#at first so we chalked the hatred/plotting to pesky royal love rivals instead of the much more tragic reality it actually was...

[did-we-imagine]

You rock. Yume no shizuku, kin no torikago.

Rewrote it to try and remember to read it in my spare time (also prepping for an exam IRL tho im screwed LOL).

Apparently, some japanese mangaka made my dream come true and a kind soul on tumblr came unbidden to provide me with happiness. 💖

I wanted to write a story with a character like that tbh. The real life embodiment of this is Hatice Turhan (she's some sort if Happy Ending!Mahidevran if you will, she played a role in dethroning Ibrahim if my memory serves me well and she later killed her mother-in-law Valide Kosem Sultan who wanted to murder Hatice's son), as she was Ibrahim's least favorite Haseki (tbh I stan her a lot because she did many amazing things as a valide).

Btw, since you also love women who dgaf on their slaveowners, there is a historical rumor that Nurbanu actually killed Selim II because she heard/knew he was going to give Murat III (her son) the Mustafa treatment. -I don't know the semantics of it so plz ppl with solid knowledge of history don't come at me-, but considering the trick she pulled by keeping his body in an icebox 12 days...I don't think it's too far fetched. The official version is that he tripped in his bathroom and died of a brain haemorrage.

i've watched three different adaptations of hurrem's story, two turkish ones and one ukrainian. one thing i've noticed is that mahidevran is ALWAYS portrayed as the jealous ex, the previous love of suleyman's life that got her relationship homewreckred by hurrem.

quite frankly i find it very weird and a prime example of modern writers not grasping the norms of the time, and prioritizing drama over an exploration of how characters would realistically behave in those circumstances.