Lrt Been Thinking Again About A Hamlet Swap AU, This Time About The Logistics Of Laertes And Ophelia

lrt been thinking again about a Hamlet Swap AU, this time about the logistics of Laertes and Ophelia sharing the Hamlet and Horatio roles of the original play. Slightly more emphasis on an Ophelia/Hamlet parallel, but both get to play the part.

Haven’t really worked things out, but the basic gist is that it’s likelier to be set in a more modern era, with both having lost their mother at a young age and having varying relationships with Polonius. But one day, Polonius dies of seemingly natural causes, and both are left in shock and grief.

Ophelia finds out, somehow, and quite probably in a non-ghost more actual-evidence manner that Polonius’s death was murder, more specifically murder via Claudius (that might have actually been an attempt to murder Hamlet Sr that went wrong). However, the evidence she finds is possibly coincidental and not conclusive enough to immediately jump to capital vengeance, so after telling Laertes of her discovery, the two agree that they must find some way to properly prove it.

Ophelia hasn’t been in a particularly good state of mind after the death of her father, but she decides she’s going to pretend to be perfectly fine and that she doesn’t need help in order to get people off her back so she can explore her theories further.

All the while, Ophelia’s boyfriend Hamlet notices that she’s putting up an emotional wall and tries to talk to her. His dad’s alive and well, and besides the fact that his girlfriend’s been in a spot of misery lately and he’s only just gotten back from Wittenberg to be able to comfort her, he’s doing otherwise just fine. He’d come prepared, having asked his good friend Horatio for advice on how to empathise with those who’d lost loved ones, and Horatio had warned him that she might act different and could counter-intuitively, possibly need space. Also Horatio is totally in love with Hamlet. So Hamlet does give her some space eventually, but he’s really concerned.

Gertrude also tries to talk to Ophelia, but she brushes her off. Laertes, who’s been less present in the story so far because he’s been off trying to figure out how to gather evidence, comes back with news of something new that might help them.

This is where I start to have less details figured out.

Hamlet eventually confronts Ophelia, desperate to try and help her, and she’s alllllmost contemplating telling him the truth and asking for his help when she realises they’re being watched, by she assumes either Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet Sr, or some combination, and so she decides not to. Instead, she yells at him, accusing him of being a terrible person and not being there for her and then not leaving her alone when she asks, for only wanting to get in her pants (i’ll totally explore her objectification in this one too and this will be relevant even if it’s not really true I prommy), and almost insinuating that she’s seeing someone else in order to break his heart and get him to move on, hopefully leave, because she knows things are about to get messy. It looks like it might work, and he’s super sad about it.

Blah blah blah, equivalent of the Mousetrap, Ophelia and someone else (possibly Laertes, probably Hamlet, possibly someone else from around the castle) talk, and Hamlet Sr, hiding in the curtains, gets stabbed. Hamlet finds the body (if he wasn’t the one to talk to Ophelia in the previous scene) with Ophelia, freaks out, goes to find someone to tell them about it and walks in on his mother and his uncles totes having an affair (yikes). It’s no wonder he goes mad.

Ophelia is sent away, and Hamlet is forced to stay. He does sort of lose his marbles a little bit, but instead of singing and giving out flowers like Ophelia, he rambles about death and talks nonsensically to himself in the court. And by ‘talks nonsensically’, I mean reverts to speaking in only direct quotes from the original Shakespearean play in this modern adaptation. see Gertrude or someone remarking on how he’s clearly lost his mind and is speaking nonsense all while Hamlet is clearly and obviously reciting the ‘to be or not to be’ speech to himself.

Horatio comes quickly from England, but the very night he gets there, he’s pulled aside by Marcellus to deal with something on the roof. That something is Hamlet, shivering and wide-eyed, talking about the ghost of his father. Horatio can’t stop the prince as he follows, slips, and falls off to his death.

Meanwhile Ophelia doesn’t have a Royal Sigil on her, but she does have a brother, and Laertes comes and helps bust her out during her transport, takes care of the messengers, and brings her back to the castle. The two seal their fates together, and vow revenge.

That’s pretty much where I’ve thought up to (there WILL be a fistfight in the grave between Horatio and Ophelia about who loved Hamlet more) but yeah it’s just for the sillies

reasons why Hamlet is going on Zuko’s kinlist:

He’s a sweet and sensitive boy with a passion for the theatre whose life was ruined by the politics of being his nation’s royalty and crown prince. He’s losing himself in the self-destructive and tunnel-visioned pursuit of a goal given to him by his father, whom he holds in a higher regard than he probably should. He doesn’t know how to handle the sudden emotional unavailability of his mother, but deep down he still loves her and is a bit of a mama’s boy if anything. It’s also a miracle he stays alive for as long as he does, what with the constant attempts on his life and whatnot. He’s in constant emotional turmoil and so many of his actions can be read as a cry for help, as his inner sense of morality conflicts with his sense of duty and he spends a lot of his time in two halves, stuck on how to deal with it all. He’s supposed to be the heir of the throne, but his throne was usurped by a second youngest sibling while he was still alive, who he then goes on to defeat during a final climatic fight involving his choice weapon of proficiency, but taking a fatal blow in the process. He’s also very good with swords.

reasons why Hamlet is going on Azula’s kinlist:

Both of them are volatile and dangerous, being willing to kill multiple people directly in an attempt to please their father going so far as to suffering a full psychotic break that ends up destroying them. They both see apparitions of their parents that no one else can, they yell at their mothers and are torn apart at their betrayals, they become increasingly paranoid that everyone and anyone close to them is out to get them. Their closest friends betray them and sell them out, and so both arrange to have them dealt with. Both are cruel to those who are supposed to be their friends, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes purposefully. Both are largely broken people who are a result of the incredibly toxic environment/system they grew up in, whose ability to escape the situation they’re put in and become better people are topics largely debating by their respective fandoms.

reasons why Hamlet is going on both of theirs:

Their story largely begins when the current ruler of their nation is fatally poisoned in order to pass the crown and throne down from the eldest sibling in line to the second eldest, a generation above their own. Royalty, daddy issues, mommy issues, all have trouble with spirits. My Chemical Romance could’ve saved them.

rip fire hazard siblings you would have both either loved and resonated with Hamlet or found the play uncomfortably familiar and not been able to read through it a second time but either way you both would’ve been putting Hamlet on the kinlist for different but valid reasons

retweeting this because I’m about to refer to it again

toying around with a swap au version of Hamlet. haven't really worked out the details, but imagining it'd be a Hamlet-Ophelia centric swap of parts: Ophelia (and Laertes is probably in on it to) tearing her life apart in her quest to revenge her dead parent with Hamlet as the cast aside lover, heartbroken and trying to seek out the truth in her love.

When Hamlet's father is killed, he spirals much faster, for two main reasons.

one: this time he knows that it was murder from the moment he finds out, and

two: not only was his father murdered and his corpse desecrated, but the one responsible was none other than the one he thought he loved.

Needless to say, it's no surprise when Horatio finds him on the roof.

Hamlet pales and trembles in the cold, wild eyes fixed on seeming vacancy: the prince's hair seems to stand on its very ends. He's ill-dressed for the conditions, and he looks ghastly, to say the least.

Horatio's heart could weep at the sight of him. He'd seemingly gone mad ever since the death of his father, and Horatio was finding it harder and harder to place his friend by the day. His appearance disheveled, his mirth dissipated, his discussions once scholarly and philosophical in nature now distracted ramblings with a morbid tendency to fixate on death. Lord knows where he'd found an actual skull from, and why he'd decided to bring it into the castle, all covered in muck and mud like a buried thing.

Now the rain and wind whip around his face and clothing, thin, white, and practically transparent in its wetness. Hamlet had startled at Horatio's arrival, but now he points. He points at the empty air in front of him.

He sees a ghost, he says. He sees his father, he says.

Horatio tries to convince him that it's only in his mind's eye, but his friend is too far gone. There's a wild desperation in his eyes, matched only by a sadness that seems to stretch into some neverending abyss.

Horatio has a bad feeling about this.

Hamlet begins to move, saying the ghost beckons him to follow, it won't talk to him in the presence of others. Horatio tells him that's it's a bad idea, and that he may find himself led somewhere dangerous, and he should really come back with him inside.

The prince doesn't listen, and begins to run, across the castle roof, towards some figment of the imagination, away from Horatio.

He's nearing an edge when Horatio catches him, tackling him to the ground. The two scuffle as Horatio pleads, begs him not to go. The wind is loud and the rain stings, and the fight continues until Horatio suddenly finds his throat on the other end of a blade; the prince has drawn his sword upon him.

He'll make a ghost of anyone that lets him, he threatens.

And Horatio's never seen this look in his friend's eyes, a pure, unfiltered hatred directed towards him, he's never been on the other end of his anger. He's frozen in complete shock, and Hamlet seizes the opportunity, turning and sprinting.

The prince chases the ghost, and follows it off the edge.

By the time Horatio sits up, all that lies before him is the night, the rain, and the empty castle roof. Only a thin railing separates him from a lethal drop, and if he wanted to, he could be over it in mere seconds. He can't move, he can barely think, and somehow he can't even bring himself to feel anything at all. It's not real to him, not yet. All he can think about is how he'll be the one to relay the news.

What does he do now?

What does he tell them?

The Prince of Denmark has fallen from great height, following his father's ghost into an early grave.

sometimes all a girl needs is to be unhealthily obsessed with a play from 400 years ago

Hamlet, but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Marty and Jennyfer from Back to the Future.

>zutara romance makes no sense

>ships zukka

lmao the fujo goggles are strong here

> begins by clarifying there’s nothing objectively wrong with the ship and self-censors so that it stays out of shippers’ feeds and doesn’t bother them

> post is about lack of platonic fandom content

> post was not supposed to be condemnation of the romantic ship but I will admit I have a personal distaste for it so if that was apparent in my writing, my bad. main point was supposed to be that the ship is not what the canon was implying and changes some very important and often overlooked character details if viewed through such a lens

> zukka is mentioned as a one-off in post yes but an examination of other posts of mine will reveal that jinko, in fact, solos

> personal distaste for said ship is also admittedly in large part to being a kataang enjoyer I also will not deny

> zukka shippers don’t feel the need to prove that their ship is canon so the fandom content has a satisfactory amount of platonic content, as such it does not bother me to the point where I post about it

> I don’t think I posted my ship tierlist here (didn’t want to poke that many hornet’s nests at once) but zukka is like. barely a top 3 Zuko ship for me. it goes jinko, aroace zuko/zuko x nobody (zuko alone lol), zukki, zukka, zuki.

> yuri better. happy national yuri day folks

if you have any more questions, concerns, or accusations, feel free to ask and i am happy to clarify. i did write the original post at twelve am at night and such a time leads to dubiously worded choices and as such if there are any phrases, particular writing choices or anything else you’d like to clear up, let me know. the last thing I’d want is for my very important fandom opinions to be misunderstood. next time feel free to turn off anonymous questions so i can personally dm you and don’t have to make any sort of post that would further heighten my chances of ending up on a certain ship’s side of tumblr and therefore increase the likelihood of getting more anonymous asks like this one.