The Borgia, their representation in media, and Shaun
Let me say this first, Cesare I hate you, I hate you so much for making me do this essay and I SWEAR if you don’t essay me back on something AC-related-
A-ahem, yes. Shaun and the Borgia.
Now first of all, what you need to know is that The Borgia have a long, and complicated history when it comes to how they’re depicted in… everywhere. The main reason for this is because with a few exceptions, those who recorded the history weren’t exactly fans of them, and on top of that Burkhardt flung his own biases into things and it became one of the definitive works for historians looking into the renaissance. This… has really led to a movement that goes by Burkhardt’s views, and more apologetic movement that sometimes strays into textually felating all the Borgias at once. Neither are entirely correct, but if I’ve learned anything from researching Soviet history, that’s not anything new.
What made the Italians hate the Borgia though? Well for one, they were Spanish, and that’s a major factor. For all that the Italians were broken up into city states, that didn’t go over too well. On top of that they didn’t exactly come from nobility. Sure they were nobles, but I’d personally relate it more to a industrial tycoon vs. a prince, in some part they were working towards their wealth, at least in recent memory. And they had a decent amount of it. And they used it to buy the papacy. Now there’s more to that as well, see the papacy wasn’t what you called squeaky clean, and politics was as much of a factor as much as belief in who would make the best candidate for the head of the church. And Rodrigo Borgia? Was pretty damn good at politics. He managed to use what he had to win the position of pope, and oh man did that give him even larger enemies.
Now Rodrigo Borgia did indulge in nepotism, mistresses, legalizing his bastard children, indulging said children, supposedly having sexy parties, and using said children to entrench his family into the society at the time through politics and marriage. But that’s all basic things you can see in any kingship/country head’s history after awhile, even if we take the rumors of murder as fact it doesn‘t amount to much. So where’s all the juicy stories? Where’s the good stuff?
Well, that’s really it. If we compare his actions to British, French, German rulers and so on, it comes out pretty tame. If we compare his actions to some of the Russian Tzars, then hell, he downright looks like a pussycat. Even if we compare his actions to previous popes (Notably Pope Innocent IV, who in 1252 authorized torture when used in the inquisition process, far before Rodrigo Borgia was even born) he doesn’t come out looking so bad. His greatest crime may have been giving the Spanish permission to take slaves in the newly-acquired Americas, but even then that’s under question considering his more open-minded views towards the Jewish people at the time, and the Vatican scholar’s take on the matter. Most likely he was neither saint nor black stain on the church, much like the rest of the Borgia. However his rule was cut short after a mere eleven years, and he died, to the apparent joy of those recording it. His body was distorted in death, and was a gruesome sight. An unfortunate end that only fueled his enemy’s imaginations.
Sadly this also was the start of the end of the Borgia name, Cesare’s career taking a sharp downturn despite his best efforts, Juan having died long ago, Gioffre losing his territory shortly after his wife’s death, and Lucrezia continuing on the family name until she died shortly after the birth of her the birth of her eighth child. In fact it’s Lucrezia that did the most to preserve the bloodline, with her being a collateral relative of a decent chunk of the royal families in Europe. She, also like her father, became a patron of the arts and despite scathing reports that she was just a dumb pawn (highly biased ones at that), historically she‘s used as an example of how she “rose above“ her family‘s past.
But how does this all apply to Shaun?
Shaun is a historian, first and foremost, and for the most part his major field of study seems to be the renaissance and ancient roman time periods. I think in general he’s got the “every field they need at the moment” character issue some series like to do, but until I get proof of that I’m going to stick to the idea that those two time periods are his Thing. Now the way he talks about history does bring up a major splitting point that I had to make a call on. On the one hand he does dredge up where history is wrong as brought to light by more recent studies, and on the other he really, really likes going into the gory details and he plays up how much the Borgia were bastards (also complicating things is that while Shaun has a seemingly unlimited amount of venom for Rodrigo, He's less hard on Lucrezia and Cesare, even retelling a few of his more famous/infamous tales in game). In camp I've reconciled that with other aspects by figuring that he might have had a more open-minded view of things, but after the Templars and learning more about how they "lied" about history, his views went back more towards the sort of "fuck the Borgia" angle. Am I right? who effing knows, Ubisoft are trolls like that.
However camp has skewed things a little, both by showing him a world where the currently published history of the day is for the most part correct (or at least free of Templar influence), and by plopping a Borgia down next to him and seeing what happens. This means that he's been in contact with even more versions of the Borgia family and he's had time to go over them. Since for the most part he's been focusing on the main family, I'm going to go over how Cesare, Rodrigo, Juan, and Lucrezia are represented in three forms of media and history, and how Shaun feels about them. Notably I'm going to leave out Los Borgia, Cantarella, and The Prince of Foxes because I haven't seen enough of them to make a good call on it, however the last one I might add into this if, say, I become canon-familiar with it (or someone apps Orson Welles!Cesare. In which case I'll just need a fainting couch because ORSON WELLES IN A ZOMBIE SUMMER CAMP kya kya).
The Borgias
Juan shows up first because... fuck you he's my favorite in media and he doesn't get any love. In history he led a pretty fail life, in fact he was an epic fail guy if there ever was one. He was terrible at strategy, had a habit of going to brothels, partied, and just in general wasn't the best choice for a military role. His great claim to fame is "and then he died, possibly by Cesare's hand", and making his father mourn for days, absolutely inconsolable. Found dead in the Tiber and generally the only real notes about his personality are from his enemies and the occasional letter, sadly Juan is usually just relegated to a footnote in other biographies.
In Cesare, so far not much has come out about him, he's a bit of a coward, and in later chapters a bit of a jerk, but those are untranslated so there's context I'm missing. It appears that like Lucrezia, he becomes a figure later on, and usually is shown to bring out the differences between the brothers.
In The Borgias Juan appears first in a very minor role, what with the focus being more on Rodrigo and Cesare and their interactions, and it's rather unflattering. He's the dumb one with the temper who likes to party and has a thing about being called a bastard or not Italian. Again here he's meant to be the one who makes Cesare look better. However as the series goes on the spotlight rests a little more on him and the family gets about equal screentime, and this casts him in a different light. He is still a complete lech, but he appears to be friendly, even playful with some of the women he's involved with. This includes Sancia, and the woman in the brothel where Cesare finds him. With that trigger of him, it reveals that he isn't dumb, he's got such a trigger because of the deep-seated issues that he's afraid of not being related to Rodrigo, on account of the lack of talent. He knows he's a fuck up, and when he's confronted with that and he can't lash out, it eats away at him. Lastly on the matter of temper he's shown that he doesn't want to fight as much as it first appears, torn between his duties and his concerns about his lack of ability when it comes to war. In fact when rewatching earlier scenes those hints stand out, in his first scene he nearly draws his sword, but refrains, and it's more the goading that brings things to a head. The dickish behavior is also accompanied by a genuine smile and a less serious view of things. He's prideful, but that false pride is what holds together a very unsure person, shoved into a position he's unequipped to do. He's a rogue, but that's okay, because he is Cesare's counterbalance. Cesare is too serious and too sullen, while Juan doesn't take things seriously enough, together they cancel each other out.
In Assassin's Creed Juan dies early on, and not even in the game proper, murdered by Cesare's hand. He doesn't even get a character design separate from Juan the banker. Thanks canon, thanks. >/
How Shaun feels about him: Shaun... really doesn't care much. He finds the version from The Borgia's interesting, but he hasn't really analyzed it. To him, much like to many others, he's just that brother who died.
Rodrigo in history is one of the two main figures that historians tend to focus on. He's viewed as a prime example of why nepotism is bad, the corruption of the church, and so on. While these are debated, the fact is that he was a caring father, he was trying to secure a future for his family, and he did have to work against a system that was biased against him. In that vein, depictions vary wildly.
In Cesare, he is in fact a doting father, more to Juan and Lucrezia than Cesare, but also deeply caring about Cesare as well. He does take Cesare away from his mother, but he feels that why he does so is right, and he does jump to help out when Cesare asks something from him. He's also topped by the women in his life, and when he's not being political, he's being kind of a fail (but still pulling it off) with the ladies. I seriously love this version of Rodrigo.
In The Borgias Rodrigo is played by Jeremy Irons, and is written by the same guy who did The Tutors. So it's pretty magical. He alternates between insane, plotting, dryly sarcastic, a loving father, gentle, harsh... he's all over the place. Eventually you do figure out how he coalesces into a whole, but it takes awhile to figure him out.
In Assassin's Creed is a rat bastard son of a bitch, at least in the movie and the second game. This would be my problem with ac2, is that in focusing so much on Ezio's story that they couldn't focus as much on Rodrigo without losing some of the impact and flow they built up. So while I like ac2 for how they drove one plot along so well, I love brotherhood for how they fleshed him out more. In Brotherhood he's calmed down a bit more from his absolutely crazy self, and settled into a more neutral position, rather glad to stick to politics, and facepalming at how his son has taken over things and promptly went to restart the Assassin/Templar war by doing the equivalent of sticking his dick in a beehive. He also tries to stop the war the only way he can by that point, which is still cutthroat and cruel, but it shows that he just wants the entire thing over with, and that the Borgia are more aligned by familial taste, than by loyalty to a Templar or Assassin cause.
How Shaun feels about him: Shaun doesn't care about Rodrigo from his world, he can rot for all he cares, and in fact would quite like to see that. Rodrigo from The Borgias makes him facepalm, but he has to admit he has some good moments, so it's at least watchable, and Cesare... Well his first experience was with Cesare's mental version of him, so while he's glad to see the father that history presented, he also wants to tell him to fuck off and where he can shove the opinion that Shaun doesn't have a point. He sees a lot of Cesare in Rodrigo, and he's not sure if that's because of how he met him, or if Cesare picked that up from him. Either way if this Rodrigo was in camp, it'd be interesting, and it could go either way.
Lucrezia Borgia has gotten a lot of contradicting views over the years, "oh no, she's a saint!", "Oh no, she's a dirty harlot!", "Oh no, she's a calculating schemer!", "no really, she's as dumb as a cow!" (the last one is an actual godamned quote). The fact is that she was none of these extremes, and appeared to be an intelligent woman, thrown into some really shitty situations. Like Rodrigo, depictions vary, but many of the modern ones have been sliding to a mixture of these ideas.
In Cesare, Lucrezia appears to have a naiveté, at least at first. However it's very clearly shown that while she doesn't have the most clues about some things, she does have a good head on her shoulder, knows how tweak a situation in her favor, and bucks the trend of female expectations as presented in the manga. The mangaka also goes on further in one video special, pointing out that she was aware of these things, so it's not on accident that she comes off this way. So yeah, the mangaka is writing her as a sharp girl, who will grow into a sharp woman. Awesome.
In The Borgias Lucrezia also appears to fit the doe-eyed innocent idea, but after this worldview is painfully shattered, she adapts and become much more cunning, rather quickly. By the end of the first season she's managed to diplomat her way out of a war, and a marriage, and has grown considerably as a character. While at first I rolled my eyes at how she was portrayed, the person she became warranted another look at her earlier scenes, and yeah, her early scenes make sense. Juan and her are equal reasons I watch this show, seriously.
In Assassin's Creed Lucrezia shines. I won't lie, this is my favorite version, and if there was one character I wanted in camp outside of teammates, it's her. I know it would cause the Assassin cast some scuffles down the road if things went badly, but god, god, Lucrezia.
Of all the characters to drag the game back to it's original roots about neutrality, Lucrezia is the prime example of this intent. Sharp minded and sharp tongued (and also quick tempered), she's not someone to back down, even with the head of the Assassins standing in front of her and trying to get information. Oh no, she tells him, point blank, while being held hostage, just how his side also fucked up and did things that were wrong. In fact some of the most aggressive, incendiary dialogue happens between Catarina Sforza and Lucrezia Borgia, and that is saying something, in this game, the women fight as hard as the men. (Lucrezia as a parting gesture takes a wrought-iron rod to Catarina's hip, Catarina returns the favor later by slamming Lucrezia's head into the metal bars of the cell.) She also returns Cesare's infidelities in kind, getting him jealous because fuck you brother, if you can do it, so will I. Despite this, she's also shown as being rather loving to the people she cares about, to her son, to Cesare, and to her lovers, one of which responds to this by cursing her name later on and slandering her. The topic of her and Cesare's incest is also viewed as a more equal relationship, both of them viewing it as just something they do and nothing to be ashamed of. It's not a "oh no he's/she's my family, HOW SINFUL boo hoo", but the relationship is more dysfunctional because of what they do in acts of jealousy and Cesare's madness, not because of blood ties. They own what they do and how they're doing it, and in that way they're more like a normal couple and an exeption to how incestuous relationships are usually played out in media. It's with this in mind that the end of the game is more crushing to her, and in the dlc not only is her grief palpable, but it is just as valid as the rest of her actions. In so few scenes of gameplay, she gets so much characterization and personality, and she's really the character that shows the gray area in the Borgias in Assassin's creed.
How Shaun feels about her: Shaun hasn't really met Lucrezia from Cesare's world, so he doesn't really have an opinion of her yet. Lucrezia from The Borgias gets more sympathy because she did get a rotten deal, and Lucrezia from Ac... that's a complicated thing. On a strategic level he knows to treat her as dangerous at best, hostile at worst, and if she were in camp to make sure Cesare doesn't get dragged in to whatever she's doing (because gdi Cesare you are like a puppy being tempted with a treat just inside a glass door. Make a run for it and it will only end in manipulation and pain). On an emotional level though... even though he doesn't know and can't really know the dlc thanks to spoilers, he sees that what happened to her is terrible, the way she was treated was terrible, and she genuinely believed that her brother was doing a good thing. He would hope she wanted a truce and meant it, because she'd gone through quite a bit already, and there's some sympathy in him because of that.
Cesare Is the one everybody writes about. He's that complicated mess that if there's anyone who gets distorted more than Rodrigo, it's him. I could write essays about what he was most likely really like and all of that, but I'll be blunt, Cesare's player already did it, and much better than me. If you want some in-depth essays about him and his world? go wander around on Cesare's journal and read her essays. In media though, he usually gets either the "bastard" representation, or the "superman of awesome" treatment. It's only recently that I've noticed a more balanced view.
In The Borgias Cesare as a whiny emo brat. ...Okay okay, at least at first. Truth is that he is struggling with himself and he does get more character development later on, but the fact is that the actor they got really makes me want to punch him in the face. Like all the time. Seriously a customer came in that sort of looked like him once, and I had to resist face-punching. The fact is that if they had gotten a different actor to play him, the writing would stand up better and his transition would go more smoothly, as is though I found myself liking Cesare despite the actor by the end of it, and he even gets a good line or two in. When Juan comes into the picture he's not just the hawkish one who morals at people all the time, he's one part of a set of brothers, and what Juan brings out in him makes him more human.
In Assassin's Creed Cesare is a godamn sexy beast- I mean insane. Insane and a sexy beast. Godamn, is there anything more gorgeous than that voice of his? Answer: no. He even makes creepy winged baby armor look good. Besides dthat ass he is also a strange mix of all the rumors about him, a complete bastard, but charming and cunning. He's also a Templar who does want a greater goal and even Lucrezia says he's trying to work for the people. It's subject to the fact that Cesare is insane and doesn't have the best idea of how to go about that... at all. But even in the spoiler he shows that he did think he was doing a good thing, and that the elimination of the Assassins would be a major victory on the way to that goal. And well. if we look at things, then yes he was right in attacking. While Ezio had no intention of really continuing the war at that point, other people in the order did, and the best time to strike was when they were off guard. What was his downfall was that he didn't eradicate them all in one swoop, and that he "invited" Ezio back to Roma and was blinded by his pride. In his story there's also a tragedy in that everything's slowly ripped away from him, until he's backed into a corner, like an animal, seeing enemies around him that were made by his own hand. His flaw is that he never learns, and so instead of seeing things differently, he lashes out. While he's far from the closest to the history, he's an interesting character, and it was one of the things that really drew me into the series.
How Shaun feels about him: The Borgias Cesare makes Shaun laugh because as much as Cesare in camp tries to deny it, there's some moments where he does act like the one on the show. And man does it amuse Shaun. Yes yes Cesare, you're not an angsty teen in black who's rebelling a little, why is it that you won't listen to the adults' reasons until you break something again? The Cesare from his world is someone who he seems to respect at least his cunning, but yeah, no, he's someone who should have ended up in the fire. He sees the tragedy, but at the same time it's more something that it's his goal to keep from happening to Cesare in camp.
believe in himself'>Cesare in camp
However, Cesare in camp is different than nearly any other representation. In this the author paints him first as a dark and mysterious person, as someone genial and concerned with the greater good, but then slowly starts to peel back that side to show the Cesare people have issues with. He cares about the people, but is willing to manipulate them to accomplish his goals. He's loyal to his friends, but uses them shamelessly. Hi is aware of social status and customs, but holds himself apart from the group and in some social gatherings. he advocates justice, but resorts to violent interrogation of his would-be-assassin, and has the bodies his men killed thrown into the river. Seemingly calm, but in possession of so much anger and pride when provoked. Believing in equality of race and faith, but surprised when a Florentine gets the better of him when it comes to art. Wanting to be an instrument of god, but is so very, very willing to sin.
In short, every bit the contradiction that the historical Cesare was.
In one of Cesare's player's essays, she comments that the true Cesare may never be revealed, and that she liked it that way. And I felt that way too, however from the books I picked up later and the scans starting to come out now, even more of the mask is being stripped away, and far from ruining things by explaining it all, it enhances things by showing that he really is all those things at once. In a way he's not only lying to others by showing carefully-constructed masks made out of himself, but also underneath it all he's also lying just as much to himself. He's not a demon, or an angel, he's himself, utterly human. his friends, when they truly get to know him end up coming to the same conclusion, his heart's in the right place, but his mind's a little... twisted.
This is the exact word that his friends use to describe him, and for Shaun, it's the same too. Cesare's history and his don't just cover a period for the tiny little warlord, but also for Shaun. Through this they've seen both each other's glaring flaws, and their good points, and it's led to them both affecting each other. it's simply impossible to go over Shaun's major character growth without going over Cesare's interactions with him, they're just too tangled up in each other's lives. It was Cesare who spurred Shaun on to looking at how he treated people and why it was a bad thing. The fact you have to remember is that Shaun went from being a teacher, to losing everything and being on the run for two years, while also being involved in murder, something that it's not really fond of. In that time there's obviously a difference in his historian personality, and when he's operating normally, so he'd clearly become more jaded, and his social skills suffered for it too. Cesare rather sharply gave Shaun the push to look at himself and realize that things had changed, and that he had to change and get better at that little social thing again. This is what let him get closer to Cesare, and what got Cesare to start his plan to wrap Shaun around his little finger, which backfired spectacularly when he started to genuinely like Shaun. They've been more or less hanging around each other ever since. Cesare's been the one to call Shaun out on whenever he does a thing, the one to test his patience, the one to make him feel strangely normal and like a teacher again, the one who connects with that same sort of info hunting drive, and also the same sort of ways of dealing with things sometimes. Cesare's player said it best, when they're not at each other's throats, they work very well together. For the past few months they were working on figuring out what made each other snap, and when they got it, they either started trying to get to the root of the problem or working around it. At this point they've had false trust that transferred into real trust, betrayal, insanity, death, trauma, hurt, and each other's own strange sense of comfort and trying to help. They've ended up getting so connected that out of the headspace/heartgame/whatevers, only each other was able to get to the most hidden part of the other one. And okay yeah that sounded pretty gay.
No, they're not bangin'
whiiiiich brings us to the matter of sexuality between those two. Which is to say none. See for all their close connection and excexc, Shaun and Cesare do not feel any romantic sort of Thing between each other. On Cesare's side it's simple, he's straight and Shaun is ew and no. Shaun's a bit more hard to explain because I don't quite rule out that he's not bi, just a very strongly female leaning bi. With characters like kuhn he was mostly female leaning with exceptions, Shaun is even more so. No what Shaun isn't is a pedophile, and that's what he, a man in his mid-to-late twenties, would feel like for even having a speck of interest in a sixteen year old boy. Cesare isn't like the cannibals that Kuhn interacted with, where they might look young but have experience that makes them mostly adults (Cielo). Cesare is a teenager, a teenager who's got more on his shoulders and at an age nearer to adult in his time period, but still very much a teen in some things. On top of that is the fact that he was a professor. If anything that just makes him hyper aware of anything that might be damaging to a minor. Now that he's found out that Cesare thinks of him as his tutor, he's not sure what to do, but "make out" is not one of them.
Being Cesare's tutor just messes with Shaun a little. There was a soooooort of unspoken agreement between Shaun and Cesare that Shaun was teaching him things and being sarcastic, and Cesare was the brat who would learn and annoy Shaun at all hours of the day for lessons and information. but "Tutor" brings with it a responsibility that Shaun's not sure he's qualified for. Cesare's been hurt around him, he's been killed around him, Shaun's killed him when there was no other way for him to be merciful and let him live. It tore him up every time it happened, but it did, and chances are that it'll happen again. There's also the aspect of what being an Assassin entails. Say that Cesare did go corrupt, it's up to Shaun to relay that information and essentially give the word that Cesare needs to be neutralized in whatever's the most effective way. He'd feel horrible for having to do it, but being his tutor makes it even worse. That alone commands that Cesare does not come to any harm, he'd be violating the very essence of what Cesare considers him to be. He can't just dismiss it because that label came from Cesare's own heartspace, but accepting it means possibly taking on a responsibility that he might have to break.
But what does that have to do with sexuality? Well first of all it pretty much kills any sort of thing from happening. Before I explained to anybody who shipped them that really age was the major factor and colors how he views Cesare. When Cesare is the tiny he's very protective and fully takes on the tutor and guardian role. Cesare needs protecting then, and he wants to safeguard that innocence too. The tiny is really a proto-Cesare, different enough to almost be a separate person, but all the things he'll see in Cesare later. An adult version would also be different, one that just timeskipped and acted the same and didn't grow up with the paradigm of Shaun as tutor would, in fact, possibly get Shaun thinking about other things in enough time. Cesare in camp is that liminal stage, and so he's also a separate person from all of that. However Cesare claiming Shaun as tutor means that most likely he'd grow into an adult with the view of Shaun=tutor/old teacher, and even if they were closer in age, the fact that Cesare matured like that would make Shaun feel like he was abusing an old relationship. Since Shaun doesn't really think about "Hey, would it be a creep thing to want to hit on your student now that he's an adult and still thinks of you as his former teacher?", it's pretty safe that this idea of view of their relationship won't change unless something happens that messes with the dynamic.
But yeah, in like an au where they ended up spending a few years as equals in Rome and without the tutor thing? ...Okay Cesare and Shaun would have probably had an accidental banging while drunk. Then it'd be awkward.
A-ahem, yes. Shaun and the Borgia.
Now first of all, what you need to know is that The Borgia have a long, and complicated history when it comes to how they’re depicted in… everywhere. The main reason for this is because with a few exceptions, those who recorded the history weren’t exactly fans of them, and on top of that Burkhardt flung his own biases into things and it became one of the definitive works for historians looking into the renaissance. This… has really led to a movement that goes by Burkhardt’s views, and more apologetic movement that sometimes strays into textually felating all the Borgias at once. Neither are entirely correct, but if I’ve learned anything from researching Soviet history, that’s not anything new.
What made the Italians hate the Borgia though? Well for one, they were Spanish, and that’s a major factor. For all that the Italians were broken up into city states, that didn’t go over too well. On top of that they didn’t exactly come from nobility. Sure they were nobles, but I’d personally relate it more to a industrial tycoon vs. a prince, in some part they were working towards their wealth, at least in recent memory. And they had a decent amount of it. And they used it to buy the papacy. Now there’s more to that as well, see the papacy wasn’t what you called squeaky clean, and politics was as much of a factor as much as belief in who would make the best candidate for the head of the church. And Rodrigo Borgia? Was pretty damn good at politics. He managed to use what he had to win the position of pope, and oh man did that give him even larger enemies.
Now Rodrigo Borgia did indulge in nepotism, mistresses, legalizing his bastard children, indulging said children, supposedly having sexy parties, and using said children to entrench his family into the society at the time through politics and marriage. But that’s all basic things you can see in any kingship/country head’s history after awhile, even if we take the rumors of murder as fact it doesn‘t amount to much. So where’s all the juicy stories? Where’s the good stuff?
Well, that’s really it. If we compare his actions to British, French, German rulers and so on, it comes out pretty tame. If we compare his actions to some of the Russian Tzars, then hell, he downright looks like a pussycat. Even if we compare his actions to previous popes (Notably Pope Innocent IV, who in 1252 authorized torture when used in the inquisition process, far before Rodrigo Borgia was even born) he doesn’t come out looking so bad. His greatest crime may have been giving the Spanish permission to take slaves in the newly-acquired Americas, but even then that’s under question considering his more open-minded views towards the Jewish people at the time, and the Vatican scholar’s take on the matter. Most likely he was neither saint nor black stain on the church, much like the rest of the Borgia. However his rule was cut short after a mere eleven years, and he died, to the apparent joy of those recording it. His body was distorted in death, and was a gruesome sight. An unfortunate end that only fueled his enemy’s imaginations.
Sadly this also was the start of the end of the Borgia name, Cesare’s career taking a sharp downturn despite his best efforts, Juan having died long ago, Gioffre losing his territory shortly after his wife’s death, and Lucrezia continuing on the family name until she died shortly after the birth of her the birth of her eighth child. In fact it’s Lucrezia that did the most to preserve the bloodline, with her being a collateral relative of a decent chunk of the royal families in Europe. She, also like her father, became a patron of the arts and despite scathing reports that she was just a dumb pawn (highly biased ones at that), historically she‘s used as an example of how she “rose above“ her family‘s past.
But how does this all apply to Shaun?
Shaun is a historian, first and foremost, and for the most part his major field of study seems to be the renaissance and ancient roman time periods. I think in general he’s got the “every field they need at the moment” character issue some series like to do, but until I get proof of that I’m going to stick to the idea that those two time periods are his Thing. Now the way he talks about history does bring up a major splitting point that I had to make a call on. On the one hand he does dredge up where history is wrong as brought to light by more recent studies, and on the other he really, really likes going into the gory details and he plays up how much the Borgia were bastards (also complicating things is that while Shaun has a seemingly unlimited amount of venom for Rodrigo, He's less hard on Lucrezia and Cesare, even retelling a few of his more famous/infamous tales in game). In camp I've reconciled that with other aspects by figuring that he might have had a more open-minded view of things, but after the Templars and learning more about how they "lied" about history, his views went back more towards the sort of "fuck the Borgia" angle. Am I right? who effing knows, Ubisoft are trolls like that.
However camp has skewed things a little, both by showing him a world where the currently published history of the day is for the most part correct (or at least free of Templar influence), and by plopping a Borgia down next to him and seeing what happens. This means that he's been in contact with even more versions of the Borgia family and he's had time to go over them. Since for the most part he's been focusing on the main family, I'm going to go over how Cesare, Rodrigo, Juan, and Lucrezia are represented in three forms of media and history, and how Shaun feels about them. Notably I'm going to leave out Los Borgia, Cantarella, and The Prince of Foxes because I haven't seen enough of them to make a good call on it, however the last one I might add into this if, say, I become canon-familiar with it (or someone apps Orson Welles!Cesare. In which case I'll just need a fainting couch because ORSON WELLES IN A ZOMBIE SUMMER CAMP kya kya).
The Borgias
Juan shows up first because... fuck you he's my favorite in media and he doesn't get any love. In history he led a pretty fail life, in fact he was an epic fail guy if there ever was one. He was terrible at strategy, had a habit of going to brothels, partied, and just in general wasn't the best choice for a military role. His great claim to fame is "and then he died, possibly by Cesare's hand", and making his father mourn for days, absolutely inconsolable. Found dead in the Tiber and generally the only real notes about his personality are from his enemies and the occasional letter, sadly Juan is usually just relegated to a footnote in other biographies.
In Cesare, so far not much has come out about him, he's a bit of a coward, and in later chapters a bit of a jerk, but those are untranslated so there's context I'm missing. It appears that like Lucrezia, he becomes a figure later on, and usually is shown to bring out the differences between the brothers.
In The Borgias Juan appears first in a very minor role, what with the focus being more on Rodrigo and Cesare and their interactions, and it's rather unflattering. He's the dumb one with the temper who likes to party and has a thing about being called a bastard or not Italian. Again here he's meant to be the one who makes Cesare look better. However as the series goes on the spotlight rests a little more on him and the family gets about equal screentime, and this casts him in a different light. He is still a complete lech, but he appears to be friendly, even playful with some of the women he's involved with. This includes Sancia, and the woman in the brothel where Cesare finds him. With that trigger of him, it reveals that he isn't dumb, he's got such a trigger because of the deep-seated issues that he's afraid of not being related to Rodrigo, on account of the lack of talent. He knows he's a fuck up, and when he's confronted with that and he can't lash out, it eats away at him. Lastly on the matter of temper he's shown that he doesn't want to fight as much as it first appears, torn between his duties and his concerns about his lack of ability when it comes to war. In fact when rewatching earlier scenes those hints stand out, in his first scene he nearly draws his sword, but refrains, and it's more the goading that brings things to a head. The dickish behavior is also accompanied by a genuine smile and a less serious view of things. He's prideful, but that false pride is what holds together a very unsure person, shoved into a position he's unequipped to do. He's a rogue, but that's okay, because he is Cesare's counterbalance. Cesare is too serious and too sullen, while Juan doesn't take things seriously enough, together they cancel each other out.
In Assassin's Creed Juan dies early on, and not even in the game proper, murdered by Cesare's hand. He doesn't even get a character design separate from Juan the banker. Thanks canon, thanks. >/
How Shaun feels about him: Shaun... really doesn't care much. He finds the version from The Borgia's interesting, but he hasn't really analyzed it. To him, much like to many others, he's just that brother who died.
Rodrigo in history is one of the two main figures that historians tend to focus on. He's viewed as a prime example of why nepotism is bad, the corruption of the church, and so on. While these are debated, the fact is that he was a caring father, he was trying to secure a future for his family, and he did have to work against a system that was biased against him. In that vein, depictions vary wildly.
In Cesare, he is in fact a doting father, more to Juan and Lucrezia than Cesare, but also deeply caring about Cesare as well. He does take Cesare away from his mother, but he feels that why he does so is right, and he does jump to help out when Cesare asks something from him. He's also topped by the women in his life, and when he's not being political, he's being kind of a fail (but still pulling it off) with the ladies. I seriously love this version of Rodrigo.
In The Borgias Rodrigo is played by Jeremy Irons, and is written by the same guy who did The Tutors. So it's pretty magical. He alternates between insane, plotting, dryly sarcastic, a loving father, gentle, harsh... he's all over the place. Eventually you do figure out how he coalesces into a whole, but it takes awhile to figure him out.
In Assassin's Creed is a rat bastard son of a bitch, at least in the movie and the second game. This would be my problem with ac2, is that in focusing so much on Ezio's story that they couldn't focus as much on Rodrigo without losing some of the impact and flow they built up. So while I like ac2 for how they drove one plot along so well, I love brotherhood for how they fleshed him out more. In Brotherhood he's calmed down a bit more from his absolutely crazy self, and settled into a more neutral position, rather glad to stick to politics, and facepalming at how his son has taken over things and promptly went to restart the Assassin/Templar war by doing the equivalent of sticking his dick in a beehive. He also tries to stop the war the only way he can by that point, which is still cutthroat and cruel, but it shows that he just wants the entire thing over with, and that the Borgia are more aligned by familial taste, than by loyalty to a Templar or Assassin cause.
How Shaun feels about him: Shaun doesn't care about Rodrigo from his world, he can rot for all he cares, and in fact would quite like to see that. Rodrigo from The Borgias makes him facepalm, but he has to admit he has some good moments, so it's at least watchable, and Cesare... Well his first experience was with Cesare's mental version of him, so while he's glad to see the father that history presented, he also wants to tell him to fuck off and where he can shove the opinion that Shaun doesn't have a point. He sees a lot of Cesare in Rodrigo, and he's not sure if that's because of how he met him, or if Cesare picked that up from him. Either way if this Rodrigo was in camp, it'd be interesting, and it could go either way.
Lucrezia Borgia has gotten a lot of contradicting views over the years, "oh no, she's a saint!", "Oh no, she's a dirty harlot!", "Oh no, she's a calculating schemer!", "no really, she's as dumb as a cow!" (the last one is an actual godamned quote). The fact is that she was none of these extremes, and appeared to be an intelligent woman, thrown into some really shitty situations. Like Rodrigo, depictions vary, but many of the modern ones have been sliding to a mixture of these ideas.
In Cesare, Lucrezia appears to have a naiveté, at least at first. However it's very clearly shown that while she doesn't have the most clues about some things, she does have a good head on her shoulder, knows how tweak a situation in her favor, and bucks the trend of female expectations as presented in the manga. The mangaka also goes on further in one video special, pointing out that she was aware of these things, so it's not on accident that she comes off this way. So yeah, the mangaka is writing her as a sharp girl, who will grow into a sharp woman. Awesome.
In The Borgias Lucrezia also appears to fit the doe-eyed innocent idea, but after this worldview is painfully shattered, she adapts and become much more cunning, rather quickly. By the end of the first season she's managed to diplomat her way out of a war, and a marriage, and has grown considerably as a character. While at first I rolled my eyes at how she was portrayed, the person she became warranted another look at her earlier scenes, and yeah, her early scenes make sense. Juan and her are equal reasons I watch this show, seriously.
In Assassin's Creed Lucrezia shines. I won't lie, this is my favorite version, and if there was one character I wanted in camp outside of teammates, it's her. I know it would cause the Assassin cast some scuffles down the road if things went badly, but god, god, Lucrezia.
Of all the characters to drag the game back to it's original roots about neutrality, Lucrezia is the prime example of this intent. Sharp minded and sharp tongued (and also quick tempered), she's not someone to back down, even with the head of the Assassins standing in front of her and trying to get information. Oh no, she tells him, point blank, while being held hostage, just how his side also fucked up and did things that were wrong. In fact some of the most aggressive, incendiary dialogue happens between Catarina Sforza and Lucrezia Borgia, and that is saying something, in this game, the women fight as hard as the men. (Lucrezia as a parting gesture takes a wrought-iron rod to Catarina's hip, Catarina returns the favor later by slamming Lucrezia's head into the metal bars of the cell.) She also returns Cesare's infidelities in kind, getting him jealous because fuck you brother, if you can do it, so will I. Despite this, she's also shown as being rather loving to the people she cares about, to her son, to Cesare, and to her lovers, one of which responds to this by cursing her name later on and slandering her. The topic of her and Cesare's incest is also viewed as a more equal relationship, both of them viewing it as just something they do and nothing to be ashamed of. It's not a "oh no he's/she's my family, HOW SINFUL boo hoo", but the relationship is more dysfunctional because of what they do in acts of jealousy and Cesare's madness, not because of blood ties. They own what they do and how they're doing it, and in that way they're more like a normal couple and an exeption to how incestuous relationships are usually played out in media. It's with this in mind that the end of the game is more crushing to her, and in the dlc not only is her grief palpable, but it is just as valid as the rest of her actions. In so few scenes of gameplay, she gets so much characterization and personality, and she's really the character that shows the gray area in the Borgias in Assassin's creed.
How Shaun feels about her: Shaun hasn't really met Lucrezia from Cesare's world, so he doesn't really have an opinion of her yet. Lucrezia from The Borgias gets more sympathy because she did get a rotten deal, and Lucrezia from Ac... that's a complicated thing. On a strategic level he knows to treat her as dangerous at best, hostile at worst, and if she were in camp to make sure Cesare doesn't get dragged in to whatever she's doing (because gdi Cesare you are like a puppy being tempted with a treat just inside a glass door. Make a run for it and it will only end in manipulation and pain). On an emotional level though... even though he doesn't know and can't really know the dlc thanks to spoilers, he sees that what happened to her is terrible, the way she was treated was terrible, and she genuinely believed that her brother was doing a good thing. He would hope she wanted a truce and meant it, because she'd gone through quite a bit already, and there's some sympathy in him because of that.
Cesare Is the one everybody writes about. He's that complicated mess that if there's anyone who gets distorted more than Rodrigo, it's him. I could write essays about what he was most likely really like and all of that, but I'll be blunt, Cesare's player already did it, and much better than me. If you want some in-depth essays about him and his world? go wander around on Cesare's journal and read her essays. In media though, he usually gets either the "bastard" representation, or the "superman of awesome" treatment. It's only recently that I've noticed a more balanced view.
In The Borgias Cesare as a whiny emo brat. ...Okay okay, at least at first. Truth is that he is struggling with himself and he does get more character development later on, but the fact is that the actor they got really makes me want to punch him in the face. Like all the time. Seriously a customer came in that sort of looked like him once, and I had to resist face-punching. The fact is that if they had gotten a different actor to play him, the writing would stand up better and his transition would go more smoothly, as is though I found myself liking Cesare despite the actor by the end of it, and he even gets a good line or two in. When Juan comes into the picture he's not just the hawkish one who morals at people all the time, he's one part of a set of brothers, and what Juan brings out in him makes him more human.
In Assassin's Creed Cesare is a godamn sexy beast- I mean insane. Insane and a sexy beast. Godamn, is there anything more gorgeous than that voice of his? Answer: no. He even makes creepy winged baby armor look good. Besides dthat ass he is also a strange mix of all the rumors about him, a complete bastard, but charming and cunning. He's also a Templar who does want a greater goal and even Lucrezia says he's trying to work for the people. It's subject to the fact that Cesare is insane and doesn't have the best idea of how to go about that... at all. But even in the spoiler he shows that he did think he was doing a good thing, and that the elimination of the Assassins would be a major victory on the way to that goal. And well. if we look at things, then yes he was right in attacking. While Ezio had no intention of really continuing the war at that point, other people in the order did, and the best time to strike was when they were off guard. What was his downfall was that he didn't eradicate them all in one swoop, and that he "invited" Ezio back to Roma and was blinded by his pride. In his story there's also a tragedy in that everything's slowly ripped away from him, until he's backed into a corner, like an animal, seeing enemies around him that were made by his own hand. His flaw is that he never learns, and so instead of seeing things differently, he lashes out. While he's far from the closest to the history, he's an interesting character, and it was one of the things that really drew me into the series.
How Shaun feels about him: The Borgias Cesare makes Shaun laugh because as much as Cesare in camp tries to deny it, there's some moments where he does act like the one on the show. And man does it amuse Shaun. Yes yes Cesare, you're not an angsty teen in black who's rebelling a little, why is it that you won't listen to the adults' reasons until you break something again? The Cesare from his world is someone who he seems to respect at least his cunning, but yeah, no, he's someone who should have ended up in the fire. He sees the tragedy, but at the same time it's more something that it's his goal to keep from happening to Cesare in camp.
believe in himself'>Cesare in camp
However, Cesare in camp is different than nearly any other representation. In this the author paints him first as a dark and mysterious person, as someone genial and concerned with the greater good, but then slowly starts to peel back that side to show the Cesare people have issues with. He cares about the people, but is willing to manipulate them to accomplish his goals. He's loyal to his friends, but uses them shamelessly. Hi is aware of social status and customs, but holds himself apart from the group and in some social gatherings. he advocates justice, but resorts to violent interrogation of his would-be-assassin, and has the bodies his men killed thrown into the river. Seemingly calm, but in possession of so much anger and pride when provoked. Believing in equality of race and faith, but surprised when a Florentine gets the better of him when it comes to art. Wanting to be an instrument of god, but is so very, very willing to sin.
In short, every bit the contradiction that the historical Cesare was.
In one of Cesare's player's essays, she comments that the true Cesare may never be revealed, and that she liked it that way. And I felt that way too, however from the books I picked up later and the scans starting to come out now, even more of the mask is being stripped away, and far from ruining things by explaining it all, it enhances things by showing that he really is all those things at once. In a way he's not only lying to others by showing carefully-constructed masks made out of himself, but also underneath it all he's also lying just as much to himself. He's not a demon, or an angel, he's himself, utterly human. his friends, when they truly get to know him end up coming to the same conclusion, his heart's in the right place, but his mind's a little... twisted.
This is the exact word that his friends use to describe him, and for Shaun, it's the same too. Cesare's history and his don't just cover a period for the tiny little warlord, but also for Shaun. Through this they've seen both each other's glaring flaws, and their good points, and it's led to them both affecting each other. it's simply impossible to go over Shaun's major character growth without going over Cesare's interactions with him, they're just too tangled up in each other's lives. It was Cesare who spurred Shaun on to looking at how he treated people and why it was a bad thing. The fact you have to remember is that Shaun went from being a teacher, to losing everything and being on the run for two years, while also being involved in murder, something that it's not really fond of. In that time there's obviously a difference in his historian personality, and when he's operating normally, so he'd clearly become more jaded, and his social skills suffered for it too. Cesare rather sharply gave Shaun the push to look at himself and realize that things had changed, and that he had to change and get better at that little social thing again. This is what let him get closer to Cesare, and what got Cesare to start his plan to wrap Shaun around his little finger, which backfired spectacularly when he started to genuinely like Shaun. They've been more or less hanging around each other ever since. Cesare's been the one to call Shaun out on whenever he does a thing, the one to test his patience, the one to make him feel strangely normal and like a teacher again, the one who connects with that same sort of info hunting drive, and also the same sort of ways of dealing with things sometimes. Cesare's player said it best, when they're not at each other's throats, they work very well together. For the past few months they were working on figuring out what made each other snap, and when they got it, they either started trying to get to the root of the problem or working around it. At this point they've had false trust that transferred into real trust, betrayal, insanity, death, trauma, hurt, and each other's own strange sense of comfort and trying to help. They've ended up getting so connected that out of the headspace/heartgame/whatevers, only each other was able to get to the most hidden part of the other one. And okay yeah that sounded pretty gay.
No, they're not bangin'
whiiiiich brings us to the matter of sexuality between those two. Which is to say none. See for all their close connection and excexc, Shaun and Cesare do not feel any romantic sort of Thing between each other. On Cesare's side it's simple, he's straight and Shaun is ew and no. Shaun's a bit more hard to explain because I don't quite rule out that he's not bi, just a very strongly female leaning bi. With characters like kuhn he was mostly female leaning with exceptions, Shaun is even more so. No what Shaun isn't is a pedophile, and that's what he, a man in his mid-to-late twenties, would feel like for even having a speck of interest in a sixteen year old boy. Cesare isn't like the cannibals that Kuhn interacted with, where they might look young but have experience that makes them mostly adults (Cielo). Cesare is a teenager, a teenager who's got more on his shoulders and at an age nearer to adult in his time period, but still very much a teen in some things. On top of that is the fact that he was a professor. If anything that just makes him hyper aware of anything that might be damaging to a minor. Now that he's found out that Cesare thinks of him as his tutor, he's not sure what to do, but "make out" is not one of them.
Being Cesare's tutor just messes with Shaun a little. There was a soooooort of unspoken agreement between Shaun and Cesare that Shaun was teaching him things and being sarcastic, and Cesare was the brat who would learn and annoy Shaun at all hours of the day for lessons and information. but "Tutor" brings with it a responsibility that Shaun's not sure he's qualified for. Cesare's been hurt around him, he's been killed around him, Shaun's killed him when there was no other way for him to be merciful and let him live. It tore him up every time it happened, but it did, and chances are that it'll happen again. There's also the aspect of what being an Assassin entails. Say that Cesare did go corrupt, it's up to Shaun to relay that information and essentially give the word that Cesare needs to be neutralized in whatever's the most effective way. He'd feel horrible for having to do it, but being his tutor makes it even worse. That alone commands that Cesare does not come to any harm, he'd be violating the very essence of what Cesare considers him to be. He can't just dismiss it because that label came from Cesare's own heartspace, but accepting it means possibly taking on a responsibility that he might have to break.
But what does that have to do with sexuality? Well first of all it pretty much kills any sort of thing from happening. Before I explained to anybody who shipped them that really age was the major factor and colors how he views Cesare. When Cesare is the tiny he's very protective and fully takes on the tutor and guardian role. Cesare needs protecting then, and he wants to safeguard that innocence too. The tiny is really a proto-Cesare, different enough to almost be a separate person, but all the things he'll see in Cesare later. An adult version would also be different, one that just timeskipped and acted the same and didn't grow up with the paradigm of Shaun as tutor would, in fact, possibly get Shaun thinking about other things in enough time. Cesare in camp is that liminal stage, and so he's also a separate person from all of that. However Cesare claiming Shaun as tutor means that most likely he'd grow into an adult with the view of Shaun=tutor/old teacher, and even if they were closer in age, the fact that Cesare matured like that would make Shaun feel like he was abusing an old relationship. Since Shaun doesn't really think about "Hey, would it be a creep thing to want to hit on your student now that he's an adult and still thinks of you as his former teacher?", it's pretty safe that this idea of view of their relationship won't change unless something happens that messes with the dynamic.
But yeah, in like an au where they ended up spending a few years as equals in Rome and without the tutor thing? ...Okay Cesare and Shaun would have probably had an accidental banging while drunk. Then it'd be awkward.