YMMV / Magnificent Century

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Some of the dialogue between Gülşah and Mahidevran could be understood as Gülşah being a Psycho Lesbian in love with Mahidevran.
  Gülşah: Daye Hatun sent Gülnihal away. They wanted to send me away too. They'll marry me. They'll have me retire. I cried. I begged. I asked to wait at least until you came back.
  Mahidevran: Maybe that's the right thing to do. Go, marry, create your own home. You surely will be happier than me.
  Gülşah: Sultana, I'd rather you kill me. My happiness… is being near you. I'm your slave, your servant. I'm begging, don't send me away.
• Arc Fatigue: The subplot of Leo's diary that involves Artist Leo, who is Hürrem's former fiance from pre slave days, who happens to find himself in Constantinople and in the court, who writes a diary detailing his relationship with Hürrem, which he has on him when he is arrested and killed by İbrahim. İbrahim forces the diary to be read by Hürrem to Süleyman, because it's in Russian. When they are distracted Hürrem throws the diary into the park below, where it is spotted by Gülşah, who picks it up and gives it to Mahidevran. Nigar Kalfa then steals it from Mahidevran, and buries it in the woods. Then Nigar Kalfa digs it up, and Gülşah steals it again, and gives it to Mahidevran, who gives it to Valide (who is Crimean and hence also a Russian speaker), who then threatens Hürrem with it. Then she faints, and the diary is taken by Daye, until finally Hürrem bribes Daye to give it back to her and burns it! This takes up around 15 episodes of a show that already has episodes lasting an hour and a half. A paper notebook takes 15 episodes to destroy! And this is in a show where pregnancies rarely last more than 2 episodes.
• Base-Breaking Character: Both Hürrem and Mahidevran are this, with extremely dedicated fans and detractors alike. And of course, both sides apply a healthy dose of Double Standard when judging their actions; funnily enough, this nicely parallels attitudes both women have towards each other, which is to say hatred and extreme hypocrisy. From an objective standpoint, it's hard to claim a high ground for either of them, since both have their moral highs and very, very deep lows, with their conflict being between two grey characters, of which one just happens to be more successful.
  • Nurbanu also counts. Some fans hate her for helping Selim kill Bayezid’s children and stealing Hurrem’s ring, but there are also fans who love her for her ambition and loyalty to Selim. Indeed, she is one of the most polarizing characters in the fandom, and the Nurbanu haters even go as far as to spam Nurbanu fans with alt accounts calling them bots in the show’s Youtube channel.
• Designated Hero: Süleyman comes across as this to many viewers. He is controlling and emotionally abusive to the women in his life, especially Mahidevran. He cheats on Hurrem even after he frees and marries her, despite her obvious jealousy towards the concubins. He kills his own son Mustafa, kills his young grandson Mehmet, and comes across as an abusive child-killer to most viewers.
  • Barbarossa. He is meant to be seen as a hero leading the empire to its glory. However the fandom does not agree because of the fact that he kidnaps girls from other lands and sells them into sexual slavery in the harem.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Most of Suleiman’s grandchildren count as this, especially the triplet daughters of Selim and Nurbanu.
  • Sumbul Aga has amassed a fair share of fans for his whimsical remarks, campy demeanor and humorous bickering with Gul Aga.
• Evil Is Cool: Nurbanu, despite being morally grey at best and evil at worst, has quite a large fanbase.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • The series became popular in Poland, even outside its target demographics. Having a possibly Polish heroine helps.
  • It was also really, really loved in Chile.
  • As with pretty much every Turkish drama imported, it was a smash hit amongst women in the Balkans.
  • In Romania, the show become a cultural hit and rivaled Game of Thrones in popularity. When it used to air, Romanian artists even dedicated songs to Suleyman and Hurrem, and the show is fairly studied in some universities about how it portrayed the Ottoman Empire, given the country's common history with the Turks.
• Fan Nickname: ‘Mahidevil/Hürrevil’ for Mahidevran and Hürrem haters respectively.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Hurrem's and Ibrahim's rivalry has some sexual tension undertones. First, it was Ibrahim who chose Hurrem to dance for Suleyman after being himself mesmerized by her exoticism, spent decades of their lives fighting over Suleyman, hating each other but also admiring each other's high intelligence. In the last days of her life, Hurrem herself admits he is the reason she become so powerful. Many fans back on the day commented what power couple they could have been if they were allies and not enemies, stating the reason they ship Hurrem and Ibrahim together is because they know each other better than anyone. In Yume no Shizuku, Kin no Torikago, they are a even couple and Mehmet is Ibrahim's son instead of Suleyman.
• Ho Yay:
  • Süleyman and İbrahim have Ho Yay that always comes with Heterosexual Life-Partners. When Suleyman reads his diary, his reaction to his love to Hürrem comes across as if Suleyman was romancing him and he was losing interest on him once Hürrem appears
  • Odder and gayer is the Ho Yay between Nigar Kalfa and Sadıka, with Sadıka professing Nigar Kalfa's beauty when they're sitting on her bed, both half-clothed, and Sadıka very emotional.
• Iron Woobie: Hürrem herself, as she was captured, her entire family was killed and she was Made a Slave for the sultan. However she persists and becomes Suleyman’s legal wife.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Pargali Ibrahim Pasha crosses the line when he forces Leo to eat the poison just to damage Hürrem. He knows that Hürrem didn't cheat on Suleyman with Leo, and yet he pushes him to this punishment.
  • Lufti Pasha burns the vagina of a prostitute just to make a point. Everyone deemed it a severe punishment and he barely avoids execution due to hi daughter's pledges.
  • Nurbanu Sultan becomes less justifiable when she forces Defne to assassinate Bayezid by putting her young sister as leverage.
  • Selim becomes darker when he steals money from Bayezid.
• Narm: Most combat scenes are hard to take seriously due to the over-the-top slow motion and the lack of physical dexterity from some of the actors. The slow-motion tends to be overused to a point that it highlights the odder expressions of the characters and overemphasizes the weapons to a laughable degree.
• No Yay: How most fans reacted to Mihrimah/Rustem.
• Rooting for the Empire: Nurbanu Sultan is quite popular despite the fact she does many questionable acts, because of the show’s Grey-and-Gray Morality and the fact that many of her actions are motivated by her wanting to protect her family.
• The Scrappy: Prenses İsabella Fortuna. Probably because of the bad acting and her being fictional around otherwise mostly historical domain characters.
  • Most people didn’t like Rümeysa’s sudden inexplicable character development.
  • Nazenin is this, because in real life Suleyman was faithful to Hürrem after their marriage, she came off as annoying, and the real Raziye Sultan died as a baby before Suleyman even met Hürrem.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Viktoria/Sadıka. She was Widowed at the Wedding, sent to the harem by her king instead of being given the chance to grieve, and was raped twice. It doesn’t help that Suleyman, the man she is trying to kill, comes across as a Designated Hero to many viewers.

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