Originally posted by: Minionite
Dec 9th - The Painful Trust
The empty trunk - Notice how the trunk only had the rope and the fencing sword in it. As she progresses through her plan, she will fill that trunk with spoils of the war. The problem is that right now this war is one-sided. Only she's fighting it. Her enemy is still trying to get his bearings. Thus, while the trunk may be filling up right now, it'll empty as well. The empty trunk is also significant because in a way it signifies Maya's life right now. It's empty. Void. As she gets her revenge, her life will also start to get "filled". Notice one more thing. The trunk is two-thirds Rudra, one-third Rishi. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but in a way that signifies that Maya's life will be filled by both Rudra and Rishi, not just one. Rudra will have a stronger impact, but Rishi will also be there. I wonder if MJ will have the strongest impact though?
Fencing as an outlet - We can say all we want that Rudra wasn't affected by the fish selling, but in a way he was. He was affected because despite winning to Maya, he still lost. He had thought that making more money than Maya had expected would have shown her down, but it didn't. Instead, she turned the tables back on him instead. Then he tried to use fencing as an outlet to take out his anger and lost there as well. Fencing will be interesting going forward because it is all about duels and self-defense. Unlike regular sword-fighting which is all about attacking, fencing used to take place when it was about dueling against someone for personal harm or attacks on pride or for defending oneself against some type of accusation. In a way, that's what is happening here. Maya is repeatedly challenging Rudra to a duel to get through to MJ and he is fighting in self-defense. It's symbolic because with either the fencing match could be seen as the foreshadowing for the next task or as a follow-up to the previous task. In either case, if Maya wins the task, she wins the fencing match.
MJ's indirect plan - Why not just follow Rudra directly? But then again this might be MJ's way of gearing up for attack. In war, there is always strategy and strategy is done quietly, privately, indirectly. If MJ was to have Rudra followed directly, instead of via a tracker, Maya would know right away that her enemy is gearing up to fight back. In this way, Maya will never know when MJ will attack. (Of course that's what MJ thinks because Maya knew about the tracker and her hidden man destroyed the tracker and sent Aamir on a wild goose chase. But more on this later. Let's keep talking from MJ's perspective.) MJ is gathering intelligence, developing theories, testing those theories, and then, once he has enough information, he will strategize and attack back. I do have a complaint that MJ is not seen enough, but this may just be the calm before the storm. The CVs are deliberately holding MJ back to unleash him at the right time. Let the audience feel this is a one-sided battle and then they'll bring out the full force of MJ.
The test of trust and the painful trust - Credit to Shruthi for the title, but I added a bit of my own to it because it is an important aspect. But first let's talk about the test itself. Maya said "reach the top". She never said take the stairs to the top. Yet Rudra's first move was to run for the stairs. In a way, it's about behaviour ingrained in us from childhood. We're always taught about the ladder to success, never about a lift to success. I bet MJ consistently reminded Rudra and Rishi since they were little kids that he got to the top by climbing many "stairs", not by taking the "elevator/lift". This is an important distinction and one that Maya points out succinctly. We listen, but we don't actually listen. If Rudra had listened properly, he would have understood that all Maya said was to get to the top. But the problem isn't in not listening, it's also in our brains. Our brains run almost twice as fast as the words that can come out of our mouths. Thus, our brains are already filling in the words before we even hear them and also coming up with a solution before we even process the words. That's exactly what Rudra did. Nonetheless, Rudra also proved himself worthy. Despite having to take the long way up, Rudra still beat Maya. But once again, Maya made his win into a loss with her fake fall.
Now let's move onto this fake fall and Rudra's response. Despite hating Maya, Rudra's first instinct was to run out to save Maya and grab onto her. But in the process, he triggered her painful memories. This is where the painful trust part comes in. While Rudra proved himself worthy of trust today, it was painful for Maya and it will be going forward because Maya still has to move on from her past. In a way though, Rudra did more than prove himself trustworthy. The way he held onto her, promised that "tumhe kuch nahi hoga", and then held (ever so briefly) when he finally did pull her up, shows that he will be there every step of the way to help Maya move on. Her past will be painful and the trust she will place in Rudra will pain her, but it will also help her to move on, to build herself again, and to forget whatever happened to her in the past.
Main jeeon ya maaron, haaron yah jeeton, what the hell do you want - For me the dialogue of the day. Rudra is starting to question everything Maya does. In the process, he's also discovering himself. Maya said she wouldn't have let him or herself die, but that's not enough for Rudra. He knows this isn't a simple test just to see if he's worth working with. This is deeper than that. And he wants his answers. But more than that, he's being drawn towards Maya as well in a web that is intricately being closed around him. With the fish selling, for Rudra it was just a simple test. Probably to see if Rudra can even sell Maya's books. But this. This test was different. What does life and death have to do with publications? Nothing. Trust does, but who tests trust like this? No. This is important to Rudra to understand. Maya has become an enigma for him. And though he says he hates her, he's also being drawn towards her.
The discarded flowers - Those flowers are just like Rishi's "love". As long as everything was beautiful and lovely, the flowers were in his hands and ready to be Maya's. But the moment, it came on Rishi's own life, they became worthless and discarded. In fact, as long as they were in his hands or with him, Maya was on Rishi's mind. The moment he discarded them, he could only think about himself. That's what you expect from someone who is infatuated with another. Love is what Rudra did. Putting his own life at risk to save his love (of course, Maya isn't his love in this case, but you get the point). As the story progresses, this will be important because Rudra will be the type to step up and support Maya, while Rishi will hide to save his hide.
Precap - Not any specific comment, but curious. Maya hides her discomfort when Rishi touches her (again). And, on the other hand, we get the fight sequence from the promos.
Soooooo, I am in the mood to give a lot of comments I think😆
@red - The empty trunk resonated with me more like she gathering all the moves she has made against the RoyBros and marveling at how she is successfully manipulating both of them. And of course, I agree with you that it is for keeping the spoils of war, to remind the victory of all her moves.
@blue - It seems Maya has taken up a personal hobby to not just preach to herself but preach Gita to Rudra as well. Like Krishna is preaching to Arjun on the battlefield. And was that Rudra's attempt at flirting with Maya when he says - "Mujhse dur raha nahi ja raha". 😉
@purple - Rudra's resilience was tested tonight. His character was tested tonight. And he won, and Maya's trust in her intentions and on Rudra's character won. It is the strangest thing I have noticed. Whenever Rishi loses, it is Maya's victory, but whenever Rudra wins, it is Maya's victory as well. Is it the way she is playing it or the creatives are trying to play out who is going to be Maya's partner - truly? Well, we have to see.
@brown - Rudra always has very pertinent questions, because he uses his head more than his heart. So he is kind of a challenge for Maya also. Sometimes she too gets shaken up by Rudra, which I don't think she likes.
@orange - Rishi is still a 'bachcha'. He is not evolved the way Rudra is, so I don't really blame him for anything. He is too young to understand this I think. All this is just fun and games for him. This marriage proposal thing - also looks like a stunt pulled off in impulse. Maybe he plans to dump her also - but iss baar koi aur use dump karega. I don't know how well his ego will handle that.
@green- The precap, the only thing that intrigued me is Rishi questioning Rudra, as to why he avoids having girl conversations with his dad. Did he do something wrong? That is what had my attention.
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