#beatrice and benedict

[storyofmorewhoa]

Norman Mills Price, Beatrice and Benedick

[soniabigcheese]

🤣

David Tennant and Catherine Tate as Signior Benedick and Beatrice in a production of Much Ado About Nothing in 2011

[source]

[afirewiel]

I think one thing about Much Ado About Nothing that I don't see talked about that I appreciate is Benedict and Beatrice's reactions to the planted conversations that they unknowingly were meant to hear. Both conversations basically go "Beatrice/Benedict is in love with Benedict/Beatrice and is wonderful person worthy of being loved, but Beatrice/Benedict is too flawed to notice or care." This is great because a) most people, while perfectly willing to criticize their friends behind their backs, would not dare do it in a conversation that they intend to be overheard. So Benedict and Beatrice have some brave friends. b) Most people overhearing themselves being "badmouthed" by friends behind their backs would simply go, "That's it! The friendship is over!" But neither Benedict nor Beatrice do that. Instead they both go, "You know what? They're right. I do have this flaw and I do need to work on that. And Beatrice/Benedict is totally worthy of my love and affection and I will give them that." And I think that is great that both of these characters are not afraid to take criticism, even if not give directly to their faces, and decide they need to work on their flaws. Beautiful.

[lunadove]

Thinking about David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s “Much Ado About Nothing” and just loving the fact that in any other play, they’d be the side characters.

Cause Hero and Claudio are the main drama of the plot - they’re the “love at first sight”, misunderstandings abound, tears and yelling and heartbreak couple.

Comparatively Beatrice and Benedict are low drama. Their biggest issue is getting over themselves to realize they’re in love. They do have a little bit of yelling and crying when Beatrice asks Benedict to kill his best friend. But he’s against it for a grand total of 30 seconds until they talk about it and he agrees, and then they go back to being stupidly cute in love together.

Beatrice asks Benedict to defend Hero’s honor, but the dual doesn’t even happen cause everyone realizes they were tricked by that point. Benedict isn’t part of the big “shaming Hero at the alter” drama - it took several minutes of Claudio being the world’s biggest drama king for Benedict to realize something MAY have happened to throw off the wedding plans. Beatrice and Benedict’s impact on the overall plot is really low. The priest comes up with the plan to reunite Hero and Claudio, Dogberry exposes the villain’s plans, Beatrice and Benedict are there for emotional support, to show how a more emotionally mature couple acts, and to basically tell Claudio and Don Pedro they’re acting really shitty.

They’re so low in terms of the overall story that they barely interact with the villain. They spend a whole play flirting and being in love with each other (to the point where all their friends can see it), and Don John doesn’t even think about ruining their relationship too, they’re so far off his radar.

I love Much Ado About Nothing cause it’s a play where all the rules are flipped on their heads - the typical climatic event of a dual is cancelled, the villain runs off and is an afterthought rather than being dramatically caught, even the entire plan of ruining Hero and Claudio’s wedding is (in terms of acting against the prince) small. Don John hates his brother, but he’s too spineless to even actually try and act against him so he’s just making up rumors. It’s not even a DIRECT ATTACK against Don Pedro - he’s just hoping to ruin his brother’s friend’s wedding.

And Beatrice and Benedict, who normally would be comedic side characters, are the heroes of the plot. I personally think it’s why they’re so beloved - leave the screaming and crying and heartbreak to the other characters - they’re FUN.

[biffybobs]

Paid a visit to the spares house for makeovers now that Bijoux (bottom left) and Joanie (bottom right) are teens. One of my favourite parts of legacy gameplay is seeing how the genetics pass down and I think both of these girls got some great genes from their parents.

[ladylovelylemons]

Benedict and Beatrice were enemies to lovers before enemies to lovers was a thing

[below-average-fangirl]

[therighthandofvengeance]

Sure, on the surface, a biker and book nerd don’t have much in common. But in certain situations, they have everything in common. Situations like escaping into a café to avoid their respective friends’ comments about their lack of a love life, for example.

[simplybybea]

it's taken me a week and a half to be able to watch Much Ado About Nothing with Eve Best but I am watching now and I just - that 'I would eat his heart ij the marketplace' scene was so so so damn powerful.

Also, post confession, they continue to act like teenagers who have confessed a crush and aren't ready to ACTUALLY date and I LOVE IT. Feels much more on brand than all the cloying cutesy stuff in some adaptations.

[paulandjohn]

[storyofmorewhoa]

Beatrice and Benedict in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing Artist unknown (to me)

[marcianoliterati]

# A MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING ADAPTATION WHERE THEY'RE STUCK TOGETHER DUE TO COVID LOCKDOWNS,BORED AF, AND ON THEIR PHONES 247.

A SOCIAL MEDIA AU. SORT OF.

claudio benedict pedro and tagalong little brother john are roadtripping

italy.

they pay a visit to their old friends' parents house, where hero and

beatrice are also holidaying.

hero and claudio have been heavily flirting online

beatrice and benedict have been fighting online for like a decade,

basically since they met

everyone who follows them but doesnt know them irl thinks it's just a

game and that they're actually dating

all of them are online but none of them are big influencers or anything,

no one has more than 5k followers

and their followers beyond friends and family dont even cross that much

they all post about different things outside of life stuff

only beatrice and benedict intersect, theyre the only ones who have a

lot of different active accounts and they follow each other on every

single one, from like lj to fb to tumblr to twitter to insta to tiktok,

they even regularly show up in each other's reddit posts for the sole

purpose of disagree,most of the time, theyre not even in the same

subreddits or fandoms

but their spats are amusing and a few bits have gone viral before.

but then you get a lot of late-twenty something stuck together, and

posting all the time, reviving somewhat dormant account, it's like an

impromptu accidental reality show

at first its just like games, from tag and hide and seek to passionate

games of uno and clue,tours of the place, building shit, improvising

stuff, and theyre constantly posting little snippets, and so on

benedict and beatrice both post the same thing like "worst person to get

stuck with" and at first people thing they went on holiday together but

now theyre just stuck at like a villa the parents rented

"oh so you just met up while on holiday. riiiiiiiight"

they keep posting, complaining about dumb shit the other is one, about

their disgustingly in love with friends, and so on.

their friends also post clips of them arguing, like during games where

theyre always rivals,and others of them always seeking each other out

a new account pops up something like beadick updates or something, that

takes the time of trawling through all the accounts to post compilations

and builds a bit of a timeline of them through the years

then a different account pops up that start sending them personal

videos, clearly some of their friends having fun

they also post about the group discussing b&b (crucially hidden from

them)

and later both bea and ben hearing the others discussing them and how

they react

cue compilations like "no women will ever tempt me" next to "but it bea

wants me im down" and ben dissing bea next to talking her up after, same

for bea.

it goes like that for a bit

the leak continues posting them acting awkward around each other, trying

to argue then running away, spying on the other,trying to do something

nice while seeming like they dont care

then theres some event theyve organised

a lot of posts of everyone looking nice

a few of people drinking

and then a livestream of dancing is interrupted by a lot of shouting the

sound of stuff breaking and what seems like a physical fight

and then everyone goes quiet

then it switches

the audience, which had been steadily growing, is left in the dark, the

fourth wall is broken when they decide to reach in and find out what the

hell is going on.

someone hacks the complex's cctv

the updates account posts different bits, claudio having a huge jealous

tantrum and starting a fight, hitting hero in the process

then b&b left alone in the garden, with confessions of love to follow

and then shouting and storming off "i will cut his heart out with a

spoon!"

"for you, i will defy covid and the goverment" promises ben before

leaving

the others try to pack and leave, but are stopped and so they hide in a

small cabin on the edge of the property, where they start drinking

it is there where ben finds them, smashes the bottles and dares them to

make it right or he will reign fire on them

claudio laughs at first going "but why is the rum gone?????!"

but then he gets actually worried

the audience witness this via cctv, they see ben through the grounds,

finding the cabin,hear the smashing and shouting

then they start looking back seeing if there is any back footage or if

its been deleted.

it hasnt

they find a treasure trove

not knowing how to contact them discreetly,beadick updates posts a video

of little brother john discussing sabotage plans with some minions and

they tag every account

the cctv is only outside for privacy reasons so they only know it worked

when they see john making a run for it, trying to climb the walls, being

caught by claudio and beaten before john pulls him off

then everyone reunites outside, when they see them coming up

hero goes up to john and hits him, then she goes up to claudio and does

the same

she spits at pedro and calls him a coward

claudio falls on his knees and begs for forgiveness

but she tells him he's clearly not worth her trust or love

everyone is feeling hurt and sore and not sure where to go now

pedro steps up and apologises

he shouldve known better than to trust anything john says, he's always

loved stirring up trouble for no reason

and they shouldve come to her not make a huge deal and ruin everything

claudio also apologises but more begrudginly, same as john

as they all just sort of stand there, their phones ping

and so pedro goes 'hey whats the deal with the video? who found it?"

before anyone gets an answer someone checks and gasps

the audience, stirring shit up, sends the video of them all plotting to

get b&b together, and laughing as they talked it all up

"so you do not love me? it was all a ruse?"

they both accuse each other and then turn to their friends, who in turn

took to look at the cameras in suspcion

their phones ping again. only b&b's first, which makes them both put on

pained faces of "what now?"

so then everyone's faces ping

it's a video compilation of b&b doing nice things for the other in

secret

bea spent an afternoon learning to make ben's favourite biscuits, and

then just left them in the kitchen for him to find

ben spent forever tracking something bea forgot, and then hiding it in

her room to make it look like it was just temporarily misplaced

bea finding ben's favourite movie and casually engineering things for a

watchalong

ben coming up with a thousand different ways to distract bea whenever

she starts to look sad or worried

they all watched, as it dawns on them that a) apparently, theyve had an

audience this whole time

and b)it was never a ruse

b&b were always in love, just too afraid or stubborn or emotionally

constipated to do anything about it

so hero turns to bea and goes "all this time? what the hell happened

between you two?"

beatrice and benedict look at each other and just shrug

"it doesnt matter. we're here now"

they kiss

beadick updates posts a playlist of several hours on yt featuring their

whole story, with videos of them as teens, shyly flirting, to a lot of

screenshots and clips of them arguing online, to the whole saga in

italy, ending in their big kiss

as an epilogue, the two post a video of them in the airport, they thank their audience, and say now they can travel so they will be going off together

[rurpleplaysmuttingtonac]

It had been a long time coming, Beatrice thought.

The last time she'd been in this position, she'd been very stressed and emotionally wrought, but now, now everything was perfect. She and Benedict were getting married on their terms and nobody was bossing them around. Their acquaintances were now dear friends and the home they lived in would soon have the sounds of growing children laughing and running about.

[laniidae-passerine]

was just overtaken by a desire to see a queer staged performance of much ado featuring masc Beatrice and femme Benedict bi4bi mayhem

[biffybobs]

[dracoj]

ngl “anyone but you” looked like the most unappealing movie in the world to me until I heard it was (loosely) based on much ado and now i dream about kissing it in the moonlight