r/JodhaAkbar

😭😭😭They are sooo cute, I don't think there will ever be a fictional couple written that will OUTDO their enemies to lovers/slowburn romance

To begin the discussion, mine are:

• It should've been a weekly series with hour-long episodes and should've involved significant chunk of elite political drama especially after they fell in love. QUALITY>>> + Preventing burnout and unoriginality of the series-team as a whole.
• While Lavina is evidently amongst the Top 3 actors in the cast (after Ashwini and Rajat)— but, like the show had intended to depict Ruqaiya, the first portrayal by Smilie was far more suitable and intriguing to me.
• Jodha should've been portrayed as she was in history (with greater emphasis on politics after they fell in love)— she was a very compassionate and charitable woman but she was also a political powerhouse; an adventurous, shrewd, enterprising and visionary businesswoman who was to become the most powerful woman in the Mughal Empire (and whose political tenure lasted for ~6 decades!)
• They did Gulbadan Begum SO wrong! Seriously, read about this singular lady, like yes, thanks for mentioning about her writing Humayunama but honestly, that's one of the lesser interesting facets of her incredible life.
• Hamida was done SO wrong, again and honestly, many a times other women were undermined or diminished in general, just to exalt Jodha to no end and also, sometimes Jodha was portrayed as "not like other girls", which in retrospect, I disliked— though I loved that they let us have one beautiful and healthy Mil-Dil relationship lol
• I know why they did so (DRAMA lol) but as a history nerd, I have come to feel bad about the popular characterisation of Maham Anga— I feel like the show and the movie together further perpetuated this antagonist narrative about a truly rare woman in history who exercised overwhelming political influence and was literally Akbar's regent for about 2 or so years back in the mid-16th century!
• Similarly, I feel bad that because of the series, Ruqaiya Begum got a negative popular characterisation while from whatever we know, she appears to have not even been a part of politics and seems to have kept herself away from drama and just chilled around, her choice to be buried beside her dad rather than Akbar was telling— she must've felt so lonely and sadly, couldn't have her own kids— but she appears to have been an incredibly maternal woman who desired nothing over a happy family life :(

Anyways, these are some of my major (possibly) unpopular opinions, what are yours?

I wanted them to depict her more like her historical self, you know rather than whatever they did to her post-Sujamal reconciliation, ugh...

This was one of the worst scenes, seriously— is it weird that I think Ruqaiya should've intervened instead of adding fuel to the fire?

If that were the case, it would've established Ruqaiya as one of the top-most nuanced morally grey female characters (well, before they ruined and utterly made her a vamp/antagonist).

Like the scene prior to it was that Ruqaiya would essentially protect Jodha from Jalal if Jodha bowed to Ruqaiya, which Jodha did, so would've been so cool...anyways, they could've shown Jalal craving for Jodha much better than this domestic violence scene, I never saw their love story the same after having watched this scene.

(I had also skipped most of the Khayber-Atifa saga because, again verbal and psychological abuse on a pregnant woman and Khayber was just...such stupid and non-sensical writing!)

I never really understood it. Aram Banu was always with Jodha but they never explicitly said she was Akdha's daughter

Sujamal was Jodha's first cousin too, just as Ruqaiya and Salima were Jalal's— like c'mon Ruqaiya had this dialogue that she can't even imagine Jodha being romantically involved with Sujamal 😭 Royals and their logic lol— another show inconsistency hehe!