#I feel like Laertes

[absolutelynotararr]

MEMORY (OF HIM)

RAR!

Many of us like canon pairings, such as, obviously, Odysseus/Penelope, but... I'm very sad that one canon pairing is not talked about (at least I have not seen any discussion). The topic of this pairing we have brought up (and more than once) with my dear friend and it is... Laertes/ Anticlea ( Laea?? Antites??? Lanti????) Lanticlea!

Yes, we don't see this relationship in EPIC (God, I hope my memory lapses don't make me look like an idiot right now) , but this doesn't cancel out my headcanons, some of which my friend and I keep for a month/a more, and which I personally keep for a very long time in my head and dusty notes!We have a lot of headcanons and discussions about them, so...

• Once upon a time, when Laertes hadn't completely lost his mind, he tried in every way to remember and pass on his memories to someone he trusted very much. Every day, at every meal, at every moment when he was near his dear son, he told him something that had happened to him, about kings from other lands, about the people, everything that he himself knew. Cause he believed that Odysseus should be the first to know and remember all this, сause he would gain the power of his father. Remember MotH, and it will be logical in any case!

• But he also wrote down everything he could on scrolls. And all of these writings were spontaneous and feverish. Imagine that an idea for a drawing/fanfiction came to you in the middle of the night and you try to draw it or write it as quickly as possible, while panic, fear and this inspiration overwhelm you. It's something like that, but with memories, but more, more disturbing. "I remembered it! Faster!" - and Laertes runs from his bedroom to the scrolls, so as not to forget what he suddenly remembered. There are a lot of ink blots on the scrolls, on the table and on his hands, he mumbles, pronouncing the memory and writes terribly from all the haste. In his notes, out of 100%, maybe...10% could be made out, cause it really looked terrible and illegible, and even Laertes himself had difficulty making out his notes

• But nevertheless, only one person could understand all the horror, kept all the scrolls close to him and kept the memories of Laertes until her death... Yeah, it was Anticlea. She woke up with him, and after the recordings she calmed her husband for a long time when he began to tremble, cry, that he would forget everything, even if write everything down. She was, in fact, the only person in the entire kingdom who truly remembered everything about Laertes. After all, Odysseus had been away from Ithaca for many years, and no one else had left so many memories of such a hero, king, and man as Laertes. Surely after returning Odysseus doesn't remember some things about his father, but... there is no longer that person who could remind him of the events he forgot :)

• In fact, with Anticlea's death, the memory of Laertes died, both literally and figuratively. And imagine: Anticlea remembered her husband all her life, until her death, as well as her beloved son, but Laertes himself remembered nothing about her. For him, she probably became, over time, not his beloved wife, but simply a random woman from the palace that he left, going to live in a quieter place

Long live the couple: man with dementia and the suffering sweet woman who still accepts her husband even though he has forgotten her, yup, @gareleia ? >:D

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

started watching Death Note yesterday and have come to the conclusion that if Hamlet had access to a death note, literally nothing in the play would change or happen differently in the slightest

[theimpossiblescheme]

Staging concept: Ophelia carries around a book that she uses to press different flowers and plants. At one point we see her actually pressing one of the flowers Hamlet's given her before, and we get the impression that she wouldn't part with this book for the world. During the "Get thee to a nunnery" scene, Hamlet rips the book out of her hands, and she goes diving after it to make sure he didn't damage it. And during her final "mad scene", she starts tearing out the relevant pages (rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbines, etc.) to give to everyone present. Laertes is the only one to get the significance of his sister giving away parts of her prized possession, and it adds an extra layer to his grief.

[inadvisablebutinevitable]

this has probably been said but I truly believe in my heart of hearts that Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, would have loved Cell Block Tango

[cleverclove]

Ghibli Laertes :] tell me which Hamlet character to do next!

[welcometoteyvat]

me @ a kaeya hamlet au

[college-cryptids]

thinking about telemachus recently and how odysseus was gone for like. his entire life. strictly speaking, telemachus wasn't the child of a single parent but he may as well have been. do you think that showed through, when odysseus did finally return home?

certainly, he was always a mama's boy. no one doubted that. he had no one else, after all. there was laertes, and the men around the palace (who harbored a disgust for the horde of suitors that almost rivalled penelope's) and he loved them all dearly, but it was not the same. telemachus grew up loving his mother with all of his heart, and defending her with all his strength.

and then this man comes home, and he has telemachus' smile and he knows things that only telemachus' father would know, but he is a stranger. odysseus arrives home as a creature of myth, the misty stuff of fables that you could almost touch if you reached, but never quite grasp. telemachus does not know this man, but seeing him that day in the throne room is the first time in twenty years that penelope has shed tears of joy instead of pain, so he decides there must be something to him. he smiles at this man's jokes and listens raptly to his stories (and he does have so many stories!) but there is always that distance there. a gap in the planks of the bridge, a crevasse that's just too wide to jump across. he tries to know him, but it is not as easy as either of them would like it to be.

it is penelope that finally bridges the gap. telemachus finds her in tears again one day, tucked away somewhere odysseus would not see, and he rushes to his mother's side, but when he reaches her she cups his face the way she did when he was a boy. her hands are thinner now than they were then, and there are lines on her face that had not been there before, but behind the glimmer of tears is that spark. that strong, intelligent spark that first drew odysseus to her; that spark that convinced young telemachus that his mother could rival athena in wisdom if she wished to be so bold.

but these tears, he finds, are not the ones he expected. as penelope takes her son into her arms she whispers, you're just like him. you're so much like your father, and i am so proud.

and that sticks.

telemachus meets the stranger with his father's face and thinks, he's just like me. he watches him laugh the way he himself does, he compares his face and odysseus' in a mirror and the similarities make him smile this time. he hears others in the palace tell of the king's courage and his wit and he thinks, perhaps i can be like him. perhaps he is like me.

telemachus greets odysseus that night and calls him father, and for the first time, the word does not feel strange on his tongue.

it feels right.

[sandersstudies]

Since you can't share top picks for potential baby names, would you be willing to share which ones you considered that didn't quite make the cut? AKA ones you know you won't be using?

YESSSSSS I feel like I’m an influencer for the first time. I have to keep my two top picks each for boys and girls to myself in case I use them in the future but if I don’t and I still have this blog when my family is complete I’ll share.

I won’t be sad if you judge me in the notes! These names all didn’t make the cut for a reason.

Boys

James (My husband and I actually both like this name but my extended family has two James’ already)

Basil

Bates

Geordi (We are Trekkies and love Geordi LaForge but sadly decided that this is a cute little boy’s name but maybe sounds a little juvenile for a grown man.)

Mathi

Ambrose

Anselm

Atticus

Mangan (This was intended to honor a male mentor in my life but my husband knew a kid named Mangan who sucked and ruined this one for him.)

Sheridan (We decided this sounded too feminine.)

Selwyn

Sigrun (We actually liked this for a boy, nicknamed Sig or Siggy, but concluded that the Norse mythology connection made it too feminine.)

Zefram

Amyas/Amias (This was my top pick boy name for a while but my husband didn’t like this one at all.)

Leander

Lemuel

Laertes (Another of my favorites my husband didn’t like.)

Peregrine (This is a saint name that goes well with my second-favorite girl name but obviously most people hear Peregrine Falcon.)

Penton

Delemay (We decided this one sounded to feminine.)

Viggo

Kodiak (I said the mountains. My husband said the camera.)

Silas

Gideon

Pascoe (My husband thinks this is too close to Pascal, which makes him think of Tangled.)

Jude

Jethro (My mom actually vetoed this one.)

Girls

Ronnette/Roni (My family has a lot of Ronalds after a family member who passed away, and I liked this feminine alternative.

Agnes (This was one of the few girl names my husband and I both liked for a while.)

Liesl (Like the Sound of Music.)

Zelpha (Another family name)

Sophronia (Also a family name)

Brontë (For the author sisters.)

Piccarda

Simonetta

Lucretia (Can you tell I read a lot about the Italian Renaissance)

Romy/Roamy

Paget (Like the actor from Criminal Minds.)

Thaïs (This was too similar to another family member’s name)

Tula (Fandom alert this was a character from Dimension 20: Burrow’s End)

Zoah

Bryony

Ardis (I actually have an acquaintance named this but it’s SUCH a cool one, and a shorter alternative to Artemis.)

Wynne (Whoops! My in-laws named their dog this :))

Winona

Etta

Eulalie

Gwynedd (Too similar to the name of a family member)

Nadine

Saryn

[dootznbootz]

Silly Ctimene Headcanon :3

As some of y'all know, my Odysseus has long, curly af auburn hair. It's something he gets from Anticlea (who got it from her dad who got it from Hermes). It's a cute lil thing with Laertes having his beloved 3 tall, red-brown puff balls lol.

But unlike Odysseus and Anticlea who love their luscious locks, Ctimeine HATES it.

It's too hot. It's thick and heavy. It gets messy and frizzy with humidity. It hurts to get combed. Who on earth would purposely keep what feels like a woolen blanket on their head during the warm season?!

Odysseus hears her rants about how much she hates it. Both are tenderheaded but she is more upset about getting it styled than he is. When Odysseus is around 12-14 and she was around 10-12, hearing some more of her rants, he was basically like "…Well…what if your hair got cut by 'accident'? 👀 "

And then he basically has it set up where "oh no, My sister is stuck and all snarled with her hair in this bush! How will I get her out????"

And it's just basically him pulling a "chop chop" for her. Very uneven and in one swoop. like from "Tangled" >:3

And ofc, Anticlea and Euryclea are sad. Probably even crying a lil.

"This was on purpose, I KNOW it was, Odysseus. How could you do this to your poor lil sister?! 😭" "Because I'm a horrible and mean older brother >:3" winks at the camera while Ctimene is bobbing her head side to side and kicking her feet, giggling about her shorter, much lighter hair "You will be punished severely." "…yeh 🥲 "

I know haircutting wasn't really a thing unless grieving BUT they were kiddos and stupid 👀 This may just be a one time thing but I also really love short hair Ctimene. :)

[perlelune]

Hey love! Amazing work for your NDA coriolanus fic, I was wondering if he would ever marry the reader or if she would remain only one of the girls he fucks. How would the wedding be & his son's reaction? Thanks love!

You fidget in the dress, checking your reflection in the mirror for the umpteenth time. No matter how many times you look, you can't help but feel that you're looking at a stranger.

But it's to be expected. The beautiful, pristine white dress wasn't your choice. It was Coriolanus'. Just like everything about this day. Right down to the choice of appetizers, the flower arrangements, the way the guests are seated. The president was adamant. Everything needed to be perfect. Nothing but the best for his lady.

His First Lady...

Dread swirls in your gut. You still cannot believe it is to be your title.

You always knew he meant to have you in every way he could. He makes it clear by the way he holds you beneath him in the bedroom, possessive hands trailing bruises over your hips and thighs.

But this...This is madness.

"Mama! You're so pretty!"

Martius runs towards you, his gummy smile on full display. He recently lost his front tooth and hasn't stopped bragging excitedly about his new "big boy" teeth coming in soon ever since.

You pick him up and hold him on your hip.

"Hey, sweetie," you greet, giving him a warm smile. You force cheerfulness in your tone. "Ready to be the flower boy?"

The little boy nods excitedly. You didn't choose to be a mother, especially so young, but Martius grows on you each day. It also helps that he and Laertes get along like brothers.

Noise erupts from outside the bridal tent, Pandora's frustrated voice reaching your ears, "President, you cannot see the bride before the wedding. It's bad luck-"

"I will see my fiancé whenever I please."

The familiar baritone has your stomach clutching in dreadful expectation.

You send him a feeble smile as he enters the bridal suite.

Bad luck... You almost laugh. You couldn't care less if the President sees you before the wedding. You've already been cursed. Trapped to be his forever. Beaming at the crowd besides your tyrannical husband, which you've slowly come to realize Coriolanus is. A vicious, heartless tyrant.

He approaches you and cradles your face. His blue eyes flare as he drinks you in. Your insides stir in discomfort. You know that look. All too well.

"Perfect, just like I knew you'd be, dove. Everything is just...perfect." He gestures at your little brother. "Laertes, come here, my boy. Doesn't your sister look absolutely stunning?"

Your brother's spine straightens as he gets up, making sure to properly hold the two rings lying on the pillow in his lap. Coriolanus insisted for your brother to be the ring bearer. You despise that. You wish Laertes wasn't a part of this at all.

He grimaces while glancing at you. "Ew...I mean, yes sir."

Your brother's reply draws a hearty chuckle from him. He then lifts Martius from your arms, putting him down before instructing, "Now, boys, why don't you go play outside?" He turns to you, his lids sagging as his fingers begin to trace the side of your white bodice, lingering on your waist. "I'd like some time with my bride before the ceremony."

[casandaxel]

“The… what? Wait, please explain that? I never heard anything about thigh highs.” Axel barely stopped himself from laughing at the idea of the stoic, angry person he knows wearing… thigh highs. He and Ren didn’t have a great relationship, and this was the perfect dirt.

Laertes stumbles through a crowded street, blank and limp in a way that isn’t quite natural, like a doll being dragged by a string. They’re hungry, and worse than that, he’s bored. He’s been trying to be less…everything that he usually is, lately. Now that she’s hanging around the archives, and has almost-friends to worry about…

But it’s weighing on her. He can feel himself wasting away, and with it, his masks. They shouldn’t be near the institute like this. They stopped by to say hi to Ren, but they’re avoiding Jon altogether. She prays she doesn’t run into the archives crew out in the wild.

They aren’t safe right now. And in trying to stay seem kid-friendly for their friends, they’re only getting more dangerous.

Lost in an empty haze, they bodily collide with someone, going completely limp and falling onto the ground like they weigh nothing. She lays there for a moment, and the viewer can see him flicker, for a moment seeming more fabric than flesh.

It’s only for a moment, though, and then Laertes laboriously draws herself back up to a kneeling position to face the person they ran into.

[casandaxel]

Laertes makes a dissatisfied hum. Maybe it does, but she doesn't like it.

I wonder if this was this form's defect. Weakness to that Fear. Maybe I should have waited to be finished. Maybe I wouldn't have become this.

The thought comes completely out of left field. And...maybe it's right. He does need to be fixed.

If- If he went back now- could she...?

@laertesthelocalstranger

“Kid, where are you at right now? Because your head seems like it’s leaving, and this place is creepy, and I don’t want to be left here alone.” Again. The unspoken word in that sentence is again. Because Laertes had already left him alone here. But it was Axel’s own fault. He was the one who shoved the rifle into Laertes’s arms. Stupid. Stupid plan. Although, bringing the house back up made Axel think look around.

He had this awful feeling. Like being in a place you remember, but it’s wrong. Like a dream, where the hallways turn around themselves, or the rooms are in the wrong order. But he’d never been here before. This misplaced, wrong nostalgia wasn’t supposed to be here. He’d never felt this before, and it made him feel… strange. Upset. Nostalgia shouldn’t feel this upsetting. It felt like choking.

[zforzelma]

A list* of Shakespeare characters for which casting a trans actor is the strongest choice.

Take a look at your complete works of Shakespeare. You can pack so much Gender in those plays. I am of the opinion that casting should be undertaken to highlight the text and make new discoveries.

Really, any Shakespeare role can and should be played by a trans person of any variety, but there are some roles in particular that I think would unfold incredible revelations about the text. I'm leaving out magical characters and fools because that's too obvious.

Lysander - Mids; why don't you want me to marry your daughter? Say it, you coward.

Helena - Mids; This one would be psychologically intense for the actress, so really only attempt if you've got a good therapist. Having a trans woman in this role would be such a gut-punch for so much of the text, I honestly think it would make the audience uncomfortable at some parts. To which I say: GOOD.

I have so many more.

Viola - 12th; Also pretty psychologically intense with all the cross dressing, and the wow-you-look-just-like-your-brother, but her equivocation about gender in her conversations with Orsino would absolutely sing.

Orlando - As You Like It; His older brother won't let him go to college with the other men. Proves himself by winning in a wrestling match. Doesn't recognize his crush when she's cross dressing.

Mercutio - R&J; At this point I feel like everyone knows Mercutio is a nonbinary lesbian or trans masc. Right? Like, we all know that. Jokes aside, I think his difficult relationship with masculinity and honor would be interesting if interpreted by a trans actor.

Hamlet - Hamlet; Obviously. I mean duh. trans masc, trans fem, man, woman, both or neither. Any queer person probably gets Hamlet on a visceral level better than any cis straight person. Who's even casting a cis man as Hamlet in the year of our lord 2023? Yawn.

Laertes - Hamlet; Yeah I don't know what it is. This one is purely vibes based.

Macduff - Macbeth; I actually made Macduff a woman, changed all the pronouns and made him a lesbian when I directed, and I'd probably do that again. But I think Duff could also - or alternately - be trans. I think it would say something interesting about violence of his journey, the scene with future King Malcolm, and the fact that Duff is the one to behead ol' Mack.

What do you guys think? Did I miss an obvious one?

* this is not at all a comprehensive list

[forthegothicheroine]

I don't know if you do requests for the Great Detectives, but I'd love to see how you think the Great Detectives would handle the murder of King Hamlet of Denmark.

This is a GREAT one! The big question is whether they all talk to the ghost of the dead king; I think I'm going to have to take that on a case-by-case basis, with whatever feels right for any specific detective.

So, in a series I do sometimes, how would various great detectives solve the murder of King Hamlet...

Sherlock Holmes: Well, obviously ghosts don't exist, so jot that down. But in Holmes's experience, living humans often pretend to be ghosts (or even make dogs pretend to be ghosts!) so who could this be? The young prince Hamlet, who everybody says has gone mad? Holmes deduces that he isn't mad at all, and is in fact conducting psychological warfare against his hated uncle; while Holmes disapproves, he concludes that the boy is completely right about Claudius due to his knowledge of the play The Murder of Gonzago, as seen when he's upset about changes in a production. The Murder of Gonzago is a play which premiered in a town in Denmark known for its manufacturing of poisons for pest control!

Hercule Poirot: Poirot is quite sad to hear that the monarch who invited him as a celebrity guest has died; why does this always have to happen when he goes on vacation? Polonius spies on the guy to see what he's up to, but Poirot is much better at snooping on people than he is, and nobody can keep anything hidden for very long. He gives a summation where he reveals Claudius killed his brother. Prince Hamlet immediately goes to attack his uncle and they struggle over a sword. King Claudius falls dead and Poirot bows out, because determining whether Hamlet should suffer consequences or just become king is not his department.

Sam and Peter: Hear me out- if we bump Hamlet down from ambiguously college-aged to ambiguously high school aged, we can replace Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. These two nerdy kids are shipped in to cheer their friend (more like acquaintance) Hamlet up, and to his surprise, they respond to his depressing monologues by taking notes and asking for further details on why the world is so corrupt. Hamlet isn't so happy about them doing an investigation into "What is up with Hamlet's super hot mom?" but when they suggest interviewing Claudius to see if he has the face of a liar, he enlists them to help out with putting on The Murder of Gonzago. The rest of the play mostly goes the same, but they find the letter Claudius planted on them and show it to Hamlet. One of the last lines of the play is when Fortinbras is looking at everyone lying dead, but then Osric points out "Sam and Peter are alive!"

Phryne Fisher: Phryne is a dubious (if genteel) woman Laertes has taken up with, whom Polonius is doing everything in his power to drive away. Phryne doesn't care, but it does bring her attention to the fact that the man is apparently constantly spying on everyone in the castle. On whose behalf is he doing this? King Claudius? Is he afraid someone may assassinate him because of his brother's suspicious death? What was the official story about that, anyway? She exchanges sexy insults with Prince Hamlet, refusing to be cowed, and ultimately agrees to play the queen in his production of The Murder of Gonzago (where she gets a little too into the love scene.) When she turns and looks directly in Claudius's eye in the audience during a crucial line, she can see the answer to everything. Claudius tries to convince Laertes to kill her, saying she corrupted Ophelia into being a whore for a mad prince, but Laertes can't go through with it and kills Claudius instead.

Dale Cooper: King Hamlet's ghost tells him who killed him in a dream, but Cooper doesn't remember. He befriends Horatio and tells him that in order to understand the death of the king, it is crucial for them to study an old Icelanic poem about a man who feigns madness, because the answer to the mystery lies somewhere within. Horatio doesn't totally get it, but he figures Cooper must know what he's doing and goes along with it. When everyone is gathered to watch a production of The Murder of Gonzago, Cooper first steps up onto the stage, guided by a spirit in the form of a snake wearing a crown, to announce that King Claudius killed his brother. Prince Hamlet immediately stabs his uncle. Determining whether Hamlet should suffer consequences or just become king is not Cooper's department.

Philip Marlowe: All I know is, most of this mystery involves him getting thrown off the palace grounds repeatedly and being told that a bum like him better keep away from King Claudius if he knows what's good for him. If he ever gets out of Denmark alive, Marlowe thinks to himself, he's never leaving LA during the winter ever again.

Sam Vimes: Vimes can actually interview the ghost, but that doesn't mean the case is closed. He's not worried about the ghost actually being a deceitful fiend, he just thinks there's a possibility he's wrong. After all, if Vimes was poisoned and his ghost found out some creepy relative immediately married his wife and took his job, he would also jump to conclusions! He spends a lot of time yelling at royal people and getting threatened with execution (Vimes doesn't know how his job ended up involving so many clashes with royalty, but so it goes), and is disrespectful of religion enough to spy on Claudius while he's having his remorseful confession. He can't arrest him, but he spreads the word around, and as the royal court dissolves into backstabbing and finger-pointing, Vetinari walks in with a full retinue (and more importantly, a list of all the debts Denmark owes to Ankh-Morpork) to evaluate the situation and congratulate Claudius on his "excellent decision" to abdicate. Claudius later dies of a totally natural snake bite in his ear.

Columbo:

Your Majesty, King Claudius, forgive My clumsy common nature. I am not A noble gentleman, nor do I live With such great honor as yourself- a thought, However, troubles me this night. For how Should some strange serpent come to bite a king? And why within his ear? It puzzles! Now, I beg that I may ask just one more thing…

[cleverclove]

Laertes with a history of mental illness. Laertes who would lock himself in a bathroom and cut and scratch, hoping that that would dull the pain. Laertes who has never, ever felt like a good enough son or a good enough brother. Laertes who feels better off dead sometimes.

Laertes who’s sent to France for rehab. Laertes who feels abandoned by his father, who he feels just threw money at the problem hoping it would go away. Hoping he would go away.

Laertes who worries he passed his mental illness on to his sister. Laertes who’s terrified that Ophelia will see the brother she looks up to as weak.

And…Laertes who blames himself for her suicide. Did she kill herself because she saw him trying many times before? Did he ruin her somehow with his fucked-up mind and scars across his arms?

Laertes, who has been clean for so long, starting to hurt himself again. Because he deserves these, doesn’t he? He deserves to be alone because he went and fucked up the only family he had.

Laertes, who was just a hurt little boy, at the end of it.

[liberoquorion]

i'm rereading the odyssey (emily wilson's trans) cause epic: the musical is making me miss ancient texts. anyways as i was reading the second book, telemachus calls ithacans to council (the first since odysseus left) and he says to them that he has not been trained to fight whatsoever. and it just made me realise how important the patriach is in ancient greece, how it progresses society and the kings of ancient greece. like most if not all royalty at the time were trained in all areas.

it makes sense that suitors were able to take control cause telemachus didnt have that nurture or training that he wouldve gotten if odysseus had come home. and laertes was most likely too old to train telemachus. i bet that antinous or eurymachus or any of the suitors didnt want to take up their duty as men to teach telemachus.

honestly i feel kinda bad for telemachus cause he was missing so much experience other sons got.