*Brain Drain,Mila Bas Pain#2*|Strictly IO|We always hit the BULLS EYE!

I liked this episode too and don't think it was a filler at all. The pace was obviously a normal one and the intensity not as high as the previous episode but not all episodes can have the same kind of pace and execution. This episode meant to highlight the following from what I gathered.

Hello everyone and congrats for the new thread.

Great post H, hope you're better now 😊

Agree with your points, but if Arjun chose to walk out without any communication, does she really have any leverage to make him stay? Yes, she could potentially harm Vandana/Saanjh/Ayaan, but if he's cut off contact with them, can she really use them to keep him in line?

Interesting that they've named the new character Samay, aka time.

So we have Arjun (bright/white/clear), Maya (illusion), Saanjh (Dusk) and Samay (time)

Hola...Congrats all 😃

BM.

CaputDraconis - I, too, am a sucker for tragedies. More like, I have a love-hate relationship with them. They mess me up way too bad tbh. I get a little crazy and obsessed and stuck up on tragedies then go bawl my eyes out which is why I try to not read them that much because I know I'll be miserable for weeks to come. However, the fact that among all the countless romantic and tragic books I've read, it's always the tragic ones that stay with me for longer. More distinct in my memory. I think that itself tells you that tragedies have a way of haunting you, of hitting you much much harder.
My friends have been cursing me for the longest time for not starting A song of fire and ice.😆 I want to but Martin is notorious for taking years and years with his sequels. I'm a very impatient reader. In fact, when I start a book I try to finish it in one reading because I'm so invested and so engrossed I can think of nothing else. I try to avoid series until they're finished because then I go all crazy and keep thinking about the books like a loon. The most I can wait is one year. So I'm going to wait for Martin to finish the last book then jump the wagon. 😆

Avengers - Ri right? I loved the post you made on the last thread about realistic works and what viewers expect vs what is shown. And a big +1 on the whole 'love yourself first.' It literally irks me how viewers of the show are continuously badgering the CVs to show a white-washed version of Maya or to show her getting love. I'm particularly annoyed by the whole 'she needs love. he needs to give her love. his love needs to heal her.' etc. Don't people understand the simple fact that love CANNOT heal a mentally ill person? Love comes as a complement, something that can provide a catalyst or impetus in an already going process that is a person's own individual journey to healing+ proper medical help. Pull out any advice, any doctor's or professional or experts say and they'll tell you it's not your job to heal people. Because, YOU CANNOT HEAL PEOPLE. If this relationship is toxic, you need to put yourself first and leave. Don't think you'll be able to heal the person. you cannot. But you'll destroy yourself in the process. It may hurt you but you have to leave. Or be a support system from afar if the person is getting medical help. But more often than not mentally ill people have relapses, and the people caught in the crossfires are their families.

Another factor that has baffled me is how much inconsideration Arjun is getting. Saying that he has failed to help and heal Maya, he should've done something, he's a failure as a husband and what not, is like a tight slap on the faces of all those people who've been with people like Maya, (mentally ill and psychotic) and telling them that they didn't heal them. Is noone seeing what Maya has done to Arjun? He may have been a very flawed and selfish person but did he truly deserve this? He used to have a fun, beautiful life where he loved his family, cracked jokes, mingled with co-workers, had dreams. Now he hurts himself nonstop, tells Maya that he doesn't want to live, he's lonely and depressed and borderline insane. Does noone see the limit, the extremity to which Maya has damaged and destroyed Arjun? What has she done to him? Everyone's busy reiterating what he didn't do for her. It's a low blow.

Their relationship was always toxic. Right from the beginning. It started with an ultimatum. If you don't say yes, I'll kill us both. It then progressed with one lie on top of another; physical and mental manipulation. She showed him her power, the bling. Did anyone correlate the Ayaan incident in police station to his father's death? In both cases Arjun had been helpless. With his father there wasn't enough money or power. With Ayaan, again, he didn't have enough money connections or power to have him released the same night. It was the night of his father's death playing all over again. He was helpless. And then came Maya who broke the chain. By freeing Ayaan with her powers she gave a jolt to the biggest insecurity in Arjun and he latched onto it in the most subconscious way possible. Now he wasn't helpless anymore, that night won't ever repeat itself, because now Maya--the omnipotent--was there to help and protect him. I think on a subconscious level that was the first moment the helpless, power-craving man inside him latched onto her. It was followed by an obsessive, incessant courting on Maya's part which appeared to Arjun as alluring and magnetic, because let's be honest, right from the beginning Arjun was attracted to the lure of power and money because it represented freedom to him, it freed him from his helplessness in the face of adverse misery. And now all of a sudden a woman--a powerhouse--that represented all of it was chasing him--him a commoner--with such an extreme degree of devotion. The helpless, security-craving child inside him was attracted to it.

Also I finally saw the Mauritius episode and did you all notice how Arjun came to his realization of being in love? And it wasn't even a realization of being in love so much. It was a man reaching a scientific conclusion that Maya represented everything he wanted in a partner so he was going to choose her. Like how we decide this man matches all our preferences so let's date him. It wasn't a powerful jolt that shook him and made him go like this love is everything. It was a very subdued, normal, clinical approach and realization. I'm sure a lot of people in real life think like that. This person we're attracted to--they're smart, intelligent and we think they tick all the boxes of the ideal we've been looking for--and we decide to be with them.

However, what Arjun saw was the tip of the iceberg. The main load of it was under the water. What he was looking forward to was a relationship--courtship of sorts--but Maya rushed him into a wedding right under a week. That was his biggest mistake. He was nowhere ready to get married to her. He had just begin adjusting to the idea of wanting her in his life and loving her. He knew next to nothing about her except the fact that she had a traumatic past. He had no idea how their relationship would work or not.

Maya didn't reveal most of the important bits to him. And let's say he didn't want to know but we're not talking about how many boys I kissed or what floor I fell from. We're talking about a possible illness or past that has shaped her life and was going to shape his life. He had every right to know. But Maya manipulated their relationship every second of every minute.

They got married. Let's add to it the whole murder drama which will put anyone under pressure--then Vandana's hostility--then the fact that Arjun left Vandana because he supported Maya. Any normal person would cave under such pressure, such a mountain of problems. Arjun was bound to show some effect. Arjun may be a shallow, selfish person. But he isn't manipulative. What he wants he says it to the face. He might sugarcoat it, plead the hell out or order it, but what he wants is said in plain words. Arjun only got to play the parts Maya let--wanted--him to play. He was always very open and casual with everyone. From the peon to the secretary.

Intentional flirting and emotional cheating carries guilt and baggage. If he were truly guilty he wouldn't have flirted while Maya was still on phone. It was something that was in subconscious nature. I didn't see any emotional cheating there. However it would irk any wife. So what they should've done was discuss about it. But then this was and is a toxic relationship.
Now Arjun is grappling with a new marriage, his family gone, a murder mystery in which he was one of the top suspects and leading a company. There's bound to be immense pressure. And let's not forget marriage is a new ballgame altogether for which Arjun wasn't ready. He was forced into it by Maya's manipulation. He didn't come into it with full maturity. So it is obvious that all of a sudden Maya's words, her rules had begin to internally suffocate him but he never worded it. Arjun was loyal to her. And we have to give it to the man. But Maya didn't discuss things with him or respect his opinion or consider him an equal. (We're talking pre-leap). She promised that she'll try to change but did she really? Changin would've meant equality in the relationship. It would've meant discussing her problems with Arjun and her fears. It would've meant trusting him and not keeping an eye on him everywhere. It would've meant not giving him orders and making adjustments. But we all saw how that part went. A petulant child again who saw and wanted things her way.

And yet Arjun was trying his best. He left his house for her and I don't think he did it for money tbh. He did love his mother and his brother a lot. Had he wanted to move into a big house they could've simply bought a new one and shifted there. It may have held allure and been partly a reason but not on the whole. And I don't think Arjun emotionally cheated on Maya either, at least not in a deliberate manner. Maya was not just isolating him but suffocating him. In a matter of few days his life had altogether changed. Now there were rules and he had no say in any of them. Any man is bound to be suffocated but here it was an altogether different situation.

And let's not forget that their relationship didn't develop slowly where they got to know one another and spend time. It was fast and furious which is why they never could've developed the bond and peace he had with Saanjh who had been like his soul-mate his bestfriend his partner since his childhood. In his own words, 'he didn't feel that easiness with Maya, he had with Saanjh'

Maya didn't ask for his opinions or try and help him. Maya issued ultimatums and then played russian roulette with him. She blackmailed him into cause-effect-consequence vertigos. The suffocated, confused child inside him reacted and rebelled, and ofcourse he could only do it with his best-friend, the person with whom there were no rules, high expectations or games. Who won't go and kill herself or play a game with him if he didn't follow her rules. But I don't think he was trying to kiss Saanjh. He was too drunk and just leaning on her. He was so confused, hurting, emotionally unbalanced and his heart was seeking his friend and asking her to help him, to ease him. Thus the continuous I love you, which in my opinion wasn't romantic but a heart-felt appreciation for the person who's been his backbone.

A reformed Maya as she put it--would have come to love Arjun for his strengths. His strengths were his relationships and how much he loved those people even to a fault. You love a person for their virtues and because you come to respect them for these. Maya didn't respect Arjun for the love he had for his family. In fact, she found it a hindrance. A reformed Maya would've tried to talk to Arjun about her insecurity, explain to him how she was feeling--and rightly so--but did she do that? Did she even give him a chance? She played court-jury-judge and then went onto implement her verdicts.

Maya had burned her hands and Arjun had been too occupied to see. Any wife will be hurt true. But was it such a big crime for what he got in return later? Had he not chosen Maya over Saanjh a million times already? Did Maya share her concerns? She then spiked their bhaangs. She didn't give them ordinary bhaangs which themselves make you drunk, she spiked theirs and then set up exactly what she knew will happen, so no surprise there. Can we say that Arjun was making sexual advances toward Saanjh? I don't think so. In his heart of hearts he was still faithful to Maya. And platonic toward Saanjh.

I may not like Arjun much as a character, but, he tried his best to love Maya and accept her for who she was. It was Maya who wasn't ready to accept him for who he was right from the beginning. He left his relationships in a heartbeat for her. He tried enough for a marriage that in no way or words was normal. And it kinds of pains me that this toxicity which has damaged him to such an extent and made him like this is going unnoticed by most viewers who are still busy blaming him.
HE'S THE BLOODY VICTIM FOR GOD'S SAKE!