#bc there’s like a whole thing with the parallels between wilmon’s respective families that i don’t have to capacity to flesh out

[daylightaftertherain]

there’s something about wilhelm and simon’s relationship with promises. wilhelm has to assure the entire country that he’ll stop making ”mistakes.” the last time he sees erik in person, erik promises that they’ll see each other soon, but he doesn’t get the chance to keep it. micke has probably made a promise to stay clean or sober at some point and broken it, over and over again. simon tells his mom that he and sara are doing fine at hillerska. august promises simon he’ll pay him back, he tells the queen he’ll take care of wille, and tells wille he’ll be there for him. wilhelm promises his parents and everyone in hillerska that he’ll do his best to be an adequate crown prince. and wille makes so many unsaid promises to simon, to staying friends, acknowledging his feelings, not leaving simon alone, and not dragging him back and forth within their relationship. most of these promises are broken.

and the thing is, there are so many factors as to why they can’t keep their promises. there’s obviously a portion that’s the character’s own fault, but often it’s outside forces that affect them the most. erik gets into a car accident, wille leans to august as an older brother in his grief, simon’s trying to protect everyone in his life, and micke’s addiction essentially controls him. we know this, for the characters, those unkept promises are painfully personal, and their choices often revolve around them.

simon makes a pact with sara to cut off micke, but he’s still his father, so he turns to him. he doesn’t want his mother or sister to be unhappy, so he goes out of his way to make deals with august. then he has to deal with august having no money, sara and linda finding out abut micke at the worst time, micke relapsing, and while all of this is happening, wille’s continually going back on everything they’ve agreed on in their relationship.

wille tries to keep his promise to his mother and to sweden, but hurts his connection with simon along the way. he tries to listen to erik’s advice and trusts august completely, letting himself get drunk and high. he appears to get into national trouble again, even though august was the one who filmed and posted the sex tape. finally, the added pressure to live up to his family pushes him to deny his relationship with simon. he’s so caught up in the wave of expectations and promises to live up to, he chooses the route that’s most familiar - putting his family and the monarchy first.

a more abstract interpretation of promises is the assurance of privacy. that wille and simon would be left alone in their room, that their first time would be just between them. this isn’t just broken, it’s ripped away from their control and tossed into a blinding spotlight. the entire world is in on their promise and slowly ripping it to shreds. even the ”i love you” in episode 6 is essentially another promise - that wille truly cares and is sorry for everything that’s happened between them.

what’s going to be interesting next season is whether either of them can bring themselves to trust in promises again. as far as simon knows, wille could very well deny him a fourth time. and wille’s completely aware of the fact that he has nobody to back him up- simon, erik, august, and kristina are all lost to him. they’re going to have to relearn to believe in the people around them, or figure out who to put their trust in.