#hamlet au

go my hamlet https://artfight.net/character/9231968.hamlet-original-play-modern-au

The fourth and final act of Something Rotten by @wingedflight

Things go absolutely insane out of control this chapter, and the writing goes so good. I had such a hard time picking which scene I wanted to draw, and this chapter gets some of my favorite art of the bunch.

it has been such a delight collaborating with wingedflight this year, her writing is excellent and the hamlet au is genius!! You should definitely give it a try!

horatio hearing the norwegian army coming and making his first lie not about rosencrantz and guildenstern but about hamlet. he's not even sure where the words are coming from but he's certain he's just heard himself tell fortinbras that he is hamlet

osric and the others are like "wtf are you doing??" but no one questions him in front of the norwegian prince and his army. horatio is able to tell hamlet's story to fortinbras as his own but that's when the problems really start leaking in... namely that the real hamlet will not be given a stately funeral because who was horatio? no one

horatio is distraught, out-of his mind with grief but how can he go back now? what will fortinbras do? he can't sleep, can't eat, but that doesn't matter. his coronation goes on as planned. there are whispers amongst the court. they know that horatio is not hamlet. did he kill the royal family? was that his purpose all along? he's no dane but perhaps he's better than a norwegian king... the people of denmark are far more accepting. hamlet was always meant to be their king and they adored him. they imagine a world of peace and prosperity now that their beloved prince is no longer mad

but horatio isn't cut out for the life of a royal. he wasn't trained, wasn't prepared and he's unused to people doting on him, to the people lying in his ear and spreading falsehoods about the castle. what can he do? he ponders his life, considers ending it but he can't let that be hamlet's legacy. he promised to tell his story. maybe he can give it a happy ending

he grieves, he wastes away, but he clings to life. to his memory of hamlet. to his promise. by day he is the king, clumsy in his ruling but kind, at night he writes by candle....poetry, prose, verse.... it never stacks right. he makes bulleted lists, looks much like a conspiracy theorist with his notes in the margins, lines pointing here and there and back. he must find a way to tell the truth... he must make this right

he attends the funerals of gertrude, claudius and laertes...and in secret he attends to the burial of hamlet. only...no one will ever know that it's him. the thought makes him feel ill...that he should be buried in some pauper's grave! but what can he do? he's too entrenched in the lie...

sometimes he sees hamlet's ghost. some nights he looks as carefree as he was at wittenberg and others tormented... he doesn't like these visits. he doesn't like the hollow sound of this ghostly hamlet's voice. it's not his friend...not the man he loved

years pass. horatio never really settles into his role but he learns, he's always been good at that. young fortinbras offers him his cousin's hand in marriage to strengthen their alliance. horatio doesn't want to accept but he has no choice. his bride is kind and quick witted. hamlet might have liked her. horatio likes her well enough but he never shares their marriage bed. how is norway not meant to take this as an insult? war is threatened. horatio takes her to bed. he thinks of hamlet. whenever he cries his wife holds him. she deserves better, he thinks, they both do

a son is born to them. she suggests the name "hamlet" but he declines. their next two children are daughters. he wishes he could love his children but he can't. his heart is broken, his lies are heavy. the book is nowhere near to being finished

what was he thinking? that someone like him could ever take hamlet's space? maybe he's the one who's mad... he wishes he could hold hamlet once more. wishes he never left wittenberg. sometimes he imagines conversations with hamlet, the prince laughing at how foolish he's been... sometimes he's offended and berates horatio. it doesn't matter, the voice helps him to keep going

Consider: Hamlet but it's Shangmei Oubing

Nezha, playing Hamlet, haunted by the ghost of his recently-deceased mother (how the tables have turned) to seek revenge against Li Jing, or so he thinks;

(And what a character for Nezha to play, of all people! When Hamlet's ultimate flaw is his indecision and rumination, missing opportunities to commit either regicide or suicide, but Nezha's is the exact opposite, his rashness of action, his absence of deliberation.)

Ao Bing as Ophelia, stripped of his autonomy and his past identity as a prince, subject to the whims of an apparently insane Nezha's moods and contrary speech;

Also, Muzha + Jinzha as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and um. Erlang Shen as Horatio?

Since Ophelia has her symbolically rich bouquet, I wanted to include some floral motifs :D

On the right we have a lotus still in bud, representing the promise of purity and beauty rising from murkiness that has yet to be fulfilled; and a chrysanthemum, traditionally given to the dead.

On the left are purple gromwell (top) and Chinese licorice (middle), whose roots are used in concoctions inducing abortion. Purple gromwell roots also produce a purple dye, albeit one that fades quickly and is tedious and expensive to produce. Licorice root is used as a sweetener, with the side effect of tasting like licorice, so I've used it to represent bittersweetness.