#media young royals

[raincitygirl76]

A terrific review of Young Royals Season 2 in The Sophian.

The Sophian is the student newspaper of Smith College in Northampton, MA, USA. I don't know how long college newspapers keep their archives up, so just in case, I copy-pasted the article below. But assuming the link above works (and it worked just fine right now), please go to the link, don't read my copy-paste.

All Things Real: a Review of “Young Royals” Season Two

BY CATE CHRISTINIDIS ON NOVEMBER 15, 2022 | 

ARTS AND CULTURE, POP CULTURE, REVIEWS AND TV

Photo by Robert Eldrim via Netflix.

Hillerska: a private boarding school tucked away in Sweden; horseback riding, rowing, rowdy parties and, most notably, 16-year-old Crown Prince Wilhelm. Still, “Young Royals” (2022) is no fairytale. A simmering pot of angst, romance, betrayal and battles of the conscience, “Young Royals” displays unadulterated teenage reality. Season One ended with Hillerska’s most scandalous term to date, and Wilhelm, played by Edvin Ryding, reluctantly left it behind to the promising tune of Elias’ “Revolution.” In the rubble of Season One, audiences couldn’t help but wonder: would Season Two be that revolution? 

The short answer is yes. The romance that blossoms between openly gay Simon Eriksson (Omar Rudberg) and closeted Crown Prince Wilhelm enters uncharted territory. Wilhelm’s self-discovery is thwarted by the looming sense of duty pressed upon him by Sweden’s royal court, who deem queerness as a threat to the monarchy. Yet, the essence of the story does not lie in Wilhelm’s royal title, but in the title of the show itself: “Young Royals.” It is easy to forget, and equally important to remember, that the students of Hillerska are just kids. Their mistakes are children’s mistakes, and their resilience and bravery are monumental. 

This also means that every catastrophe is that much more devastating. Both seasons deal with a case of child pornography –– a cellphone video of Simon and Wilhelm, recorded through Wilhelm’s dormroom window. Regardless of social power, money or fame, the problems that overwhelm Wilhelm and Simon’s relationship are unmistakably larger than they are. 

“Young Royals” is all things real –– the bodies and situations portrayed on screen all reflect some semblance of teenage existence; simultaneous chaos, uncertainty, imperfection and beauty. The series doesn’t shy away from the ugly side of teenage life: where partying and stress meet drug use and where jealousy leads to impulsive, criminalizing mistakes. “Young Royals” is both dark and refreshing, unusual in its ability to look life right in the face. 

The American media tends to place a beauty filter over the formative years. Audiences lapse into patterns of falsified viewing, scarcely aware enough to ask themselves: Hey, aren’t teenagers supposed to have acne? “Young Royals” doesn’t blink twice at these “blemishes” –– acne, crooked teeth, etc. In fact, they are clearly embraced, normalized and desirable –– clear skin and perfect teeth are not deal-breakers for being the most popular girl in school or the Crown Prince. 

“Young Royals” likewise considers the psychological realities faced in the war between authenticity and duty. Season one introduced Wilhelm’s struggle with anxiety, but Season Two pursues the extent to which anxiety and panic consume Wilhelm after Season One’s events. It may sound cliché –– the prince who can’t handle the pressure of the crown –– but Wilhelm doesn’t ask the audience to feel sorry for him, and neither does “Young Royals.” Wilhelm is much messier in Season Two. He explodes with emotion –– fear, pain, anger, guilt and sadness –– and, without Simon, there is nowhere for it to go. He is selfish, rude, depressed, spoiled and makes bad choices. But Wilhelm’s reasons for not wanting to be Crown Prince are rightfully selfish; at 16, he is resigning himself to an empty and dishonest life. Forced by his mother, the Queen, Wilhelm begrudgingly sees a therapist, and while he resents the need for it, Season Two’s “revolution” finds Wilhelm overcoming his personal barriers to enact change.  

Wilhelm and Simon are separated by class more than anything. Wilhelm, as a member of the royal family, is an elite, while Simon, a non-boarder, can’t afford to live at the school. While Wilhelm tries to understand Simon (and vice versa), there are times when their differences speak louder than they do. Simon’s inability to understand why Wilhelm, as Crown Prince, can’t disregard the crown and take a stand, clashes with Wilhelm’s inability to see how Simon’s social status caused him to receive the brunt of the backlash for the sextape. Season Two is a testament to revisions and the rightings of wrongs; as Wilhelm works through his own emotions, he learns to use his power and status for progress.

Season Two of “Young Royals” is all about decisions; specifically, revising and listening to one’s conscience to make the right one. Which decision will start a revolution, which will fuel it, which will kill it? Despite the tumultuous path to togetherness, Simon and Wilhelm have an incredibly realistic and healthy relationship. They show love through communication; their need to be seen, heard and understood by each other is unshakable. It makes the moments when they do touch –– which are surprisingly few and far between –– feel all the more worth fighting for. Wilhelm certainly agrees; each season begins and ends with his eyes locked on the camera. This is his story, and he’ll go to war for it.  

[raincitygirl76]

Read the above!!!! OP tells the absolute truth. At the jubilee, Wilhelm is turning the inevitable media and public scrutiny of his every move to his own advantage, and reclaiming the narrative. Also reclaiming his agency to speak the truth in public about his own experiences.

Or perhaps reclaim is the wrong word. Claim might be a better one, since he never had said agency before. You can’t reclaim something you’ve never had. In 1.01 and in 1.06 he was made to read lies written by other people off a teleprompter and pretend they were his decisions and beliefs. He won’t do that anymore. He won’t be complicit in his own silencing any longer, and he’ll use cameras and public scrutiny to his own ends. Since they’re there anyway.

okay okay hear me out

the significance of wilhelm getting to reclaim being filmed by third parties

when the sex tape happened he was being filmed against his will and it basically destroyed his and simon's lives. he developed a whole fear of public speech around that too. no one would've blamed him if he let august do the speech instead.

but nope, he chose to stand there, make the speech, tell the truth, in front of official cameras and all of hillerska, under his own terms. and now when he makes that speech, even when jan-olof tells the official cameras to cut it off, the students are still filming and recording his speech. both times he's being filmed to be posted in social media, except one time it was against his will and now he gets to take advantage of it and tell the truth. this is reclamation.

[dusty-daydreams]

[daylightaftertherain]

honestly though what was the royal court thinking. you really decided to give the job of media training simon to wille?? who is notoriously hard to control with his behavior and what he says?? the kid who came out to the whole country and caused a domino effect of scandals with his first speech to the nation. that kid. was gonna give his boyfriend media training. farima girl come on

[formerprincewille]

Something that really sets Wille and Simon apart from other queer ships is that when we say their love language is physical touch, IT REALLY IS PHYSICAL TOUCH. And I’m not speaking of just sex. Over the course of the show, the amount of touching between them is astronomical. And that’s really something rarely seen in queer media. There may be moments here or there, but often times there’s a lack of physical contact unless it’s for “the plot”. Wille and Simon feel like a real couple in the way they’re always physically reaching out for each other.

[raincitygirl76]

I couldn’t figure out why August was so stunned by what he ended up filming in the first time scene in 1.04. To the point where he watched the video repeatedly. Bu I think I might have a clue.

I think the video showing Wilhelm about to go down on Simon rather than the other way around was the biggest problem from the August/Kristina/royal court point of view. There is a fairly common school of thought (not one i subscribe to) that receiving oral sex from another man is “less gay” than giving oral sex to another man. Just as having anal sex as the top is “less gay” than anal sex as a bottom. It’s actually an incredibly sexist attitude as well as homophobic. Giving blowjobs and getting penetrated are seen as inherently feminine. And obviously, for a man to perform female-coded sexual acts willingly is inherently degrading. He’s not a “real man.”

The attitude above isn’t as common as it once was, but it’s still more common than it should be. Using that logic, if the video had shown Simon about to give Wilhelm a blowjob, it would be much easier to explain away. The Crown Prince isn’t queer, he’s just 16 and so desperately horny he’s not very picky. He accepted a blowjob from a gay classmate who has a crush on him. Not because he finds the guy attractive, but because a blowjob is a blowjob. He can just close his eyes and pretend it’s a girl blowing him. It’s a whole lot easier for the public to believe Wilhelm is really heterosexual if it’s Simon going down on Wilhelm.

But that’s not what the video showed. The video first showed Wilhelm and Simon kissing each other passionately. Kissing another boy is probably “more gay” than accepting a blowjob from him. Kissing is uncomfortably mutual, makes it less likely that Wille is straight and just exploiting Simon’s attraction to him for blowjobs. So that’s part is a bit awkward to explain away right there.

Then comes the REALLY tricky part to explain away. The video shows Wille, with every appearance of willingness and indeed enthusiasm, kissing his way down Simon’s abdomen with the clear intention of ending up with his mouth at penis-level. Even though oral sex was not actually shown in the video, it was very obvious that it was about to happen any moment. And it was the Crown Prince going down on another boy, not the other way round.

By homophobic logic, the Crown Prince is now female-coded and emasculated, because he voluntarily performed a degrading sexual act on another man. If the Crown Prince were a “real man”, he would never have gone down on Simon unless Simon had a gun to his head. Which is clearly not the case. The video clearly shows two boys who are both enthusiastically consenting, and it also shows Wille about to perform oral sex on another boy. Enthusiastically. Like giving his sexual partner pleasure is something that turns him on, even though that sexual partner is another boy.

That is much tougher to explain away than if the video had shown Simon tenderly kissing his way down Wilhelm’s chest towards his crotch. Enthusiasm from the gay boy Wilhelm’s using for sex is only to be expected. Only a gay boy would get off on something totally fucked up like having a penis in his mouth. A real man would know it’s degrading. So clearly, the Crown Prince isn’t a real man.

Incidentally, although this is a side note, I’ve never gotten a clear answer from people with the “getting a blowjob or fucking a man is less gay than giving a blowjob or letting another man fuck you” mindset as to whether heterosexual men performing oral sex on their female partners is degrading or not. Some seem to think real men don’t go down on their female partners, or they only do so begrudgingly, in return for blowjobs. A transactional view of heterosexual relationships. Others seem to think it’s not performing oral sex that’s degrading in and of itself to real men, it’s the presence of a penis that makes it degrading. And others refuse to answer on the grounds that it’s supposedly irrelevant.

every wilmon kiss: [7/?] - season 1 episode 4

[sillypenguinwitch]

okay so i'm not trying to make this a ~thing~ or a hot take or whatever, but can we talk about how all the hyped up queer shows still predominantly feature mlm couples? i'm not saying there aren't wlw shows/movies or the mlm-focused shows don't also feature wlw characters/couples, just... they either get nowhere near the same amount of hype, have some other main plot, end with at least one of them dying or experiencing something traumatic, get cancelled after one season in the middle of their arc, or they're not the main couple. And that's not to discount the representation you can get from secondary characters of course but just... ugh I want a heartstopper or rwrb or young royals or skam or love, simon or i don't even know... with girls. And I know I'm not the first person to bring this up and I know it's not that simple, but seeing all the hype for heartstopper and rwrb this week makes my heart ache a little bit so i needed to say this somewhere.

[moonage-nightterrors]

i don’t get how most people are just. not in fandoms. like wdym u don’t get unhealthy obsessed with the media u consume and turn into an absolutely insane human being over ur blorbos? how are u so normal???

[moonlightsapphic]

Look, I just need you guys to understand how important queer coming-of-age forbidden romances on internationally accessible platforms like Netflix is, especially to youth in countries where homosexuality still hasn't been legally decriminalised or socially accepted.

That was a mouthful, so let me explain. You, a white American adult with a liberal family, may not relate to a fictional anxious teen Swedish prince grappling with strict familial and societal expectations versus his first love. You may not find anything special in a bunch of queer British teens discovering themselves and figuring out complex relationships that are honestly rather simplistic, in retrospect. It might be a little too trite for you. Like, just a little vanilla without any extra drama. Perhaps corny—cringe, even. Too wholesome.

But you know what that is to me, a desi queer young adult? It's representation, in an unlikely place. My country certainly isn't making movies or shows where I see my secret relationship between me and my girlfriend portrayed. I don't see that happening in the next couple of decades, either, sadly. But you know who’s telling our stories? Alice Oseman. Lisa Ambjörn, Lars Beckung and Camilla Holter. Through fictional storylines that might seem kind of boring to you, I am finally able watch my lived experiences play out on screen.

American media has done such a disservice to queer coming-of-age stories. I want to scream this from the rooftops. Y’all, I’m glad to see more out quirky queer side-characters—I can’t get enough of them—but why is it so rarely their story, in sharp focus, about how they found themselves? I want to know how they overcame internalised homophobia. When was the moment they knew? What is the cost they have to pay for being out? For not being out?

And no, I don’t want it to be dramatic. I don’t need to see violence or betrayals or victorious kisses in public, really. I’m happiest with the teenagers behaving like real teenagers. Innocent, vulnerable, nervous. I want it to be heartfelt, and excruciatingly slow, and authentic. I want to see the small wins and the subtle losses. The quiet mental toll of how much you have to give to a queer relationship—especially your first queer relationship—and how hard that can be to separate from your Identity itself.

Give me that "am I gay?" quiz and genuinely crying at 3:00 AM because you're in a rabbit hole about LGBTQ+ rights in a country where you actually don’t want to be gay and you don’t even know if you “count” anyway. Show me that moment where you're going back and forth from forbidding yourself from seeing the one person that sees and understands you and it's to protect your mental and physical well-being but it's driving you insane. Give me ALL THE YOUNG ADULT BI+ AWAKENINGS where one person strolls into your life and changes everything. No, it’s really not the same as most cis-heterosexual insta-love movies out there, even if it looks that way to you. It doesn’t even cut it close.

The happy ending, the acceptance is only what I can dream of, not what I can expect. The wholesomeness is actually radical to me.

No, we’re not past the need for basic star-crossed queer romances. For most countries in the world (including for many white American teenagers!), we need them as much as ever.

[raincitygirl76]

I love this flashback. Especially because it says flat out that Erik struggled with the pressure of being Crown Prince of Sweden too. He was just a lot better at hiding it than his little brother is. Projects an image of being the golden boy.

But in an unguarded moment during the flashback, we see that he is, at best, deeply ambivalent about his position. And envious of Wilhelm, who, in spite of being considered the family screw-up, has more freedom as the second son than Erik does as the heir.

Not that Wille has much freedom before Erik dies. But his birth order and rebellious personality give him an outlet that Erik doesn’t have. It’s pretty clear that Erik always conformed and did his duty, regardless of his personal feelings. The weight of the high expectations of his parents and the entire country for him to appear the perfect Crown Prince probably weighed on him. And at least everybody expects Wilhelm to screw up. Everyone expects Erik to appear perfect.

There’s a wonderful short fic by @groenendaelfic which explores the possibility that Erik’s car accident wasn’t an accident after all.

Also, an article about car accidents as a method of suicide:

YOUNG ROYALS (2021—) Season 2, Episode 2

[korixae]

also also the way yeah simon and wille got to be together yeah 1000% but sara and felice!! god it’s so rare for any media to portray friendship and platonic relationships as just as important if not more important than romantic. but!!!!! they were also in that car!! they were endgame too!! it just brings me such joy that this silly angsty little romance can also put such value in friendship too <3 oh young royals writers just kill me

[love-isthebestthingwedo]

Simon's Month 2024 💜 Day 28: birthday @youngroyals-events

[raincitygirl76]

Excellent post about Intergenerational trauma. Kristina is both a victim of the system and an enforcer of it. She got all the rebelliousness ground out of her when she was younger, and she survived the process.

So now it’s her son’s turn to submit to the system. And she’ll nudge him along every step of the way. Because she’s retroactively decided that her parents and the royal court broke her spirit because they love her. So she has to express her love by doing the same to her son.

tbh we don't talk about the depiction of generational trauma in young royals enough. we see kristina lecture wille multiple times on the importance of keeping up an image, and how mistakes reflect on the entire family. erik, while a more positive figure in wille's life and more aware of his brother's anxiety, recites the same thing practically word for word. even when he's teasing wille about having a crush and encouraging him to hang out with simon, erik still tells wille to put on a persona for the rest of the school and mingle. in wille's fight with simon, he blurts out the same bs about his family's reputation etc. etc., but instantly regrets it when he starts to lose simon.

kristina's probably had the speech she teaches to her children drilled into her from a young age, since both she and erik had known from the start that they were the heirs. wille, as the "spare," has more doubts about these values and priorities, shown when he argues that he just wants a normal life in episode one. he actively pushes back against his family's demands right up until erik's death. wille's always idolized and admired his brother, so when the title of crown prince and its responsibilities are passed to him, so is the pressure to adhere to the crown's tradition.

the show does a great job of showing that even though wille really, really wants to break free for simon and for himself, all it takes is one short conversation with his mother from the cycle to drag him right back in. generational trauma is never easy to break free from, much less when you're an anxiety-ridden teenager with the weight of a country on your shoulders, unprocessed grief from losing your brother, and on top of that, the added trauma of just being outed in the worst way possible. kristina even tells him about her own "unfortunate romance" that ended because she was taught to choose the crown over everything else.

[queer-media-tourney]

[lifeandtimesoftrying]

THERE IS A RECORDING OF AS YOU LIKE IT (1996)

Breaking news!! Extra, extra, read all about it!!! You may have been pictures of David Tennant such as this one:

but upon trying to find a way to watch the production this is from, been told that there's no way to do so. And this is partially true: there is no copy of this floating around on the internet, and no DVDs have been released. BUT! Not all is lost! @raining-stars-somewhere-else and I have been investigating, and there is a recording of As You Like It (1996) housed in the archives of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. According to their website, there is a VHS tape and two DVDs (though one of them stops playing halfway through). There are no digital copies of available to the public, but you can go to their reading room for free and access their archives that way. Neither my fellow detective nor I have ever been, so we're not sure exactly how it works, but we believe that you can watch the archived video recordings so long as you're in-person. Unfortunately, we cannot get there ourselves, but we're sharing what we know in hopes that someone who reads this can do some on-the-ground reconnaissance. According to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust's website, the reading room is located "on Guild Street to the rear of the Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 6QW" in England. If you find anything new, please let us know, and if you want to remain anonymous we can do that. Good luck everyone!!!

relevant links:

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust's home page

Archive page for the recording

Information about the Reading Room

RSC's page for the performance (this is where the picture is from, and has information about the cast and crew)

[raincitygirl76]

Read this!!! Read it, read it, read it! So good and insightful! You’ll be glad you did!

Okay, at this point I am officially abusing exclamation marks. And the bold button. But read it anyway.

I absolutely did not expect Wilhelm to take back his denial of the video in season two, and especially not publicly. I know we were all talking about it and hoping he would, but I don't think any of us had actually prepared for it to happen. Simply because of the repercussions it would have.

So when he did take it back, and did so publicly, I lost my damn mind, and here's why:

Simon agreed to be a secret. He agreed to be a secret for two years if he needed to be. He told Wilhelm he loved him anyway. And even after he knew Wilhelm would face essentially zero consequences of living in secret with Simon, he still went against his parents and the royal court and came out.

He didn’t have to.

He didn’t do it for Simon. He did it for himself.

If Simon had said that he still didn't want to be a secret and that they couldn't be together unless Wilhelm came out, then Wilhelm taking back the statement in any capacity would be for Simon. If he did so privately or publicly, it would all be because Simon wanted him to. But that isn't what happened. Simon said he didn't have to.

Wilhelm took back that statement for himself. For his own freedom. For his own autonomy. And that is significant.

It might just be the first time we see Wilhelm make a decision for himself and only himself. Up until that point, while some of his decisions and actions are selfish, they are always influenced by someone else. Mostly they are influenced by his title and his image.

Pretty much every decision Wilhelm makes is to benefit the Crown Prince. This is the first time we really see him make a decision for Wilhelm. The only other time we see him make a decision purely for himself is before Erik died, and even then he struggled with it because of his title.

Wilhelm publicly taking that denial back, against his parents and the royal court, without pressure from Simon, is the first time Wilhelm makes a decision for himself as a person and not as a figurehead. Not because he was told it was right, not because he was given no other option, not because it was what he was told to do. But simply because he knew he would be happier after he did it.