#and then realizing FUCK THAT SHIT and rejecting the trauma outright in favor of loving and being loved in the way that everyone deserves

[foreverunraveling]

It's probably good that the actual demise of the frog snow globe was less violent than I was imagining it.... I guess it's time to change my thumbnail.

Completely devastating that Erik may not have been who Wille thought he was. But…. Does this finally take away (or at least reduce the power of) the Queen’s trump card?

Every time she wants Wilhelm’s allegiance to the royal house, the Queen invokes Erik and Erik’s legacy. And Wille feels like he can’t “betray” Erik by abandoning the crown or going his own way. Well, now Wilhelm feels somewhat betrayed by Erik’s participation in a homophobic tradition. He realizes that the perfect image of his brother in his head isn’t real. It’s just Wille’s limited perception of a more complicated person. Wilhelm has to see that he can’t do this job that is killing him based on contrived perceptions of what others want or would have done. He shouldn’t begrudgingly accept the role of crown prince to uphold the legacy and ideals of a brother who was himself flawed and didn’t always do the right thing. Wille can’t even know for certain at this point that’s what Erik would have wanted—clearly there were things about Erik that Wilhelm didn’t know or understand.

Now that Wilhelm realizes that he needs to stop idolizing Erik and fully become his own person with his own beliefs, there’s not really any reason left for him not to abdicate. In season 2, Wille told Boris that he couldn’t abdicate because of his mother’s expectations—and she has left him even more in the lurch than Wilhelm would have left her if he abdicated. She is an adult, with experience and a support system and preparation. She would still have a backup. At the very least, we know that this is Wilhelm’s perception. If neither Erik nor the Queen are compelling reasons not to abdicate, then what is? (Definitely not the Duke now that Wilhelm has well and truly seen how Ludvig moves through life with all the agency of an NPC.)

So… does Erik being maybe kinda shitty actually mean that Wille might let himself off the hook?

***Obviously in no way in favor Erik being a homophobic sexual harasser; just trying to understand how this new information might play into Wille’s thought processes. Also, I think it’s important that he abdicates for himself and not for Simon, if that’s what happens. To paraphrase my own therapist, “you have to change for yourself—not to save the relationship.” I love the romantic idea of Wilhelm abdicating because he can’t live without Simon, but that’s just too much pressure to put on another human being. Simon shouldn’t have to carry the responsibility of being “the guy who the crown prince abdicated for” (whether in their relationship or in life generally).

Abdication has got to be a decision that Wilhelm makes for himself, first and foremost. And removing Erik’s legacy from that decisionmaking process gets him just that much closer.

ETA: My current pet theory for episode 6 is that the frog from inside the snowglobe gets crushed/decapitated/broken. Don’t read too much into my thumbnail at this point, I guess….