#i love the borgia family but gonna need people to realize that they were portrayed as awful anyway like sjkehjeje

[earlgodwin]

you just seem like you hate cesare. I often read your posts, and it seems like you read him in the classic 'sinister' fashion that bad history books do, even when his intentions are no less sinister than Juan's have been many times. I'm just wondering if perhaps I'm missing something?

ok anon this kinda made me giggle <3 first of all i wouldn't be wasting so much time making loads of content of him lol. i've been a fan of cesare for a decade. i love how multidimensional he is and i think he's a tremendous character plus he's my all-time favorite male lead in all media. i love his soulmatism with lucrezia as well as the tragic brotherhood between him and juan, and second, apparently pointing out flaws and canonical facts (just like how i do with juan) means that i "hate" him (?) in fact it proves that i actually do love the guy because i, at least, embrace his characterization and i don't need to woobify him (or any antagonistic character) to love him. if you have any idea about me and my blog, i only tend to like villainous characters because antagonism is more compelling to me than heroism.

"even when his intentions are no less sinister as juan's." in what way is it my fault that cesare was portrayed as hypocritical while juan was portrayed as straightforward? cesare contradicted himself by claiming he acted for the family's preservation when everything he did was for his own ambitions. he even murdered juan to take control of the papal army and allowed lucrezia to be humiliated during the public consummation of her marriage with alfonso as we witnessed how he could've intervened but chose not to. this shouldn't even be a cesare bashing or "hating"; eventually, the guy eventually became power hungry in s3 (and if the borgias wasn't canceled, s4 would've been about how cesare and lucrezia drifted apart because for him it was power >>> lucrezia. read the borgias apocalypse)

on the other hand, juan was a total screw-up, but his actions stemmed from a desire to be accepted and to better the family, even though he ended up causing more harm. his motivation was rooted in deep love, not destruction, but unintentionally he achieved the opposite. if the roles were reversed, and cesare was a gonfaloniere laying a siege at forli and ludovico was coming for him, juan would've definitely warned him because juan's priorities were his family and their betterment, even "if" he disliked cesare (he loves cesare in a one-sided way despite the aggression lol) that being said, juan did kill paolo and hurt lucrezia, but he did it thinking it was for her sake and her reputation (plus driven with jealousy like how he did with djem) he also believed he would receive applause and prove himself as a true borgia as he deeply felt inferior to cesare. he made multiple attempts to make it up to lucrezia, but their disconnect was clear as every time he tried to impress her, she ended up getting hurt in some way and their inability to reconcile kinda represented their troubled relationship. juan's injury, syphilis, and being pushed away by everyone eventually drove him mad in his final moments. yet, he did try to reconcile with cesare and how he wants to be with him as brothers. none of this is an excuse for juan's behavior throughout the show, but it also doesn't justify cesare killing him either. however, the murder of juan made cesare more intriguing to me, as it marked his complete descent into darkness and ruthlessness, it's //not// heroism like how some of cesare stans think it is so...

all in all, most of my insights are supported by mr. arnaud and neil jordan themselves so might as well call them haters while you're at it idk anon

#i love the borgia family but gonna need people to realize that they were portrayed as awful anyway like sjkehjeje #also this blog is definitely NOT for cesare vs. juan bullshit either #god forbid we stan such an amoral character and love him the way he is without yassifying him #anyway hope this helps i guess?? #messages #anon #juan borgia #the borgias