Hello, 4brathan&brucas!
Welcome to the board! I'm Alex, and it's nice to meet you!
Thanks for visiting our board and the Cesare/Lucrezia thread! And yes, I just added you to the shipper's list!
I hope you can visit more often whenever you can!
Wow, I totally agree with everything you said!
Although I do think that killing Juan off at the end of season 2 might not have been too soon, as Juan was killed prior to Cesare's ascent to becoming a military leader. And at least Juan made it to the end of season 2. On the other Borgia series, they killed him off at the end of season 1.
I agree, Jeremy Irons was the heart and soul of the show, and his acting was perfect. And David Oakes was sorely missed in season 3, but it was fascinating to see Juan's slow descent into self destruction. And while his syphilis probably contributed a lot to his erratic behavior near the end of his life, he killed Paolo before he contracted the disease, so he was already pretty cruel to begin with. Remember that scene where Lucrezia dropped that chandelier on him and his lover while they were in bed?
That was before he left for Spain, which is where he contracted syphilis. But he only got progressively worse from that point on, especially when he began taking opium. But you're right, I do wish his syphilis had been discovered by his family, but I'm not sure if it would've even made a difference by then. Cesare and Lucrezia both pretty much wanted him dead either way.
Thank you so much for stating how terribly underused Vanozza and Joanne Whalley was on this show.
While I do think she was a valuable character, she could've been used a lot more than she was. I didn't mind Giulia all that much, though, mostly because I'm a fan of Lotte.
The mistress subplot was important in that it did in fact happen, but I agree that it needn't have taken up so much of the plot. Giulia could've been handled a lot worse, to be honest.
Wow, that's an excellent analogy, comparing Cesare and Lucrezia to Heathcliff and Cathy!
You're right, Francois and Holly's chemistry was through the roof, and Neil Jordan might very well have shied away from their incestuous romance if it hadn't been for Francois and Holly insisting that he pursue it, pointing out that it had already been implied in the storyline that he wrote from the beginning.
But at least Jordan himself admitted that Cesare and Lucrezia were two people who were perfectly suited for each other as a couple if it hadn't been for their being siblings.
Yes, we were devastated when we didn't get a fourth season like we'd been promised when the show first came on the air.
Jordan had stated that he intended for the show to go four seasons, and his excuse that he didn't have enough material for a fourth season seemed like BS to me if you consider how much actual history was left following the fall of Caterina Sforza. Cesare's conquest of Italy, Lucrezia's third marriage, Rodrigo's death, della Rovere's treachery in assuming power afterwards, Cesare's imprisonment, escape, and his eventual death, etc. How can anyone say there wasn't enough material for ten more episodes?
But it's true that if we had gotten Jordan's "Apocalypse," we would've gotten a story that completely contradicted everything that had been established in the first three seasons.
Cesare and Lucrezia were like totally different people in that script, and I agree that Jordan just didn't seem to care anymore. While I like the way things ended in 'The Prince," I also like to imagine that if we did get a final season, it would've ended in a manner similar to the ending of the original BBC version of The Borgias back in the 1980's.
That ended with scenes switching back and forth between Cesare dying on the battlefield while Lucrezia reads his final letter to her and her children, his words professing his undying love to her while in his dying moments, his final thoughts are of her.
