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I got a 68%. 68%! RAWR. scream

“Neutron Blast!” Man, if Hamlet could have summoned the Blue Eyes White Dragon during his duel at the end of the play of the same name, it would have been an explosive ending. If Seto Kaiba had killed everyone around him and driven Katsuya insane, that would have been really cool, although the creator, Kazuki Takashi, would never allow it. See, Seto and Hamlet, created half a world and several centuries apart, are actually the same character, facing the same circumstances, with the same reasons for acting.

Take a look at the character of both Hamlet and Seto and also those around them. Both Hamlet and Seto are absolutely brilliant in their fields but have been denied the usual methods of schooling, Hamlet by his stepfather and Seto by his adoptive father, who are synonymous characters. Both young men suffer undiagnosed depression, Hamlet always thinking about death and finding the worst in everything, and Seto lives through death repeatedly via night terrors. Both have serious trust issues as well, Hamlet doesn’t even trust his own mother and Seto doesn’t trust the synonymous character, his brother.

Now that the mental states of the protagonists have been described, rather loosely, they seem to be synonymous. Even delving deeper will only prove that fact. Both young men are tormented by ghosts from the past. Hamlet’s ghost is a physical reminder of his father’s murder and his need to protect his mother, where Seto’s ghost lies in the ‘selling of his soul’ to protect his brother.
This brings up the point that both characters, on their own, would have been perfectly fine and lived comfortable lives. It’s true that their driving force comes from without, rather than any ambition of their own, but there wouldn’t have been a story for either one if not for the existence of Queen Gertrude and Mokuba. Since Hamlet and Seto are synonymous, so too should the driving force behind them, and the characters around them be.

Naturally, they are. Take King Claudius and Gozaburo Kaiba for a start. Both have their own kingdoms, Claudius’ being the very literal Denmark and Gozaburo’s being the not as literal KaibaCorp. Both are responsible for the ghosts of the protagonists, Claudius again is very literal while Gozaburo is responsible for the near eradication of Seto’s soul. Both are murderers in their own ways. Gozaburo is for a third time, the less literal of the two considering that KaibaCorp’s chief products were weapons and that he sold to all sides via arms dealing. Claudius just plain killed.

Again, Claudius and Gozaburo are two very similar characters on their own. Going deeper only reveals more similarities such as the lust for power present in Claudius’ murder and Gozaburo’s control-freak attitude towards everything. Also similar is their use of two other synonymous characters, mentioned briefly earlier, as leverage over Hamlet and Seto respectively.

But what about those synonymous characters, Queen Gertrude and Mokuba Kaiba? Are they synonymous? Of course they are. Barring the fact that they are two different ages relative to the protagonists, and that they are two different genders, they are synonymous in purpose and in performance. Gertrude is the only real family Hamlet has left and he would do anything to protect her. She never overtly asks him to do anything, although she suggests things which Hamlet acts on. In the same way, Mokuba never asked Seto to protect him. Seto sticks with his brother because Mokuba is all he has left. Hamlet got the idea that he needed to kill Claudius and trod a bloody path to that goal, giving up everything for Gertrude’s safety. Seto did the same for Mokuba when he finally forced Gozaburo to die.

Now what about Ophelia? Does Seto have an Ophelia? Is Hamlet’s Ophelia really all that important? The answer to the last two is yes. Seto’s Ophelia is named Katsuya Jonouchi and he is more like Ophelia than he’d ever care to admit.

Both Katsuya and Ophelia have a sibling they hardly see, but love dearly, parodying Seto and Mokuba/Hamlet and Gertrude’s relationships respectively. Both have incredibly low self esteem caused by circumstances. Katsuya has an abusive father and Ophelia… she was a woman in Shakespearean times back when women were property. Nuff said.

Now, does anything else connect them? For a start, Hamlet is in love with Ophelia and Ophelia idolizes him. In the same way, Katsuya idolizes Seto and Seto is, in his own way, in love with Katsuya. Because Hamlet and Seto haven’t had much practical social interaction, (Hamlet is a prince and Seto was locked away from the world for his formative years), neither one really knows how to show affection, let alone love, so they become frustrated and lash out against the ones who caused the feeling in the first place. This is shown by Hamlet’s constant verbal sparring with Opelia, counterbalanced by him referring to her as ‘fair nymph’ and other such pet names. As for Seto… some of his favourite names for Katsuya are ‘zako’ (small fry), ‘bonkotsu no _____’ (mediocre _____), and his personal favourite, ‘make inu’ (mutt). However, he doesn’t pay attention to anyone else, and because of his ‘upbringing’ in a violent and abusive situation, this is actually his form of encouragement. If he really thought Katsuya was all those things, he wouldn’t pay any attention to him at all. Finally, Katsuya and Ophelia’s replies to this sort of thing are simple and blunt, but they are only attempts to prolong contact with their objects of affection.

Now that we’ve established that these are the same characters and the basic relationships between Hamlet and Seto between all the other synonymous characters, do those characters interact with each other in the same ways? They do indeed. Katsuya has no interaction with Gozaburo, in the same way that Ophelia has no interaction with King Claudius. Katsuya and Mokuba aren’t friends, but they know each other and don’t hate each other. Queen Gertrude knows Ophelia certainly, but Gertrude only really feels for her after she goes mad and Katsuya has yet to go off the deep end. Finally, the relationship between Mokuba and Gozaburo is the same as the one between Gertrude and Claudius, minus a whole bunch of sexual connotations. They don’t deal much with each other, except for sex in Claudius’ case, which doesn’t apply to Gozaburo, but both Claudius and Gozaburo manage to use Gertrude and Mokuba as leverage.

So in closing, Seto and Hamlet are the same characters, with the same mindset and the same circumstances. Hamlet didn’t get to summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon to fire a blast of concentrated electricity at anything in it’s path and Seto still hasn’t killed everything around him and hasn’t driven Katsuya insane, but they’re still the same people, and it’d still be really cool if they did.

For goodness sake, DON'T QUOTE THE FIRST POST!
I wrote this for English class and I'll post the mark I get on it once it's marked. biggrin

OMG....I was thinking of creating a thread for this kind of stuff.
The similarities ARE.....similar. stare Maybe Takahashi-sama designed him like Hamlet...?
If not, then maybe these characters:

Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride and Prejudice - he SEEMS like a jerk, sometimes he IS a jerk, he's rich, smart, handsome, he's overprotective of his younger sister, and his father gave him morals but poor Darcy was left to follow them on his own.

Gavroche Thenardier from Les Miserables - his parents just dont care (like Seto's relatives). He unknowingly takes in his two younger brothers under his wing and protects them, until they get separated one day. He's loud, witty, clever, and he seems to know everyone.

Or all three. *cough*
I heart Gavroche ~ he's so ADORABLE

Les Mis! *happy dance*
Ya... I've been doing that awhile. I have a whole list of character archetypes. It comes from studying English...

I actually pegged Yami as Laeretes, or perhaps Noa. As for Ophelia, I like Anzu as Ophelia as well.



Well... Yes. Personally, I am a puppy/prideshipper, but Joey could well be Horatio.



Erm... I suppose he could fill he same role, but Seto makes that difficult for anyone. Again, I think Anzu fits that role, if Joey doesn't.



Yup. Kisara makes a really good Ophelia. Akunadin being Claudius etc.

Heh... so do I. I got accepted to university that way.

Very nice analogy.... Very nice. Now, write one explaining why Seto Kaiba isn't an English Muffin. (LOL) Just kidding I've been reading too much of Heero Is Not Toast lately on the GW Guild.

Well he clearly is an English Muffin Arashi. I mean really, how can he not be? *breaks down laughing*
Seriously though, I haven't gotten it back yet, but when I do, I'll post my mark.

*jumping up and down* I do! I do! xd