Blog Post #3

So much has happened in "Kurt Seyit ve Sura" and I am reeling!! I didn't want to give away much about the characters or the plot of the story in case anyone wanted to watch the show themselves, but I think I should give a little background at least to give an idea of what it's all about and how it relates to what I've watched in recent episodes.

Here is the basic premise of the show:

We're set in Petrograd in Russia (now modern day St. Petersburg after the Soviet Union collapses) where the main characters meet at a ball. Considering the time period and the role women played in society, the main female protagonist, Sura, is coming to this ball as an "introduction" to society. This is where she could meet her potential husband and find suitors in general. There, she makes eye contact with Kurt Seyit, the male protagonist and her future love.  They have that instant love-at-first sight kind of connection even though it takes another episode or two in order for the two of them to actually get together. The show follows the two of them firstly through their relationship against the conflict of other characters that have some kind of romantic interest in them (the former friend Petro wishes to be with Sura and the former lover Baroness Lola wants to be with Seyit) as well as the conflict that keeps that apart mainly being the war.

Where I am at now in the show, the main characters have left Russia entirely and sought refuge in Istanbul where a whole different conflict meets them. Throughout their relationship in Russia, the two of them were more in tune with each other and definitely experiencing their honeymoon phase of their relationship. However, when they get to Turkey, the complications of everything that happened before they left joined with the new insecurities that Sura has about other Turkish women in Seyit's life makes the conflict change the dynamic of their relationship. The conflicts overall have changed both of the characters in a way and the most dramatic way that it does it through is - death.

Something that I have wondered a lot about throughout our classes is the reasons why writers and producers choose to kill off certain characters. You would think that it's because it serves some kind of purpose or that it's all an element in the story. For the most part, I think that "Kurt Seyit ve Sura" does follow this outline when it comes to killing off their characters. But, the scariest thing about this show is that they are not afraid to kill off important characters. There are characters in the early episodes that you think would last until the very end because they would serve huge roles in the main characters' lives. However, the show has not only killed off influential characters, but what "Kurt Seyit ve Sura" has done is completely astounding to me. In the span of a single episode, the show killed off five influential characters. I was so shocked when this happened and I was keeping a kill count through every minute. After the first character died, I still trusted the show and I didn't expect what was to come. However, when the second and, then, third character died, I started keeping count because I didn't think it was possible for a show to kill off so many characters in a single episode. But, it happened and when it did, it really did change the entire situation of the characters going forward. I think it was a very brave move that the show did by killing off these characters because as a telenovela, the audiences are following these characters for every episode that is aired. It could have caused a lot of drama and strife for audiences and the people who love this show probably had a very dramatic reaction to all that happened.

A lot more has happened since Seyit and Sura have left Russia and have embedded themselves in Istanbul and I don't know if I'll be able to update anymore on what's going on with the two of them since this class is almost over! But, I definitely suggest this show to everyone because it honestly brings in all of the elements that we have talked about in class with extreme care and passion and the intense work done on the show really shows through. It's an impressive feat and this class has definitely made me appreciate it a lot more!