#like first there was paolo

[moodyseal]

These looked so good already when I was them and now they're coloured and they're EVEN BETTER incredible showstopping spectacular 💕💕💕 Lester's brain just shuts off when there's Hyacinthus around

"It was time to say goodbye again" it's illegal to make me cry on my own post

This is probably like the third (and counting 🤭) Hyacinthus AU I've been thinking about but imagine: TOA stays mostly the same except Hyacinthus doesn't appear just once like in canon, but the dream near the end of THO is simply one of the many instances in which he reveals himself at random to bestow his ominous counsel upon Apollo

It'd be added guidance—not only does Apollo have the Arrow of Dodona to guide him in his decision-making and to give him answers on the spot for any of his questions, but his ex boyfriend is now here to terrorize him with vague predictions of the future as well! Pocket Oracle

Hyacinthus' appearances are scarce at first and he can only appear in Apollo's dreams, but as time goes on he manages to somehow project himself in the real world as well (maybe it could have something to do with him being turned into a flower and not being an actual citizen of the Underworld? idk) so Apollo can actually talk to him for a longer time and see him more clearly

Apollo is obvioysly surprised and distressed about it at first, but then he grows more used to seeing him, though of course neither of them can control for how long they'll see each other or when

Still, even for such a small opportunity, they're happy

(Additional comedic bits of this AU to counterbalance the angst of two lovers not being able to touch each other and being forced into separation time and time again:

- The Arrow gets incredibly jealous in a "excuse me ACTUALLY I was his magical aid and source of info first gtfo" kind of way

- Meg and the others see him talking to the air and gazing at it lovingly multiple times and decide, without further investigation, that he finally lost it

- Every single time he dreams of Hyacinthus he wakes up with a pot of hyacinths in his hands without fail and no one can figure out where those flowers came from. A popular theory among the demigods is that his only remaining power is creating flowers. Others say he used the pot as a teddy bear)

[fishsticksart]

Francesca - Hozier

If someone asked me at the end, I'll tell them put me back in it

[Francesca, Hozier // The Ghosts of Paolo and Francesca Appear to Dante and Virgil, Ary Scheffer // Francesca, Hozier // Canto V, Inferno, Dante Alighieri // Francesca (Official Video), Hozier // Francesca, Hozier // Ship on Stormy Seas, Ivan Aivazovsky // Francesca, Hozier // Canto V, Inferno, Dante Alighieri // Paolo and Francesca, Mosè Bianchi // Francesca, Hozier // Paolo and Francesca da Rimini, Gustave Doré // Before Romeo and Juliet, Paolo and Francesca Were Literature’s Star-Crossed Lovers, John-Paul Heil // Paolo and Francesca, Frank Dicksee // Francesca i Paolo, Ludwik Wiesiołowski // Before Romeo and Juliet, Paolo and Francesca Were Literature’s Star-Crossed Lovers, John-Paul Heil // Paolo and Francesca da Rimini, Dante Gabriel Rossetti // Francesca, Hozier // Francesca (Later with Jools Holland), Hozier on BBC Music // Canto V, Inferno, Dante Alighieri // tumblr user @handgf // The Kiss, Auguste Rodin // Paolo e Francesca, or Morte di Paolo e Francesca, Gaetano Previati // Hozier // Hozier // Hozier]

[spiritoast]

tried drawing don paolo. got out of hand very quickly

[delicate-sketch]

I refuse to believe rr made a character called Will that is from Texas uses flip flops (thats a Havaiana excuse me) cargo shorts has tan skin that everyone looked and said you know what he def knows how to shoot and didn’t gave him brazilian roots

[steviesbicrisis]

Eddie Munson who gets his Lizzie McGuire moment by going to Rome with an university art program.

The only requirement is to visit museums regularly and redraw the art pieces in his style and submit his work by the end of it.

What seems to be a piece of cake for Eddie, gets a lot more complicated when the average Italian museum worker is met with his peculiar drawings style -which might include evil dragons and decapitated heads in some of Caravaggio’s Still Lives and, in worst cases, some additions to Christian art pieces that have been described as “blasphemy” as he was getting escorted out and banned from the Vatican’s Museums (and maybe the whole country, Eddie still doesn’t know so he avoids that part of the city just to be safe).

And Eddie, who will never compromise his work integrity for a few Italian bigots, ends up in one of the least known and visited museums of the city. Which still, by his standards, contains fine art he can work on.

And if this particular museum, which is one hour and a half of public transport from his house, has a really hot security guard who follows him closely and barks at every tourist that tries to take a picture of his drawings, he surely won’t complain.

[whos-hotter-jjba]

Single dad competition? George I, part 4 Joseph (maybe not technically single, but he was thotting it up around Morioh with insanely divorced energy), Paolo Bucciarati, part 6 Jotaro, Norisuke Higashikata IV, and Obanazawa if you count spinoff characters!

Sorry for letting your ask rot in the askbox so long :(

Single Dad (Vibes) Showdown

[helianthus21]

wait wait wait so when Paolo says "Vincenzo, my friend. My brother" Vin only answers with "Paolo, my brother"

vs. Han-seo saying "sitting here with you feels like drinking with a friend, and you feel like a brother to me"

[darklight-owl]

Being the only Layton fan in all Latam is weird bc I hear people call Don Paolo "don" and I'll be like "hah they're calling him by his honorific as if it were his name" and then I realize no one else knows that's an honorific and Don is just a name to you all.

[stoportotouch]

tozer and hickey between them have the complete energy of one of paolo albiani (from verdi's simon boccanegra). this is a joke which will certainly land with the majority of the terror's fandom and with the majority of opera fans.

[charmfamily]

(SEMI) CHARMED KIND OF LIFE: EPISODE 2, PART IV. “THE HARDEST PART IS SAYING SORRY (WITH YOUR DIGNITY INTACT)”

Transcript Below.

AKIRA: If you don’t pull out all the stops, he’ll be following her to work, hanging out at her house, trying to weasel his bitch ass out of the friend zone– you can’t do what you wanna do and beat the shit out of him, Grace will get pissed off and definitely kick you out, number one, and two, it’ll make you look bad and not him, so maybe you gotta do some stuff that’s a little bit underhanded. She’s probably already being manipulated when you think about it, like he’s gonna try to talk her out of fixing shit with you and give her every reason he can think of not to take you back so he can get in there. You’re just counter-manipulating the manipulation going on behind your back in order to negate him fucking you over, like it all works out and ends up being morally neutral or whatever.

DAMIEN: Those core class Psych lectures really paid off for you, didn’t they?

AKIRA: I didn’t go to that shit. I got stuck in the 8 AM every time ‘cause it filled up stupid fast and that was the only slot left at registration, so I just skimmed the chapters and then showed up for the exams. 

DAMIEN: Okay it has to be luck, how the fuck else do you breeze through every single one of your Core Humanities not even going to lecture?! AKIRA: Four semesters of Core Humanities and two semesters of Core Ethics of Advanced Spellcasting, didn’t go to those either. Hot tip? The shrooms the Practicals were growing under their dorm got me through all of it, especially the essay questions– I couldn’t tell you what the course material was about or what the fuck any of my answers were, but they were bangers.

[simthorium]

“WHOOOOOOA!!!! WE’RE HALFWAY THEREEEEE!” Luna screamed at the top of her lungs in the club. Livin’ on a Prayer wasn’t exactly her cup of tea, but she was several drinks in, and living her best life. “I’ve been alive for centuries, and must say, I’ve never seen anyone as committed to embarrassing themselves in public as you,” said her new best friend, Count Paolo.

Luna smacked him before they started dancing together. “You’re such an asshole,” she laughed. “And you love me for it,” he said dramatically.

The two danced the night away...literally. The sun was just about to rise when they excited Club Lu Lu, the hottest club in Midtown. Luna wrapped her arms around Count Paolo, sinking into the hug. “I wish I could spend all night out with you every night,” she said with a sigh. “Regular life is boooooring.” “You mean that?” Paolo asked. “Hell yeah, I do,” she said. “You have the coolest life. Sleeping all day and partying all night? That’s literally a dream come true for me.”

“Well,” Count Paolo said, his mouth twitching into a smile, showing off his sharp fangs. “If you’re sure about that...” He leaned into Luna, hugging her again and she hugged him back. Suddenly, Paolo plunged his teeth into her neck! Luna’s body became limp against his as the changes began to take place inside of her.

Suddenly, her limp body stiffened and Luna shot up into the air, a ghostly purple aura wafting around her. She felt powerful and dark, the vampire blood overtaking her system. Count Paolo threw his head back, laughing into the night.

“GRRRRR!” Luna said, hunched over as she attempted her first bleh! “That was pretty good,” said Paolo. “Add the teeth in next time, it’ll be even scarier.” Luna shook her head, suddenly very, very sober. “Wait, what the hell?” she asked.

Luna grabbed a compact mirror from seemingly nowhere and whipped it around in front of her. She put it right in front of her face, squinting. Was she still drunk, or was she just seeing things? Or...not seeing things; her reflection was nowhere to be seen! “Oh my god!” Luna shouted. “I’m a vampire!?”

“In the flesh, darling!” Count Paolo said, proudly. “I don’t bite just anyone, but your proclivity for nighttime activities, and our tons of fun after sunset heavily influenced my decision.” Luna wanted to be upset, but she couldn’t bring herself to be. She looked down at her now grayish arms and felt her cold skin. “You know what?” she said. “I can work with this!”

[english-history-trip]

Ever see a depiction of St. George and the Dragon? It's pretty fair to say if you've seen one, you've seen them all: Georgie on a horse stabbing a flailing dragon creature, princess piously kneeling in the background, vague landscape alluding to the homeland of the artist's patron.

The most varied part is the dragons. No one had a real definition for the thing, it seemed. For your pleasure and entertainment, I have ranked some medieval depictions based on how impressive George's feat seems once you see the dragon.

Paolo Uccello, 1456

This is a terrifying beast. The hell is that. Uccello was one of the first experimenters with perspective, so the thing also looks surreal, like it's taking place on Mars, or a Windows 95 screensaver. I would not want to fight that, I would not want to be tied to that. (Sometimes the princess is tied to the dragon for some reason.) 10/10

Horse thoughts: Maybe if I look at the ground it will be gone when I look up

Unknown artist, c. 1505

This is a rare change of form for the dragon; it's the only one I've seen actually flying (or at least falling with style). It doesn't look particularly deterred by the spear through its throat, either. Also, George looks appropriately nervous. On the other hand, it hasn't got teeth, it seems to be fuzzy rather than having scaly armor, and George is bolstered by his army of Henry VII and his children, most of whom definitely didn't actually die in infancy. Still, wouldn't want to fight it, wouldn't want my pet sheep near it. (Sometimes the princess has a pet sheep for some reason.) 9/10

Horse thoughts: I am so glad I wore my mightiest feather helmet for this

Raphael, 1505

We are coming to Dragons With Problems. This guy looks about comparable in size to George, and does have wings, but doesn't seem to be using these things to his advantage (and has he only got one wing?) And how does he deal with the neck? He does have a comically small head, but holding it up with such a twisty neck seems complicated at best. But most egregiously, he is doing the shitty superheroine pose where he is somehow simultaneously showcasing his chest and his butt, with its unnecessarily defined butthole (more on this later) (regrettably). 8/10 bc it's Raphael

Horse thoughts: AM I THE BESTEST BOI? AM I DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB? WE R DRAGON SLAYING BUDDIEZ

The Beauchamp Hours, c. 1401

We had a spirited debate about this one at work. Again, the dragon has gotten smaller, and this one hasn't got even one wing. He's basically a crocodile. So the debate became: would you want to fight a crocodile if you had a horse and a pointy stick? Would the horse trample the animal, who can't get on its hind legs, or freak out and throw its rider? Would the pointy stick be enough to pierce the croc's thick hide? In this case, George seems to be controlling his horse and putting his pointy stick in the dragon's weak spot, so we can be impressed by his skill and strategy. However, his hat is dumb. 7/10

Horse thoughts: Dehhhh

Book of Hours, c. 1480

Here we have the same kind of croco-dragon, but George's focus on his strategy has gone out the window. He's flailing around, not even looking at his target, he's about to lose his pointy stick, he hasn't got a hand on the reins, and his sword seems to only be poking the invisible dragon over his shoulder. All he's got going for him is that his hat is slightly less dumb. 6/10

Horse thoughts: Yay, new friend! Come play with me, new fr- what is happening

Final dragons put behind this Read More for your safety:

Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1432

I'm thinking this guy is at least semi-aquatic. Webbed feet, wings that seem more like fins, bipedal but top-heavy, jaws that seem more for scooping than biting. Maybe she's crawled up here from the nearby body of water to lay her eggs, and this is all a big misunderstanding. Moreover, George's dagged sleeves seem entirely impractical for the situation. 5/10

Horse thoughts: i got my hed stuk in a jar and now it is this way forever

Unknown artist, c. 15th century

I hate this. I hate everything about it. Why has it got human eyes and teeth. Why is its nose melting. Why has it got a dick on its face and balls under its chin. The fin/wings are back but they look even more useless. Also, George is shifty as hell, schlumped over in his saddle with his bowler hat thing over his eyes. The baby dragon at the bottom eating some hapless would-be rescuer is kind of metal. 4/10 at least the thing is gonna die

Horse thoughts: I Have Smoked So Much Crack

Book of Hours, c. 1450

Remember what I said about the buttholes? First, sorry. Second, yeah, we're back to that. I'll admit this one is less about the danger from the dragon itself than the very specific choices the artist has made. They didn't need to do that. It's a lizard. They don't even have. And it's like they had an orifice budget and they skipped an exit wound for the spear to focus. Elsewhere. It's so detailed. And George had an even dumber hat. 2/10 take it away

Horse thoughts: I Have Smoked So Much Weed

Book of Hours, c. 1415

This is just bullying. There isn't even a princess. That is clearly an infant. Look at that smug look on George's face as he swings his sword that's bigger than the whole little guy. This is the equivalent of when DJT Jr. hunted those sleeping endangered sheep. 1/10

Horse thoughts: ....yikes

And this is the previous one, but now the baby dragon is cute. He's chubby. He's got toe beans. He's Puff the Magic Dragon. His eyes have already gone white, implying that George is just kicking its corpse around for funsies. What's the difference between the dragon and the lamb in the background? That the dragon is dead, like our innocence. This George is truly deserving of the dumbest hat of all. 0/10 plus one more butthole for the road

Horse thoughts: Perhaps it is we who are the buttholes.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Nonblacks in fandoms are literally brainwired to not care about black characters.When it comes to Disney Princess ship aus it's always Ariel and Eric or Rapunzel and Eugune but never Tiana and Naveen or Brandy's Cinderella and Paolo's Prince Charming.Hazel is a trio with Nico and Percy but is always replaced with Jason for 'The Big Three Boys' despite Percy being closer to her and Jason only becoming friends with Nico being used as a pity case for him by witnessing him being force outed and is defanged even though she's on par with Percy and her design whitefeminized because Pjo fans can't comprehend black girl features as feminine.Allura was the only good part of Voltron but she was bashed for daring to be the love of the lives of the two fan fave male characters instead of them realizing they only 'think' they hate eachother and applied every misogynoir stereotype to her under the guise of progressiveness

Duke is forgotten as a Batkid,Robin and Batboy based off a requirement rule that's never been said in canon or even joked about by official sources and Kory and Tam are shoved out of their romantic narratives with Dick and Tim to fit the 'redheads and blondes' rule even though Dick's dated more black women than redheads and Tim's first girlfriend dyed her hair blonde because she thought that's why he liked Stephanie more and he made a twisted expression of horror as his thought box said 'I...hate it'.Luz has her blackness invalidated almost always by NONblacks only,Gus is a canon black4brown mlm in a teenage romcom-esque ship but Toh fans ignore him and Mattholomule to obsses over Hunter and Edric as they 'roast' Huntlow too when Edric might as well not exist in comparison to Willow's depth and abundance of screentime,Camila was never given a chance and branded an abusive mom or spicy latina armcandy for Eda and Darius gets jackshit despite Hunter's whole ass entire dad and having a canon backstory with Eda,Raine and Lilith as classmates

Gumlee and Bubbline have much less content than completely noncanonical white gay ships and even after we saw Elise Marceline still wasn't popularly drawn black as human despite her being confirmation for Marcie and by extention Marsh being biracial.Oscar is said to have no personality by the same people who run blogs dedicated to fucking JAUNE AND SUN and his importance to Ruby downplayed for a mean white girl who bullied her for being a younger autistic girl and Emerald is easily the most deep and prettiest antagonist but hardly anybody hardcore stans her or ships her even including Mercury

Miles has zero crossover genres and i mean GENRES a la Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons not the occasional one-off fanart and niche fic despite everything about Spiderverse being prime crossover material especially now that we have Atsv yet Danny F/P gets in on all of them including being JASON'S COUNTERPART when MILES is exactly like him while Danny's literally just ghost-themed and has nothing in common with Jason including being different flavors of deaths and ressurections and Margo is made out to be a desperate loser over Miles even though he showed even MORE more interest in HER and Hobie is passiveaggressively turned into Gwen's 'canon brother figure' despite the FIRST thing we learned about him is that they were gonna be a thing and it made it into the final project as confirmed by the creators who said the viewers can choose if they were dating or not and Jessica did nothing but be a good adoptive mom to Gwen after her cop dad kicked her out,have chemistry with Miguel,her own inner turmoil too and serve cunt and y'all either hated or ignored her for it BECAUSE she's a black woman but not a m*mmy or a minstrel show,don't even lie

And they notice NONE of this despite it happening every.fucking.time.They never prioritize or treasure black people in their lives if they even have any and they smacktalk black celebrities for the same reason they worship nonblack ones too.They make a mockery of black culture with butchered aave and whitewashed black aesthetics and calling our food disgusting and our romantic tactics inherently perverted(see the oversexualization of 'babygirl' when just means 'sweet black girl' and is meant to be comforting and can even be used platonically by older male relatives).They don't see color.They don't see us at all.They deliberately turn a blind eye to all the nonstop microagression they do towards our representation which they've NEVER limited to fictional characters-see how every black actor ever gets harrased!!!-yet act all 'woke' because they unlearned queerphobia and ableism.Yeah?Unlearn THIS propaganda too snowroaches

[literallyjusttoa]

Finally got around to doing this, here are some rough sketches of my idea of how Lester looks each book! Some books are more different than others, like I don't think much changed between books 1 and 2, but I had fun doing this! Look under the cut for some notes about things I added for each design.

Book 1: Not much changes from how he's described in the books. All of the clothes he borrowed from Percy are a bit too big for him, but the flannel he borrowed from Will fits pretty well, only being slightly too long (I think Will has like, an inch over Lester)

Book 2: Basically the same as book 1 Lester. He keeps the flannel Will gave him, but it gets pretty beat up over the course of this book so he has to switch it out before book 3 :(. Hair is just a lil bit longer, and he gets clothes that fit a bit better. Headcanon time bc if Rick won't give me substantial Thalia and Apollo interaction I'll make it myself: Thalia gives Lester archer's gloves at the end of TDP, which he wears for the rest of the series. He didn't even think to wear gloves bc as a god he wouldn't need them, but Thalia noticed his beat up to shit hands at the Waystation and went "bestie... bestie no...." and gave him a pair.

Book 3: Will's flannel has been swapped for a big coat and Lester get his iconic pink camo pants. His hair is long enough to start getting weighed down a bit, and also way messier bc he's been in the labyrinth for like a month. The beat up sneakers he was wearing in books 1 & 2 get replaced with much more reasonable boots. Eyebrow scar shows up, a reminder from one of the many concussions this poor man has suffered. Also another HC time! Georgie gives Lester a little handkerchief that he wears for the rest of the series (I was gonna use Paolo's handkerchief, but Lester canonically gives that back so boo)

Book 4: The Lester looks like shit book /j. His hair is now long enough that he should really be doing something with it but he is not. He has a zip up hoodie now to cover up all his fun purple veins. Just more beat up in general honestly. Also I hc that Apollo actually lost some weight here (both bc he wasn't really eating well before getting to New Rome bc of stress/grief, and bc he got really sick and continued to not eat well while that was happening) But it obviously doesn't do anything to help his self-esteem or mood in this book. Kind've a visual way of being like "the superificial flaws Apollo clung to in the first book weren't the real issue, he was just hyperfixating on them to distract himself from what he was really upset about, so when the superficial issues get solved he doesn't even notice bc he's grown enough as a character to cut the bullshit and focus on what's really bothering him." or idk something like that. I like to contrast this with a hc I've mentioned before about the time between books 4 and 5, which is that the physical flaws Apollo whined about in book 1 (i.e. the acne and his weight) get "worse" throughout the road trip from California to New York, but Apollo truly just does not care that much about that shit anymore and that's why it doesn't come up in the narration.

Book 5: Final Lester! It's been over a month since the last book so I'm taking liberties and saying Lester's hair is long enough to pull up now bc I want him to be able to do that goddammit. Final outfit is borrowed from Percy again, so that's why it's so big. He also has a pendant that Lavinia gave to him bc they're besties. Also I forgot to mention it, but his shoulders are slightly broader here (and have been getting broader throughout the series) bc he's been working those muscles so much with the constant archery.

Also I didn't draw his quiver bc honestly I forgor, but I like to imagine he's been getting little pins and bobs from a lot of his friends that he's been sticking on his quiver strap. A few examples that come to mind are:

Kayla: A classic hot topic pin with a sun with sunglasses on it.

Leo: A pin made of scrap metal with the alchemical symbol for fire carved in.

Agave: Pinned a clover to Apollo's quiver for good luck. It didn't stay on there long, but it was the thought that counted.

Hazel: A piece of citrine decorated with metal cords.

Lavinia: Another classic hot topic pin, this one is heart shaped and has a picture of Hatsune Miku on it.

Jason: One of the monopoly houses he'd been using to mark the positions for the temples. A lot of the little houses had fallen off the diorama during the car crash at the beginning of TTT. The night after, Apollo asked Reyna if he could make sure the diorama was fixed. Reyna agreed, and he put it back together based on what he remembered. He spent an hour or so gluing on houses and hotels for Mars, Somnus, Fons, Salus, and on and on, until he got to the last one. A red hotel meant to show where the temple of Apollo would go. Apollo poked a little hole in it, and fastened it to his quiver with a bobby pin. It's nestled close to where the strap meets the quiver itself, so it's less likely to fly off.

Meg: Pinned a rose petal to his quiver right before he went to fight Python. It lasted for even less time than Agave's clover did, but again, it was the thought that counted.

[shuutingstar]

look who’s bored again. me, i am. have some pjo side character incorrect quotes because i love them so much.

~

Paolo: what does “Take Out” mean?

Connor: Food.

Valentina: Dating.

Laurel and Holly: Murder.

Sherman: all three if you’re not a coward!

Connor: Me and Malcolm were playing Scrabble and it was a nightmare.

Juniper: Scrabble? Scrabble’s great.

Connor: Not when you’re playing with Malcolm. He puts words like “ephemeral” and I put “dog.”

Mitchell: you’re petty.

Drew: you mispronounced ‘pretty’ but okay.

Ellis: crushes are the worst!

Cecil: yeah, whenever I’m near mine, I start acting stupid.

Ellis: pfft you’re always stupid.

Cecil: yeahhh, don’t think about that too hard.

Ellis:

Travis: if we put Luke, Thalia and Annabeth in a room, who do you think would come out crying first?

Connor: the room.

Jake: did you hear? Luke was almost hit by an arrow in training today!

Michael: I know. He was faster than I thought.

Jake:

Michael: don’t worry, I’ll get him next time.

Malcolm: gods, this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done!

Drew: aren’t you dating Connor?

Connor: that was uncalled for!

Mitchell: I want to be like a caterpillar.

Clovis: Explain.

Mitchell: eat a lot, sleep, wake up beautiful.

Clovis: you do know you would have a lifespan of about a week?

Mitchell: another highlight.

Katie: did you know cereal is basically cold breakfast soup?

Connor: *drops cereal bowl*

Travis: STOP SCARING THE KIDS KATIE!

Laurel: the risk I took was carefully calculated.

Billie and Damien: WE ALMOST DIED!

Laurel: I never said I was good at maths.

[borgialucrezia]

The tragic disconnection between Lucrezia Borgia and Juan Borgia::

What I find sad and compelling about Juan and Lucrezia's relationship is that every time he genuinely makes a gesture to make her happy, it inevitably ends up being misguided, resulting in her getting hurt in some way. Like the debauched play he had prepared for her as a surprise at her wedding to make her smile, not realizing that it would anger her husband and cause him to hate her and her family even more. The Paolo situation is where their dynamic changed forever. Juan, as someone who was assigned as the protector of the family by his father and is already feeling inadequate and incompetent in his position, already saw Paolo as a threat. A guy who could expose his sister, calling himself the father of her child, making demands to see her? Had Juan known what Sforza did to her, the hell she was living, and how she found solace in Paolo, most probably, he would've let Paolo live. He legitimately believed getting rid of him (and he was motivated by jealousy as he has incestuous feelings for Lucrezia)—was the right thing to do—and expected applause for his misguided notions of protecting his family's honor. He didn't realize how much he hurt Lucrezia and tried to make her understand that he did it to protect her honor and didn't mean to hurt her. When he realized that she tried to avenge Paolo and kill him, he made a speech about how their family triumphed because they weren't dysfunctional when they came to Rome, that they should always stick together, and that he's motivated by wanting safety for all of them. After he came back from Spain a changed man, he gifted his sister something that positively represented her—a stunning rare panther in a gilded cage—a genuine gesture to reconcile with her and earn her respect. However, it bites her, and they're unable to make peace. And after Cesare betrayed him at Forli, he spiraled once again, and he realized that no matter what he did, he would never earn his siblings' respect, specifically Lucrezia's. This realization hurt him and made him act on his impulsive as by lashing out at her and dangling her baby from the balcony, which also gave Cesare the motivation to do what he always wanted and justify his jealousy by murdering him.

"I had an amazing personal journey to go on with that character and hopefully I presented it with a sense and reality and hopefully you will feel a bit sorry for the guy. I don’t think he’s useless. Everyone says he’s a useless coward. He’s just placed in some shit situations. He’s not afraid of dying in that sense, he’s afraid of not being liked or loved and being left by his family. Whether they know it or not, they have been ganging up on him from the very beginning of the first season. What’s the problem with him? I think he’s lovely. I think he’s really kind and compassionate and cuddly." — DAVID OAKES