There was once a german article about lesbian and gay representation in magazines, newspapers etc. Especially about how often the words schwul, lesbisch, homosexuell were used in the headlines. And it was clear that even if the article was also about lesbian or homosexuality in general lesbians were seldomly adressed in the headline and I think (duno exactly anymore) less adressed in the article.
Not sure why this public "lesbian-phobia" or ignorance exists, but it's a historical fact. I've got a few ideas on this, from general misogynie which is still there, to opposing ideas, that gay men (or better the picture which is shown) are seen as more female and this is less threating than women who are a competition to other men. There are quite a lot straight women who are fans of gay tv couples, but I more seldomly hear of men who are fans of lesbian tv couple (in a respectful way).
that's just a few quick thoughts on this, what are yours on it?

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R.I.P. Lexa kom Trikru

Firstly, wow! God, I wish I got into VL earlier! Aaah thanks so much for the great summary! If just reading got me all excited I don't know what watching it will do to me!

I've seen all the Marlene/Rebecca scenes so knew a bit about the rape/abortion and Marlene's sister Dana (lol @ horsegirl) stealing her ex-hubby and all but never knew anything 'bout Marlene's youngest sister Kim or that Marlene got raped by Tristan's mate! Oh and Tanja's Rebecca's sister-in-law? Didn't know that! At first I used to think Marlene's ex-hubby was Rebecca's brother, but no, that would be too messed up even for soapland!

So how many siblings has Rebecca got? And are all the characters like part of a royal family or something? Like, why does Tristan live in a castle? And ya know when Rebecca and Tristan have breakfast in the mornings it seems like Rebecca lives there too but I thought she had her own place?

Sorry for all the questions, but again thanks for the summary to Marlene's backstory!

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Wow, way to put me on the spot! LOL, am only joking. Well... yeah I have to agree, guys obviously do prefer lesbian couples for obvious reasons to women. It's probably 'cause like I hate to say it but some straight women are afraid of lesbians. I know that sounds awful, but I have a front row seat to it. Basically, I'm straight and so are most of the people I know and like I said where I don't mind, actually quite enjoy (why else would I be here) gay/lesbian pairings most of the people I know don't. My female mates actually can't even bear to watch lesbians on TV and yet don't mind, actually some even ship gay pairings. I know this sounds really bad but it's not like they're homophobic or anything it's hard to explain. 'Til this day I've still not come across another straight woman in RL who doesn't mind lesbian couples like me. What can I say, we live in an effed up world.

It's actually quite funny straight women prefer gays and find them less threatening when they're the ones stealing their men and lesbians are no threat whatsoever.

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Rebecca and Tristan are part of an aristocratic family - the "von Lahnsteins". Their family lives since nearly 800 years at this place - the castle called Königsbrunn. Rebecca has 4 siblings. Tanja is married to Sebastian which is Rebeccas second oldest brother and Hagen, who is the oldest brother is now married to Dana (Marlene sister) - so you are right about him being Marlene's ex-hubby! The orangery where Rebecca lives is part of the castle but a bit aside. She wanted to have some distance from the family that's why she insisted to live there and tried to get Ricardo out, who was invited by Rebecca's cousin Nico to live there during her absence (she went on a trip to Tibet).
Because Marlene was already together with 2 Lahnsteins (Hagen + now Tristan) and seems to get together with the third (Rebecca) - there are already quite some jokes about her - only having two left and that she'll surely manage that too

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R.I.P. Lexa kom Trikru

sorry to say, but they are. I mean homophobia doesn't mean only that you are against homosexuals and speak out loudly against it, it also means that you feel uncomfortable because of any fears you might have. It's called homophobia for some reasons. Maybe they are threatened of some male parts in themselves or of strange pictures hidden in the big sea of the unconscious
I think if you love your own gender you also have to confront old build-in and hidden fears/prejudices/valuations from the society about your own sex, which you'd never need to confront that much if you love the opposite gender.

well, gay men don't hit on you, but lesbians could

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R.I.P. Lexa kom Trikru

OMG, can't believe I was right 'bout Marlene's ex-hubby being Rebecca's brother too! And LOL, 'bout Marlene, hopefully she won't need to get with the remaining two siblings and Rebecca will be end game.

Oh and thanks for the summary. Seriously, the more I read about VL the more I'm loving it! Thanks again!

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LOL, you do have some valid points here, but I think for argument's sake we better leave it at that.



So true! Never thought of that.

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And the best part is, Tristan actually used to sleep with Dana too. He was like Dana's first boyfriend when Dana arrived on the show I always thought it was super creepy that Hagen and Tristan "exchanged" women like that. Tristan used to be with Dana and Hagen with Marlene, but then Hagen fell in love with Dana and Tristan kind of "took over" Marlene. There was even some really awkward dialog between both Dana/Marlene and Hagen/Tristan about it. Tristan also used to cover up Hagen and Dana's affair in front of Marlene (like Marlene founds Dana in a state of undress the morning after Dana's one night stand with Hagen and Tristan went along with being Dana's alibi because he knew what had happened between Hagen and Dana).

But yes, the Lahnsteins are 5 siblings.

Boring tall Hagen who used to be with Marlene and who is now with Dana. He manages a farm of race horses and Dana is his jockey.
Middle brother Sebastian who is the family lawyer and who is married to Marlene's friend/Rebecca's boss Tanja.
Tristan who used to be a stockbroker, who then switched to music manager after her met Marlene and who is now managing a somewhat loosely defined entertainment branch of the company.
Helena, Tristan's twin sister, who is managing an auction house.
And Rebecca the youngest who is a designer.

All of them, their father, Tanja, their cousin Ansgar as well as Marlene's sister Kim (on account of being Ansgar's illegitimate child) have a vote on the copmany board, which is why you have those weird scenes of all of them sitting around this u-shaped table angrily debating each other.

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Skip this if it makes your brain hurt Backstory wise it goes like this. Rebecca's father Ludwig was the oldest of the family, but was exiled by his father because he married a maid (the mother of the 5 Lahnstein siblings). When the children were still young Ludwig ended up in a South American prison (long story) and he and the wife decided to let the children believe he was dead so they wouldn't have to live with the shame of having a father in jail. Only the wife died a few years later and the now orphaned children were raised by a friend of Ludwig's.

It is written that Hagen who was 18 around that time abandoned the other children out of fear of responsibility and basically never contacted them again till he came into down together with Dana and Marlene. Instead the middle brother Sebastian became the responsible one who felt it was his job to take care of the younger siblings. Rebecca, especially when she was still played by the other a lot whinier looking actress, was the "baby" of the family who basically latched on to every authority figure in her life, Hagen, Seb, the guy who raised them and Helena. Meanwhile the twins Tristan&Helena emotionally withdrew from the rest of the family and this emotional isolation caused Tristan to become romantically obsessed with Helena. Which is kinda the reason why canonically Tristan/Rebecca were never all this close.

Anyway, a few years ago Helena, with the help of her then boyfriend Andi discovered that her father Ludwig was still alive and she, Tristan and Andi went to save him and brought him back to town.

After Ludwig had been exiled way back by his father, the castle and the company went to Ludwig's younger brother and when he came back to town was being run by the children of that now deceased younger brother. Ansgar is the oldest son of that younger brother and he objected to Ludwig coming back and taking over the castle and the company. As a way of trying to make family peace Ludwig then came up with this idea of a company board where everybody has a vote as long as they have Lahnstein blood (+Tanja because she had lots of money )

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Marbecca Forum Deutsch :: Marbecca Forum English:: Marlene Caps :: Rebecca Caps:: Conspiracy theories & speculation

Woah. That's a lot to take in but I think i get it. Okay, am going to keep this brief.



This is seriously messed up. So did Marlene ever find out Tristan used to cover up for Dana/Hagen?



OH that's what you meant by horsegirl! Boy, how wrong was I.



WHAT?!



Kinda off topic, but I like Andi, he makes me laugh. Always thought he was just a background character, mind.



So is Ludwig still in it? I can't ever recall seeing him. However it could be down to the fact I've only ever watched Marlene/Rebecca scenes. Think I might have to invest in the entire soap now, thanks Lola! BTW, do entire episodes even get uploaded/translated on YouTube?

again for filling me in! You seem to be well informed on everything VL, have you been watching long?

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They never talked about it explicitly, and I don't know whether Marlene conciously realized that the time Dana and Tristan told her that they slept together again was a lie, but later she definitely knew that Tristan knew the identity of Hagen's affair and kept it from her and was very pissed about it. Of course shortly later Dana confessed that she was the affair and that kinda overshadowed everything



No, she's actually quite pretty I like her. But yeah, she loves horses.



Let's just say Tristan is generally not exactly what you call emotionally stable. There were a lot of errr fun moments like:
1.) Tristan throwing himself down the stairs so Andi would look bad and Helena would coddle him
2.) Tristan trying to beat Andi to death with a tree branch
3.) Tristan developing an alter ego that talked to him in his mirror
4.) Tristan trying to kill himself with Helena on the phone
5.) Tristan paying a maid so she would wear Helena's clothes, wear a Helena wig and have sex with him in Helena's bed while calling her Helena

And of course the big money shot of the story was Tristan roofie-ing Helena so he could grope her in peace (though he thankfully freaked himself out before getting to her bra and that lead to the suicide attempt from point 4.)).

Have some music videos from that time
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmoX5aGZ9jw[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOrmO-exqVo[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lHgjg3eBtg[/youtube]

The worst part is that he and the Helena actress had some really sexy chemistry in his dream sequences and really cool chemistry in their fighing scenes. You you still have the occasional people who still hope that she will turn out to have been switched at birth so they can go another round.

Anyway, Tristan got cured by soap magic wand-ism and it really had little effect on the current storyline. I just love retelling the story because it's so whacky. I think what one can gather from it is that Tristan has a somewhat obsessive personality who wont take no for an answer unless you shout at him repeatedly. And I often kinda feel like Marlene just does not get that at all about him. That he's terrible at taking a hint while Marlene is terrible at talking straight. It's really a match made in hell that way.

And for Rebecca it mostly means that his entire life Tristan had pretty much treated everybody except Helena like dirt under his shoes.

Before you ask, yes Rebecca knows, she was there when Tristan confessed his obsession to the family and she comforted Helena over it (however it was the different Rebecca actress). Marlene knows of it too. When Marlene and Hagen came into town Tristan told them straight up that he had a psychotic episode where he tried to rape his sister and murder her boyfriend, but that he had it under control now. Hagen and Marlene looked somewhat befuddled, but then accepted that explanation.



Heh, he was actually the resident hot guy of the show many years ago who had tons of romances. His last larger romance was with Helena, and they were together for quite a long time before he cheated on her with the scheming Jessica.



He is the old guy who hugs Rebecca in the episode where she comes back into town on her motorcycle. He and his wife are also I think in the scenes where everybody comes back to the castle after Dana and Hagen's wedding and also in the scene where Dana and Hagen announce their engagement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fue2keyAwEY

Ludwig and his wife Elisabeth (not Rebecca's mom)

Sadly no translated full episodes of VL on youtube. But I heartily recommend watching the videos around Rebecca's aunt Carla (the sister of Ansgar) who was also a lesbian and had many great love stories. Most of the characters from her era are not around anymore, but she's still very cool and the general storyline style of the show is still similar.

I actually haven't been watching VL regularly for that long. I actually began watching around 2008 when the gay love story of Christian and Oliver started.

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Marbecca Forum Deutsch :: Marbecca Forum English:: Marlene Caps :: Rebecca Caps:: Conspiracy theories & speculation

you can watch the entire episodes on the official website of Verbotene Liebe - ARD is the broadcaster - they aren't geoblocked - and there's also nicolewillemsen where you can find full eps - but no translations for them.

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R.I.P. Lexa kom Trikru

just to make sure: my thoughts on this weren't meant in any way as an accusation (even gay people have to deal with homophobia in themselves - more or less at different times and stages). And it was just a few ideas, what MIGHT be some reasons. I certainly can't know for sure

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R.I.P. Lexa kom Trikru

Damn. Tristan has just become way more interesting in my book now!



LMFAO! The first one with the song from The Lion King was too funny. I bet psycho Tristan must've been fun to watch.



I'm guessing you're one of those people, right?



Can you imagine if Marlene does leave him for Rebecca then psycho Tristan might make another appearance. Here's hoping...



Seriously, I can't see it myself. I much prefer Christian.



Right, right, gotcha. Think I only saw those scenes once, I only think the scenes with both Marlene/Rebecca are worth repeating.



I'll be sure to definitely check 'em out if I can find any translated videos about.

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Aw, boo to no translation. Think I might just have to stick to the translated scenes on YT for now. But thanks for letting me know.



Seriously, don't worry about it. I didn't take anything to heart, I just said what I did was my attempt at trying to get back on topic.

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