#and the almost comic tragedy is that he doesn't fully realise that while simon is like...losing his mind

[chenpire]

Okay listen. I grant you that Simon and Wilhelm’s interactions are well written and pretty grounded, but that’s not exactly the same as functional communication, in this essay I will...

No really, here’s the essay. The best scene to illustrate my point is probably the confrontation over the drugs in episode 5, y’know, the one where Simon is ready to bolt when Wilhelm warns him August wants to make Simon their scapegoat. I love this scene and the dialogue in it because I see it as an example of well written, nuanced miscommunication. This show’s writing is steady from start to finish so I don’t feel like I’m giving it too much credit when I say the things not said in this scene are significant.

Wilhelm talks to Simon like they’re equals here when they’re not. He knows the fallout would be worse for Simon but doesn’t seem to fully comprehend how much or why, while Simon is clearly acutely aware that he could end up with a criminal record that would severely impact his future. The offhand comment about dealing, and the fact that Wilhelm doesn’t question Simon’s explanation makes their class difference super obvious, and Simon just shuts off because he’s unwilling to explain something he’s already decided Wilhelm will not get (I think he does this again when Wilhelm tells him Alexander ended up taking the fall. He looks like he’s going to say something but then decides against it because he doesn’t seem to think there’d be any point.) Simon is aware of Wilhelm’s mess (though considering little moments like the insta story incident, how much he gets it is debatable) but Wilhelm doesn’t have even the faintest inkling of Simon’s lower middle class (?) issues, nor does he inquire when there are openings to do so. They talk past each other on issues of class constantly. Simon’s spiel in episode 1 about ‘one rule for one group, a different rule for another’ is a perfect framing device for that underlying conflict.

Wilhelm has a blind spot, and Simon lets him have it, while obviously quietly interpreting and accepting the reasons for Wilhelm’s hot and cold behaviour on his own; on this, his sister really has his number. He’s consistently established as a character that keeps things to himself, which contributes to him and Wilhelm’s entire dynamic of ‘let’s not talk about the heard of elephants in the room’. It’s not like the teenage prince having multiple life crises at once is the bad guy here, and the way he handles this situation (and others) head on says many fun and interesting things about the person he could become later on in his arc. But currently their dynamic has a huge power imbalance that neither of them fully understand or are addressing because. They’re teenagers? Nobody wants blockbuster scale class conflict in their high school fling? Come on?  

When people talk about hating miscommunication in media I don’t think they actually mean they hate all forms of it. Miscommunication is a fact of life; people talk past each other due to different life experiences all the damn time. It’s kind of part of being human. Good miscommunication should follow that, occurring because of character, as part of developing character arcs. The type of miscommunication that’s unsatisfying is miscommunication inserted into the story in a way that doesn’t connect to character or theme, that only serves to stir up drama and create plot instead of truly enriching the story being told. There’s an element of tragedy to miscommunication in that it’s a very human folly, and if done well that’s what it should feel like. Wilhelm and Simon are really rather sweet to each other, they work great when they’re in their own little bubble, in a young dumb teenage romance kind of way. The tragedy is that that can’t survive outside of their private little world unless they’re both on the same page and willing to fight for it. Which, currently, they’re not even close to.