In which Guy Burt, who wrote every episode so far this season, manages to tick me off with a) a big continuity mistake and b) one of the more annoying linguistic anachronisms re: a certain Renaissance figure in popular fiction.

( Also bee keeping as a hobby spreads across the ages )

In which the show manages to find an explanation for a notorious historical orgy that never occured to me, and also, consequences.

( But guess what I was genuinenly happy about? )

First of all, a general rant which doesn't just apply to The Borgias, or rather, the fandom of same. In the last month or so, it has become virtually impossible to be online and not get spoiled. I hate being spoiled, I really do, and I try to avoid it as best I can. I still could not help getting spoiled for something that happens in this episode, the third, before even the first episode of this season was broadcast because people everywhere forgot such a thing as lj cuts existed. The same applies to some Doctor Who stuff, though I backed away hastily enough upon realising I was reading an uncut review/rant, and possibly the next Star Trek film, though I really hope not. Then there was a casting spoiler for Elementary. Now when it comes to casting, I usually don't see "such and such has been cast for show X" as a spoiler per se, and I've done posts like that myself - except, you know, when ( spoilery things apply )

Some people were thoughtful enough to hide the casting spoiler beneath a cut. Others weren't. I minded.

Iron Man III will be released in Germany tomorrow. As of now, this moment, I'm still unspoiled. I would really like to make it through the last 24 hours in that state, but I'm not counting on it. It's as if the collective bar of consideration towards people who DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED has been lowered to a state of near non existence recently, and I'm probably either preaching to the choir or talking in vain posting this on my journal, but do you mind not doing that? Because I mind. I really do.

( Now, on to episode 3 of season 3 )

Back in Munich, and it's cold and wet enough to make me miss Italy immediately, so naturally I start my gigantic fannish catching up with the season premiere of The Borgias.

( We are not safe )

Meme stolen from likeadeuce.

Your main fandom of the year?

I remain a committed fandom polyamorist without a main fandom.

Your favorite film you watched this year?

The Avengers. Four times watched in the cinema and three times on dvd... yes, it's a pretty safe bet to say it was. :) I just loved it to bits.

Your favorite book read this year?

It's a tie between Her Majesty's Will by David Blixt (when I read the Yuletide prompts asking for Shakespeare/Marlowe adventures & relationship I thought every time "does the prompter know there is now an entire novel like that out there?) and Raphsody in Blood by Roz Kaveney, though I had the chance to read the later in manuscript last year, so I suppose it's a bit cheating to say "this year"? Anyway. Rereading it in printed form only heigtened the love.

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?

Come Together: Black America Sings Lennon & McCartney. Detailed review explaining why here.

Your favorite tv show of the year?

Breaking Bad. Which I started to marathon early in the year and thus was able to watch in real time when it began its final season.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

I would say Breaking Bad as well, except for the part that Breaking Bad fandom aside from fabulous people on lj also includes the people majorly into Skyler and Marie bashing on tumblr and elsewhere, so, no. But I was delighted to see one of my oldest fandoms, Babylon 5, still has an influx of new watchers and writers, and B5 never inflicted shipping wars and character bashings on me either then or now, so I declare the new B5 fans my best new fandom discovery of the year.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

Fringe's fourth season, after a promising start, cementing the show's decline. Alas.

Your fandom boyfriend of the year?

Jeremy Irons, for a) making Henry IV. for the first time ever the most captivating character in the two plays named after him to me in The Hollow Crown and b) continuing to do a fantastic job with Rodrigo Borgia, aka Pope Alexander VI., in the second season of The Borgias. I've said it before, I'll say it again: the man is a walking, talking illustration that some actors dramatically increase both in acting skill and hotness in their middle age. Young Mr. Irons, playing Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited? Eh. Current Jeremy Irons as Henry and Rodrigo both? Gimme gimme gimme!

Your fandom girlfriend of the year?

Skyler White. Followed closely by the ladies from The Borgias, Judi Dench's M, Katniss Everdeen and my darling Guinevere from Merlin, always, but still, no question about it: Skyler. For being complicated and not easily likeable but layered and smart and above all able to accept responsibility for her own deeds as opposed to blaming everyone else. A longer love declaration to Skyler is here.


Your biggest squee moment of the year?

Natasha pwning Loki in The Avengers. That moment when she turns around and says "thank you for your cooperation". (Come to think of it, Katniss Everdeen's "Thank you for your consideration" in The Hunger Games was also a fantastic moment and almost identically phrased, but Natasha's turnaround was when I went from loving The Avengers to SQEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.)

The most missed of your old fandoms?

I go through moments of missing the BTVS and AtS fandom heydays fiercely. Then I check to see what's happening, and people are either obsessed with being upset with the comics (which I have no interest in) or are still fighting the Spike Wars (ditto), and I remember all the reasons not to miss said days. Until, that is, I come across unexpected splendid meta essays like the one about Chosen this year, or anything timetravellingbunny posts, and I'm full of BTVS and AtS fandom love again.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

Once Upon A Time and maybe Teen Wolf. Also I really want to watch The Wire, but is there still a fandom?

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?

The second half of Breaking Bad's final season; the SHIELD tv series; X-Men: Days of Future Past; Catching Fire; and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

The Hunger Games:

Meta about Katniss and Haymitch, an excellent examination of their relationship. Spoiler for all three books, though movie only people, consider yourself warned.

Blade Runner:

Who We Are: poetic ensemble vid about the characters' struggle for life through the film. Blade Runner, you're still my favourite sci fi film bar none.

The Borgias:

Hubris: Sin is easy. Virtue is difficult. In between lies hubris. Or, Cesare and Micheletto have a chat near the end of s2. Excellent voices for both characters.

Day 29 ~ Link to a fanvid you like.

Since I already linked to my all time favourite vid in this fandom, this homage to the glorious women of the show will have to do.

( The rest of the days )

Day 27 ~ Fightin’ words: Who would you like to see in a fight to the death?

If you mean literal fighting, despite the occasional duel, it's not that kind of a show. I mean, Micheletto/Anyone else pretty much dooms Anyone Else, and I'm fond of those characters. Trying to come up with something, I'm tentatively eyeing a Catarina Sforza and Micheletto duel, but while Catarina both historically and on the show was a feared warrior in the sense of commander, we haven't yet seen how her hand to hand combat skills are, and I want to keep her around for the rest of the show (I'd say history protects her, but as cousin Giovanni proved, not necessarily). And besides, I want to keep Micheletto, too.

Now Cesare historically actually dies in a fight to the death against multiple opponents, but I'm not sure whether or not I want to see that or want the show to end after Rodrigo's death before everything goes to hell (except for Lucrezia). (That's the question for the last day, and then I'll have decided.) Then again, it could be an epic scene. Aut Caesar, aut nihil indeed.

( The rest of the days )

Day 25 ~ Good riddance: Who have you not been sorry to see killed off?

In a fictional narrative involving historical characters, this is a tricky question because several of those deaths just had to happen, so to speak. Also, sometimes I think the death in question was entirely fitting for the story and character, but that doesn't mean I spent my days wishing the character away, just that it was good storytelling, and usually happened at exactly the right moment. Case in point: Savonarola. He was introduced in s1 in a minor role (only one episode, I believe), bcame a major antagonist in s2, and his death in the finale was just right in terms of how long in the fictionalized universe of the show he should be around, no more, no less. (Also, the way it came about didn't chicken out of depicting both the heroic side of Savonarola and the brutality of the clerical power the Borgias wielded, while not ignoring Savonarola's own previous use of said power.)

(Sidenote: I think the show set itself up with something of a problem re: Giuliano della Rovere. He can't die, because history, what with being the next pope, but the show also presented him as an unrelenting and unwilling to compromise antagonist, so when he won't get killed in the next season, they'll have to deliver a good in-show reason why.)

( The rest of the days )

Day 23 ~ Cesare, Juan & Lucrezia: Shag, marry, stab - what would you do?

Well, Juan is for the stabbing. (Was that ever a question?) My first inclination would be to shag Cesare and marry Lucrezia, what with her being my favourite Borgia sibling and favourite lady on the show. But then I remembered what happened to their actual spouses. Well, you could say that Giovanni Sforza had his historical as well as his show fate coming, but poor Alfonso d'Aragon, by all accounts, did not. Alfonso d'Este survived Lucrezia, their marriage was by all accounts a success, but then again, he gave her six children and she died in childbirth. While Alfonso moved on to attempted marriage with his mistress and yet more children, I'm not sure I could, after having been married to Lucrezia.

On the other hand, Cesare's wife, Charlotte d'Albret, got a few months of marriage during which he seems to have been on his best behaviour, enough for a fond memory but not everlasting grief. Said months of marriage took place in France, so there was avoidance of the fascinating mess that was Borgia family life in Rome, so inpenitrable to outsiders. She also got a daughter, Louise, for whom she acted as regent after Cesare's death, and in this function a rich and independent life without further attempts by the male relations to marry her off and interfere with her life. Louise seems to have inherited the Borgia charm and brains without her father's more sinister qualities. So basically, it was win all around for Charlotte d'Albret. Which makes me revise my original reply to: stab Juan, shag Lucrezia, marry Cesare. He'll be dead soon enough anyway.


( The rest of the days )