History Series / TheBorgias

* NunsNRosaries: Ursula feels guilty.

* OffingTheMouth: Cesare hatches a scheme to build fake cannons to dissuade a French siege. The workers notice that the cannons are fake as they're mounted on the city walls, and one absolute idiot starts to joke and boast that the French will crush them. Micheletto kills him on the spot and reminds the others that in order to save the city they're supposed to sell the ruse, not undermine it.

* OffingTheMouth: Cesare hatches a scheme to build fake cannons to dissuade a French siege. The workers notice that the cannons are fake as they're mounted on the city walls, and one absolute idiot starts to joke and boast that the French will crush them. Micheletto kills him on the spot and reminds the others that they're supposed to sell the ruse in order to save the city, not undermine it.

%% * ObliviousYoungerSibling: Gioffre.\

%% * ObliviousYoungerSibling: Gioffre.

* ManOnFire:
** Savonarola - [[spoiler: twice]]
** After Prospero plots to betray Cesare in "The Gunpowder Plot", Cesare lights him on fire.

* CuffsOffRubWrists:
** Prince Alfonso of Naples after King Charles has him unshackled in "The Borgia Bull". Things do not go well for him afterwards.
** Caterina Sforza after Cesare uncuffs her in series finale "The Prince".

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused]] either with ''Series/{{Borgia}}'', the European 2011 version produced by Canal+ and created by Tom Fontana from ''Series/{{Oz}}''.

The Borgias, or at least this particular branch of the family, have become a byword for corruption and decadence. It doesn't help that the head of the family, Rodrigo (Creator/JeremyIrons), is often believed to have bought, murdered, and blackmailed his way into the papacy. Or that he had a string of mistresses well into his sixties, despite the fact that he was, you know, a cardinal and then Pope. Or that he installed at least one of those mistresses in the Vatican itself. Or that he also had at least four acknowledged children, again despite the cardinal and Pope schtick. Or that one of his sons, Cesare (Creator/FrancoisArnaud), was a MagnificentBastard in every sense of the word. Or that his daughter, Lucrezia (Creator/HollidayGrainger), has something of a reputation as a poisoner and a ''femme fatale''. Or that one of her husbands accused her of committing incest with her father and brother. Or that Cesare is rumored to have killed his brother, Giovanni, and either murdered or ordered the murder of his sister's second husband. Or that...

** Juan and one of his conquests also find themselves in this position--they're in regular bed, but they're also under a very pointy chandelier, and Lucrezia, having learned that Juan [[spoiler:murdered Paolo]], has set a candle right under the rope holding it aloft. [[spoiler:It falls and kills Juan's bedmate [[DeathBySex while they're in the middle of sex]].]]

The Borgias, or at least this particular branch of the family, have become a byword for corruption and decadence. It doesn't help that the head of the family, Rodrigo, is often believed to have bought, murdered, and blackmailed his way into the papacy. Or that he had a string of mistresses well into his sixties, despite the fact that he was, you know, a cardinal and then Pope. Or that he installed at least one of those mistresses in the Vatican itself. Or that he also had at least four acknowledged children, again despite the cardinal and Pope schtick. Or that one of his sons, Cesare, was a MagnificentBastard in every sense of the word. Or that his daughter, Lucrezia, has something of a reputation as a poisoner and a ''femme fatale''. Or that one of her husbands accused her of committing incest with her father and brother. Or that Cesare is rumored to have killed his brother, Giovanni, and either murdered or ordered the murder of his sister's second husband. Or that...

Creator/HollidayGrainger played Lucrezia Borgia.

** Rodrigo, who threatens to support Ludovico Sforza's nephew's claim over Milan if Ludovico cooperates with Cardinal della Rovere. [[WhatAnIdiot While said nephew was prisoner of Ludovico]]. Cut to Ludovico killing the guy and helping della Rovere to prove the point to Rodrigo.

** In one of the promos for the first season, a [[SexSells completely nude]] [[MsFanservice Giulia Farnese]] advises Lucrezia to use her female beauty for gain, reassuring that "it can be deadly"; the two are apparently modeling for Botticelli's ''The Birth of Venus''. This scene does not appear in the actual series, even though Giulia says the exact same words to Lucrezia at some point. Also, if all you knew about the series came from the promo material, you might think Cesare and Lucrezia's relationship is a lot more incestuous than it actually is.

* IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow: Rodrigo's politics lesson to Giulia. Her calf is Naples, her knee is Rome, her - er, [[CountryMatters "source of disquiet"]] is France, and he's about to "invade France".

* SexyPriest: Though Cesare wants desperately to stop being the second part. Rodrigo as well.

** Creator/JeremyIrons, not as much as one might expect, though he turns it UpToEleven in "Death on a Pale Horse".

* SympatheticAdulterer: Lucrezia, and to a lesser extent Giulia and Ursula, are type 1. Lucrezia manages to get a divorce out of type 4. She later graduates to type 5 when she begins an affair with the ''[[UpToEleven younger brother of a man she still has yet to marry]]'' (though this is short-lived, as said affair ends up being what quashes the engagement).

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Almost every time the Borgias kill someone, that person gets at least a scene beforehand establishing that they're unreedeemably evil anyway (notably, [[spoiler: Savonarola sanctionning the burning of a woman]]; [[spoiler: Juan threating to rape and murder a dancer]], [[spoiler: basically everything about Giovanni Sforza]]). Notably, while Cesare is ready to murder [[spoiler: Alfonso]] in cold blood, the later precipitates his own end by drunkenly charging into his knife, making it partly his fault. The death of his historical alter ego was a genuine, deliberate assassination.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Almost every time the Borgias kill someone, that person gets at least a scene beforehand establishing that they're unreedeemably evil anyway (notably, [[spoiler: Savonarola sanctionning the burning of a woman]]; [[spoiler: Juan threating to rape and murder a dancer]], [[basically everything about Giovanni Sforza]]). Notably, while Cesare is ready to murder [[spoiler: Alfonso]] in cold blood, the later precipitates his own end by drunkenly charging into his knife, making it partly his fault. The death of his historical alter ego was a genuine, deliberate assassination.

* Leonardo da Vinci doesn't appear in the show at all (though his work is seen and he has something of a WrittenInAbsence), despite having been connected to the Borgias in real life. It's a bizarre omission considering the vast array of other historical figures that were written into the show in [[ArtisticLicenseHistory very different ways from their actual history]].

* Pedro-Luis Borgia, Rodrigo's eldest bastard son. Of course, he was long dead by the time of the series, but a mention might have been nice, especially since it explains why Rodrigo is so adamant that Cesare must be an ecclesiastic: in influential families of the Renaissance, the first son was bred to be a warrior, and the second son to be a priest.

* AdaptedOut: Leonardo da Vinci doesn't appear in the show at all (though his work is seen and he has something of a WrittenInAbsence), despite having been connected to the Borgias in real life. It's a bizarre omission considering the vast array of other historical figures that were written into the show in [[ArtisticLicenseHistory very different ways from their actual history]].

* {{Fainting}}: Lucrezia faints during a confrontation in season three where she discovers that all her plotting resulted in the crowning of a king who did not have her or her family's best interests at heart.

* KnightTemplarBigBrother: Given the intense dynamic already established between the two, it's hard not to think Cesare's being entirely serious when he teIn season two, he follows through on that promise.]]