Hamletposting - Tumblr Posts
a marker i use to determine how ‘good’ an adaptation of Hamlet is is: how sympathetic is Hamlet as a character? Can they, despite all his flaws, mistakes, and occasional acts of cruelty, still make me genuinely empathise with a lost soul stuck in a vicious cycle of grief and loneliness? Is he humanised? Is he understandable? Do I grieve with him, for him?
The second marker i use is: how sympathetic is Laertes as a character? Is he portrayed as a self-righteous jerk, or is he portrayed as someone who’s completely right by the end of the play? Is he simply an opposing force sent to stop the protagonist or is his loss just as, if not more, heart-wrenching than Hamlet’s own? Between him and Hamlet do I view one or the other as either good or evil, or do I view them both as a contrast yet an exploration into the depth of the other? Are they merely enemies or foils?
Not that these factors are the end-all markers, but I do tend to find that my favourite adaptations will have me screaming biting banging my head into the wall all throughout Act 5
just had a really long conversation with an irl about alcoholism as a potential plot device in Hamlet and came to some absolutely devastating conclusions on how and where it could be used. cannot wait to get back to you all about them when I’ve had some sleep
Shakespeare: I will create two teenage characters who are explicitly proto-postmodern examinations of the nature of character and fate within fictional narrative. I am their creator and - like their parents within the narrative - I exercise complete control over their fates, no matter how much they struggle against it. They are born like Athena from my mind and doomed to die by my pen, by my complicity in the narrative negligence of them, by my own actions and wishes-
Actor: cool, what's their names?
Shakespeare, father of twins named Judith and Hamnet: uhh…. Juliet and Hamlet.
been thinking about a less serious totally campy 2000-2010s teen movie adaptation of Hamlet in my spare time (female lead Hamlet and not word-for-word... bite me) after listening to Nirvana's Nevermind on repeat and it was all coming together up until Act 3 Scene 2: The Mousetrap.
Now this one's an interesting one, as seeing as there aren't many travelling actor troupes around these days, often modern takes tend to modernise this performance, with Ethan Hawke's Hamlet utilising the art of indie film and perhaps my all-time favourite take on it, Ryan North's To Be Or Not To Be A Choosable Adventure Book that has Claudius play a Choose Your Own Adventure book within the Choose Your Own Adventure book (spoiler alert- he chooses the kill-your-brother path). In this way I am a fan of when the play-within-a-play is changed to suit the medium of adaptation, but I wasn't really feeling a movie for the characterisation vibes I was going for.
Until I had possibly the greatest idea ever. While travelling theatre troupes that perform edited renditions of well known plays just out and about are less common, there's another and often more mobile theatre form, close to my heart, that could be utilised to fit this scene well: comedy improv.
Hamlet, hearing word her old theatre group is back in town, inviting her mother and uncle along to an improv night, with a secret plan to reveal her uncle's guilt through the art of theatresports.
It'll probably go either one of two ways: she pulls aside her old teammate, asks for a favour- she knows that it's improv, and the whole point is that it's Not planned ahead, but if just this once she could get a certain scene to play out in front of her parents. and while reluctant, they agree, and on the night, announce a game of New Choice, asking Hamlet to be their caller.
It goes a little something like this:
'I shall now pour the deadly poison down his throat-'
'New Choice!'
'Into his eyes-'
'New Choice!'
'Into his ears!'
'Wow, that's crazy. Poisoned by his own brother. Would be a real shame if he were to go and marry his wife now, wouldn't it be, Claudius?'
Alternatively, instead of asking to rig a game (which is a cardinal sin anyway), Hamlet asks if she can join them for a special round, like old times. She offers to write for a game of Typewriter. Her teammate agrees, then jokingly implies that she's grown rusty, asking if she remembers the most important rule of improv. Rolling her eyes, of course she remembers to yes-and, she says.
She does not yes-and.
She flat out refuses the first two offers from the audience on the ask of 'interesting relationship between two people' until her plant Horatio eventually pipes up with 'wife and brother-in-law', she prefaces her scene with a lengthy disclaimer that it may cover some morbid topics but they shouldn't bother anyone (unless they have something to hide), and proceeds to run the scene with an iron fist, shutting down any offers that don't suit her purpose. Her teammate is making plans to chew her out afterwards when she shuts down their fifth offer to do ANYTHING but keep talking about how great a wife they are and how much they're not going to cheat etc etc. Eventually they get somewhere, and someone's getting poisoned, but then a bell rings and they get the '30 seconds, wrap it up' (about time, the pacing's gone to shit). but instead of wrapping it up in any manner that might salvage the scene, Hamlet takes it as an invitation to suddenly start typing quicker than normal, like she HAS to get all these words out before her time is up, and is ignoring everyone to go on this tangent about the king's death and how the brother takes the throne and she's just started to talk about how he marries the late king's wife (bit weird innit) when her uncle stands up and storms out of the room.
Anyway it would just be fun, methinks.
I think the reason why I tend to like more controversial film Shakespearean adaptations (eg Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet) is to me, keeping the complete integrity of the play whole and intact is just slightly less important than seeing the story get to be told in new and exciting ways? Like don't get me wrong, I very much appreciate the integrity of a play and might be using the wrong word entirely but I don't care if not every single detail is the exact same and if some of the deep implications are lost in favour of things that look cool.
I guess my view comes from the fact that Shakespeare is so hard to get into for a number of reasons: the excruciating language barrier especially for first time readers, the fact that the plays are all like 400 years old, and the way that everybody seems so pretentious about his works all the time that it's hard to connect to them in any meaningful way when people are just going to tell you you're not reading it right. It put me off for a good many years to the point where I held contempt for the playwright and every English teacher who'd made me study his works because it all felt so stupid and uptight and so much fuss about nothing (much ado about nothing, you might say) and I'd been taken to see live plays of his multiple times and every time my parents had been like 'oh it's a cultural experience! it's high art!' and it confused me and frustrated me and just didn't resonate with me at all. and quite potentially the ONLY reason I got into his works at all was three straight years studying his plays in, Hamlet came up on my radar as the play we'd have to perform a scene from for a Drama assessment. And he was Danish, and I'm Danish, and I thought 'yknow maybe I'll give this one a shot for cultural heritage purposes or whatever' and so I put in extra work to understand the play and realised it kind of hit hard. And then, after all these years of reading plays and watching them without a clue what was going on, it was getting the chance to perform a scene from a play that I understood with the instruction to make of it what we wanted it to be, I finally got it. I realised why this name had been one to go down in history.
But I can't get over how absolutely hard it was to get here, and how close I was to never being here at all despite my close proximity at many occasions of my life. And it's because people treat Shakespeare's works like 'high art' which they are, but they also take it to mean untouchable. And okay, maybe if it was the Mona Lisa or something. But this is theatre! This is the most adaptational, most personal, most intimate art form! And it's not only art where the value lies in viewing it, but there's value in being the ones to perform as well! And treating it like some godly, better-than-thou, scripture from the heavens makes it unrelatable and unapproachable. When the whole reason these stories have lasted for four hundred years is because they're relatable!
But sometimes three-four hour plays are hard to resonate with, especially the Shakesperean worded ones, whether that be read or viewed. Mostly for newcomers. And often, that can be where film comes in. And here's where I should add, a large amount of people don't watch Shakespeare with the intent of acting like they know everything about it. Having an adaptation that doesn't fully do the original justice should be okay, because at the end of the day it's more important that the stories are being told and adapted to draw in a modern audience (who then if interested can go and properly sink their teeth in) than kept in a glass case to be seen but not felt.
I hope people make really shitty film adaptations of Shakespeare. I hope people make film adaptations that do something daring and original that wasn't in the play. I hope people make adaptations that go offscipt entirely, I hope they make adaptations that don't quite make sense but they're going for more of a vibe than anything. I hope they make adaptations that are campy and ridiculous and I hope they make adaptations that really suit the original plays and capture all of their themes that make every scholar's heart ascend with happiness.
I hope people make many, many adaptations of Shakespeare's works, each with a bit of their own creativity and soul handcrafted into them. I hope these stories keep being adapted again and again and that every adaptation, whether it resonates with a large audience or not, really resonates with someone. I hope people have self-indulgent fun adapting his works. I hope that no one ever feels afraid to put something out into the world just because it might be awful.
I should also add, if you happen to dislike any of the adaptations I mentioned for valid reasons that's totally fine and I understand why you might lol. But in an ideal world, Hamlet has like a hundred different modern versions and I actually hate like half of them but it's okay because the fact that so many were made means that one also got made that's so good and so perfect for me that it keeps me up at night. I currently do have takes on the play that I absolutely despise anyway (Freud when I get my hands on you) but I recognise that there's merit in them existing and people finding meaning in them (even if they're WRONG according to me). I also understand the potential frustration in people who haven't studied the play coming into academic spaces and acting as if they have full authority because they've seen one adaptation. I just hope you sort of get the point I'm trying to make because we're probably not on opposite sides and I have a fear of misarticulating myself on the internet LOL
anyway the Hamlet scene I ended up doing for my Drama assessment was the latter half of Act 5 Scene 2 and our group's take on it were that Hamlet and Laertes were bitter exes lmao
my Roman Empire is how in Hamlet, we are presented with four characters who were each at one point the person/people Hamlet held most dear, and one of them watches as Hamlet's actions lead the other three to suffer, lose their minds, and/or die.
Horatio is Hamlet's closest friend over the course of the play, the one he comes to again and again, refers to as being in his 'heart of hearts', and who keeps him stable and alive for at least the most part. We follow these two the most explicitly throughout the text.
Ophelia is Hamlet's lover, and their relationship can be read many ways, ranging from never-really-loved-the-other to they-did-it-numerous-times-and-in-fact-she-was-pregnant-(possibly)-(also)-(aborted) but for the sake of this post I'm going to go the middle ground and say they had a wholesome and happy relationship before Hamlet's dad died and he got all sad. Doubt the stars are fire, but never doubt I love.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Hamlet's childhood friends, and Gertrude remembers them as being so loved by him that 'two men there are not living to whom he more adheres'. It's clear that these three were very close during some stage of his life, likely his childhood and potentially teens. The point is, they meant the most to him at some point in his life.
But again, by the time the acts of Hamlet come to pass, Hamlet has chosen Horatio to be his sole compatriot. Whether or not this is prior to his actual arrival in Elsinore is largely irrelevant- Hamlet makes sure he spends a lot of the first half of the play flustered in the face of a prince who won't stop finding nice things to say about him. Hamlet butters him up with honeyed words, and tells him the truth about everything, or what he thinks, anyway.
Horatio is touched but one specific line does stick out to him a bit- when Hamlet assured him it was not an attempt at flattery, and went on to clarify that he feels free to love Horatio as Horatio doesn't want anything from him, and doesn't have anything to hide. If what the ghost said about Claudius were true, it makes sense for Hamlet to be paranoid and hold others at a distance, but Horatio can't help but think about the underlying implication that if Hamlet had any reason to be suspicious of Horatio, he'd be just as cold to him as everyone else. Which, again, makes sense, but something about it rubs him a strange way.
Horatio tries to relate his experiences with the others he knows were close to Hamlet. He doesn't know much about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but Hamlet has mentioned suspicion of them, but despite that, seems to have been cordial enough. As for Ophelia... She seems to have seen the worst of his feigned madness, so he doesn't really know about her. He also heard something about an argument, but he doesn't know to what extent.
After the play, and an odd interaction with R&G, Hamlet heads upstairs to speak to his mother and Horatio thinks about it some more.
He words the question properly to himself: would Hamlet still love me if I were in their position? And he doubts for a moment, but then he remembers what Hamlet told him, the look in his eyes as he proclaimed his sincerity, and even the rare laughter he'd indulged in after the play, in only his presence, and Hamlet has convinced him.
Up until he hears the news of Polonius's murder. And until he hears the recount of Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's intervention with the seemingly mad prince, and he begins to doubt him.
And when he's left to take care of Ophelia, driven mad by the death of her father and the wrath of her lover, and in her delirium she tells him things, tells him everything, and there's a strange sense of familiarity in her words. She shows him her letters, throwing them at him and laughing, tears running from her eyes, and Horatio recognises the poetic style, the sweet wording that always seems to know how to strike your heart closest, and he realises that she had once been where he had, received Hamlet's love in the same way. And it's strange, in a way he's not sure what to do with.
His fear is alleviated slightly when Hamlet sends him a letter, and he seems back to his usual sense of self, the one Horatio knows. Horatio is glad for the normalcy, and it does a part to clear his worry that he had been deceived in any nature, after his time with Ophelia.
Even further when he finally returns to Denmark, and while the two talk, they stumble upon Ophelia's funeral, and Hamlet takes no time to jump into her grave and proclaim his grief loudly. Horatio feels a bit sick at feeling any sort of relief at this, but the proof that Hamlet may have truly loved her and hadn't intended for this to happen does something to quell the fear again.
That is, until Hamlet recounts his journey.
And with a strange sort of expression that looks sort of like... pride, recounts how he sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths.
Horatio is a little shocked by this, as he can't recall the two having done anything particularly wrong, and this was clearly not accidental. Hamlet brushes him off by saying the two knew what they were getting into, showing strangely little remorse.
Horatio thinks, about how they were his childhood friends, and then again about Ophelia, and then again about his earlier question.
would Hamlet still love me if I were in their position?
And he realises, in a way that makes him nauseous, that the answer is no. And not only that, but for all Hamlet's laughter and flattering words, it wouldn't have saved him.
But still, he doesn't leave his side. Hamlet loves him now, and he's the lucky one. Nothing can be done anymore, and he feels they draw close to the end.
And he does still love him. And Hamlet loves him back.
Horatio reaches for the poisoned cup as Hamlet dies. It feels right that it should end this way, and he doesn't really want to go on.
But Hamlet wrestles the cup out of his hand with an intensity that catches him off guard, begging him to stay alive, to tell his story
and so he does, cradling the prince as he slips into a deeper dream.
Sometime after, Horatio will again think about it all. The four of them. Three dead by his hand, one alive by it.
He wonders.
Did Hamlet ever think about it too? About how his actions hurt the ones closest to him, and in his final moments, chose to break the pattern and save the only life he could?
Or did Hamlet only save him because he still loved him? Not out of guilt, or reflection on his previous actions necessarily, but because Horatio still hadn't done him wrong?
random little witchy Hamlet au! in this one Gertrude is a fae/witch/some type of magically aligned being who falls mutually in love with Hamlet Sr and becomes Queen of Denmark. this is met with mixed public opinion that eventually tips positively because she turns out to be pretty swell and the two have a little half-human child who grows up to be a pretty sweet prince.
Claudius grows resentful of the power that the young prince holds, both in ability and inheritance, and feels it is being misplaced in not being used to further their status. Denmark is in a politically unstable position, and they're not using all the tools at their disposal. He also fears that his own power pales, and so he feels the need to do something that will establish himself on top again.
In the months leading up to his father's murder, the young Hamlet is met with bad dreams that he can't always remember but leave a bitter taste in his mouth. They're often ghostly, demonic, and confusing, but frightening nonetheless.
In the weeks following his father's murder, the nightmares continue, but with added clarity. Some seem to be of the moments surrounding his father's death but they're hazy, and disorienting. The clearest are the ones of hands, bloody and pale. Swords, curtains, boats. A cup hits the floor and spills its wine red contents. He thinks the hands might be his own, but he's not sure.
When Horatio arrives, he tells Hamlet he's seen a ghost. He thinks, but he's not sure. The guards took him to a spot on the roof with some strange activity, wispy shadows, whispering voices, a site of general bad omens, hoping Hamlet can help them decipher it. Hamlet isn't entirely sure where to begin, but in the very moment the others turn their backs, he's struck with a debilitating vision of his father's murder, flashes of his father's present condition, and a chorus of strangled voices urging him to take revenge.
Over the coming weeks, Hamlet is stuck on exactly where to go and what to do with this information. He's not sure that it's all true, and fears it may be the trick of the devil. He's also been closing himself off deliberately from using any supernatural ability after his mother's taking of his uncle (unfortunately he can only do so much about visions), deciding that the use of magic is feminine and unholy. He's also swung heavily towards Catholicism in his paranoia, especially after some of the vision's aspects.
The story plays out largely the same way, with the au only affecting certain areas like: Hamlet accidentally cursing Ophelia, Hamlet and Gertrude having an added layer of messy to their relationship for each other to yell about, Hamlet being very deliberate in his usage (or lack thereof) of magic at the start of the play, but as it furthers and he slips further into madness, he starts to instinctually care less and it begins to creep back in.
For example, Hamlet kills Polonius with a sword. He yells at his mother about her wicked ways, about his resentment towards what she's made of him. She cries that she only ever wanted what was best for him, and she's ashamed.
But when he writes and seals the letter and the fates of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, perhaps he's a little too overzealous in his cause. When he escapes the ship and leaves the two on course to England, they never make it. The vessel goes down not four hours later in an unexpected storm that rips it apart, plank from plank.
When he accepts Laertes' challenge, he's more than happy for a chance to show off his fencing, a skill he's been in large practice of since his father's death. It was, after all, his father's choice to train him personally in the art of handling such a weapon. His mother taught him how to use magic, and his father taught him how to use his physical skills. And after his mother's betrayal of her post, he felt sickened by her craft and spent the extra time throwing himself into his fencing practice.
But when she dies, all of a sudden he finds that it doesn't really matter to him anymore. He can't remember how mad he was at her, he can only feel an empty and desperate depth where there once was feeling. So when Laertes reveals the king's guilt, it's the most natural feeling to have magic flow into his veins again, and he brings Claudius to his knees. He grabs him by his head, and using the same practices that his mother's hand once guided him in, ends him without even needing to lift his blade.
It's too late for him though, and it finishes off, again, much like the play. Hamlet gives Horatio and Fortinbras his blessing for their respective futures, before dying in Horatio's arms.
anyway this isn't very thought out and feel free to add anything but was just a silly idea I had :}
adding more again and what do you mean some of these concepts seem familiar I totally haven't been using them to branch off into completely different ideas that I've already talked about here ahaha I would never do that
anyway:
- adding scenes inbetween what the play directly shows us with no words in a similar way to how I've already expressed interest in adding flashbacks: no words, just little scenes used to expand a certain take on some of the character relationships onscreen. for example, Act 4 Horatio taking care of Ophelia while she's crying in her room and she shows him her letters from Hamlet, which he goes on to read after she leaves with with an unreadable expression. Act 4 Hamlet shown from his POV as he writes the letter aboard the pirate ship, and limited clips from his time aboard both boats that get later expanded on when he properly recounts the story to Horatio in Act 5 (and he'll laugh while doing so). Past his Act 4 Scene 4 appearance we only see him from behind in these sightings, but when we see him writing the letter he's wearing his father's signet ring.
- Similarly, Fortinbras is not shown from the front until his proper entrance in Act 5 Scene 2. The Norweigan prince, in a similar way to how Horatio and Ophelia look alike (not entirely, just enough to discern a noticeable parallel), looks vaguely like he could be an older, jaded version of Hamlet. His hair is a dirtier blonde, and some of his features are different, but there's just enough for a connection to be made. Stepping over the bodies, he takes the royal crown from Claudius' head and tries it on. He goes on to inspects the signet ring on Hamlet's hand, but after Horatio speaks of him, lets it be and the late prince is buried with both.
- When Hamlet meets with the ghost in Act 1 Scene 5, after his line of 'Murder?' and his father's claim of the snake that poisoned him sitting on the throne and wearing his clown, Hamlet is suddenly struck with brief flashes of a vision of his father's murder accompanying the rest of his words, and then even quicker flashes that symbolise events from later on in the play that don't make complete sense to him without context, but are bloody and wicked enough that it seems to be all part of the show.
did I ever tell you guys about how I would adapt (the tragedy of) Hamlet (prince of Denmark) if ever given the chance. because I have so many thoughts and I’m adding onto them all the time so here’s a post with all my ideas compiled.
- firstly, it would be an animated mini-series of five episodes, each one corresponding to an Act. I think Animation is a highly under-utilised and underappreciated medium that would suit this particular story well in terms of what it could achieve visually and also these are just a bunch of words to say I’m heavily biased towards animation and just love it so much.
- there are so many fun little character design tidbits i would implement. including but not limited to: Horatio being the shortest, Claudius/Hamlet Sr identical twins (and Claudius having a Scar reminiscent scar on his face for the drama… and also the eventual Act 5 Scene 2 parallels when Laertes wounds Hamlet with the rapier in an incidentally similar way), Laertes having a silly curly moustache, Horatio and Ophelia resembling the other, Hamlet looking tired, pale and ghostly at all times, character’s hair being used as a way to show passing of time (Hamlet having hair on the long side of short in Act 1, growing but in a little ponytail over Act 2, medium-length and unkempt in Acts 3 & 4, and cut shortly and neatly in Act 5. also Ophelia’s hair growing noticeably as well and being often neatly braided with little flowers in Acts 1-2, loosely braided without flowers in Act 3, but being down and wild in Act 4 etc), and so on so forth.
- I would shamelessly be including flashbacks to pre-tragedy memories of the castle/inhabitants. Baby R&G&H running through the castle halls and playing hide and seek. Hamlet actually, god forbid, practicing fencing. The Players entertaining at the castle in Hamlet’s youth. Ophelia and Hamlet sneaking out into the garden beneath the willows by the pond, Hamlet braiding flowers into her hair while they sit together. Yorick entertaining baby Hamlet. All coloured with the softest, goldenest glows that nostalgia can manage to contrast the desaturated depressive hues of the current day. I think a lot of the tragedy of *Hamlet* specifically lies in comparing what was to what ended up being, and since the play starts after Hamlet’s entered his mourning period, it’s hard to fully comprehend the true nature of such a fall.
- Each Act having a lovely stylised title card in its introduction with themes and motifs that are specifically prevalent throughout. Act 3 would have curtains, for example, given the play staging and Polonius’ later poor choice of hiding place. Act 5 introduces the classic skull we all know and love.
- Very purposeful dramatic lighting and colour throughout. Daylight lighting and then the switch to a lot of Hamlet’s soliloquies seeming to appear under more ‘spotlight’ lighting. Early evening during the play, sunset during the scene where Claudius prays (golden light tricking through beautiful stained-glass windows), nightfall when Hamlet yells at Gertrude. Lighting also being used to dramatise entrances perhaps, such as Claudius’s prayer being interrupted by the shift to ‘spotlight’ lighting before we even see Hamlet at the door.
- Same goes with music and motifs, interwoven character leitmotifs and themes that shift keys and qualities and work together to make larger pieces and show up to herald the arrival of a character, or turn sour to match their emotions.
- the visual humour of the play being upped, as well as the wordy humour being emphasised, in order to really contrast the shift in tone throughout the halves of the play. I’ve always been a tragicomedy truther when it comes to Hamlet, I think if done well it could be a really neat way to get the audience to invest more in the characters while also really highlighting how quickly everything goes south.
Probably add more on as I go
ok so I made my plans about somehow making some sort of Hamlet AU out of ATLA clear before I even began watching the show, but what I didn’t anticipate, was how easy the show was going to make it for me.
I don’t know if I have to tag atla spoilers because the show came out in 2005? but erm spoilers I suppose. to be completely honest i’m only on S3 E13 so this is subject to change, just throwing out ideas rn
Like there’s literally conspiracy leading to murder (apparently even poisoning, i’m not sure of the specifics) of the current head of power in order to gain control of the throne RIGHT THERE IN THE SHOW. It’s almost too easy. The only thing that could possibly make it easier would be if Iroh’s son were still alive and they’d gone for an already ascended Iroh instead of grandpappy Azulon. But even still.
So the story as far as I could see it would have it play out in a similar way to the actual show, with Ozai murdering Azulon for the throne. Considering the Danish throne in Hamlet is an elective one, if we opt for that side of things, Ozai would win public favour due to Iroh being in no condition to lead. Alternatively, we could just stick to canon, considering Ozai ends up with the throne either way.
I think the biggest changes that immediately arise are:
- Zuko’s probably not thaaat sad about Azulon. Which is fine. Rather than this revenge tragedy being about a fall from grace, it’s almost more a tragic inevitably. Zuko doesn’t start off as down in the dumps but that’s okay, because in terms of how far down he has to go morally, he’s still got a big headstart
- Zuko’s probably less annoyed at both his parents. This is a timeline in which Zuko was never sent to capture the Avatar to restore his honour, which means it’s quite possible the infamous Agni Kai never happened at all. Regardless, I will find some way to work his iconic scar into the story, whether that be beforehand, during his capture and send off in Act 4, or the final duel in Act 5. I will, however, have to find some reason for him to be slightly more annoyed at his father than in the original story (where the disapproval of his father just made him more desperate). Perhaps this time he fought back in the Agni Kai, and while still emerging scarred, was not exiled. Maybe he never spoke out at all, and simply disapproves of his father’s blatant favouritism of his sister. I may discuss this later on, but the key point is that he needs to be believably motivated to kill his own father, which he was not originally.
- Also, Zuko’s probably not that pissed at his mother for committing incest because… she didn’t really do that. Whatsoever. He’ll probably end up pissed at her eventually for sticking with his father or even in finding out her accessory to the crime (although perhaps holding off from the same revenge if her motives were different to Ozai’s), but the point is that there’ll be a removed layer of depth in terms of their relationship in comparison to the original. So no misogynistic Zuko, which while it might be a nay for story detail, is a yay for feminism.
Anyway, so the story starts off the same as usual, probably around the spring of the original series. There’s also a good chance that I’ll get Azulon’s whole poisoning deal to happen a little closer to the actual series, purely for pacing’s sake. Anyway, Firelord Ozai is again blatantly favouring his daughter over his crown prince son, and Azusa asks if she can go back to the Earth Kingdom to continue taking over it, which Ozai agrees to. So Zuko’s left alone in the castle to wander with his thoughts.
The second big set of problems that arise are that Zuko doesn’t have very many friends. Which is a bit of an issue in terms of figuring out a Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. I’ve got Mai down for Ophelia, so there’s a good chance by process of elimination that Ty Lee’s going to end up as Rosencrantz. Either way, for now, we’ll just leave that basket case alone and talk about when he gets on the roof to talk to ghosts.
Anyway, so yada yada yada, Zuko gets sent to talk to a spirit that looks like his late grandfather. Spirit shows up, claims to be the guy, and asks Zuko to avenge him. He spares no detail to the crown prince about his bloody murder, the vicious betrayal that took his life, and claims it brought dishonour upon Ozai’s family line. He tells Zuko that Ozai is already past the point of no return, but as the crown prince and the next firelord, Azulon says there is still a chance for his own redemption. If Zuko wants to redeem himself in order to claim his rightful place on the throne, he must avenge Azulon, and restore his honour.
If we want to use Ozai’s favouritism towards Azula as a way to turn Zuko against him, Ozai can also mention how it was his, and then Iroh’s destiny to ascend to the throne and take the mantle of the firelord. But clearly, Ozai has no problem going against fate in order to change who the throne is going to. It may be Zuko’s destiny now, but again, if Ozai did it once, he might do it again. Azula is a better fit, and if Zuko doesn’t take care of him first, Ozai might be tempted to take things into his own hands again.
Anyway, the point is Zuko’s head gets filled with all the restore-his-honour stuff about avenging his grandfather for the throne. But he knows that spirits aren’t always what they seem, and also this is like, his dad, so he’s a little hesitant at first. And naturally, his first thought is that he needs to gather information, so he puts on a little bit of an antic disposition.
Now it should be said, for all intents and purposes, I see no reason why the Avatar storyline couldn’t be more or less going on in the background. A couple of changes, yes, but it’s not like we’re strangers to those at this point. The point is, instead of Fortinbras, the ever impending doom on the Fire Nation will be the Avatar or something.
Mai, whom Zuko has been dating a little more closely due to not being on a ship in the South Pole somewhere, notices that he’s been acting a little strange. Iroh, who’s still hanging around the palace, wonders if it’s possibly the symptoms of love sickness, and decides to investigate. He talks to Zuko, but the prince, not having spent a large amount of time in close proximity to his uncle and his mysterious proverbs and therefore without the same affections for him, dismisses his words and misreads his uncle as a doddering old man.
Ty Lee (or whomever) also get sent to spy on him, but Zuko (having grown up with Azula for a sister), is paranoid, and catches on straight away. She brings him news of a troupe of travelling actors, whom she met during her tour with the circus, who are in town, and Zuko hatches a plan.
Meanwhile, Iroh and Ursa try again to see if Zuko has been bit by the love bug by sending Mai in to talk to him personally, to return his gifts (as he’s been sort of slacking in the boyfriend department recently) and to see how he reacts. As they spy, they catch him pondering aloud to himself. Instead of ‘to be or not to be’, a thoughtful soliloquy on life, death, and the question of why doesn’t everybody just kill themselves, Zuko wonders aloud about honour, destiny, and balance. How they tie into one another, what fate has in store for him, why he should have so much compared to the average man. What destiny means if it can be so easily changed and imposed. Where honour comes from, who decides how it is earned. And mostly, about the concept of balance, in the royal family, in the Four Nations and the hundred year war, in the Avatar and what he represents, and in himself. It’s super deep and thoughtful, and I’m not writing any of it down.
Anyway, and then Mai comes in, and Zuko, all hopped up on paranoia and daddy and sister issues and people being sent to spy on him, accuses her of not loving him and going behind his back. He totally yells at her a bunch about it, and Ursa and Iroh are left with the realisation that whatever he’s being plagued by, it’s not love.
The actors then come and perform a rendition (on Zuko’s command) of the events leading to and of Azulon’s demise and it… leaves much to be desired. Regardless, it gets the job done, and Ozai runs away.
Zuko finds him somewhere, and has the opportunity to kill him, and you can tell this is one of the bits that I haven’t quite figured out just yet, but for whatever reason doesn’t because it wouldn’t be honourable, or something.
Ursa calls Zuko into her chambers, worried about him, and Zuko snaps at her, yelling at her for supporting Ozai and her part in the conspiracy. She calls for help, and someone behind the curtain calls for help, and Zuko realises he’s being spied on. Without thinking very hard about it, he assumes it’s Ozai, and slices up the arras. Ursa freaks out, and Zuko freaks out too, but upon inspection of the body, it turns out instead of killing his treacherous father Ozai, he’s accidentally just gone and killed beloved Uncle Iroh.
And I know what you must be thinking. ‘Blasphemy! Iroh can’t be killed. He’s way too cool.’ and while I’d agree under normal circumstances, this actually serves as a really good point of no return for Zuko that parallels that of the original play, because this is where the nail gets hammered in that this really isn’t our Zuko anymore. This Zuko didn’t spend three years alongside a good influence that would eventually lead him to go down a better path, this Zuko continued to grow up in Fire Nation walls. And even with the pre-existing compassion and capacity to change for the better in his heart, the one person who would have seen it come to fruition is now dead. This is a turning point that symbolises that whatever person Zuko could have become, the one he did in the original series, is now forever lost.
Anyway, so after yelling at and then crying with his mother for a bit (despite everything, he was still always her favourite. which isn’t hard when Azula’s your other child), and then seeing some more spirit action, and then crying some more, Zuko hides the body and runs. He doesn’t get very far, as he’s captured and taken to Ozai, who’s furious with him. Zuko refuses to answer any of his questions in a straight manner, and is sent off to the colonies to ‘cool down’. He is to be assisted by Ty Lee, and potentially co.
On his way out from the Fire Nation, Zuko spots a gathering of Water Tribe and various Earth Kingdom ships, and reasons that the Avatar must be planning to invade the Fire Nation at some point. He examines the likelihood of it working, and what he’s clearly willing to risk.
Later on, during the boat ride, unable to sleep, Zuko sneaks into Ty Lee’s cabin and steals the letter she’s been entrusted to give the militia in charge of the colony they’re headed to upon their arrival. He opens and reads it, and to his shock, it’s an order to carry out his immediate execution upon their receiving of the letter. He finds the necessary materials, and forges a second letter that instead orders the deaths of the bearers of the letter, and seals it with the signet ring of the Fire Nation royalty. Hours later, the ship is attacked by pirates and Zuko escapes onto their vessel, capturing it and directing it back towards the Fire Nation.
Azula comes back from the Earth Kingdom to find Iroh dead, her brother missing, and Mai with her mind on the edge. She’s annoyed at Zuko for reducing her friend to this state, and even more so when Mai ends up losing herself to it. So when Ozai recieves a message from his son announcing his return and suggests to Azula that they get revenge on her brother, she’s more than happy to help out.
Zuko arrives back in the Fire Nation, and during his trek back to the castle, upon seeing the graves being dug for the Fire Nation soldiers lost to the war, ponders again about the nature of balance and honour, this time in a classic life/death way. He has a frustrating conversation with a particularly witty gravedigger, and then spies a funeral taking place. He notices members of his family there, and realising it’s for Mai, crashes the funeral, and jumps into her grave. Azula jumps after him, and the two begin to fight as the accuse the other of not loving Mai enough. They’re pried apart, and Ozai reminds Azula to save her energy for their duel.
Zuko is invited to a duel, and in my mind this can go one of two ways:
- Either it’s the classic Agni Kai, which Zuko challenges Azula to during the fight in the graveyard, and she readily accepts, scheduling it for the day after, or
- Zuko is inviting to a sword fighting duel with his sister during the eclipse, which he readily accepts, as he’s willing to show off in the one field he might be able to properly beat her in.
If the sword fight route is taken, it happens much in the same way as the original play, with the poisoned blade and cup. Both get poisoned in the exchange of swords, Zuko takes the opportunity to finish his father, and they all pretty much end up dying during the eclipse.
If the Agni Kai route is taken, it happens right before the eclipse, and the poisoned cup is prepared again just in case (which Ursa ends up drinking). The fatal move ends up happening when Azula shoots lighting at Zuko, who redirects it, but doesn’t let the energy travel in the proper direction and instead lets it travel through his heart (due to him never being taught in this timeline), leading to him managing to redirect it back at his sister, wounding her fatally, but also stopping his heart in the process. When Azula is happy to reveal Ozai’s involvement due to her bitterness at her own impending demise, Ozai tries to stop Zuko, but the eclipse has just started, and Zuko uses his swords again to finish off the job before succumbing.
As this does happen during the eclipse, moments after the royal family dies, the Avatar and the ground force invasion team take the castle, arriving to the dismal sight. With the Firelord out of the way, the tide of the war is easily turned and it finds a peaceful ending at the hands of the Avatar.
In this timeline, the Avatar never really knew Zuko, but with the knowledge of his lineage, wonders if there was ever a world in which they were friends. He considers as well, how despite Zuko’s actions being largely violent, negative, and a product of his Fire Nation upbringing, they ended up bringing good, peace, and light to the world in the greater picture of things. Zuko’s destiny seemed to be determined by his heritage: his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. But just as much as one side had an effect on his destiny and where the prince would end up, the other side would have one just as great.
Zuko would live and die by the law and nature of the Fire Nation, but he would also be the one to bring balance to the world.
ok hamlosers I need you guys to bear with me for a little bit because I’m about to go through some heavy avatar brainrot and I’m going to try and keep the posting on this acc minimal and also get back to our regularly scheduled hamlet posting but I have some posts i NEED to get out. like I have to put them somewhere. so I prommy Hamlet content is not gone I’m just taking a moment lol
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
GWEN BOUCHARD WOULD LIKE HAMLET WE WIN!!!1! hang on i have to draw some thematic parallels now the situation calls for it
hii anusia :) i have a question: which shakespeare play do you think would be gwen’s favourite? if she even liked any at all, that is
p.s. i love gwen so much, you’ve done an incredible job bringing her to life, the voice acting in the recent ep especially was AMAZING
I think she'd really like Hamlet, have a soft spot for As You Like It, and also enjoy Julius Caesar, King Lear, and Macbeth.
Maybe I'm biased though, as those are some of my favourites (as well as The Tempest - the language is just STUNNING).
And thank you so much! Gwen is on a wild ride at the moment, and it's a joy to portray it.
Hotguy is...
performing a soliloquy? is that hamlet that he's performing? where on earth did he-
Shh!!
right sorry yeah i'll be quiet in the theatre
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
sometimes i think about the progression of characters-I’m-deeply-engaged-with going from Hamlet to Zuko and it’s just. funny to me in hindsight how well i set myself up for this transition
me being obsessed with Hamlet, a disgraced prince going through the emotional turmoil of the century? i’ve discussed at length the parallels before in multiple previous posts so I’m not going to go too in-depth again but the simple Facts that on top of all the similarities they already had going for them I liked to headcanon that during his fight with Laertes the out-of-turn wounding was in the form of a foil to the eye. leaving a very large gash wound that would’ve scarred and heavily reduced the vision/ability of one of his eyes had he not died in the next five minutes. and also the fact that I continually approached Hamlet’s characterisation from the view that he was a redeemable character who was good at heart (to begin with, at least) and if he’d had like 10% more of a support system he could’ve gotten better and made for a worthy ruler.
so as you can expect, when Zuko shows up
sometimes all a girl needs is to be unhealthily obsessed with a play from 400 years ago
hamlet: overthinking and doing nothing hasn’t been working for me. what can i do instead
hamlet: not thinking whatsoever and simply acting. surely this will yield results
polonius, muffled from behind an arras: now hang on a moment. this would be a really bad time to suddenly and violently change tactics. perhaps a middle ground between the two where you think out your actions but don’t let the fear of taking the wrong ones paralyse you entirely would serve you better than extreme action/inaction one way or the other?
hamlet, startled:
how now, a rat? dead for a ducat, dead
made this as part of a tiktok trend thing a few months ago but never ended up posting it on there because I didn’t think anyone would actually get to see it (i do not hamlet post obsessively on tiktok only here)
perhaps someone here might enjoy it more
Hamlet but it's merely the C-plot of a sitcom happening in Elsinore Castle.