mere dil vich hai hum tum

Hello! I was reading your countless analysis & wow, it floored me. You’re so articulate with your thoughts, it’s amazing. I love discussing common interests, I want to ask you - do you think that ASR didn’t repent enough for what he did to Khushi? & that she forgave him too easily for all he did - marrying her forcefully, threatening & blackmailing her, straining her relations, manhandling, demeaning, hurting her, dominating her, calling her characterless, accusing her of infidelity. (1/n)

Did you ever think that Khushi, while very loving, affectionate and sensitive, was somewhere weak that she the need to beg in front of him and prove her innocence despite all that he did to her? And then forgiving him (comparatively) easily, especially after he still blamed HER for what Shyam did (and not Shyam for being a vulture, like a typical MCP) & called her the biggest mistake of his life? (2/n)

I always felt very uncomfortable with how Khushi BELIEVED that it was ALL her mistake & could’ve been prevented had she not been there. She was the victim here but was made to believe she was the culprit and it really bothers me. I understand all things about being madly in love/not wanting to lose your love, but then how do you draw the line between doing things for love/being in love and honouring your self respect? How many apologies are even good enough for calling you characterless? (3/3)

Hello!

Thank you very much for the compliments :) 

do you think that ASR didn’t repent enough for what he did to Khushi? No.

Did you ever think that Khushi, while very loving, affectionate and sensitive, was somewhere weak that she the need to beg in front of him and prove her innocence despite all that he did to her? No.

Arnav’s redemption (or lack thereof) and Khushi’s tendency to forgive him are discussed in great detail here (I’m qhsahil). 

Your three-ask-long message had only these two questions in it, the rest was made up of your opinions and rhetorical questions. I’d appreciate if you could read this post :)

In addition, your questions are phrased (perhaps unconsciously) in a way that presupposes my answer. It makes the entire message read as though you’re less interested in my opinion and more interested in my agreement. I don’t agree with your position but that doesn’t invalidate either of our views -- the enjoyment and interpretation of a piece of fiction is subjective in nature. But the way you phrased your questions essentially means that if I disagree, I have to defend my position

I read through your message a few times but was unable to work out whether your disappointment and dislike stemmed from a reading of Arnav and Khushi as characters or as human beings. 

As a fictional character, Khushi’s strength was framed around her selflessness and her Fatal Flaw (projection of her goodness onto others) was spun as a positive trait. In contrast, Arnav’s strength was in loyalty and responsibility to his family and his fatal flaw (anger) was spun into a negative trait. There are well written and (more importantly) quite consistently written characters. Many of the things you seem to dislike about their actions are manifestations of their character sketches.

I also think there’s a huge difference between a character doing things that we (the audience) don’t like, don’t agree with, or wouldn’t do ourselves, and that character being weak or poorly written.

If we’re talking about them as human beings (people who exist outside of the fictional world of IPKKND and in our world) then I agree that Arnav is abusive and Khushi should’ve left him. But I’m not about to call a woman in an abusive relationship with a man almost ten years her senior weak.