Originally posted by: fria319
@ bold : yeah i agree. i'll give you two reasons why, as superficial/dumb as they are, its just the truth of the matter (i'm going to use general terms like us, we, etc. for the sake of writing but I don't mean specifically you and me, etc.)
1) he's hot AF and I think most of us (forum members, people on twitter, insta,etc.) are heterosexual women and the majority will always forgive someone who's handsome and dashing because of the association of good looking = good person.
2) I think most of us are also some shade of brown - so Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, etc. So we all most likely come from a culture of longstanding misogyny and patriarchy that is deeply rooted within a lot of us, no matter how woke we are. We hail from a culture that vilifies the woman more than the man in almost every situation. "It's the woman's fault the marriage didn't work." "It's the woman's fault the husband strayed (she wasn't pretty enough, she wasn't kind enough)". "It's the woman's fault that she got r*ped because she was walking alone at night," etc. etc. etc.
The whole "boys will be boys" mentality is hard to get out of. Men often get a gold medal just for "trying" whereas women have to consistently be good and better to get any praise.
So in the past when Raghav would do things wrong, he'd be forgiven because "omg look at those puppy dog eyes, he said sorry!" or "look he did help her out" ... and people would fall back on the fact that he's hot and should be forgiven bc that's just how their brains work or because omg boys will be boys, it's fine. (Now I'm also someone who's like ok they said sorry - its your choice to forgive and move on or not. I don't like when people hold grudges either.)
I will say the redemption arc for Raghav is one of the best redemption arcs I've ever seen for a ML. If they had a convo of their past and he apologized for everything - that would be the ULTIMATE cherry on top.
@italics. facts. me too.
It doesn't sound superficial at all! This is pretty much exactly it. I have the same theory on this behavior. But TBH, I really hate it. And it's not MHRW- it's every goddamn show with an ATM ML. At least we got a gorgeous redemption- zyaadatar shows mein toh nafrat waali shaadi, then manhandling waali chemistry, phir aaya random waala pyaar, then the guilt, ML ek baar ghutno pe gir ke ek aansu baha ke sorry bolega, and poori janta + FL pighal jaayegi.
Raghav's redemption was wonderful. And the best part was, it didn't come from love, it came from a genuine acknowledgement of wrongdoing. The only thing, which you also mentioned, which I'd have loved to see was a discussion on the stuff that went down. And an explicit apology for the truck incident, alag se, because that crossed every single line.
@bold- absolutely. How often do we give Raghav a pass because 'woh aisa hi hai'? Somehow, 'woh aisi hi hai' isn't as effective a defense when it comes to Pallavi's mistakes.
I don't hold much of a grudge either- I'll either forgive move on, or cut the person out and forget they existed, either way, harboring resentment feels pointless to me. At the same time though, Raghav's mistakes were more severe than the stuff I've forgiven or moved on from. I'm glad the show stuck to it's guns and showed us his emotional labor of earning forgiveness, and didn't bend to fandom's wills about fast tracking it.
I remember the first night they were roommates, it was the same day he moved into Deshmukh house and she fell into the pool that evening. She spoke about her family, he asked about Vat Savitri and she didn't respond, and he looked sad. It was a wonderfully executed scene, but I couldn't stop laughing at how a significant chunk of fandom was like "why is she not appreciating him" "why isn't she acknowledging their marriage, he looks so sad" and I was just like..... It's DAY ONE of his redemption after all the shit he pulled. Kuch toh time do for her to start forgiving 😂😂😂
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Indian Mythology
