It also has an action-packed chase through Rome and a showdown featuring an archangel, bit these are details.

Having watched these TV shows, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop; they're so much about descents into unhappiness, sickness and despair that I kept anticipating these. But it didn't happen; at least this one is an upward journey and ends in a light and happy note.

But of course, there's more in the sequels...

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(4/n, n=4)

They want the other members to thrive; educate them wherever possible (there are a lot of great scenes where both Lucrezia Borgia and Giulia are trying to learn and make sense of the world); generally want their best.

And it's a story about overcoming dire circumstances, about, as Vergil states in the dedication, rising up to the highest skies instead of descending into misery. By using both heart and brains.

A very Renaissance story, then.

(3/n)

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... and I've watched /both/ Borgia TV shows from the 2010s, but other than that, I'm maybe not the target audience: not that much of a fantasy person, and really not a romance person - and this one has a love story at its heart.

But I did like it anyway!

Because it's much more than a love story with feminine magic.

It's actually much more about family, and good, loving family at that. Both Giulia's and Rodrigo's family care deeply about family members.

(2/n)

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So. "A Blackened Mirror" by @jograhamwrites, which I've bought on impulse because a conversation here made me think I'd like it.

A kind of fantasy-inflected alternate history, chronicling Giulia Farnese becoming Rodrigo Borgia's mistress - with Giulia having some ability to see the future (in mirrors, hence the title) and converse with demons and angels, which in turn can be summoned using special techniques.

I like historical fiction from time to time,..

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(1/n)

I think it's very interesting how Giulia doesn't just use this magic or witchcraft or whatever talent she has, but tries to /understand/ and control it as well.

I wonder about those learned treatises though. Are they right about everything? Giulia seems sceptical at times, and I'm also guessing ist no different than Aristotle or Pliny: some interesting facts, some inane misconceptions.

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Still gathering my thoughts; one thing I ask myself: why does Giulia pray to the ancient Goddess Proserpina about seeing her future husband and so on? As a Catholic, surely there are saints in abundance for this kind of thing?

Maybe it's a hint: their family does some things differently. Both she and Alessandro see things; maybe that runs in the family and they know how to deal with it? And dealing with it doesn't involve the saints?

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"Why does St. Augustine hate everything?" - Lucrezia asking the right questions here...

(And it's so good how her father just answers it, thoughtfully and age-appropriately. Reminds me of how Carlyle Foster talks to Bridger in "Too Like te Lightning". It's really something to emulate as a parent.)

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I think the "seeing the Forum Romanum as it was" thing is something most people visiting might have done, if only in their mind's eye and not in a magical sight as Giulia can. I certainly closed my eyes there and imagined it full of people, law courts in session, muddy swamp and all.

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I just love this Renaissance spirit of enjoying the beauty of the world, the wonder of life, of learning new things and that opening up new worlds in turn, so much - it's really pathetic.

Plus I feel somewhat bad about it, because I know it's not innocent. It leads to new systems of oppression, to colonization, to the fruits of that new science destroying much. The applications are so evil it should taint it all.

Yet I can't feel that. Pathetic.

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“I think there is no sin in knowledge, just in the application of it.”

Wise words. Very wise words indeed, Rodrigo Borgia.

(I think of science, naturally, but here, one might also think about magic.)

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This learning by bits and morsels snatched up from your brother's education because why tutor a girl makes me SO ANGRY everytime I encounter it. Angry, and grateful, and then angry, because these attitudes are still there.

And it always makes me think about my grandmother, a very intelligent person with an interest in the sciences who only went to school for the minimum required time and who always told me how much of a privilege my education was.

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Something I've always wondered: in a world where women's marriages are almost all arranged, and arranged for political or economic reasons at that - why are so many women still dreaming of romantic love? Wouldn't it make sense to just hope for a good man, a good position, a fulfilling life?

Is it because romantic love is just a basic human need?

It's a serious question; I get friendship, companionship, a lot more than romance, but that may be just me...

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It's good that the narrative starts after the epidemic that killed Giulia's relatives, instead of showing their deaths. Small children and/or their parents dying while they watch is not something I do well with since I had mine. Hearing about it after the fact is sad but okay for me.

(I still dream about the opening act of "The Ministry for the Future", which I've read when K2 was a baby, sometimes. Yeah. I don't do well with it.)

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Quote feels relevant to much of the internet, actually. And the real life. And everything. That whole "trying hard to find joy" thing I try to do.

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And with that, we close my little photo tour of the Borgia Apartments! I hope you've enjoyed the walk-through! #Borgia #Renaissance #Vatican #ABlackenedMirror @SMorrisAuthor @AthenaHelivoy