Aden Jefferies - Todd Lasance

[Zetti]

Aden when he first came on to the show was a just an irritating person. A hot one but still irritating and a jerk, when we delved more into his life and why he was the way he is it opened up avenues for him. The abuse storyline made me feel for him and I grew to like him, his relationship with Nicole and Morag and most importantly Roman was really well thought out and even know his new developing relationship with Melody. He is a character that shines when he is in scenes, the revelation of the abuse was one of the most empowering situation he has acted out in a really empathic way for me at least. I hope that the writers dont ignore his HSC and we see him more and more in a school environment as well...

[Red Ranger 1]

Okay, here at UK pace we've just had Aden say he's only ever slept with one person(Belle).They're just making up his back story as they go along, aren't they?

I'm opening up a can of worms, I know, but here goes.If he was telling the truth, and we've no reason to suppose he wasn't, then as I said before that gives a very unpleasant subtext to his encounter with Tam.In retrospect, it looks as though he arranged to take someone his own age to the formal, then panicked and realised he couldn't handle it.So this guy who's essentially impotent decides to satisfy his sexual urges by taking out an underage girl, getting her drunk(ie.providing her with alcohol and encouraging her to drink it)and then taking it as far as he could with her.(I checked out the clip on YouTube and I'll swear there was more to it than that but I'll leave off with specifics.)It's as if the writers are so determined to present him as this scarred little boy that we should feel sorry for(or possibly that Belle's "the one")that they haven't thought about the implications or how consistent it is with what's gone before.

I wish they hadn't said it because I preferred it when it looked as though his intimacy problems were a recent development rather than something that's been an issue as long as we've known him.It just makes the speed of his recovery seem even more ridiculous.

[LAURZY!]

I'm a big Aden fan and i love how he's developed as a character but i agree with what Red Ranger just said about the writers making it up as they go along, i'm glad that we had the scene with Melody the other day, i just wish they had thought about what they were gonna do with the character BEFORE the whole Tam thing even happened, because if they had i doubt they would of done that scene, or may have worked it abit better.

In Aden's defence slightly she shouldn't of taken the alcohol off him if she was so against it. I didnt really see her protesting much after i've just re watched that episode.

[Zetti]

In regards to the Tam episode, the writers slipped up slightly and made Aden out to be a sex hungry guy but maybe that was a cover for how he really is. I do believe he is trying to move on and get rid of the 'reputation' he seemed to have picked up.

[Jody]

Here is something thats been annoying me for so long.

Are we mean't to assume the whole town now knows about Adens abuse or just those in the court room. Because it hasn't been properly mentioned.

If everyone does know then the lack of reaction from everyone is completely unrealistic. I would think atleast Irene, Geoff, or even Annie would have had some sort of reaction to finding out about this. But if they don't know(and it's just those that where in the court room) it also doesn't make sense because the way he acted about telling the truth it implied that if he did the whole town would know.

Roman made some kind of comment once. After Adens first day at work he asked something about they treated him but from the words he used he could have clearly just mean't how they treated him because they would know about they trail. It doesn't really make it clear if he was asking how they treated him because they know about the abuse or just because they know he was on trail for attempted murder.

I don't know if this as been clarified on the show at anytime and I missed it or we are supposed to just believe everyone knows and noone had any sort of reaction to it.

Edited December 22, 2008 by Jody

[Slade]

Okay, here at UK pace we've just had Aden say he's only ever slept with one person(Belle).They're just making up his back story as they go along, aren't they?

I'm opening up a can of worms, I know, but here goes.If he was telling the truth, and we've no reason to suppose he wasn't, then as I said before that gives a very unpleasant subtext to his encounter with Tam.In retrospect, it looks as though he arranged to take someone his own age to the formal, then panicked and realised he couldn't handle it.So this guy who's essentially impotent decides to satisfy his sexual urges by taking out an underage girl, getting her drunk(ie.providing her with alcohol and encouraging her to drink it)and then taking it as far as he could with her.(I checked out the clip on YouTube and I'll swear there was more to it than that but I'll leave off with specifics.)It's as if the writers are so determined to present him as this scarred little boy that we should feel sorry for(or possibly that Belle's "the one")that they haven't thought about the implications or how consistent it is with what's gone before.

I wish they hadn't said it because I preferred it when it looked as though his intimacy problems were a recent development rather than something that's been an issue as long as we've known him.It just makes the speed of his recovery seem even more ridiculous.

He didn’t exactly put a gun to her head and force her to take the alcohol (She could have just gotten up and walked away or even alerted someone for that matter). He didn’t force her to go with him and he didn’t force her to kiss him. In each case she CHOSE to do what she did. And when he was kissing her she didn’t once tell him to stop. In fact referring back to the clip on YouTube when Cassie dragged her away she actually reached out to grab him. So in my book she consented to everything. They didn’t have sex so there’s no problem as far as I’m concerned.

To be honest I never had an issue with what happened between Aden and Tam. And I didn’t particularly like the stuff he did before (mainly with Geoff) but what really bothered me about him (as I always say) was the incident with Axel and obviously what happened with his father.

[Zetti]

The incident with Axel was unforgivable IMO and that may shock people who know I am an Aden fan but you cant take the law in your hands but in the case of the situation with his father I do believe he had a breakdown so he didnt really know what he was doing.

[Slade]

Thank you Zetti. As an Aden fan I’m glad you can see how wrong that incident was. The reason why I say that is because I feel that some (not all) hardcore Aden/Adelle fans seem to feel what he did to Axel was acceptable because (a) He was abused (b) Axel tried to force himself on Melody. What I can say to that is that two wrongs don’t make a right and as you say he had no right to take the law into his own hands. That incident showed several things - Impulsiveness (because he just took off to find him without getting his facts straight), Premeditation (because he planed to do Axel serious harm when he did find him), brutality to the extreme (beating him unconscious) and of course a total lack of remorse (he seemed to feel that what he did was right).

In regards to Larry/Belle/Rachel I keep saying to myself that it was premeditated but I’m really not sure. I’m not a psychologist. It would be plausible to say his behaviour would appear consistent with a breakdown but I simply don’t know. It’s a difficult one. I’m actually one of those people that felt he got off way too lightly.

Anyway although he’s not my favourite character I defiantly don’t dislike him and do feel there is a certain fascination where he is concerned (provided he’s not with Belle). His personality is indeed complex.

[Zetti]

He did get off too easy on that, he should have got a suspended sentence IMO and thanks for the thanks lol

[Slade]

Really? It’s interesting to see how different people feel about this. Based on everything he did I actually felt he should have gone to jail or at least been sent back to the clinic. And I say that for two reasons.

1. He committed very serious offences. Now if for argument’s sake we say he was not responsible and suffered some sort of breakdown then he really should have gone back to the clinic at least until the point where they felt the treatment he was received was sufficient. During his original stay he was only there for two weeks and you would expect treatment to be ongoing for months and even if he was released he would still have to be monitored at least for the foreseeable future to make sure that he wasn’t a threat to anybody else (I’m only guessing because as I said in my previous post I’m not a psychologist).

2. Consistency – Vinnie went to jail for fraud and Dom for handling stolen parts (I believe) so you could argue how could he not go to jail for attempted murder and two counts of kidnapping.

But let’s not forget this is Summer Bay and stranger things have happened.

As I've said before I'm glad he didn't go to jail as I have enjoyed some of his storylines. And I do hope they tone down Adelle and perhaps concerntrate more on the individual characters.