Series / Imperio de cristal

Imperio de Cristal (Crystal Empire) is a Mexican telenovela produced by Televisa in 1994.

Sofía Vidal (Rebecca Jones) attends a party offered at the elegant mansion of the Lombardo family, powerful crystal entrepreneurs. The patriarch, Cesar (Ignacio López Tarso), realizes that Sofia greatly resembles Elena, a woman that he had an affair with years ago. Elena is Sofia's mother, who died in a car accident when she was young.

In order to honor Elena's memory, Cesar decides to support Sofia from the shadows. Unsurprisingly, this results into conflict with Cesar's wife, Livia (María Rubio), a former actress who dreams of returning to stardom. Livia, who hides a terrible secret involving Sofía, plots against her, trying to keep her out of her family.

As Sofia gets more involved with the Lombardos, she meets Cesar's children such as the ambitious Augusto (Alejandro Camacho), the rebellious Julio (Ari Telch), the bratty Narda (Kate del Castillo) and the traumatized Claudio (Germán Gutierrez).

Augusto wishes to take hold of his father's empire by getting rid of Octavio (Alejandro Tommasi), Cesar's son from his first marriage. He becomes obsessed with Sofía and is determined to have her at any price, knowing besides that this is the way for his father to name him as his successor in the enterprises. Sofia and Julio meet and great passion arises between them, to the extent that Julio is determined to face anything, even break up with his actual girlfriend.

The rivalry between Augusto and Julio for Sofia's love lets forth a whirlwind of intrigue, corruption and violent struggle for power. Fragile, but dangerous as well, this crystal empire can be broken into a thousand pieces in the hands of the one who will try to possess it.

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This show provides examples of:

• The '90s: Was produced and initially aired during the era considered by telenovela fans to be the Renaissance Age of Telenovelas.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Rogelio eventually became this for Narda, who always rejects him.
• Attention Whore: Narda loves to be the center of attention, including wearing provocative clothing, stirring up trouble and hanging around with older men. Justified because her parents are Married to the Job, her twin got institutionalized and her brothers were too old to connect with her.
• The Atoner: Cesar, it's partly why he's so protective of Sofia, whose mother died when she was young because she was having an affair with him.
• Ax-Crazy: Augusto devolves into this.
• Babies Ever After: In the final moments of the series, Sofia reveals to Julio that she's pregnant with his child.
• The Baby Trap: It's implied that Livia only had Narda and Claudio to keep Cesar (who was cheating her with Elena at the time) at her side. When it doesn't work, she retorts to murder Elena.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Even though Elisa is very determined to get back with Julio, she eventually falls for his best friend German, who was the only one to console her after Julio left her for Sofia.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • Julio (Betty) and Augusto (Veronica) for Sofia.
  • Also Elisa (Betty) and Sofia (Veronica) for Julio.
• Big Fancy House: The Lombardo family mansion.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Let's see... César, a traumatized man who mourns the death of his impossible love; Livia, a former actress who dreams of recovering her career and will kill everyone for it; Augusto, who will do everything in order to receive his father's inheritance; Narda and Claudio, one neglected and the other traumatized and scarred for life. Julio is the only one who is fairly normal, and he is considered the black sheep for that.
• Big Brother Bully: Augusto tends to assault Claudio and spends every scene they're in together tormenting him.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Narda. But she just does it for attention from her parents.
• Break the Cutie: Everything that happens to Claudio Lombardo after he returns from the mental institution only seems to drive him closer to, at the very least, mental instability. Doesn't help that he lives with his abuser.
• Book Ends: The story begins and ends with Sofia having a nightmare with her dying. At the beginning of the story, when she wakes up she forces herself to act cheerful for her daughter's sake. At the end, when she wakes up she's comforted by the sight of Katia, Julio and their newborn son.
• Bullying the Disabled: Augusto likes to intimidate Claudio and mock his inteligence. This is made all the more horrifying when it's revealed he was the one who tortured him into insanity in the first place.
• Bungled Suicide: At the end, Livia decides to commit suicide after her acting career is destroyed due to her Engineered Public Confession, her maid going on the run, and Augusto shunning her for hiding his true parentage from him. The final nail in the coffin is Augusto's ultimately death and her mentally challenged son pitying her. While she doesn't die, she is permanently brain damaged and wheelchair-bound.
• Chekhov's Skill: Bruno, Narda's boyfriend, is a mechanic and a tech wiz. Which comes in handy when he uses the theater's loudspeakers to broadcast Livia's Engineered Public Confession.
• Cool Aunt: Andrea, Cesar's big sister, is this to his kids.
• The Chessmaster: Augusto's plans to take over the family's industry includes sabotaging his brothers, ruining the life of his younger siblings, and marry Sofia to curry favor with his father, while offing anyone who got in his way.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Most of the main characters. If they don't have one, they are well on their way to getting one.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Averted with Cesar, who doesn't have much trouble with Narda dating a poor mechanic , at least until she gets pregnant. But played straight with Bernal, who doesn't like when Elisa starts showing interest in German, who's middle class at best.
• Delicate and Sickly: Octavio is said to be "of a sickly constitution." He has no stamina, little strength and is highly prone to fevers.
• Disney Death: When César and his family are in a yacht, Augusto poisons and throws César into the sea. He is left for dead until he reappears at the moment when Claudio and Julio reveal to the family that Augusto killed Octavio. Apparently he was rescued by his sister's ex-boyfriend.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The truth about Octavio's death is revealed and Julio Cesar survives Augusto's murdering attempt. The family apologizes to Claudio for ignoring the abuse he endured those years and he even gets a job in the family business. Narda is Happily Married to her boyfriend and Sofia and Julio marry as well. Augusto dies, sending Livia into the Despair Event Horizon. The series ends up with the Lombardo Family happily celebrating the birthday of Sofia and Julio's baby.
• Engineered Public Confession: At the end of the series, Sofia tricks Livia into confessing that she killed Elena and institutionalized her own mother so she'd keep quiet, bragging to Sofia how nobody will ever know the truth. Unfortunately for her, Bruno broadcasted the whole thing over the theater's loudspeakers, finally vindicating Livia and destroying her acting career for good.
• Evil Matriarch: Livia seems to care more about returning to stardom than raising her children. She also indulged and even encouraged Augusto's worst sadistic and selfish traits, to the point where he thought he could get away with anything, including driving his younger brother into insanity.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: In the end it is revealed that Cesar is not Augusto's father, but Philippe, a fellow actor Livia had a one night stand with. He doesn't take it very well.
• The Food Poisoning Incident: Octavio's death.
• Forgotten First Meeting: When Sofia was a child, she unknowingly saw Livia tampering Elena's car, but had no idea what was going on.
• Hates Being Touched: After Augusto sets his Angry Guard Dog on Claudio, he develops psychotic episodes in which he freaks out upon being touched and believes he's made of glass.
  Claudio: I'M BREAKING! DON'T TOUCH ME, I'M BREAKING!
• He Knows Too Much: Ultimately the reason Livia locked her own mother into a mental asylum.
• Gold Digger: Poor Sofia is accused of being one at first, due to Cesar's protectiveness of her and her love triangle with Julio and Augusto.
• I Have No Son!: Cesar and Livia's reacting upon finding out that Narda got pregnant and the father seemingly walked away.
• It's All About Me: Livia never thinks of anything besides returning to stardom. Even her desire to help Augusto with his schemes doesn't stem from love for him; it's because she hopes he'll help her as a reward for her assistance, which Augusto calls her out eventually:
  Livia: I sacrificed all my life for you!
  Augusto: ....Hypocrite. You never sacrificed anything for anyone.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Augusto meets his end, pushed onto a window by Julio and being impaled through his chest by the broken glass. His death is beyond horrifying, but if anyone deserves it, it's him.
• Karma Houdini: Flora the nurse never gets any comeuppance for abusing Antonia, her involvement in Octavio's death or the child trafficking. In fact, she keeps her license and it's implied she'll abuse the brain-damaged Livia at the asylum.
• Kick the Dog: Augusto constantly does this to his brother Claudio. For example, pushing him onto a glass table, playing mind games with him, and setting his Angry Guard Dog on him.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Augusto and Livia love doing this.
  • Not only Augusto had to poison Octavio's figs, he had to taunt him as Octavio painfully writhes on the floor dying.
  • As if Claudio wasn't feeling traumatized enough for witnessing Octavio's death and bringing the poisoned figs, Augusto sets his doberman on him to prevent him from spilling the beans. Claudio wasn't planning to talk, but Augusto did it anyway for little more than sick headgames.
  • Augusto tricks Elisa into signing a paper so that Lombardo Industries takes over Prisma Industry. Livia then tells the news to Bernal, resulting into him getting a heart attack....while she continues to brag about it.
• Kiddie Kid: Claudio is 17, but is awkward around people his own age and prefers to hang out with children instead. Justified, due to living most of his life in a mental institution and the trauma of Augusto physically abusing him as a child.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Livia placed her own mother on an insane asylum to keep her from telling the truth about Elena's death. In the end she ends up brain-damaged and thrown into the same place.
  • Augusto drove Claudio to insanity after throwing him onto a glass table as a child. He ends up dying impaled by a broken glass window.
• Last Girl Wins: Julio is the last of the Lombardos Sofia meets. Guess who Sofia ends up married to by the end?
• Let Me Tell You a Story: Claudio, Katia and Marco Aurelio make a puppet play in order to break it to the rest of the family that Augusto poisoned Octavio.
• Love Makes You Evil: The butler Rogelio is so obsessed with Narda, that he even is willing to help Augusto with his schemes.
• Mama Bear: Sofia is a loving and caring mother to Katia, even though sometimes she falls into into Properly Paranoid territory.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: As Octavio lays dying upon being poisoned by Augusto, he convinces Claudio to act as if he's retarded so that he wouldn't be hurt by Augusto. While it doesn't stop the abuse, Claudio keeps acting like a twitchy, absent-minded teen for a few episodes, until he gains the courage to tell Julio the truth.
• Parental Abandonment: After Elena's death, Cesar sinks into depression and starts neglecting his kids. It takes Sofia coming into his life for him to change for the better.
• Parental Obliviousness: Cesar and Livia seem to be oblivious of the way Augusto treats Claudio, to the point of sending the youngest to be institutionalized. This is later subverted with Livia, who knew the whole time but didn't care.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Narda and Claudio are twins, but while Narda is free spirited, rebellious and has abandonment issues, Claudio is childish, naive and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.
• Precious Puppy: Or rather Precious Bunny. Octavio gives Marco Aurelio a bunny for his birthday. It ends up eating Livia's flowers and she sets out Marte on the poor thing out of spite.
• Psychopathic Manchild:
  • Augusto despite being intelligent, cunning, and a strategical genius, regularly displays downright petty behaviour, for example pushing a young Claudio onto a glass table just because he accidentally broke his things or poisoning Octavio because he got the promotion he wanted.
  • Played for drama with Claudio, who is prone to psychotic episodes in which he believes he's of glass.
• Recurring Dreams: In her childhood, Sofia had nightmares about her mother's death. As an adult, she dreams of herself dying in front of an oblivious Katia.
• Redemption Equals Death: Happens to Uriel and Bernal.
• Reunion Show: While not a reunion show in the literal sense (as it's a unique show with its own plot), it can be considered a quasi-reunion, as many of the cast members of Cuna de lobos star in this one. There are also a few similarities to the 80s classic:
  • Maria Rubio plays an evil matriarch who turns her wealthy, workaholic husband against his son. She also favors her villanous son, played by Alejandro Camacho.
  • There's an unfavorite son who's the black sheep of the family.
  • The eldest son is a Nice Guy who's completely unaware that his stepmother is plotting against him. While José Carlos survives, Octavio isn't so lucky.
  • There's sexual tension between Alejandro Camacho and Rebecca Jones. But while in Cuna de Lobos they were happily married, here she chooses her brother over him.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Sofia is the spitting image of her deceased mother, Elena. Which causes a lot of conflict due to Cesar's attempts to reach out to her and Livia's jealousy.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even though at the end things start looking up for the Lombardos, Sofia still has nightmares and it's strongly implied that she will spend the rest of her life battling her demons. While Claudio is never "cured" of his trauma and he will never be the same person he was before Augusto's abuse. However, there is also hope because both are moving on with their lives, slowly picking up the pieces and coming to terms with the way things are. This is unfortunately the reality that real-life victims of trauma and abuse have to deal with.
• Talking Your Way Out: Sofia tries this when Augusto has her at his mercy and is threatening to shoot her unborn child, but by then Augusto has completely lost his shit.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Octavio sure loves his figs.
• Unwitting Pawn: Augusto sabotages Sofia and Uriel's marriage, by making his own aunt seduce Uriel, all so he'll have a chance to woo Sofia.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Claudio is deeply afraid of broken glass due to an incident in his childhood where his cruel older brother slammed him against a glass table.
• Woman Scorned:
  • Elisa isn't happy that Julio broke up with her to be with Sofia, and constantly tries to break them up by guilt-tripping them. She eventually gives up and ends with Julio's best friend.
  • Augusto has never loved Sofia, and got married with her to curry favor with his father (and always made it very clear); but Augusto hates Julio for "stealing" his woman.

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