#august young royals

[piebingo]

This right here is when I knew we had won. Wille putting the frog in the trash and Kristina giving August a frog aka his new role.

I’ve never felt more at peace than this still above. Maybe when wilmon kissed and said ily at the end.

[echo-and-dust]

from dawning realization to absolute fear in his eyes.. (props to malte he is such a good actor)

something something you made your bed now you gotta lie in it

[frogprincesnowglobe]

August actually getting some proper therapy Season 3 Episode 3

[yooboointhemood]

Vincent to Simon in ep 4

[insomnaticwriter]

AUGUST REALIZING AND SEEING HIS FUTURE AND THEN NILS AND VINCENT AUTOMATICALLY SAYING ITS BETTER FOR THEM IS SO SO SO SO SO THEM CODED I CANT-

[fairylwt]

young royals characters as textposts

[aledlastbestie]

August getting the crown was a way to punish him for everything he's done

Since season 1 they have been repeating the same phrase "the crown is a privilege, not a punishment", Wille always felt the crown was a punishment while for August it was a privilege, when he still could not fully understand what it really meant to have it.

August had idealized the crown and Wille's life. Wille had his parents, he had Erik as a brother and he had the crown; In August's eyes, Wille had it all, but the reality was that Wille's life was much more complicated and stressful than August believed.

In his last conversation with Vincent and Nils, when August tells them that he is Wille's spare, his friends tell him something like "that's actually a bad thing, being just his cousin you enjoyed the privileges of being related to the royal family without the responsibilities, pressures, obligations, etc. This is going to be better for us because we are your friends and we can enjoy the privileges of being 'the friend of' but you are now going to have the entire burden of the title on your shoulders."

This is when the series shows us that that phrase that they had been telling us since season 1 was not true since the crown is a punishment.

Everything August believed the crown was was fantasy and idealization but the reality of what it means to be the crown prince is much more complex and harsh.

Wille managed to be free by leaving the crown and in a way imprisoning August. He could not report him to the police and have him go to jail for the crime he committed, but he could arrest him with that title and condemn him to an unhappy life.

Now Wille is free but August is not

[jflower278]

IM SERIOUS THE GUY WHO PLAYS AUGUST IN YOUNG ROYALS NEEDS TO WIN AN AWARD FOR HIS PERFORMACE LIKE GIVE HIM HIS TENS HIS FLOWERS MALTE GARDINGER YOU ATE THAT ROLE UP ESPECIALLY IN SEASON 3

[zee-has-commitment-issues]

So at what point do we think Nils and Vincent figured out August was the one that leaked the video?

They're not stupid. At least not socially. In fact, throughout the series we see that they are socially very intelligent, regardless of their book smarts. They prove time and time again that they can read social situations, that they can read August like a book. They are probably the most socially aware people in their group, actually, having figured out how close they want to be to royalty for the perks, before even royalty has figured it out for themselves.

There's almost no way they didn't figure it out. They saw the sudden and direct shift in Wilhelm and August's dynamic after the video. Nils himself comments on the difference in season three, mentioning to Wilhelm that he and August "used to be close." Surely Nils was a little suspicious after Wille abruptly shut him down and all but refused to speak with his own cousin.

Wilhelm and August physically fought each other. Nils and Vincent watched it happen. They know August, and they know he doesn't resort to violence. In fact, personally I'm not sure if August would be able to fight anyone considering he got his ass whooped by both Simon and Wilhelm. And, sure, Wille is "known" for beating people up, but not beating up his family. He spends most of his time protecting his family, including (begrudgingly) August.

So, they know both of those boys, know they wouldn't fight each other for no reason, and yet they do. They do fight each other, and Nils and Vincent watch completely dumbfounded.

The moment I went "oh they probably know" is when they were genuinely surprised August was going to Wilhelm's birthday, and they were decidedly not when August showed back up at school early. They knew. They were so aware that August being there just didn't make sense.

Do they know? They have to know. When did they figure it out? What was the moment they realized?

[urmumhasacrushonme]

[piebingo]

Adding all of that backstory to August was such a wild and good storytelling thing btw. Like what do you mean you used to get so bullied, and you were traumatized at your initiation from the threat of being beaten up if you get a hard-on when watching gay porno (which is horrible, no one should go through that) just to end up bullying people and posting gay CP of your lil cousin for the whole world to see?? Are you out of your mind?? This is so good. August keeps on choosing to be a bad person. Every. Single. Time. And they really proved it this season.

Sure, he didn’t continue this tradition during initiations. Bare minimum. Nils had a good say in that too, it’s not all August for sure. But then he decided to out two kids instead? To the whole world?? Where like, as we saw, the threat of being beaten up is VERY real now for Simon (and Wille if he didn’t have security). August really said live long enough to become the villain. And boy oh boy did he chose to become the villain.

[paranoiacally-anxious]

“We need more complex characters!!¡¡!”

Bitch, be for real, you couldn't handle him:

[hillerska-official]

Frog Prince thoughts

In season 2 we talked a lot about the glass of the snowglobe breaking was symbolic of Wille being freed in some sense, but what we saw in season 3 was that wasn't actually enough. For Wille to truly be happy the whole thing had to go (as it finally does in the last episode).

Erik gave that snowglobe to Wille just as he passed down the crown prince title. Wille, in turn, did not pass it down to anybody, but rather tossed it altogether, and it's Kristina and Ludvig who give a NEW frog prince to August.

Metaphors that become increasingly clear as they reach their end Mine Beloved

[allweleftunspoken]

this was peak cinema

[heartbreakprincewille]

I've seen some people say that August becoming the Crown Prince isn't really a punishment for a person like him and he basically got everything he wanted.

And it IS true on some fronts. He will be holding the title of King, his name will go down the history, he will be wealthy and will be the pinnacle of class and privilege and everything he believes in AND he will be good at his duties.

But he won't be happy.

Throughout the seasons, we see his shell break, little by little. He is not a changed person by the end, but we get to see more of where he comes from and how he feels about everything that happens around him. He does not become a selfless, remorseful and redeemed person- he still sees the world from his self-obsessed lens. But that lens shifts from almost-evil narcissism to a sort of awareness- that he is a person who can love, and can be loved, a person who can be truly happy. But then Sara leaves him for good- and he has no reason to hold onto this hope. What is he supposed to do with this awareness, when he has no one to reinforce it back to him?

And now he will be the Crown Prince. The eventual King. His circle will be extremely restricted, his life will be controlled by a whole institution. Unlike Wilhelm, August is more of a pleaser when it comes to authority figures- how can he ever find a way to find happiness for himself when he will be too busy people-pleasing?

He will be living the ultimate Cishet Man-Alpha Male Life- a life full of power, status and he will enjoy aspects of it, there's no denying- after all, he is a believer in class and heirarchies. But he will also shrivel in his shell- he will be giving himself away to an institution which leeches onto anyone who is willing to step into its shoes, the Individual Person behind that title be damned.

Whenever I think about what his life will be like as a Royal, I remember that scene from S3 E5- a drunk August gulping down wine after wine, the life of the party, the "crowned" Bad Boy of his class, seemingly having the time of his life. But then he steps out of the room for some air, and he throws away the title of "Bad Boy"- a title based on how people perceive him, but he no longer identifies with it. He is relieved only when he sees Sara- a person who showed him a part of himself he does identify with. But now, he no longer has access to that part of himself.

In my mind, August will be a true successor to Kristina- carrying the legacy of an institution forward even if it costs them their relationships and their mental peace, with an unfortunate romance locked somewhere in their hearts. But his journey to accept this role would be harder than it was for Wilhelm- after all, August was the spare of a spare. How could he ever know what was coming for him?

I think that is why an open ending works for his character- we can imagine him extremely smug to win the lottery ticket, but we can also imagine him realizing that he willingly stepped into a trap he can never free himself from.

[dusty-daydreams]

Think about how in episode 2, when Wille is going off on August about August talking to Simon, and August’s response is “You’re not King yet”

It’s telling about August’s relationship to power that he doesn’t think people in general have the power to draw boundaries like: Hey person that posted my underage sex tape that I didn’t consent too - don’t talk to my boyfriend whose privacy and sexuality you also violated.

No the only person with the power to decide what August can and can’t do is the monarch

Also thinking about King August ten or twenty years down the line discovering just how little actual meaningful power the monarch has