Originally posted by: Krantikari
A person being comfortable with someone =/= being equally powerful as them. A feudal peasant may be comfortable with his Lord and freely express himself, but he can never be as powerful as his Lord. Power comes from wealth and Imlie is not as wealthy as ASR. That has already been established.
But the point was about Imlie being afraid of ASR due to his power – not just the monetary aspect of it. And my response was to address that aspect. Monetarily, it's plain obvious that ASR is powerful. But that power doesn't scare Imlie due to the xyz reasons already mentioned earlier.
Therefore, although there was undoubtedly a power differential between Imlie and Aditya when they first met, it was never that wide because Aditya is a middle class guy who hadn't done so many favours for Imlie. She was the one who had to always save his life and do things for his family. They were (and still are) indebted to her. Imlie does not constantly return to to them because she feels beholden to them, she returns because for her they are the only true family she has in the city. If Tripathis felt they had owned her, they would not have let her stay in Rathore mansion for even one day.😆
For a naive village girl visiting the city for the first time, getting a place to live was a favour, getting educational support was a favour, getting a family was a favour — for the Imlie that was one year ago, whatever the Ts and Aditya offered was favouring her.
I don't think the Ts really ever felt indebted to Imlie, until, maybe, she walked out or just before, because it was evident in the way they treated her – definitely not family-like because which family let's their daughter live on the streets after knowing that she's been thrown out of the hostel at night and has nowhere to go? And if Ts allowing her to stay at the Rathores equates to them not owning her, then by that same logic, Aryan letting Imlie stay at the Ts also equates to Aryan not owning her.
Imlie is a naive girl and naively declares a lot of things. However, she is a 19 year old girl who is dependent on her boss for survival. That is the reality. Her not being 'afraid' doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.
Naive people are called naive because of their actions. The very fact that she can make a naive declaration about not being afraid means that she believes it. And if she believes it, then where is the fear and the hesitation?