Tycutio

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Pairing
Pairing: Tycutio
Alternative name(s): Merbalt
Gender category: Slash
Fandom: Romeo and Juliet, Romeo et Juliette, and others
Canonical?: No
Prevalence: Highly prevalent; the 1st-3rd most common ship in multiple connected fandoms
Archives:
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Tycutio (Mercutio/Tybalt) is one of the most popular ships in the fandom for Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare and the most popular ship in the fandoms of some inspired works, such as Romeo and Juliet: the Musical and Veronaville (a Sims community).

Interactions in Canon

In Shakespeare

Tybalt is a member of the Capulet family, which has a blood feud with the Montague family. Though Mercutio belongs to neither, he is friends with Romeo Montague, which makes him an enemy of the Capulets.

While talking to Romeo, Mercutio calls Tybalt "the Prince of Cats" due to his swordfighting prowess. Later in the play, Tybalt wants to fight Romeo; however, Romeo, who has just married Juliet, wants peace, so Mercutio takes up Tybalt's challenge instead. After a duel during which they exchange insults, Tybalt fatally wounds Mercutio. Shortly thereafter, Romeo kills Tybalt to avenge Mercutio.

In the Musicals

In Rómeó és Júlia, Zolicutio (Bereczki Zoltán's Mercutio) refers to Tybalt as "my pretty/handsome/beautiful Tybalt" [translations vary] and says that he has seen Tybalt look for many things but not for a woman so it's interesting that he's looking for Romeo now. Later, he caresses Tybalt's face while he sings that life is a beautiful theater and Tybalt sings that life is not a theater. (In a recording of an earlier performance, he appears to scratch Tybalt's face instead).

The 2010 French revival of Romeo et Juliette, with John Eyzen as Mercutio and Tom Ross as Tybalt (2nd iteration),[1] is popular among Tycutio shippers because Mercutio flirts with Tybalt during the party scene and the duel. One oft-referenced moment occurs during the duel when Mercutio stands still to let Tybalt grab his throat and then starts laughing, which has impacted the portrayal of their relationship in mature fanfiction. Allegedly, in one performance, Mercutio blew Tybalt a kiss and Tybalt caught it.

In the Austrian production, Tybalt straddles Mercutio and kisses him once before killing him. In an alternate recording, Tybalt repeatedly kisses him on the lips in between fatally stabbing him.[2]

In the 2015 Israeli production, both of them seem happy and lighthearted before and throughout the duel, like neither actually means to harm the other. When Tybalt realizes that Mercutio is dying, he is visibly distraught,[3] standing frozen for a moment, turning around, and eventually falling to the ground and putting his head in his hands. Tybalt does nothing to escape Romeo killing him and opens his arms to the death blow.

In the South Korean production, Tybalt and Mercutio fight in earnest, but when they come back at the end of the show, they put their arms around each other's shoulders and make a heart together with their other arms, possibly suggesting afterlife reconciliation.

In Fandom

Fans who ship this couple typically do so with a love-hate relationship dynamic, an Enemies to Lovers arc, and/or a Friends to Lovers to Enemies arc. Fics featuring this ship often take place in an alternate universe where neither of them dies or start pre-canon, sometimes with them being childhood friends but eventually falling out and sometimes with them having a secret relationship which continues into the canon timeline.

In the Shakespearean R&J fandom on Ao3, this is the second most tagged ship. In the "Roméo et Juliette - Presgurvic" tag and the "Rómeó és Júlia (Színház)" tag, it is the most tagged ship by a large margin.

A 2019 fandom survey conducted on Tumblr and Discord concluded that Tycutio was the third most popular OTP after Romeo/Juliet and Bencutio, though it was the most common second choice, and found no significant correlation between whether people shipped it and which productions they favored.[4] The correlation statistics did not factor in the Toho productions, and fans of the Toho versions tend to ship Bencutio instead, but they also form a smaller percentage of the fandom.

At least one Tycutio detractor has gone so far as to say that the French revival production was negatively impacted by the director and/or cast pushing the ship,[5] and some who do ship Tycutio have also said they believe there was intentional ship baiting in the Austrian production and the revival.

The main opposition to this ship comes from Bencutio (Benvolio/Mercutio) shippers. People also sometimes ship Benvolio/Mercutio/Tybalt or Mercutio/Romeo/Tybalt, making Tybalt and Mercutio two parts of a throuple, but this is less common.

Associated Fanfic Tropes

  • Tybalt and Mercutio having an encounter at the Capulet ball or another party, a common trope in both canon era and modern AUs
  • Tybalt slamming Mercutio into a wall (or, more rarely, Mercutio shoving Tybalt against a wall) during a confrontation, resulting in sexual tension (most common in RetJ/ResJ fics and shockingly prevalent)[6]
  • Mercutio calling Tybalt the Prince of Cats or King of Cats as a nickname
  • Mercutio and/or Tybalt acquiring literal cats (not limited to this ship but specific to these characters)
  • A variant of sickfic in which one of them is wounded in a duel
  • More specifically, them surviving their canonically fatal duel with each other and getting to know each other while one or both is still recovering from stab wounds
  • Mercutio constantly flirting with Tybalt and Tybalt acting coldly in return because he believes Mercutio is being insincere
  • One or both trying to convince himself that his feelings of love and arousal are actually mortal hatred
  • Mercutio and Tybalt having kissed and/or slept together in the past but Tybalt trying to shut his feelings down out of a belief that Mercutio is a player and doesn't really love him or out of internalized homophobia
  • Mercutio and Tybalt having a frenemies-with-benefits relationship and one or both secretly having deeper feelings but being too afraid to say it
  • Mercutio and Tybalt being friends as children but having a falling out after one does something to alienate the other (like Mercutio kissing Tybalt and Tybalt reacting poorly) and Mercutio befriends Romeo instead or after Mercutio is forced to choose which side to take in the feud and chooses the Montagues out of loyalty to Romeo, leaving Tybalt feeling rejected
  • Tybalt and Mercutio being in a secret relationship during the canon era, a trope often connected to the trope of the duel being a sham
  • The duel being a sham and both of them actually surviving it or the duel being a sham which turned accidentally deadly due to Romeo's well-meaning, ignorant intervention
  • Mercutio and Tybalt surviving the duel and fleeing Verona together
  • Mercutio and Tybalt realizing feelings while dying and/or meeting in the afterlife

Cultural Impact Outside of Fandom

Fan Works

Writing

Shakespeare

Musicals

Art

Miscellaneous

Archives and Links

References

  1. ^ they're so... @wickedthing
  2. ^ A video of the duel scene in the Austrian production
  3. ^ The Duel--screencap at 7:44 from the Israeli production
  4. ^ RetJ Fandom Survey Results (Part 2)--Ship Rankings by @alleyskywalker
  5. ^ re-watched the revival retj, or as i like to call it “presgurvic and austrian retj: the real love story” (feat. “this version really isn’t anything special, y’all are just sluts for tycutio”) by. cto10121, a post criticizing the 2010 French revival
  6. ^ RiiZaChan's comment on "même la beauté et le temps (ne se détestent pas autant)" by lesrevesdesamants -- "Ok, first off: what is our problem with walls as Tycutio fans? Why do we all seem to love the idea of Tybalt slamming Mercutio into/holding him against a wall? This could be the subject of a thesis..."
  7. ^ Shakesqueer: Tybalt and Mercutio Fall in Love in Verona from the Yale Daily News by Allison Chen
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