#not me dragging tf out of rodrigo oops sorry old man ily though <3

[houseofborgia]

the thing about rodrigo is that he's too blinded by his own ambitions and has always been dismissive of everyone's (including his family) feelings. unfortunately for juan he became a victim of rodrigo's ambitions, he was doomed the second he decided to favor him over cesare and lucrezia. he isolated him and tasked him with a role beyond his capability which struck cesare's jealousy because he had the chance to live the life he always desired as a soldier but instead, he made him a cardinal. basically, rodrigo set juan to fail and made him envied by his brother, and pitted them against each other. juan should've never been placed in opposition to cesare when he wanted harmony with his family while cesare wanted to be the gonfaloniere. they both wanted something the other one had. cesare's desire to be a leader and fighter and his distaste for juan in that role and juan's wish to be as close to his family as cesare is, especially with vanozza and lucrezia. despite juan having his father's attention, it's cesare that rodrigo trusts and depends on. he did not seem to trust juan enough as he keeps sending cesare to search for him every time and was made to act as his brother's keeper. rodrigo made both juan and cesare feel so insecure and not good enough for him which led to juan's murder and the only way rodrigo managed to come to terms with juan's death is by declaring it a tragedy caused by his rodrigo's lust for power, which corrupted his sons. both brothers are flawed but also victims of circumstances. cesare and juan were both trapped by their father's ambitions which led to their brotherly relationship being ruined when they should have been brothers in arms, not enemies. at last, rodrigo realized how much he failed juan as a father and understood how in the end he had not been there properly for him either. the guy was tormented, suffering from a horrible illness, and not to mention the mockery by everyone, especially when he tried to change after he came back from spain. in conclusion, juan went in an undeserving way. he was discarded like a common criminal with no funeral and no one to mourn him except his father. he was so earnest, he loved his family but felt inferior to his siblings while being desperate for connection, but his father set him to fail and made him gather resentment of his siblings and it was too late to fix it.

just to clarify; this not an anti-rodrigo post. the entire family is messy and they've hurt each other even when they meant to do good and i love them all lmao