‘Vedalar senin gibi kalpsizler içindir’.
A look into Yalı Çapkını S1.E32 - 33
Episode 32 and 33 proved justifiably methodized for the fact that both were aired in the same week. These were such episodes that introduced all the characters for where they started from and where some have some. I talked about how Baris returns to the 30s with parallels after justifications from the pilots. He introduced the episode in such a way that all characters showed their past and future in some manner.
‘Vedalar senin gibi kalpsizler içindir’, ‘Çünkü yüreğiyle sevenler ayrılmaz’, a song to the tyrant fate. A song to the lover’s escape. A song of Seyran and Ferit’s trials in their cages and a song to their escape out of them. A song to the tyrant.
CONTENTS:
SCENIC BRIEFS
- Part 1 -
Kal de, Seyran and Ferit fail to fight for themselves yet again.
32 started with Seyran’s decision like 2 ended with, Ferit Korhan was always the plaintiff in this story. Seyran Sanli was always the defendant. He chose her at the start of the game, he disqualifies at the end. Whoever initiated the divorce, Ferit was the first to propose that evening, he is the one to dispose today. Seyran like in the past had to go with his decision because she was forced the same. Still expecting him to withdraw like she did in the episode parallel – bolum 2.
Reflections of both as if their dualities peeking at them. Another Ferit and Seyran saying goodbye and another saying ‘kal de’. Then they didn’t want to hold on, now they don’t want to let go.
Looking at Halis he says yes, looking at Kazim she says the same. They’re gaze only filled with tears and not each other’s reflection. Seyran and Ferit stay bound to the cage yet again.
One step down and the Knights call check, the knights to the king and queen.
A special detail by Burcu Alptekin while she starts the episode with a head start. The white Queen and the King Black stand on opposite sides of the board. The pawns stir around.
Tariq one step down to Seyran and Pelin one step down to Ferit. The knights are waiting for the two to step down. One step and they get hold of them. A depiction of the risk, their captivation holds, delivered handsomely.
The boy who filled his soul into a doll, Ferit Korhan’s compensation for lack of love.
(An abstract reference)
It is Mert Ramazan Demir’s skill at what he brings to the screen that reminds of Ferit Korhan’s never left boyhood whenever he feels threatened. Seyran Sanli or for that matter any girl that would’ve been married to Ferit had been ‘brought’ to tame his boyhood. The job description was clearly a toy that would distract the boy’s rebellion into a metallic lifestyle like the Korhans’. Perhaps a seeming compensation for the love they had failed, feared and never cared to provide.
Filling in the position (by fate) was Seyran Sanli. Also forced to do so, Seyran was expected to act a doll, given to Ferit to play with and sit lifeless in his room when not needed. Adding of course her contribution of an heir to the Korhans.
It wasn’t long until the boy started realizing he had nothing and nobody else other than this doll. The doll wasn’t a toy but actually a caged person just like him. He found her to be giving and loving, but most importantly brave and fearless and justifying. All the qualities he had neither seen, nor had ever been taught. She was there when he felt alone, she was there when he felt scared, she was there when nobody was. Ferit Korhan slowly started letting go. He started keeping pieces of his soul in Seyran Sanli, not realizing he was depending on his doll more and more with time.
Cut to – the boy’s family started realizing his love for this doll. They saw how she had become his life support rather than a toy. Threatened the doll –that had turned out to have wings- will fly their captive away and change him, these people then started distracting the boy away from her. What they didn’t know was that this child had filled his soul into his doll. Something that couldn’t be undone, he had now started depending on this ‘toy’. She had his heart as well as soul in her.
- Why I refer to Ferit Korhan as a child with a toy is because the character was portrayed as the same the whole episode. The reason for which of course I will get to later, but on note that I will be moving forward with this ‘child’ as a contrast to Ferit’s character.
…Ferit cries for his life while looking at Seyran un-conscious in his arms. The fear of a child losing his favorite thing is filled in his eyes while he cries for her. Caressing her face, holding her in his lap, holding her head in his arms, he calls for help as if a child who’s broken his doll. As if the Romeo who’d found his Juliet dead. And it was true, Ferit Korhan perhaps had broken his doll. Or rather she had been broken and snatched from him.
Hypocrisy: Halis Korhan is losing his game, Ferit’s mockery of his dede
‘Who do you love the most in this world? bir, iki, üç!.. Dede!’
Ferit Korhan, despite his cruelty loves his grandfather. What he has never found in Orhan he expects to find in Halis. It is him who Ferit lives to please, it is him who he fears to disappoint. Halis however takes this love for granted on the contrary. A tyrant who takes pride in his power and honesty, he rules in his delusion of staying true to his word, hence having power over all and any. Now? We discover him losing his game.
The last few episodes have been targeted to Ferit Korhan’s discovery and realization towards his family. While he never knew his family to be consistent in loving him, he now gradually finds them to moreover be faking their power that they’ve imposed on him all his life. Among Orhan, Gulgun and Ifakat’s silence and manipulations, he’d never doubted Halis for his word. Though this is the first time in his life that he has seen Halis going against his own word. A decision he himself had forced upon Ferit, he now orders otherwise. It was with this reaction, that Ferit started realizing Halis’ hypocrisy.
Ferit mocks Halis’ own words in said scene: look. You’ve “done so much but they still hide things from you”
He mocks the way he made him do everything and puppet-ed his life. “So that you don’t persuade me in vain” so you don’t say “ah look, the kid was left alone, come on let’s marry him, I’ve already taken all measures” “you need to give the family a grandson” you’ve seen Pelin, she kissed your hand. Isn’t she the perfect “candidate?”
He then checks to confirm Halis’ hypocrisy. ‘Tell me so that she doesn’t come in vain. I’ll send her home’. Halis performs as expected. Congratulates him on his bashfulness rather than going off because he has nothing to boast. Ferit laughs at the irony.
Halis, here was confronted for the first time in his life except for Seyran. A confrontation that leaves him thinking. He’s nervous and doesn’t know how to authorize this now. He answers in panic. Ferit mocks his hypocrisy and leaves. Halis still shocked and nervous but curious about how he was left speechless for once. The tyrant takes shelter in cowardice as usual.
Hypocrisy: Kazim Sanli is selling Saffet Aga a virgin, The Ihsanlis question possible gestation.
The hidden intention was peeked at in bolum 31 and brought up again this week, when Kazim assures Saffet Aga there were no physical relations between Seyran and her husband as to raising any possible gestation. Sniffing the fact that she might have not let Ferit consummate their relationship from the way Seyran talked about her pride and will, Kazim already expressed his excitement to Hattice in 31. Telling her this would prove beneficial to them, he kept up to his vileness.
Coming back from the court, where Seyran had fainted in Ferit’s arms due to the constant pressure and bashing, Saffet Aga and his grandson Tarik don’t hesitate to question the means of her fainting. ‘I hope it’s not related to the past’ he speaks in audacity to question if she could be pregnant. Kazim finding satisfaction in the fact that they haven’t consummated, answers him in an assuring manner. Hattice shocks herself at the brink of the ignorance and audacity of the vileness.
‘If you give us a girl we have to worry about, then we will deal with her first and then you’ Saffet warns. As if complaining about a faulty good. Kazim like Halis shows hypocrisy again when left speechless. Worshipping whoever throws money at him, he changes sides from the Korhans to the Ihsanlis. Like Halis does from Seyran to Pelin. Seyran walks away mocking it, as did Ferit. Rather she’s tired of it now.
Seyran shows herself for the first time, ‘I tried to stand proud’.
‘I tried to stand proud’ ‘tried not to show it’ ‘I was nervous’ – these are phrases one as close as even Suna wouldn’t have heard from Seyran’s prideful and selfless self. Bottling up emotions, putting up a strong front, hiding weaknesses is Seyran Sanli’s core instinct as opposed to Ferit Korhan, who is rather expressive about the feelings he is sure of. Not showing anybody her wounds and standing strong without vulnerability is her image of a strong woman subconsciously.
The scene emphasizes several things in mere 2 minutes, along with the strength of love. Love so strong that when it hits your heart, it breaks the walls you’ve built around it. Hundreds of years you’ve kept building these walls and a moment is all that it takes love to bring them down on your head. ‘This is the same heart, my words don’t matter’. ‘I can’t command it. I can’t tell myself to stop loving him’. The same heart that she had complete control over. The same that she could always command to shut up and it would on the thought of pain. All her pride and all her masks, demolished by the pain that love has brought. A pain worth bearing if it teaches you to let go of your cage. Seyran has started accepting her suffering. She accepts she’s human, hence accepts she’s hurting.
Seyran Sanli has drawn serve, Seyran and Ferit’s table tennis game
The table tennis game has and will be metaphorized until Seyran and Ferit haven’t learnt to give in equally. It was there when they started getting jealous of each other, it was there when they started envying their feelings, there again when they decided to provoke each other. I explained the metaphor last week in 31 as the presumption of a ‘never reached consensus ‘the idiom is an analogy, where the heart of the discussion is a Ping-Pong ball, and the two parties engaged in the debate are like the players (S and F)’
Today still, each wants the other to serve first, the other wants the other to call truce. ‘But we couldn’t. Neither he, nor I, we could not.’ But there’s activity in the game since the last two episodes. Seyran Sanli has perhaps drawn pad.
The last time they met, at the gym. Ferit had sarcastically asked Seyran to play. The pad for which was put down stationary on her side. She refused. Seyran’s refusal to this jokingly made offer plays as her draw itself. Ferit’s pad being in his hand, while Seyran’s being down on the table initiates truce from her side. She won’t reject if he calls too. But she can’t accept as well, as long as he doesn’t draw.
‘I’m here, I’m at home, I wasn’t even interested in marriage’, I’m not going to run behind someone’: Again what we’ve already talked about, hence doesn’t need further explanation. Seyran is boasting her marriage to Tarik only in Ferit’s eyes. She only exploits the fact to keep up her pride. Other than that she has no wish, neither interest in hearing anyone but Ferit’s name after hers. Though Ferit again (still serving the ball – still playing the game) has willingly proposed to Pelin in spite of Seyran. No body could’ve forced him if it wasn’t for him to propose to her himself. He roams around with Pelin, boasts her to Kazim only to hurt Seyran, while Seyran is forced to stand beside Tarik. Neither marrying him, neither roaming with him is her choice. She’s forced and beaten by Kazim to do so every day. Hence Seyran Sanli doesn’t do this in spite of Ferit, rather he misunderstands and acts accordingly. She has drawn pad with signing the papers, drawn pad by hearing Ferit’s intentions to marry another by will. The game doesn’t get any more hits from her. She’s tired of playing, tired of hitting at him. Now Ferit Korhan doesn’t let go. Ferit Korhan keeps hitting. Ferit Korhan keeps trying to get her to play again.
Suna Sanli fears bravery, ‘Ah benim deli kardesim, you dream’.
Suna has been a contrast to her sister from the very beginning, while also portraying her own story. What she lacks, Seyran takes strength in. what she’s afraid of, Seyran takes power in. A grey to her white, Suna Sanli believes love to solve everything as it is. ‘You’re doing this because of your stubbornness. Why is Ferit doing this? I told you he’s crazy in love for you.’ A potion that if drunk will and can ignore all the suffering in the world and heal people without justification. Think of it like a bridge to a destination. Both the Sanli sisters dream of the same thing – freedom from their father. Though the difference lies in the vision of the destination. Suna sees her destination right in front of her, as does Seyran. But Seyran sees also the bridge (the strength of the self) that she has to walk to get there. Suna sees only her destination (love and a happy marriage) and jumps off the cliff, running towards it, not seeing the bridge at all. In simpler words, Suna Sanli doesn’t believe in pride and honor standing bridge to a happy life. She’s anxious from her father’s cruelty and wants to run off immediately. When found love in a hopeless place, she then realized and saw this bridge too, but rejects her vision still. The risk and punishment of which she sees in her marriage to Saffet.
Running off immediately - Also which she is unable to do because she is afraid of getting up. Afraid that her chains will pull her down if she does. Afraid that they’ll bruise her hands even more if she tries to breakthrough.
Hattuce Sanli’s curse on her kin, Seyran and Suna stay bound to the chain of their fate.
Hattice Sanli is a woman who has spent her life waiting for the man she loves to draw courage. A lifetime on pride that she deserves to hold up. It isn’t a shocker that her granddaughter inherits this fate for her own love. The difference of course being Ferit Korhan breaking said cycle, Hattice’s lover being his own grandfather. Though no matter how much these two captives try to push against their cages, the imprints that their bounders have made on their minds are what’ve shaped their consciences today. They try to oppose these instincts, but they are still fed to their sub-consciences somewhere from the start.
Settling on Seyran and Suna Sanli’s in this scene, the sisters make visible how their minds have been molded to bear and not break from the very start. What Hattuce commanded herself as reaction to her longing and suffering, the same she taught her kin. What she built as a coping mechanism to the cruelty she bore, the same she imprinted on her kin – goaded pride!
‘Don’t you dare show your vulnerability to anyone there’ – Hattice Sanli in bolum 2.
‘I tried to stand proud, tried not to show it’ – Seyran Sanli in bolum 32.
‘Your hands are tied’ – Hattice Sanli in bolum 2
‘Our hands are tied’ – Suna Sanli in bolum 32
Hattice’s imprints on her kin’s subconscious:
1 – To be prideful is to not shown vulnerability to anyone else but yourself (Seyran)
2 – A woman acts never again, once she’s been let down by her fate (Suna)
Ferit speaks for himself for the first time, ‘why do things happen in my life, that everyone else wants but me?’
‘Why is nothing that I would like for myself happening in this house?’ ‘Niye ya?’ ‘Why do things happen in my life, that everyone else wants but me baba?’ ‘I’m going crazy.’ these are hidden away questions, Ferit Korhan is used to bottle, because he has never succeeded to find a justification for them other than Halis Korhan’s power. Bottling his right to question injustice, hiding away in insecurities is Ferit’s image of a successful man, as is Seyran’s for a strong woman.
The mere minute-d scene shot contrasted between the two protagonists, stands emphasis on the power they’ve inflicted on each other. Seyran Sanli learns to show herself because of love, Ferit Korhan learns to speak for. Blaming the right people for what his life has come to, blaming the corrupted system, is what pushes Ferit into further discovery of the rotten roots of the mansion he was raised in. As does Seyran, when she discovers, her core instincts that have been imprinted on her mind are actually coping mechanisms and not fit for a justified life.
‘The scene emphasizes several things in mere 2 minutes, along with the strength of love. Love so strong that when it hits your heart, it breaks the walls you’ve built around it. Hundreds of years you’ve kept building these walls and a moment is all that it takes love to bring them down on your head.’ ‘This is the same heart, my words don’t matter’. ‘I can’t command it. I can’t tell myself to stop loving him’. ‘I’m going crazy’ the same heart that they had complete control over. The same that he too could always command to shut up and it would on the thought of pain. All her pride and all his masks, demolished by the pain that love has brought. A pain worth bearing if it teaches you to let go of your cage. Seyran has started accepting her suffering. She accepts she’s human, hence accepts she’s hurting. Ferit has started accepting he doesn’t deserve this. He accepts he’s in the hands of hypocrites, hence accepts he’s suffering.
Orhan Korhan fears drinking from the bottle, ‘leave the bottle son, drink from the cup’
Orhan is the deuteragonist to Ferit Korhan, as is Suna Sanli to Seyran Sanli this episode and the next. The two confidants play aid to the two protagonists these two episodes, while also portraying their own lack thereof.
‘Suna has been a contrast to her sister from the very beginning, while also portraying her own story.’ The same is what Orhan is. What he lacks, Ferit takes strength in. what he’s afraid of, Ferit takes power in. A grey to his black, Orhan Korhan believes silence and hypocrisy to solve everything as it is.
‘Leave the bottle, drink from the cup’ because that is what he is accustomed to in fear of Halis. Drinking from a glass and never straight from the bottle – a metaphor to indicate sophistication over naivety – Orhan fears letting go of the sophistication he covers in front of hypocrisy. Ferit who tells him to drink from the glass himself and leave him alone, drinks straight from the bottle. Head hanging down in agony, this is what Orhan aspires to be. Free, from the chains that cling him to the shiny glass, free from the banishment of the bottle he dies to drink from, or rather doesn’t know how to. The same he teaches his son to do, but what is a glass? Ferit Korhan is fated to break even the bottle that bounds him to dependence for thirst.
Halis Korhan’s curse on his kin, The Korhan mansion’s illness.
The story’s writers are Halis and Hattuce from the past in Antep. What they failed to hold on to then, haunts their families and kin today. ‘Hattuce Sanli is a woman who has spent her life waiting for the man she loves to draw courage. A lifetime on pride that she deserves to hold up. It isn’t a shocker that her granddaughter inherits this fate for her own love’, opposing the same, Halis Korhan is the man that has wasted this woman’s life at the sheer cost of his cowardice and delusion. His grandson, for the same is fated to hold the curse into his own life likewise.
What is Halis Korhan’s problem? He rejects acceptance of equality as well as justification. A misogynistic tyrant who fears confrontation with his mistakes and is used to blame everyone except himself.
Now what has Ferit Korhan’s problem been from the very start? And what about Orhan Korhan? And Ifakat?
‘You should feel sorry for him.’ ‘Ferit cim, instead of acting this stupid here, go and look in the mirror a little too. Maybe then you will understand that this anger you have is towards yourself and not for us. We did this, Seyran did that. Eyh? What did you do? Because you’re white and fluffy right? What did you do Ferit? Nothing?’ Because Asuman here actually holds this mirror up to every member of the corrupted mansion. An illness that they’ve inherited from the head of the people of Antep himself and that they fail to realize. Ferit’s problem the last few episodes as well as all of those before has been what his grandfather has imprinted on his mind as an example. What Halis ruled in delusion of as a reaction to his mistakes in the past, the same he taught his kin. What he built as a coping mechanism to the cruelty he imposed, the same he imprinted on his kin – deflection!
Episode 2: ‘if I did what he did, my father would have cut off my food and water – and now I am punishing my grandson with marriage’ - Halis Aga punishes his grandson with forced marriage instead of healing him himself.
Episode 12: ‘a person must live for the sake of his values. Modesty, honor, dignity, honesty’ - Halis Aga claims to have accepted his sins ironically and violates his grandson when his authority is threatened.
Episode 22: ‘a man doesn’t hand others over, either he does something in the beginning or he stays silent till the end’ - Halis Aga is shown to have taught his grandsons hypocrisy and cowardice to themselves.
Episode 32: ‘I didn’t do anything, you all did everything’ Ferit blames everybody but himself
Halis’ inflicts on his kin’s subconscious:
1 – Inflict what you’ve been imprinted with ‘if you’re upset, everyone else should be too’
2 – Accept your mistake only to yourself and never to others
3 – To be a man is to act once and act correct. If not succeeded then it means to be silent. No second chances
Ferit Korhan continues stroking, Seyran and Ferit’s table tennis game.
How Seyran has drawn and Ferit continues hitting was already portrayed in Seyran’s dialogue while opening up to Suna earlier. Misunderstanding her captivation for her pride, willingly hurting her in spite of the same, provoking her to defend herself again and again and finally make the decision. All portrayals of how Ferit does not want the game to end until he is justified. Something that his subconscious clings to because it is imprinted from Halis’ upbringing. ‘She has drawn pad with signing the papers, drawn pad by hearing Ferit’s intentions to marry another by will. The game doesn’t get any more hits from her. She’s tired of playing, tired of hitting at him. Now Ferit Korhan doesn’t let go. Ferit Korhan keeps hitting. Ferit Korhan keeps trying to get her to play again.’
I’ve emphasized multiple times how Seyran’s pride will not be healed and justified until Ferit realizes all that he’s done.
‘Ferit cim, instead of acting this stupid here, go and look in the mirror a little too. Maybe then you will understand that this anger you have in towards yourself and not for us. We did this, Seyran did that. Eyh? What did you do? Because you’re white and fluffy right? What did you do Ferit? Nothing?’
‘I didn’t do anything, you all did everything’
He’s connecting the dots on all others but himself at the point. The metaphor in why Ferit still had his pad in his hand is the fact that he won’t let the game end. The game ends when both players realize truce. Seyran has realized she can’t hold up her pride anymore –her fainting was the statement for her. She realizes she can’t command her heart anymore. Though until Ferit doesn’t realize his part in the game and all that he’s done to her till now, the game will not end.
- ‘Engin Yalnızlık’ Part 1: statement and solution -
Baris takes to interval with a restart to the story, pacing to the end soon. Introduction – placement – statement – solution. Though this time with more direct and clear dialogue, as if for the last time.
The court scenes portrayed Seyran and Ferit still being captivated in their cages, hence introduction to the cage.
Arriving back home, Halis and Kazim’s hypocrisy in contrast as the sailors again portrayed the owners of the cages - placement.
The Sanli women and the Korhan’s instincts, Hattice Sanli and Halis Korhan’s imprints on their families and Seyran and Ferit’s reactions to each other’s actions based on the same, then portray the two cages for how and what they are, yani statement. Halis Korhan has fed his kin deflection, while Hattice Sanli has fed her’s goaded pride. Both have forced their families to bottle up vulnerability and never show themselves, neither let their voices be heard to anyone but themselves. Some in their families tend to accept their fates while some, especially the youngest question a way out.
He closes Act -1 with solution - in aiding dialogue from Seyran’s deuteragonist Suna. Portraying the need to break free of the cages and leave behind the instincts they’ve inherited as they serve nothing but the past.
‘If you cry where no one can see, will it end? will it pass? Do you know how this pain will end? If you are open about your feelings. That’s when it will pass. Conclusively finishing off as answer to all dialogue from the start.
- Part 2 -
Seyran Sanli’s suffering justified? ‘A person does not understand until experiences’
Baris drags an organized pen. Although a pure confession does prove to wash the past away mostly, the scenarist believes in justification - or rather makafat (justification of fate) first. Or perhaps it is not the pen but the story itself? The balance of the universe itself. The Creator’s justice in love.
It was stated clear in bolum 23, when having introduced several parallels and justifications, Burcu Alptekin flowed her skills into a rather special semiotic reference – portraying the rules of fate loud and clear: ‘Let the violet daisy bloom first, and then the snowdrop’ “New beginnings won’t bloom until concession and establishment of loyalty blooms first”
We understood, Ferit and Seyran were never bound to fight beside each other until each doesn’t feel unburdened by their conscience. The burden that their God doesn’t even let them feel yet, and erases in justifications. The beauty of Allah’s love for his creation, painted by Mehmet Baris Gunger and Burcu Alptekin’s skill and Demir and Saracoglu’s swiftness presented to a generation much needy.
I wouldn’t stress myself to recall when said justifications started because it was horrifically from the very moment Ferit Korhan chose Seyran Sanli to suffer besides him in the Korhan mansion. The moment the 19 year Old’s already stuttering dreams and ambitions were stepped on by the bashful golden boy who suffered in a golden cage – the universe started making its mark on Ferit Korhan and gradually everyone included in his story. Read Seyran Korhan: the captive that hides borrowed darkness behind her light for full briefs on Seyran or Ferit Korhan: the captive that sees a light running away for why Ferit is the one bearing the most parallels and justifications.
Now having been constructing parallels and boomerangs until almost 30 episodes, Baris reveals the cycle to be running backwards. The parallels and justifications turn out to be fate’s way of justifying Seyran Sanli until the very beginning, and that we witness in bolum 32 this week;
Suna Sanli being forced to marry the same way that she took merely for granted when was happening to her sister in Antep. Suna had been sympathetic towards her sister, but acted in vain or rather selfishly for some initial time, when believed her to have done this on purpose. Today as she packs her bags the same, she asks her sister for how she survived this agony. ‘A person doesn’t understand until experiences’ Suna cries at the mockery of her fate.
The same happens to Ferit Korhan coherently at the mansion, when Halis locks him up without any connection to the outside. The same way that he too had taken offensive to himself rather than cruel to Seyran, fate brings him right back to. ‘Did you know her father locked her up, beat her to marry me’ – putting emphasis on how she was not ready to marry him at any cost rather than the fact that she was ‘locked up, beaten.’ It is not until he experiences it himself that he’ll realize Seyran’s perseverance. ‘A person does not understand until experiences’ Ferit panics to let out of the suffocating room fate has locked him up in. A certain level of cruelty could be matched with that if Seyran Sanli’s captivation in episode 2, but either this is not the completed parallel yet or a gap worth filling was identified.
Pelin Yilmaz then, who doesn't need words to be told cruel, also gets served karma in the same way.
Seyran Sanli has been justified up to the very first episodes, where the injustice started taking her captive. Is it time she finally be rewarded freedom too? Perhaps Ferit’s redemption is near?
Empathy: the selfless captives who cried for everyone but themselves.
A little detail to Ferit and Seyran’s characters completed in contrast on how the two ache for the ones they love. Ferit in episode 23, felt for Fuat what he actually had felt himself all his life, but never showed. ‘Suffering the same in silence, buried beneath the weight of the mansion just as deep, he could relate to his brother. Watching Fuat helpless like (he) usually is, he couldn’t bear him to be feeling that darkness. Despite being pushed and hit several times, hugs him as if he’s hugging himself.’
The same completes cycle with Seyran and Suna now. The way she was being imprisoned into a cage she found even more suffocating than the one she was in before, but still thought of her sister and her injustice. They way today Seyran sees in Suna what she’d hidden in the mirror, the day she was taken to Istanbul, but she hides it away while hugging her sister like she’s hugging her old self.
The way both Fuat and Suna had misunderstood these kids for their intentions, and how they actually didn’t have any say in what happened to them.
A beautiful way to portray selfless brother and sisterhood. Yali Capkini touches all parts good and bad of a family.
A heart without beat, a child without soul, Ferit Korhan runs away to his ‘doll’
Bolum 2, after being locked up by her father last night, Seyran goes to her love interest Yusuf for aid. Suggesting running away, she insists to let her see her dreams. Let her live her life without dying for breath. She begs Yusuf to take her away from where she has been captivated – bolum 32, after being locked away by his respective sailor, Ferit goes to his trusted companion Abidin for aid. Suggesting running away to Seyran, he insists to let him see his dreams for once. Let him live without dying for breath. He begs Abidin to take him away from where he has been captivated.
Dreams different, hearts different. Seyran wanted to run away from Ferit while Ferit wants to run to her. He used to reach for Abidin to escape his forced marriage (Seyran) – he now reaches for him to escape to her instead.
Bashing on her door as Romeo did Juliet’s, the child runs to the Sanli house to steal a glimpse of his dream so that his heart starts beating again. The doll that had been snatched from Ferit, he had seen broken in his arms. Anxious and aching to see her fine, he begs Kazim to let him see her. Eyes pouring the sea he stole from Seyran’s eyes, shoulders pulled down from the weight his agony pins on him, fingers forming an expression to beg for a mere minute and two to look at his soul again. Mert Ramazan plays Ferit Korhan at height of longing.
‘I can’t stand it anymore. I can’t stand it Kazim baba look if something happens to her. If something happens to Seyran, I won’t live.’ – Theme to his storm playing now, Ferit has come out with his vulnerability in front of everyone. Leaving Halis’ imprints behind, leaving his pressures behind, leaving the ‘Korhan’, he has come bare ‘Ferit’ to Seyran again.
‘Her... her – despite everything... I love her... – I love her as much as the most, despite everything’ ‘I swear to you – I love her’ – ‘let me see her for two minutes and I’ll leave – let me see her and I won’t bother you again’ – all of the Sanli members hiding behind their doors, hearing him lay bare at Kazim’s feet, begging for a sight of his soul. The soul he had whispered into his doll a little every day. The soul he had kept in his Seyran, a little every moment. He dies like a child, he begs like a child. ‘Ferit is not like us, he is like a child, pure, angry, jealous, but at the bottom just wholly and fully pure’. All his ego and all his spite melted to the ground. All that was frozen and all that was frosted on his heart, ready to melt the second he feels her beam. Ready to break into pieces the moment he feels her warmth.
‘Iyiyim’, Seyran’s confession
Ferit and Seyran had bet on seeing each other in court just a day ago. The two had been tangled into threads of demurral to such extent that neither understood the other’s suffering, rather they both insisted on staying apart and not saying what’s in their hearts. Ferit constantly demanded justification for her ‘put up’ pride – Seyran constantly sacrificed her love for her self-respect. The two continues the game until realized the wound of the word ‘Evet’ to the judge’s question. Watching Seyran lay on the floor, eyes filled with request to not leave her there – seeing Ferit dragged away from her, eyes filled with the pleads to let him hold her. The both realized there and then that they could not live without each other despite their masked rejections. It was in his arms there, that she first said ‘Iyiyim’. With a look conforming her hopelessness. She can’t fight anymore. ‘I can’t fight anymore Ferit’
The court had calmed down Seyran’s ‘fire’ and melted Ferit’s ‘ice’ to some extent. Finding peace in knowing that they didn’t want to let each other go, but madness in knowing they can’t be with the other, the two suffer the saddest of nights.
She'd seen a glimpse of Ferit’s vulnerability at court. His mask of provocation and pride had come off as soon as Seyran held onto him in front of the press. Watching him scream for help, cry for being with her a little longer, Seyran fell into even deeper agony knowing he too doesn’t want to let her go. Add his beggary and song of love that same night – Seyran fell in love with that pure heart again. Secretly wishing he would break her free from here, recognizing his voice, the moment he calls her name, watching him secretly, hearing him secretly from the room Kazim banished her to, she lets the seas out to his confession. Hearing him beg her captivator for a mere sight of her, Seyran falls into the depths of his agony standing right there. All her pride, all her sacrifice, burnt in the fire he breaks in her. She described him like a child with the purest heart, that’s the only thing she sees. Not Ferit Korhan, not the Ferit who lives for himself. She sees Fero in that child crying outside. The Fero who gets jealous over her, the Fero that burns the world in anger, the Fero that is a puzzle piece without another, the Fero that she and nobody else knows.
Crying uncontrollably to his pleads, Seyran breaks Kazim’s chains behind her. Stepping out the room that he had told her not to come out of, she leaves the captivity of ‘Seyran Sanli’ behind. Coming out vulnerable to his vulnerability herself, Seyran answers Ferit’s call to rise with the same. Leaving Hattice’s imprints behind, leaving Kazim’s pressures behind, leaving the ‘Sanli’ behind, she comes bare ‘Seyran’ to Ferit for once.
Ending his suffering with a word, she lets out the weakest cry she has left in her. ‘Iyiyim!’ and time stops. His heart stops. His promise withers. Breath freezes. The body sees the soul. The soul pleads the body. Heart craves the beat. Sun craves the sea, sea dies for the sun. Fire wants breeze. Ice needs warmth. Hasret oldu, ayrılık oldu, Sezen Aksu breaks into song before them. Hüzünlere bölündü saatler, Gördüm Akan iki damla yaş, Ayrılık da sevgiyle beraber, Bir şarkı bir şiir gibi… Seyran affirms his agony with that of hers. ‘I know!’ she tells him. ‘I heard you!’ she tells him. He pauses for a mere duality of a moment, asking her if she is really there or is it his dream again. ‘Have you really come? Did you hear my cries askim?’ – ‘I hear you Ferit’, she lets out tears that feel heavier than his longing –
Ferit throws everything down to his identity to the ground, walks to her with his withered body. Ferit revives his heart back to life. Taking her in his arms before the clock strikes another second, he breathes his soul in. Seyran in white, like the soul that roamed nude without its body, stands still in his grasp. Freeing herself to be consumed back into where he belongs – his heart. She lets herself lie in his grasp in that moment. Doesn’t move, doesn’t do anything, like a dead flower dances its head on the call of the water being sprinkled on it – she only dives her’s in his neck. Smelling home after years of imprisonment as if.
Neither speaks, neither tears away. Ferit only tightens his grasp on his doll, as to never let it go again. Seyran only cries harder, ‘Abla I want to go somewhere where nobody can see me, and cry for hours’. The both stand away form time until Kazim tears them apart again. ‘I beg you’.
Torn from his soul again – left bare without her shelter again – Ferit and Seyran are left nude in the storm again.
People watching, the Sanli women.
Hattuce Sanli standing with a hand to her heart, regretting her cowardice as much as the one’s she loved – Esme Sanli standing at the threshold of her room, lacking the courage to face her captive – Suna Sanli standing not even at the threshold but inside her room, behind Seyran, lacking both the courage and hence the fate to step out. Seyran Sanli lives white to all their grey. A woman that holds the courage to step out for love, to break her chains for love, is the woman that’ll rule out the ignorance of misogyny in the Sanlis as well as the delusion of power in the Korhans.
Note: Suna being the farthest from the threshold – emphasis was put on her lack of hope again – Suna Sanli will wear the black swan – she stays behind Seyran, watching her live what she was supposed to.
Song to the tyrant, ‘Vedalar senin gibi kalpsizler içindir’
Emre Altug dedicates a special plead to the Halis Korhans and Kazims of today’s society. Being pushed into their cages despite begging to be let out, Ferit and Seyran are left barren without each other. Lying on opposite sides of the bed, but that too not the same, the captives lay besides each other caressing their rings, regretting their fate, regretting their decisions to ever think they could live without the other…
Bu kadar zor muydu tekrar başlamak, Was it that hard to start over? Kahrolup özlemle bitmeden yok olmak, To disappear without ending with longing Vedalar senin gibi kalpsizler içindir, Goodbyes are for heartless people like you Çünkü yüreğiyle sevenler ayrılmaz ,Because those who love with their hearts are inseparable. Çünkü gönülden sevenler ayrılmaz, because those who love wholeheartedly cannot be separated.
A sailing ship, lying on Ferit’s side table. Emphasizing a possibility to escape, maybe now or perhaps the end. The solution is and will always be escape.
Don’t cry, baba will get mad, The Sanli brides.
So many hands touch my face, so many my waist, so many my hands.
Like a puppeteer brushes his creation, they dry my wet face. They paint my wet eyes.
So many needles stab me, so many threads suffocate, so many fragrances sicken.
Like a tailor tightens his creation, they pack my dead body in a white dress.
Don’t cry my sister says, don’t cry baba will get mad
I know it hurts, I know it does
Hold me so it passes, but don’t cry. Baba will get mad –
Beril Pozam nails her agony into hearts as did Afra Saracoglu in bolum 2. The two Sanli brides, forced into captivation. Sold in investment, bought in profit. Pieces of land, drilled and farmed on. Pieces of wood, carved and nailed on. Pieces of childhood, snatched and bruised on. Yali Capkini gropes a message not raised enough. Woman from child to bride, lives this fate still in the modern century. Minds still stay ignorant, men still trade the woman.
‘Abidin and Suna love each other very much’, a hidden confession.
Ice softened, fire has calmed between Seyran and Ferit after last night. Knowing that the other feels the same is enough for them to spend their longing in peace. Ferit in Seyran’s place now trying to do anything for his brother, Seyran in Ferit’s realizing how the disappointment of ignoring your own problems for the sake of others lets you down. Both not mentioning it because justification shows them a way into each other’s heart sub-consciously. Each realize why the other did what they did. Things keep on proving themselves in order.
But the vision for the scene seems to be deeper than just justification. A beautiful third perspective narration of the protagonists’ own feelings while describing those of their brother and sister. Meeting again like for the first time in Antep, but not by chance this time, they put out their intentions in front of each other hiding behind Suna and Abidin’s names.
‘Abidin and Suna… Abidin and Suna love each other very much’, Ferit smirks telling Seyran he loves her and knows she does too.
‘Yani, you need to do something’, ‘Abidin is (I am) ready for anything’, he promises while staring into her eyes.
‘What do I do?’ Seyran asks him for herself.
‘You need to convince Suna (yourself)’ to runaway - ‘you need to take stand’ – ‘Seyran I’ll do everything, whatever it takes. Money then money, house then house, I will arrange everything for them (for us). The important thing is for Suna (you) to do something. For you to fight.’
‘Let her (you) not think she was left in a helpless position’, he assures her, eyes filled with all the love he holds back.
‘I can’t do anything now Ferit’, she confesses looking down.
‘Why can’t you?’ he asks with his eyes more than words.
‘I’ve been trying to persuade her since yesterday, I suggested she run away. Said I would follow her anywhere. But she doesn’t dare Ferit.’
‘She’s given herself to her fate. She thinks by reason. She thinks of her sister. She thinks of her mother. She thinks of the things her baba can do. She doesn’t dare Ferit.’
‘She is my heart. She is my love for you. She beats for you. But she doesn’t dare anymore. She’s tired Ferit. I’m tired’
Ferit for the first time understands her for what her heart bears. She for the first time understands his passion to fight for them. A conversation about Abidin and Suna turns into one for their own aching hearts. Hiding behind their names even from themselves, they confess in secret.
Jumping in front of him immediately. Hiding her behind himself. Holding onto his coat. Holding onto her hand. Hiding behind him because she knows she’s safe there. Holding her hand behind him because he knows she’s scared of the weapon. Ferit and Seyran have surrendered to each other. She lets him protect her. He assures her he can and will.
Nodding at each other because no one can manipulate them anymore. Nodding because no one can make them doubt the other anymore. They know they love each other, they know the other suffers no less than themselves. They see each other.
Looking back at him while Tarik takes her away. Watching her being ripped away from him again. Seyran and Ferit are separated again. But this time they still have each other’s hearts to hold on to.
I couldn’t take care of your love’, Suna and Abidin give up.
Suna gave up on Abidin already in bolum 28. I raised a possibility of symptomatic Atelophobia/Fear of imperfection. Emphasis being her constantly avoiding ‘a situation in which they think they could make a mistake, seeing it as threatening’. ‘We don’t have the strength’ – ‘I can’t’ – ‘you knew a kind father’ – ‘who am I?’ – my hands are tied – I couldn’t take care of your love.’ Perhaps her relationship to Abidin. ‘The fear can affect every aspect of their lives, from childhood to adulthood till even love’. Her contrasted protagonist, her sister who doesn’t fear the abuser but the impact that he has on her life and dreams. Hence has potential to breakthrough. Suna in contrast fears this possibility. She fears her decisions being punished, hence lacks the objectivity of mental strength.
Suna and Abidin used to be everything Seyran and Ferit were learning the hard way. Now they’re everything Ferit and Seyran have left behind. Where the young finally take strength in their love above all. They’ve fallen weak at the hands of fate at last. Suna has let down his hopes of maybe fighting for their love. Abidin falls weak alone.
- ‘Left alone’ - Part 2: settlement and execution -
‘Hadi gidelim’
Episode 32 was a clear pacer for the plot. (Writers fasten the story into a seeming time lapse as compared to the usual speed of the plot – to prepare for the end). Baris segmented the first half into statement and solution – with Seyran and Ferit having given in to their vulnerability at last (settlement). Now he proceeds to (execution) – escape.
The Sanli sisters are at a point where they try to think about their mother and the risk of escaping but as time comes closer and closer for Suna to be taken like Seyran was, they panic into surviving for their own. Suna having given up everything to her fate – Seyran having found new hope in her and Ferit’s relationship – Ferit having assured them he and Abidin are ready to do anything; the sisters are ready to take whatever hope comes their way.
Seeing Abidin risking his life for her, Suna blinks in dis-belief to the possibility of a way out. Anxious and panicking in the suffocating cage laced with white ribbon, she will hold whatever hand pulls her out of it. Again Suna’s agreeing to run away isn’t about Abidin but a way out for her. The reason she doesn’t want to marry is Abidin clearly but emphasis is being put on the fact that she would take whatever way out in that moment regardless of it being Abidin. Suna Sanli waits for action rather than daring.
Opposite to Seyran Sanli who holds back her action only for her family. Suggesting they run away from two days now, she dares to do so at the nod of her sister. Seyran who will break her chains but only if she has her sister beside her, didn’t think twice this time before holding Ferit’s hand.
Abidin who loses to his love at last and couldn’t let Suna’s fear drown their love, dares anything for it. Though even love can’t save a drowning ship if the anchor drags still. I broke down Suna and Abidin as the repeating past of Hattice and Halis while Seyran and Ferit a changing future – the same identifies Suna will eventually still stay put by cowardice as Halis Korhan and Abidin will pay the price with his life – as did Hattice Sanli.
Lastly, Ferit who sees nothing but his own need to escape to his love within his love for his brother – lets his vulnerability take strength this time. There’s no space for demurral anymore. Either he lets Seyran go or he fights for her. Cupid flees Psyche away secretly.
The four seeing the railings closing in, escape their cages having nowhere else to go. Operating completely by child ego state, they neither think of the risk, nor of another option. The captives run as far as they can to which ever direction they can. There’s no other way of holding onto each other. ‘Left alone’ by Frederic Rene Bernard as theme to their escape. The composition itself symbolizes being left with no options. A sequence played to impose mindless consumerism, portrays how the Sanli Sisters and the brothers don’t consider the risk and cycle of their actions but only the reason they take that decision. Hence, freedom.
Their laughter turning to a colorful black and white while they escape. Burcu Alptekin already emphasizes their freedom a short lived dream. The four captives that dreamt of life. A memory that photographs itself. A colorless canvas full of color. The two that have learnt to love and the two that have burnt for it.
- Part 3 -
You broke your chains
Another groping take at metalepsis (fourth wall breaking) as Seyran looks to us with not happiness but freedom on her face. ‘I broke my chains’ she says to all the Seyrans watching. The freedom no matter short lived, she rejoices in the open air out her cage. Love opening her clenched fists, telling her to let go. Ferit once again kissing the hand she had clenched since Kazim tried to burn it. Her letting go because she trusts he’ll keep it safe – Ferit and Seyran are safe again. Safe outside their own homes that were nothing but cages. The irony of two kids being safe out in the wild rather than the warmth of a home. A home if they ever had one.
What feels heavy? ‘I can’t breathe’, a kamikaze escape.
Photographed into a memory, played to a theme of bad decisions, the Sanli sisters escape their cages. Thinking they broke the chains holding their feet, they breathe in freedom. But why can’t I breathe Seyran? What feels heavy on my neck? I can’t breathe Seyran. Take this off of me. I can’t breathe.
Seyran falls into that night again. Begging to be let out of the white laced cage. Crying in pain, she couldn’t get out of it on her own.
The chains were not only tied on the feet but on the brides’ necks. The four captives escaped alright but the sisters forgot they still have their slave collars on. A slave collar, majority of woman is made to wear in society. Seyran and Suna Sanli exist to portray the white dress that pulls the chains. Chains pulling them by their neck. The collar was put on Seyran Sanli the day Kazim sold her to the Korhans, the same captivates her sister today.
Suna immediately feels pulled back and suffocated as they drive further away. They’ve let the chains go but the chains haven’t let them. They are not free just yet.
‘You started whining like a girl again?’ Fuat tries to breakthrough.
Fuat, carrying the weight of his promise to a mother to save her child, takes a stand to Halis’ allegations of hatred and envy towards his little brother. It is only because Halis pushes him away that he pushes his brother away in jealousy. Halis putting it as envy and hatred breaks his heart. He makes a try at opening his vulnerability to his grandfather once again – Halis being a man of his hypocritical principles makes him regret it.
‘Because you feel bad, everyone around you should to’ – Halis Korhan’s curse of deflection on his kin he carries the highest himself. A man does not speak of pain, a man does not show tears, a man does not show vulnerability, a man does not show sign of weakness. A coward teaching men to hide behind their manhood – that is Halis Korhan. An ignorant tyrant pitting a brother against his brother – that is Halis Korhan. The father that boasts he’s learnt from his sins and still doesn’t realize the scarcity of time with his loved ones – that is Halis Korhan. The father that has put dirt on his son’s grave yet still doesn’t learn to be a father – that is Halis Korhan.
Rather than healing his grandson’s feeling of inferiority or insecurity, he mocks him for it. Rather than hugging him and assuring him he loves him the same, he slaps him for needing his love. Rather than understanding his love for his brother, Halis spits on him for confessing it. This is the type of ‘man’ Halis Aga is. This is the man who will wait for death to put an end to his torment and regret. This is the man who will eat at an empty table in the empty golden cage that he built.
Seyran and Ferit’s lake of tears, Baris drops the curtain.
Nobody knows better than the Yali Capkini viewer, just how uzun such a story’s yol can be – if I am to speak for my own audience. ‘You saw the road Seyran, like a labyrinth! Very difficult to get to’ Ferit Korhan and Seyran Sanli had lived their longing before they ever met each other. They were captive kids to cages bigger than their dreams. They were captives that were thrown into a room together to make their ever gradual deaths a little less lonely. He kept breaking her pride, she kept breaking his ego. He kept hiding his heart, she kept hiding her pain. They started falling in love but couldn’t understand what it was yet. They couldn’t let go of the captivity of their hearts. The strangers noticed a familiarity of kind. She thought of a pure heart in him. He realized her greatness more than ever. She started opening her wings, he stepped on them in his foolishness. They gave themselves second chances. He overstepped again. Their cages started growing tighter suddenly. She sacrificed her love for her pride. He went out to avenge his for demurral. They parted in spite of each other, waiting for the other to stop but none did. They thought they’d let the other free this way but the cages just grew tighter. They realized after parting that they couldn’t survive their darkness alone. The captives made themselves lonely as before each other. So they showed themselves to each other as well as all others for once. Then they realized they felt the same pain, suffered the same agony. They tried to adapt to their longing for the sake of the ones they loved but still couldn’t command their hearts alone. They grew tired of the chains that kept them apart. They tried to compromise but their hearts weren’t beating anymore. They were dying in chains. They were dying without each other now. The day came, they wouldn’t be able to beat in each other anymore. They feared their death. They begged the chains to let go. The chains groped even harder. The chains suffocated even tighter now. They’d had enough of the chains. They broke them and fled.
It is after they’ve realized they can’t live without the other that their story begins anew. They parted. They suffered. They realized and they took stand for their love. Mehmet Baris developed the couple’s journey quite fluidly till end this episode.
While making their longing and happiness obvious with uncontrollable touch, Seyran and Ferit more importantly portrayed the most needed milestones and confessions as well as parallels into their most beautiful transitions:
Scene 1: Ferit Korhan believes in love, ‘Does it matter Seyran?’
‘You will become lady of this house in the future. This family, this name will be ours’ – ‘what more could you dream of?’ – These are words of Ferit ‘Korhan’ that doesn’t care for any of it today. ‘Will a girl from Antep make me fall in love abi?’ – Indeed she did and her love has changed the same Ferit Korhan in ways he would find strange to his existence in the past.
Even though she now knows he is changed, Seyran seems almost shocked to Ferit rejecting his name. ‘Does it really matter as long as we’re together Seyran? Does it make a difference as long as we are happy together?’ she hugs him in disbelief and happiness. Lets out a sigh of relief after decades of longing as if. He loves me enough to change. ‘Look if we’re together, then we can overcome all the difficulties together Yusuf’ – ‘we are together, you and I, does it matter Seyran?’
She falls in love with him again. Looks at him as if carrying all the stars in her eyes. Ferit lives a little bit of his dream in all his moments cherishing Seyran. He lifts her up and spins her around as in his dream. She’s his dream and she’s finally come true.
Scene 2: Ferit Korhan believes in love, Seyran Sanli believes in him. ‘Being near you is enough for me’
The 19 y/o girl in Seyran shines in her eyes when she looks at Ferit like she knows him. When he doesn’t act like a stranger. When she knows she’s safe with him. When she looks up to him holding all the stars and the skies in her eyes. Seyran and Ferit’s knowledge of the other’s heart is the most powerful thing as if. They’re finally able to show and see in each other the change love has been bringing about all this time. Communication proving to be the biggest lacker in their relationship, they pass every stone in the little time they gift their love.
‘I don’t care about the place or conditions, being near you is enough for me’ – the girl that didn’t care for anything other than her dream of escaping through knowledge. ‘My only goal in this life is to study’ – the girl that would send him away because she was scared of her father’s madness – she now cares for neither danger not dreams. A love so strong that it makes her believe anything is possible when she’s in his arms. A love so unconditional it makes her forget what she used to live for. Ferit has become her goal. He has become her escape. He’s become her dream and its come true. It wasn’t the need to study but to find what she’s been deprived of since childhood first. Love that lets her breathe. Love that admires her dreams and strengthens them. A love that protects the 9 y/o Seyran that hides in her heart. A love like his. A love like her Fero’s.
Scene 3: Ferit and Seyran stand strong on their love. ‘If we die then together’ ‘Nothing can blow this mansion away’
‘Senle ben savaşır mıyız’ ‘Senle ben kazanır mıyız’ – to the hope that someday they will win, yes they fight. Picking up the sword that wore both their prides and prejudices on each side. Realizing they’re meant to fight for each other with it. Standing to defend themselves with it. They’ve come to stand for their love. they’ve taken strength in that love. Ready to die if only it’s together. Ready to live if it’s together. Seyran and Ferit. His Seyro. Her Fero. ‘I’ve built you a new mansion’ one that neither a storm, not a tsunami can blow away. One that stands through this storm. One that is ours.
Scene 4: Ferit’s longing. ‘Look at me, I can’t stand it’
Not for the cupid validation but for the psychological purpose of it I had rather wondered how Gunger shows Ferit’s anxiousness through his longing without breaking his bold streak for the character. The ice breaker could be made bolder than how it was played through by the actors however the maturity seemed to be developing in Ferit’s mannerisms gradually through every time they approached. Another transition from the Korhan to Ferit now – ‘they’re only at the beginning of their relationship. They still have something to talk about. Look at me, I can’t stand it. How long have I endured’ – the same Korhan that suggested they perform physically from day one. The one who blamed her for being late to open up. The one the calls a kiss a ‘reflex’ now realizes there are stages to a relationship. Having went through all he now jokes then gradually expresses a serious need to feel his love, now that he’s risked and passed everything for it. As the thought of the risk bothers him more and more, he starts approaching Seyran accordingly in frustration. It’s not long until they consummate and submit fully after this too. Ferit’s building up frustration will have a way to breakthrough. Seyran has already opened herself to the possibility. The pointer lies at how Baris writes it fit for the sensitivity of the characters.
Scene 5: Catharsis: The peace of Knowing. ‘Don’t be afraid, I’m near’
The cinematography was Pride and Prejudice, the dialogue Swan Lake. It was hard deciding which plot to relate it to, but I concluded on experiencing the scene in the uniqueness and beauty of its own. It was cotton candy one time, the other it became an evening on Venus. Then once it was a thousand sunsets too, but the other it became nothing but the peace of healing.
The peace of knowing you matter to someone. The peace of knowing you have a purpose. Knowing you have something to hold onto. Knowing you aren’t as worthless as you were told. Knowing you suffered for a reason. The peace of knowing your grief will matter to someone. The peace of knowing someone will mourn you. The peace of knowing happiness. The peace of knowing. Love.
The peace of.
Knowing.
The story moves to a final confession between Seyran and Ferit as they pass their fears. Seyran returns to preaching Ferit’s change after realizing his love. Ferit Korhan has come too far from his old self – he fears abandonment. It is their traditional sequence of opening up to each other – They step on a milestone together but Ferit takes a step back due to either his foolishness or his fear of change. Seyran’s confidence that she gathered from his courage to stand for their love changes that sequence this time. Accepting she was afraid too for the first time. Telling him she’ll be here for the best and the worst. Seyran swears her presence to the lonely prince child who stayed calling to his family his whole childhood.
‘I - what if I can’t make you happy? What if. I can’t give you a good life? – having left the castle far
behind. Siegfried fears the dark forest now. Maybe I can’t protect you from the dark alone? Maybe I can’t fight of the monsters that lurk here? Maybe I’ll disappoint you like I did mother? Fear of imperfection, bottling up vulnerability, hiding in closets, fearing trying to change. All that the Korhan castle bound him to possess wouldn’t leave its mark yet. He’s feared Halis his whole life because he loved him the most. Now that he’s changed that person to Seyran and he lives to make her happy instead, his fears shift to her as well. Fearing letting her down, fearing he’ll try to be perfect for her but fail miserably, Ferit asks Seyran the question.
The swan queen swiftly spreads her wings on the prince’s shoulders. Stroking his face with her feathers, the feathers suddenly turn into soft fingers. Wiping away his tears. Wiping away his sorrow. Transformed by his love, Seyran doesn’t allow him to complete the sentence.
‘As long as we’re together, we will have a wonderful life.’ The prince now letting tears out his tired eyes. ‘I won’t be able to have that wonderful life if you’re upset’ continues the queen in her mesmerizing flow. Icimde Firtina playing to the scene, melody to Ferit’s confession. The same question again ‘Senle ben savaşır mıyız’
‘we can live in tents, I don’t care’ ‘we can live in the dark, I don’t care’ ‘we will fight of the monsters together, I don’t care’ ‘we will protect ourselves from the dark together, I don’t fear’ ‘we will be able to fight Ferit. As long as we’re near’
Smiling proud of his love. Crying in disbelief of his destiny. He kisses her forehead before they jump together. ‘cok seviyorum lan seni Antep fistig’ – ‘bende seni cok seviyorum’. The darkness lurks behind the forest. Von walks in wait to hit again. The swans swim in peace of the Queen and the prince’s reunion. The forest hums of quite love. Seyran and Ferit see eachother now. Odette and Siegfried don’t fear anything anymore. They see the lake of tears in front of them. ‘With you even dying will be beautiful’ – they jump in the lake holding eachother as one.
Baris drafted a beautiful opposition to the story while metaphor -izing Odette and Siegfried’s escape to death into Seyran and Ferit’s escape into life. The two captives grew tired of their cages, they found love to save them. A lake of tears that gives life rather than union in death. The lovers’ spirits rise above the lake but as life bringing as ever.
A satisfying end to the Seyran and Ferit’s ‘forced’ togetherness. A peaceful end to the storm.
The King, The Lotus and Two Friends of Winter,
It was introduced as a prominent motif first in bolum 29. The room at the very entrance of the mansion. We saw Ferit rejoicing in love there, we saw Seyran falling in it. Finally we saw Seyran imprisoned in the same room and then the couple signing each other apart there too. By this time the viewer had found emphasis on the field. ‘All this time that the mansion had portrayed itself as a golden cage. It was the dungeon at its entrance that captivated the rebellious prisoners. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s revealed to be Nukhet Korhan’s former room in the future. An armless lover, the leaves of their dynasty, at the entrance. A home worth reviving dead tulips for, a sun shining clarity and freedom, a window calling to escape, inside. A captive beaten into giving up love and a captive forced to give up the beloved, standing in between on the hopeless threads of love’ – bolum 29
This episode after, Seyran had destroyed the rest with her marriage, the room had been re-decorated rather mysteriously. Assigned to the predictable guest, the cage opened door to another captive of Halis Korhan. Hattice Sanli. Alptekin’s vision and Baris’ words for the field interest me of its importance in the plot. The room being rest to all of Halis Korhan’s captives already threw attention to being connected to Nukhet Korhan – though it is the way that it is decorated that introduces even more stories and insight into the characters.
New to the old semiotics, Alptekin added Chinese porcelains and a rather lonely painting to the room, welcoming Hattice to stay the night. Both being present while she made conversation to Esme Sanli and Halis there.
The four paths to truth were emphasized behind Ferit and Seyran while they fought for his prejudice and her pride in this room (refer to bolum 29). Now that the two have discovered the right path and take to walk on it together, the semiotics have been replaced by the four seasons instead of paths. The two are past the paths, now they face the changing seasons of love/destiny:
The porcelain décor symbolized on the same wall reminded of the Chinese’s traditional Porcelains from the Market Street Chinatown vaguely. The decoratives being crucial to the ancient communities at the time are core data, studied in all fields including semiosis.
‘This decorative pattern is also called Four Flowers according to its floral motif. It appears on a variety of vessels forms. Four kinds of flowers representing each season are distributed evenly on the surface of the vessels, with the image of a peach in the central part of the vessel. The flowers chosen by the porcelain painters are specified species representing each season: peony for spring; lotus for summer; chrysanthemum for autumn; and plum blossom for winter. When the four flowers appear together on the porcelain, they stand for a complete circuit of four seasons’
Seasonal groupings of flowers are a common theme in Chinese art, frequently presented as four parts on an artifact, with each flower standing for a season. The flowers on the porcelains are not only representations or the four seasons, but also conveyers of a full set of meanings auspicious to the Chinese.
Hattice’s presence before these sacred motifs speaks for both the Sanli women’s destinies and Seyran and Ferit’s;
Peony (spring) as the “king of flowers” is the most popular botanical motif in China, standing for wealth and honor. Though dig a little abstractly into its background and you’ll be reminded of Halis’ resemblance to it. It’s no shocker to have contrasted a coward tyrant to a bashful flower that was shield to the nymphs from Victorian ages who learned to hide their naked forms by turning into a peony.
The flower for summer,lotus: another popular theme in Chinese literature and art. It became popular in China with the spread of Buddhism as symbol for purity and harmony. Hattice Sanli. The lone woman rowing a lost boat represents the motif herself. Holding close connection to Gautham Buddha’s lotus, it speaks the story of the one who’s overcome pain and emotions. One who’s been pure. One who’s passed worldly pleasures. One who’s learned to hope the morning will be better than the evening. Lotus – a symbol of purity as such that the one sitting on it must be pure both physically and mentally. Hattice Sanli has neither been touched nor been corrupted. A pure lotus that exists in temporary death, to be reborn again. A woman reborn in Seyran Sanli.
Summer suffers and the spring tries to bloom lonely. Autumn makes the withered leafs fall and the winter clears it all away. Halis and Hattice live their stories as the lotus and the peony (summer and spring). Seyran and Ferit pave the way to break the cycle.
The chrysanthemum (autumn) and plum blossoms (winter) are called “Two Friends of Winter,”
The two that bloom when the other two wither under the cold and frost winter winds. The two that symbolize perseverance and purity. The two that bloom for longevity. The chrysanthemum that is medicine and the plum blossom that is safety. Seyran has healed Ferit. Ferit protects his Seyran. The two flowers that stand rooted no matter what. The Ferit and Seyran who chose to stand strong to the Korhan’s frozen winter winds. The two friends of winter. Ferit and Seyran.
The king peony, the pure lotus and the two winter friends chrysanthemum and plum blossom. Halis that rules in cowardice and hide and Hattice who stays pure to death until reborn again. Seyran and Ferit who bloom after Hattice and Halis have withered. They who stay despite the wind and they who stand despite the storm. The king, the lotus and the two friends of winter.
The same emphasis is made with Zula Kenyon’s painting as well (referred later in character briefs) where quote ‘The emphasis to Hattice being the lone woman who rows a lost boat and Halis being the port/shore she looks to – then contrasting to Ferit and Seyran sitting together by a shore speaks for the characters’ fates itself’
The porcelains also refer to the Sanli women. Shot taking us to Seyran and Suna immediately after we move focus from Hattice and Esme emphasizes the first two as the withering flowers and the sister as rebirthing, and blooming reflections of them. Hattice and Esme, the summer and the spring. Seyran and Suna, the two friends of winter.
Not for long, but you will be alone: another captive rewarded death, another left alone.
Recovery and settlement pro-drop out is a tricky sector. I’d compliment Baris off script for how the pages dealt with Fuat Korhan’s death – but more specifically how it took the protagonist’s conflict into loop.
Ferit Korhan’s fear of abandonment and loneliness was a problem seen long coming now. It was portrayed wonderfully by the actor playing the character as well as the other characters that foil the protagonist. These two episodes while he tries to cope up with the adventure and keeping Seyran happy, Ferit was seen scared, hesitant and worried several times alone. He’d then quickly cover up and go back to being a dork to keep them laughing.
Fuat’s (Ferit’s older brother) death despite being improvised mid script, could play a huge role resurfacing conflict after Seyran and Ferit’s settlement. The Season still having left 3-4 episodes is sure to resurface conflict if delivers an ending as bold as its climax.
A true tragic goodbye to the character pulled a stabbing leash on the family that sat too resting on the delusion of immortality and power. Halis Korhan, the coward that preached what he never dared. Orhan Korhan, the puppet that echoes Halis’ words and actions and nothing else. Ifakat Korhan, the poison that executes Halis’ teaching with her own poison. Gulgun Korhan, the décor that stays lifeless in fear. But most importantly the whole of the Korhans that do not realize the scarcity of life and keep at playing it by their own rules. The pain that they’ve inflicted on their young their whole lives will be put on them eventually after the second elder son died in unjustified. Gulgun will regret her silence to eventual madness, Orhan will regret his hypocrisy to probably the end of his own life, Ifakat will stay bound to the IVY’s cage eventually, and Halis Aga will wait for death to reward him escape from his guilt and cowardice. Another captive that was rewarded death as compared to the corrupted mansion. Another after Emin Korhan. Another after Halis’ wife. Ferit will fall into loneliness, possibly pushing Seyran away because of the death. But this time the mansion feels with him.
- Part 3: Catharsis and Resurfacing -
Introduction – placement – statement – solution – settlement – execution. Yali Capkini could air the 30s without the rest and make a story make sense from what bolum 32 and 33 contribute to the plot. A beautiful plot curve from introduction to execution to portray the characters’ development arcs. The cages were introduced – the captives were placed – a conflict was stated for what it was – the solution was raised justifiably. Seyran and Ferit, now having grown tired of fighting themselves settled on the solution after 3 months of constant opposition. Settlement motivated execution and the four captives escaped.
A fulfilling catharsis for the protagonists was served right to the heart when Seyran and Ferit finally let their hearts go completely. No principles put on leash by their families exist between them. No demurral, pride and prejudices. Baris dropped the curtain between the two characters to the very ground. A complete catharsis to the forced marriage motif to Seyran and Ferit as the marriage is not forced anymore, they’ve broken the cage they were put into. Left to conquer are the ones that are former to the marriage. The one in Istanbul for Ferit Korhan and the one in Antep for Seyran Sanli. A resurfacing conflict already introduced in the episodes when the two enemies got used to eachother eventually. The fight to eachother has ended, now they fight together. Ferit’s abandonment, Tariq’s obsession and Halis and Kazim’s captivity. Seyran and Ferit represent a united but stronger front to a new fight.
CHARACTER BRIEFS
Orhan Korhan: a wasp that follows light
There is nothing new to Orhan except a new inspiration. The character’s arc has been built in a way that compliments his complexity in a manipulative manner. It was first done with Gulgun in episode 26, when he defended his marriage in front of Defne. Now he performs the same parallel with Ferit while standing up to Halis for him. While his scenes with Ferit are heart touching, it is no doubt in reality that these circumstances will be short lived when his mirror is held up.
Orhan Korhan is the wasp that follows light. Emphasis; he only follows and cannot create it by himself. In episode 26, Orhan was faced with a choice between his need to escape and need to accept. Chasing behind Defne and hearing her teaching him ways he could escape his cruel reality, Orhan realized, Gulgun not only supported him to hold onto it, but she did it while still being in the center of the same reality. This realization made him value Gulgun above Defne.
The same way now in 32/33 Orhan was faced with the same choice but between staying silent and speaking up. Hiding in his decorative shell because he was too selfish to look at ‘his’ son’s trauma other than his own, Orhan can be seen observing Ferit’s courage in front of Halis. Seeing him fighting for his love or more importantly standing up to Halis’ injustice and calling him out for it, Orhan gradually found inspiration in Ferit. Inspiration that led him to see in Ferit, a version of himself that he had only dreamed and never let loose. Seeing Ferit doing what he never could, Orhan finds inspiration in him and nothing more. In appreciation for which of course he gets the validation for fatherhood that he had always failed to claim. Just as he returns back to Ifakat after a long haul at faithfulness to his wife and family, he will return back to being a decoration for Ferit soon enough. A contrast between Ferit Korhan and another one of his generational characters as usual as Ferit fasted but never broke this fast of faithfulness to Seyran. Fast, everybody will but purify, only some. Ferit exists to change the Korhan line thereof.
An exclusive to the character the last episode was Gogh’s ‘La mairie d'Auvers sur Oise le 14 juillet’ painted behind him and Ifakat in his office. Exclusive because if referenced to the artist let alone the painting itself, Orhan’s end will not be that of change or healing. Either the painting refers to Orhan’s self-destructive/suicidal end or Emin Korhan’s truth that Ifakat had covered up by an accident. Both of which will push Halis to further tragedy.
Kazim Sanli: What it takes to be an Aga
Kazim’s scenario is quite similar to Orhan’s, except his emotional incomings and inspirations are vaguer then Orhan’s. I mentioned how Kazim was stripped of a father at a mere age of not even realizing who his father was. He like Orhan never had a father to look up to let alone in his case he never had one literally. Kazim Sanli molded himself into the household’s Aga as he pleased. With no one besides an obeying Hattice to learn from, Kazim neither cared nor ever learned what being a father meant. Hence he painted kin as a mean of trade into the modern world. Prepared his daughters to be sold for his own satisfaction and beat them to tame at the cost of not having a son.
What confuses the eye today is his rare appreciation of emotion in Ferit Korhan’s eyes. As if breaks greedy/materialistic character when ferit tries to wake his emotions but just like Orhan he goes back to his old self because he was never taught the right way to feel these emotions that confuse even his self. We saw him bonding with Ferit while crying for his daughter, crying at his confession of love for her and now consoling and giving strength to the boy when he’d lost his brother. Ferit himself tells him he does this because he’d always wanted a son but there’s more to it. Kazim Sanli is a deprived and blinded boy who was let out in the world to survive alone. Hattice raised him as best as she could but in the world outside the mansion, he was left boots of a man, too big to fill in. Thus he was taught by his own experiences that men are the ones that rule the world and women are a mean of trade and reproducing. He still has a heart that feels, but the emotions are underdeveloped and hence the man doesn’t know what to do when they strike.
The misogyny is rooted even deeper to the extent of hypocrisy when feeling emotion for Ferit and even Seyran in front of ferit, but never in front of his daughter. He takes every opportunity to show power that he thinks he doesn’t have enough to survive in the world of man.
Gulgun Korhan: Kül
Bir çocuk doğduğunda söyledikleri doğru.
Bir annenin kalbi artık kendisine ait değildir.
Koşar, zıplar, kıkırdar ve sırıtır,
Ve çenesinden bir öpücük için kucağında sürünür,
Ama o çocuk gittiğinde kalbi nereye gidiyor?
Gulgun existed as nothing but Gözde Kansu’s brutality to the screen she performs this week. A silenced wife by her own shackles, a deafened mother by her own cries, there is no character that stabbed the heart more than Gulgun Korhan.
We saw her discovering Orhan back in another’s arms after he had sworn his loyalty to her not long ago again. The sight seems to pierce her heart but not enough to bring her pain to her lips, as if she’d seen nothing that she didn’t already know. ‘What does she offer that I haven’t given you Orhan?’ she suffers in inferiority and loneliness of being the second woman in her own marriage.
Losing faith in her marriage once again she puts her wholeness towards her sons. The only thing that she can call her own until tragedy strikes twice. The only thing she can be proud of herself for, the only thing she holds on for is her sons. Wearing the same clothes she did when she feared for Ferit’s life, Gulgun cries her heart all day for her son to be safe. Begging her eldest to save his brother she fears Ferit will be taken away from her. ‘You are my first tear. My soul’ she hugs her son while he cries in her arms. Not knowing her arms will be ripped of his tears before they even dry, she sends Fuat to save his brother.
Gulgun’s character was originally written as a past conflict for Seyran Sanli, representing all that Seyran will bring change to. However this is where Mehmet Baris excels at skill. While accused of depriving his characters of their own journeys, I believe he performs rather swiftly in presenting the opposite. Gulgun Korhan is the story of all the women that live for what they’ve borne and nothing else when lost hope in life. It is the story of the mothers that hold onto life solely for the sake of the life they’ve borne into the world. The eyes that see only to watch what they’ve borne bloom into what they couldn’t have all their lives. A story of the mothers who’ve lost their reasons to hold onto their cruel life. A mother who’s lost her first tear.
Kansu excelled in delivering a mother’s pain to hearts that don’t even know what motherhood is yet. A justification of emotion in cinema when a mother’s scream deafens the world’s loudest sounds. A scream that blamed Halis Korhan for what he’d done to her child. A scream that mocked Orhan Korhan for what he’d deprived her child of. A scream that erased a mother’s existence into ash for she doesn’t remember life before her child. I laud Gözde Kansu for the pain she delivered from within herself that night and the expression she achieved to hold. It is rare that cinema showcases what humans really feel, it is rare that cinema feels real. Rare to have artists like you be a part of cinema today.
Esme Sanli: Last thread pulled
I’ve not addressed Esme’s character enough, while my recent participation. The reason being; the character is a flat (till present). From Antep to Istanbul, Esme has played the role of a mother that had become helpless to protecting her daughters from the fate she had already lived. Similarly to Gulgun Korhan, Esme’s life dedicates to solely her kin after finding hopelessness and nothing else in her marriage.
Esme’s expressions to Kazim’s orders and delusional claims weren’t that unnoticeable the past few episodes. While she still continues to maintain helplessness towards the physical abuse, her breakthrough has gradually been developing through plot.
Episode 33 we see her warning Kazim of the consequences of failing at protecting their daughters. Addressing him as Kazim, her husband rather than Aga’m, her owner - for she discovers the sole reason of her boasts to Ferit to be worthless. ‘Your Kazim papa, he beats and screams. But he’s never looked at another woman’
It was clear then and proved now that Esme’s last thread after her daughters’ existence is Kazim’s loyalty to the family. Now that she’s seen that to be severed, she doesn’t hold back.
‘I couldn’t protect my daughters’ – she realizes she’s been justifying Kazim’s cruelty with the satisfaction of his loyalty. No matter the abuse she herself is living, Esme Sanli too is a participant in the abuse as is Gulgun Korhan by maintaining silence for the sake of hypocrite men who fake their honor.
Ifakat Korhan: some souls suffer silently.
There is nothing more approving of Ifakat’s character than Gülçin Santırcıoğlu’s stylish conveyance of her. A refreshing villain that swaggers the screen when she performs, Santırcıoğlu excels in Ifakat’s skin. What brings me to address the character this episode is an instinct Baris hid behind her intentions twice this time.
Ifakat Korhan is known to be widowed a young age. The husband Emin was lied to be killed in a car crash when in reality it was the mansion’s system itself that killed him. A system Ifakat then herself became with intention of what kind not in mind. While she plays the villain purely in most situations, she is also shown to care about the family members when things get worse. A sole pointer to a villain’s intentions being forced by past events and not purely hatred.
This episode, Ifakat gave herself away for a split minute as she did when Ferit had come to her after being rejected by Seyran. It seemed as if she longed for Ferit’s hug or perhaps envied it, while watching him bonding and confessing to Orhan. A similar motherly expression to when she felt a speck of worry, seeing Ferit cry and breakdown in front of her in the late 20s of episodes.
There are a series of manifestations to be gathered and linked to these feelings and expressions in time, though for now, pointing them out is all I mean.
Halis Korhan: Power is recognized by what you do with it.
‘Halis Aga is someone who holds wisdom as power but the power, he exploits. The character was shown to support and resolve conflict for the sake of peace in the family, however the imperfection lies in the authority he claims because of this service. We talked about how his past holds him captive to moving on, it is hence this same gap in his conscience that resulted in his mistakes. Misuse and displacement of power. A spot on the moon to reveal itself as reason for Hattice’s compromised life as well.’ His mistakes in the past that are yet to be fully revealed but have vaguely made presence, have somewhat made Halis doubt his family’s future. Doubt, that made him force a made up life, onto his sons. The Korhan legacy and inhumanly strict rules in the mansion seem as if a shield or protections that Halis has built over the years, so that the mistakes he’s made, cannot be repeated.
The Aga of the people of Antep disregards his own deeds while criticizing those that the ones he thinks are below him have done. The physical violence he projects on Ferit, to him is justified because he is Halis Korhan and therefore has power and right to it. But Kazim deserves to be reacted to, because he is a mere ‘elder’ and does not deserve obeisance. All his wisdom, respect for family and most importantly women, comes to compromise when triggered to his power. Stays blind to Ifakat’s plays even knowing her capability, in obsession of his power. Power above all is the delusion Halis Korhan is shown to be living in. The disrespect and brutality. The imbecility in his gestures, while he describes what he would have done if he was Ferit when Seyran rejected his hand, exposes the ugliness of this power in instance. The same hypocrisy he exhibits this episode when is left speechless at Ferit’s mocking questions about him marrying Pelin. The extent to which Halis will go to defend his ego went down to him betraying his own words and rules. Even Ferit who loves his grandfather the most laughs at his duality. Locking ferit up, depriving him of the love he himself forced him into. Halis has become a stranger to his own logic in his slavery to his pride and prejudice.
Although reminded again and again of the life he has deprived Hattice Sanli of, Halis runs away from confrontation from her as well as himself (the same thing that then his son does to his wife and his grandson did to his). An ego-derived figure that exploits power and authority as a mask to cover his guilt and cowardice, Halis Korhan runs still from the cowardice he showed years ago in Antep. The same that Hattice Sanli wasted her life at the cost of, the same that his son and coming generations inherited and the same that Ferit Korhan is and will turn into bravery and power sourced from love.
We saw a glimpse of Emin’s memory in the Egoist’s eyes when warned his youngest of the risk that Ferit brings to his heart. ‘Will you learn how to be a father when you throw dirt on your son’s grave?’ When he himself never learned from the death of his own. Orhan looks to him in disbelief. Halis Korhan didn’t and still doesn’t know why and how his son died and he doesn’t realize he took part in his eldest grand son’s death too. When realized which will torment him to death.
A man who does not open his eyes to Allah’s orders while being surrounded by signs, Halis Korhan simply fears the light in delusion.
‘We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light’ – Plato
Hattice Sanli: The lone woman that rows a lost boat
Hattice Sanli as Halis Korhan too is a ruler in her family that could have changed her kin’s destiny. But there’s a difference between the two. Hattice at the very least accepts her injustice. ‘I accepted everything I saw at my mother and father’s house as right’ while apologizing to Esme for her silence. Even though she doesn’t remind herself to speak up most of the time, she realizes subconsciously, she is in the wrong somewhere.
Another woman held captive by Halis Korhan. The difference is, he keeps the others captive in the golden cage while Hattice Sanli he keeps captive to his memory. Burcu Alptekin serviced an elegant detail to the characters through semiotics again, when the painting ‘alone’ by Zula Kenyon was relocated in the room that she particularly stayed in. Hattice staying in the room continues to prove to me it’s participation in the life of every woman that Halis and his name has done injustice to. Previously referred to as ‘the mansion’s cage’ as well as Nukhet Korhan’s bedroom. The painting depicts a lonely woman, tired of rowing a boat lost as if. She wears a pink dress lit bright by the moonlight. The moon being a full which safeguards but also reveal dangers ahead. This woman is looking to some direction. As if wishing her vision to come to her as she’s too tired to row the boat to the direction. Cut to- a scene where Halis runs away from confrontation as always to his room, where he’s shown in front of a painting portraying a shore now. A sort of port on a lake. The emphasis to Hattice being the lone woman who rows a lost boat and Halis being the port/shore she looks to – then contrasting to Ferit and Seyran sitting together by a shore speaks for the characters’ fates itself.
Hattice Sanli is the woman who rots at a lost shore while her lover is too afraid to row out his port. The lover admires her beauty from afar, but never dares to row close. A woman that wasted her life waiting for a coward that took no sensitivity in making her wait. A woman who is tired of sitting pretty and sight to a love that only admires from afar. A woman who despite being against it, sees in Ferit what she wanted to see in his grandfather. One who puts a hand over her mocking heart when sees Ferit having the courage to do what Halis never dared to. The one who finds the bravery she begged her lover to have when he lost her away to his cowardice.
Hattice Sanli was the one who sent Seyran where she first met Ferit, she is the one who sees Ferit for the potential his love has. It will be Hattice Sanli who lets Romeo see Juliet before he’s banished. She will not let her fate be repeated on lovers who take strength in everything she finds herself weak for.
Fuat Korhan: ‘and I remained small, tiny inside this house’
As Dokugan Polat decides to leave the project for good, a look back at his character is in order I suppose. I didn’t really take much perpetual interest in the character because would rather wait on his breakthrough. Written in the pitcher as a brother who will compete with Ferit when he matures enough to take on the family business, Fuat Korhan was to be developed into being pressured enough to stand opposing his brother. While waiting on his development I’d only ever described his life to be impacted by the little info we were introduced to. Dreams, overburden and comparison:
Putting people ‘in place’, Halis dragged Fuat into business at a very young age. The delusional tyrant who’d never imagine the family members to dream of anything other than the Korhan name paid no attention to the child’s interests nor his dreams. “I gave you a big company” “You are ungrateful” As if working in the company was the greatest he could’ve achieved in life. Blasting music on his headphones after everybody had slept, Fuat revealed a hint to his dreams of a different life in the pilot itself.
His own imagined life, never spared to him, Fuat was then overburdened on top of it. Centered on a painting in his room, the character stands as a man too weak to the weight he carries. In the painting he stands amidst a forest, carrying a weight above his head. It’s almost as if the man is about to fall backwards because of it – another potential plot triggered in bolum 22, put on hold for a little too long. Fuat was neglected by Halis as compared to Ferit when they were young and handed over to the company before he could blink. As a reaction to which Orhan found relatability in him. Another reason as to why Ferit isn’t that close to Orhan like Fuat is. This was when not only Halis but Orhan too started expecting more of him. We see him trying to put Ferit into business matters too, to see if Orhan would burden him with the responsibility. Though Orhan doesn’t. “We can’t drag Ferit into this” “but you pulled me in baba?” “You are the only one that I can rely on in this family” overburdened with this reliance, Fuat suffocated.
Yet again, one doesn’t act out in vain. Fuat loved Ferit as he is, Ferit loves him the same. But if there’s one thing that can break a man’s ego, that’s being compared and leveled low to another (let alone his younger brother). Fuat and Asuman married out of love, we know that from the start. However the extent to which comparison and neglection can affect not only you but other relationships around you is highlighted in him particularly. Constant discouragement and ironic behaviors about their inability to give the mansion an heir brought him to doubt not only himself, but Asuman too. We saw him being as supportive as he could in the start (because he loved her no matter what) though his mindset changed more and more over time. He’d started to hurt her too. Now seeing everything revolving around Ferit, because Halis expects an heir from him, Fuat’d started to go completely array. He didn’t act out until he’d lost the sympathy and support of everyone one by one just like he didn’t snitch on Ferit until Halis lowered him in comparison when they were young. Fuat’s antagonism to Ferit would not have developed for the company or because he hated him, but because; “You single out Ferit Dede, you all do” the boy just wants his family’s attention and freedom like Ferit does. Though because of his insecurity being played out by his brother, he sees him as an enemy.
We moved along with a flat plot to the character most of the episodes, Gunger kept dangling the character with the other storylines for it to not loose effect, then gradually started feeding scenes of rising jealousy or innocent envy to him. The top reason we found Fuat to be what he is, was his burdens and discouragement by Halis.
Cut to- bolum 33 when the actor took stand to the neglection to his plot – we see Fuat’s farewell to the Korhans in shadow of the discouragement aspect mainly. Playing farewell scenes with each member of the family one after another, Fuat justified his way to the perfect goodbye before his tragic end. Crying in the arms of the mother he’d just discovered to be loving him more, taking strength from the chest of the brother he had discovered to be loving and appreciating him the most, but still being spat on by the grandfather whose love he’d needed the most all his life, Fuat walked into an angelic scenery.
Taking stand and breaking his cowardice, he admitted to having been inspired his little brother. Promising his wife a free life. Promising her a family away from the corruption of the Korhans, he died kissing her hand in promise.
As for farewell to Dokugan Polat, I’d rather not find him guilty of neglecting the story of Fuat Korhan’s plot. The story is serviced by a professional psychologist and a scenarist who takes their vision for the plot into account obviously. The plot clearly operates visions for a waiters’ effect (referred to Zeigarnik’s formally) where potential plots are made loose effect intentionally to have an impactful dramatic effect when they’re broken through. Some actors decide to connect to the writer’s vision for the story rather than their own participation in it as priority. Some decide to put themselves first. Not knowing the reason for the actor’s withdrawal at the very apogee of the series, I’d harmlessly defend the actor’s decision, looking from his perspective at the fact that he was being held up at the dining table, waiting for his story to be brought up. Art is art no matter how much you’ve contributed to it. Fuat’s exit was made with swift dialogue and skillful acting to top it up. A kudos to Dokugan Polat for bringing his complexity to this character and the contribution it made to the story up until now.
Suna Sanli: child in the closet
An exclusive to the character hooked me when Suna stood up from an empty closet on her way out to the wedding. ‘What makes closets highly symbolic is the idea that they relate to the psyche of the dreamer.’ The image of the so called “closet” can be considered a sub compartment of the mind, something hidden that has been stored away. Like the house is a metaphoric blueprint of what has been built over time from the dreamer – memories, behaviors, emotions, experiences, principles belong here. It is the same as Ferit’s imprints of the hospital corridors, or Seyran’s memories of the dark attic. The closet however is an area or part of your experiences that remain hidden or closed off from your day to day life. What makes the closet in your subconscious so profound is the fact it can tell you things about yourself that you might be too afraid to admit.
‘Suna Sanli is shown to have borne the same fate as her sister. Both live a written fate of abuse and captivity. However Seyran, being the protagonist representing the Sanli household is a more strong/steadfast version of her sister. She doesn’t fear the abuser but the impact that he has on her life and dreams. Hence has potential to breakthrough.’ ‘Suna fears her decisions being punished, hence lacks the objectivity of mental strength.’ All that she preaches Seyran, she’s afraid to seek herself. Theatrical data doesn’t yet allow diagnosis, but her condition can be referenced to Atelophobia or Fear of Imperfection. Not to be mixed up with perfectionism, which contrasts her to Ifakat. Perfectionism is a personality trait. You hold yourself to extremely high standards and strive to be flawless. Atelophobia (Suna) is an actual fear of flaws. Someone with Atelophobia may avoid a situation in which they think they could make a mistake, seeing it as threatening. ‘We don’t have the strength’ – ‘I can’t’ – these are dreams – our hands are tied – ‘you knew a kind father’ – ‘who am I?’ Perhaps her relationship to Abidin too. The fear can affect every aspect of their lives, from childhood to adulthood till even love.’
I referenced to Atelophobia in 28, the black swan in 31 and the both again now. The path to her transition will be developed through her suffering at the Ihsanli mansion (which is obvious now that Tariq’s found them). Suna managed to escape from the wedding but only through Abidin’s courage. When the time comes and she’s left alone with the decision to take stand for her love, she will fail to build up the courage alone. Repeating Halis and Hattice’s fate again while Seyran and Ferit oppose it.
Seyran and Ferit: ego states and the kamikaze escape
Individualizing the characters after the development portrayed tonight would be a disservice utmost. Watching glimpses on demo, I had doubted Baris’ decision to pace their development along with the falling action, but having watched both pacers together, would justifiably claim the decision bold. The two might just have been the smoothest episodes so far per development.
The ‘og’ reader would know I’ve raised the transactional ego states for the characters Seyran and Ferit quite briefly at this point. Episode 29, when Seyran Sanli exposed her cohesive identity to dissolution, we talked about her ego states and how she’d started operating from the child (to define: born to the transactional ego states, The child ego state is the part of the personality, which is preserved from actual childhood; it also contains all the impulses a person was born with. The child ego state is, as said above, primarily about spontaneous feelings, needs and wants of the child. It is also important to note that the child ego state contains ‘recordings’ of childhood memories and experiences. Therefore, when the person feels and acts as they did when they were very young, they are experiencing their child ego state)
Episode 30 onwards Seyran and Ferit had gradually both started operating from the same state. Repelling eachother while hiding their vulnerability, these traits were clearly recorded into their sub consciences all through childhood. Hence they operated through the natural/free/taught child (natural/spontaneous instinct) – Note: The Korhans and Sanlis are core to the conflict in both characters from the very start – It is known to the plot follower that the characters have been under constant target since the last whole month. The last time they felt satisfaction or happiness was almost way before bolum 30.
Now after longing and suffering for this long, think of the child being introduced to an unknown feeling. Ferit and Seyran had felt love for eachother before, but their developed instincts didn’t allow them to identify the feeling as safe (keeping in mind that they’d never been shown love since infancy) – now that they’ve measured the affecting – affected factors of it, the two finally identify the feeling as solution.
The moment Seyran saw Ferit above her in the court and the moment he saw her unconscious in his arms, Baris designed the exact moment their realization of dependence. Going home the two felt an unknown anxiousness of un-wholeness. He confessed to himself he can’t do without her, Seyran opened up to Suna and confessed she couldn’t command her heart anymore.
Seeing them operating from these transactional states, one would have to watch their reflexes as an actual child’s, adding to it the characteristics they hold now. Having informed themselves of their dependence, the constant caging and pressuring them to stay apart would only push the child state to rebel. Even though Seyran thinks a little more rationally than Ferit, considering she thinks of her mother and sister as risk before rebelling – if the child finds an emotion or person worth depending on, he will act instantly. Both know they can’t live without eachother, after Ferit’s break in at night and her confession they now also know they love each other. Hence the child has secured the emotion to depend on.
The next day Seyran and Ferit both played quite understanding, the change was quite prominent, knowing why the other did what they did. Justifications also played a crucial role. Now having found a new unknown emotion, the child hurries to know more. New subjects rise curiosity. Hence the couple felt even more uncomfortable without eachother after every meeting.
Script theory aptly describes the crucial role of story in the development of self-identity. A life script is a story that arises out of interactions between a child and the world. It can either be life enhancing or self-limiting. Per se the ego state can be subdivided into the free child and the adapted child. The free child – that Seyran and Ferit operated with natural/taught or prerecorded instincts and the adapted child – that exhibits a modification of the natural child’s inclinations (note: These adaptations occur in response to traumatic experiences, training and demands from significant authority figures)
The adapted child is one who’s matured or maybe even immature-d enough to let go of its prerecorded instincts. This child would either adapt to his new surroundings and go overboard into being compliant to them or he’d straight off rebel. (A compliant – adaptive child to be briefer is one who’d do what other people want it to do regardless of how it feels. They behave in the way they believe other people expect or want them to behave, rather than in the way that matches how they feel as they would in the natural child. Take for example Suna Sanli)
Seyran and Ferit have passed the compliance stage. Both tried to adapt to their written fates all their lives as well as the situations they brought into each other’s. Now taking constant pressure and suffocating, the child finally reacted through escape, hence the rebellious – adaptive child ego state (R-AC/Es).
Baris developed bolum 32 through Seyran and Ferit’s story accordingly. Introduction – placement – statement – solution – settlement – execution. Further in 33 we got a detailed catharsis for the two, taking them through all the milestones one by one. Communication – understanding – trust – confidence. Before developing a resurfacing conflict again.
The question I asked last week, quote ‘Do you think #seyfer’s redemption arc has been built up completely or are there still gaps? Conclusively have they reached where they should’ve?’ was on this matter in specific. The average opinion being quote ‘I don’t think they’ve had a conversation as real and serious as it needed to be’.
Ferit Korhan and Seyran Sanli are characters still not properly exposed for their traumas. Seyran portrayed her childhood much descriptively than Ferit. Hence if the scenarist hasn’t skipped this crucial development then we are still in for more exposure. These are kids that have not developed proper adult ego states, hence somehow are still stuck in their childhood. Ferit Korhan who suffers from the neglect scenario and Seyran Sanli who suffers from the abuse – these two kids were further complicated into interchanging themes. With both households –the Korhans and the Sanlis- inflicting both themes on the child, the conscience was never built for independent operation. (Theme With intrafamilial abuse, there is almost always an uninvolved parent who failed to protect the child. Neglect plus abuse forms a particularly toxic matrix of Parent/Child dyads).
Hence considering their unusual mental states I don’t find the two suitable for an adult conversation still. The whole purpose of referencing their child ego states above was to portray how the ‘escape’ was as Ferit said ‘a kamikaze habit’. A rebellious adaptive child ego state that resulted in an impulsive decision to maintain homeostasis. All living things endeavor to maintain homeostasis; the lack of homeostasis generates needs (Cooper, 2006). The needs generated by the lack of homeostasis require their satisfaction to regain the equilibrium required for healthy well-being/survival. Whatever behavior we initiate, be it drinking, playing, transacting or making strategic alliances, it is because we are subjectively feeling a certain need. The certain need for both the kids being love that was never received and has newly been identified in eachother. In each context or situation a rather anxious and impulsive stimulus will then be perceived by the central nervous system, when the need is being blocked or lacked. Implying that primitive hereditary behavior will be initiated before automatic or voluntary behavior. In easier words, the child will rebel and act out of desperation for the need.
Seyran and Ferit’s confession, understanding and putting their history under the rug is pure anxiousness that led to the two reuniting under pressure. Seyran grew tired of holding up her pride and Ferit grew tired of playing the table tennis game. Hence they escaped even themselves through their child ego states. The child responds to new situations based on historic data from its previous experiences, again like Ferit and Seyran did while pushing eachother away. Though the reflex can sometimes be not exactly what the child did back then (in his previous life) but what it had wanted to. Seyran and Ferit had wanted to escape every day of their lives. Love, when overflowed their emotions, made them take the impulsive decision.
It is now their need to mature and the newly found strength in love against eachother. Love is a thing that will sometimes make you forget all that you’ve suffered when found to be true and never changing. Matching Baris’ writing style, I doubt he will not pull the rug sooner or later or that they will stand strong forever from here on. Be it season 2 or a tragic end to season one, ‘No peace until justified accountability. Let the anchor drown you until you learn to swim.’
He’s designed each and every scene to be justified with a parallel the other way around, it is just as crucial for Ferit to verbally redeem himself for all that he’s initiated and Seyran to do so him accordingly. The escape was simply a pressured choice that the two made under suffocation and that then gave them a chance to understand eachother. Until they don’t make the captivators realize what they’ve done to them, which is of course set for the very last episode, SeyFer will keep going down and rising up through communication and trust.
Take it as if the lake of tears rewarded Odette and Siegfried with eternal love and broke the spell (of pride and prejudice) when they jumped in the lake, running from Von Rothbart. The understanding that the couple developed through the kamikaze escape rewarded them strength and belief in their love, hence the most important step to the final confrontation. But the confrontation is still to be reached to.
PLOT POINT BRIEFS
An allusive citer, finally, is what Mehmet Baris Gunger masquerades as, in the Yali Capkini story.
Parallelizing Dr.Budayicioglu’s psychological perspective every episode, it is rather swift how the plot consequently draws from stories that have as much as formed literature for where it stands today. Every episode or perhaps every climatic phase introduces a peak into a completely different story that has the viewer connecting it all the way to the pilots. A writer’s way of keeping the viewer close. He turns the suspense all the way up to the max while flirtatiously telling the viewer exactly what’s going to happen next. A way of making his story a tribute to several others, Baris brings Yali Capkini to a much broader audience with contrasts this iconic.
Whilst I’d hope to see him criticizing the ‘fairy tale endings’ to his raised references towards the end, I won’t hold back from appreciating the flow that the plot is drawn in. An enthusiast myself – how he’ll contrast the endings to these iconic works of literature, keeps me hooked for the next episode every week.
Pride and Prejudice: introduction to conflict
After Ferit confessed his love to her in 21, the 20s became all about Ferit and Seyran struggling for each other’s validation rather than pushing away. Somewhere Ferit tried and Seyran failed to adapt, and somewhere Seyran tried and Ferit failed to keep up. Masquerading their constant state of demurral was a book Seyran used to read at the time. Perhaps Austen’s greatest contribution to patterns of the mind that falls in love, was emphasized for Seyran and Ferit, much suitably and the plot introduced Pride and Prejudice as frame. ‘As in any good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers’ own personal qualities.’ Thus all came back to self-realization again. Pride, prejudice, ask, gurur made itself center of everything and anything. What everything started revolving around or perhaps what it had been about from the day they met, until they let the double edged sword down. It became what’ll pull everything down to it self, as if an anchor until they learn to swim out of it together.
Baris drew contrast in his characters with a first step to reverse and jump the conflicts in Austen’s characters into his own protagonists through multiple plot points. His major being parallels and justification, he played his protagonists to both the characters one after another.
The first phase went traditionally to Austen’s reflections…Baris too explored the inner complexities of Elizabeth and Darcy and the change they undergo, through self-knowledge. While Darcy (Ferit) undergoes inner development redeeming himself from his pride and arrogance resulting from Elizabeth’s (Seyran’s) continuous indifference towards him – the psychological growth in Elizabeth (Seyran) results from the truth that is revealed to her in his letter about the flaws in herself and her family (only Baris’ developed the letter to be Seyran’s sister Suna as foil as well as Tariq Ihsanli) This letter acts as a driving force for Elizabeth’s psychological growth which frees her from all her prejudices against Darcy making way for their relationship to blossom.
Coherently, Baris justified his characters with a swap in demurral too… At a time Elizabeth’s (Seyran’s) pride (dominating super ego) made her misjudge Darcy (Ferit) on the basis of a poor first impression, while Darcy’s prejudice (dominating id) against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinded him, for a time, to her many virtues, in his story.
Once Seyran played pride and Ferit prejudice and once she played prejudice and he pride. The cycle completed with both the characters coming to terms with their prides and their prejudices. The suffering and longing doomed their demurrals into impulsive escape. Eventually resulting in (temporary) exit for the plot in bolum 32.
Pomona and Vertumnus: settlement
Alternatively, the pink dress, Ferit Korhan’s mischief and betrayal to his own family, Seyran’s handing over to Tariq and Ferit fleeing Seyran eventually is a stiff pointer towards Cupid and Psyche’s trials. Cupid’s ‘Psyche’ who’s seen wearing a similar pink dress in most of her portrayals can be referenced to Seyran’s scenario in the escape – being sacrificed to the hill’s monster – cupid fleeing her away and marrying her. However from a Shakespearean view point as well as considering Psyche’s lowering in front of her husband later, I’d rather look towards Pomona and Vertumnus as Seyran and Ferit’s frame for the escape specifically. Gunger who rounded off from two plays of his great inspiration, ended up deriving Ferit and Seyran’s climax from The Tempest as well as A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
The tempest (Pomona and Vertumnus’ myth): Ovid’s metamorphoses (settlement)
A rather fruitful art piece was emphasized behind Seyran, while Ferit endeavored to convince her to come with him. Paired with the character’s royal pink attire, Pomona – goddess of abundance made herself quite visible. Of course standing opposite was Vertumnus – god of change, who disguised himself to be near the goddess.
The reason I title the brief ‘The Tempest’ is because it is prominent how Baris tracked Shakespearean text all the way to its inspiration. Yali Capkini is a modern times Shakespearean – Ovidian tribute most of the time. Baris, while giving Seyran and Ferit a night to spend away from their cages, inked the escape to Shakespeare’s references for his plays themselves. The most fitting being Ovid’s metamorphoses (book 14)…
Pomona and Vertumnus is a tale too immortal to dissect in words. But let this be a note to Baris’ detail and effort. The scenarist connected two epic love stories to Seyran and Ferit’s tragic one in the most beautiful way possible.
A little introduction to the nymph and the god would be enough with Seyran and Ferit’s portrayal of them;
Pomona, played by Seyran Sanli, was – quoting the text itself ‘a wood nymph living in the king’s reign. No other hamadryad, of the wood nymphs of Latium, tended the gardens more skilfully or was more devoted to the orchards’ care, hence her name. She loved the fields and the branches loaded with ripe apples, not the woods and rivers. She carried a curved pruning knife, not a javelin, with which she cut back the luxuriant growth, and lopped the branches spreading out here and there, now splitting the bark and inserting a graft, providing sap from a different stock for the nursling. She would not allow them to suffer from being parched, watering, in trickling streams, the twining tendrils of thirsty root. This was her love, and her passion, and she had no longing for desire. Still fearing boorish aggression, she enclosed herself in an orchard, and denied an entrance, and shunned men.’
No man would be able to woo her, neither was able to distract her from her dreams. As Seyran had passion for nothing but her garden of pride, wisdom and knowledge. Ovid’s pressure on the details about what she was and what she was ‘not’ further contrasts Seyran to Pelin – or all other woman that Ferit chose her instead of: ‘She loved the fields and branches loaded with ripe apples (character and wisdom) and not the woods and rivers (materialistic and worldly objects and emotions)’. ‘She carried a curved pruning knife (a healthy approach to love and change) and not a javelin (toxicity and manipulation).
Her wise and passionate approach on bettering Ferit’s life when she realized him rotten – contrasted further to the goddess’ love for her garden – ‘with which she cut back the luxuriant growth, and lopped the branches spreading out here and there, now splitting the bark and inserting a graft, providing sap from a different stock for the nursling. She would not allow them to suffer from being parched, watering, in trickling streams, the twining tendrils of thirsty root. This was her love, and her passion’
But then the goddess mostly possessing her with her disinterest for desire. Her fear of quote ‘boorish aggression’ as seen in her father all her life and her enclosing of her heart, not knowing how love from the right man had the potential to not hurt but heal her in all her fears.
Fallen in hopeless love with her was Vertumnus. Played by Ferit Korhan quote ‘But Vertumnus surpassed them all, even, in his love, though he was no more fortunate than them. O how often, disguised as an uncouth reaper, he would bring her a basket filled with ears of barley, and he was the perfect image of a reaper! Often he would display his forehead bound with freshly cut hay, and might seem to have been tossing the new-mown grass. Often he would be carrying an ox-goad in his stiff hand, so that you would swear he had just unyoked his weary team. Given a knife he was a dresser and pruner of vines: he would carry a ladder: you would think he’d be picking apples. He was a soldier with a sword, or a fisherman taking up his rod. In short, by his many disguises, he frequently gained admittance, and found joy, gazing at her beauty.’
No failure would make him withdraw his endeavors, neither any rejection that would weaken his passion. As did Ferit when realized he’d fallen in agonizing love with Seyran. The god of change’s multiple attempts at disguising himself. Quote ‘by his many disguises, he frequently gained admittance, and found joy, gazing at her beauty.’ Baris contrasts to Ferit’s endless attempts to first persuade her on loving him the same and further now at convincing her to come back to him. Whether it be how Ferit possesses multiple moods and reactions to her rejections or his first attempt at disguising as a waiter to convince her to run away, he plays the ever enthusiastic lover to Pomona.
The myth ended with Pomona and Vertumnus uncontrollably confessing or rather consummating their love after Pomona’s hopelessness to the love stranding at her garden’s threshold failed her prior values. This too after Vertumnus had dropped his disguise helplessly while his confession to her.
Vertumnus (Ferit), having experienced it for the first time since he saw her himself, warned Pomona (Seyran) of the danger that rejection of an emotion as pure as love holds. Admiring her garden or rather Seyran’s wisdom and character, he advised her quote ‘But if that tree stood there, unmated, without its vine, it would not be sought after for more than its leaves, and the vine also, which is joined to and rests on the elm, would lie on the ground, if it were not married to it, and leaning on it. But you are not moved by this tree’s example, and you shun marriage, and do not care to be wed. I wish that you did!
The god disguised as an old lady, further went onto confess his passionate love for Pomona indirectly. Ferit then confessed to Seyran multiple times similarly. However I will be bolder to expect one as assuring as his towards the end again;
‘But if you are wise, if you want to marry well, and listen to this old woman, that loves you more than you think, more than them all, reject their vulgar offers, and choose Vertumnus to share your bed! You have my assurance as well: he is not better known to himself than he is to me: he does not wander here and there in the wide world: he lives on his own in this place: and he does not love the latest girl he has seen, as most of your suitors do.
You will be his first love, and you will be his last, and he will devote his life only to you. And then he is young, is blessed with natural charm, can take on a fitting appearance, and whatever is ordered, though you ask all, he will do. Besides, that which you love the same, those apples you cherish, he is the first to have, and with joy holds your gifts in his hand! But he does not desire now the fruit of your trees, or the sweet juice of your herbs: he desires nothing but you. Take pity on his ardour, and believe that he, who seeks you, is begging you, in person, through my mouth. Fear the vengeful gods, and Idalian Venus, who hates the hard-hearted, and Rhamnusian Nemesis, her inexorable wrath!’
Baris completed another cycle at the end of 32. Now concluding at settlement of the conflict between his protagonists. He introduced Seyran and Ferit with ‘pride and prejudice’ then settled the conflict with Pomona and Vertumnus’ transformation through the power of love and persistence. Pomona by rejecting even Vertumnus’ constant advances represents virtue whilst Vertumnus by persevering despite constant rejection shows just how difficult virtue as well as true love is to obtain.
Foot note
The tale of the nymph and the god however coherently portrays some of Ovid’s poetry of rape and dominance too. If Pomona had not fallen in love with his bare self, Vertumnus was to force himself on her anxiously. The reason for his revelation as his true self was his frustration and passion anyways. Confessing his love such deeply, he couldn’t help holding disguise anymore and hence hopelessly came to himself – before initiating to approach Pomona despite of her opinion. If Pomona had not felt his love familiar in that moment, Vertumnus’ ‘Amor’ was indeed destined to be unrequited and violent. He was indeed fully prepared to loose himself to his intentions until he appeared undisguised and his beauty became the object of Pomona’s mutual gaze.
I’ll expect Baris to be aware of the sensitivity of the references he makes. The pen knows no impossibility and it is therefore the responsibility of us writers to mortify prior tales according to new perspective. But if Baris unintentionally fuels a controversial page and perhaps does not realize, it would move to break his current streak of intellect through his writing.
If I were to justify his protagonists while contrasting the ones he framed, I’d probably see his intention to deliver a message of ‘destiny’ in the tale. Destiny because in my mind spent on Ovid’s penmanship, I’d identified him to juxtapose the same idea to the one of dominant love. If Pomona didn’t fall in love with him at that moment, Vertumnus would rape her. Yes. But she did fall in love with him. And he didn’t indeed rape her. When Ferit undisguised himself to Seyran (meaning when he surpassed his ego and confessed to her) he too was anxious to consummate his love immediately. It was Seyran who taught him to quote ‘work for it’, coherently hinting that she too did love him, just not blindly enough to follow his empty words. Due to which he then did change and still waits for her.
Ferit learned perseverance as well as patience from Seyran. Something that Vertumnus would stay strange to, since Pomona didn’t punish him for his acts at all. If Baris intends to mortify the tale with this perspective, I’d conclude his intention to introduce destiny – then further change and patience through the power of love. Yet again, another exclusive to the story.
Swan Lake: climax and catharsis (main frame)
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is a timeless tale. Not showing imprints of it on a story as tragic as Yali Capkini’s would only be a disservice, to the bold extent. Introducing family, power, desire, jealousy, hope, duty, good, evil, loss, then acceptance – the heart groper makes the most resemblance to Baris’ vision for his protagonists. And what of Yali Capkini though. Swan lake makes haste in whole of life some and anyhow. It is the way of love and the way of it healing the cursed heart. The way of how if marked by masquerade, love becomes the enemy as quick as it became friend – and the way of how if betrayed by a lover’s betrayal, love becomes the killer as quick as it had become healer.
I stated before. Allusive writing works this way. It is the universe’s way of presenting connection in all life and then a writer’s way of proving it. He will introduce a new reference every episode and you will realize the story connects to that of the protagonist’s perfectly. Every tale of love and transformation that Baris’ references, is a tale of Yali Capkini and Yali Capkini is a tale of that. The same way, the scenarist concluded another tragedy in episode 33 – when Swan Lake became Seyran and Ferit’s very own fate.
Lead editor Emrullah Hekim presented a terrorizing intro to Baris’ new story first in bolum 25, when Seyran warned us of her capability to end the marriage without holding back. Playing the swan queen’s theme (20a - I. Scene) itself, was the trailer that told of Von Rothbart’s spells and Odette and Siegfried’s trials.
We go all the way back to bolum 24. Seyran had accepted her pride and demurral to be pushing Ferit away despite his constant endeavors at this point. After his disappointed declaration at the hill house, she’d been ready to give their relationship a chance.
If connect the plot from the very beginning, the plot points do it their selves:
Ever lonely Prince Siegfried (Ferit Korhan) sees the cursed Swan Queen (Seyran Sanli) in her most beautiful human form by fate, when he hunts in the forest to make escape from his golden cage of a castle (Ferit’s bashful and misogynistic coping escape from the mansion’s pressures). Initially having intended to shoot the swan with his newly gifted weapon from his tyrant mother (the Korhans’ ignorance for Ferit and the power in their name), he sees the Swan transform into the most beautiful woman (Ferit discovers Seyran to be different and unique (1-19). Especially brave in bolum 20 when she kicked Pelin out). The caged prince falls in love instantly with her light that seems to make him forget about his darkness. He then continues to approach her for the longest time, until she agrees to accept his love. (Ferit gradually goes through jealousy, inferiority and even fear of abandonment, until finally confessing his love to her – bolum 21).
The swan however does not accept his confession in fear of heartbreak and tires herself with other trials to break her curse (Seyran runs away again and again). As many would approach her but none with intentions pure enough to break the sorcerer’s (Kazim’s) curse that asks only truth and infinity to break. If her love (which is the condition to break her curse) reveals itself to be disloyal, the princess suffers in the skin of a swan forever. Hence she doesn’t open her wings to any. Seyran thinks freedom from Kazim’s curse, she will only find in wisdom and knowledge. She does not open her heart to Ferit in any case. As Ferit continuously projects danger with his constant disappointment. Not realizing that nothing except love will break the curse, she tires herself, fighting for her dreams and running away from him. The curse of a child’s abused conscience that she carried from Kazim, she fears to worsen if any man betrays her. Hence she doesn’t risk it ever.
The swan queen when saw the prince watching and even approaching her continuously through his endeavors every night, hugs herself, wrapping her wings closed, restricting entry into her heart. She melts at his touch and confession rarely (bolum 22), fights between her fear and her hope, heart and mind, but encloses herself in demurral again in fear of heartbreak and the sorcerer’s wrath (bolum 23).
After Ferit hears her talking to Suna (her court swan) at the end of 23. He gives up on his endeavors. The prince now tired of dancing around her, with no improvement to his goal of making her love him, throws himself to the ground in grievance. Now having heard that she will never trust him, while he thought he was slowly convincing the swan to open her wings, Ferit throws separation as a dart in the dark, piercing even himself.
The swan queen, when sees him this vulnerable, finally decides to open her wings in 24. She accepts that her pride and demurral had indeed clouded her vision of hope and so Seyran prepares the whole day for Ferit to come home and she confess her love back. She calls Ferit and tells him her intentions. The swan queen is ready to open door to her heart. She starts unwrapping her wings.
The prince too, now seeing a shred of hope and a final response from her, prepares to take her hand publically at his ball. Ferit rushes home. Alptekin shows him running ‘the relationship escalator’ – stairs to their room up in excitement. However Gulgun stops him with news about Pelin.
Pelin to the basic plot plays Odile to Odette. Masquerading as Seyran, she manages to keep her name news to the mansion continuously. Ferit and Seyran never escape her mention. Gulgun playing a substitute to Zerrin as Von now, disguised as the Prince’s advisor, reminds the prince of his promise to Pelin (Odile).
Odette (the swan queen) who had been waiting for the prince to take her hand, now that she’s finally unwrapped her wings, comes finding the prince to where Ferit and Gulgun are. In her half-naked form (as if the swan opens her wings to reveal her beautiful form in entirety) Seyran (Odette) sees the prince dancing with Odile (Ferit’s promise of marriage to Pelin).
Heartbroken to her fears coming true, Seyran runs away into the forest. The swan queen risked her human form to be revealed in the open, coming out the forest of her dark demurral. Now betrayed by the royals’ world, she ran back into the branches of fear and cursed loneliness. Seyran gives Ferit her ring. She stabs Ferit’s dart that he threw in the dark before, right back into his heart. She warns of separation.
Baris then finally exposes his reference clearly in bolum 25 after 3 episodes of the prince’s endeavors to make the swan his. Ferit tries and fails endlessly bolum 22 - 24, to make Seyran open arms. After his apparent betrayal in foolishness (swearing his loyalty to Odile multiple times and promising her marriage), and realization of Von Rothbart and his daughter’s trick (Zerrin and Pelin) the prince makes a last attempt at repentance.
The prince dances his grief, Ferit as contrast always sings. Icimde Firtina – a theme to his feelings plays to his grievance, while he steals glimpses of the Swan Queen. The next day Ferit asks Seyran to listen to her heart. The prince holds the swan in her arms. Tells her to open her wings again. She tells him he can’t break the curse now. And that she’ll be stuck in the swan’s skin forever. The prince assures her he’ll ‘continue changing for her’, assures he’ll break the curse. If only she believes the power of their love once. Time goes by and Seyran finally prepares herself to trust Ferit’s intentions again. The swan twirls in the price’s arms once again.
Baris paces the story with repetition now. Portraying Ferit’s constant foolery and Seyran’s repetitive disappointment, Ferit decides to meet Pelin at the end to 25. This time, being the final revelation of Prince Siegfried swearing his love to Odile, Seyran finds Ferit laughing and chatting at Pelin’s house, when they’d promised not to do anything secretly. No matter his intention. The prince had yet again fallen into Rothbart’s spell. Odette, now wounded for the second time, runs away again. The curse of Von keeps prisoning in, Seyran gradually forms a super ego towards Ferit now.
Bolum 26 makes apogee and Ferit and Seyran keep trying to fight through their demurrals. While Odette tries to make sense of her tragedy, Von Rothbart and her daughter Odile roam the lake in intention to break the swan’s hope of revival even more. Zerrin reveals all Seyran’s secrets right at her mother’s face as if Rothbart telling Odette, Siegfried has sworn his true love to Odile.
Meanwhile coherently, the substitute of the villain at the Korhan mansion (Halis Korhan) pressures Odette into parting from Siegfried, making her think she will escape her curse if she does. The swan queen now wounded to half death, decides to part from the prince forever. After Ferit’s final preview of her fears right in front of her as well as Von’s cruel caging of her, Seyran agrees to separate from him for good. (27-29).
The plot now moves to Ferit’s misery. Mourning Odette’s rejection of their love and having doomed her to death, Siegfried takes out his anger on the sorcerer (Ferit punishes the Korhans as well as Pelin for what they’d brought him to be). Odette on the other hand in the forest, is slowly turning into a swan forever. The curse having been triggered to its very last stage by Siegfried’s blindness, takes over her as she suffers in her lover’s memory. (30-31)
A mid script note to the reminder that Baris plays with the order of the tale to match it to that of his own. The act where Von Rothbart makes the prince take an oath to marry Odile (masquerading as Odette), comes now that Odette suffers in the forest. Not aware of Odette’s misery, Siegfried complies to marry Odile, but soon after his oath, Von and his daughter Odile reveal their true identities and mock the prince’s foolery.
Bolum 32, a vision of Odette’s suffering now appears before Siegfried (Seyran faints in Ferit’s arms). Having discovered all the Rothbart’s in their story, frantic, Siegfried flees to the forest, to find his love (Ferit goes to see Seyran secretly)’. The swans where are mourning their queen’s gradual transition into a swan. With Siegfried’s broken vow, Odette’s hopes for love and freedom have vanished. She lays at the lakeside, wounded and tired while she waits for full transformation.
Distraught, the prince enters and explains to his beloved that he, too, was betrayed by the evil magician – Ferit confesses his love at Kazim’s house. He begs Odette’s forgiveness (still to come), explains that he could never love another (‘I love her despite everything). The swan queen, now already in waiting for her death, confesses her love too. Siegfried and Odette, Ferit and Seyran fall in each other’s arms, helpless to their separation, but powerful because of their undying love, while the tyrant still roams wild.
Von Rothbart is played by all those who defy Ferit and Seyran’s love at this point. Kazim, Halis, Zerrin, Ifakat, Pelin and every character that participates in the spell. When sees them meeting secretly, Tariq (Rothbart in current scenario) endeavors to derive Siegfried away and keep Odette for himself. On the other side, Halis (also Rothbart) cages Ferit as to not let him see Seyran.
The final act comes to a tragic and happiest end both as Siegfried and Odette fight for their love. The whole of bolum 33, Baris dedicated to the lovers’ defiance of their curses, as Ferit and Seyran revive their love in the forest. The 2/5 hour long episode in entirety was built to cheer the lonely prince and cursed swan queen’s love against all. The lake of tears. The swan queen. The madman sorcerer. The mad in love price. A tragic trial. A tragic end. A tragic tale. But an epic love. Bolum 33 painted itself in Swan Lake’s timeless memory. Alptekin, Gunger, Ramazan, Saracoglu. The detail down to Tanridagli’s compositions was inspired by the ballet. A new track introduced as ‘seyro and fero’ just as the two sit by the lake of tears, Guldiyar Tanridagli swoons her strings to Odette’s strength and Siegfried’s passion.
Carrying a midsummer night’s dream, the lovers escape to the forest. The sorcerer behind them, the chains gripping down. Seyran and Ferit jump into the lake of tears. The lake that then blesses their misery by breaking the curse eternally. The water that releases their spirits into the sky. A realm they could finally be one in. A realm they could finally be loved in. Death.
But ‘with you, even that would be beautiful’
An epic tribute to timelessly epic tales. I saw cinema. And I saw story. A new perspective to all that he references, Baris served a master beginning to a timeless end. Lizzy and Darcy singled themselves out with opposing super egos. Seyran and Ferit operated some of both. Pride and Prejudice. Pomona and Vertumnus learnt perseverance through bland luck. Seyran and Ferit learnt destiny and patience both one at a time. Metamorphoses. Odette and Siegfried flung themselves to death in the lake of tears and reunited. Seyran and Ferit jumped in the lake, and reunited not in death but in heart. And not in heart but in mind. Love can read hearts and not minds. Oh but when it finally learns to. It becomes undefeatable.
Seyran and Ferit see eachother now. Seyran and Ferit hear eachother. Seyro and Fero feel eachother. Seyran Sanli and Ferit Korhan are Seyran and Ferit now. Past pride and prejudice, past demurral and perseverance, past longing and misery. The captives now free themselves. From here, there’s just no Seyran and no Ferit, but just Seyran and Ferit.
‘Vedalar senin gibi kalpsizler içindir’, ‘Çünkü yüreğiyle sevenler ayrılmaz’, a song to the tyrant fate. A song to the lover’s escape. A song of Seyran and Ferit’s trials in their cages and a song to their escape out of them. A song to the tyrant.
Currently starring by The Rant: Yali Capkini Bolum 32/33 explicatory articles
Tuesday, 6TH June, 2023
Story: Dr Gulseren Budaicioglu
Scenario: Mehmet Baris Gunger
Explication: S.A.M
Yine de bravo
nerdesin samcum?
Memleketimde deprem olduğunda bu proje üzerinde çalıştığınızı öğrendim. Keşke geceleri nasıl ağladığımı anlatabilsem ve paylaşımınız bana huzur verseydi. sonra her kelimede daha da ağlardım. Emekleriniz, yeteneğiniz ve kaleminiz için teşekkür ederiz. Öğrenciniz ve takipçiniz olduğum için gerçekten şanslıyım. kaleminize daha fazla güç veriyorum size inanıyorum öğretmenim 🖋️😌
حتى أن العشيقة أرسلت الكتاب بعيدًا 😭🤔