#sck episode set

[katherine-mcnamara]

hi dev you make a lot of sets from sen cal kapimi and i was wondering if you were going to release packs too?

Hi anon!!! I always squee when I get hande related asks so you made my day!!! And I might The problem with a few of the turkish shows is that the ones I watch before i gif i download and watch in arabic which means the episodes are all cut into 45 minute episodes as that's how they aired and I like the quality of those eps for giffing too. And I'm not sure if it would be confusing or annoying to release packs like that given the ep numbers for SCK would be 161 episodes and there's a few others like it. I know a couple people got annoyed when I went to gif Zalim Istanbul and it was like that so I stopped. ASDFLDFSALF <3

[lizacstuff]

Sen Çal Kapımı - Serkan & Eda in episode 50

[djemsostylist]

I watched the fragman, and all I have to say is that it was fucking hilarious and stupid and I'm team no one. Eda is dumb and Serkan is dumb and I hate this stupid whole show and I will not let them ruin episode 11 perfection for me bc this is too little faaaaaaaaaaaaar too late

[sab-teraa]

I usually stay out of fandom drama ... but omfg. The fact that they cut out this  many important EsZan scenes from episode 12 is mind blowing and infuriating. This is so so disrespectful to the cast, crew, director and writers! These individuals work night+day to give us the best possible episodes ... to the point that they actually sleep on set!  Ilhan and Burcu put their reputation on the line to promote episode 12 and yet production cut out every single EsZan scene which would shed light on Ozan’s behaviour + Esra progression towards love! And for what??? An episode filled with Cagla crying over the same thing?? And the worst part is ... that the crew, cast + writers had no idea that these scenes were cut! Gosh, as a fan this is so so disheartening. 

Plus, its not only episode 12 that had this problem. As we reflect ... theres so many important scenes that have been cut since episode 10. Its slowing down the story and alienating the audience from Ozan. FFS ... THE LETTER SCENE THAT THEY CUT WOULD HAVE TIED THE ENTIRE STORY TOGETHER.  Also, I didn’t mind that their social media PR is horrible .. I presumed that that they promote negativity in order to boost social media ratings since its a catalyst to get people to talk. But this is ridiculous now. THE FACT THAT BURCU HAD TO CALL OUT THE IG ADMIN FOR POSTING CUT SCENES IS INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE FACT THAT THEY POSTED THE WRONG HASHTAG????? THE FACT THAT THE NEW YOUTUBE ADMIN POSTS THE TRAILERS SO LATE??? THE FACT THAT WE DONT GET ANY ESZAN SCENES ON THEIR YOUTUBE??? THIS IS INSANE TO ME  Literally, the only person they promote is melisa??? ik its probs bc of the international success of SCK. However, with all due respect to melisa (she is a great actress and seems like a wonderful person), but, she is the second lead + we don’t care about cagla’s first world problems. This is such a disservice to Ilhan and Burcu ... its their names + talent which got people to watch the show!  AMI is the highest rated show of the summer + we bring in so so so much money + we are often the most talked about show on social media ..... and this is how you treat your audience + crew/cast/writers/director??? Anyway, we are currently trending number 1 in turkey + 40 in the world ... maybe this tag will actually get the production house to listen to the crew/cast/writers/director and the audience for once.  This is so embarrassing and unprofessional. 

[sweetrupturedlight]

It’s been a while, but let’s talk about SCK. 

This season has been a rollercoaster. From the minute they announced the time jump, to the knowledge of Kiraz existing without Serkan’s knowledge… it’s been a minefield to navigate for those who love(d) the show, and those who are new to it. 

Firstly, I didn’t like the plot. I didn’t then and I don’t now. I’m not a fan of the “hide your kid for her own good” storyline, unless very well done. And because I have spent a year with these characters, there was really no way to make me believe that the characters I’ve come to love could do these sorts of things to each other. 

Secondly, I’m not really in the hail Ayşe writing camp. I think she is talented; I think she has great ideas, but I don’t believe she is well balanced. She has brought incredible symbolism and parallels to the show, but she struggles to make the narrative around it feel cohesive. This means that we tend to travel from one symbolic engagement to the other, without anything holding them together. The meaning is therefore diluted and feels hollow. The show had better writers who told great story, but then struggled with the moments that matter. Either way, with each set of writers, something always seemed to suffer. 

I came into Season 2 mad as hell. I hated what had been done to Serkan and I couldn’t believe there was any way Eda could justify hiding their daughter for 5 years. But because I love the characters so much, I made the decision to stick around and see how they would attempt to tell the story. Then episode 3 happened. 

After last night’s episode, I kind of found myself happy I decided to stick with this show. While I wish they went in a different direction, I appreciate the attempts made to try and show Eda’s position, as well as Serkan’s. In the hands of a better writer, it might have been better told, but because of the massive changes in writing teams, the history of the characters being OOC is well established. Based on that alone, I can accept that the Serkan I knew went through an incredibly traumatic health crisis and because of it, made decisions about his future. The consequences of that – whether I agree with it or not – proves newtons third law of motion. 

I appreciate that the writers took the time to show that Eda was torn about her decision. Hande was powerful in her scenes begging him to talk to her. I felt that. My God. Eda making some kind of journal for Serkan doesn’t absolve her, but it does show us that the decision not to tell him, wasn’t forgettable to her. Is it a cop out? Of course. But it’s the hand we are dealt. And I thought the scenes were really well done. 

The most frustrating thing about this season is that we get to spend no real time with Serkan. But then we do, during this episode. I really appreciated hearing more about his health, his associated trauma, and his reasons for wanting to remain detached. While I feel Serkan has grown as a character in the first season, I must leave room to allow for the fact that his health crisis did play a role in aiding his regression to his default state – being alone, afraid of abandonment, fearing the day Eda realises he isn’t worth it. I appreciate connecting these dots. They don’t come out of nowhere. Again, could it have been told in a better way? Yes. I appreciated this attempt, nonetheless. 

The reason this episode clicked for me though, was because it carried an arc. 

We start the episode with Serkan being against fatherhood. He’s afraid. 

He tells Eda why he feels this way – he’s communicating. 

Then realisation happens that he loves Eda and he already loves Kiraz – his perspective shifts. 

Finding his daughter alone, asking for her father to return to her is what tips him over the edge – he experiences acceptance. 

It’s not perfect, but I misted up. Beautiful. 

Finally, Serkan in the astronaut suit has been a rumour for weeks. So, we knew it was coming. What I loved about it is that Serkan Bolat, perfect, always groomed, is in a silly space suit that looks homemade. I LOVE that. It shows that he didn’t plan this, he didn’t have time to make it perfect and realistic. He went down to some store and bought the first thing he could find – a ridiculous costume that would make him look silly, but his daughter would be happy. Call me a fool, but I literally teared up. 

I get it. This isn’t the show we started out with. But this season has made an attempt to get back to the lighter tone – despite the heavier material. We faced Serkan’s father being responsible for Eda’s parents’ death in season 1 – so heavy material isn’t exactly exclusive to this season. 

Furthermore, Serkan and Kiraz are pretty much the main reason for even watching this season. Their interactions are so cute, it just elevates the entire show. That chemistry helps build the narrative – he is a good dad, even if he didn’t believe he would be. 

Now give me more of Serkan, continue having Eda and Serkan communicate, show us daddy Bolat, family bonding, as well as story arcs in episode and across the remaining episodes.

When this season started, I was not interested. 3 episodes in, I can’t believe I’m happy with the direction. It’s imperfect, but I’m excited to see where it goes. 

[snowgloberoundandround]

Where are you watching Sen Cal Kapimi? Those two look adorable and I need them in my life!!!

Merhaba! Apparently these asks have been sitting in my inbox’s for three thousand years and I’m just seeing them today! D: (Tagging @butterfly-magoon and @kalena-henden as well for similar questions!)

Sen Çal Kapımı (translated “You Knock On My Door”) is a Turkish rom-com/drama set in Istanbul. If you’re a sucker for the classic fanfic tropes like I am, this is where you need to be. It has EVERYTHING. Episodes are called “bölüm and each one is about two and a half hours long - so you’re getting an entire movie every week. Right now we’re on bölüm 35 and there’s no sign of stopping. This is basically the exact opposite of British TV.

There are two places I’ve found easiest to watch it with English subtitles.

1.) YouTube — To watch it on YouTube, select your video and then hit subtitles. Select auto translate, and then scroll to English on the drop down menu. Allegedly there’s a way to make this work on mobile but I’ve never been able to, so I just watch from a laptop. The resolution on these videos are better BUT the translation is worse. It has a really hard time with gender, past/present tense, and general grammar so while you can still understand what they’re trying to say, sometimes it can be annoying. I do like to watch these to give the official SCK account views, and again, high res.

2.) Facebook — There are those bright and brilliant souls among us that take the time to translate episode and share them with the world. This is where I typically prefer to watch the episodes, as it’s usually more true to English grammar, my only critique with this is that sometimes they’ll change the names slightly (Selin is usually Celine instead, sometimes Eda is just Ed lol.). They also translate all the previews. Once or twice I’ve also seen a swear pop up, which is very rare, but not something that happened on the autotranslated YouTube videos for me. Overall though, absolutely prefer watching the episodes here. They’re uploaded pretty fast after the episode airs as well.

Hoşçakal!

[aslibekroglu]

I do think that ratings still hold the most weight but its just relative to the network which is really unfortunate. If you're an 7 show on an otherwise 10+ network, I think you'd still get canceled bc the network wouldn't just NOT air new shows they have pending if everything was doing well by industry standards. BO & AM are a good comparison example - BO was doing better in ratings and got canceled a month ago but Star only has 3 shows so theyd rather air something than nothing

But the thing is for the last couple of weeks, on every other day except Tuesday, Star was just showing different movies. So even if they did cancel AM a while ago, they could have just added another movie to their schedule. But I agree ratings are definitely still the most important and because Fox had a bunch of shows waiting to debut, they had to cancel their lowest performing shows. I get it and I understand it, but it was a completely avoidable scenario.

For me, the issue is that everything is just so inconsistent. Like you said, BO was doing better than AM, but they still got cancelled, “because their circumstances were different” (even tho I don’t remember any pressing dizis coming out on Kanal D to make them cancel BO but whatever) And then it’s inconsistent even on the same channel, because I remember in 2020 when Baraj came back for s2 they struggled for a while and got 2-3s (I think) and fox never cancelled them. Eventually they worked their way back up to 5s and the show lasted for a long time. Son Yaz could have possibly had the same outcome, but because Fox bought the rights to 5 new shows, they didn’t give Son Yaz a proper chance. Again completely avoidable, Fox could have simply not gotten greedy and bought all of these shows. Or they could have properly invested in their current shows and just waited before entering production on their new shows.

And even if they gave Son Yaz an actual chance and it was still getting low ratings, they could have still cancelled the show, but given it more than 2 episodes (really just 1 since the second to last episode was already filmed by the time it got cancelled) to finish the story. Again, I understand that the circumstances were different but SCK wasn’t doing great in the ratings for its last couple of months. Hell, even during the second half of s1 SCK wasn’t doing great, but it still lasted mostly due to its social media/international following. Sure, we weren’t pulling 1 million tweets every week like SCK, but we weren’t chopped liver either. Son Yaz was easily number one most tweeted dizi every Saturday during s2, pulling miles ahead the two other shows. If Fox was being consistent, then they would have at least been willing to give us a proper ending based off of social media.

Idk I guess it makes sense, like of course shows would have different outcomes depending on their specific circumstances, like that’s kinda how everything works, but it’s just SO UNBELIEVABLY FRUSTRATING.

And honestly, I’m really trying to think about what the difference is between American shows and Turkish dizis. Like what’s the difference in the way they operate, because I get so frustrated at how the dizi industry works and I don’t necessarily feel the same about American tv. And it’s not like there’s not American shows that suddenly get cancelled or end on cliffhangers or something. And I’m just spitballing here, so I doubt if any of this will even make sense, but I think part of the disconnect is that with dizis everything is done in real time without a set number of episodes.

For one, that’s exhausting for all parties involved from the writers to the actors to the crew to the audience to go for weeks and weeks on end without any real breaks (for at least 9 months, if the show does really well), not to mention the fact that they’re making these movie length, 2.5hr long episodes within the span of a couple of days. All of this just makes a sudden cancellation even more devastating and painful.

And two, I think it makes the industry more vulnerable to external circumstances and influences like money if that makes sense. Of course, everything is about money and ads, the same as it is in America, but I think that because everything is in real time, the channels feel this need to constantly churn out content. So once one show ends, whether because of cancellation or the season finished, it’s on to a new one, which is probably a reason why the summer season exists. So for example, ATV and Baş Belası. They put it on air during the summer, because hey they needed a summer show, they needed that ad money, but I think everyone who watched that show could tell you that that show did not belong in the summer season. It was definitely a fall type of show and the should have waited to debut it, but nope they needed the money. Unfortunately turkish people (or at least the turkish people with the ratings device in their homes 🙄 which is a whole other conversation) were apparently just not watching tv this summer, which you can partially excuse because they had a lot of issues going on in their country this summer, but again external circumstances! So they just decide to cancel this great show with so much potential because it wasn’t giving them the revenue. This need to constantly put out content is why Fox bought 7 new shows for the fall season instead of investing their returning shows/shows that were already on the air. Instead of protecting the shows they already had, they just bought a whole bunch to throw at the wall and see which one sticks (WHICH IS JUST SO STUPID and such a terrible way to go about things). And I get that the industry is first and foremost nothing more than a business, but none of this is conducive to creativity and good storytelling which should at least be a priority to the channels but it does not at all seem to be.

And lastly, the no “set number of episodes” thing is the biggest issue/difference, I think. The writers essentially have to keep the story going for potentially 9 months (maybe even more if they get multiple seasons). At least the fall shows do, the summer shows are even worse because they truly have no clear end date. But for the fall shows, I’m sure they have general plans for where the story will go, but it’s not easy to fill time for 2.5hrs each week for 9 months, so they have to get creative with their storylines, they have to make them deep and substantial enough so that if they manage to last for the whole season, then at least they have enough story to tell. Or inşallah, if they get multiple seasons, the story has to be deep enough to carry them through. But when things are done in real time, when things are so damn dependent on who’s watching the dizis, what ratings are they getting, how much money are they drawing in, then shows can get cancelled without much warning. Then writers have to wrap up these storylines that they spent ages developing and planning, that they expected to last maybe multiple seasons, all within 1-2 episodes, maybe 5 if you’re lucky. It’s just straight silliness. American shows are done months in advanced, generally they finish writing and filming the season way before it actually finishes airing. Yes, they’re have been many American shows that were suddenly cancelled after the season ended, leaving the audience on a cliffhanger for the overarching, long term storylines, but at the very least the seasonal storyline gets a conclusion. And yeah, there have been shows that got cancelled in the middle of the season, but again, because they had a predetermined, set number of episodes, the writers had the opportunity to at least try to properly end the show. And of course, there have been shows that got cancelled out of nowhere, full stop, no conclusion, no last couple of episodes to wrap everything up, but I feel like that happens way less frequently than the other two situations that I mentioned.

Sorry to completely take over and derail your ask, but this whole dizi industry has been bugging me so much recently and I’m just trying to place my finger on it and figure out exactly what it is about it. Again this might not make any sense at all 😅 I was just getting some thoughts out, getting some things off my chest

[blackjack-15]

Avenge My Twistery Depth — Thoughts on: Trail of the Twister (TOT)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE, ICE, CRY, VEN, HAU, RAN, WAC

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with links to previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: TOT, WAC, mentions of GTH.

The Intro:

Let’s talk about Trail of the Twister, shall we? No clever intro, no pun, no sassy statement on the quality (whether lacking or overflowing) of the game…let’s just Talk.

Like I said at the beginning of my WAC meta, TOT is one of two games that doesn’t really fit into a category besides it and WAC demonstrating HER’s growing pains. The world opens (kinda), the characters get a little deeper (kinda) and a few new things are tried with plots and character (to varying degrees of success). Both WAC and TOT — but especially TOT — represent a shift in the tone of the games and their approach. You can ascribe this to a lot of reasons — an aging fanbase, technology marching on, a new writer in the mix — but you really can’t ignore it, no matter if you’re a Classic Games Elitist or a Newer Games Snob (or neither one).

To paraphrase a fabulous song, there’s something there that wasn’t there before.

This is not me saying in any way that TOT is a fabulous — or even moderately successful — game. In fact, it whiffs a lot where WAC hit solidly, which makes playing them one after the other a sort of chore; WAC is weighed down by the knowledge of what comes next (after such a brief respite from games like ICE, HAU, and RAN), and TOT’s repetitive chore list seems even bleaker after the snack shop and secret societies of WAC.

Which is truly unfortunate, because hiding behind the rat traps and the car chases (or drives, if you drive like a normal person in this game) and the endless moon chunk offerings is one heck of a story. Unfinished and beleaguered and (to my suspicions) censored as it is, there is a definite, multilayered, morally ambiguous, honest-to-moon-chunk story in TOT.

Like I said, something there that wasn’t there before.

Playing through the games in order, it seems like the reason WAC is so solid is, in part, because the games before it have so little cohesive story as to be laughable. Playing them out of order will show you that though WAC does come off a little better than it actually is due to the games that came before it, it’s also actually a step-up from a lot of games in the complexity of its plot and characters. At this point in the series that’s about to happen a lot, but WAC is the first real instance where you get it. Like I said, these two games mark a tonal and approach-based shift in the games.

So let’s turn our attention to TOT.

There are a lot of things that bog down this game — it feels sometimes as if you’re simply going through Farmville-esque tasks to get from Point A to Point B — but its plot and characters (save in one large instance) aren’t actually the culprits. Surprisingly enough, we have a mystery here with enough twists, turns, small crimes, and red herrings to make for a perfectly serviceable plot with relatively well-developed (for the length of the game) characters (whom I’ll go into more below).

A huge difference from a lot of the games is that we have a prominent unseen character who isn’t the one who hired Nancy or who is part of the historical background. Brooke’s actions actively move the plot along no matter what Nancy does, and I do like that the world of TOT goes on spinning (as it were) without Nancy driving everything.

You get the sense that Nancy truly was just dropped into the middle of this without having any control over the situation, and that she spends the entire game (or most of it) playing catch-up, rather than being on the scene for the crime(s) or arriving shortly thereafter.

In TOT, this sabotage has been going on for a while — the competition is nearly over, in fact — and Nancy has to actually do some detective work to even get caught up, let alone to try to step a few feet in front of the guilty party.

One interesting thing is what TOT and WAC share: they both feature casts who are only a few years off of Nancy’s age; in WAC, they’re a tiny bit younger, while in TOT, they’re a tiny bit older. Nancy, being Nancy, is much more in her element with the ages of her suspects in TOT than she is with high schoolers — with how much time Nancy spends around people significantly older than her, I’d be shocked if she got along well with high schoolers when she was in high school herself.

As a side note, I know it’s sort of a fandom thing that Nancy gets along well with children, but honestly outside of Lucas, it’s not something we really see (no, I’m not counting pelting Freddie with snow 10 times sans mercy as getting along with children) — and honestly Lucas is just charming, so I see no reason why Nancy wouldn’t get along with him. Generally speaking, kids who grow up the way Nancy has [especially as an only child] are far more comfortable with ‘adults’ — well established, 35/40+ adults, who make up the majority of her suspect pools — than they are with peers or children.

There’s also a great deal of care taken with making all the suspects (mostly) equally likely for a large portion of the game; it’s not until past the halfway point that a suspect (Chase) is cleared due to his confession of a different crime, and even then, he doesn’t really become Nancy’s helper, as is the usual case with cleared suspects. This is actually one of the few games where Nancy doesn’t really have a helper; she relies on herself, the Hardy Boys, and (questionably) P. G. Krolmeister to get the job done.

And speaking of the Hardy Boys…you knew an intro wouldn’t be complete without my mentioning them, hush.

The Hardy Boys are arguably the set piece that benefit most from Nik’s writing (and yes, I’m going to ascribe it to him; he’s the most prominent variable). Don’t get me wrong, the Hardy Boys were great before, but the Nik games are where they start attaining a place of more prominence and solidify their distinct personalities other than “focused killjoy and playful scamp”. In this game, you get more of Frank’s protectiveness (directed towards Nancy) and Joe’s actual sleuthing abilities — not the least of which because this game coincides with that DS Masterpiece “Treasure on the Tracks”.

Oh yeah, we’re going there. It’s relevant.

Treasure on the Tracks, as mentioned, was a game for the Nintendo DS (and the only one, mind you) focusing on the Hardy Boys. In the game (as in TOT), they’re tracking down the Romanov treasure with the help of a surprising ally — Samantha Quick herself. Samantha is under orders (from who, she never says, but a future game makes it obvious) to help the boys find the treasure aboard the royal train that the Romanovs used to own.

And yes, I would have loved that to be a joint Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys PC game, but I’ll push the bitterness aside for the facts. Which are that this game has a rad premise and would have been a very cool addition to the ND series…but I digress. Regardless, that’s what the boys are doing during TOT, so we get little hints to their investigation as well as having them help Nancy out.

I love that the Hardy Boys have an actual mystery that they’re investigating, as beginning with this game we see a lot more of their ‘agent’ side being brought out. It’s nice to feel that Nancy isn’t alone out there fighting against the forces of evil, and gives excuses to have the Hardy Boys in the games more, so I’m a big fan in general. It also helps build them up as investigators; while they offer hints to Nancy a lot, we don’t get to see them doing a lot of spy/detective work, and it’s lovely to be able to see it here.

And I love their sibling banter. It’s obvious that JVS and Rob Jones have a lot of fun with their roles, and it really lightens and enhances any Nancy Drew game that they’re in.

The last interesting thing that I’ll point out before diving into the game itself is what TOT does for the world of Nancy Drew. Beginning with this game, we start the tradition of each game leading directly into the next one; for her help in TOT, Krolmeister sends her to his favorite ryokan in Japan, which leads to her being hired for CAP; her absence and fight with Ned in CAP lead her back home for the Clues Challenge in ASH, and so on and so forth.

It really makes the world feel solid and cohesive, and lets our characters grow and shift and change without making it feel episodic or sudden. The Nancy of SPY is quite different from the Nancy of TOT in how she behaves and tackles mysteries, but her character growth throughout the games in between make it feel right and natural — like actual character growth.

The Title:

As a title, “Trail of the Twister” isn’t bad — it’s got that alliteration that ND books tend to like doing, and makes it feel a little classic. It also gets a play with words in there — you’re tracing the actual trail of the actual twister, and you’re also walking through the evidence left behind (aka a trail) of a twisting plot. Solid, if not exceptional, with its only real detriment being the hilarious acronym (TOT).

The book it’s (loosely) based off of is called “The Mystery of Tornado Alley” which, obvious to anyone with eyes, is a much worse title while telling us the same thing. It also doesn’t apply to the game as much – you’re not figuring out a mystery as much as unwinding the tangled threads of character motivations — and is supremely clunky to boot.

The Mystery:

Called in by P.G. Krolmeister to go undercover, Nancy joins a team of storm-chasers bent on winning a grant for their research — and beating the opposing team that wants the same thing. Nancy begins the mystery by finding a tin box full of cash (payment for an as-of-yet unspecified action) and it spirals from there, putting the not-so-amateur teen sleuth through her paces learning about tornados and storms, taking pictures, and trying her best to keep everyone happy and working towards the money.

It’s not as easy as it sounds, however. There are competing forces at work outside (and sometimes within) the two teams, and the personalities of the storm-chasers that Nancy must investigate mean that no one trusts anyone else. Things continue to go wrong and Nancy chases down the clues until the mother of all tornados hits town, and our culprit takes advantage of the distraction…

I mentioned above some censorship that I suspect went on in this game, and I’ll talk about it here. Given the darker themes of this game and the mentions of death and serious injury (more than most other games in the series at this point), I would say part of the reason why our story is a little more…displeasing, especially by the end, is that HER was really intent on the 10 part of the 10+ rating.

There’s lots to explore — the Ma storyline that goes nowhere, the collateral damage of these tornadoes, the fact that our cast is filled with genuinely unpleasant criminals — and yet it gets glanced over while feeling like the game is building up to it. Like CRE and ICE where I postulated a lot of the attention went to the new engine, I’m going to postulate here that the reason why we have hanging plot threads and injustice at the end (which I’ll talk about later) is that the game was censored by the HER bigwigs to ensure it still fit in a 10+ rating.

As a mystery, like I said above, there’s absolutely nothing wrong here. We’ve got plenty of means/motive/opportunity spread out in our cast (and in the periphery cast, just to keep things interesting), the threads and smaller crimes/wrongdoings/etc. are realistic in scope and in motive to keep them hidden, and it’s the personalities of the suspects that give us our conflict and tension, rather than random “interferences” by the writers. And speaking of our suspects, let’s go to the other area that TOT does (almost) nothing wrong.

The Suspects:

First off is Chase Releford, a junior who took Scott’s class for a science credit who got super interested in the actual work. The team’s handyman, Chase has noticed (and fixed, and fixed again) the equipment acting up, and is being stretched pretty thin in order to keep it all shipshape and in working order.

He’s also one of Nancy’s sources of Pa Pennies, if you wanna spend hours doing circuit boards.

As a culprit, Chase is a great option (which is a sentiment you’ll hear repeated for all of our suspects, never fear). He’s secretly spending his time looking for oil with Pa’s divining rods, which puts two crimes on his conscience (stealing the rods and not working on company time) and helps the team fall even further behind. It’s important to note that for a large chunk of this game, the likelihood of the suspect also hinges on how much they want Scott to fail, and Chase is pretty much the only one without any real anger towards Scott.

The owner of the local general store, Pa Ochs might be a surprising option to put ahead of Chase in order of culprit likelihood/suitability, but I stand by it. Having lost his wife (Betsy “Ma” Ochs) to a tornado (the warning sirens, which were Scott’s responsibility, didn’t go off), Pa alone mans the counter, helping Nancy find everything she needs — for a price, of course.

The price being annoyingly hard to get Pa Pennies. Unless you exploit a glitch.

Here’s where we start with the culprit possibilities that have an actual grudge against Scott. Though not as angry as he could be, Pa is deeply hurt by the loss of his wife Betsy, and has grounds for an axe to grind with Scott. As much as I would have loved to have the ‘friendly general store owner’ be the culprit, it would have been like a mix of DOG’s Emily and FIN’s Joseph (minus the Crazy), and it’s (sadly) best to leave that ground alone without re-treading it.

Frosty Harlow is next up; a second-year grad student in digital media, Frosty got his nickname (his real name is Tobias) from his storm photography and is, well, trying to re-capture that lightning in a bottle.

He also screams like a little girl. So that’s fun.

Like Chase and Pa, Frosty is a wonderful option for a culprit. His crime is selling university property (the video of the storm he and Nancy shot) to an aspiring photographer (who happens to be on the rival team) to help them get a toehold into the business, along with working with Debbie to try to stress Scott into quitting.

What really makes Frosty stand out is that, unlike Chase, Frosty doesn’t feel bad about what he did at all. He also holds far more animosity towards Scott than Pa does, and has a little more…innate anger as a person.

If you haven’t noticed by now, we’re going in order of “worst” culprit option to “best” (and then the actual culprit), and it really says something about how fleshed out these characters already are that we start with people who are solid options to begin with.

Though only appearing vocally and for a few minutes total of the game’s runtime, I’m going to list Brooke Tavanah as our next most likely culprit — in part because, well, she kind of is our culprit. The leader of the rival storm-chasing team, Brooke offered Scott money to sabotage his own team to let her team win the grant — an offer that he takes her up on.

Of course, Brooke isn’t the only one sleeping with the enemy (so to speak) to ensure her team’s victory; her videographer, Erin, is apparently so talentless as to need to buy footage from Scott’s team as well.

Things don’t exactly look great for the Kingston University team — as they can’t really get ahead even through sabotage and skullduggery, and one does wonder if they’d even be able to put the grant to good use. That, of course, is not the point; Brooke wants her team to win, come hell or high…wind…and a little thing like scientific ability isn’t going to stop her.

(Interestingly enough, this is the first of three times we’ll see Kingston University pop up; we meet their alumni again in TMB and DED).

I love that Brooke is guilty, because so often in Nancy Drew games the tendency is to implicate an unseen character and then to have that implication be a poorly done red herring. Instead, Brooke isn’t a distraction, nor a smoke screen — she’s just another piece of the puzzle.

Our last non-Culprit (by the games’ common definition) suspect is Debbie Kircum, a recent PhD graduate who is on her fifth time working with Scott in chase season, and who has gotten a lucrative offer to teach at a university in New York.

Worrying that Scott would let his resentment towards the college hurt their chances in the competition, Debbie leads the conspiracy to stress him out so much that he just quits. I’ll talk more about this later, but it is both one of my favorite and least favorite things about this game. For now, I’ll say that her plan works…but not the way that she planned; for her and lots of other suspects in this and upcoming games, the quote “the price for getting what you want is getting what you once wanted” works perfectly to describe their arcs.

As a culprit, (as Debbie fully qualifies as a culprit), Debbie certainly has the shortsightedness and nastiness that Nancy Drew culprits tend to have. She’s extremely good at getting what she wants…but see the quote in the previous paragraph.

She also over-contours her cheeks so much that it looks like someone slapped her with an open compact of bronzer.

That takes us to our final culprit and character, Scott Varnell, genius professor of meteorology and the leader of the Canute team. Scott is my personal favorite character not just because he’s the most interesting, but because he’s a tragic figure who isn’t historical/dead, and those are a bit of a rarity in Nancy Drew games, especially at this point.

Being an expert on tornadoes yet denied tenure based on his personality, rather than his academic prowess (a gripe I share as it applies to jobs/academia), Scott holds a grudge against those who don’t recognize his contributions to meteorology and to the study of tornadoes specifically. Unbeknownst to him, two members of his four-man team have been conspiring to stress him out so badly that he’ll just quit, as they think he’ll be a hindrance (again, due to his personality) in winning the competition.

Scott is in some ways the obvious option, and yet the game never turns into a howdunnit. Throughout the mystery he tends to be the prime suspect, but is also the prime victim — a dichotomy we’ve never seen before in the Nancy Drew Games. I’ll talk more about Scott below (a sentence increasingly common in this meta), but I both love and hate him as the culprit, and that’s something new (and interesting) that TOT brings as well.

The Favorite:

Don’t worry, we’ll get into TOT’s myriad flaws soon enough, but for now I want to focus on what it does right.

The first thing the game nails is the Hardy Boys. Their inclusion, their plot, their characterization, the voice acting — all of it is nigh-flawless, and is by far the most enjoyable part of the game. Don’t get me wrong, the Hardy Boys are usually quite far up there on the list of things I love about a game with them in it, but they really start to shine more in TOT, gaining some character development, plot relevance, and just overall depth.

Oddly (or perhaps not oddly at all) I don’t have a favorite moment nor a favorite puzzle in this game; barring that, I’ll talk about some of the great threads to the game, rather than any particular moment/puzzle that stands out.

I love that we get new and interesting layers to our story and characters. As I mentioned briefly above, there’s a real sense of the world existing before Nancy’s arrival, which works wonders for the world of the games, and our characters here are more layered, more distinct, and more ‘realistic’ (for the value of ‘realism’ in stories) than they ever have been before.

This is a game unafraid to deal with the topics of death and mistakes, and that accounts for part of the depth to the game as well. No, not the whole “Where’s Ma” thing — which I fully believe to just be a script that didn’t fire/didn’t stop firing in the game’s code after finding the newspaper that says exactly what happened to Ma — I’m talking about Scott’s mistake in the tornado warning system, Debbie and Frosty’s mistakes in dealing with Scott (which I’ll talk more about), and even Brooke’s miscalculations that lead to the ending of the game. Everyone here deals with the fallout of their mistakes, and it’s how they handle it that forms the basis for our plot.

It’s a seemingly small thing, but I love the sheer level of detail in this game. You can click on everything, read everything, explore everywhere — there’s a lot of information crammed into the game that sometimes you won’t get until the second or third replay (that is, if you have the stomach to play through this game repeatedly).

The use of our tertiary NPCs (Brooke, Krolmeister, Erin) is also inspired; they help the world feel whole and varied rather than existing simply for the benefit of the game, and show that Nancy doesn’t have control over everything when she’s investigating — and that she can be wrong in her focus of investigating (whether because she pays too much or not enough attention to the ‘minor’ characters).

Speaking of characters, I also love that our characters in this game – our suspects — are able to be fully formed without (on purpose, I feel) being particularly likable. It’s always fun to get a cast of characters that are hostile to Nancy, but TOT’s characters are slightly different from that: they just don’t care about her. She’s another intern to them, nigh-invisible except when they need a chore done. Nancy also doesn’t really try to befriend anyone because of it, and I like that too. Sometimes, a game should just be 1 vs 4, with some backup in the wings courtesy of phone friends.

The last facet of the game that I love is Scott himself as a character. Sure he’s cantankerous, blunt, egotistical, and a thousand other things, but the game is very clear that these ‘faults’ don’t make him anything other than what he is — a brilliant meteorologist and the foremost mind when it comes to tornadoes and tornadogenesis. The university undervalues him, but the team really can’t function without him, sabotage or no sabotage.

His motive for the sabotage isn’t the money nor fame — it’s simple tit-for-tat. For such a complex game (note, I’m still not saying it’s a fun or good game), our ultimate motive is deceptively simple: do unto others what they have done unto you. Tired of being devalued and having his worth judged on his personality rather than his work, he decides that if the university doesn’t care enough to keep him around (and for his worth as a professor, look at how accomplished and passionate his team of former students is), then they don’t care to keep up their program either.

It’s hard not to sympathize with that, especially if you’re the kind of person who’s been valued based on any defects in your personality — rather than your ability to do a job and do it well — and been found wanting. Whether you’re too serious (or not serious enough), too flighty (or too inflexible), or any other stupid “personality defect” that the workforce loves to throw around, we’ve all heard it before. Scott’s thrown into an unfair situation and — wrongly or not — decides that his troubles are going to have trouble with him.

The last thing I’ll add on the topic of Scott for this section is that I do love that Debbie and Frosty create their own villain. In figuring that Scott’s personality is going to prevent them from getting the grant (never mind the 4 other years that Debbie’s been on this team with him where it hasn’t been a problem), they decide to screw him over presumptively — and thus create a Scott who actually does want to prevent them from getting the grant. It’s usually a mark of a solid story (and solid writing in general) where the villain is created not from some problem inherent in them, but because they’re perceived to be a problem in the future — and thus live down to the expectation.

The Un-Favorite:

The problem with everything TOT does right — and that’s nearly a thousand words about what it does right above — is that it never combines to make a game that’s enjoyable to play. Before I go into the specifics, I do want to make that clear; TOT is a fascinating game to think and write about, but it’s honestly nigh-unplayable. The puzzles and chores are laborious (and repeated ad nauseum), pieces of the plot don’t make sense, and the ending is the bleakest in the series until GTH’s multiple endings took the cake.

A game should be well-written, complex, and interesting, but it just has to be fun to play as well. It has to. And that seems to have been forgotten during the course of making TOT. My least favorite moment is the ending of the game (more on that below), but I don’t have a least favorite puzzle — on the basis that most of the puzzles are equally bad. There’s no real standout…but that’s not a good thing.

Now let’s get into some of the bits and parts of the game that I really despise.

The handling of Scott is one of my favorite parts of the game, but it’s also my least favorite part of the game as well. They’ve set up a character who firmly believes that everything ends poorly, that he’ll never profit no matter what, and that, ultimately, no matter how hard he tries, nothing will go the way it should. And then the game confirms that worldview to the end. There’s no other option; no matter what Scott does or doesn’t do, no matter if he tries his best or blows it off, the end result is the same, and that’s a tragedy. Sure, you can argue it’s his actions that led him to a bad ending, but he only took those actions because he was heading to a bad ending anyway.

The feeling you get at the end of the game isn’t a feeling of justice served, nor success — it’s pity in a way that’s never been cultivated for any criminal up to this point in the series. And it’s not cathartic — it’s just more misery.

The other huge thing that I hate about this game ties into it — there really is no justice. The supposed ‘happy ending’ is Debbie getting people from both teams to ‘win’ the grant (where does it ultimately go — Canute or Kingston? Can it count as winning if there’s only one team? HER certainly didn’t bother to think about these things)…but Debbie’s hands are just as filthy — and I think more so — than Scott’s are.

Debbie leads Frosty in conspiring to make Scott quit and actually created their own monster — does she even know Scott at all? He’s lead a team through at least the last 4 years, probably more, and not had a problem; why now? Power? Greed? Pride? Whichever way you spin it, she and Frosty are guilty.

Frosty and Erin (of the Kingston Team) are also guilty on a separate charge; Erin for buying the footage and Frosty for selling it. If Brooke and Scott are kicked off, Frosty and Erin (at least) should also go for the same conspiracy charge. Everyone on the team (excepting possibly Chase) knowingly sabotaged their team; why is Scott the only one punished? Why does Debbie (and Frosty, and Erin) get off scot-free (pun intended) to win the prize, despite everything?

When I say that there’s no justice nor success here, this is what I mean. The whole thing stinks from top to bottom, and any way you look at it, a culprit walks.

Honestly, the ending should have just been “Chase, guilty only of petty theft, led the team (of himself and Pa) and was given the grant, which they donated to a charity for tornado victims”. Kingston actively cheated and Canute doesn’t deserve it either. In a game where everyone deserves to lose, declaring a winner just leaves a bad taste in my mouth — and a black mark on the game.

The Fix:

So how would I fix Trail of the Twister?

My feeling is that if you’re going to go with a downer ending — which TOT is — then go for a full one. Have Nancy discover everyone’s crimes — and I do mean everyone’s — and report to Krolmeister, asking what he wants her to do. Don’t forget, Nancy’s got an actual client in this game, and can’t go off half-cocked like she tends to in her more informal mysteries.

In the end, as nearly everyone would be disqualified, the competition should go to a third party — a storm chasing team that’s not Kingston nor Canute — and create chances for less corrupt institutions to study tornadoes at a level they haven’t been able to before. Sure, our suspects would lose, but, honestly, outside Chase…does anyone deserve to win?

I’d also be a fan of Scott getting a second chance due to outside sabotage (directed solely at him) with a job opportunity to consult for storm chasers. It’d be an arena where he’d be seen as the expert he is, without having to deal with the namby-pamby bureaucracy that infects universities (and that he hates anyway). He’d get the name recognition and the ability to actually do work in his field that he needs without being put in situations where he can’t help but fail. Honestly, I’d prefer that P. G. Krolmeister offered it (while saying he’s going to be keeping an eye on him), but really anything would do.

Exposing the crimes of everyone – and focusing on more than just Scott’s — would be the quickest way to improve the story of the game. The puzzles, on the other hand, need to be completely redone; a mix of ostensibly tornado-related intern-type chores (like the circuit boards) and more detective-type puzzles (fingerprinting suspects for a match on the tin bribe box, tracking everyone’s movements, solving codes used for communication) would be a big help in making TOT not just feel like a list of chores with a bad ending.

Oh, and fix the broken code leading Nancy to ask about a man’s dead wife over and over again. She lacks tact as it is.

[bookdork1]

okay, i’ll admit upfront that this episode was slow in the ship department. it happens. they have 2+ hours of content to write every week, which means sometimes that content can’t focus on just the same two people and their one storyline of accidentally falling in love with one another. that being said, it was still a very good episode for edser, even if they didn’t have a ton of screen time together. yes, they are both angry at each other (highlighted best when they talk to one another’s respective mother figures and defend their own side in the couple’s fight). but they are also both missing and pining after one another. they spend the majority of the episodes finding ways to accidentally run into one another and the other half finding ways to avoid one another. its frustratingly fun to watch, but definitely something that has a short shelf life. lucky for us, the writer knows this, meaning that we end the episode with the main conflict being resolved: eda finds out who stole the patent and goes to serkan to prove her innocence. serkan, very belatedly, tells eda he doesn’t need proof, he believes her. he admits he has serious trust issues but that he knows she was innocent of his charges regardless of proof. unfortunately for serkan, he forgets the most important words “i am sorry” and “i apologize for how i treated you.” since no apology was truly made, eda doesn’t accept it. instead, she hands back the ring and tells him they are finished. its a wonderfully angst filled cliffhanger. do i wish we had gotten to that point 45 minutes earlier? yes. but its an excellent setup for episode 9 in which i envision a serkan who grovels. a lot. 

additionally, since edser had such little actual forward progresssion until the last five minutes, all the side characters recevied amazing treatment this ep. usually i don’t care about the side characters in turkish dramas. often they are overwhelmingly flat and are only used as plot devices to keep the main couple apart. in SCK though we have a plethora of interesting side characters and friendship groups who i can’t help but like. 

i’ll start with seyfi, who served some stinging one liners this episode. i loved how he immediately sided with eda, refused to pack her things when serkan asked him to, and even went to eda’s house to check in with her that she was okay. overall, seyfi is amazing and we love seyfi. example a: ”seyfi, have you seen eda around?” “no, but i’ll tell you what i do see. a lonely man” yes keep on serving those truth bombs seyfi!

i also really liked the small progression with aydin and alptekin. alptekin dropping everythign at work and returning home proved that he does care about his wife and aydin is slowly working up to telling him about her progress with her agoraphobia. both characters were also excellent in their response to their son’s behavior towards eda. aydin firmly chastised her son, scolding him for yelling at not only his fiance but any woman and alptekin came in later telling his son that having no trust in otheres is a mistake. three cheers for the good parenting (even if its of their adult son). 

the piril/engin/jeren love triangle of sorts is also heating up. i think i’m piril/engin at the moment but i honestly don’t know which direction the drama will take with these two ships. i will say that i am firmly in love with the idea of jeren/engin just being best bros who give relationship advice to each other, it would be nice to see that kind of male/female friendship represented in a drama. also piril is ridiculously repressed with her feelings and therefore i strongly relate to her so that may be why i’m rooting for her. 

it was also interesting to see more about ferit and his relationship with selin. i really feel so bad for this guy. he loves his fiance a lot and has already put a lot of trust in their relationship watching her work, day in and day out, with her ex-boyfriend, a guy whom ferit knows she still has feelings for. it was so sad when he found that note “from serkan” in selin’s desk. i did not approve of his decision to follow her but the drama surprised me again. instead of having ferit go psycho with jealousy he and eda quietly listened to their respective fiances discuss their old relationship. things obviously went better for eda in that discussion (serkan’s “there is no logic to my being with eda” is 10000% better than selin saying logic is what keeps her with ferit) and i really felt so bad when he told eda that he always knew selin wasn’t with him because of love, but because of logic. i just really want selin to stop pining over what she never had with serkan and realize that a great love is sitting right there in front of her. 

and of course we must mention melo. ohh i was so worried about her reaction to finding kaan’s nefarious purposes but she handled it really well. i love that the drama didn’t waste uselss time with her not telling eda the truth for some stupid reason. instead as soon as melo realizes what happens, she tells eda and they piece together how kaan got his hands on the patent in the first place. the way all the girls immediately rallied around melo was heartwarming, to say the least. i love this friend group of four distinctly different but distinctly strong women. fifi’s decision to then chloroform kaan and get the truth out of his phone was kind of amazing, not gonna lie. also, i want to add a shout out to eda’s aunt. her immediately knowing that kaan was untrustworthy was epic. 

oh! one more side character to mention! sirius was honestly the mvp of this episode. his acting on the stairs when serkan was walking away but eda was just arriving? oscar worthy. that dog is tired of his parents fighitng and would just like everyone to make up with one another, please and thank you.

well, that was an essay, please let me know if you have any thoughts about the episode you want to discuss! while the episode wasn’t my favorite, i did enjoy it and i think it promises a great set up for episode 9. 

[mrsgreenworld]

Ok, here it comes. The one-shot inspired by SCK episode 17 fragman #2.

I don't own any of the characters. They belong to the writers and the production company. This is only fanfiction.

Will Our Love Ever Be Enough

She saw him sitting at his desk, focused on the laptop before him. Serkan Bolat in all his workaholic glory. Only Eda knew him enough now to notice that his focus wasn't really on work. His erratic hand gestures betrayed his inner turmoil. He tried, really hard, to grasp at something familiar, something he had control over. But his body language told her about the weight on his shoulders, his eyes screamed pain. How could she not have noticed it before? So naked and out in the open - his suffering. The kind of suffering that even a control freak like him was not able to tame.

But of course she had been too consumed and blinded by her own pain. Only that initial pain was nothing compared to this. This was so much worse... However, it didn't feel worse.

When Serkan had broken up with her it had been akin to having her heart ripped out. She had physically felt that heartache. But now... Now she felt strangely numb. Maybe it's just like with physical pain when it got too much - the body went into shock, a person stopped feeling anything and eventually passed out. That's what she felt like - passed out. Or maybe that's what death was like?

Those first moments after she had finally discovered the truth, when she had learnt about her and Serkan's shared pain, it almost seemed like they had turned into her parents - two people buried under the weight of that wall. Two people who eventually surrendered to death. What was death anyway? Was it really this nothingness? When there's no more pain, no anger, no regrets, no tears, no words...

Was it the why? Why he had hidden this from her? To spare her this horrific experience of dying while actually being alive? It must have been it. And now she thought that maybe had the situation been reversed she would have wanted to shield him from this too.

But it didn't matter now. Now they were both suffocating under the ruins of that wall and it was time to set at least one of them free.

So Eda got up from her chair and moved to one of the slightly open doors to Serkan's office. She rasped her knuckles on the metal surface before entering. Serkan's head shot up as soon as he heard the knock.

"Eda?"

"Could we talk for a little bit?"

"Hm.. Yes. What is it? What do you want to talk about?"

Before answering him, Eda turned and quietly closed all the doors to the office.

"What are you doing?" Eda could almost hear the panic in his voice.

She turned to face him again and saw that he rose from his desk and stepped away from it.

"Just making sure we have some privacy. It's better if we discuss this behind the closed doors"

"Discuss this? What exactly this is?" he stubbornly insisted on playing dumb.

Eda moved closer to Serkan until she stood right in front of him, with only a step separating them. She saw it now - the thing he was so desperately trying to hide. And he was good at it. At hiding and pretending, at blocking his emotions. Had she still been unaware of the truth she might have actually bought his emotionless charade. But now it was before her, clear as day - the same feeling of death and nothingness she was carrying.

She took his face between her hands and felt him shudder.

"Serkan. There's something" she started softly.

He lifted his eyes to her face and she witnessed how they overflowed with agony.

"There's something you're not telling me"

"There's nothing, Eda. I know you think there's something more but honestly there isn't. I've told you many times. It's just me. It's the way I am. I wish I could..."

"Ok, stop!" she interrupted him with a little bit more force than she initially intended.

She closed her eyes feeling a tiny tug of frustration.

"I know" she said on an exhale and opened her eyes.

She saw panic replace the agony in his.

"Wh-what?"

Since when did Serkan Bolat stutter?

"I know everything. I know who's responsible for what happened to my parents"

"You... You know? How?"

"Does it matter? I know"

Shame and raw suffering distorted his face and he tried to get away from her but Eda didn't allow it, still holding onto his face with one hand and sliding her other hand to rest over his heart. She felt that erratically spasming muscle, ready to burst through his chest right into her palm.

"I also know that it's not your fault" she told him softly and slowly because she wanted him to soak in her every word.

"How can you say that?"

"How can I not say that? That's the only undeniable truth. And I want you to understand it. That's not your fault nor your responsibility"

"My family, my father did this to you, to your family!" he sounded almost hysterical.

"You're not your father"

He wanted to argue, wanted to move away from her again but Eda only held onto him tighter, closing the tiny space between them so that their chests were now pressed together.

"Look at me! And listen to me carefully, Serkan Bolat! You're not your father. You're not responsible for his mistakes. You had nothing to do with my parents death. Do you understand?" she told him with conviction, staring straight into his shattered soul.

"But... but I... I didn't tell you. I hid it from you. I broke your heart"

She nodded sadly.

"You did. But I know why"

"You do?"

It tore at her to see all that agony and panic in his eyes be replaced by a fragile hope.

"I do"

"Do you... hate me?"

She shook her head "no".

"Why?"

She then shared her own hidden truth:

"I could never really hate you. Because I love you"

All breath left him after this and hot tears started raining down his face burning the fingers holding it.

"You're here" she uttered softly, then reached for one of his hands and placed it over her heart.

"How can you love me?" he wondered.

"I just do. There isn't really any why when it comes to love. We don't love people for something but rather despite everything"

She saw his eyes shine with even more hope and she hated what she was about to do.

"But..."

"But?" Serkan's eyebrows drew together in confusion.

"Sometimes love is not enough"

"Wh-what are you saying? What do you mean love is not enough? Why are you saying this?"

He finally managed to break free. He almost jumped away from her and leaned on the back of his chair for support, also effectively putting it between them like some sort of a barrier.

"I am saying it because it's true. And I don't want any more secrets between us. I don't want to leave anything unsaid"

"Ok. So, you love me. But love is not enough. And where does it leave us?"

"I don't know. The only thing I know is that I need time and space to heal"

"So let me heal you"

"It's not your job to heal me. And you need healing too"

"Then we can help each other heal! Isn't it what love is about?"

"No, this is not what it's about. This way we will turn our love into a crutch and I don't want that. I think we both deserve better"

"Don't you think we deserve to be together? To be happy?"

"We do deserve to be happy together. But we won't be until we deal with this. And we cannot deal with this together. Because, despite all of it not being our fault and completely out of our control, we are on opposite sides here"

She saw defeat then morphing into resignation take over him.

"Ok, you're right. We will do what you want. I will do what you want"

"I think it's better if we don't see each other. I will talk to Efe and find a way to finish our current projects without me being here. After that I am going to resign. I will focus on my university studies for now. It will keep me busy and... keep me from you. I will also need this time to think how I am gonna tell everything to my aunt"

Serkan gave her a curt nod.

"I understand. How... how much time? How long will we be like this?"

"I don't know" was her honest response.

He just nodded again.

Suddenly lost for words she took a step back.

"Ok... So... I am glad we talked. I will... I'll go. Talk to Efe"

She hastily turned and moved to the doors when she heard him say:

"I will wait, you know?"

She turned to look at him.

"What?"

"I will wait for you. However long it takes. I am gonna wait"

"You don't have to do this. I cannot ask you to wait when I don't even know how long it will last"

"You're not asking. And I know I don't have to do this. I'm gonna do this for me. And for us. The only way I'm gonna give up on us is if you tell me there's no hope and you don't love me. Since you've already said that you love me it leaves only one question. Is there still hope for us?"

Unable to find her voice she just nodded.

"Great!" he responded with ease.

And just like that he was back to his confident business demeanor. The sudden change almost gave her a whiplash.

"I will see you around then"

She just nodded dumbly again. Then slowly turned to the doors. When she pushed one of them open she heard a quiet "Psst" and turned to see him at his desk. He opened his laptop and said, demonstratively looking at the screen:

"By the way, I love you too, Eda Yıldız"

And just like that she felt the nothingness dissolve and death surrender to life.

[disisphlebotinum]

Cam Tavanlar - Episode 1

I think I should keep up with this one.

The opening credits are kind of adorable.

The first minute was really determined to make sure I knew that this wanted to be a feminist story. I really hope they are doing that in name only rather than actually doing it how I am used to Hollywood handling the subject lately.

Damn that place really burnt up.

I wish I knew the weight of what was significant about it being Friday for Leyla. I’m hoping we’ll get around to that.

The way her heals were on those steps I was legitimately worried she was going to be fall. Why is everyone taking the stairs?

Oooooooooo Flashback. Is that a little Leyla?! I’m not sure if its the translation for the video, but I find this confusing. Is Leyla’s dad leaving because he cheated on her mother?

I appreciate the push for education I’ve experienced in all the dizis I’ve watched so far.

I want out of the flashback. It’s bumming me out. Everyone has to be an orphan all the damn time. Little Leyla can’t get a break.

Are apples magical or something?

I guess we just live in the flashback now. I appreciate that they are trying to pass time quickly through it at least.

All the dudes in the conference room of Leyla’s first pitch look like the same man. It’s so trippy. They glitched the matrix and then allowed to air on television.

Why is she taking the stairs? What is with the stairs?

I really love present Leyla’s hair. It suits her nicely.

I feel like the men gathering together to destroy her dreams is pretty lame and something I saw coming from the first minute.

Wow, did that dude really say “You’ll understand when you’re older” to a grown ass woman?!

Poor Leyla. Someone give her an apple. Did that boardroom of clones set the kitchen on fire? Are they sabotaging Leyla?

Is the Chef supposed to be her love interest? Are we going to properly meet a dude or any dude?

They keep winking at each other.

RANDOM SLOWMO! I’ve missed you! And it’s supposed to be this dude. Got it.

That was not a convincing Yok from Leyla and she was asked about knowing Cem.

This looks like the dynamic where she could be freaking out like a tornado blowing everything over and he would just be amused by it. I hope its that trope.

I like the way he looks at her so far. But I need to know more about this history.

This show is going to make me hungry.

Cem is like the extra two hands Leyla needs. I don’t like the idea that Cem can say the exact same words as Leyla and everyone will hear him but not her. At the same time it’s very realistic. I do like that we are at least given the impression that he listens to her.

He has always stared at her quite a lot. I get it.

It’s cute he forgot other people were also on that diving trip.

“We communicate great.” I might like Cem too much.

Of course these dudes only wan to fuck Leyla over. Simply for giving a fuck about other humans.

Why is all the wine blurry?

Cem demanding a meeting before Leyla’s was such a move I respect. I appreciate him trying. So far I’ve only watched SCK, Ariza, and Son Yaz. So far the only men who try are Akgun and Cem.

Sitting there with a cherry in her mouth forever was super awkward, but how cute is it how much it amused Cem.

What club are these 60 year old men going to?

I hate how fucking smug they look staring at her. Like she’s an animal undergoing an experiment.

I shouldn’t have been so happy about Cem trying before. They’ve just made him the whole scapegoat.

I want to slap that one guy who is always nodding.

I want Cem and Leyla to team up and swallow that board alive. They suck.

Leyla lying at the end hurts much. I think I just watched Cem’s heart break like four times.

They should probably just make out.

[nawaazishein]

Sen Çal Kapımı rant: Ok, I need to vent about Ayşe leaving SCK for a hot minute here. Let me start by saying that, yes, we don’t know the circumstances of her leaving; she might have been asked to leave, she herself might have asked for a break, we don’t know. However, while I hope that is a decision of her own making that doesn’t make it any less upsetting. SCK has been one of the very few, maybe the highlight in my otherwise shitty 2020, and I know a lot of people feel that way, too. Ayşe’s writing, and I cannot say this any other way, is just something else. It pulls you in right away. She crafts her stories and characters so delicately, with so many layers, parallels, so much depth and emotion, and that sets her apart from other dizi writers by a long shot for me. Episode 22 and 23 felt way off to me right from the start, the characters were off, basically the whole plot and vibe was off. At first I didn’t know why but now I do; because they haven’t been written by Ayşe. The team that’s supposed to take over for her/her team wrote them and if that’s anything to go by, this is not gonna go well.

I would bet good money that the new writers have watched one or two episodes max and have no clue what story they’re supposed to carry on with. They’re going to pull an Erkenci Kuş 2.0 and we know how horribly that ended. Yani they’re going to butcher Eda and Serkan and basically the entire story we love. To me, Eda hiding her conversation with Babaanne from Serkan although they were doing so well with talking things out otherwise is a clear indication of where this is going. She will sacrifice him so he can keep the holding, he’ll hate her for it because that is proof to him that he really is the easiest thing for her to give up, there’ll be a leap, it’ll be some generic copy&paste plot we’ve already seen a thousand times. There’ll be no depth and especially no more of the parallels I love so much – the way Ayşe brought back so many of those in this episode, like the flower, the books, Ceren’s shoes, as a way of saying “That’s the last you’ll see of them.” hurt. I might be eating my words in five episode’s time, olabilir. Actually, I hope I will but for now I’m upset and moping. Like, how do I have to sell my unborn child to for Ayşe to start and be able to finish a show? SCK was supposed to be a summer dizi, why can’t they just wrap it up in a sensible way instead of pulling an EK and unnecessarily stretching it out like old gum. I just want Ayşe to stay or finish this up.

[lizacstuff]

Sen Çal Kapımı - Serkan & Eda in episode 48

[djemsostylist]

The Great Dizi List, Part 1

A comprehensive list of the dizis I have watched, chronologically.

Originally part of an ask that spiraled out of control, I figured I'd collect my reviews here for easier reading, and then divide them into eras...

Kurt Seyit ve Şura: This one I watched maybe 4 years ago when I stumbled across it on Tumblr. Period romance drama set in one of the prettier modern times, I was obsessed with the drama and how beautiful it was, but then I googled the end, got pissed and never finished. Swore off Turkish shows. Fast forward 3ish years...

Sen Çal Kapımı: I came across this one through gifs on Tumblr, and fell in love fast. I got hardcore obsessed with this show for months until I abruptly realized...it was kind of crap? I'd still recommend the first 12 episodes, but it goes down hill rapidly. It was never good but if you are looking for mindless fun with beautiful people who have amazing chemistry, I'd recommend. The first 12 are the perfect romcom, and you can just headcanon your own ending (or skip to 27 and then stop.)

Şeref Meselesi: Absolutely stunning.  A true masterpiece. This one is a mafia drama, but it's more about exploring people, found families, and the way you can never quite escape fate. Heartbreaking and beautiful and overwhelming, and I will never truly get over it.  Yiğit Kılıç is one of those characters who will stay with me for a long time.  Compelling characters, beautifully shot and told, super tight narrative.  It was art.  Reminded me more of a stage play than a television show. Cannot recommend enough.

Meryem: Absolutely adored it.  This one is a crime drama, and without giving too much away, it's about two people who meet after a car accident, and what spirals from there. Tight narrative, satisfying story, and surprising characters–it has the best foursome of any show and my current favorite family.  It was predictable but also surprising, it has arguably the best male dizi character, and the main couple is just stunning together.  It was one of those shows that you finish and immediately want to watch again.  I’d put it up there as one of my favorite shows period, not just favorite dizi.

Bu Şehir Arkandan Gelecek: This one is a family drama, about a boy who comes back to Istanbul after 20 years and the life he builds for himself as he discovers his past. I loved Kerem in this (Ali is a ray of sunshine) and I really enjoyed his story with with his family and the arc his character took, but the two girls drove me up the wall.  I can still hear Derin whining if I close my eyes.  Still, he’s beautiful in it (he boxes, so there are many shirtless scenes and lovely workout moments) so I’d recommend it on that alone.  Not one I’d rewatch tbh.  Good for a one time through.

Kiralık Aşk: This one is a romcom, and the first one I tried after starting SCK. Premise is fairly basic--girl joins a company with instructions to get close to the CEO, which she does but they both accidentally fall in love along the way. I did not finish this one.  Got about 24ish episodes in, and just wasn’t feeling it.  I didn’t really care for the drawn out secret plotline, and while I liked the main couple, it wasn’t enough to keep my attention.  Good, but I didn’t have the patience to last through another 40 episodes tbh. When @lolo-deli rewatched, she sent me screencaps and gifs and YouTube videos of the highlights from the bits I missed, bc she’s the best lol.

Erkenci Kuş: Much like KA, I did not finish this one.  Yet another romcom where a girl joins a major company and has to get close to the CEO and falls in love, etc. I wasn’t a huge fan of the main couple to start, didn’t really love any of the side characters, and after reading about where it went, noped out by the 20th episode or so. Written by the same people who did SCK, so I guess that says something tbh.

Ariza: This one is a mafia drama, which happens to be my favorite kind tbh. I really like this one initially, but then I sort of forgot I was watching it?  Like, it wasn’t bad, but just wasn’t enough to keep me coming back week after week.  It was one of those where something was missing for me. I adore  Ayça Aysin Turan though, she’s flawless.

Maraşlı: This one I'd define as a psychological drama. I only made it about 4 episodes, and while it is excellently done, I just couldn't get into it. I think part of my issue with this one is that I need a ship (romantic or friendship) and this one just didn't have it for me. I've heard it was great, just didn't float my boat I guess.

Part 2, Part 3

[winterskings]

i miss making sck sets but i just end up getting upset over recent episodes lmao maybe i’ll go back to old ones again

[yourpakichic]

Episode 24 Thoughts

-What a fucking entrance by Babaanne. I hate her already. Like she really came prepared and attacked Serkan, Eda, the company and their relationship all in less than 15 minutes. SHE BROKE THE DAMN FLOWER CASE. I fucking hate her guts. I like how Serkan was in control of his emotions and even tried to help Eda process through the surprise of events. It’s funny she think she’ll build a relationship with Eda by forcing her to marry someone and ruining Serkan. Ma’am give it your best try.

-Okay look. I’m completely on Serkan’s side regarding this. I understand Eda is taken aback by the grandmothers appearance but I think Serkan deserves better to just be abandoned. Again. They were finally moving on and getting to the point of making steps to fix their relationship and now suddenly Eda wants to run away.

-Not the grandma trying to make it seem like Eda wants to talk to her in front of Ayfer. Like woman, she was raised by Ayfer. Don’t play dumb games.

-I think Serkan has a plan on how to deal with Grandma. No way would Serkan Bolat let someone come in and threaten his company and his family. Even if he is changed and more softer now. Serkan does not mess around when it comes to work. I’m actually okay with Grandma threatening Serkan’s company because if that means we’ll get to have the smart, tricky, and always-one-step-ahead Serkan Bolat back. The one who ruined Kaan. The same one who was intelligent enough to dumb down his own presentation in order to work with Eda during their separation. I miss the fire and conflict that Serkan used to bring. I love soft Serkan but I want him to have his edge back, especially in regards to Art Life and the holding.

-That stand off between Eda and Grandma gave me life! Honestly Grandma knows how to make a threat, like even I was scared! But she doesn’t know Eda Yildiz like she thinks she does. Eda Yildiz has gone through too much loss to lose anyone else. And to give into anyone else. It’s clear that grandma has a soft spot for Eda. And I think somewhere deep down, Eda has a soft spot for grandma too that we haven’t seen. It’s clear that Grandma is going to use Eda’s love for Serkan as her weakness. I just hope Eda doesn’t give into it. Both her and Serkan have been through too much to lose each other now.

-Why does every other couple have honest, deep conversations about their relationship and problems and childhoods than Eda/Serkan? Jeren and Ferit have had a more direct and honest conversation about thier upbringing and struggles and relationship. Engin and Pyril had a honest conversation about theirs. And we’re playing back and forth and games with Eda/Serkan. This is absolutely ridiculous. Where as we should know more about Eda/Serkan as individuals and have more progression in their relationship, it’s the complete opposite. Don’t get me wrong, their games and back and forth is cute and I certainly enjoy it but there are so many missed opportunities for honest and deep conversations that would strengthen their relationship.

-You know what really confuses me? How Eda when she knocks at Serkan’s door, says she can’t be with him and she tells him nothing can happen between them all night but then she acts all touchy and girlfriend type with him. Like she’s so fickle with it, it makes me cringe. That man has been honest with her and is really trying and she like.... plays with him. It’s just so stupid.

-I knew that Balca was crazy but this bitch is straight up PSYCHO! The fact that she set all this up just to gain some sympathy points with Serkan!

-And people used to say Serkan’s pride is high? Have you seen Eda’s pride? She complains he’s not there but she won’t even call him or anything!

-I feel like Eda only wants to be with Serkan to spite the grandma. Because on one hand she’s like there’s nothing between them and then the next in front of grandma, she acts as if they are together. I know that she’s been through a lot and the grandma is a huge problem for her but she shouldn’t play around with Serkan. He has proven himself. Bettered himself. He deserves to be happy. She deserves to be happy. And clearly, they are happy. Together. So for once, can she throw her logic away and listen to her heart.

-Not at their happiness lasting 2.5 seconds. My babies really can’t catch a break.

Overall: it was an enjoyable episode. I’ve come to terms that SCK is going to be nothing but a mess. It’s all over the place. Both with characters and plot. But I will still watch it and enjoy it. I will complain about it too because honestly how can you not. I want nothing but happiness for both Eda and Serkan. I am so happy to see the growth in Serkan upto this point. The way he handled himself in this big situation with grandma. It was mature and responsible. He didn’t let his emotions get the best of him. I also understand Eda’s reaction to her presence. She has every right to be emotional and want her out of her life. I enjoyed Eda and Serkan scenes even though some of was absolute crap writing. It’s all really due to Hande and Kerem’s acting. And their ability to make me enjoy the scene even if it makes zero sense. Honestly I want a little bit of the old Serkan back. When it comes to his business. One of my favorite things about him was his ability to put people in their places when it comes to work. I want that same fire and edge when fighting grandma and fighting for his company. As for Eda, it is time for her to grown up and show some maturity. I could excuse her behavior toward Serkan because he did hurt her. He broke her trust. And her heart. And she had every right to question his love. But I think he has proven himself beyond point. She needs to make a decision because Serkan has a limit too. In all honesty, I have very low expectations from the show from this point on. I will just continue on this journey and hope for some enjoyable scenes.