Upper panels: the fraction of systems in which the Be star progenitor binary merges as a function of the initial separation of the Be star progenitor binary, a_B. In the left panels, there is no GR and no tidal bulge, while in the right panels, these effects are included. The red lines show the fraction in which the Be star progenitor binary merges. The orange lines show the fraction that includes mergers and merger candidates. The initial inclination of the current B+B binary is i_A = 20^∘. The red shaded regions show where a_B < R_Ba + R_Bb, the orange shaded regions show where R_Ba + R_Bb < a_B < 3(R_Ba + R_Bb), and the gray shaded regions show where some of the systems are unstable. Lower panels: the inclination distribution of the Be star progenitor binaries. The dashed black line shows the distribution of all the initial inclinations for the simulations in the upper panels. The red lines show the initial inclination of the systems that undergo a merger. The blue lines show the distribution of the inclination at the time of the merger. This may be aligned to the initial spin axis of a Be star that forms in the merger.