There are a ton of ways Borgias modern AUs can work out, definitely. I prefer period ones (my 160k Borgias AU is anchored firmly in 1494), but thinking of ways to recreate scenarios in the modern world is a very different way to think about it.
Pretty much all modern AUs of any canon involved with historical aristocracy goes with generic CEOs (sometimes politicians, though that's weirdly uncommon) and as exact re-creation of the original as possible, but I feel those can ... well, they work, but it's not the most effective way? A lot of times it doesn't seem to take advantage of all the possibilities in the modern world, and of how an action in a completely new, different context is really a different action. Having your personal political/economic opponents assassinated in Renaissance Italy is a drastically different thing from doing it in 2016 USA (or wherever, but usually USA).
I also feel like Cesare being a naturally brilliant [x] but railroaded into a completely different, powerful but ill-suited position could go in a ton of different directions. And if you're going with the US, the nearest parallel to the hatred they experienced as ~foreigners~ speaking a Spanish language and regarded as ethnically inferior is ... not Italian-Americans.
But there are some really great ones, even in that setting. My #1 favourite Borgias fic goes all out on the organized crime front and another I love is some vague corporate thing with murders, lol (but British murders, which is at least a bit different :P). And I thought the one where they're running an Evangelical megachurch was super interesting. I also wrote one where they're a Canadian rock band, with mediocre frontman Juan holding back the all-around talented Lucrezia and vocal prodigy Cesare, which was absurd but a blast.
I definitely agree that writing a character forces you to really think about them. My fic is tagged C/L and definitely is C/L, but I found it impossible to write Micheletto as anything but in love with Cesare, and by his POV chapter at least halfway with Lucrezia too. In a more fucked-up way than even theirs for each other, but weirdly endearing? "Weirdly endearing" became my idea of Micheletto in a nutshell, lol. He's almost a sort of (grimy and bloody :P) knight to them—I think the S3 scene when he arrives with Giovanni and she touches his head imprinted that interpretation.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2016-04-25 07:47 pm (UTC)There are a ton of ways Borgias modern AUs can work out, definitely. I prefer period ones (my 160k Borgias AU is anchored firmly in 1494), but thinking of ways to recreate scenarios in the modern world is a very different way to think about it.
Pretty much all modern AUs of any canon involved with historical aristocracy goes with generic CEOs (sometimes politicians, though that's weirdly uncommon) and as exact re-creation of the original as possible, but I feel those can ... well, they work, but it's not the most effective way? A lot of times it doesn't seem to take advantage of all the possibilities in the modern world, and of how an action in a completely new, different context is really a different action. Having your personal political/economic opponents assassinated in Renaissance Italy is a drastically different thing from doing it in 2016 USA (or wherever, but usually USA).
I also feel like Cesare being a naturally brilliant [x] but railroaded into a completely different, powerful but ill-suited position could go in a ton of different directions. And if you're going with the US, the nearest parallel to the hatred they experienced as ~foreigners~ speaking a Spanish language and regarded as ethnically inferior is ... not Italian-Americans.
But there are some really great ones, even in that setting. My #1 favourite Borgias fic goes all out on the organized crime front and another I love is some vague corporate thing with murders, lol (but British murders, which is at least a bit different :P). And I thought the one where they're running an Evangelical megachurch was super interesting. I also wrote one where they're a Canadian rock band, with mediocre frontman Juan holding back the all-around talented Lucrezia and vocal prodigy Cesare, which was absurd but a blast.
I definitely agree that writing a character forces you to really think about them. My fic is tagged C/L and definitely is C/L, but I found it impossible to write Micheletto as anything but in love with Cesare, and by his POV chapter at least halfway with Lucrezia too. In a more fucked-up way than even theirs for each other, but weirdly endearing? "Weirdly endearing" became my idea of Micheletto in a nutshell, lol. He's almost a sort of (grimy and bloody :P) knight to them—I think the S3 scene when he arrives with Giovanni and she touches his head imprinted that interpretation.
/rambling, but agreement!