It's different.

Dean committed one horrific action but he was clearly mentally unstable and had been drinking. He was also in a state due t Shirley abandoning him and his personality had been shaped to some extent by his first prison stint. While it doesn't jutify or excuse what he did to Linda, these are reasons why it happened. Previously he was imprisoned for a non violent crime (framing Sean for something he didn't do) and got a warning for spiking Stacey's drink (though I don't think he did that with intent to rape and he told the truth when Bradley was arrested).

Hitler was a deranged, bigoted mass murderer not unlike Will Savage or Dr Browning. In Dr Browning's case I tried to understand when he initially confessed to Mercedes but couldn't forgive him when he tried to kill Myra and Cindy. Finn and Frank Foster both tried to rape others and Finn beat up Blessing too - It's Finn, Frank, Will, Dr Browning etc that are more like Hitler than Dean imo.

The writing's a bit messed up anyway. First they had Dean act like he thought it was a one night stand and then had him lie to Shirley about Linda saying no. I would have preferred them to go for the delusional angle myself as that is more interesting and ambiguous.

I do agree with the line in bold though.

I haven't seen any of the stuff on twitter but obviously it sounds utterly disgusting. What the hell is wrong with people. Being young is no excuse whatsoever, neither is fancying the actor.


They've known each other longer than that, it was made clear Dean had a relationship with Stan offscreen. Not that Stan's death does anything to excuse Dean being a rapist, obviously.


What did he do?


I agree.


She really is. She has a level of compassion and empathy for him and Shirley that I doubt many would have.


I agree.


Good point.


Good point.


I agree.

I'm thinking we might see more of this later. Shirley obviously realizes - but doesn't want to admit - Linda could be telling the truth about the rape. Shirley seems to be holding on very tightly to the possibility that Dean is being honest when he said it was consensual sex. I still think that she's doing this out of massive guilt for abandoning Dean multiple times, and that she sees that this situation is somehow her fault.

However, we get the idea that Shirley is supporting Dean right now whatever her motives. This story really needs to progress, and soon.

Fantastic posts.


So it was completely fine that he murdered Lynsey?

It's a joke, isn't it? Archie treated Roxy like a princess, it doesn't change what he did. Likewise Harry. ridiculous.

Excellent post. As I have said before on this subject, I very much doubt that if Phil or Ian had been the rapist these idiots would be going to such lengths to defend them. But Dean is pretty so it's alright.

I'll give the writers credit for one thing, they really have exposed just how much victim-blaming culture, and in some cases blatant misogyny, is still very much a thing.

Archie didn't treat Roxy like a princess. It was him who paid Suzy to put the DNA test inside the Christmas cracker, to expose her secret to Sean and the whole family on Christmas Day and humiliate her. He knew his daughter was madly in love with Sean, and deliberately set out to tear them apart. He even asked Suzy to "make it as painful as ever."

That is NOT the actions of a loving father.

Obviously killing Lynsey wasn't right but I did see how it happened - that it wasn't planned and very spur of the moment - it was similar in some ways to Joe/Pauline on EastEnders (although that wasn't actually shown) - it was perhaps unwise of her to provoke him the way that she did but he should either have controlled himself and left or handed himself in. (Assuming this was a real life scenario), I can imagine that if he had handed himself in and facedthe consequences for killing Lynsey I may have visited him in prison and not hated him but he crossed the line when he deliberately set out to harm Myra and Cindy, especially as that was more calculated/premeditated.

I agree. Archie was vile through and through. I don't remember him ever doing anything good.

BIB: He could if they want him to. Home and Away did it with Kane: he raped Dani, then they made him a regular and had him fall in love with her sister Kirsty, and they went on to form a popular super-couple! Fans loved Kane, and berated Dani, the victim. And this was before Twitter ever existed.

I don't think they are trying to make it morally ambiguous, more trying to show that Dean and Linda's views on what happened differ. Emmerdale are doing that with Alicia/Lachlan, while keeping the truth of the story in tact. I don't think EE are doing it as successful, and have created a bit of mess of a story with how they are writing the characters, like Shirley, Buster, Denise and Babe. Even Stacey is being written in a way that detracts from the moral of the story - they should never have had her return to Blade's, b/c working for Shirley is no different to working for Dean, and it makes her look unreasonable, which in turn makes this story lose its main focus.

Dean shouldn't stay in the show long term (he really should have left already), and I hope they not only have him realize what he did, but that all who doubted Linda give her the apology she deserves (Shirley, Denise, Buster).

You have a point about Home and Away.

Babe has always been manipulative and self serving so I'm not sure that she's been written badly.

While Shirley standing by Dean is understandable, the way she sometimes behaves isn't.

I don't have a problem with how Buster and Denise are written.

Regarding Stacey, not only does Stacey naturally despise Dean but it's also unsafe for her to work in Blades when he is there. The same doesn't apply to Shirley though because apart from her occasionally obnoxious behaviour, she hasn't done anything wrong in the Linda/Dean situation. Also, she needs to earn a living and is refusing to work for Max (not that she can do that now anyway) so Blades was her only option and she does have Lily and Kat to think of.

Well actually Hitler had a difficult upbringing due to being illegitimate and then had horrific experiences in World War 2. He was without a doubt also mentally unbalanced, partly due to his experiences shaping. He also had 'reasons' for being as he was. But that doesn't make what he did forgiveable in any way at all.

Of course he is an extreme example, i picked as an extreme an example as I could think of. The point i was trying to make is that the most evil of people can still love people close to them and grieve when they are hurt or die so Dean feeling upset over Stan's death shpuld not come into it at all re Linda and Mick needing to 'leave him alone' as many of his supporters seem to attest. It's like, he can't be all bad, he loved his Grandad so leave him be. Well of course he isn't all bad but that doesn't mean he should be 'let off' his despicable crime.

He barred them from the pub not the funeral

I agree about Hitler.

I don't think I ever said Mick and Linda needed to "leave Dean alone" but I do think that Mick's continual anger and resentment doesn't help matters plus - he had no right to pick a fight with Buster or ban him from attending the funeral as Buster did nothing wrong.

Obviously in an ideal world Dean would be punished for the crime and given psychiatric treatment for his mental health issues but sadly there wasn't enough evidence to convict him or even bring the case to trial which was just unfortunate.

I'm glad you agree that Dean is not all bad but surely that explains why some viewers/posters don't hate Dean. Like I said, if Dean was supposed to be "hated" they shouldn't have given the impression that he is not all bad.

Yes, this was the point I was trying to make - I hadn't seen it when I posted.

People like Frank Foster and Finn O'Conner were portrayed as monsters, almost pantomime villains which destroyed the storylines for me. It made it completely unbelievable as people aren't like that, real life rapists do not sit there twirling their metaphorical mustache. There probably are people they demonstrate genuine care, love and affection towards.

It is okay to have some sympathy towards Dean for some of his experiences and to have some understanding as to what has made him into what he is but it is not okay to turn that into blaming the victim or trying to excuse his actions.

I wasn't saying that you personally had said that Mick and Linda should leave him alone but referring to those people on Twitter that are doing so. I'm pretty sure you've never implied that Linda lead him on in any way.

I've just addressed feeling sympathy or understanding for him in another post. Also why i wouldn't have wanted him portrayed in the panto baddie way Frank or Finn were.

Twitter's a very dodgy invention imo. I am quite shocked that some people on it blame Linda for Dean raping her but I think it's pointless for us to have a heated debate over that. Luckily those posters are in the minority.

BIB - I agree.

I'm not saying Babe is being written out of character or anything, but when you have her act the way she does with Team Dean, at the same time that Dean actually has a team, it comes across as too much. It's also difficult to judge who she believes, which makes it worse.

Shirley is Dean's a mother, and is wanting to defend him (more so out of past guilt I would imagine), but they don't have her act in a sympathetic way. She always victimises herself in every situation. How she treats people is just appalling.

Buster and Denise are there to prop Team Dean. Denise in particular was quite unpleasant to Linda, which is why I hope she apologises when the truth is revealed. Buster has breezed into town, and automatically taken Dean's side. I prefer characters to be more rounded than what Buster is; he just Shirley's lap dog.

There's not much morally different between Stacey working for a rapist and working for the rapist's mother who openly supports her rapist son. It's hypocritical for Stacey to have gone back to Blade's in the first place. Lily and Kat will always be her priorities whether she's working with Dean or Shirley, that will not change. Stacey had no where else to work before, and that hasn't changed now. She needs to get her principles in order and stick to them.

I really hate that they've ruled out Dean facing legal justice, b/c all it leaves is a redemption arc, where Dean realizes the error of his ways and apologises to Linda, which she accepts (I'm ruling out him being killed, as they've played that story twice already).

Of course liking or hating different characters is subjective and there shouldn't be any harm in it except in this case it is tipping over into the very real issue of rape and victim blaming and I think many are concerned at how real life rape victims would feel about that and perhaps scared that some of these attitudes aren't just about fiction but real life people. Would these people automatically side with a man accused of rape because he was young, attractive and showed he cared about other people whilst vilifying the alleged victim?

I'm not saying they would but that is the worry and why it can't be the same as people having differing opinions over a 'villain' like JR Ewing.

I see your point, and yes I agree that the posts blaming Linda are disturbing.

I agree that it's frustrating that Dean is not facing legal justice. If they wanted to redeem him, they could easily have done it through imprisonment and rehabilitation and maybe him admitting and apologising to Linda and managing to salvage his relationships with Buster, Shirley, Denise and possibly Carly (if she were brought into it)

I agree about Babe and Shirley but I don't think Denise was especially cruel - at least not in the same way Shirley was.

While there may not be much difference morally between whether Stacey works for Dean or Shirley, at the end of the day as you rightly said, Kat and Lily are her priorities and principles cannot pay bills or buy food and shelter - that's partly why in Coronation Street so many factory workers initially went to work for Frank until Michelle gave them their jobs back. But there is one point - it would be dangerous to work for Dean as he is a rapist but it's not dangerous to work for Shirley because she isn't.

I'd add impotence into that as well. Mick is powerless to protect Linda from Dean's continued presence (which whether he means it to or not is a torment for Linda) or get him punished. He also probably feels guilty for telling Linda to comfort Dean whilst he was off looking for Shirley.

Plus, he has the head ++++ of having discovered his sister is his mother and he's been dealing with his father dying as well.

Mick isn't helping matters in many ways but why can't people see that his head is in as big a mess as Dean's was the night of the attack? If you have sympathy for one, you must also have it for the other one surely?

Sadly this is the outcome when you have a good looking guy depicted as the rapist.