The Validation of a True Ruler

[Eris she/her]

I thought I should post my high school English assignment which pitted Vin from the Mistborn series against Claudius from Hamlet. The point of the assignment was to show two people dealing with a theme which is very broad (in this case it is morality), and showing how different each person dealt with it. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Characters

Claudius
Vin Venture
Elend Venture

 

Vin Venture and Claudius sit, waiting for… something after death. The room is sparse with earthen ground and unevenly painted walls. Vin wears a gown of white, bare-footed with a light step. Claudius wears extravagant robes of royalty with a massive wound in his chest that is festering with poisoned infection. One was a God, the other a murderer most foul.

Vin sits crossed-legged on the ground, lost in thought. Claudius sits on a chair provided, grinding his teeth in rage.

Claudius: (muttering under his breath, in a near psychotic way) That scheming, spoiled prince. He’s just like his father. Weak like a woman’s name. He couldn’t just let me be king, could he?

Vin: (curious but doesn’t move from her spot) What are you saying? Only a madman mumbles under their breath for only the voices of lust can hear.

Claudius: (Feeling confronted by this small child, straightens his back as he booms) You dare imply madness. A mere girl cannot fathom such thoughts let alone insult a man of them. (lowers voice while waving his hand) Begone.

Vin: (Fighting back the urge to use her long gone Allomancy, she sighs apathetically as she dances up from the ground towards the still seated, dead king) I would beg for your pardon, but you are no lord in my eyes. (her eyes fill with a burning fire as she remembers her past life) You speak as if you have authority, you demand like you’re the king of me, yet I must protest for I am more than a mere girl.

Claudius: You are just a –

Vin: (Cuts him off as she twirls around the cramped with envious grace of a dancer) I was a morally ambiguous child, at the whim of anyone who beat me. When I thought life was nothing more than kill or be killed, I was taught (pause) trust and love. By learning such a crucial thing, I became more than you or I. I stood up against oppression and slayed the evil tyrant and became a God in the metaphorical sense of the word.

Claudius: (mockingly) You, a girl, can’t be –

Vin: (Relishing in her victory over a weak, madman, cuts him off) I didn’t want to be a God, but I slaughtered the God who starved us, killed us and destroyed us. I became an Empress when I married my idealistic love, Elend. Together as one, we balanced on the line of morality to bring freedom to our peoples. (Her eyes become sad as she remembers the horrors she had done) I assassinated threats to our Empire. I played the role of God in deciding which innocents should live or die. I justified every murder but that is what it was, murder.

Claudius: (Laughing) Of course a pitiful girl would feel guilty about killing their opponents. (Vin stares at him, confused) I killed my own brother. He did nothing to me except be king. I am stronger than him, so I should have had the crown, yet that harlot of a woman chose him over me. So I poisoned him and married his wife. I was an excellent king, but her spawn took it away from me. (Claudius begins to murmur angrily again about his lost crown)

Vin: (disgusted, pale faced) You slayed your own brother for such a selfish reason as a crown on your head and a title. You planned his demise and took bed his wife while also blaming her child for your death. Where is your sense of good and evil? Did you wash it away as you cleaned the blood on your hands? Or were you driven mad with hatred that you never considered the morality of murdering kin? (Claudius smirks manically as Vin realises his black insides) You were drunk on the thought of power.

Claudius: (his atmosphere changes from a regal appearance to that of insanity) You claim me to be mad but what constitutes as mad? I had a chance to become king, was I mad to poison my brother? I believe it to be not, therefore it is not mad, but you don’t ask me about my sanity but rather morality. To that I say it is sound. Morality isn’t known to primitive life so why should I be judged on my ethics when I could easily question you and gain the same answers as I gave.

Vin: (Standing tall but no taller than his shoulder, speaks with more assurance than a condemn man speaking his truths.) You speak as if morality doesn’t apply to you yet criticise it to be primitive. Are you referring to yourself as an animal? If such, then it matches your cowardice. Never have I said I killed for lustful ambitions like you state but even then, I feel guilt while you do not. Your logic implies that if I feel something belongs to me, I am entitled to murder for it. Does this not work if I wanted your crown? The world would be Ruin’s play thing if your logic were to be followed.

Claudius: (scared that his validation for murder may be thwarted, speaks with questionable conviction) If there were a bad king, they would be usurped or assassination, you cannot deny this truth. What would be achieved if these tactics weren’t allowed. Life itself needs a natural enemy to remind it of pain. Morality is dependent on ones thought of right and wrong, if I believed my brother was an evil king then it was right for me to kill him. You cannot bring order if you’re not willing to destroy.

Vin: (his argument flawed and unordered she renews her fire to deliver the final blow) I cannot judge you for I am the God, Preservation no longer. I know the world needs evil to know good but to murder your blood for a title, the wrong far outweighs the right. I thought a human wasn’t capable of evil, but I am again shown I do not know everything the world offers. (calming down) I am no saint, but I do not kill for wealth or esteem.

Claudius: (Purple with rage) At least I shall be missed.

Vin: (interjects quickly with an air of wisdom) That is all you can hope for after death, that you will be remembered even when you passed from the Earth thousands of years before.

As if on cue, the sound of a male’s strong voice saying “Vin” echoed around the bare room Claudius and Vin were waiting in. A man in a suit of pristine white and cape entered from the darkness. Across his throat was a pale line, his death of decapitation, displayed proudly on his neck. His hair unruly, eyes warm and inviting, stopped short where he stood a metre away from the trio.

Elend: I have finally found you. (Tears in his eyes, he runs up to hug Vin in an embrace) I believed you, I trusted that you would save us.

Claudius stares distastefully at the couple while Vin’s emotions threaten to break free. Elend ignores Claudius like he can’t see him and whispers in Vin’s ear, loud enough for Claudius to hear.

Elend: I love you.

Vin and Elend eventually turn into mist like they were born to be, leaving Claudius alone with the haunting words of Vin, bouncing around his head. His own weak promise that someone will miss him, ultimately ate his soul until all that was left was the small speck of good that held only his love for power.

[Jaywalk he/him]

Wow! Nice job, this is really good.

It's always nice to have a little creative freedom with school assignments.

[Eris she/her]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! *imagine a purple heart here*

My teacher was really against me using Vin for my assignment because she didn't know who she was but I still got a decent mark because I did fulfil the task. 

[+Sorana she/her]

Wow, this is pretty good! Cool that you are allowed to do something like this at school!

I liked your approach and the way you pitted them against each other a lot!

 

[Eris she/her]

Thank you man. I loved writing it so much but it was difficult to write in style with Brandon and Shakespeare. 

[+Sorana she/her]

Did you chose Shakespeare's Hamlet as well? Or was that set?

[Eris she/her]

I had to use a secondary character from hamlet so I used Claudius. 

[+Sorana she/her]

19 hours ago, Eris said:

I had to use a secondary character from hamlet so I used Claudius. 

Thank you! I liked hamlet a lot, that's why I asked.

[Eris she/her]

3 minutes ago, Sorana said:

Thank you! I liked hamlet a lot, that's why I asked.

I liked Hamlet until that same teacher ruined it. She over taught it, she was very fluid in mind and constantly changing her opinion of my work so when I stopped giving her my work to read for drafts, I got better marks

[+Sorana she/her]

Just now, Eris said:

I liked Hamlet until that same teacher ruined it. She over taught it, she was very fluid in mind and constantly changing her opinion of my work so when I stopped giving her my work to read for drafts, I got better marks

It's sad to hear that.

We never discussed hamlet in school, I read it on my own, but I sometimes wished for some support as I with MacBeth and A midsummernights dream (we read both in school). But then my english teacher was really, really good.

[Eris she/her]

Yeah I did the merchant of Venice, MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Must say I loved Hamlet before it got taught to me. My other English teachers were good at teaching the other two. But I really didn't like romeo and juliet though

[+Sorana she/her]

30 minutes ago, Eris said:

I liked Hamlet until that same teacher ruined it. She over taught it, she was very fluid in mind and constantly changing her opinion of my work so when I stopped giving her my work to read for drafts, I got better marks

It's sad to hear that.

We never discussed hamlet in school, I read it on my own, but I sometimes wished for some support as I with MacBeth and A midsummernights dream (we read both in school). But then my english teacher was really, really good.