#hamphelia?

[withasideofshakespeare]

Ophelia: This is my boyfriend, Hamlet. And this is Horatio, Hamlet’s boyfriend.

[cleverclove]

Okay but like. IF it was decided that Hamlet WAS driven mad by Ophelia not returning his affections, what exactly would Claudius and Polonius have done? It’s fairly obvious that Polonious doesn’t want his daughter seeing Hamlet anymore. Would it have changed his mind if he saw how heartbroken Hamlet was over Ophelia? Would Claudius have attempted to set Hamlet up with some ravishing young bachelorette of ROYAL blood instead?

[hamletkin]

okay so here's my overly cheesy hamlet/ophelia date idea.

hamlet has returned from wittenberg on holiday and he's missed ophelia desperately (he always does because he's been in love with her for years, the two have been secretly dating since they were teenagers).

to make up for lost time he finds her in the halls one day and begs that she meets him by the stables the following morning at dawn. of course she agrees though she's caught off guard by this. they've never gone anywhere together before. it's always been confined to the walls of the castle, secret moments hidden in stairwells, through passed letters and tokens, behind closed doors, once in hamlet's bedchamber...

hamlet has prepared for this. he's informed the servants ahead of time to inform his parents that he's ill and will not be attending breakfast. he meets ophelia by the stables as promised and the two of them head off across the meadows and into the neighboring woods.

they walk for nearly an hour before hamlet feels they're far enough from the castle and there he lays out a small picnic beneath the trees. it's nothing special, mostly fruits and cheese and bread that he begged the kitchen staff not to mention and they obliged out of love for him.

the food isn't important anyway and they forget about it as they watch the sun rise behind the trees and hamlet recites poetry for ophelia. he sings to her, songs of his love. each speak of their experience without the other: hamlet at wittenberg and ophelia at elsinore. the two of them take turns reading from a book to one another though ophelia would be okay listening to hamlet speak forever. it's the same for him though. ophelia's voice is like music to his ears. he's missed her terribly.

they spend the morning together, in each other's arms, away from all responsibility for a little while. they've created their own world beneath the trees and for a few moments they're the only people in it. the spell will eventually break but for now they're happy. for now they belong to one another.

[cleverclove-arts]

Why would you ever kiss me? I’m not even half as pretty.

Image ID below!

[Image ID: A digitally-drawn comic. Each panel contains lyrics from Conan Gray’s Heather.

Image 1: A drawing of Ophelia from Hamlet. She is smiling against a blue sky with pink clouds and a mountain. Hearts and stars are drawn around her. The text reads, “Brighter than a blue sky…”

Image 2: A drawing of two hands holding the other against a rosy pink background. The one on the right is pale, while the one on the left is dark tan. It is implied that these hands belong to Hamlet and Ophelia, respectively. Hearts are drawn around them. The text reads, “She’s got you mesmerized…”

Image 3: A drawing of a single broken white heart. It is shown against a pure black background. The text reads, “…while I die.”

/End ID.]

[miubow]

HamPhelia animatic

[jaimeryant]

Harold Bloom answers the question “does Hamlet fuck”

[hitchell-mope]

Oh my god

[trophywifejimgordon]

huh. i know there are productions where the “get thee to a nunnery” scene is done with hamlet intending to give ophelia a warning, not brutally tormenting her (and i have to be real i like that a lot more than how the scene is usually done, go figure), but has anyone ever tried to play it with ophelia actually being in on the “madness?” 

i’m thinking the first part of the scene is performed normally, hark ye now, the fair ophelia, and the remembrances. the change happens around when hamlet starts wondering about polonius: hamlet gets suspicious, and ophelia’s answer to his question makes or breaks his trust in her. “where is thy father?”

ophelia jerks her head offstage, to where polonius and claudius are listening, listening, but not seeing, and that’s important for the rest of the scene. “at home my lord.” hamlet puts a finger to his lips, motions that he’s crazy. believe none of us. she nods, and in that nod, he knows she will keep his secret. he relaxes. he needed that.

hamlet rants and raves, but he’s not throwing ophelia around--not even touching her. ophelia, for her part, is overacting, a little. “o, help him, you sweet heavens!,” delivered while biting down on her hand a little bit to keep her from laughing. just for once, i want to see a version of this scene where ophelia is enjoying herself--not serving as the victim of hamlet’s wrath. it’s been like 400 years. it’s time. 

the monologue that follows could be played in the same vein--she’s over exaggerating how crazy he is (claudius says only a few lines later that hamlet didn’t actually seem mad), trying to help him out, seal the ruse. she’s not the greatest liar of all time, but by god does she try. at the very end of the scene, right as hamlet is making his great dramatic exit, he slips ophelia’s gifts back to her, included in them, a necklace.

she wears it after that.

the play, then, could be done in the same way. instead of hamlet downright sexually assaulting her, they’re making it a game, kind of flirting, joking with one another, even while trying to outwardly appear like a madman and his wayward love. the same dialogue, the same reactions from the other characters, but hamlet and ophelia have an agreement, and she’s not an unwilling pawn to his play for power. she’s a part of it, and she even likes that, gets into her role--

and that’s what makes it so awful when he kills polonius. she thought she knew what he was doing. she thought she was helping him do something good, but no--here’s a victim of hamlet’s madness, a real one, her father. what’s more, she’d been aiding his ruse! what if she had told claudius the truth--would her father be dead? is she complicit in his murder? there’s so many questions, and she doesn’t have the answers, and there’s no one she can ask. no one she can trust. her father is dead, her brother is gone, hamlet has betrayed her. 

that’s when she gets angry. 

i really feel like that’s the key--she gets angry, not mad. she acts out and screams and raves, yes, but it’s not madness--it’s her turn to do what hamlet’s been doing for four acts now. murdered fathers, both. when she gives out her flowers, there’s a terrifying clarity in her eyes--she knows what these signify. she knows that she is insulting the king and queen to their faces. she doesn’t care anymore. 

then her last scene onstage--i like to picture her doing a quick gesture at the audience before she walks off. 

ophelia presses a finger to her lips, motions like she’s crazy....

and winks.

[soljoe]

“O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans, but that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet.”   (II.II.128-132)

[failbaby]

Bestie what does this mean

* Hamphelia but, the parallels between Spencer and Hotch and Ophelia and Hamlet. Keep up Samuel

[cleverclove]

Hamlet and Ophelia

[kt-bergs]

Break a leg @ryanarthurbernier 💜#hattricktheatre #hamphelia #nobodycares (at Murray Theatre At Ruth Eckerd Hall)

[sometimesrosy]

What he means when he said non-romantic because that it is not what we see ,every person who sees bellarke in the show knows they are romantic, those looks are not precisley non-romantic, and the way they love each other 2.199 calls, becoming the man who he is because of her, i am just a casual fan, but every person i know that watch the 100 is like where bellamy and clarke will get together? I do not know what he is doing, but is not fooling anyone when you witness this every episode.

This question is a lot harder to answer than it looks. Because I can’t tell you what JR means, I can only analyze the situation, which is not just about what he SAID, but also what his agenda is, the medium he is speaking in, how the fandom interprets it, what happened in canon, his marketing strategy, the politics of fandom and the media and hollywood. And none of what I interpret about this is a fact, except for the canon, the show that we see on screen. I am not in JR’s head, and even if he answers directly, there is no guarantee that what he says is genuine or straightforward. He has been proven to be tricky and ambiguous in his interviews and social media ABOUT The 100. He is simply not going to tell us, and in order to avoid telling us, he tells us things that are inconclusive.

What JR says in the media, social or otherwise, is commentary and interpretation, not canon. The way I look at it is the way I look at ALL non-canon information and interpretations. His statements are a way to LOOK at the canon that we see on screen, and can give us a good lens with which to interpret the show. But canon is ONLY what we see on screen. Not even the scripts count as canon, because we do not know how they have been changed to get to the screen, and they do not take into account the actors, directors, cinematographers, costume and makeup people, editors and composers who’s work went into telling the story in the script. Scripts and writer/actor commentary can help us with how we look at the canon, but is only for interpretation. WHY? Because 20 or 100 years from now, the show The 100 will probably still be here to be seen, but none of the commentary, politics, fanon, or fandom interpretation will be a part of it. Just like we’re reading Shakespeare plays, and not what Shakespeare himself said about them, nor any of the fans who loved Hamlet, nor the Queen’s opinion on Gertrude or whether she thinks Hamphelia is true love or Hamatio is her OTP. 

Canon is ONLY the show. Anything else you take into account is, honestly, moving into cultural criticism and sociology and psychology etc. Which, yeah, you can DEFINITELY explore, but it’s not about the story of The 100 anymore. 

SO.

When you are looking at what JR says about Bellarke, first you have to consider his INTENTIONS. He has stated, with 100% clarity, that he is not going to spoil the story. He WILL NOT TELL YOU WHETHER OR NOT BELLARKE IS GOING TO BE ROMANTIC. He refuses. None of them are allowed to speak about it. Whether or not that’s a bad policy is not the point. He won’t tell us.

So I have to ask myself, then what does he mean when he says Bellarke is “non-romantic partners and soulmates.”

 JR (and the cast) talks about the characters and show ONLY at the point of what we have ALREADY SEEN on screen. They do not project or speculate, or tell us about storylines that we haven’t seen yet (unless they are approved by spoiler police as part of the marketing strategy.) So when JR talks about Bellarke, it is either what has already happened, what the characters themselves have already been shown to feel, or marketing strategy.

The marketing strategy is a game. It is NOT to be trusted. It is NOT about understanding the story. It is about getting an audience. The story and the marketing strategy are two separate things. I do not trust JR’s marketing strategy, but I do trust his story. When JR is marketing, he says things that are intentionally vague and ambiguous so that the fans can read into it whatever they want. So when I listen to him, I ALWAYS compare his words to what I see on screen, and if the canon and his words contradict themselves, then I the CANON is the authority, and JR is playing word games. In my three years of analyzing his tweets, I have seen him do this over and over. He does not LIE to us. He tells us something ambiguous that we can take to confirm our desires, and then doesn’t clarify. He manipulates the words.

His declaring them soulmates is new. He only started saying that when he was writing s5, after s4 was over. Whether he uses the qualifier “non-romantic” or not. Which he has done twice. First it was “non-romantic soulmates” and now it is “non-romantic partners and soulmates.” He did not use the word “platonic,” although fandom keeps saying he did. 

 Within the show, “non-romantic,” “platonic,” and “soulmates” are not ever  used. The word “love,” however, was used. And that is the first time their relationship has EVER been defined as love. And implied to be romantic love, at that, with the comparison to Bellamy’s girlfriend being made. Bellamy loves Clarke, and this is now canon. That makes it ROMANTIC. Whether confessed to her or not, Bellamy’s interest is romantic. Therefore the relationship is not platonic. Whether it will be endgame OR NOT. Their relationship has romantic elements. They have declared a Love Triangle between Echo-Bellamy-Clarke. And that makes it, by definition, romantic. Whether he eventually chooses Clarke or chooses Echo. It is a romantic situation.

Clarke is declared to “care” for Bellamy. This is the word that has been used since season 2. “you care for him,” “i always cared,” “do you know how MUCH she cares for you?” And the 2199 calls were used as proof for just how much. I do not think it is a coincidence that it is only after we saw the 2199 calls that JR started calling them soulmates. Because this story is a classic romantic soulmate story. if people don’t want to believe that clarke loves Bellamy, they can ignore it, but that’s pretty bad analysis to ignore the evidence of how much she loves him, when trying to figure out how much she loves him. We see her SHOWING how she loves him more than we see her saying it. THIS story element is reinforced by JR calling them soulmates and the unknown question of romance within it does affirm the “non-romantic” statement. But…the scene where Clarke is shocked and horrified by her “non romantic” soulmate kissing someone else, put the question of “non-romantic” to the lie.

The canon shows a great deal of romantic development for Bellarke, if not in declaration (which it has, as shown above) then in film making and narrative techniques. All the people who have been watching and reading love stories all their lives can see, straight up, that Bellarke is being told as a love story and a romance. Even people who don’t like Bellarke see it. This means that, in canon, Bellarke is a romantic story. The list of evidence is too long for this post, you can search my #bellarke development tag. But it is DEFINITELY there. In canon. On screen. We’ve all seen.

Calling Bellarke “non-romantic” seems to contradict what we see in the canon. So it is either a lie, or it’s a vague statement that does not contradict the romantic portrayal of Bellarke on screen. JR’s past tweets have NOT been lies, but sometimes they are ambiguous and misleading and if you define the words used properly, are actually true. You have to consider the tweet from HIS perspective, not the fandom perspective. The fandom interpreted it as platonic. But he DIDN’T say platonic, although platonic is a TYPE of non-romantic relationship. But to say the clearly romantic development was platonic would be a lie. So THAT IS NOT HIS MEANING. 

So we MUST examine “non-romantic.” 

Okay.

I told you this was a harder question than it looked. SO. 

Non-romantic.

Doesn’t mean platonic

Is a statement only about what has happened on screen until this point.

Does actually describe their partnership, which, outside of feelings they have not shared with each other, is not related to romance.

The comment was, before the season “non-romantic soulmates” and after the season “non-romantic PARTNERS and soulmates.” I might be splitting hairs, but that might ALSO be an upgrade as the soulmate part has been separated from the non-romantic part, while keeping their partnership, in canon, non-romantic. This part COULD be seen as the soulmate being also romantic in nature while the partnership is still non-romantic.

Bellamy now has a romantic partner and a non-romantic partner. THAT… is a story. He now has TWO relationships that will be and already are compared to each other. The comparison has not been defined yet. It seems like it is ABOUT to be. Also, the romantic partner is not the soulmate. 

ALSO, JR said “as of yet” about a million times.

So if I put all of this thinking together, here’s what I think he was saying. 

As of yet, at this moment in the story, Bellarke have not admitted or pursued their romantic feelings, so their relationship is a soulmate relationship that is yet to be explored and their partnership remains non-romantic. Which will incidentally be a problem next season when Bellamy must deal with both his non-romantic partnership who is his soulmate and his romantic partnership who is not his soulmate. This is a current storyline that is actively developing but as of yet, it is non-romantic as far as the characters can tell, because they do not realize the other returns their feelings and/or there is a real canon romantic relationship that serves as an obstacle to the realization of their feelings. I will not tell you how it turn out because that would be spoiling, but if you follow the story, you can see how it’s set up. 

that took a long time. I don’t know if i got everything.But i’m gonna post it anyway.

[cleverclove]

See, depending on if you think Hamlet genuinely loved Ophelia AND Horatio, he was either intentionally leading one or BOTH of them on. And if this was an open relationship (unlikely), then he still ended up breaking both their hearts.

[cleverclove]

"You take your time, don't you?" She paced across the room as she spoke.

ALSO HIIIIIII HOW R U :]]] ITS MY B-DAY WHICH ISNT NECESSARY INFORMATION IK I JUST LIKE TELLING PEOPLE. I ONLY GET TO ONCE A YEAR

HELLO HELLO BIRTHDAY PAL :D hope you’re having an excellent birthday today! In the meantime, I am using your prompt for my hamlet brainrot <33

“You take your time, don’t you?” She paced around the room as she spoke.

Hamlet flushed deeply. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, good Lady Ophelia.”

Ophelia chuckled, her voice as sweet as summer fruit. “You’ve been writing me these love letters all these months and you haven’t even kissed me,” she responded. With that, she pulled a shocked Hamlet in by the shoulders and enveloped his hesitant mouth in hers.

[soljoe]

Christopher Plummer and Jo Maxwell Muller as Hamlet and Ophelia in Hamlet at Elsinore