YMMV / Magnificent Century: Kösem

• Awesome Ego: Safiye. She looks down on literally everyone, especially Handan, whom she considers an unworthy successor, and Kösem, whom she dismisses as a simple concubine, which later comes to bite her in the ass. Still, it's hard to argue with her when she is (at least at the start of the story) the single most powerful woman in the empire, and has been for decades. Plus, she does have a style and manners of a queen.
• Base-Breaking Character: Farya. On one hand, you have people who admire her as a strong and compelling female character and adore her romance with Murad - on the other, some fans consider her insufferableand her relationship Murad downright abusive.
  • Also Osman II. Some hate him for killing Mehmet, while others like him as a Sultan, partly due to feeling sympathy over his death.
  • Both Kösem and Turhan. Kösem to some is a good regent and an admirable character, while others hate her ruthlessness. Turhan is liked by some fans as a strong female character, and others hate her for killing Kosem
• Creator's Pest: Ayse seems to be this, as she was written as a villain whose plans would always fail so Murad could end up with Farya. This isn’t how the fans think.
• Creator's Pet: On the other hand, Farya is loved by the narrative, as her relationship with Murad is portrayed as being brilliant, when it’s Romanticised Abuse.
• Cry for the Devil: It's hard not to feel at least a little sympathy for Ibrahim when he is imprisoned and murdered at the orders of his own mother.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Murad frequently gets this treatment, especially from fanfic writers who make their original character fall in love and make him softer, despite the fact that in canon his relationships are abusive.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Ibrahim’s hasekis are well loved by fans.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Şahin Giray. He may plot against the sultan and generally be the shadiest character in the series, but damn if he isn't shady with style.
  • Ditto Safiye, whose grace, poise and intelligence can often make you forget that she might've crossed Moral Event Horizon (see YMMV) before we even saw her.
  • Downplayed with Dilruba, who is utterly ruthless, but still smart and capable enough to be a real threat.
• Fan Nickname:
  • ‘Gev’ for Gevherhan, an abbreviation of her first name.
  • ‘Floprya’ for Farya haters.
• Jerkass Woobie: Sultan Osman II. He may have killed Mehmet, but he receives an Undignified Death full of humiliation due to(quite rightly) believing it was time to put the Jannissary Guard down.
  • Fahriye Sultan tried to poison the sultan and his younger brother, but she was being manipulated by Mehmed Giray, the man she was in love with, by telling her this was the only way to spare his life. She regretted her actions and tried to seek refuge, but was caught and she talks about starting over, but she is poisoned on Ahmet’s orders.
• Karmic Overkill: Osman II was not a great sultan and killed Mehmet. But his death at the hands of the janissaries involves him being humiliated by his own subjects, being dragged into the Yedikule Dungeons and finally strangled in pain and his ear cut off, was seen as excessive retribution by most fans. To make things worse, all of this actually happened, and he was only 17.
• Love to Hate: Halime and Dilruba, especially when they nearly kill Kösem’s children.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • For Safiye, it's either Mahmud's execution, or when she murders Kösem's father just to twist the knife, despite having no practical reason to do so.
  • For Murad, it’s either forcing Bayezid to kill Kalika, being such an asshole to Ayse and Gevherhan they are Driven to Suicide, or killing Bayezid and Kasim.
  • Dilruba crosses it when she leads Kösem’s children to their death.
• Narm:
  • Due to poor ratings, producers were quick to recast Anastasia Tsilimpou with Beren Saat. That wouldn't be so bad, since Beren was supposed to replace Anastasia as an older version of Kösem anyway, but the execution of the transition was hilariously bad. At the end of episode 6, Anastasia leaves, and returns in the next episode as Beren, when in-universe no more than a few minutes could've passed. She is accompanied by a narration reciting a monologue about change and girl becoming a woman, but the way it is executed, the whole thing brings to mind an evolving Pokemon than anything else.
  • Reyhan aga's death by being thrown out of balcony. CGI in this series is... Not great. Made all the more hilarious by the fact that he somehow survived the fall.
  • There's something truly hilarious about how easily are Dilruba and Halime disposed of after half a season of holding their own rather well against Kösem.
  • Murat throwing father Cornelius from the walls of Istanbul. In theory, a moment both terrifying and badass, similar to him bashing in Topal's head with his staff. In execution (pardon the Incredibly Lame Pun) it's more goofy than anything else.
• Narm Charm: Anastasia Tsilimpiou (Anastasia/Mahpeyker/later Kösem) in season 1 and Alma Terzić (Esther Handali) have accents so think even people who can't speak turkish pick up on them. Despite this, their characters and performances are otherwise good enough to change it from annoying to endearing.
• Relationship Writing Fumble: Murad/Farya was meant to be a healthy and loving romance, but came off as Romanticised Abuse by most viewers.
• Retroactive Recognition: May in fact be an inversion depending on which country are you from, but the actress playing Yasemin hatun had her Break Out Role as Zeynep in the german cult classic Fack ju Göhte.
• Second Season Downfall: The show was already failing by the end of the first season, but the Murad/Farya arc, unnecessary ahistorical plotlines and an overall decline in quality forced the early end of the series.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Ayse Sultan was supposed to a villain in the show, but most viewers sympathised with her because of the Domestic Abuse she endured and the fact that the man she loved abandoned her, the mother of his children, for another woman. At worst, she’s viewed as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain.
• Woobie:
  • Ayşe. She has three children with Murad and at first is pretty happy with him. Then he meets Farya and he becomes a manipulative boyfriend to her, showering all of his affection on her and pretending she never existed. Then Farya is such an Alpha Bitch to her she commits suicide.
  • Gevherhan had no choice about her life. She was arranged to marry Topal Recep Pasha, then he was killed by her brother Murad. Then she found out his affair as a widow, before she fell in love with Silhadar Mustafa. Then he cheats on her with Esther handali, before Murad decides to marry Atike to him instead of her, despite the fact that Silhadar doesn’t love Atike back, and arranges her to marry Kemankes (who is in love witn Kösem). Finally, fed up with having no control over her life, she stabs herself at Atike and Silhadar’s wedding.
  • Prince Bayezid is used by his mother Gulbahar as a tool to increase her power, and is killed by Murad as a consequence.