xshx

Ferhat: I’m a knife 🔪🔪

Without a doubt, my all time favourite dizi is Siyah Beyaz Ask. I've literally rewatched the show several times and never gotten bored of it. The storyline is by far the most mature and unique amongst other Turkish dizis as it refuses to be confined within the limits of societal structures and expectations. It is one of the few shows that appropriately deals with taboos in Turkish culture like infidelity, abortion and divorce. The show narrates a beautiful tale of love and family, emphasizing the interconnection between light and darkness in life depending on an individual's circumstances and decisions.

The two main characters, Asli and Ferhat, are entrenched in an unlikely and passionate romance that highlights the transformative nature of love. Their complementary personalities perfectly balanced each other out, embodying principles of 'yin and yang'– hence the title directly translating to 'Black and White Love'. Asli and Ferhat endure the ebbs and flows of their relationship faced with danger, intrigue and loss that creates a strong foundation. This series is the reason that Ibrahim Celikkol is one of my favourite actors and, in my opinion, is grossly underrated– his acting range and ability to convey emotions through the TV screen is phenomenal but not enough international audiences have been exposed to his talents. As for Birce Akalay, she is equally gifted and their electrifying on-screen chemistry is simply breathtaking. They manage to perfectly emulate 'pragma'– an ancient Greek concept that describes passionate and everlasting love built on commitment, respect and acceptance. Their mutual adoration for one another, internal conflict and unshakeable bond are masterfully depicted throughout the series so any filler plots or unnecessary disputes are forgivable as all eyes are glued to the main leads. Their interactions were often accompanied by deeply insightful philosophical dialogue and embellished with apt body language, expressions and demeanor, delivered excellently by Birce and Ibrahim.

I absolutely loved that both characters were equals in their own rights– Asli was compassionate, intelligent and independent while Ferhat was hardened, strong-willed and clever. While Ferhat was just learning the language of love, Asli was more than willing to be his teacher. She was patient with him but their relationship was not one without conflict so it's trajectory and development was entirely believable. More often than not in Turkish dizis, I find myself annoyed at one of the main leads or disappointed in the choices they make but this show may have been the exception. I wholeheartedly loved both characters regardless of their flaws as I almost always understood or agreed with their decisions. Unlike other Turkish dizis, neither Ferhat nor Asli were prone to making impulse rash decisions which could change the course of their relationship. However, looking back at it now, this may result from them being older than traditional Turkish dizi characters– most main characters are in their 20s while Ferhat and Asli were both in their 30s.

One of my pet peeves is the inability for writers to portray love without mutual compromise. I've watched several dizis where regardless of how strong and autonomous the female lead is depicted, somehow the writers ruin her character by making her dependent on the male lead and constantly sacrificing herself for him. Loving someone does not have to mean that you can't exist without them– that idea in and of itself indicates a loss of individualism as people should never have to depend on someone else to be their crutch. This show does well to show that loving someone does not necessarily mean one must lose themselves but instead, the ability for both individuals to compromise and accept one another's flaws without diminishing their values. While both Ferhat and Asli have contradicting outlooks and beliefs, they realise errors in their ways on their own while still maintaining their original values. Any change in perspective occurs without much coercion or having to lose themselves. Although they may not want to, both Ferhat and Asli understand that sometimes space and time apart is good. They aren't afraid to be independent or to rely on each other in times of need. Yes, they are deeply in love with each other but that toxic idea of a codependent relationship where "I can't live without him / her" is not promoted.

Various metaphors sprinkled throughout the episodes refer to the fairytale, 'Beauty and The Beast', and form similarities between the dynamics of a quintessential tragic hero and pure-hearted 'sunshine' heroine. I read somewhere that this trope is often attractive to audiences as we like to see "a strong woman of substance finally be the healer for the broken man, piecing him back together into a more fulfilling and human existence". It's endearing to watch the vulnerable and soulful side of a man, especially since these traits are often repressed in the 'alpha male' stereotype promoted in society. Such tropes are tailored to male and female characterisations which appeal to those hopeless romantics rooting for the 'power of love'. The overarching contrasting theme of light and dark was not only evident from the characters but also in minute details like clothing, makeup and set design. Whenever a character descends into moments of darkness, their superficial appearance is altered with darker clothing and bolder makeup while subtle changes in lighting are often utilised to display the character's emotions. The underlying message refers to the ability for light and dark to bleed into one another, questioning whether one can build the courage to change for the better or embrace the unknown.

P.S. Their banter just warms my #AsFer soul

This is exactly why the whole "Queer characters can only be played by queer actors" argument, or the queerbaiting celebrities argument is not only unhelpful, it is actively harmful. You are not entitled to other peoples identity. You are forcing people to come out in order to protect their careers, when they may not have wanted to share that with the world. Real people can not queerbait. Real people can not be bad representations of themselves. Do not conflate how you treat fictional characters with how you are allowed to treat real people. We can not keep having the same conversation. Forcing people to come out or else face social consequences is Bad. Always. Everytime.

In this case, Kit is literally a teenager who has been facing overwhelming amounts of online abuse for not being open about his personal identity.

Im seeing it with other queer media too. With nicholas galitzin and taylor zakhar perez in the red white & royal blue movie, people demanding that they should have been recast with "actual queer actors" despite the fact that we do not know if they are or are not queer. We can never know until they tell us that they are, which they have not.

Im also seeing it with young royals. With the new season coming out later today, the speculation on omar and edvins sexuality and relationship is incredibly harmful and toxic. They are real people, please treat them like people instead of fictional characters you can write rambling, speculating paragraphs about.

I'll say it one more time.

We are shown that Spider has had a crush on Amerie for a while; the way he looks at her at the festival and the denial attempt he makes when Harper calls him out for it is a very high school boy response. These are both evidence of that. From this, we see that he has feelings for the girl that's been in love with his best friend for years. To her, Spider is her crush's friend and nothing more.

This could make any young boy feel quite inferior, and we see Spider compensate for that insecurity through (very problematic, very misogynistic) humour. It is suggested that Spider is a virgin that compensates for that by lying about having loads of sex (Jay from the Inbetweeners, who?), for example.

When Spencer gets the opportunity to sleep with Amerie, we see he gets performance anxiety. This isn't uncommon. He gets nervous and struggles to get an erection, despite wanting to engage in sex.

Again, we go back to the fact that Spider already has insecurities when it comes to his crush on Amerie. From his perspective, he's messed up the opportunity to win over the girl he's been in love with for years. And, to make it worse, she's laughing at him. Amerie then adds further fuel to that insecurity when she says she doesn't want anyone to know about their connection - inferring she's embarrassed by him.

Because of this, Spider puts up a barrier. He pushes Amerie away in defence and he treats her horrifically to try to protect himself. He over-compensates for his insecurities by bullying Amerie. This is, again, not an uncommon response that men have to rejection/unrequited feelings.

We know he didn't treat Amerie badly before the bedroom incident, we see that he's collected and calming when he meets with her and she's panicking. We see him feel genuine concern about Harper being missing, and comforts her, telling her she can stay with him. We see him pining for her throughout the whole series, even getting jealous of the relationship she has established with Malakai.

(Malakai is another example of Spider's insecurities; in comes a brand new student that is just as good as him at basketball and is flirting with the girl he likes that rejected him).

Because of the rejection, we see that Spider becomes cold, unfeeling and avoident towards Amerie. It's something we see all too much as women. You never know how men are going to respond when you reject them. Spider was such a good representation of one response men may have.

Spider White is one of the most authentic portrayals of a teenage boy pretending not to be hurt by a girl rejecting them. If he does end up with Amerie (this is Netflix, the app that paired Eric with his literal school bully before giving Adam a redemption arc, so I wouldn't put it passed them), I really hope that he has a lot of redemption. And I mean a lot. Because, while she wasn't the best to him in some regards, she did not deserve the sh*t that he put her through.

Mr. "I'm a feminist" needs a reality check before he deserves our Amerie. And so many people on this app need to realise that his behaviour was not okay. I don't care how hurt you are, you don't get to slut-shame and bully the person that rejected you.

JETIX was my second favorite channel when I was little (my favorite being Nickelodeon).

From what I can tell from my research, the channel was used to test run different shows to see how audiences reacted to them. Hence why most of the shows that aired there were either dropped completely or made their way to other networks (i.e. Disney, Disney XD, Nickelodeon, etc.)

I'm sure that's why a surprising amount of people remember Pucca, since her show aired on Toon Disney (Ah, remember when Toon Disney was a thing?)

Pucca was one of, if not the ONLY show on JETIX that had a lasting impact, evident enough with that 2019 spin-off show on Netflix.

Other shows that I remember that sadly didn't make the cut or last too long include:

Yin Yang Yo

Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!

The two other shows that actually survived and were aired on different networks were:

Power Rangers S.P.D.

Side note: I had a distinct memory of ONE Power Rangers show that had a talking wolf character and a silver ranger that turned into a floating bubble, and for years I was called crazy by my sister. Turns out, it all came from this version.

Sonic X

I love the fact that this show was my introduction to Sonic the Hedgehog and the gang. With all its 4Kids dub glory, sharing voice actors with pretty much every single series that aired there, especially YuGiOh.

For anyone who wants to ask btw, I didn't find Chris Thorndyke to be an unnecessary character until I was older. I never hated him, I'm not the type of person to radically "hate" characters at all, but I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that he was a vital character in the series either. The writers just squandered his potential, plain and simple.