History Characters / TheBorgias

%%* EvilChancellor

** He's horrified at the destruction of the temple that claims the lives of innocent alter boys and begs his cardinals aid him.
** Genuinely disgusted by the {{Greed}} of the Cardinals who embezzled the money of the treasury meant for the poor to enrich themselves and has many of them stripped of their ranks and cast out of Rome for their greed and treachery.

%%* DeadpanSnarker: It's Creator/JeremyIrons, you have to expect this one.

* VillainousFriendship: With Micholetto. While it started off as purely transactional, the two form a very close bond and go through much together as the series goes on.

* EvenEvilHasStandards:

%%* DirtyCoward

* LackOfEmpathy: Didn't even try to empathize with [[spoiler: his parents' grief for Juan. He didn't feel any guilt, either.]]

* PapaWolf: Towards his nephew and godson Giovanni. [[spoiler: So much so that he kills Juan partially because of this.]]

* ReallyGetsAround: His ''opening scene'' has him having sex with a random lady (and Lucrezia's jab at him suggests she's caught him with many other girls in the past). Then there's the fact his [[BrotherSIsterIncest own sister]] wanted him. The guy was clearly doing ''something'' right.

* SociopathicHero: He becomes less and less heroic with each episode, but he still has moments of this.

* VillainProtagonist: More so than the rest of his family, which is saying something.

* AmbiguouslyBi: Is usually seen with men, but he has slept with a woman onscreen. Nobody knows if that was just for the job or if he is attracted to females.

%%* TheDragon: To Cesare or possibly TheBrute to the Borgias as a whole.

** Separating a child from its parent is the only act that Michelleto expressedly disgusts. [[spoiler: In fact, this causes him to murder the King of Naples out of his own will, something uncharateristic for Micheletto.]]

%%* PsychoForHire: Though he's not very psycho.

* TheSociopath

* AffablyEvil: Zigzagged. Though he is ruthless and calculating, he is also capable of great amounts of charm. He's also quite chivalrous and sweet to women and members of his family. Underneath it all, he's a narcissistic, unscrupulous schemer to rival his whole family. However, some of his positive qualities ''are'' genuine.

* FauxAffablyEvil: The jury is out on whether or not he was always this way, but the longer the show goes on, the more the cracks in Cesare's [[TheDutifulSon façade]] begin to show. He may not be consciously going through the motions, but watching him [[spoiler: throw both of his parents' grief]] back in their faces makes things kind of clear. It's quite possible it's a ZigzaggedTrope, as he's not a run-of-the-mill example and his charm does seem genuine at first, and there's his genuine protectiveness [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes of his family.]]

%%* MoralityPet: His sister and mother.

* HeroesWantRedHeads: In season one, Rodrigo sure does.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Rolling around on the ground with [[IncestSubtext Lucrezia]]. Literally minutes after [[EvilIsSexy having sex with some random lady.]] To whom he just admitted his position as a [[SexyPriest cleric]]. And then, while rolling on the grass, he [[SinisterMinister discusses politics with Lucrezia]]. Yep, that's Cesare.

* EvilIsPetty: Cesare and Rodrigo are pretty conniving, but often for higher purposes. Juan is just an asshole.

* BettyAndVeronica: Cesare, of all people, invokes this trope when talking about Alfonso. He's a sharp contrast to Lucrezia's first husband, and more specifically, Cesare himself. Lucrezia's sweet, chaste dance with Alfonso versus her close, intimate dance [[IncestSubtext with her brother]] versus her strictly professional and mechanical dance with Giovanni Sforza illustrates their differences. Basically, he's the Betty to Lucrezia's [[TheSociopath very]], [[EvilIsSexy very]], Veronica brother. And he doesn't miss it.

* BreakTheHaughty: The combination of his sexually transmitted disease and his loss to the Sforza's really do a number on him.

%%* DistressedDamsel

* HistoricalBeautyUpgrade: The real Rodrigo was an overweight Churchill-esque bulldog of a man. Creator/JeremyIrons is ''really not''. Irons himself has said that if they were aiming for authenticity in the looks department, they should have hired [[Series/TheSopranos James Gandolfini]].

* DidntThinkThisThrough: He's not an idiot by any stretch of the imagination but he is somewhat naive and makes several bad decisions as a result of that. Most strikingly, he orders a grand festival in Rome despite the cardinals warning him of the enormous costs and the hostile French army parked in Naples. Rodrigo only orders preparations to defend the city when the French are already traveling north. Because of this, Cesare discovers that they don't have enough time nor enough bronze to build the cannons they need to repell the French. Luckily, Cesare and Vittoria are able to build fake ones.

* ParentsAsPeople: Rodrigo genuinely loves each and every one of his children and tries to take care of the,, but this love blinds him to each of his children's flaws (Cesare's ambition, Juan's incompetence and self-destructive tendencies, etc.). He also tries to put aside his children's desires for what he feels the family as a whole needs.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Especially when it comes to his own children. While Cesare and Lucrezia deserve his trust, he puts way too much faith in Juan and hopes he will become a great General, but in truth is a spiteful SmugSnake who completely botches the first Siege of Forli and does everything he can to turn his family members against him.

%%* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Especially when it comes to his own children.

%%* BadassBaritone

!The Borgia Family

%%* TheChick

* AffablyEvil: He's extremely blunt but he also shows that he's willing to PetTheDog at times.

** When the lightning bolt strikes the Sistine Chapel and kill the choir boys, Ascanio is so horrified he can't leave the church, and was implied to be one of the few who dared helping gather the bodies.

* TheStoic: Even watching his hometown fall under the control of a zealot who hates everything he and those he serves represent fails to elicit much, if any, visible reaction from him. He does lament the destruction of a Botticelli painting during the Bonfire of the Vanities, however.

* {{Villain Protagonist}}s: Though they often are Nominal Villain, as good or as bad as required to survive and prosper.

A scheming, ambitious cardinal who, after the death of Pope Innocent, uses all the power at his disposal - including bribery, extortion, murder, and his children - to become the new Pope. Despite his willingness to use his family as pawns, he does care for them a great deal.

** As a whole, he defies the historical RealLife claims about Alexander VI. While he is indeed corrupt and manipulative, he's far less rampant than the rest of the cardinals ([[{{Hypocrite}} who yet somehow think they have the right to judge him]]), and both him and his family actually make a point of making Rome a good, prosperous place to live, and not just because of PragmaticVillainy.

-->'''Ludovico Sforza''': Do you know what we all share?
-->'''Cesare''': Suspicion? Or is it hatred?

* Hypocrite:
** She call Cesare a murderer for [[spoiler: killing Giovanni]]. That after she tried murdering his whole family indirectly through helping the French TWICE.
** While she hates the Borgias for being spaniards, she clearly has no problem [[spoiler: fucking with Cesare.]]

-->'''Charles''': You think the blood of the Borgia pope could cure us, Catherina Sforza?
-->'''Caterina''': We could bathe in it together, your majesty.

* OutGambitted: [[spoiler: Twice by Cesare. One when Cesare manages to sneak through the entire french army without her realizing, leaving her unable to prepare for a siege, and then when Cesare repeatedly fires at the ground in front of the gate, with her failing to realize that he's trying to make the ground collapse until it's too late.]]

* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler: Type II. In the show's canon, he dies in 1498 in an open field at the very start of the Italian Wars, but in real life Ludovico was merely captured along the same period, and only died, still incarcarated by the french, in 1508.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He is sure inviting the french army to invade Italy is a good thing, until he sees the [[RapePillageAndBurn results]] of his actions. Cue this trope.

* IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow: She and Rodrigo "pray" for rain together.

* PetTheDog: He does have a few moments of this throughout the series, mostly towards his family, especially his little brother Joffre... [[YourCheatingHeart though he's having sex with Joffre's wife.]]

** He's against familicide and [[spoiler:is genuinely guilt-ridden after he kills Juan. He also finds Micholetto's praise of killing his own brother to be disgusting, especially since the latter killed his own father.]]