AWZ Deniz and Roman - That other German soap storyline

I thought it might be useful to post a summary here since the storyline appears to be picking up again. AWZ alias Alles Was Zählt alias All That Matters is a soap centered around an ice skating center and primarily the lead character Diana and her rise to become a super ice skater.

Roman is one of the ice skaters. He is played by out gay actor Dennis Grabosch. He starts out as closeted but then has a quickier affair with ballet coach Andrew ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcSM1vk1Ggk ). His friend Annette sees him with Andrew and since then Roman is out. 

Of note also Annette's boyfriend the gayfriendly but sadly totally straight Ingo 

The Deniz and Roman story starts when Deniz, the 17 year old son of turkish bar owner Marian comes to town because he has beenhaving trouble at school. Roman is immediately smitten with him. Deniz befriends the teenset of the soap. 

His father has a debt with the mob and Deniz and his galpal Vanessa throw a party to make money to pay back the debt. They beg bronze medal winner Roman to come too so more people will come to their party. There Roman kisses Deniz as a job and the picture accidentally ends up in the papers. 

Deniz is part of the ice hockey team and gets teased by some homophobic team members. He tries to hook up with fellow teen Nina who has a crush on him and even joins in at some of homophobic slurs against Roman. Despite raging against Roman Deniz begins to notice that he is getting erections around Roman's hot bod. Roman notices too. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pax-1hYD9SI

Deniz even begins dreaming about Roman. Meanwhile Roman gets gaybashed by the evil ice hockey jocks. Deniz runs in on the situatio, freaks out, turns around and runs away. Roman is heavily injured, Deniz is wreaked with guilt and horror, Roman finds Deniz crying in the shower and asks him if he is gay. 

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

For his closeness with Roman Deniz gets targetted too. Roman fixes up his injury. Deniz apologizes for not having helped Roman when Roman was gaybashed. Around this time they become a couple and Deniz is there for Roman when Roman angst about this injury might be the end his career. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEQsY99STpA

We enter a short blissfull time where they are a couple. Deniz even tells his story about how the reason he had to move out with his mom and got in trouble in school was because people thought he was gay and he got into fights. He even admits to Roman and to himself that he knew before that he liked being touched by guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sc2tND9hRs

They are caught in the act by Deniz father and Deniz fiercely defends his love for Roman.  After a while even Deniz father comes around grudginly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0AYaT54mAk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rod4ACON6WQ

Let me say that I think that this is probably one of the best coming out storylines I have seen on tv. I adore Christian and Oliver, but it takes a bit of soap opera turning a blind eye to accept that Christian is 23/24 years old, had loving long term relationships with at least two women and never had an inkling before that he might like guys. 

Meanwhile Deniz was obivously brought on specifically to be gay, he is only 17 and he admitted that he had an inkling he liked guys even before Roman kissed him. Not to mention a lot of great, emotional, dramatic, funny, and sexual scenes.

Alas, the evil soap gods intervened and mucked the story up. 

Roman and Deniz start to quarrel. Deniz hangs around his galpal Vanessa. Deniz and Vanessa begin to make out and Deniz claims he loves her. Vanessa demands that he tell Roman the truth. Roman notices that Deniz begins to pull away from him. Through some misunderstanding Vanessa thinks that Deniz has already told Roman about her and sleeps with him. Deniz keeps up the lie and his whole tagteaming is found out when he accidentally sends an invitation for pool sex to both his lovers and Roman catches Deniz and Vanessa in the pool. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbEVzV6eL_4

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpQPSURzS4Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjMG02b349s

Both Roman and Vanessa are enraged that Deniz was lying to them. Roman tries to save his relationship and admits that he recently he has been overstating the extent of his injury to keep Deniz tied to him. Deniz breaks up with Roman and wins Vanessa back by blaming everything on Roman. 

Roman is angry, thinks that Deniz is in denial about being gay and lashes out at him. He tries to seduce Deniz in the shower, but despite having a physical reaction Deniz claims he wants to be with Vanessa. 

There is a modelling job up for grabs at the ice skating center. Roman thinks he is entitled to it because he is a bronze medal winner, but the people at the center like Deniz pictures better and pick him as the model. The model people tell Deniz he has to pretend to be single in public and hide his girlfriend to seem available. Vanessa grows jealous of the beautiful female models who hang around Deniz. Vanessa's ex comes back and gets into a fight with Deniz. She takes her ex home, while Roman takes Deniz home and fixes up his wounds. Deniz grabs Roman, kisses him and then blames it all on Roman. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n8NmXDqWzw

Roman invites Deniz to a party with the Paris Hilton of Essen (snerk). Deniz lies to Vanessa so he'll be able to go to the party. At the party everybody climbs into the pool and during a truth or dare game Deniz is dared to kiss Roman, likely a planned thing between Roman and the hostess. Deniz is quite enthusiastic about it once he gets into it. They are caught by a mutual friend, the resident bitch Nina who takes a picture of the kiss and intends to blackmail Deniz for VIP tickets and the like. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqhWRL7yHPM

Because of some killer virus Deniz, Roman and Vanessa get trapped in a locker room together. An argument starts and Roman tells Vanessa the truth, that Deniz kissed him and that Deniz lied when he told Vanessa that it was Roman who kissed him. Vanessa lashes out at Deniz who still claims that she is the only one he wants to be with (yeah, right). After this event she refuses to speak with him and decides to leave town for a week. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA_OSc2C_mo

Deniz apparently parties with Roman. Deniz fears that the company he works for might be going under and that he will lose his modelling job. Deniz snorts coke that is offered to him. 

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

Roman comes in after the fact and preaches to Deniz about the dangers of cocaine. Deniz kisses him and so gets Roman to agree to come along and party with Deniz and the models which leads to more kissing. The party is broken up by Roman's roomate who are completely horrified when they find the party including people who snort lines off the picture of Diana's dead husband. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN_TP9NEpoI

(please note that the clips from All About Strength represent only a fraction of the storyline; a lot more scenes than just these aired)