They can be...
Jerks to be changed by FL
Doormats to be run over by the FL
Romancing items to romance and praise the FL
But in every major show - especially SP, the ML needs a woman to make him a better father, son, etc.
The very nature of soaps has an inherent bias against men bc by showing crap men they show mahan, near perfect, self-sacrificing women. So it pseduo-empowers (aka is regressive) about women at the expense of any integrity men.
Here whether it is to elevate the FL, Female vamp, or whomever...what it does is shift the emotional power to the battle and struggles of the women bc men are show as unable to handle situations.
So that's why this is shown & had made YHM #1 bc they did it much more obviously this time but this dynamic of men and women has played out since Sautan Sagas.
Even here people are watching to see jerk Raman suffer and learn his lesson. Thanks to the lines they give him, all of his legitimate emotions go to a largely unempathetic audience
It's people watching for IshRa who are left hanging bc they will NEVER show IshRa equally contributing to their relationship as Ishita will be percieved as ALWAYS doing more for Raman
So this dynamic is no where new to soaps - it's just harsher than seen in other soaps bc they are purposely withholding his full POV and decided to go OTT with the dialogs to where "he doesn't matter" to viewers
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