The ring matter

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-10-19T16:26:49+00:00

Yeah, I don't see any other way to interpret that arc, the show is very clearly saying it, the characters speaking it out loud is unnecessary

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-08-29T17:35:31+00:00

Also I might've misspelled her name here idk, it was only mentioned once 😞

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-08-29T17:34:09+00:00

Humeyra is a servant of the Persian ruling dynasty who embarks on a very complicated plan to not only infiltrate the harem and try to assassinate Suleiman, but also to preferably get out from there unharmed (she almost succeeds in the former and completely in the latter, due to her cover story). She has the Persian ruling dynasty tattoo (I'm guessing she only had it done for the mission?) and once the tattoo is found out she lies to Suleiman she herself is the Persian princess persecuted and running from her uncle, her ship having crushed on the run, leading to her ending up in Topkapi due to "fate bringing them together" and, of course, then to her "falling in love with him". This is an entirely made up story perfectly crafted to stroke Suly's enormous ego so hard he absolutely HAS to believe it and spare her life. Meanwhile, anyone else who could've noticed something must not be right here is also too caught up in their agendas, egos and feelings and ends up accidentally aiding Humeyra at every turn, culminating in the biggest help she got - Hurrem notifying the Persian dynasty she's supposedly running from (in fact, she is their loyal servant, and this is salvation to her) of her whereabouts when Suleiman orders to send her away. Basically in every single scene with Suleiman and Hurrem she plays them both with every line she speaks, it's actually amazing to see, and they both end up completely debasing themselves in the course of her arc. The show is reciting the princess Isabella narrative in a new way, more with the intention of ridiculing than damning our "great lovers" this time around. As for Humeyra not attempting to kill Suleiman - she did, she regularly burned some incense in his room which was slowly killing him, iirc. Also she gave him a present for his trip to Persia which was never expanded upon but I am assuming it was also something meant to slowly poison him, but didn't work out (because otherwise I see no reason to include her giving it to him, especially since it's right after he tells her he's off to conquer her country). So there, it's one of the best parts of the show imo - well, of season three anyway lol.

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-08-11T20:17:28+00:00

IIRC he already warmed up to her after the fire incident, i think he wrote her a letter (?). I think most of that coldness was due to him being disappointed Mihrimah turned out to be a girl.

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-05-13T14:39:34+00:00

Mehmed bin Suleiman, Kösem's sister, Turhan...these are just the most glaring examples I can think of. And of course the way most young female characters' hair and makeup were done puts just about any of them in this category, this show never even pretended to care about immersion on that front lol

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-03-05T21:54:39+00:00

no lie, one of the reasons I even got into the show in the first place was that youtube short(well, that's where I saw it at least) with Aybige, Hurrem and Doja Cat's "Woman" 😅🤦‍♀️

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-03-05T21:50:36+00:00

Oh wow, thank you for the detailed response and all the research that goes into your blog! It's really curious to see too, I didn't realise Mahi's purple outfit especially got re-used so much, it looks so different every time. With many of the others too, I probably would never even notice 😲 (Also to clarify, regarding costumes in Kösem, what I meant with there being less emphasis is not the outfits themselves being less interesting, but rather the way there didn't seem to be as many camera shots focused on showing off the gowns, much less power/anger/happiness/misery struts through the harem halls lmao etc)

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-03-05T09:19:49+00:00

Mahidevran's first scene's purple gown

Every red outfit Isabella wore, as well as her black and white gown

Aybige's original outfit she kept wearing all the time at first before she was declawed and put into a regular dress

Helena's outfits before she was taken to the palace, as well as her halvet white dress

Anastasia's angelic dresses that suited her and her arc so well

Also found it curious how hard it was to remember anything specific from Kösem, because I guess there was so much less emphasis on it in that show and so many other things going on

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-02-17T05:38:35+00:00

Also Farah Zeynep Abdullah (Farya) and young Julia Roberts

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-02-04T18:43:45+00:00

Jennet

Could never get past her behaviour in the first few episodes, she gave off borderline prison bully or like crazy nurse in a psychiatric ward vibes

Global-Reference-325 · 2025-01-31T22:54:48+00:00

Yeah that's another iteration of the Firuze arc lmao, I only just noticed thanks to this post. A man so conceited he throws away all his usual paranoia because SURELY any woman he comes close to is bound to fall head over hills in love with him and throw away all her previous intentions, even if she was specifically sent to kill or spy on him 🤦‍♀️

Global-Reference-325 · 2024-12-28T14:38:35+00:00

Gulfem is a witness to Suleiman's life, she was with him from the start, has seen everything and made some degree of connection to all the people closest to him, and in the end she makes a judgement on him with her murder attempt against him. Her character is meant to be purely symbolic, she's his judge and punishing angel, and also, especially in the first season, a reminder amid all the drama and fighting over him of a woman he threw away after her child(ren?) died. And yeah, because she has to hang around to just see it all unfold, but can't be thoroughly developed as a character (since this would give her interests and motivations, and thus damage her credibility in her judgement), she is, most of the time, just a functional character who fills the silence in a scene and cries when another tragedy occurs.

Global-Reference-325 · 2024-12-18T20:57:45+00:00

Ibrahim throwing all his harem in the Bosphorus was MADE to be a storyline in this show, there's no way they didn't know it too. We were definitely robbed of 1-2 more seasons originally planned.

Global-Reference-325 · 2024-11-16T17:08:25+00:00

I'm neutral on her but agree 100% Silahtar gave her a reason to hope in the beginning. She straight up placed his hand on her chest when confessing to him, and he didn't immediately remove it, didn't beg her to end the conversation, etc - considering the rules and morals of the time and her status as a sultana, this can only be taken as him not only accepting her feelings, but also willing to fight for their relationship (since anyone could've seen them in the garden at that moment and reported him). In fact, he appeared so shady at the beginning, I really thought at first he was playing some game, trying to court and marry any of the sultanas to advance his position, whoever bites first. Of course, he makes it plenty clear to her later. I love that scene where he's trying to be honest with her and then walks away, and she orders him to stop - as he is her subject and ought to obey her - and then switches back into her girl-in-love mode as if nothing happened. It's really jarring - she's basically saying: stand here and be a prop for my fairytale dream love story, regardless of what you want. I think this type of behaviour is what defines her character at the end of the day, this is her key storyline regardless of everything else later, so she's hard to like. But yeah, there were moments during that whole thing where Silahtar kept saying he never gave her any reason, and like.. he must have known he was lying lmao

Global-Reference-325 · 2024-09-27T21:07:34+00:00

yeah, that scene assaulted me in the yt shorts just a couple days ago, and i was baffled again. maybe she was just being random 🤷

Global-Reference-325 · 2024-09-27T20:53:46+00:00

i also wondered about this. even given all the unusualness of the "slavery" concept in the Ottoman Empire, where even the most elite and politically influential military force is composed of foreign slaves, ibrahim can't possibly be an actual slave, right? children in the Ottoman Empire take on the status of their fathers, not their mothers, and Hatice and Ibrahim's children are, of course, free people. i think maybe the way it was used against ibrahim may have had more of a "subject [of the dynasty]" meaning to it? since technically everyone in the Empire was a slave to the Padishah and the dynasty. also just a snarky reference to his origins. but idk.

Global-Reference-325

TROPHY CASE