Many characters come across as this.
- Mahidevran is the most prominent example in the series, what with the man she was devoted to falling in love with another woman, her only son and grandson dying young, her granddaughter (the last family she had left) being forcibly married off and taken from her, and Mahidevran herself spending the last decades of her life mostly alone and in poverty.
- Nigar Kalfa would be the other strong contender for this trope, and let's face it, it's all Ibrahim's fault. First, she fall in love with him, despite the guy being married to a princess. Then he changes his mind and sleeps with her while his wife is away, for some reason... After which he doesn't want to see her again. But wait, it gets worse - he changes his mind again, marrying her off to his best friend and using said marriage as a cover. A few years later, he ends their affair, breaking her heart, only for her to discover she's pregnant. Ibrahim tries to hide and protect both her and their child, but she is discovered by Hürrem, who in turn uncovers the whole affair for Hatice. The princess then throws poor Nigar in prison, with Hatice planning on getting her executed after childbirth (while Ibrahim gets off scott-free, as his wife doesn't so much as divorce him). She is told her child has died, while Hürrem saves her from execution, only to use her as a pawn. But wait, it gets worse - she is married off again, this time to a noted terrible person Rüstem, and only after that she learns that her daughter is actually alive and secretly raised by people faithful to Hatice. Her contact with the child is regulated by Hatice and Ibrahim, and when she tries to run away, she ends up caught. When Ibrahim dies, her daughter is sent away with Ibrahim's family, and Nigar won't ever see her again. She then serves Hatice for a while, before Rüstem divorces her and she goes off to search for her daughter, but in vain. In the end, she is sent off to murder Rüstem, but ends up kidnapping his daughter with Mihrimah, whom she thinks (having apparently lost her mind). In the end, she commits suicide, and honestly, who could blame her?
- Nilüfer Hatun, particulary the way she dies.
- Sümbül Aga was kidnapped as a child, castrated and Made a Slave. His flamboyant, comedic demeanor makes it less apparent, but he reveals to Hürrem the pain of his genitals being cut still hurt him after all those years, as does the pain of having forgotten who he was as a child. When he apparently finds someone who loves him, she actually was a spy for Mustafa's supporters and at one point drugged him to make him mention an important secret from Hürrem. He is then ordered to kill her. After Hürrem gives him a Slave Liberation as a reward for his loyalty, he founds a coffeehouse, but following the fallout of Mustafa's death and his failure to adapt to a free life, he returns to the palace. After Suleyman dies, he is disturbed at the loss of most of his acquaintances, which is visible when he is closing the harem's doors in the Series Finale.
- All the other eunuchs in the harem were also castrated as children and Made a Slave. It’s just that Sümbül is the closest to Hürrem and so tells his story to her.
- Mihrunnisa’s tragic fate is strongly tried to that of Mahidevran, since she goes through some of the same tragedies (namely the death of her husband and son). In her case, the misery ends there, as she kills herself soon after
- Poor Rana. She was accused of murdering Huricihan, when Nurbanu was the real killer. Hürrem made her a scapegoat and ordered that she be hanged.
- On the topic of Rana, her children also qualify. Her sons were left motherless at a young age, then they were thrown in prison and executed with Bayezid as children/teenagers. Bayezid’s daughters saw the deaths of their mother, father and brothers and were then married off and forgotten about.
- Cihangir was always Delicate and Sickly since childhood which meant he was not seen as a contender to the throne and also put him in pain for most of his life. He falls in love with Huricihan, but cannot be with her because she is in love with Bayezid. He dies of despair after Mustafa, his favourite brother, is executed.
- Mustafa’s children. Nergissah’s mother is just absent after she is born, her father and brother are killed, and she is married to some pasha and ignored. Mehmet is executed as a child after his father is killed.
- Defne Hatun is separated from her husband, reunites with him for a short while before being separated again, and then kills herself with Mehmet to avoid being executed.
- Hatice was widowed before the beginning of the series. She marries Ibrahim Pasha, the man she loves, however he cheats on her with Nigar and has a daughter with Nigar, which Hatice finds out which leads to her mental instability. Then Ibrahim is executed by her own brother and she’s forced to marry Husrev Pasha. She ends up committing suicide.
- Hürrem herself. She was sold into slavery and her parents and sister were killed when she was only 17,then had to put up with the entire palace siding against her. She is psychogically tortured by Ibrahim, who forces her to let Leo, her pre-slavery boyfriend, eat poisoned Turkish delight. When her children grow up she is forced to worry about their safety due to the fratricide law, as Mustafa, the eldest and most supported son of Suleyman, is expected to take the throne, and either him or someone on his side would kill her sons. She also has to deal with Suleyman constantly cheating on her to the point that she is nearly Driven to Suicide.
