#surrem

"Suleiman’s love for Hurrem found powerful expression in his poetic letters to her. When both Navagero and Trevisano wrote in their 1553 and 1554 reports to Venice that she was “much loved by her master” (“tanto amata da sua maestà”), Roxolana was already in her fifties, long past her prime. After her death in April 1558, Suleiman remained inconsolable for a long time. She was the greatest love of his life, his soulmate and lawful wife, and a woman of extraordinary character. Suleiman’s great love for Roxolana was manifest in his exceptional treatment of his hasseki. To her benefit, the Sultan broke a series of very important traditions of the imperial harem. In 1533 or 1534 (the exact date is unknown), Suleiman married Hurrem in a magnificent formal ceremony, violating a 300-year-old custom of the Ottoman house according to which sultans were not to marry their concubines. Never before was a former slave elevated to the status of the sultan’s lawful spouse. Moreover, upon marrying hasseki Hurrem, the Sultan became practically monogamous, which was unheard of in Ottoman history. As Trevisano wrote in 1554, once Suleiman had known Roxolana, “not only did he want to have her as a legitimate wife and hold her as such in his seraglio, but he did not even want to know any other woman: something that had never been done by any of his predecessors, for the Turks are accustomed to take various women in order to have children by them, or for carnal pleasure.”

mc rewatch. ep 2 - the one who makes us smile

I don't think it's a coincidence that the only time a character is called a snake in this episode, it's by a rival for Suleiman's romantic love. Hürrem says her face was destroyed by "the snake woman" (Mahidevran) while Mahidevran insists Hürrem is a snake. A snake, in this episode, is someone competing for Suleiman's heart. The only character other than Suleiman's two female consorts to be called a snake is Ibrahim, which really hints at him being a recipient of Suleiman's romantic love, and a rival to hate and compete with, one that Hürrem identifies as much more of a threat than Mahidevran could ever be, despite Mahidevran being the mother of Suleiman's sole heir.

This is further cemented by a previous scene in the same episode, where Suleiman and Ibrahim discuss Mahidevran's assault on Hürrem. Suleiman does not understand (since he never had to compete for someone's love) while Ibrahim is the one who explains what Mahidevran feels, which adds to the subtext of his love being romantic :

Suleiman asks :

And Ibrahim doesn't respond. And it's only after that scene that we see Ibrahim and Hürrem's jealousy of each other more explicitely, and where they finally declare each other as rivals.

The show very clearly presents Ibrahim as a direct competitor of Hürrem and as Suleiman's number one priority :

𝐡 𝐮 𝐫 𝐫 𝐞 𝐦 𝐬 𝐮 𝐥 𝐭 𝐚 𝐧

do you know why no fire can burn me ? because i am fire i͟t͟s͟e͟l͟f͟ 4 of the princes *** reached adulthood