tigerlily | Thoughts on episodes 1-6 of Romeo x Juliet

So, I'm rewatching it again. First six episodes. I have lots of feelings about episodes five and six, so let's start with "Where did he get that costume?" Did he just have it planned one day? Lancelot doesn't get a lot of characterization, but it doesn't contradict.

I was never down with not respecting Juliet's efforts, though. Yeah, so she spent one day not going out in the city and not doing the things you were all previously treating her like an irresponsible child for doing. Now she's got to get smacked for that? I don't hold this against Curio or any of the other characters, but I don't agree with it.

It goes along with the whole, hide-your-destiny-all-your-life and then act like you have a duty to it these people have in general. I hate this trope. You can't expect anyone to suddenly accept and be prepared for something you haven't prepared her for. I'm thinking about episodes nine and ten here too, but at least by then Juliet had tried to accept being some Capulet symbol to overthrow a ruler.

Moving on. I don't know what rulers were like in the Middle Ages, but it seems fairly obvious from my standpoint that you don't want to encourage restlessness in the population by hurting them. So I think Prince Montague's good with nobles, but not that great a ruler. Then again, no one's overthrown him in fourteen years. Wait, I'm not sure that makes you a good ruler, just good at staying in power to rule. For a little while.

And I just said to my screen "big deal" when Tybalt showed up with his dramatic music and wing-fluttering. It's not even like he's that important a character. Though he does end up having more of an arc than Francisco or Curio.

Oh, I knew I should have stopped at four, with the sappy episodes. Now the angsty ones are all I can think about. Let me just say one thing first and not elaborate: of the bad or mixed reviews I've seen of this series, a common complaint is that there isn't enough action and the resistance plot isn't as well-done or focused on. Well, it's Romeo and Juliet, guys. From the very beginning the story was presented as being about innocent love in a framework of killing and suffering and hatred. Just because it doesn't stay true to the original story doesn't mean it isn't about the lovers, and I think (maybe presumptiously) that there being a resistance plot let people fool themselves into thinking it wasn't. Now it is about love, just more innocent and hopeful, even with their deaths, than the play. The successful resistance movement being part of what makes it hopeful.

Of course the whole tree plot is another complaint entirely.

Back to the first four episodes. Despite some remarks I've made about Romeo and Juliet being boring as a ship without the context of angst, and being all "c'mon, get off Juliet already" in that dramatic fireside scene, I have always liked the ship and thought it sweet and innocent. It could do with more shading, even if that would take some of the "pureness" out of it, like having them interact more, dealing with Juliet's conflict over believing she should be acting like a girl because she is one (she has blatant femininity issues) while having boyish behavior, and Romeo's being all privileged, since that does affect worldview no matter how good one's intentions are. Instead, we get that overly fluffy scene later on. If I wrote fic, I'd write that out, or do some of Juliet's past, or both.

Man I was trying to say I liked them and I just keep criticizing. Anyway, some of the things people who include me have had later problems which relate to this being Romeo and Juliet. They have to do with what's established in these first four episodes. Romeo and Juliet have an amazingly instant love connection that htis story is about. They're not lusty teenagers but genuinely fairy tale in love characters. This way they keep the unrealistic elements of the doomed love trope, so that explains why Juliet is later instantly joyous when she meets him, instead of staying depressed about her friends. After that, while she grows into her role as Capulet savior and combines that with her Whirlwind persona and tries to become a tree, much of her emotional state depends on her relationship with Romeo. Even while they still don't even know each other well realistically.

Accepting these tropes and having one of them be doomed love helps the emotional effect. Because while they are boring as a couple, with the angst and the death they become tragic yet hopeful symbols of love and innocence. That's how the ending works for me.