This is just my general observation of the PHC characters and their dynamics, now, whether or not it's meant to be analyzed this deeply, who knows? I don’t see it as a sin to engage with it this way, especially since it struck something in my mind.
In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on Naim and Fakhri’s dynamic.
I think one of the most overlooked parts of the story is Fakhri and Naim's emotional arc, like how deeply they missed and needed each other, yet that thread was left completely untouched by the narrative of the series.
Now, I haven't a clue if you guys are into Jungian Philosophy and Tarot card, but I'm here to bring up the cards that represents them both just to explain what I'm seeing better.
This is just the general term and I am not an expert at reading them, but I've had online friends that did this back then, and I've read the information on the Tarot back to back, here and there, bits and pieces, throughout boring years of my life owo, so that makes me a true scholarTM.
For fun, imma use some quotes from Persona 3 on the cards, because it's beautifully descriptive of the symbolism and random tarot card that I like the art with, yeeee.
The bliss makes him vulnerable to the illusions of The Moon. Fears arise, and he follows the dim path in his heart with trepidation...
A Long Shadow Cast
Naim represents The Moon : it's unconscious, full of symbols and hidden desires/truth, reflective, full of contradictions, duality, illusions and fear.
Only with strength can one endure suffering and torment.
Forgiveness Is Divine.
Fakhri Represents The Strength : inner strength, courage, compassion, emotional control and suppression, and the taming of a beast (his anger issues), BUT! - with a facet of the Moon residing within his soul.
They both share the same fear of being judged as weak, and a deep fear of being labeled as 'Pondan' though this is more central to Naim's arc, I’d argue Fakhri experiences it too, albeit more in relation to his father's reputation than his own.
Let's start with Fakhri first (cause he's the mc) :
When Fakhri decided to leave their new home at the age of nine, shards of the Moon were unintentionally left inside him, derelictally simmering. No matter where he turns, the Moon is still there. The constant fights at school, the resentment toward the parts of his father he saw as lembut or pondan, it all reflects back on what he couldn’t face: how much his father reminded him of Naim, and how abandoning Naim fractured something in both of them. Naim, too, is very much like their father - and that’s where their miscommunication begins.
Whether or not we admit it, I personally believe Fakhri harbors a hidden layer of homophobia, or at the very least a deep discomfort with queerness being associated with him. After all, in our society, being labeled that way isn’t exactly something easily accepted. And frankly, we can clearly see he resents that label. Remember what he said to Naim: “Kau nak apa sebenarnya, Kau nak buktikan apa kat semua orang? Yang Kau tu sebenarnya jantan? Diorang mungkin sebenarnya tak tahu Kau ni sebenarnya apa, tapi aku tahu. Kau jangan ingat aku lupa."
Ayam, in all his loud, loving and dramatic glory, is a friend, a brother, and sometimes even a mother to Fakhri, the kind who teaches him things with a side of sarcasm and heart. Speculatively, I see this somewhat as a reflection of the parts of Naim and his father that he remembers dearly.
Despite everything, with his sarcasm, the sharp tongue of wit, the air of the King of Swords, Ayam is where Fakhri finds emotional shelter. He meets the needs Fakhri won’t admit to having. Like a tide pulled by a distant moon, Ayam brings him back to a feeling he’s been aching for, safety, warmth, and something like home.
(Heavy on this moon theme shit people)
Fakhri presents a rather complex emotional contradictions, that is quite sad if you think about it, deep down inside, he craves for attention but not in an overt or performative way but yearning for an emotional presence that feels like home. He's manja at heart, yet he masks it with distance and pride. As the audience, we see this side of him surface only in his interactions with his mother, a figure who quite paradoxically, lacks the gentleness he associated with his father, and perhaps that's what he chases after even without a deeper consciousness of it all.
Idah is also a rather complex character, we do see her being kind and gentle, it's not as if that is completely null to her. She reacts strongly, often disproportionately, to even minor disruptions, always overtaken by emotional outbursts. Even the final episode’s attempt to soften her feels rushed as if patching a broken mirror with tape.
How does one truly search for a place of comfort, when in the end, Fakhri leans toward the person who mirrors him the most, someone just as full of bottled up issues and explosions of anger? Ironically, while seeking familiarity he chooses what’s already fractured.
Fakhri in contrast, resists the kind of gentleness his father embodied. That gentleness, once a source of comfort, now carries a reminder of Naim, the one he left behind. As a result, Fakhri redirects his need for care toward those who align more closely with socially accepted norms of emotional expression, particularly those who fit traditional gender roles. It’s a defense mechanism, allowing him to access comfort without confronting his past. (However unpredictable it is)
In the short term, Fakhri projected his own insecurities about softness, self-identity, and self-hatred onto Naim, who represents the Moon. (Also some parts of Ayam, but you could argue its more or less because Ayam decides to be up on his face about him bullying Naim)
Now it's Naim turn :
The Moon in tarot reflects the desires and expectations of others, always chasing external approval, yet never quite receiving what it truly needs. It embodies a deeply feminine energy: misunderstood, elusive, yet essential to the process of individuation.
Naim desperately longs for love, a real, honest love - and he’s always the one who reaches out first. It’s him who still calls Fakhri Adik. It’s him who tries to play the big brother, gently nagging Fakhri to stay away from Kahar, obeying when told not to tell their mother of Fakhri's enrollment in Kudrat (until Amirr's decides on his thoughts).
He does everything he can to fulfill his role, still hoping it might one day earn him the one thing he's always been denied: the kind of acceptance that doesn’t ask him to seperate himself into pieces, or shifted just to be tolerated. He wants to be loved entirely, which is as he is, not just as how he’s useful to others.
We see what young Fakhri endured, we even catch fragments of his missing years, but Naim’s own childhood struggles remain in the shadows. His pain is subtle, lived out in silence and shaped by the indoctrinated need to please.
He chases love through whatever path he can, even bending himself into whatever shape might earn it, but in the end, he remains a mirror for others fears, disappointment, desires, judgments, and wounds, a patchwork of vessel for everyone else, and never fully his own.
Never an original, only a channel for others light.
This left him struggling with his sense of self. Once again, he finds himself in a paradox, haunted by the reflections of others that he mistaken for his own. He absorbs the experiences and emotions of those around him, constantly mirroring what others feel, yet losing touch with what belongs to him.
Yet beneath it all, he still craves a deeper truth, a structure that makes sense. That’s why he defied Kahar by burning the honey stocks. And that’s why by episode 9, the Moon within him shatters: he realises the beliefs he’s clung to were never truly his, and that he’s been betrayed by the very structure of society. In that moment of absolute rage, it’s not just rebellion he wants anymore, it’s annihilation, even death itself.
Ironically, even as Naim rages at Fakhri for stealing everything, ie the spotlight, the Kapla title, their mother’s love, their father’s attention, he never realises how deeply he exists within Fakhri. That same emotional confusion, that same sense of being lost and directionless, runs through them both.
With Mia, Naim doesn't just feel free, he experiences a different companionship, a rare kind of understanding that was born from a mere meeting behind the cafeteria. Mia immediately sees him for what he is : uncertain, tired and constant searching.
Mia herself isn't free from structure, but she had her own dream path carved into a direction that was hers alone, even if fears hold her back a bit. They are painfully similar to each other. She’s the eldest too, the one who was supposed to know better, carry more, complain less. The one left behind when attention shifted to the younger sibling.
Amirr is kind, warm even, but his gaze of Naim still holds a certain shape. He sees Naim as he wishes he could be : be stronger, be better, be good. Naim, the one whom had always bending to fit others, feels it. Even love can feel like pressure when it comes wrapped in unspoken ideals.
But this is also where Naim is wrong about Amirr. Amirr does love him, fully, in silence, and without condition. The Temperance card, which represents Amirr, reveals this clearly: a symbol of balance, patience, and emotional harmony.
They both entered on each others lives without guidance and there was their bond struck. But in Naim's most depressed state, he lets his anger take over and turned it outward to Amirr even though anyone who crossed his path at that point would have received the brunt of his lashing words.
Amirr in the end, became the brother Naim truly needed, not the others who only burdened him. At least he came to that realization by the final episode. But when it comes to Fakhri and Naim, we're left to wonder what resolution, if any, they ever reached other than the immediate assumptions it was all good cause they nodded at each other 😂.
(My art on the symbolism of their dynamics, Naim doesn't look like Naim at all 😂😂😂🙏😢 super sorry)
It’s a paradox of push and pull between the Ismet Brothers, denial and desire, strength and vulnerability tangled together like moonlight and shadow.
Is this just another post for me to rant about how much they didn't explore the potential drama of Ismet Brothers other than Fakhri angry at Naim, and Naim is bitter at Fakhri and they somehow made it without any deep talking heart to heart scene?
Oh yeeaa
Hope you like my analysis
These two pics really suggest to me that there was originally meant to be a final scene where they have a heart to heart talk, but it was likely cut during the final editing process, which tbh is sad because that would have had a bigger impact than the rushed final episode (PHC deserves 2 or 3 more episodes after 10 honestly)
(This post seriously took me 2 weeks to think of, so sorry for the yapping)
Also if you disagree and stuff, please leave your thoughts down below, I would love to read them.
