Much to write about nothing.

Being the first of Shakespeare's comedies I've read/seen, Much Ado About Nothing is probably my favourite of his plays so far.

Before seeing Much Ado, my favourite of Shakespeare's characters so far is probably Mercutio. I'm usually attracted to the comic releif of a play. (Yes, I realize Much Ado doesn't NEED comic relief, but still...)
I also loved Mercutio's seemingly drunken rants. The Mab monologue and his exchanges with Romeo in the scene before he dies. Full of wit and plays on words.
Benedick, however, is in a constant battle of wits with Beatrice, making almost all of his dialogue quite as clever as Mercutio's couple of scenes.

Now let's talk love story.
I realize that the following is because one of the plays was a tragedy and one a comedy but seriously here, as much as I hate both of them, at least Claudio isn't such a drama queen. Both he and Romeo thought his love was dead when she really wasn't. Both he and Romeo were completely torn apart by this. They both felt at fault for her death.
Romeo paid a truckload of money for poison so he didn't have to face life without his love. Claudio recognized that his dying would do nothing for anyone and instead decided to carry on his miserable life, everything a constant reminder of what he did to his "sweet and innocent lady". But he lived. And he tried to make things a little better.
Lo and behold, in both stories, the girl suddenly comes back to life!
One ventures back into the living world to see her lover dead at her feet, the other to see her husband-to-be and so, dear reader. they live happily ever after.

Although, in Romeo and Juliet, there was no villain. I liked that about this particular play. I can't stand that black and white good vs. evil crap that should never happen outside of disney cartoons. Romeo and Juliet had to overcome a problem. Much Ado About Nothing, though I enjoyed it so much more, had a basic good v. evil plot. What made it better than Tom and Jerry is that it had so much more to it than just the "hey, let's kill the bad guy." I'd still like to see a little more conflict. Maybe Margaret knew what she was doing that night and now she has a monologue about whether to tell everyone the truth or to keep quiet. Maybe she was threatened with death if she told.

Someday I want to re-write Romeo and Juliet as a comedy, and Much Ado About Nothing as a tragedy. Same characters, same basic plots but more puns and weirdness in Romeo and Juliet and everyone dies at the end of Much Ado. Oh, and they won't catch Don John at the end. He'll come back to see them all dead like in the last scene of Hamlet.