#felice ehrecrona

[learnthebreakdown]

I made this post about how moved I am yr addressed racism with Felice/Simon. It prompted me ponder issues about this fandom (starting how the nonwhite characters are treated in this fandom, and if people would sympathize with Wille as much if he was black instead of white, for example. But then it spiraled into other things as well) I've never had the courage to post about before, but yr gave me courage lmao (putting a disclaimer that I don't hate any of the characters as people...actually I adore most of them...except August). This season showed how ingrained racism is, it exists in so many "invisible" ways, where people can act as if it's not real since it makes them uncomfortable to deal with their own hidden biases, or worse, because they think their biases are actually justified. I've seen some mentions about how the audience of this show reflects the exact prejudices the show claims to criticize.

There's a notable pattern where even minor rich kid characters receive disproportionate sympathy/recognition and others face unwarranted criticism, reflecting societal biases and how we are conditioned. While tumblr has been better this season especially with time, tumblr (and esp other social media) sites often have much more sympathy for Wille over Simon, for example. Simon across sites gets a lot of undue downright vile comments from the fandom, or is just disregarded more. Part of this could be because Wille is the main character, and Simon's perspective was not shown super well in season 2, but Simon/Omar often get a lot of comments that aren't unsimilar to the racist and vile comments we saw Simon get in the show. It made me wonder- if Wille had not been white, if he had been black, would people still have found as much sympathy for him during his angry outbursts? How strange that many people seem to find sympathy for Wille and even August, but not for Simon, even though if we are being realistic...Simon is an equally complex character that has not done many bad things? How interesting that people barely discuss Felice's storyline, but there are people that gag over the rich white kids, stederika and henry/walter (especially after Felice's storyline this season, and when we have Rosh as a canon sapphic lower class girl). How wild that the girls' storylines- Felice and Sara's- are disregarded? People often act like Wille and Simon have gotten the same amount of hate, but if you've been in this fandom long enough and seen the overall situation, I think people know that Wille is favored over Simon overall, and the hate/disregard they get is not equivalent, especially considering Simon is the second lead.

I'm not saying all of this is due to prejudice, or that everyone who has ever done these things is an awful person, it's more just an observation that if we are honest with ourselves, hidden biases certainly play a role in ALL of our thoughts/behaviors. Even for those who may not actively engage in it, do we enable it? And with a show like Young Royals that is attempting to (not always succeeding, but an attempt was made this season) to critique these social structures of racism and classism, wouldn't it be nice if, as we go into this final episode, we look inwards and see what biases we may carry that affect our perception of this show, and more importantly, real life? Life imitates art, after all.

[raincitygirl76]

My only very minor tiny nitpick with @writingfarintothedark ‘s take is that Felice’s curly hair in Season 2 is not her natural hair (which would probably be MUCH curlier than that). It’s a weave, and we see the hairdresser putting in the detached pieces of curly hair at the start of episode 2.01. But for everything else, absolutely.

Ok, technically I saw this issue mentioned on twitter but I’ve seen it before on tumblr too, so I needed to make a tumblr post about it. Like, hate to break it to you for the (hopefully) few people people that truly think this, but I don’t know a country in the world where racism doesn’t exist- racism is not just an “American” issue, it very much exists in Europe as well INCLUDING Sweden, and in the world of Young Royals(AND to be clear, race issues and class issues are often related, it’s not just one or the other as I’ve seen some people imply).

I really disagree with anyone that erases racial issues from the story in Young Royals(in fairness, many people in the fandom don’t do this). The issues in the show are not all racial, and I certainly don’t think racism is the driving force of the problems in the show, but you CANNOT ignore that race is an aspect. We often praise yr for its realism in many aspects, and racial bias is unfortunately very much a part of the real world. Yes, the story could have still been executed even if race was taken out of the equation, but the fact of the matter is there ARE nonwhite characters(as there should be, because white it not the default), which adds depth, and you can’t just remove that people will analyze how that impacts the story. Young Royals is not written to be some utopian world where prejudice doesn’t exist- in fact, it’s quite literally the opposite. Hillerska is a traditional place where social divides are shown pretty explicitly and subtly, so it doesn’t make sense to see some people analyze all these other realistic social issues in the show but deny the racism. Yes, we have poc that are a part of the “elite” class like Felice, Nils, and Alexander(and I really appreciate how the show is inclusive with its casting), but that doesn’t mean they are free from microaggressions/race divides. For instance, Felice’s journey with her natural hair; the Society needing to be first sons of noble blood, which will inevitably be white boys(and also these white boys are considered of the highest status because they have the most history,) and not accepting people like Nils; etc, ALL have roots in racism to an extent. (also the Society is so messed up and creepy as a concept but that’s a different post)  

Additionally, Simon being a poc is by no means the only issue with the video scandal, but it’s a bit reductive and naive imo to think that there are no extra struggles, even if indirect/subconcious, that come from the prince being with a latin boy.

I mostly believe that if people completely think that none of the issues in the show have anything to with race, there’s a likely chance they don’t understand what it’s like to be a poc in western country and they’re overlooking how traditional Hillerska is. I’m not saying we should attack people for every small mistake, because I don’t think that’s productive or right, but come on guys, there is a bare minimum, which includes not gaslighting people who bring up the racial aspects and refusing to consider that race is a factor in analysis.

I appreciate that the creators said they wanted to cast in an inclusive way that was reflective of reality, because I truly do think it made a great end product. To be clear, the characters are more than just their race, they are people and fully fleshed out characters, and they are more than just stereotypes. Analyzing race in the show in no ways strips them of their well-roundedness and individuality.

[learnthebreakdown]

I am so glad the show addressed racism this season. I saw a lot of people in the past say this show was about class not race, while disregarding how the two are inherently related, as this season showed! I wish the show had been even more explicit with it because I still am seeing people disregard it, but tbh, that's the thing about modern day racism, it's not always slurs, it's the nasty underlying stuff Felice has to go through this season...that people try to gaslight you into believing is not racism. AND all the awful racist comments Simon got being called an "import", the awful "Latinos are promiscuous" stereotypes. The abuses Felice and Simon have to go through are different from what the other students' at Hillerska deal with, because Felice and Simon are not white.

[learnthebreakdown]

Smells Like Freedom

Sooo...I did a thing and posted my first fanfic ever? It was quite stream of consciousness, and just a little oneshot of what our boys get up to after the series finale.

Smells Like Freedom

[writingfarintothedark]

I’m sorry the fandom was worried about simon-marcus or sara-august, but they gave us something worse with wille-felice

that scene is gonna be like my season 1 initiation scene- saw it once during the first watch through and I will literally never watch it again because I just can’t 💀💀

[writingfarintothedark]

Ok, technically I saw this issue mentioned on twitter but I’ve seen it before on tumblr too, so I needed to make a tumblr post about it. Like, hate to break it to you for the (hopefully) few people people that truly think this, but I don’t know a country in the world where racism doesn’t exist- racism is not just an “American” issue, it very much exists in Europe as well INCLUDING Sweden, and in the world of Young Royals(AND to be clear, race issues and class issues are often related, it’s not just one or the other as I’ve seen some people imply).

I really disagree with anyone that erases racial issues from the story in Young Royals(in fairness, many people in the fandom don’t do this). The issues in the show are not all racial, and I certainly don’t think racism is the driving force of the problems in the show, but you CANNOT ignore that race is an aspect. We often praise yr for its realism in many aspects, and racial bias is unfortunately very much a part of the real world. Yes, the story could have still been executed even if race was taken out of the equation, but the fact of the matter is there ARE nonwhite characters(as there should be, because white it not the default), which adds depth, and you can’t just remove that people will analyze how that impacts the story. Young Royals is not written to be some utopian world where prejudice doesn’t exist- in fact, it’s quite literally the opposite. Hillerska is a traditional place where social divides are shown pretty explicitly and subtly, so it doesn’t make sense to see some people analyze all these other realistic social issues in the show but deny the racism. Yes, we have poc that are a part of the “elite” class like Felice, Nils, and Alexander(and I really appreciate how the show is inclusive with its casting), but that doesn’t mean they are free from microaggressions/race divides. For instance, Felice’s journey with her natural hair; the Society needing to be first sons of noble blood, which will inevitably be white boys(and also these white boys are considered of the highest status because they have the most history,) and not accepting people like Nils; etc, ALL have roots in racism to an extent. (also the Society is so messed up and creepy as a concept but that’s a different post)  

Additionally, Simon being a poc is by no means the only issue with the video scandal, but it’s a bit reductive and naive imo to think that there are no extra struggles, even if indirect/subconcious, that come from the prince being with a latin boy.

I mostly believe that if people completely think that none of the issues in the show have anything to with race, there’s a likely chance they don’t understand what it’s like to be a poc in western country and they’re overlooking how traditional Hillerska is. I’m not saying we should attack people for every small mistake, because I don’t think that’s productive or right, but come on guys, there is a bare minimum, which includes not gaslighting people who bring up the racial aspects and refusing to consider that race is a factor in analysis.

I appreciate that the creators said they wanted to cast in an inclusive way that was reflective of reality, because I truly do think it made a great end product. To be clear, the characters are more than just their race, they are people and fully fleshed out characters, and they are more than just stereotypes. Analyzing race in the show in no ways strips them of their well-roundedness and individuality.