so, i’ve finished my third rewatch today and this time i really paid attention to the end credits and noticed this in the “section” dedicated to joe and nicky

now, that painting is actually this painting, by Renaissance artist Paolo Finoglio (and it dates back to mid-17th century)

it represents the duel between Tancredi and Clorinda, two characters from Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata (or Jerusalem delivered in English). long story short, he’s a christian and she’s a muslim, he loves her and she doesn’t, pretty standard epic poem stuff. their duel happens under the walls of Jerusalem— Tancredi kills Clorinda without recognising her, and it’s only when he removes her helmet that he recognises her as his beloved. which, like, already rings several bells like killing your beloved??? during a holy war??? that you’re fighting on opposites sides???

but what’s Even Better is that Torquato Tasso is only one of the many people tackling the subject of the Crusades and the chansons de geste around Charlemagne’s paladins and in fact the Gerusalemme liberata wouldn’t exist without Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, which in turn wouldn’t exist without Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando innamorato (if you’re wondering, the Furioso is arguably the most famous of the three, at least in my school experience, bcos Boiardo’s too niche and Tasso’s too religious lol)

and those too have a romance between a christian and a muslim— in this case, she’s christian, and her name is Bradamante, and he’s a muslim, and his name is Ruggiero. he’s kept prisoner by his wizard dad Atlante she wants to save him they get separated a whole lot of times he falls in love as well and converts to christianity bcos of course he does [Clorinda does the same as she’s dying and like, these are Renaissance authors in Very Christian Italy so it’s pretty much to be expected], and then her parents want her to settle down but not with Ruggiero so she says “fine i’ll marry whoever can best me in combat” and guess who bests her in combat it’s Ruggiero and then they marry and start the house of Ariosto’s noble patrons bcos he had to somehow make their feeding him worth their while so what better way than to invent ancient and mythical roots for their house i mean he was just continuing what Virgil started

what i mean to say is that the story of a christian warrior and a muslim warrior falling in love during the time of the Crusades while fighting on opposite sides is very much recurrent throughout Renaissance literature and art and i’m not saying that Joe and Nicky waltzed into 15th and 16th and 17th century Italy and had everyone from Boiardo to Ariosto to Tasso take several seats and be like “wow look at that i want what they have i have to find a way to at least work some of that into my poem” while also having given birth to the very archetype itself but that’s exactly what i’m saying