#cesare and juan are convinced that the other is somehow more favored and less deserving...

[lucreziajuan]

the borgias truly went off in 2.10 'the confession'. specifically, where devastated rodrigo buries juan with his own hands, being intercut with everyone happy and celebrating lucrezia's betrothal, and being perfectly juxtaposed with dark and light. we get to see how rodrigo always saw juan while carrying his body (and that's probably how he sees all his children) as an innocent little kid instead of a broken soul. which was one of the most touching and well-crafted scenes that have ever aired on tv btw!! the whole sequence is also backed by a moving piece of tragic music that matches how guilty rodrigo feels about making the family hate juan by pressuring his inadequacy, making him full of misguided notions of defending the family's honor that led him to go wild. and setting him up to be envied by cesare. the murder made rodrigo reflect, and the viewers can tell that he has never told his eldest son that he sees himself when he looks at cesare, and that he has always held him in high regard but with a different dream and vision for him, despite cesare's wrong assumption that juan was rodrigo's favorite. and all because he always had a self-loath. to accept cesare as his favorite, he has to accept himself first. plus the cliffhanger? peak cinema imo.

#it's crazy how this episode and those sequences occupy my mind #cesare and juan are convinced that the other is somehow more favored and less deserving... #and each one is concerned that the others are getting something more and better.... #and then there is rodrigo; a father who's sincerely and also misguidedly devoted to both his faith and his family #but he unintentionally fucked up his sons lives #rodrigo borgia #cesare borgia #juan borgia #the borgias meta #the borgias #text post