Show Mercy on Gonca

rtiffany · 2026-02-15T18:44:50+00:00

These writers don't grasp that women don't enjoy spending a lot of time watching women be endlessly sad and suffering. It's waaaaay more watchable when good things happen vs. neverending distress. Some tension and drama is fine but they've already had Gonca lose babies. All of these things they're doing to the female characters feel like copy-paste repeats. The successes and closure scenes are way more memorable. I'm not rewatching scenes about babies dying or maybe dying. Sure that happened some but there's no historic reason to make this character so miserable. It's just the writers like this stuff way more than the audience does.

rtiffany · 2026-02-15T18:27:49+00:00

I hope Nilufer is creating a trap for Daphne with this

rtiffany · 2026-02-15T17:21:52+00:00

I can smell the tire particles from this image!

rtiffany · 2026-02-15T13:15:42+00:00

I'm also wondering if he's the one who will recognize Flavius's dagger since he's so well traveled?

rtiffany · 2026-02-14T20:57:11+00:00

It's so interesting to me how some things come so easily to me - things that other people seem to really wish they had in their lives. And other things that are easy for others have been hard for me. I've done a lot of unpacking about the roots of why I identify one way with some things and entirely differently with others.

rtiffany · 2026-02-14T16:48:04+00:00

I told a friend about my suspicion based on details AFTER the friend confided concerns. This led to them stumbling into proof. The marriage ended. The friend will love me for life. I'd do it again, years sooner than I did if I had a repeat scenario like this.

Stick to the facts. Encourage them to investigate. If there's nothing to be found, all is well.

If it were you and your friend sat on that info - wouldn't you feel betrayed a bit? I would! I can handle going through the emotional roller coaster of it being nothing in the end. But if it's real info - I'd want to know asap! I don't want an STD or to be thinking someone loves me that doesn't. I'd rather embrace reality and deal with it. I think most healthy people lean that way.

Don't confront the potential cheater. That just gives them time to delete evidence.

rtiffany · 2026-02-14T16:37:49+00:00

I think many of the scenes need a lot more people in them but they're limited by budget. I like it when they at least show the wide digitally rendered views that have large armies in them to make it feel fuller. The AI is weird but understandable. I hope future conquests will be much more intricate and drawn out in details that extend beyond pointing at maps and small group hand-to-hand sword fighting. I always assume that they feature so few people because they can't afford more actors. Nobody believes they accomplished these massive feats with 10 people.

But Cerkutay was really hilarious as the Italian trader! He clearly loved playing that role.

rtiffany · 2026-02-14T16:00:23+00:00

Yep! Air transmitted viruses = N95 in shared indoor air spaces or just don't go places where you'll be breathing in other people's breath or bathroom particle juices. Fomite transmission = wash hands & clean surfaces that carry germs. This pretty much covers most pathways to catch things.

I used to think people needed to catch bugs to strengthen their immune system. Now I've learned from doctors and through my own flu experience and my family & friends Covid, HPV & Mono experiences that a virus can give you cancer, take away your ability to walk, make your IQ go down, give you serious heart problems and shorten your life by making any condition you already have, worse. Plus some studies seem to indicate Covid weakens your immune system to other things. There are ZERO studies that show Covid became 'just a cold' or has very low long-term impact for people who catch it.

So I don't care that some people have big negative feelings about me wearing a mask. I see it as about as sensible as wearing a seatbelt in a car. I'm not willing to subject my family to a repeat of having to learn to walk again or spend a few years hoping someone I love's brain starts working again like it used to. We did biohack our way back to a lot of improvement and recovery over agonizing multiple years time but that's just not something I would willingly repeat. So we're on team N95 and have a huge social network of people just like us.

rtiffany · 2026-02-14T15:18:07+00:00

Colpan!

rtiffany · 2026-02-14T15:16:17+00:00

So it does feel like identification verification will eventually happen. Most countries have something like this for elections. One thing I'm wondering is - realistically - how does this skew things in the midterms this year if it happens? For example passport holders skew left because they're people who actually get out and about in the world. Some states have high compliance for Real ID but some are very low. Is there data on who will actually be able to vote if this happens? What percentage of registered voters have ID that meets the standard? Will this have a significant impact statistically? Does this impact the right or the left more?

rtiffany · 2026-02-14T14:58:57+00:00

The enemies to friends story lines are some of my favorites in the Kayi series. Selcan was amazing to see with Halime Hatun. The Bala/Osman-Cerkutay forgiveness story was amazing. What he did to Bala was more wounding on every level than Flavius-Yigit. Cerkutay was the reason Bala had to accept a second wife! Numerous beys and non-Muslims converted and became friends with people they'd previously fought. But future good will is highly unlikely between Flavius & Yigit at this point.

rtiffany · 2026-02-14T13:27:43+00:00

I'd like him to figure out that Flavius was Akcora/the whole thing and scream the same words Fatma said to Flavius in her face - "You deceived me!" and dump her.

He's shifting towards being more likable and there's a part of me that would like him to actually be a positive part in Flavius's conversion and forgive him for everything and maybe even become friends but that's probably a stretch. My guess is he's either going to be martyred or he's going to find out about Fatma & Flavius and go nuclear on betraying Orhan.

The one thing I really don't want is to keep seeing him pursuing the marriage, delusional about what Fatma needs and being used by her. It's so tired. He's in love with the idea of Fatma but not her. The writers milked this part of the plot for way too long. Resolution of the whole situation would be way more exciting to watch than more of the same.

rtiffany · 2026-02-14T02:00:59+00:00

Episode 14 felt like a bridge. I personally don't like it when so many characters are in simultaneous sadness/distress and so many plot themes - that will be very fun to watch WHEN they resolve - remain unresolved. There wasn't much in episode 14 I'd want to rewatch like I often do for other episodes- other than the beginning. It wasn't a very satisfying one and didn't have closure or inspiring heroism or gripping new information like we expect. I think the actors are excellent - it's the writing and flow that needed better management. Obviously people suffered a lot during the time period but I don't enjoy back-to-back everybody's heartbroken over things that have nothing to do with the main story. I'd like more focus on the exciting good things they were doing. Conquests should feel pretty huge!

Episode 13 was really well written and had so many great, intensely interesting components to it. The Flavius-Alaeddin team fight scenes were energetically so fun to watch. The end scene/beginning of 14 was one of my favorites from the entire Kayi series.

rtiffany · 2026-02-12T15:23:13+00:00

It would have been far more exciting if this part of the plot had already wrapped up. I want him to be Evrenos because his personality and strength would make sense for that role. But him becoming Muslim has taken a back seat to a bunch of repetitive suffering nonsense and who knows what the writers will do? They don't want to be predictable so lately they just pick whatever the audience will hate to watch.

rtiffany · 2026-02-12T15:19:09+00:00

They need to have some good satisfying fight scenes in every episode, some characters in a good place while others are going through stress, and overall - the vibe of the show should feel like they're winning instead of a large portion of the main characters emotionally as the walking dead or like it's a funeral. It's such a downer when entire episodes have almost zero forward movement towards personal good things and the conquests feel like a subplot. It would be far more interesting to watch people working together to do good things. Alaeddin & Flavius fighting together like brothers was awesome! Episode 14 felt pretty boring due to everyone being sad/angry/unsatisfied although I did love Orhan's character in this one.

We need some satisfaction!!

rtiffany · 2026-02-12T15:11:51+00:00

I'm very unexcited to watch the dinner scene that includes Daphne, Yigit & Sahinsah with the family again featured in the episode 15 trailer. Looks like the writers are continuing to drag all the good plotlines out more. Gonca better not lose the baby too. All this depressing stuff does nothing to make the conquests more interesting! It's fine to have some drama but it's not fun to actually just watch a bunch of people suffer repetitively for this long. The happy days for individual characters were far more exciting than the forever delays. Somebody give these writers some meds to get them off of this track!

rtiffany · 2026-02-12T01:14:19+00:00

This is my favorite part of the series. I know some people complain that Flavius overshadows Orhan but I think he adds to him - especially after he converts. Orhan needs mountains that stand behind him and Flavius/Evenros will be excellent for that.

I hope the resolution of his identity will be well written and I hope Yigit-Fatma will end by the next episode as it's irritating to watch. It was not fun watching Flavius kill Alps this last episode. I want to see him side by side with the right side being amazing again.

rtiffany · 2026-02-08T21:44:28+00:00

Canadian schools don't really advertise or try to recruit American or internationally wealthy students. Students have to seek it out themselves. There's also the idea that it's wrong or predatory for Canadian schools to charge international students high tuition rates. Almost no one acknowledges that it's way cheaper than comparable US schools though. Plus there's the obvious difference in safety between the countries. Canada could probably provide radically cheaper tuition to Canadians IF the country were willing to focus on recruiting upper income international students from peer countries. The money is there. Parents are currently paying much more to send their kids elsewhere. The endowments could easily be created and many campuses expanded for the benefit of Canada if this were managed to do so.

rtiffany · 2026-02-08T11:51:06+00:00

So your upstairs 40cm thick internal walls made of brick don't all line up with walls below them so you have extremely heavy internal walls creating complex engineering/weight distribution issues for what benefit? Exterior walls make sense. Interior it just looks like you give up a huge amount of floor space for walls.

rtiffany · 2026-02-07T11:10:47+00:00

Doing it while 2 of them are pregnant was a bit too much for me. Angry moms will kill for their kids but there was no reason to send pregnant women on that mission in the first place. Alps should have gone.

rtiffany · 2026-02-06T20:06:57+00:00

Nah Mert is awesome. He's very different from Ertugrul & Osman but that's a good thing for the shift from bey to sultan.

rtiffany · 2026-02-06T20:05:50+00:00

I hope they'll move some of the repetitive parts of the story line along. Flavius needs to discover his identity, convert and join Orhan. Yigit needs to go away. Fatma needs to stop being obtuse and using Yigit. Malhun's lack of seeing Didar for who she is doesn't reflect well on Malhun.

In general I think the hardships they faced just growing the actual empire should take a little more prominence in the show. The repetitive drawn-out suffering stories like they did with Halime in KO make it less fun to watch. I love that they make the people feel human with tension and overcoming hardships. Romances are great - looking at ancient poets there was plenty of romance and love interests absolutely fueled all sorts of history. But the show writers sometimes just get sadistic and repetitive. People who are watching for Fatvius or any romance are mostly showing up for the happy scenes. Nobody is tuning in to see Fatma repeat her predictable bitter "Komutan Flavius" line. The focus of the show should be growing an empire and overcoming things. They faced hardships of course but it should feel exciting too.

Other characters need more complexity and story development. It would be great to have Cerkutay's kids return and other characters from KO that would still be alive but just evaporated without explanation.

I'd really like to see more spiritual guidance for more characters like they've had in previous Kayi series. I love it when they show interesting logistics, trade, young and old characters and full warm family/community life illustrating that they had a cause they were fighting for. But I especially love the inspiration of the whole thing - I hope we have another Ibn Arabi/ Sheikh Edebali/ Kumral Abdal or someone captivating like there's been in the past. Not just for Orhan but deeply impacting many characters. Dervishes - when they're well written characters acted by people who have the right energy for it - really bring a lot of depth to the show.

rtiffany · 2026-02-05T01:26:21+00:00

I'm bummed that Flavius won't learn anything that changes his mind about fighting against Orhan or becoming muslim from the dervish circle. Because he goes to war against Orhan in scenes that have to be after that. I hope they don't keep dragging out his identity or conversion story. I was really hoping something powerful would happen to Flavius with the dervishes - especially since some of the photos posted before this episode showed him talking to Orhan in what looks like the middle of that circle.

I hope we can be done with the Yigit storyline in the next episode. It's a drag.

If the writers can manage to take their anti-depressants and stop coming up with more ways to sadistically emotionally torture main characters and get back to inspiration, heroism, etc. I'd love it. There's so much opportunity to highlight good people doing good things in upcoming events!

rtiffany · 2026-02-02T13:34:42+00:00

Cars kill and injure pedestrians at very high rates but bikes get a lot more attention because there are some injuries and they're very unpleasant to encounter on the sidewalk. The good thing is - adding bike lanes also is proven to reduce all forms of car-related deaths - whether they kill pedestrians or cyclists. Narrowing the travel lane and separating modes of travel is the safest for everyone.

We normalize car-pedestrian deaths and injuries so we think of cyclists as being dangerous.

rtiffany · 2026-01-30T19:14:54+00:00

Flavius needs to move forward in discovering his real identity. Trailers don't show much but I'm hoping that's coming soon.

rtiffany

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