The emotional math, gus! The figures! Like, Micheletto could very easily fall platonically into a terrifying devotion to Lucrezia that eventually turns sexual, but it would be very hard for him to get swept up in that while also falling into a terrifying tenderness with [redacted so I don’t spoil @marmolita or @words-writ-in-starlight or the anons who have told me I have conned them into starting the show] while ALSO being in terrifying terrible love with Cesare. And then Lucrezia herself would have to meet Micheletto’s very complex and overwhelming romantic calculus at the exact right moment–and balancing the scales between her guilt over [redacted] and her terrifying terrible love for her brother WITH her new marriage for enough of an emotional breath that she could possibly entertain bringing her brother’s manservant into her incestuous affair would be a feat in and of itself.
(Cesare would obviously be down. Cesare is not the problem.)
and then there’s the TIMING to consider. There are BREAKUPS, and it’s hard to stage a threesome in the middle of a devastating you-killed-so-and-so-and-dammit-I’ve-got-to-leave-you breakup.
words-writ-in-starlight asked: WHY DID I LET YOU TALK ME INTO THIS, THERE IS NOTHING HERE BUT PAIN. I mean also that scene where Micheletto tells Paolo to tell him of love and claims to know nothing of it makes me really need to write some stuff for like the first season, BUT MY POINT STILL STANDS.
OH GOD I FORGOT ABOUT THE SCENE WHERE MICHELETTO AGGRESSIVELY ASKS PAOLO TO TELL HIM ABOUT LOVE. HE’S TRYING TO WEB MD HIS OWN EMOTIONS. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH
The sheer amount of scheming that everyone is managing to fit into individual letters here
Cesare and Lucrezia
This also covers the previous episode, but Lucrezia Borgia and Giulia Farnese, CEO and COO of Badass Ladies In Elaborately Elegant Dresses Incorporated (aka BLEED Inc)
Cesare and Sister Martha (I am SO PROUD of them for making the obvious Abelard and Heloise reference by the by)
Their gleeful advantage-taking of the fact that this particular French king was called Charles the Affable which is hilarious to me
Watching Cesare needle Della Rovere
Micheletto’s line “Then I am servant to a hostage, Your Eminence” I AM DEAD
So I’m all of four episodes into Borgias, and I’ve got an important question.
WHERE is my fic taking ruthless advantage of Cesare’s need for power and Micheletto’s utter loyalty? With the two of them having sex with deeply fucked-up power dynamics and probably a lot of unnerving knife imagery? About how Micheletto goes to his knees and does what Cesare commands because Cesare in his rich robes and wolf-smile is all the God Micheletto needs or wants, and about how Cesare knows that Micheletto could kill him in a heartbeat and would still place a straight razor in Micheletto’s hand and offer up his throat to be shaved with absolute knowledge that Micheletto won’t even nick the skin? About how Cesare could put a knife to Micheletto’s chest and Micheletto wouldn’t even flinch?
words-writ-in-starlight asked: I am ONE AND A HALF EPISODES into Borgias and that scene where Micheletto hands Cesare a whip and orders him to torture him is so??? Do I ship this? Is this a thing I ship? "So whip me, My Lord" I? This show was such a quality rec on your part, I love it.
