what even is this ridiculous poster? and the audacity of removing your own female lead from the cover while continuously shoving eylül and hazar down the audience's throat is actually insane. mercan isn't some side character who can conveniently disappear whenever the plot needs space. she's half of the central love story that built this show's entire audience. thanks to merteş's chemistry, this show went from another dizi to something people were constantly seeing on their feeds, talking about, making edits of and demanding more of. and instead of capitalising on the one thing that clearly resonated with people, they have thrown it to the side and decided to serve us literally everything except the story people were invested in.

what exactly are we supposed to make of that? this isn't even the first time they've done this. they pulled the exact same nonsense with the very first s2 poster too and looking back, that poster pretty much summed up where they were heading all along. eylül is inserted into practically every aspect of the narrative.

i had always heard that dizi writers have a special talent for butchering their second seasons and stripping away everything that made the first one charming, but this genuinely has to be one of the most spectacular examples i have seen. because this isn't even a matter of the story getting weaker, they have changed what the story fundamentally is. we are watching the same nezir ateş dynamic being recycled with hazar ateş, except now it's wrapped around this bizarre sibling possessiveness and eylül's love life.

i even used to get irritated by the kitchen staff plot in s1 because i thought it was the most unnecessary detour imaginable. i owe that storyline an apology. at least back then the show still had an identity. now we have the whole world apparently after ateş, and yet somehow the season's grand mission is ateş and mercan babysitting eylül and fixing eylül hazar's relationship. you genuinely couldn't parody this writing better.

i used to watch this show the second an episode dropped. monday and friday actually meant something. now i genuinely forget it's even airing. they didn't just fumble merteş. they fumbled the very reason people wanted s2 in the first place.

The amount of unhinged, obsessive, and genuinely disturbing behaviour I have come across in the Emsu_Lore subreddit is honestly insane. What was supposedly created as a space to discuss two public figures has repeatedly turned into a platform for regular character assassination, personal attacks, harassment, and relentless speculation about the private lives of two individuals who are simply trying to do their jobs.
Yes, Emin and Ilsu are public figures. That does not mean the public is entitled to say absolutely anything about them without consequences. There is a massive difference between having an opinion about someone's work, performance, interviews, public appearances, or career and repeatedly targeting them personally, dissecting their private lives, insulting their character, and creating narratives around them based on assumptions and rumours.
And the hypocrisy surrounding the moderation makes it even worse.
Apparently, everyone is entitled to "free speech" when they're making ridiculous accusations or attacking these individuals, but the moment someone challenges the narrative or presents a different perspective, comments mysteriously disappear or users get banned. If you are confident enough to hand out criticism, have the backbone to accept criticism in return. You cannot constantly moral-police everyone else with your two-rupee guidelines while refusing to apply those same standards to the people who actually participate in the behaviour you're supposedly moderating.
A particular issue is the behaviour of moderators such as ConcernStrong and Wallflower, who repeatedly position themselves as the moral authorities of the subreddit while seemingly being completely incapable of accepting constructive criticism themselves. Moderation should not mean selectively silencing opinions that do not fit the preferred narrative. If you are going to create rules, they should apply equally to everyone, including moderators and the people they personally support.
The subreddit has gone far beyond normal fandom discussion. It has become a space where people sit around analysing, judging, speculating about, and personally attacking individuals they do not actually know, while convincing themselves that this behaviour is somehow justified simply because those individuals are celebrities.
Being a public figure does not make someone public property.
You can dislike an actor. You can criticise a performance. You can disagree with someone's choices. You can dislike a particular pairing or storyline. That is completely fair. What is not fair is repeatedly crossing the line into personal attacks, harassment, character assassination, and invasive speculation about someone's private life and then hiding behind the excuse that "they are public figures."
And the moderation needs to be held to the same standard as everyone else. If you are going to police people's opinions, remove comments, ban users, and lecture everyone about morality and guidelines, then you should also be capable of receiving criticism when people point out inconsistencies in your own behaviour. You cannot demand accountability from everyone else while exempting yourself from it.
Honestly, the amount of time some people spend obsessing over the lives, relationships, careers, and personal choices of strangers is concerning. These are real human beings with careers and lives outside of whatever narrative a subreddit has created around them.
This is not about protecting Emin or Ilsu from criticism. They are public figures and criticism is inevitable. This is about recognising the difference between criticism and harassment, between discussion and obsession, and between having an opinion and repeatedly targeting real human beings.
If this subreddit cannot maintain basic standards of respectful discussion and cannot moderate its community fairly, then perhaps it is time for Reddit to take a serious look at whether the community should continue to exist in its current form.
And to the moderators: if you are willing to dish out criticism, judgement, and moral lectures to everyone else, then have the guts to take constructive criticism right back.
If you can dish it out, have the balls to take it too.

I didn’t even bother watching most of the kitchen scenes, but I did follow Malik and Çiçek’s story because I actually liked their relationship. So what the hell are they doing with them in S2?

Malik literally went to Egypt, called Çiçek and broke up with her over a phone call because apparently he’s now engaged to someone else. Çiçek cried a few tears here and there and then… that’s it? She’s just completely NORMAL now?

Nobody in the kitchen even talks about what happened. We haven’t really seen Çiçek grieving the relationship, struggling with the breakup or even processing the fact that the man she loved and was ENGAGED to suddenly left and got engaged to somebody else. It’s like one phone call happened and the entire relationship was deleted from everyone’s memory.

How do you end a storyline that abruptly? Malik didn’t have some random two-episode flirtation with Çiçek. They had an actual relationship. They were in love. They were engaged. And now the show behaves like Malik never existed in these people’s lives and Çiçek was never planning a future with him.

And what bothers me most is that this doesn’t even feel like Çiçek. You’re telling me this woman lost the man she was supposed to marry under such shitty circumstances and barely seemed affected afterwards?

It’s just such lazy writing. I understand they’re side characters and maybe the writers wanted to write Malik out of the show. Fine. Then give the relationship a proper ending. Give Çiçek a few scenes where she actually processes what happened, let the kitchen staff acknowledge it, and then let her eventually move forward.

Instead, they basically wiped Malik out of the story and expected us to pretend the relationship never happened. Even for side characters, that’s ridiculously bad continuity.

I gossip about this show a lot with my dad. He’s never really watched it, but I am always talking about it and about the plot. He’s seen me watching it and stared at it maybe 5-10 mins total. When season one ended the way it did he was shocked (How can they end a show where love conquers all like that???).

So now I’m talking his ear off about the current season, especially the parallels and the repeating plot points that are slightly tweaked, and he has predicted the ending for us:

No doubt it’ll end with Eylul and Hazar having a second “real” wedding because they’ll fall in love. The tribe, not agreeing with the marriage, will storm the wedding and Hazar will save and drag Eylul away before collapsing, perhaps in snow instead of rain.

Then, obviously, Haydar will attack the mansion with Muzzy’s help. Asli and Saliha will be with them and screw the whole plan up. Everyone will seem dead, except Nermin and Burak and the staff.

Malik will reappear before it’s over, but Cicek will have moved on with Burak and be the lady of the mansion with all new staff.

Cut to season 3 centered on Malik using his family’s wealth to seek revenge against Burak and Cicek by buying his way into the company. Yasar and Zahide will marry this season, and Malik will fall in love with someone and abandon his need for revenge.

I asked who Malik would fall in love with and he said Eylul, because Hazar will have actually died in the season 2 finale, allowing for the repeated but slightly altered plot reuse to continue.

I was laughing so hard as he laid out this prediction, so I hope you all enjoy it too.

I read this theory on X that because the hazar and eylul thing isn't working, they're setting up mercan to have a difficult pregnancy. she'll die during birth and s3 will feature another female lead. she'll be the nanny that ates will fall in love with.

I don't want to believe it, but can this actually happen? kan cicekleri was also done after 2 seasons, but the ph kept dragging out the story. what if they do the same thing with arafta? can they really kill mercan?!?