I Love The Way Whenever Benvolio Refers To Mercutio, It's Never Just "Mercutio", But "good Mercutio"

I love the way whenever Benvolio refers to Mercutio, it's never just "Mercutio", but "good Mercutio" and "brave Mercutio".

Yep, we all know what's going on here Benvolio.

Romeo + Juliet (1996) dir. Baz Luhrmann

You know what I love? People seeing the queerness of Shakespeare’s plays.

Really. Not ‘cause “Straights suck lol” but because back in the days Shakespeare wrote the plays, he could have been jailed for making them gay. So he didn’t. Think about those thousands of queer men and women who had to hide it through history; today is the time to honor them. So queer productions of Shakespearean classics are amazing, because Shakespeare would have wanted it that way. Because I’m ready to bet that if there really is an afterlife, Shakespeare is watching us make Mercutio and Benvolio gay with pride.

“If there really had been a Mercutio, and if there really were a Paradise, Mercutio might be hanging out with teenage Vietnam draftee casualties now, talking about what it felt like to die for other people’s vanity and foolishness.”

— Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus

Romeo: How is the most beautiful person in the world doing?

Juliet: I don’t know, how ar-

Mercutio, from the other side of the room: I’m doing great!