I want to believe that Kaya calling Suna a “water fairy” alludes to fairytales with actual happy endings, and also to how su peri is someone who fixes broken hearts + typically associated with truly falling in love. 🥲🫶🏻
Suna: Don't go… Did..did I do something wrong?
Kaya: You're shaking. As long as you're like this, I'll never touch you
Suna: It's gone, it's gone. I'm fine.
*Kaya hugs her tenderly*
Kaya: I will never touch you if you don't want to. I will never force you to do anything you don't want. I am not that kind of person.
On KaySun Parallels + Trauma Bonding (aka Suna’s Lack of Self-Worth and Kaya’s Abandonment Issues)
I think it’s established very early on that Suna is traumatized by her abusive father, Kazim. She’s perpetually anxious and shaky about never being good enough; in fact, on the day she’s supposed to get engaged, her younger sister is chosen over her for the arranged marriage. This manifests in her difficulty in standing up for herself. All her life, she has been downtrodden, plodded on by people who think she is less than. She guards her heart because she’s been heartbroken way too many times—treated as less than by her father, sister, and even the Korhans. She thinks she’s unloved; therefore, she lacks self-worth.
Once she gets her confidence, though, whether it’s thanks to Kaya’s warm words and Ifakat’s manipulation, or through the power and financial protection Kaya can give her through their marriage and being a member of the Korhan family, Suna is able to stand up for herself. She feels worthy and loved thanks to Kaya. Why? Because, for the first time in her life, she gets chosen. He chooses her to love. To be his bride. And she no longer feels like an afterthought, nor a second choice full of flaws. So when she realizes that Kaya might not actually love her and just feel pity for her, she’s devastated. For it means she wasn’t chosen and loved after all.
But what about Kaya? Well, Kaya has trauma too. But a different kind—abandonment issues, stemming from his add!ct father leaving them and his mother’s health problems meaning she could die any moment and leave him without his real family. He thinks he’s not enough since after all, his dad abandoned him.
So it’s no surprise that Kaya clings on to Suna. Yes, it’s love so strong that he can’t admit it yet—attraction that is so real that it unfortunately gets muddled and blurred between the lines of revenge and necessity—but it’s also their trauma bonding of rejection. Suna and Kaya have found themselves in each other. Suna can’t lose him, the same way Kaya can’t lose her. They’ve both faced similar issues in their lives; they both know what it feels like to be a pawn in a losing game, or just not the main character of their own story.
When Kaya thinks Suna doesn’t trust him, especially because she heads off to find Seyran with that fck@$$ driver without telling him, he’s understandably heartbroken. At this point, they’re married, and loved up, but now he thinks she’s going to leave him. And he can’t deal with that. He can’t accept someone he loves abandoning again. That’s why he flips out completely. And that’s why Suna’s arms are there to comfort him in the end.
(Plus, as my Twitter moot Alice pointed out, that’s why the first time KaySun meet, as he says goodbye, he tells her, “I hope you will always be there for me.” This says so much about his character; it unlocks his deepest fears as well).
Suna is used to people overlooking her, and Kaya is used to people walking away. Both of them have been abandoned for not being “enough” to care about. Both of them know what it’s like to be avoided and unloved. Both of them have the shared trauma of REJECTION. And that’s why they both find love in each other now.
Suna: Don't go… Did..did I do something wrong?
Kaya: You're shaking. As long as you're like this, I'll never touch you
Suna: It's gone, it's gone. I'm fine.
*Kaya hugs her tenderly*
Kaya: I will never touch you if you don't want to. I will never force you to do anything you don't want. I am not that kind of person.