Shrek 5 🤤

1. Claudius- Hamlet is a very specific an unusual situation. Claudius is an actual capable politician, a cold blooded murderer, and he actually wants the crown+ he has the power of love on his side. He's not getting exiled, he's stealing the crown on his own, he's rising a well adjusted Hal, and can sleep with himself 9 out 10 nights.

2. Henry Bolingbroke- you've seen the play. Our boy made it to old age, got to sleep 1 out of 10 nights, raised a deeply troubled Hal.

3. Macbeth- doing everything Bolingbroke did in R2, only he also kills Northumberland and many other people. I don't think he could handle being a widower. He's getting himself assassinated before the end of 1H4, he's not sleeping at all, but his Hal would be surprisingly pretty good.

4. King John- He could pull the deposition off, but He is losing at the first uprising against him. Goes as well as KJ went. He's bellow Macbeth because I think Macbeth would make some better choices. He has absolutely no problems sleeping, and I think Hal would benefit from having a gay father.

5. Richard III- Hm. I'm not sure he'll get a long well enough with Northumberland for them to do a deposition together. He's probably pulling a Kind Hearts and Coronets- which he canonically can pull off. Like Macbeth his problem is that he's an actual tyrant and if he's not getting himself murdered, he does have a pretty bad mental break coming. He's sleeping but ghosts keep giving him horrible nightmares. He loses his horse.

Honestly I think we get the worse Hal out of him. They are too similar.

6. Brutus- Probably doing the deposition better, definitely doing it in a way that would get him more public favor (especially considering there isn't a Mark Antony to turn the people against him this time). Man just does *not* want the crown and I don't think he could convince medieval England to establish a republic. Mortimer might get the crown in this situation? I don't Brutus would be happy with any outcome. Sleeping with himself 5/10 nights.

Because Claudius 100% wants the crown, but he's also not getting himself exiled. So there is no inciting incident, and Claudius is much farther in line from the throne than he is in Hamlet.

Shakespeare messes around with the Mortimers, it's unclear how many of them are cannon to the plays. Since Hotspur is Hal's age in the plays, and he's married to Elizabeth Mortimer, then Edmund is supposed to be Hal's age as well (so I guess we're still combining the Edmund Mortimers and pushing Kate down a generation).

So at the very least, if Roger is already dead and we only have the confirmed Mortimers (Kate and Edmund), and all of them are still teens, then Claudius would be forth(?) in line to the throne before Gaunt dies. That's best case scenario for him, he could very easily be much further away.

We know that Claudius cares very little about the actual line of secession from, well, the plot of Hamlet, but I doubt just straight up killing Richard would get him the crown.

Honestly being that far away might cool him off, since there wasn't a time in his life when he was closer. I don't really see Claudius pulling a full Kind Hearts and Coronets.

I'm also throwing it out there that he would probably get along Richard better than Bolingbroke did. I don't think he would get into the entourage, and Richard is a bit too much like Hamlet them to be very close, but Claudius is fun at parties and that's to his advantage.

I think the real question is where Gertrude is.

I she's Hal's dead mother, I'm honestly unsure how Claudius would handle losing Gertrude (definitely better than Macbeth, probably worse than Bolingbroke).

If, instead, Gertrude is married to Richard- then we have our plot. That gives Claudius a lot more motivation to *arrange* some unfortunate happenings and weasel his way up.

He's probably doing it alone, so he wouldn't be locked in the same dynamic with Northumberland, and once he's king (if he pulls that off) he could easily ship the Mortimer kids to Denmark or something.

Since he's hasn't done a full official uprising his claim to the throne could be either more or less legitimate. But he's a very good politician, so he has that in his favor.

Hotspur would definitely still be a problem though. Especially if his wife and brother in law are getting Hamlet treatment.

I honestly can't figure this shit out. Hal is coming out a more honest, well adjusted king out of this either way.

"The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same"