quite mortified. Her words were “it was horrible”, obviously referring to him just lying there. Then as you said at the end of the episode when she was taking photos (near the rockpool I think), he went up to her and said “I’m not a loser”, “then stop acting like it” was her response and that was it. The warning signs should have been there from then. It’s not so much what he did what bothers me but the total lack of remorse. And when he when he saw Melody’s dad in the phyc ward he went up to her and said “I wouldn’t hurt Melody I’m the one who put Axel in hospital”. He was actually bragging about it. Can you believe it? I agree that Axel definitely deserved to be punished for what he did to Melody but the police should have been called into it. He had no right to take the law into his own hands.

Lets move onto Larry. Larry obviously wasn’t a good Dad. But after he told Aden that he was abused as well, he actually should have empathised with him, as he should have realised the reason why he was such a failure as a person was because he was abused as well. But no he wanted to kill him. He actually wanted his own dad dead. And if Belle or Rachel hadn’t been there he probably would have killed him. Then when he was being assessed in the ward initially I didn’t like his attitude as well. He came across as though he was extremely cocky and quite up himself to be honest. He was acting as though the Psychologist had no right to question him because he was better than everyone else in that place. I don’t think he realised how lucky he was because if Larry hadn’t begged Rachel to have pity on him he would of wound up behind bars for sure (and things could have turned out very differently). Again extremely bothered at the complete lack of remorse shown - Totally unrepentant. Another thing was how he criticised his father for leaving Axel to die and I remember the remark “What about Axel and his family?”. Hmmm. Very hypocritical if you ask me.

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt with Belle and Rachel because I was pretty sure that at no point was he ever planning on harming either of them. But still even though I don’t like Rachel she did go out of her way to help him.

I’m only at UK pace at the moment but suspected he was going to get off (as he’s too popular a character to write out the show at this present time). But if as you said he got a community service order then that in my opinion is not realistic. The whole reason why he avoided jail in the first place was because he was playing the temporary insanity card but usually if that comes into play you transferred to a mental institution, not let out.

I actually think the writers messed up big time. Because in spite of everything I felt that should have tried to make Aden take ownership for what he did. I’m not saying they should have sent him to jail but I would have like to see him actually feel guilty and perhaps empathise with his victims. And maybe have a scene saying he was sorry for what he did to Axel and Larry (that could still happen). I would have also liked to see him continue to have counselling sessions to basically try and sort him self out and become a better person. That was one of the reasons why I liked Kane because he did seem to show genuine remorse for what he did to Dani, admitted he was wrong and tried to change for the better.

[wrongturntaken]

I too agree with a lot of your points Red Ranger 1 especially where Axel is concerned. He did seem to show absolutely no remorse for his actions, and then Belle suddenly seeming not to care anymore was very unbelievable. And then Aden had the nerve to get angry at his father for killing Axel when he could have very nearly done it himself.

I also like the period where we saw a new side to Aden yet other characters still stuck to their opinions of him, and now the one thing i hate is that they never gave an explanation as to why characters like Irene and Alf suddenly started to like him.

I also agree that he did spend a ridiculously short amount of time in the psychiatric clinic and they should have at least given us some indication that he is still in some form of therapy, however i don't think he was thinking clearly when his Dad told him about the abuse he had suffered himself and the fact that Aden had always blamed his father's drinking for what he suffered and therefore his father meant it was hard for him to go suddenly from that; to empathising with Larry, and i found it more believable that he would lash out in the way he did than suddenly have a complete turn around.

People kill members of their family every day in the real world so my opinion is that we can't gloss over Aden's actions and say that that would never happen and it was totally unreasonable because i think it could be (obviously i don't think what Aden did was right, just understandable).

Your point about Aden and the Criminal Justice system i find a little weary as i'm studying Criminal Justice at university and a lot weirder things have happened in the Criminal Justice System.

In response to Slade, it's quite rare for people to actually get transferred to an institution rather than prison, it's more reserved for people who are quite clearly dangerous (they'll more likely be told to go to a clinic but they don't have to be a permanent resident (I just want to say that i am not at all 100% sure on this, but it is an informed opinion of sorts), it does happen but you'll find that most people want to help offenders rather than see them rot and i think in Aden's case, the judge felt that sending Aden to prison would do no one any good as obviously none of the victims wanted Aden to go to jail and if he did; it would probably destroy him further. You can also see the prosecution in Aden's case actually looks relieved with the verdict because no matter what you think of them, they're still human beings. The ultimate questions are: Are they likely to reoffend? and; are they a danger to society?

Slade i don't want to spoil you if you don't want to be spoiled so i'll put this in spoiler tags

if you're only up to UK pace (i can't remember exactly where that is so you may already be there but...) then you might disagree with your last couple of paragraphs when you see the scenes to come.

[Symphony]

He found him at the house and learned he'd been abused as well.And in typical self-centred Aden fashion, instead of thinking what it must have been like for Larry, he was only bothered about what that meant for him.From then on, he treated Larry the same way as he treated Axel, as a substitute for his grandfather, a legitimate target for him to take revenge on.He denied him medical attention.When Rachel turned up, he took her prisoner to stop her from helping him, even though she'd been kind to him.When Belle turned up, he gave her the same treatment.And he seemed quite prepared to finish his father off himself.It just shows why you don't want to be friends with Aden because he'll turn on you if it suits him.His actions were indefensible and there should have been no way back for him after that.If he was responsible for his actions, he should have gone to jail, if he wasn't, he should have been sectioned.Instead we got a pat "He was crazy for a bit but he's all right now", where he spent a ridiculously short amount of time in a psychiatric unit, two thirds of which he spent blaming everyone else for what happened, then made a token court appearance where they bent over backwards to let him off.Community service for attempted murder?That restores my faith in the justice system.

I'm guessing you don't have any experiences in dealing with abuse? Apologies if I'm mistaken, but I wanted to step in here and say that I think that the writers dealt with this topic line incrediably well. Mostly, for victims of abuse situations, you can't stop it because nobody will believe you - that's drummed into you by many abusers, if not because you feel nobody will believe you, because you feel dirty, because you think you somehow deserve what's happening to you and so you don't have a right to say anything about it. Aden, as he grew older, became disruptive from the abuse, and began to abuse others in his own way, as is natural - because he's learnt that 'trust' doesn't mean anything, and there's no point in caring about anyone because they'll only end up hurting you anyway - his grandfather sexually abused him, his father is an alcoholic and his brother is in jail. hardly a 'home life' situation at all.

And then, to find out after all that, that your father went through the same agony as you - and could have stopped it happenig to you but DIDN'T. Went out night after night, KNOWING that the person you'd been left alone with could be doing the exact same thing to you - having the memories of what had been done to you, and still allowing the possibility of that happening to your own two sons. Imagine finding out that your father knwe all this, and still let it happen - because HE was afraid. parents are supposed to be there to protect us from that sort of event. And so yes, I think the writers handled it remarkably well; abuse is a touchy, upsetting topic for many people - and, many of those people will admit that yes, they've occasionally come towards the edge of temporary insanity, as constant abuse/punishment can do to people.

Aden simply went over the edge; his father had done so much already, and bear in mind Aden is only - how many years old on the program? His father had knowingly murdered someone - but wouldn't hand himself in. His father had knowingly stolen huge amount of money from Aden's girlfriend - but woudln't hand himself in. His father had KNOWN taht Aden was being sexually abused but didn't do anythign to stop it, allowed his grandfathers 'good reputation' be carreid on - and wouldn't hand anyone in, let alone himself. If you ask me, I'm only surprised Aden didn't flip BEFORE then!

So, Rachel shows up; Aden is mad with grief, with fearful memories, with painful times - and wanting to get rid of the one person who either directly or inadvertantly caused him all this trouble. Obviously once she sees his Dad there, he knows he has no choice; he can't let her go back to the 'outside' world because she'll dump him in it - and I think a small part of his brain also thought, "Dad will get off scot free, and they'll JAIL ME!" - And that had me wondering, did his brother get abused too, and is that all that happened to send him down the wrong road of life, and therefore, is Larry inadvertantly also responsibel for his brother being in jail.

I found it suspicious that Belle just happened to call by the house; that never particularly added up for me, but again, once Aden saw her; what choice did he have but to take her in. He didn't hurt her, we saw that - yes he stopped her from leaving, but he didn't hurt any of them, it's not like he tied Rachel up and smacked her across the face to keep her quiet. And, as for Axel; Axel raped Melody - more abuse, and Aden COULD fight back to him so he did. Granted no, it might not make it right - but to Aden, it would have felt like he was punishing his grandfather some, and Axel too, deserved it. Any beast who takes a girl/boy like that deserves a beating.

To say that you can't trust Aden? I find that heartbreaking, because I think of applying that to some 'real life' people who have been abused. It's not that you can't trust them, it's that they can't trust you - and when any tiny thing goes wrong, it makse a huge dent in any 'trust' that might have been formed, bceause you're constantly living on edge, waiting for the people you care about to betray you / hurt you again.

So yes, I find it quite acceptable that he was given the 'temporary insanity' issue, and put to the clinic. Ok, he might not have been there for ages - but in summer bay terms, it was quite long that he was there! They could hardly have him in a clinic for an entire season - and they did show him workign through his issues, I thought taht the particular one with his counsellor, when he realised that his father had been too afraid to say anything was remarkably well done. Again, I applaud the writers here, for not rushing his return to sanity.

I realise I've gone offtopic here, so I don't know if the mods will allow this to be posted at all. But, I did have reason for posting it - Again, I don't know if Ranger has any experience with abuse / people who've been abused, but it's very easy to make sweeping statements if you haven't, and not understand the background scenarios. Again, personally, I think Todd did a most amazing job of Aden; acting as someone that emotional, and with that sort of 'history' cannot be easy to try and put yourself into their places - and as for the writers, I do commend them, for managing to do this in a way that would mirror, and touch the hearts of many of those who have had similar experiences to Aden. Bravo.

[valli]

Symphony, I just want to say: Brilliant post It's difficult for a person who has never dealt with abuse to understand what Aden is going through, so on some points I think the writers have done a good job. But (yes, there's always a but with me ) there's nothing that ties the 'dots' together. Based on your post, and the writers' most likely intension, then Aden should have some serious trust issues. Yet we see him trusting Belle, and seems to be under the impression that Belle is going to "fix him", as he desperately wants to be able to put the abuse behind him.

And that's where we hit the thing I don't like about Aden - his method of hiding his issues and shifting the blame. And of course to a certain degree, his lack of empathy. Not saying that he doesn't have it, but he doesn't value it as highly as he should. An example of this is when he beat up Axel. He wasn't sorry and he truly believed that he was in the right, which he wasn't. Of course, that was partly a result of the abuse, but we can't blame everything on the abuse. Some of it are parts of Aden's personality.

Speaking of, I can't really seem to figure out where I have him. One minute he's fine and the next he's on the edge of insanity. And up until the court case, he didn't admit to himself that he was the one with the problem and that he's the only one who can do something about it, not Belle, like he seemed to think for a long time. And for some time, he seemed like Belle's own personal stalker, wanting to be with her all the time, believing that it would make him normal. That doesn't really suit with the Aden that was originally presented to us.

As my last point, I would just like to point out that Aden is being a hypocrite sometimes. Like, he wants people to give him a second chance, but he refuses to give Angelo a chance at all, because he's "getting in the way" for his relationship with Belle. He can't expect people to give him a chance when he doesn't give others a chance

That's how I see it anyway.

Edited November 4, 2008 by valli

[Symphony]

I agree with some of your points there actually! He does seem quite hypocritical in that sense - about wanting people to give him a second chance, but not willing to open up to give others those chances. Indeed, I find it quite odd as well how he can get on alright with Geoff now - but we never [or did we, maybe I'm forgetting it] really had a scene where he came out and hoenstly apologised to Geoff for what he did to him [the time they got him drunk!]

In my own thoughts, I've reached the conclusion that the writers themselves had no idea how big this was going to scale out when they first included Aden as a 'main storyline' character - as in, you're right in that his life seems to be a bit jumbled up with him being normal - then emotionally depressed - then 'normal' - then off the walls etc. I haven't sat down to analyse it too far [guess I just figured out what my train of thought is going to be on the train home tonight! ]

With Belle though, I think he sort of 'latched' onto her as his buoy for getting himself out of the mess. You know the way some people make 'deals' with themselves, like, "if I drink two litres of water by lunch, I can have a slice of cake" or "if htere's a bar of galaxy next to the till, I'll buy it - but if not, i won't buy any" type deals. I think that to Aden, he's sort of like, "If Belle is with me, and loves me, then everything will be ok. But if I don't have her, my life is going to be a shambles" - because it seems that she's the first person that truly believes in him - and again, this is a confidence booster for him, but he still doesn't [this being at the start of their relationship] trust her 100%, but wants to - because he sees he could be onto a good thing there. And then in the clinic, he started to realise that maybe he could get by without her - but then we get the whole rigmarole of "i did it for you belle" - because he so desperately wants her back. Which, is 'normal' in relation to real life i think - but then she still won't be with him, taht was great - beacuse obviously she couldn't go back to trusting him after he kidnapped her, and she saw him trying to murder his father.

I think that's why the trial moved me so much - because he needed her there, his eyes on hers, as he spoke out about what his Grandfather used do to him, but you could see him latched on her eyes - he couldn't hold her hand, or clutch onto her, but he still needed her there in order to be able to say it, and I think that he too, did it for her - because she didn't want him to go to jail, but later realises that he needed to do it for himself too. He's taken some pretty big steps as a character when you think abotu it - even going to see his father in hospital was pretty huge IMHO.

As you can see, the storyline of Aden's history is pretty close to my heart; and seems to be becoming more and more widespread across the world now, which is horrific, but true So many people you talk to online today have been there, and it's heartbreaking, truly so. H&A were brave to take it on, and manage to carry out out the storyline without any backlash from media / people writing in complaints.

I look forward to seeing Aden's life settle down now; it's been turbulent, and confusing at times - hopefully he'll get to a par now, and stay on a level for a while. Sorry for another long rambling post!

[Slade]

Just to pick out a couple of points in Symphony’s first post:

Firstly Aden’s dad did not knowingly murder someone. It was an accident. He was drunk. I agree it was definitely his fault that Axel died and he deserved to go to jail but it was not premeditated. Aden beating Axel senseless and leaving him for dead without showing one ounce of remorse is premeditated.

Secondly Axel did not rape Melody. He tried to rape her and she fought him off. Yes this again was premeditated and he deserved to be punished but he did not deserve the bashing Aden gave him in my opinion.

Just because Aden’s been abused it does not give him the right to take the law into his own hands. I've never been in Aden's position so I could never understand what he went through but I’m sure there have been other people that have been abused that haven’t acted in the same fashion. Don’t get me wrong because I actually quite like Aden but I don’t its fair to excuse all his behaviour because of the abuse.

[Deborah]

I agree re Axel, I don't think Aden should have given him the bashing he did, & then show no remorse for it. I didn't like that part of the story of Aden at all! I also didn't like it when he said about it to Melody's Dad in the clinic as if it was something to be proud of.

Moving on to what he did with his Dad. I want to ask you all this, if your Mum or Dad, when you were a child, knew of a known rapist, knew without doubt that is what they were, but asked them to babysit for you because they wanted to go out drinking, how do you think you would feel? I am in now way excusing what Aden did, but that was obviously his breaking point when his Dad told him that his Grandad did the same to him. It meant that his Dad knew all along what his Grandad was likely to do & didn't stop it. This is what ultimately caused Aden's breakdown, although I think it had probably been coming for a long time, and it was this that tipped him over the edge.

I was abused myself, as a child, and yes it can cause a lot of trust issues. However, when you find someone you can trust, like Aden with Belle, you can sometimes have a sort of emotional dependency on them. Its not necessarily wrong, it is just the way you are, you can't help it. It is hard to trust anyone so when you do it is the most brilliant thing in the world to you. It takes alot but even after what Aden went through, it is possible to learn to trust someone & be with them.

I am very fortunate in that I have not had a breakdown, but I have had a friend who did. It makes all logical thought processes go out the window, like with Aden & the kidnapping. He clearly was not thinking straight, I really do not believe he would have done it if he had been in full control of his mind. I won't go into what my friend did, but suffice to say her behaviour was very erratic & worrying.

I believe Aden showed real remorse at the trial for what he did both to his Dad & Rachel & Belle. I also believe him being able to go to visit his Dad showed a real strength, which I am not too sure I would show if I was in his shoes!

I do think they should show him or at least mention him having some ongoing counselling. I think it is a mistake on the writers part to say, you've had a few counselling sessions, been in a clinic for a week or two & now everything is fine.

I am looking forward to the writers developing his relationship with Belle, hopefully into a more mature stable relationship.