What happens when a character has too much agency?
In this blog, I want to focus on Juan Borgia from The Borgias (Showtime). On the show, Juan is the second son of Rodrigo Borgia, who becomes pope in the first episode. He is the gonfaloniere, or general, of the papal army (a role much coveted by his elder brother Cesare) and the Duke of Gandia. Juan has a lot of agency right from the start.
He gets to spend his days in pursuit of sport, drink, and female company. When Rome is under siege, he has to do soldierly things, but he proves his inexperience by deciding it is with Roman valor that the papal army will defeat a French war machine of canons and vast military experience. As he gets older, Juan’s military pursuits are marred by his cowardice and cruelty, both borne of desperation to please his father, the pope.
But those external power structures are not his greatest antagonist.
Juan’s greatest power struggle is with himself.
His story is the classic human vs. self conflict, and while he has other conflicts external to himself, they are nowhere near as damaging. (Unless you count when he kills Lucrezia’s lover and then she tries to take his life in return.)
Juan’s Struggle: The Biggest of Them All?
As the show continues, Juan becomes a rather sad character, driven and then punished by his libido as he contracts syphilis. He has to undergo painful treatments that won’t ever cure the disease, and so he turns to drinking more and more, as well as opium, to numb his pain. But the saddest part of his story is when he learns that he faces crippling physical and mental deterioration as the disease works its way into his brain.
After many instances of cruelty which are clearly an outward projection of his internal struggle and emotional/mental pain, Juan does find a brief respite where he stops drinking. He becomes clear-headed, finally starts to see himself earning his father’s respect, and then… then it all goes wrong when he’s sent to capture Caterina Sforza and, after an injury, runs from battle.
He blames his brother, Cesare. It’s that injury that begins his foray into opium use. His family observes his downfall in a “Oh, it’s Juan overindulging again.”
At least, most of his family does.
The saddest part of his story, for me, is that in the moments right before he dies at his brother’s hand, Juan basically asks Cesare for help. Cesare instead stabs Juan and, together with Micheletto (who seems stunned by Cesare’s cruelty in committing fratricide after Juan just asked for Cesare’s help), tosses him into the Tiber.
The fact is, Juan is not a nice person. He’s ambitious, cruel, cowardly, misogynistic, and irresponsible. But in those moments when he experiences clarity and when he seeks his brother’s help, the audience roots for him. The audience cares. The reason? Because everyone understands how hard it is to struggle with oneself.
Hopefully, that understanding doesn’t necessarily come from contracting a terrible illness, alcoholism, and opium dependency.
But all of us are human. None of us are perfect. And Juan’s struggle tugs on our heartstrings, because we want to believe he can get better. Maybe he can never be nice because of the environment in which he was raised, but we hope he can get better.
And then that hope is dashed, just like his corpse, into the tidal sweep of a river.
Your Turn! Your Writing Assignment Is…
I want you to design a character whose greatest power struggle is with the power within. We’ll use a set of prompts from my Subversive Novel Mini Blueprint.
Take a character of yours who is dealing with an internal struggle through this set of prompts.
6-Sentence Protagonist Profile (one sentence per prompt):
What your protagonist thinks they must do to survive inside the system:
What internal agency or true freedom they actually need to claim:
The systemic hurdle or institutional pressure standing in their path:
The internalized compliance or fear stopping them from resisting:
How your protagonist actively rebels, disrupts, or negotiates with the power structure:
The structural cost of their defiance or the alternative future they unearth:
After you fill out these prompts, if you want to learn more about the rest of the Subversive Novel Mini Blueprint, check out one of my classes!
