When Shakespeare was dividing up comic relief amount his tragedies, he gave 50% to Hamlet, 49% to Romeo and Juliet, and threw the remaining 1% at all the other tragedies to share
I completely missed that Edmund gives his sword to Edgar so Edgar can pardon Cordelia. Which means I gotta update the list of “Who uses whose sword in “King Lear but staged so that Edmund’s more sympathetic”?
Lemme show you how the swords get passed around.
EDMUND’S SWORD-
1- Edmund has it at the beginning of 1.2
2-He gives it to Edgar in 1.2 at “go armed”. Edgar has it for the rest of the play.
EDGAR’S SWORD-
1-Edgar has it (along with Edmund’s sword) at the beginning of 2.1
2-Edmund uses it to fight him in 2.1
3-Cornwall takes it from Edmund in 2.2
CORNWALL’S SWORD-
1- Cornwall uses it to stab servant 1 in 3.7
2- Regan temporary has it after Cornwall died
3- She gives it to Edmund, who uses it in 5.3
4-Edmund gives it to Edgar so he can pardon Cordelia
(It makes so much sense this way, because Edmund was leading Cornwall’s armies, and so it checks out the Cornwall’s sword would be the one that holds the authority to pardon people)
(Bonus Headcanon: Regan’s sword that she uses in 3.7 is the same sword Goneril uses to kill herself in 5.3 (the gentleman brings it out right before the bodies are brought out I think?))
So. I was doing The Research for the post I’ll post eventually analyzing specifically the line “Why brand they us with base?”, and the internet was like “yeah bastards were stereotyped as the villains (but more specifically, the like, plotting scheming type of villain.) in Shakespeare’s time. It was like. a thing”
Which is basically what I expected to be the case, but I just wanted to check it up to make sure. ANYWAY. Here’s a short free verse poem for Edmund, now that that’s confirmed. It’s very much cringy. I am no poet.
Why Brand They Us With Base
they say you’re the villain you would respond if you knew the words if you were any older than an infant born to this world a few hundred seconds ago
they say you’re the villain you would respond if you were anything more than a child if you understood why they call you this when you’ve never met them yet face their looks of disgust
they say you’re the villain you would respond if you had the authority to answer if you had the platform to defend yourself from accusations and judgements made by strangers
they say you’re the villain you would respond if you cared to if you weren’t so used to it as your standard introduction, a part of your being
you say “I’m the villain you figured me out you saw right through me before I could see myself.
so since I’m the villain beware my villainy because I may be the villain but you’re no hero.”
I feel like I posted this already but I can’t find the post if I did
It’s really funny because before I read King Lear I had the vaguest idea of what the plot was about, and I knew there was gonna be some literal and figurative bastard somewhere in it, and I was like “ok Edette, don’t get obsessed with him. He’s the bad guy. He’s the antagonist. He’s gonna do some bad things”
And after reading it I actually wasn’t obsessed with him. I didn’t care about him, or anyone else in King Lear. And like 2 weeks later my brain was like “for unexplainable reasons, he’s your favorite and King Lear is your favorite play”.
Being a citizen of England in the King Lear universe must be.. interesting.
Imagine you wake up one morning and find out that the King decided to resign and divide up his kingdom amount his daughters, except for some reason he exiled his youngest daughter? Who also married the King of France? Ok, you think that’s odd, but whatever. It doesn’t affect you.
Then about a week later England goes to war against France, for reasons that no one is entirely sure about. No one knows who the current Earl of Gloucester is supposed to be, or what’s even going on with that family. No one knows what happened to the ex-king- he seems to have just disappeared.
A bit later you hear that the entire Lear family is dead. The Duke of Albany might be next in line for the throne, considering he was married to Lear’s oldest daughter? Also Gloucester’s oldest son was involved in attempted murder?? Or wasn’t?? News doesn’t travel that fast, and you’re a random english citizen who has no idea what’s going on.
imagining edmund calling an emergency meeting and going "oh my god guys edgar vented right in front of me i saw it" and everyone believing him while edgar tries to defend himself
YES I APPROVE
He would do that
Edgar would be like “what no I wouldn’t even know *how* to vent! This is my first time playing!”
And then someone would be like “oh. So did you do <some random task>?”
And he’d be like “I don’t know- this is my first time playing!!”
And everyone would be like “huh. That’s sus.”
Except it actually is his first time playing, and he has no idea what’s going on half the time.
Meanwhile, Edmund has been playing Among Us non stop since he got it (and of course he wins every time). He has like 32 different strategies that he alternates between every game.
Review of Romeo X Juliet (the anime adaption of Romeo and Juliet, VERY loosely based off of the original play)
Well I think it’s gonna be kinda long, so I’m gonna put a cut right here.
OK.
What it got right/ what was in there that was in the actual play:
Romeo and Juliet are from two opposing families (Montague and Capulet). They fall in love with each other. There are some other characters who also exist.
What was in there that was NOT in the actual play:
Literally everything and anything else. This is not an exaggeration in the least bit. Juliet grows wings at some point. And maybe turns into an actual tree.
So. What’s Romeo X Juliet about?
The basic Premise:
Montague (not the whole family- just Romeo’s father) is the main antagonist. He kills out the entire Capulet family when Juliet is a child, but somehow Juliet is rescued. Juliet spends the next like 13-14 year of her life pretending to be a boy by the name of Odin to hide from Montague, and also does vigilante work, because life isn’t so good under Montague’s rule. Oh yeah, Montague’s like. The king or something.
There are also characters from other Shakespeare plays there. And Shakespeare himself is a character.
The Characters:
Characters who aren’t from Romeo and Juliet (but are from other Shakespeare plays):
Shakespeare himself- he’s literally just Shakespeare himself. Just chilling, watching the whole plot go down.
Emilia- an actress in Shakespeare’s acting troupe
Regan- a servant girl working for Shakespeare’s mother’S family.
Cordelia- I think she’s like. A servant to the Capulet family? Who got away with Juliet when Montague killed them off? Anyway she’s Plot relevant. She marries Benvolio.
Ophelia- oh boy. Where do I even start. OK you know what? I’ll get to this when I get up to Escalus. Just. Scroll to where I talk about Escalus.
Petruchio- he’s pretty irrelevant- he only exists for one episode, and then he dies a tragic death
Hermione- the girl Romeo’s engaged to.
Characters that are actually from Romeo and Juliet:
(In the order of easiest to explain to hardest to explain)
Juliet- Ok. She’s the main character. She does vigilante work until she can’t anymore.
Romeo- literally just Romeo. Exactly what you’d expect from Romeo. He doesn’t do anything mind blowing. I mean, he does try to kill Montague, but everyone tries to kill Montague because he’s basically a dictator.
Lady Montague- I think she went off to become a nun or something, because she didn’t like that her husband was basically a dictator who goes around murdering people. She’s nice. I liked her.
Benvolio- not the brightest guy. Really. He and his family gets exiled because his father disagreed with something Montague said. Ends up marrying Cordelia.
Mercutio- one of the antagonists, but literally the worst one. He decides to betray Romeo and join Team Antagonists because I think he wanted power or something? It wasn’t entirely clear. He then betrays his father to Montague, and Montague kills his father. Then Montague tells him that he’s totally better than Romeo and he could totally replace him as Montague’s son. So you’re probably thinking “hey that sounds a lot like that one part of Edmund’s arc”- BUT IT’S NOT- Mercutio is about 0% dedicated to any of this and is a huge coward. Then he tries to kill Romeo. That doesn’t work out. Then he kills Montague and goes mad. I don’t know why he does any of this. I don’t think he himself knows why he does any of this. Also he’s *really* annoying. (Literally just go watch it- you’ll see- he’s *so* annoying.)
Montague- OK SO. This fellow here has actually a tragic backstory that motivates his evilness. Listen to this wild ride of of a story: So. Capulet (not Juliet’s father- her grandfather or great grandfather or someone else related but not her father) had a affair with some lower class lady, and MONTAGUE WAS THE RESULT. YES. THAT’S RIGHT. I HAVE ANOTHER TRAGIC SAD LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE BASTARD TO ADD TO MY COLLECTION. Anyway. Montague just wanted to kill out the whole Capulet family as revenge. Sounds fair enough. So he gets adopted or something by the Montague family, kills out the people ahead of his until he’s the heir (I think?), and then goes on a killing spree with the Capulet family. Then he becomes. Like. An evil dictator. That lowers his coolness by a large percentage. He was pretty neat before, but I’m not so pro-evil dictators.
Tybalt- HOLD ON. IF YOU THOUGHT MONTAGUE’S STORY WAS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY BUT GREAT NONETHELESS, THEN BEHOLD THE STORY HERE. Ok so. He’s introduced when he suddenly appears out of nowhere being super mysterious. Juliet was doing some vigilante work, and it looked like she was about to get caught, and he swoops in and saves the day. And Juliet’s all like “who on earth are you?” And he basically says “the name’s Tybalt- I’m loyal to the Capulet family- that’s all you gotta know”. (He might also tell her that he’s her cousin- idk). Anyway. He spends most of the time being mysterious and kinda emo, and hating Montague. Until his tragic backstory is revealed. BASICALLY. You know how I mentioned Montague was climbing the rankings in the Montague family? So at that time, the Montagues and Capulets weren’t really enemies or anything. So they hung out. And while climbing the ranks, he ended up courting a Capulet- Juliet’s mom’s sister. THAT’S RIGHT. TYBALT IS THE SON OF MONTAGUE AND A CAPULET. ANOTHER BOTH LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE BASTARD. I HAD NO IDEA THERE WOULD BE ONE, LET ALONE TWO. YOU ALL KNOW THAT’S MY FAVORITE TYPE OF CHARACTER.
Me, when the Montague and Tybalt reveals happened:
And onto the absolute craziest change made to any character ever-
Escalus- He’s. He’s a tree. A physical tree. I’m not even kidding. I wish I was. He’s a physical magical tree, that magically sustains the world. Ophelia (remeber I said I’ll explain her when I explain Escalus?) is the magical guardian of this magical tree. The tree is sustained by the women of the Capulet family occasionally sacrificing themselves to merge with the tree or something? Towards the end of the show the world starts literally collapsing around everyone, and Ophelia is like “hey Juliet the only way to save the world is for you to sacrifice yourself and come merge with the tree. If not the everyone will literally die.”
And Juliet’s like “yeah sounds fair”. But Romeo’s like “NO! I love you! You will not merge with a tree!”
And Ophelia’s like “um. Literally everyone will die if she doesn’t.” And Romeo’s like “But at least we’ll die together!!”. So Ophelia and Romeo fight each other and they both kill each other. Then Juliet’s like “welp since romeo’s already dead, i may as well die too.” And (I think??) merges with the tree? Also she grows wings. Anyway. That’s that. That’s the show. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
OTHER THINGS- Mainly about Tybalt because I love him (more specifically- I love emo vigilante Tybalt, but the play version of angry rich boy Tybalt)
-When Romeo finds out that Tybalt is kinda his brother, he’s like “oh cool! You’re my brother now!” And Tybalt is like “huh. Yeah, I guess you’re right”- and from there onward they are 100% committed to being brothers.
-There’s this one scene where Tybalt, Romeo, and Juliet all simultaneously decide “yup Im gonna go kill Motague. I have the biggest right to kill him. He’s for me to kill”. So Tybalt gets there first and is like “PLOT TWIST I’M YOUR SON!” And draws his sword. Then Romeo enters and is like “YOUR REIGN OF TYRANNY IS OVER!” And draws his sword. And then Juliet comes in and is like “I AM JULIET OF THE HOUSE OF CAPULET!”. And then Juliet decides not to kill him, because Mercy ™. And then Mercutio comes in and stabs him, because (here’s a bit of the plot I forgot to mention) Montague sent him to hold off the rebellion (The Capulet’s team+ most of the citizens), and Mercutio epically failed. So he was like “the citizens will kill me if I go to them. And Montague will kill me if I go to him. Welp. I guess I have to kill him.” Then Mercutio goes mad. Because why not.
-Benvolio and Mercutio have literally nothing to do with each other. I don’t think they ever even speak. What
-everyone rides around on these dragons with wings called Dragon Steeds.
-Also instead of it taking place in Verona, it takes place in Neo-Verona. A floating city miles above ground.
