that's very true. i especially got that devotion from the branaugh version and also from reading the actual play, it is obvious to me that it is canon... he's totally devoted. all i can do for hamlet's feelings back to him is look at the past they have together... something which shakespeare doesn't really get into. actually, i've noticed he rarely gets into pasts... he usually leaves them completely... well, blank. at least for hamlet. and so i think i can take the liberty of going into the past and doing something with their relationship there to make hamlet's feelings less ambiguous now. and i think that, since the play wasn't focussed on horatio at all, we missed a lot of stuff about their relationship.

i'm rambling a bit right now, but i'll hopefully be able to think a bit more clearly when i actually write it. i'm looking forward to writing the atmosphere of elsinore and looking into the relationship between hamlet and horatio. if hamlet does NOT return horatio's obvious feelings, there's a lot i can do storywise. and, add the fact that hamlet may or may not be mad, is emotionally distraught, feels betrayed by his fiancee, and has an unknown but lengthy past with his best friend horatio... there's a lot to work with. ^_^