#also it might make someone want to see ATIK!

[anditendshowyoudexpect]

uh oh they did make a Korean version after all

they aged up the leads, which makes the dynamic of the original kinda impossible. probably a good thing, because i'd keep comparing and whinging about it. also, a mature relationship in my kdrama? always welcome. oh of course if it's set in our days, which i think it is, there's another plot device and a whole lot of puppy cuteness out, gotta be different kind of cuteness.

i suspect it's going to be very melo - so was the original, but it didn't feel that way, it felt very natural, and this is kdrama, so this could well be melo supreme. honestly, i'm fine as long as we're not getting dark secrets of the past/psycho murderers/domestic abuse/etc. galore on the side, because kdrama likes being many things at once and doesn't always know how to balance them.

aaaanyway, i am a little bit skeptical but i'm definitely watching it. well, maybe just the trailer first.

but also lol this is when the kdrama time skip ending power comes in handy. and let's not forget the childhood friend who's been secretly in love with the female lead since they were in nappies. ...god, the leads probably have met as kids too, haven't they.

[fymagnificentwomcn]

What are your thoughts about Silhatar Mustafa?

Mhm pretty much indifferent to him, but as many, deserved so much better?

I mean later on he was horrible, but he wasn’t himself anymore following Gevherhan’s death and his disastrous marriage to Atike.

When we meet him we know he’s Murad’s best friend and has a reputation as ladies man, seems like a guy seriously devoted to his work, but having a messy private life lol.

The person he seems most attached to was Murad, we see he is very much concerned about his well-being and happiness, for example he is very glad seeing Murad being happy after a ride with Farya (later changes his attitude towards her after the pig incident). He also has a soft spot for Ayşe (in platonic sense), which mirrors Ibrahim’s fondness for Mahi due to being treated as part of their family (and this relationship stays strong until the end, even in her last episode, he pleads on her behalf with Murad).

It’s clear he and Kösem aren’t great friends, but they both have learned how to co-operate with each other for Murad’s sake, he also seems to have similar relations with the rest of family – there doesn’t seem to be exceptional closeness between him and the rest of the family other than Murad, but everybody manages to get along.

The show starts when Mu/rat loses his previous main male favourite (and I don’t intend here any romantic undertons either ahaha) aka Musa, and Silahtar is given his position. In later flashback scene we see what Mu/rat expects of him – absolute loyalty. Obviously Musa has left big shoes to fill in and Silahtar is undoubtedly aware of this.

Suddenly Silahtar’s professional life and his messy private life intersect because he gets caught between two sultanas – one which he begins to have feelings for and the other who begins chasing after him for a change.

He was well aware Gevherhan might be too far above him and perhaps got scared about having for the first time real feelings for a woman, so he entered into what he thought a casual relationship with Ester. However, he could have sensed that Ester wanted something more, she was pretty vocal about bearing her loneliness aka widowhood badly and wanting to have someone by her side long-term. Then he actually did decide to pursue Gev and like he said start a new chapter with his life, close the previous messy private life and start anew with the woman he truly loved. He also intended to immediately come clean to Mu/rat and ask for Gev’s hand, even at the risk of being executed.

Ironically, what proved to be an obstacle was not where he actually was at fault (Ester), but where he was innocent (Atike).

As I said, Ester serves here as foil to Atike – she has much better reasons to be bitter and want revenge, but ultimately she draws a line and leaves the matter. And LBR nobody would have cared so much about her as about a sultana… but this sultana is lying, even if she herself believes in her delusions.

The whole situation truly gives me Atonement vibes, and as in Atonement it has a bad ending, but here it gets a bit more complicated because of Silahtar’s love and loyalty being connected also with another person – Murad.

I said it multiple times – in the end the real love triangle is Silahtar-Gevherhan-Murad.

As I mentioned in the beginning, from beginning Silahtar is very protective of his friend and sultan and also wants to do as best as he can in his job. He is also a bit naïve about Murad – during the Kasim matter, he scolds Kemankeş for having helped Kösem hide the truth, but he himself has no bad intentions and does not want Kasim hurt – he believes Murad will not pursue the matter as far as he ultimately does.

Similarly, he makes digs at Kemankes to not switch sides for Kösem’s.

When he asks Murad for Gev’s hand, he is sure his friend will treat him at least justly. But boy he was disappointed. Murad doesn’t even ask him about the whole matter and trusts Atike blindly. Then puts him in that praying cell to make Silahtar understand that the most important thing in his life is his padişah and absolute loyalty to him.

To make matters worse, once Silahtar is released from prison, his “friend” decides to complete the “lesson” with “absolute loyalty test” – marry Atike.

Murad is well aware Silahtar does not love Atike and does not want to marry her. He actually uses his beloved (?) little sis and traps her in marriage that has no chances of being ever happy to test Silahtar’s loyalty.

And Silahtar, traumatised and brainwashed by everything – chooses loyalty to Murad. Of course if he had said no, he would have been executed (though Gev would have more strength to live seeing he didn’t abandon her), but he still chooses a sad life trapped in his private life with a woman he now despises… what is left is truly only Murad and his service to him.

In a way, it’s strange that following Gev’s demise Silahtar becomes obsessed with the person who caused him this misery – but at the same he lost everything, all he has left is Murad, he made his choice, chose Murad, so now all he can do is stick to his choice and save what he still has.

When Murad comes to Silahtar when the latter is mourning Gevherhan we see he has learned his lessons by now – Murad is distraught because his mother told him he was guilty of his sister’s suicide, so Murad (as always) makes his friend’s pain be about him and asks whether it’s true. Silahtar now knows what answer Murad expects and states that “all our lives and our paths, life and death, belong to you” and remarks that if Gev had accepted Murad’s will as we all should, she would have been alive. It’s deeply sad to state, but Silahtar knows Murad truly wants no other answer than this. However, before Murad’s appearance, Silahtar recalled telling Gev that only she made him feel alive and now he tells Murad he is practically dead and trapped in his life, and that he needs to live with his pain and regret forever. He actually says similar thing to Atike - yes, he chose loyalty to Murad over the woman he loved and now has to bear the consequences for the rest of his life. Atike, of course, does not get it and still belives they might have a happy ending.

It’s a very dark reality for him now, no wonder he pretty much loses his mind out of this grief, and it only gets worse because he realises Atike will never divorce him and will not even rest until he tries to be a husband to her.

When he comes to her and they “kiss” he taunts her to divorce him and sees that even when he mocks her she’s so obsessed with him, she won’t go let go no matter what. Kösem actually would be happy to see Atike divorcing Silahtar because we know she never liked him, the only obstacle is Atike’s obsession. So later he tries to play the husband part even though it’s clear he continues to despise her.

Ironically, he develops sort of his own obsession, but with Murad. Pretty much tries to remove everyone around Murad and most sadly tries to turn Murad against his mother and brothers. He suggests both changing the law and putting Murad’s brothers to kafes, which is an action very uncharacteristic of his old self. Still, it’s clearly not a vendetta against Murad because we see he still clearly cares about him, e.g. when he hides from him the fact that Farya (whom he strongly dislikes) had connection with Murad’s children death. He does confide it in Kösem though because he knows that while she will scold Farya, she will also keep quiet not to cause Murad any more pain. It again proves that while these two never liked each other much, they were able to set their differences aside for Murad’s sake.

This is not just restricted to his family, but also to Murad’s other men – Abaza, Kemankeş – because he shows Murad the letter from Kösem to Kemankes not only to strike at her, but to make Murad doubt Kemankeş too and he taunts Kemankeş with being Kösem’s spy (which is true because now Kemankeş is reporting Kösem Murad’s tyrannical behaviour, the opposite of what he was sent to Kösem, I love this irony sm ngl)

Kemankeş however is not interested in becoming Murad’s male favourite, but a new serious rival pops up – Yusuf. And a new triangle emerges 😊 Silahtar cannot hide his jealousy at all, even Atike notices it, though as always she mistakes it as him being jealous of her, same with Kemankeş who taunts Silahtar that Yusuf’s relationship with Murad curiously resembles his relationship with “someone else”.

I really despair we didn’t get more of Silahtar/Yusuf/Murad thing NGL, but I’m sure it would have gone this way if Caner had not left the show, I doubt Silahtar would have ever abandoned Murad at that stage, especially since historically he was his most loyal man until the end (“the person who was always loyal and genuinely attached to him since his youth” as Du Loir suggests) and was even in terrible despair upon Murad’s death, sooo.

In short again, he’s not among my fave characters, but he truly deserved so much better because he was living in actual hell and dark place later on, and ironically Murad was well aware of this as he remarked over his body that “for some people living is so painful, they feel trapped and in chains, death is actually relief for them, and only those who remain suffer” (aka exact repetition of what Sil told Murad about Gev following her death).

- Joanna

[mc-critical]

On my former ask you made a comparison I found rather interesting and had a follow up question on. You said you found similarities in MCK Geverhan and Hatice emotionally. Do you feel that Geverhan would’ve been a bit more vocal as Hatice was if not for her constricting enviornment? I always read Gevherhan as a bit more quiet/docile when it came to her emotions especially given that Murad was..well Murad. Sulieman was no hero and definitely very flawed but he wasn’t threatening the people closest to him with death for expressing their emotions. Hatice was definitely very confident in expressing disappointment or anger regardless of who was on the receiving end, whereas Geverhan seemed to have more of an inclination towards quieter forms of emotional expression. What do you think?

Yes, to me, Gevherhan and Hatice have their humanity and understanding to others in common, but there is truly this solid emotional contrast between them that diverts their arcs from each other and one cannot make the same choices as the other- Hatice learns to express her emotions to the point of them taking over her entirely, while Gevherhan learns to repress her own emotions to the point where there's no turning back now.

Let me elaborate it further: I mentioned in the previous ask about Hatice that at first, she wasn't willing to tell Valide or SS at all how she feels about Ibrahim because she knows about the likely end. She'd rather die than let that happen. Hatice was willing to do anything but express her emotions then. It was only after she married Ibrahim where she began to demand more for herself. It was only after her character deconstrustion where it became clear that she cares about what she wants to the point she's going to openly protest to get it the second she realizes what is going on. She gains very strong attachments to the people she loves and that only empowers her will to say everything out loud. Hatice values family, but in a way that she expects the same amount of decency and sympathy to her own struggles as the one she gives them when they're in need. She expects that her brother would at some point understand her point of view and when that isn't the case, she wants to know why. She wants to know what was the reason and what was the fault of the person he decided to punish. After Ibrahim died, she approached him in utter disbelief, wanting him to deny his own deed, say that he wasn't the one who did it. She expressed emotions in order to seek answers and when she didn't, she experienced them in moments of severe loss - the loss of her children, the loss of Ibrahim, something she wants to never experience again and when it happens, it still hits so strongly. Gevherhan is really more repressed, composed even, in comparison, but she also wasn't always this way. Look how at the death of Topal Pasha, she didn't keep it in her, but almost immediately went to confront Murat about it. But then, maybe the earliest out of everyone, she discovered Murat's true nature and got the first hint of how dangerous could he be. Not to mention she also let her anger out on Silahtar, something Gevherhan from the next episodes wouldn't normally do. Even though she found out Topal was a traitor all along, I feel that memory of Murat remained in her and drove her to begin repressing her own emotions and turn into her docile sultana we all know. We could argue that the betrayal of her husband itself also brought her to this, because maybe that anger was all warranted? What was the point when nothing would change? I agree that Gevherhan was limited by her constristive environment, too - and not only because Murat was Murat and that hshe began to genuinely fear him, but also because she was reminded both by Kösem and by herself that she was a sultana and had to act like one. She, like Handan, could never adapt to the environment around her (she told that to Silahtar) and had to force herself to keep it together. The environment was only encouraging for Hatice: Mahidevran told her to express her feelings, when SS found out he did ask how could they think that he wouldn't respect their love, etc. and it's a part of what made Hatice more expressive overall. Gevherhan was constantly limited by all her surroundings. But it's not as if she can't be expressive, on the contrary, she can be and when she is, it's all the more powerful, because she speaks so honestly and touchingly, even in her sadness or anger. She could be very expressive and open when she wanted to, but there's something that stops her along with her environment that I think would prevent her from acting accordingly if that environment wasn't as restricting: Gevherhan constantly puts the feelings of others before her own.

Hatice is very understanding and empathetic and it could seem that she also shares the same trait: she can entirely empathize with people when she comforts them on their sorrow, but when her own problems come to the surface, she understandably focuses only on her own pain and can become ignorant of people's feelings as a result. (when due to the little rift with Valide she tells Mahidevran that it was Valide that made SS invite her to her chambers. Hatice apologized, of course, but still.) Gevherhan, on the other hand, is so empathetic to people's feelings to the point she is willing to consistently repress her own and put her own happiness behind only for them to be happy. And when she's upset someone, the first thing she does is try everything to set things right. After she found out the truth about Topal, she instantly went to apologize to Silahtar that she vented her own anger on him. But where this trait of Gevherhan's shines the most is her relationship with Atike. Gevherhan is incredibly considerate of Atike's feelings throughout the series and she reacts to Silahtar's offense to Atike as if he offended her, too. This might seem both selfless and selfish at first glance, because of Gev's own growing feelings for him, but that gets a quick rebuttal when we see that in all their confrontations about this issue, she brings up only her sister's pain, never her own. She wonders not how he dared deceive her, but how he dared deceive Atike. And while one might think Gev told Atike to forget him, so she would get happiness at last, the way she tells her this doesn't reek of selfishness at all, but rather of awareness that her own sister would actually be much sadder if she doesn't forget him. I always saw Atike as the primary reason for Gevherhan's emotional dilemma: she was afraid to delve into the unknown with Silahtar not only because of the consequences, but also because this way she would betray her sister and doesn't know could she trust the person who put her sister through so much pain. Even when Atike found out about their affair, Gevherhan tried hard to make up with her with no avail. Her fallout with Atike and her character arc is a whole is about learning to put herself first. That's why she fully discarded her after Murat decided to marry her with Silahtar. That's why her suicide wasn't so much about her standing up to Murat rather than her not only rebelling against the very rules that bound her to them, but also doing what she herself deems best for her at the moment. This repression of emotion reaches its extreme and accepting that she can no longer live with this baggage for the sake of others, she takes her own life. The point of her repressing her emotions disappears forever. But again, her selfless nature doesn't completely go away after all: her very last words were her wishing Atike to be happy where Gev never was. (E45: "I was never happy, Atike. I hope you are happy.")

This tendency of hers to repress her own emotions would be an obstacle for her to fully embrace them even if her environment was more accepting, but we really shouldn't deny the influence of the environment itself. The expression of her true emotions has been a conflict of Gevherhan's from day one and we don't know how exactly she's going to act outside of her own environment. She probably would be more open, but if she still has as much regard for people's feelings, then perhaps it wouldn't be all that easy. Her own personal happiness would be definetly more likely, however. And it would all be even better if she didn't begin repressing them in the first place and if Murat wasn't there, she probably wouldn't so much. His ruthlessness probably wouldn't make her as fearful to express what's on her mind despite of her care for people.

[fauzhee10069]

MYK S2: Farya, the very important character who died a nobody

You may had your glorious and wonderful story in this show

When I had to sacrifice my role and played the role of villain for your story, showing how miserable I was

But at least I got my death scene depicted beautifully and very peaceful

When in your death scene, you got hanged like a random hatun

(the role you should get from the beginning)

Because I am Haseki Ayşe Sultan

The most important and prominent woman in Murad IV’s life as his consort

…This is what will happen when you give too much importance with such overly high position to a fictional character in historical drama: being a royal-born princess of Hungary, Murad’s legal wife, mother of two sehzade and potential next Valide Sultan yet died like a random cameo hatun without ideal funeral as a sultana…

Normally in historical drama, the supportive characters become the characters that would help to move certain plot for the most prominent historical figure as main character/protagonist, some might be lesser prominent historical figures and some might be even fictional characters. In Muhteşem Yüzyıl, Hürrem had some fictionals like Sumbul agha, Nigar kalfa, Fahriye hatun and many others as her allies and then some fictionals like Prenses Isabella, Fihruze hatun and Nazenin hatun as her rivals. But in Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, perhaps more than ¾ season 2 had many historical figures as supportive characters that were used to move the plot for the fictional character who became the temporary main character, met.. prenses Farya Bethlen who would become Farya sultan, the Hungarian prenses who almost would be the next Valide Sultan but missed it.

Farya wanted to be a very special & important character, special by being the princess who could fight, important enough to be considered as main character. Thus being paired with Murad, the male main lead would give her more importance and still, being the warrior Farya she was, she still needed a scene for building up their chemistry by being Murad's damsel-in-distress when she was kidnapped by Ayşe’s men.

Haseki Ayşe gave her her dramatic love story, if not for her, Murad wouldn't marry Farya and made her his legal wife. Thanks for Ayşe because if not for her Farya won't get her dramatic assault & miscarriage. Farya's story got more dramatic tone when the doctor said that her condition became almost impossible to conceive again, thanks for it, the moment she got pregnant again, the moment when her babies were considered as miracle, yes.. she had twins, two sehzade (sons). From got deemed as unable to have a child to be able to have twins.. sehzade (who were considered more valuable than princesses). Farya's story became more dramatic than the famous powerful sultana Hürrem and Kösem ever had when they had their first babies (good thing that Ayşe was already dead when this was happened). Ayşe did things the most for Farya's plot. Murad's purpose (besides he was busy with government matters & some conflict with his mother) for Farya was only romantically in love with her. Farya didn't have to do anything (other than did some unremarkable things by befriended Atike and taught her swordfight).

Farya wanted her rival Ayşe to be suffered from her consequences. Still Farya wished to be a strong character without any flaw, she wanted to appear strong yet innocent, thus she attacked Ayşe the moment she had chance (remember the scene when she drowned Ayşe and pointing a knife to her) instead of doing a little dirty tricks to expose Ayşe (see how Kösem was able to defeat Safiye sultan). Drowning and pointing knife to someone are not innocent deeds, these are murder attempts and yet she did it like it was normal (the drowning scene had many people witnessed it yet no one took any action nor thought that this is bad and/or need to report it to either Kösem sultan or Murad).

Imagined if I'm drowning someone on the pool when I suspected her that she was the cause of my accident (with majority of people on the pool knew that I had an accident), with many people there, will they sympathize to me? No- more importantly, will they think what I did is right? I think no, they likely will think that "What're you doing? Are you crazy? Are you really sure that she did that do you? What if she report you instead? You realize right that we were watching you? You almost kill her!!" other people will be like "Who is that brunette girl who drowned the other poor blonde one? Why she did that? Is she pyscho? Thank god that blonde girl is still alive."

Also remember that Farya never did anything worthy to prove her hunch that Ayşe was the culprit, it was Gulbahar sultan who gave her her confession letter to prove it. The plot only gave her favorable event when she happened to accidently saw Ayşe talking with Gulbahar. Didn’t Farya also witnessed it? When Kösem executed the offenders who did the assault to her. I wonder why didn’t she tell Murad that the offenders already got executed by Kösem then asked him to do investigation to catch the main mastermind (Ayşe) instead letting him executed huge numbers of people who some of them were innocents?

Farya started to lose her importance when Ayşe had gone. She needed a new character to driven her plot and give her importance. Here came Sanavber hatun, she was Murad's actual consort besides Ayşe. Thanks for Sanavber, Farya had moment with Murad when she felt betrayed and started to doubt Murad's love for her. Sanavber gave her spices to her love story, now Farya's romantic story was not boring anymore, she had conflict & lover quarrel with Murad, her love story became a bit realistic yet more dramatic. What Farya needed to do was mad at Murad, screamed & threw him a tantrum. Murad immediately proved his love to her by letting her berated him till she tired and then hugged her, like "see... I love you." This conflict lasted very short but Farya still needed to be important. Thus in favor to Farya character, Sanavber had to play as Persian Spy. What importance Sanavber gave to Farya? Yes, Farya could become a heroine now. Farya played heroine by making her the first one who discovered Sanavber as spy, thus Farya became the very important person who will investigate her. Still, Farya’s method of investigation was never effective, she used to kidnapped the suspect and interrogate her, threatening that she would hurt her if she refused to talk and sometimes she really did hurt her. Compared to Kösem, Farya had no better way to effectively threaten them. Also Farya relied too much on suspect’s confession, of course the suspect won’t immediately confess and kept denying her accusation, it’ll be better if she does some investigation secretly. Farya was accusing Sanavber as spy in front of Kösem with no evidence in her hand and Sanavber was able to deny her accusation, Farya suggested to find Idris agha (maybe to interrogate him) but Sanavber calmly twisted her words that Idris agha will be her witness and defends her. It was Kösem who actually found the solid proof that Sanavber was a spy by ordered Haci agha, her right hand man to keep an eye on her had found the note written by Idris agha, those note informing about Gulbahar’s plan was a solid proof that Sanavber was a spy. The value of Farya’s heroine only went that her accusation was right. Also compared to Halime sultan in season 1 who was prepared and already set up as Kösem’s next enemy after Safiye, Sanavber suddenly appeared just right when Ayşe’s role would be done. What more shame is because there were not any interaction between Sanavber and Haseki Ayşe at all whereas Halime had many interaction with Safiye sultan. This indirectly indicated that Sanavber (and perhaps Ayşe too) was created in MYK only for Farya whereas Halime, despite not being the main lead in MYK besides  Kösem still had her own story and importance as the Valide Sultan during Mustafa I’s first and second short-lived reigns (though of course I’m aware that Halime was much more prominent historical figure compared to Sanavber).

After Sanavber left, Farya almost lost her purpose again as a character. Her enemies all were gone. Now, Farya became an ordinary wife and companion to Murad, her warrior gimmick already long gone at this point, only an useless scene when she had her romantic moment with Murad and her miracle babies (the role that should be occupied by Haseki Ayşe historically). There was the scene when Farya met Sinan pasha (the traitor who worked with Gulbahar) and he told her that Kösem had arranged a council meeting behind Murad’s back. Perhaps Farya wanted to play a heroine again by telling this news to Murad. Also interesting thing here is that Sinan told her that with her sons as the heirs to the throne, she would be a future Valide Sultan. Thus, her conflict with Kösem had begun, too bad this was not built early on, their rivalry felt empty when the next episode had Kösem murdered her. Because Farya wanted to be the nicest protagonist from the beginning, having conflict with Kösem (the more important main protagonist) was something that she wanted (or the writers wanted) to avoid. Because to build a conflict, one of them had to start it first, either one of them had to do something bad/terrible to the others. Compared to Safiye vs Kösem in season 1, Farya and Kösem rarely interacted to each other. It seemed that both being main leads in season 2, they had their own separate problems and nemesis whereas normally the main leads of a show used to interact with each other, be it as partners/ally or rivals. Even to finish Farya’s character, Kösem’s character got sacrificed. Kösem had to kill off Farya because she was a hindrance to her plan and had the biggest influence along with Silahtar that led Murad to bring back the rule of fraticide, not because she was an enemy for her. Kösem’s character got reaction like “Kösem is such a bad person, she becomes so power hungry she killed her son’s wife and the mother of his heirs” from majority audiences (especially Farya fans).

Eventually, Farya died like a random hatun who only hindered the big main protagonist Kösem sultan’s way. This is what will happen when you give too much importance with such overly high position to a fictional character in historical drama, being a royal-born princess of Hungary, Murad’s legal wife, mother of sehzade and potential next Valide Sultan yet died like a random cameo hatun without ideal funeral as a sultana, especially when there was Ayşe who historically was Murad IV’s most beloved woman and his haseki. So, Farya basically stole Haseki Ayşe's role. Farya’s miracle babies also died like nobodies, after her dramatic assault (led to her miscarriage) that made her fans infuriated and felt sorry to her then her miracle babies that cheered her fans up died in the next episode (this should be expected since Murad IV had no surviving son into adulthood).

And those miracle babies (sehzade Selim and sehzade Suleyman)? one of them was credited as Haseki Ayşe’s son instead (¬‿¬).

PS:

When I referring Farya (like Farya wanted this, Farya wished that etc), it has nothing to do with the actress Farah. This only meant for hating the character named “Farya” and how she was written using her POV, not hating the actress.

(single picture) meme version:

[fymagnificentwomcn]

Farya was not only a bad and unnecessary character, but was also sooo annoying, not only for me?

I mean…

outside how her character was out of the place, she wasn’t even likeable? My mum knew nothing of Ottoman history & how her character is so ahistorical and she hated Floprya so much, you cannot imagine.

Her ranting that if Mu/rat does not kill Ayşe, she will do it herself & being all “Damn ilahtar and Kösem, they will try to convince Murad not to kill Ayşe, and otherwise he’s so merciless DANG”.

Her feeling of superiority and being special truly shows you why she had best relations with

Mu/rat and Atike in the palace lmao.

She’s also repeatedly completely ignorant of Ottoman system & yet thinks she can be Valide (ater)?

Kösem, Gevherhan, and Ayşe told her multiple times how it works and what might ultimately befall her. Of course Ayşe wanted to just piss her off, but she actually told her truth – Murad was keeping her as his mistress closed in golden cage and just waiting when he decides to grace her with his presence, mostly at night to have some fun ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) . Living outside harem meant that (surprise!) She had a worse situation than slave Ayşe, who had an acknowledged & legitimate position as haseki and mother of princes. Being a foreign princess meant nothing there – she was kept in hiding, had no clear position in Murad’s life, and was actually living in sin with Mu/rat (yes, Murad was so mad about Kasim breaking the rules, but he was doing something far more scandalising himself when it came to sexual propriety & he was the ruling padişah). Her being so happy about not being placed in harem initially & thinking how she was so special she was given a separate palace.. shows precisely how ignorant she was of the system she CHOSE to live in.

Kösem and Gevherhan warned her how not having a kids meant she would later fade into obscurity & even legal marriage could not change it – she completely dismissed it because of “their great luv” & stuff.

Kösem knew Murad much better than Floprya did LBR and when she said his “great luv” would pass, she knew what she was talking about – she was even shocked when Mu/rat gifted Farya with necklace because it wasn’t in his nature to do romantic gestures and caring about giving his women gifts. And even if you don’t trust these women because they don’t like you much, look at how this man is truly behaving towards you (if you ignore his behaviour towards Ayşe because yes we know you are a special snowflake).

Ignoring stuff such as period-appropriate behaviour (Murad laughing at Farya wanting to command an Ottoman army, I guess even less misogynistic men would laugh her off), he calls her his prisoner even before the pig incident, and afterwards…. 1) he hits her without even asking her why she put a freakin’ pig in; 2) keeps her wounded and bleeding in cell while making his decision, at the same time being all emo about how poor HE is because he loves this woman and she hurt HIM so; 3) when he (graciously, please everyone clap) decides to spare her, he doesn’t just let her go, he makes a show in which he scares her and “shows her her rightful place” aka on her knees before him; 3) continues to be offended and passive aggressive towards her afterwards; 4) gives her throne away behind her back without even asking her if she wants to stay with him; 5) rides after her, tells her “you slept with me, so you are my woman & you belong in my harem” & takes her on his horse forcefully (it doesn’t matter if she secretly wanted it inside); 6) didn’t explain why he gave her family’s throne to someone else even after he took her back to the palace, Atike had to do it; 7) yes, kept her without any status and intention to change it hidden in another palace, without any participation in his daily life and only visiting her when it suited him, not even sticking to any promises to come if he decided so, only the terrible incident with Farya’s miscarriage made him marry her and seeing how his “great luv” began to die after it, one does question whether it was out of love or him simply wanting to show everyone (both his mother and subjects) that he could do as he pleased, even against any rules; 6) he actually never promised her he would marry her and not have other women, it was only Farya always saying this – conversely, in MY Suleiman DID actually promise this to Hürrem and then did not keep it [doesn’t make Murad less of a dick, but shows how delusional Farya might be because he never actually said so himself or agreed to it].

And I said in one of my previous posts how Hürrem (and any harem women) weren’t homewreckers because it was indeed their only chance to have a family & love, but damn Floprya is a homewrecker because she truly didn’t have to stay with Mu/rat – she had her family, her throne, friends to come back to… please you knew what mess you created by coming there, and you had all the signs how violent this guy was and about his attitude to women… you could truly do a lot better, honey.

Murad never saw her as a consort of importance either. He never asked for her opinion on anything (he’d sooner even ask his mother) and when she got an accidental chance to say something (pleading with him not to execute a poor guy who forgot his lamp to bring his dad dinner, nota bene an incident described by Ottoman historian Mustafa Naima, just without Farya in the picture obviously), he completely ignored her and looked pissed she even dared to do so. It was frankly the only instance Floprya tried to talk Mu/rat out of something bad – even when he executed people who simply had been on the market during the attack on her (and even completely unrelated ones as later turned out), even though Kosem had already punished the actual attackers, our “kind-hearted” Floprya did nothing…. I’m not surprised he didn’t consult her before because he never does & well… talking sense to him never works because Kösem tried to reason with him it’s wrong, even for him because it provides people who want to go between him and ordinary people with great opportunity… and he didn’t give a fuck as always, but Farya never said anything, even following this? It was a matter closely connected with her and we never even see them talking about this or Floprya’s reaction to it? I can’t believe she didn’t hear about this… she likely just didn’t care.

Kösem also told her that marrying a sultan is not enough, and (since we know she couldn’t have kids) she should at least drag her ass and do something useful, like take care of people? Well, it was the only time we saw Floprya doing charity.

 Following the wedding, Mu/rat began to gradually lose interest in Farya, including going after Sanavber after he saw her with dagger pointed at him because it seems he has a dagger-fetish & now Floprya  even stopped wielding his favourite toy to have his attention… And again never forget Atike’s “Murad finally met a woman worthy of him, she can wield a sword like A MAN!” (STFU ALREADY ATIKE).

Speaking of Atike… Floprya encouraging Atike to pursue Silahtar even if it’s clear from Atike’s words he isn’t responsive to her, bah, even after it’s known he loves someone else… how stupid you can be to encourage Atike to get the guy who loves someone else and keep telling her again how special & daring she is, so go on and take what you want? Or Floprya threatening Silahtar to expose it was Gevherhan because he called her out on threatening Ayse at night with knife (yes, Ayşe was guilty, but there was no evidence at that point & it was not for her to go and punish somebody without evidence like that). He was just doing his job.

Farya later begins to openly mention her frustrations and how she’s now sidelined because she cannot have children… which of course makes her more the bitter and angry at Ayşe & striving towards revenge so bad – she  isn’t satisfied that Ayşe got exposed and would be punished, she wants her DEAD & would not accept any other option (never mind that poor, innocent children would be orphaned in such a case).

Even after  the matter is revealed and she does regret what she did, she’s as defensive as ever and tries to put all blame on depressed, abused woman aka Ayşe… she sees no fault of Mura/t’s there.

Still, she didn’t deserve execution for that, especially from hands of person who was chiefly responsible for the tragedy aka her husband… and her being pregnant saving her was meaningful.

Yet she continues to be ignorant about Ottoman system – now that Mura/t continues to pay her little attention even though she gave birth to two sons and instead spends time on drinking parties with Yusuf & other male buddies, she wants to be Valide and supports changing succession law back to the one involving fratricide… Okay, she doesn’t care about Murad’s brothers, but her own sons? Mu/rat being all “I don’t give a fuck” to Kösem pointing out one of his sons will kill the other is… well, him being himself, but Floprya should get worried about implications for her sons, right?

The scene with Sinan is SO indicative of Farya later on – she sits on balcony frustrated because she sits at palace all alone with her sons, while her hubby spends time on one of his parties & watching some (sexy!) dancer after promising her he would be now focused on his family (and even in that scene she still looked so scared of him), Sinan comes, calls her future "Valide Sultan”, she smirks, brightens up & already feels relevant and in better mood, so immediately does what he wants her to do and sends message to Mura/t about Kösem holding meeting with statesmen and ulema about changes in succession law.

Yet another win for Sinan!😂

Farya and Mu*rya stans claiming she was sooo "good-hearted” and they were equals.. were we watching the same show, eh? He didn’t treat her as her “equal” or whatever, even in “their best days”. The relationship was a disaster WAY before he tried to kill her.

I really never hated MY/K ship as much as I hated Mu*ya, a total disaster that really had nothing appealing to me – it was straight-up abusive plus it wasn’t even interesting. I swear even Mihrimah and Rüstem, while thouroughly dysfunctional, were more interesting to watch as a totally fucked up, toxic couple ugh.

- Joanna

Tagging @onlythelonelysurvive because it might be of interest to you and maybe take your mind off your worries :)