#(should i fic the whumpy hurt/comfort ben punches claudio AU?)

[violivs]

Skipping ahead to today's NMTDaily video- the go-to obvious angsty AU for play era is what if Benedick and Claudio had actually had to duel. So in this canon, where there are no swords, I've often wondered if there was anything that could make this Ben actually punch Claudio, which is the closest we'd get. (They couldn't have posted it on the internet, but that's not the point here.) This episode is that answer, that Ben isn't a violent person, just goes cold and angry and kicks Claud and Pedro out of his house just by saying "Leave." Now, if they'd refused to leave and kept bad-mouthing Hero and Bea... everyone has a breaking point. In this AU, he'd lose his temper and hit Claud once, and both Claud and Pedro'd immediately leave in shock. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered fic-ing it just to get to write Ben showing up at Bea's all freaked out with a badly bruised hand, and her taking care of him and also freaking out, like "when I said kill him, I didn't mean literally, this could've been so much worse, oh god, I'm so glad you're okay you idiot." It's got hurt/comfort potential for sure, but it always ends up feeling OOC on everyone's parts when I plot it out in my head, so I haven't done it. I think TCW modernized this exactly right.

It's also really interesting that the boys come to Ben's house looking for fun and comfort here, when in the play I'm pretty sure Benedick is the one who storms in on them to issue his challenge to Claudio. It tracks that in this version, dueling isn't a thing anymore and kicking them out of his room better shows Ben repudiating them in a modern sense. I just always think it's chillingly compelling to think about how the kids in this universe were soldiers who fought duels in the original universe and how much I want to protect them from that- even Claudio and Pedro, even though they suck right now.

I'll do a liveblog of this episode when I get to it, but here's some on-time thoughts.