#rickard young royals

[realredbanana]

Entirely random but, Young Royals fans, who’re your favourite and least favourite characters?

[young-royals-confessions]

[raincitygirl76]

I just about had steam coming out of my ears at that point in 3.01. In such agreement with @heartbreakprincewille

Rewatching S3 and I remember how angry I was when Rickard said that the video was not even that explicit. You seriously cannot say that it didn't lead to any defamation when not only it was posted by August as an attempt of defamation, but it seriously hurted Wilhelm and Simon mentally AND socially. Yes, Rickard twisted the points in a classic lawyer's fashion but I was SO pissed off that they chose to bring up this point at all when it was already settled that August will pay damages. I hate that Rickard's last resort was twisting the narrative to question whether Wilhelm and Simon were even victims or not. It really downgraded Wilhelm and Simon's trauma and it was so disheartening to watch them going through this shit.

[skamenglishsubs]

Subtext and Culture, Young Royals, Season 3, Episode 1

Season 3 picks up a short while after the jubilee speech by Wilhelm. Both Wilhelm and Sara have been absent from school for a noticeable amount of time, so maybe a week or two later? The show isn't very diligent in ensuring a perfect timeline, but this would put us in early March perhaps? Anyway, we're off to the castle for a meeting to deal with the fallout of Wilhelm's speech and Sara reporting the video to the police.

Subtext: The Queen is so pissed she's not even looking at her son, a reversal from the opening to season 2, when Wilhelm was pretty pissed at his mom.

Subtext: This is probably the first time that Wilhelm gets a hint that the Queen is seriously ill.

Cinematography: Same procedure as last season! Every season opens with a fourth wall break where Wilhelm stares in to the camera during the opening titles, defiant as ever.

Culture: For practical reasons the end of season 2 was filmed in April 2022, while the beginning of season 3 was filmed in February 2023. That said, the spring in Sweden can be pretty fickle, and it's not uncommon to have surprise snowfall as late as April. If you want a cinematographic interpretation of this scene, it's supposed to show how cold and unwelcome Simon feels arriving at the royal palace.

Cinematography: In reality, the monarch would be the last one entering a meeting after everyone else has arrived, but having Simon arrive like this makes it look more like he's entering a court of justice or some kind of disciplinary meeting. It's of course not a coincidence that the royal family represented by Jan-Olof is all on one side of the table, while everyone who has been causing them problems is on the other side.

Subtext: Jan-Olof is trying to minimize the video, by using "so-called", and by calling it an intimate video and not a porn video. However, for something to fall under the definition of "revenge porn", it's enough to depict people in an intimate situation, it doesn't have to meet the much higher threshold for when it's considered actual pornography, so he's at least admitting that it was an illegal video.

Culture: Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen is unfortunately a real organization of actual neo-nazi white supremacists in Sweden, with offshoots in neighbouring countries.

Lost in translation: The subtitles are struggling here, it's "piss person" in one, and "shitty person" in the other. The former is literally what they're saying in Swedish, but the latter is probably the better expression in English.

Also, we've been told that August's stepdad, Rickard, is one of Sweden's best lawyers. What that means is that he is probably a well-known criminal defence lawyer, and has probably been handling the defence in high-profile cases, and if you're defending obviously guilty criminals, you tend to get a lot of shit from the media and people in general, even though what you're doing is necessary for a fair justice system. This sounds like his way of dealing with that.

Culture: It's a pet peeve of mine that no-one seems to know that the name of the Swedish currency in English is kronor, not crowns. Simon is getting 1.2 million kronor, which amounts to about 105,000€ or $115,000.

Subtext: Linda isn't wrong, they're being strong-armed here. They have some sort of legal counsel, and they wouldn't have to pay any trial costs even if they don't win, but they can't afford to match the resources that August's stepdad can bring, and might get nothing in the end.

Culture: We don't know what Årnäs looks like or how large the estate is, but a quick check shows that you can buy a typical manor house and some farmland in Sweden for tens of millions of kronor. However, the amount of land that some of the other guys were boasting about at the Society party in season 1 would be worth several hundreds of millions of kronor, so it's unlikely that Årnäs is as large as that, because August would have a lot more options if his total net worth was in that ballpark.

Culture: Realistically, Simon isn't wrong. Even if August was convicted on all points, he wouldn't be sentenced harshly because of his age, because he's a first-time offender, and because it's a non-violent crime. He would most likely just be fined a large amount of money and ordered to pay damages, so settling isn't that bad.

Cinematography: The low winter sun creates some lovely golden light, so we know we're in for some sweet love between the boys. Another detail is the difference in how they're dressed and how they're carrying themselves. Wilhelm is tall and proud, he's at home, he's in a suit, he's sure of himself, while Simon is the guest, the intruder, and is almost shrinking away in his oversized purple shirt and jeans. Yes, yes, colour theory, I know.

Subtext: A nice little flashback to season 1 when Wilhelm said the same thing when he visited Simon's place.

Lost in translation: Simon is actually saying "Var det såhär i din dröm?" - "Was it like this in your dream?", which is a reference to the rather steamy dream Wilhelm had at the start of season 2, when he was lying in this exact bed.

Subtext: Absolutely no-one is fooled, everyone knows our two idiot boys were sucking each other's face a minute ago.

Subtext: Both Linda and the Queen are hearing about their sons' awful behaviour for the first time at this meeting. Linda had no idea Simon had been dealing drugs, and Kristina had no idea Wilhelm threatened August with a gun.

Culture: I have no idea here. There's no real-world example for this in Sweden, you can't put someone into the line of succession by giving them a title. The show is just hand-waving this. Alright. Ok. Fine.

Culture: All adults in the line of succession can be called upon to be acting Head of State, if the monarch is indisposed or on vacation or something. This means that once Wilhelm is 18, he would occasionally have to step in and do the job, even though he's not king yet. If there are no royals available for this, the duty falls to the speaker of the house, Riksdagens Talman.

Cinematography: We're returning to Hillerska after the episode intro at the royal palace, so we're treated to a little montage of what those gosh darn rich kids have been up to in the meanwhile, so here's a horse to remind us that some of them are still riding! This is the only horse we'll be seeing this season, because the show really isn't about Rousseau after all.

Subtext: Madison is doing Tarot, and she's got Three of Wands reversed and Four of Wands reversed. The first one represents obstacles and lack of progress, and the second one represents home conflict, instability, and lack of support. A bit on the nose, don't you think?

Subtext: It's true, but the show is also calling out itself for the somewhat inconsistent weather we've been seeing due to actual shooting schedules.

Culture: Graduating gymnasiet in Sweden has a bunch of elements that are the same pretty much across the country, and then there are regional differences and individual school differences. I recognize only a few of the things Fredrika rattles off, but it makes sense that a place like Hillerska has a ton of traditions.

Subtext: All the girls have noticed that Felice isn't doing too great, but Madison appears to be the only one that actually cares. Fredrika still hasn't stopped talking about all the crap the third-years are gonna do, because that's apparently more exciting. However, the trucks she's talking about are pretty common, this is what we in Sweden call a Studentflak.

@hanna-kin wrote a long post on Swedish graduation traditions, and I reblogged and added some stuff here: https://www.tumblr.com/skamenglishsubs/684659770007961600/its-that-time-of-the-year-again-and-if-season-2

Culture: It seems Minou isn't the head of PR for the royal court anymore, this is Farima, and we've actually seen her all the way back in season 1 when she was instructing Wilhelm to smile more in the photographs. Either way, it seems like she's got a promotion, and she's probably not wrong in her assessment. A bunch of old farts would balk at the idea of the monarch being in a same-sex relationship, but a lot of others would see it is proof that the monarchy can change with the times. There were quite a lot of fans in Team Monarchy after all. 👑🌈

Lost in translation: Linda actually says "Du har utegångsförbud", which means curfew. Grounding kids isn't really a thing in Sweden, to us it's some kind of weird thing that only happens in American teen shows, along with detention. What the fuck even is that?

Subtext: Unlike in season 1, Simon now consistently speaks Swedish at home to his mom, further showing us how distant he is from her, and from himself to some extent.

Lost in translation: Linda actually calls Sara a "hemmasittare", which is a Swedish term used for kids who simply refuse to attend school, typically for mental health reasons. What to do about the problem is a hotly debated political issue, and let's leave it at that.

Subtext: This is how the culture of secrecy and solidarity against outsiders work at schools like this. Everyone is abused, everyone participates in abusing younger students, and everyone is told to shut up about it. Every house guards their "secret" initiations to outsiders, to foster loyalty to each other, to your house, and to the school. It's cult behaviour 101.

Cinematography: The show does it's usual trick with the sound design where all outside noise disappears as Simon and Wilhelm retreat into their little bubble, but there are still people in the frame this time, even though we can't hear them, because this time they're snogging in public. Oh, and everyone needs to update their colour theory, new colours dropped, pink and orange, what does it all mean??!?

Blink and you miss it: The list of activities for the point hunt includes:

Tattoo "Hillerska 4-life" on your arm.

Take a selfie at the back of a police car.

Give someone a buzz cut.

Dance the balloon dance in public.

Sext a teacher.

Get a piercing somewhere.

Blink and you miss it: I love Vincent so much, he's just the worst. Oh, and it looks like he's wearing a $2000 Valentino sweater, but I'm not 100% certain.

Subtext: Neither Ayub nor Rosh agrees with Simon when he says he's gonna reply to idiots online, but unfortunately they're not telling him off, because that would lead to less drama in the season.

Blink and you miss it: Ayub and Rosh are talking about going on a hike to Talludden with their school, Marieberg, which is why we're gonna encounter them out in the woods in the next episode. Spoiler alert!

Subtext: Wilhelm puts up the first stanza of a poem by Karin Boye called The Shield Maiden. In English, the poem goes: I dreamed about swords last night. I dreamed about battle last night. I dreamed I fought by your side armoured and strong, last night.

Blink and you miss it: Wilhelm's desk has a ton of stuff, but he's also kept the broken frog prince snowglobe, and he's still got Erik's lighter and cigarette case from season 2.

Lost in translation: The comment in Swedish uses the word "bögar", which isn't quite as offensive as "fags". However, it's more offensive than "gays", so I understand why the subtitles went with this choice. It's one of those words that is offensive or not depending on context, and it's certainly offensive in this one.

Subtext: The soundtrack is on point as usual, highlighting the animosity between Wilhelm and August.

Blink and you miss it: Someone ordered a Horse Girl Desk™ from the props department, and they sure delivered all the horsey things! The book is the Swedish edition of Not on a White Horse by Nancy Springer:

From the day twelve-year-old Rhiannon spots a lost white Arabian gelding in the woods near her small Pennsylvania mining town, her life finds a focus as she learns to deal with family problems and decides the direction her life will take.

As you do.

Subtext: As a throwback to season 1, this time it's Sara's turn to make a surprise visit at their dad's. He is surprised and starts cleaning up his place, but he seems to be in better shape than when Simon originally turned up. His place is just messy, there are no signs of drinking and smoking unlike last time we saw him.

Culture: Who goes to New York to suntan? No-one sane, but sun-starved Scandinavians get a bit of cabin fever after a long dark winter.

Culture: Fake IDs aren't really a thing in Sweden, you're allowed to legally drink at 18, and underage kids are much more likely to have an older friend or sibling or alcoholic parent buy them some booze for a private party instead. Sure, they exist, but equipping your friend group with a bunch of fake IDs to go clubbing is not how it's done.

Subtext: Simon drew a heart on Wilhelm's hand and suggested he get that as a tattoo. Wilhelm objected because he's "not allowed to" as a royal, but here he is, redrawing it on himself, almost as if he's toying with the thought, defying the rules.

Subtext: Simon doesn't know anything about the initiations since he's a lowly external student, and even though they're boyfriends, Wilhelm automatically tries to play it down. He knows it's true though, he doesn't question that, he just doesn't want Simon to know about it because it's humiliating to talk about it.

Cinematography: A++ Main Villain Entry Walk.

Culture: The Swedish Schools Inspectorate is a very real government agency that has the very real power to shut down schools that are mismanaged in any way, either academically, or socially.

Culture: Just a quick reminder that every single third-year student is 18 or 19 years old at this point in time, and therefore they are legal adults, which means the school has less authority over them. However, since it's a boarding school, they can enact and enforce regulations for boarders, and kick them out from their houses if they disobey the rules, which effectively kicks them out of the school while technically not doing that.

Cinematography: I love the camera angle here where we just about see Vincent giving Wilhelm the evil eye for indirectly causing this.

As a closing note, this season felt a lot less subtexty to me, compared to previous seasons. On the other hand, a recurring theme now is the airing of secrets, of exposing the systems that create toxic environments like this, so in line with the theme, a lot of characters are voicing things that were left unsaid in previous seasons.

[bluedalahorse]

Friday Young Royals Poll!

Inspired a little bit by some of the comments in this discussion thread re: developing secondary characters in fanfic and getting very attached to them.

Obviously I can’t have a poll button for every character, so I have divided everyone up into extremely arbitrary categories.

My personal answer to this question is probably Louise. Even though I have approached her differently in every fic, I care about her so much. Nils recently zoomed into second place after I wrote Swell the Numbers. Honorable mention to Linda after I enjoyed letting her be a human being with hobbies in Sand and the Scale.

If you write fanfic, I’d like to hear stories from your writing process. If you don’t write fanfic but like to read it, I’d love to hear some stories that stuck with you.

Let me know your answers and reblog for a bigger sample size!

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #72: Game of Thrones, but make it Ptolemaic

There's something fascinating about the way the Ptolemys took over Egypt following the death of Alexander the Great - sure, anyone can conquer, but it takes an interesting mind to look around for ways to legitimate their rule and fall on sibling marriage as the solution. Yes, it was common among certain royal dynasties, but the Macedonian Greeks, from whom the Ptolemys descended, despised it. I would love a snapshot into how that first sibling marriage came to be.

It was this in mind I stumbled upon the idea for my next terrible fic idea: What if Jon and Robb were not of age with each other?

Aka: The Weirwood Queen Fic

Just imagine it:

Everything follows canon, with two exceptions: 1) Lyanna dies giving birth to a daughter at the Tower of Joy. Ned names the girl after their favorite Great-Aunt, Jocelyn; and 2) Catelyn loses the child she conceives on her wedding night.

(Robb is still born, but his birth date and the birth dates of all the other Stark children are pushed back two years.)

Now, it is one thing to return from war with a bastard when your wife has just given birth to a legitimate heir; it is quite another thing to return from war with a bastard after she miscarried. For this reason Ned choses to pass Jocelyn off as his brother Brandon's bastard daughter with Ashara Dayne.

Jocelyn's childhood is similar in many ways to canon, but not. Without her "twin" or any trueborn siblings to draw attention away, most of the castle dotes on young Jocelyn. Even once her cousins are born, Jocelyn remains the oldest of the lot, filled with the confidence that a child only has when they know they are loved. She loves her cousins in turn, but with the age gap they're never quite as close as canon, and she's more nursemaid for the younger ones than a playmate.

Catleyn, of course, loathes her, and begs for her to be sent away - which she eventually is. But instead of sending Jocelyn to the Silent Sisters, or across the sea, or marrying her off to a loyal man-at-arms stationed on the edge of Stark lands... Ned accepts widowed Rickard Karstark's offer for Jocelyn's hand. He's a loyal bannerman whose family has often wed Stark bastards and was notorious for his care and devotion to his first wife. It is the best Ned can do for her.

And so Jocelyn becomes the second Lady Karstark, which is awkward, as her stepsons are quite a bit older than her and her stepdaughter Alys is only six months younger, but Jocelyn thrives as a lady of a Northern House. Her husband is kind enough and largely allows her to run the house as she will, which is as best as she could have hoped for in a marriage.

By the time King Robert rides north two years later than canon, Jocelyn has given birth to a son, Brandon, and is pregnant with a daughter, Lyanna.

Canon continues apace, if somewhat delayed. Ned becomes hand of the king and loses his head. The North rises up, names Robb King in the North... and Rickard's sons Torrhen and Edward are killed by Jaime Lannister, for which Rickard kills two hostages. Robb still choses to execute Rickard Karstark.

Meanwhile, Jocelyn has been rallying forces to take Winterfell back from the Greyjoy's in the North. She succeeds, only to learn within the week that her cousin has made her a widow.

Jocelyn quietly rages. She'd never loved her husband, but she'd been fond of him. It's the hypocrisy that gets her most - because the Starks have always put family first, but she's known from the beginning that some family counts more than others, otherwise Ned would have never killed her uncle Arthur, or led her mother Ashara to throw herself off a tower, or allowed his son to think it fitting to kill her husband while they knew Jocelyn was preparing to take back his home for him.

And so what you have is Jocelyn continuing to rule Winterfell in her cousin's name but largely acting on her own, never outright ignoring Robb's commands while he's still alive but following the letter rather than the spirit of the order.

This continues for some time, with Jocelyn Queen of the North in all but name after the Red Wedding - holding off the Boltons and the Greyjoys - and gaining the respect of the North.

Into this enter Bran (as played by the Three-Eyed Raven) and baby Rickon.

After four or five years of playing Regent for Sansa, still held hostage in King's Landing, the last thing Jocelyn wants to do is give up power to her thirteen year of cousin who 1) spent the last five years beyond the Wall, letting her do all the hard work of ruling and 2) has no idea what the political situation is in the North. Most of the Northern lords feel similarly and insist Bran and Jocelyn wed, if only so Jocelyn can continue what she's been doing while Bran learns the ropes.

Jocelyn is even less happy about this, but goes along with it in name only, sleeping in a separate part of the castle.

This goes on for about two years, Bran making all sorts of subtle attempts to undermine Jocelyn's rule that - if they'd succeeded - would only have destabilized the North. Jocelyn is gearing up to have him declared addled by his trip beyond the Wall when she catches Bran - or, rather, the Three-Eyed Raven - trying to jump ship into Jocelyn's son seven-year-old son, Brandon Karstark, who with his Targaryen and Stark blood would make a better host.

Explaining to her bannermen just why she murdered her second husband is a challenge, but the evidence - that he was trying to kill her son - is rather irrefutable. Unfortunately, it leaves her in the same position as before, this time having to marry her her ten-year-old cousin Rickon to continue ruling the North.

Through all of this, it should be clear Jocelyn is doing this less out of desire for personal power - though there is a glimmer of that, especially when certain lords demand she give up her regency to man - then desire to stabilize the North. Ned and Robb had gone south, and it had nearly cost the North everything. All Jocelyn wants to do is keep the madness consuming the south from infecting the North too.

Meanwhile, Daenerys and Young Griff have joined forces in Essos, married, and begun their reconquest of Westeros. Amid the chaos, they succeed brilliantly.

They leave the North for last, attempt to replay the submission of Torrhen, but in a much weaker position than The Conqueror was - they have dragons, but winter is setting in and their martial might is largely exhausted by a decade of warfare. Regardless, Jocelyn tells Rickon to bend the knee, realizing the North can't survive on its own for long. For this they get many concessions - a break in taxes, the title of Prince of the North, and the betrothal of the Dany and Young Griff's son and daughter to Jocelyn's children Lyanna and Brandon Karstark respectively.

Jocelyn continues to rule the North, largely without the input of her third husband, who after his majority largely spends his time in Dany and Young Griff's ongoing military campaigns - putting down rebellions throughout their empire, pirates in the Stepstones, and the like - until he is killed crossing a river in Essos. The title of Prince of the North falls to Jocelyn's son, Brandon Karstark, who drops the Kar from his name and rules well - with the help of his mother.

Bonuses include: 1) Jocelyn never expressing anything other than familial fondness for any of her husbands, never sleeping with the second two, and largely being presented as an aromantic asexual who because of societal expectations forces herself to try to have romantic/sexual feelings for her first husband, fails, and then keeps her second two firmly in the baby cousins category; 2) An exploration of family dynamics in Westeros - specifically, what it means to be on the outside looking in as a bastard and knowing that your uncle and cousin don't seem to count the death of your mother, mother's brother, or husband as kinslaying, and being a woman allowed to hold the reins of power while the men are away and being expected to turn everything over to the first male claimant who shows up after you've done all the hard work; 3) The Three-Eyed Raven putting on a masterclass of how to be subtly creepy enough to cause everyone around him to think they're imagining things, when in reality it's worse than they imagined, and having been working even beyond the Wall to help bring about the Targaryen Restoration; 4) No one ever suspecting Jocelyn as being Rhaegar's daughter, and historians using the Valeryian looks her children have with their Targaryen spouses as proof Young Griff was really Prince Aegon; and 5) An exploration of the North, its traditions, and its religion, with Jocelyn somewhat inadvertently bringing about a revival of the last two through her desire to Damnatio Memoriae her late and unlamented Aunt Catelyn.

And that's all I have. I suppose its not as ptolemaic as it could be, but I was thinking of Cleopatra VII and her marriages to her two younger brothers as I wrote it, so. As always, feel free to adopt this plot bunny, just link back if you ever do anything with it.

Other Jon Snow Headcanons: Aelor the Accursed | Aegon the Adopted | Aegon the Undying | Aegon the Unyielding | Aemon the Adventurous | Baelor the Brave | Bastard of Winterfell | Daemon the Destroyer | Daena the Dreamer | Daeron the Desired | Dyanna the Defiant | Elia the Magnificent | Jon the Fair | Jon Whitefyre | King of the Ashes | Lady Arryn | Lady Baratheon | Lady Lannister | Lady Stark | Lord of the Dance | Maekar the Maester | People's Queen | Prince Consort | Prince of Summerhall | Queen Mother | Queen of Nightingales | Red Queen | Rhaegar the Righteous | River Queen | Shiera Snowbird | Visneya the Victorious | Weirwood Queen | Wolf Queen

More Terrible Fic Ideas

[jedimaesteryoda]

The fight on the Trident between Robert and Rhaegar has images of Indo-European myth, eg Perun v. Veles of Slavic myth. Perun god of storms, fertility and war, kills Veles with his war hammer, a dragon god of music, magic, and the underworld, driving him into the watery realm after the latter steals Perun’s wife.

Veles’ body would release rain (Rhaegar’s released rubies) as the battle itself represented the changing of the seasons.

Spring: 

Rhaegar is representative of spring the season of hopes, new beginnings and transformation. The Crown Prince was highly intelligent, skilled at arms enough to be knighted at 17, physically attractive and with a skill at playing harp and composing songs as a bonus. He was a young king in waiting of purported promise carrying the hopes of many for the future after his mad father’s inevitable passing.

It was a Year of False Spring with many hopes: Rickard's matches for just kids, Jaime's induction into the Kingsguard, Lyanna's relationship with Rhaegar and Littlefinger's dream for Cat's hand ending disastrously. Rhaegar died a seedling, in that he died before he got to be crowned, a dream never realized. His actions marked a new beginning for the realm with House Baratheon’s transformation as the royal house, and conceiving Jon, a potential new beginning for House Targaryen. 

Summer:

Robert presides over a long summer during his reign of epicurean plenty. He himself is a king of summer being a fertile, jolly fat man fathering many children; a hedonist gone to seed who enjoys feasting, drinking, philandering, tourneys, hunts and other forms of leisure. He ultimately dies while doing one of those leisure activities: hunting. His death marks the death of the peaceful, prosperous summer to be replaced by a time of war and famine under the rule of House Lannister.

Autumn:

Joffrey is a king of autumn, a season represented by plenty alongside death. He is a violent young man quick and gleeful to have people executed as he sits the Iron Throne victorious. His bloody reign is marked by death with people dying from the War of Five Kings, and the fruits of the victors are enjoyed before winter comes and they are taken away. The Lannisters, Freys and Boltons enjoy their rewards before their demise symbolized by Joffrey being poisoned at his extravagant wedding to the Tyrells which seemingly secured his reign. House Lannister’s rule is coming to an end now that winter has come.

Winter:

Jon is a king of winter, a brooding young man who has endured much hardship and loss and commands at the Wall where the Long Night comes. Death surrounded his birth with his mother dying from the complications of his birth, the death of the Kingsguard and Ned’s friends at his birthplace and born at the end of Robert’s Rebellion. 

As Ned said:

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Summer is the time for squabbles. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths.”

As a leader, Jon embodies this thinking, joining people together including former foes and healing rifts between parties like Karstarks with the Starks, wildlings with the Night’s Watch and Northmen, and later House Targaryen with House Stark, culminating in joining all the realm together against the Long Night. 

[frogprincesnowglobe]

Ultimate Young Royals Character Tournament

This Young Royals week let’s put all our characters to the test! The ultimate Young Royals Seasons 1—2 character showdown. The Hillerska gym is booked for the week for a poll tournament pitting our beloved YR characters up against each other to determine the ultimate Young Royals favorite character. 

RULES: Vote for which character you like best, whether that’s in terms of personality of how well they’re written. We all know some of these characters take questionable actions but are still deeply nuanced with interesting character arcs. Choose wisely, because the winners will go head to head.

Our wonderful Crown prince and Bjärstad choir boy will duke (ha) it out separately. They’re too overpowered and will most likely win any battle they’re in. Their tournament along with some fun extra polls will be posted on the final day.

Reblogs of the polls appreciated.

Day 1 April 24 2023 Round 1:

Henry VS Stella

Walter VS Fredrika

Rosh VS Madison McCoy

Micke Eriksson VS Ludvig

Headmistress Anette Lilja VS Choir Teacher

Rickard VS Poppe Ehrencrona

Smysan Ehrencrona VS Louise

Nils VS Alexander Bragé

Sara Eriksson VS August Horn of Årnäs

Vincent VS Marcus

Boris VS Malin

Ayub VS Felice Ehrencrona

Jan Olof Vs Queen Kristina of Sweden

Linda Vs Crown Prince Erik of Sweden

Magister Englund Vs  Fröken Ramirez

Husfar vs Husmor Anna

Day 3 April 26 2023 Round 2:

Henry Vs Walter

Felice Ehrencrona Vs Madison McCoy

Poppe Ehrencrona Vs Louise

Vincent Vs Nils

Boris Vs Choir Teacher

Fröken Ramirez vs Husfar

Queen Kristina of Sweden Vs Ludvig

Sara Eriksson Vs Linda

Day 5 April 28 2023 Round 3:

Henry Vs Felice Ehrencrona

Fröken Ramirez Vs Poppe Ehrencrona

Boris Vs Nils

Queen Kristina of Sweden Vs Linda

Day 7 April 30 2023 Round 4:

Felice Ehrencrona Vs Linda

Boris Vs Froken Ramirez

Day 9: May 2 2023

Crown Prince Wilhelm of Sweden vs Simon Eriksson

Boris Vs. Felice Ehrencrona

Simon's Lava Lamp Vs Wille's Fairy Lights (bonus poll!)

Wille's Sweater VS Simon's Purple Hoodie (bonus poll!)

August Horn of Årnäs vs Queen Kristina of Sweden (bonus poll!)

Ayub Vs Rosh (bonus poll!)

Season 1 August Vs Season 2 August (bonus poll!)

Canon Erik Vs Fanon Erik (bonus poll!)

Season 1 Wille hair Vs Season 2 Wille hair (bonus poll!)

Pizza With Rosh and Ayub Vs Poke Bowls with Felice (Bonus poll!)

Rousseau Vs Oski/Olle/Felle (Bonus Poll!)

Special thanks to @atdawnweryd for listening to me waffle about this and helping me with pairings. @freakishly-bookish-ant for validating my final pairings when I still wasn't sure and validating my decision to put Wille and Simon separate. Also the YR wikia, where I got five of the poll pictures that I didn't screenshot myself. <3

Biggest thanks to @hillerskalibrary for hosting fan week!! Thank you, it's been a blast. :)

Who is in, who is out? Current Ranking after Round 5 (X denotes they have lost their round and are out of the competition):

[reluctantjoe]

Mathew Baynton on life after Ghosts

Shilpa Ganatra interviews Mathew Baynton, who explains why it’s time to end the BBC One sitcom and how new voices are improving TV comedy

“What have we done?” bemoans the decapitated head of Sir Humphrey Bone, after the nation’s favourite spectres make a defining decision in the final episode of Ghosts, which goes out as a Christmas special on BBC One. “We did the right thing,” Julian Fawcett, the trouserless MP ghost, says confidently.

The exchange nicely reflects the sentiment of the show’s creators, the Them There collective, in deciding to exorcise the BBC supernatural sitcom after five series – despite notching up several RTS nominations and maintaining an audience of around 4 million throughout its run.

The Christmas special was co-written by Them There’s Mathew Baynton, who also plays the romantic poet Thomas Thorne in the series.

“From an artistic point of view, I’ve never been in any doubt that ending Ghosts now was the right thing to do and the right time to do it,” he tells Television. “From a personal point of view, we feel a sense of loss that we’re not going to be getting together in that place at the same time of year, every year. But nothing can go on for ever.”

“That sadness tells you it was the right thing. If we carried on for another five seasons and we were all bored of it, bored of each other, and it wasn’t as good as it used to be, we wouldn’t miss it afterwards.”

The series follows in the tradition of British domestic sitcoms, centring on a young couple, Alison and Mike (Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe). They inherit Button House, a country manor haunted by a disparate crew of spirits from across the ages, played by the Them There collective: Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond, plus Lolly Adefope.

The show is a logical leap from the troupe’s first multi-award-winning TV creation, Horrible Histories, which re-enacted the curiosities of yesteryear in comedic skits. Horrible Histories’ success made it “shockingly easy” to get Ghosts commissioned – the only bump in the road was discussions between the group and the BBC about the pilot.

Recalls Baynton: “They wanted to do a pilot that would go out with other pilots. We wanted to do one to figure out the idea and road test the special effects, but we didn’t want it to be aired, because then there would be a pressure to not change it.”

The compromise was to make a 10-minute taster pilot that wasn’t for broadcast. This taster tried out their initial idea of having a house full of different ghosts and playing multiple characters (as with Horrible Histories and Them There’s Sky One series, Yonderland). But the result proved this set-up didn’t create the character friction necessary to sustain a sitcom, so the band stuck to the small group of ghosts we know today, from a prim and proper Edwardian matriarch to a caveman.

As Ghosts meets its end – on British TV at least, as the US adaptation is still going strong and about to enter its third season – Baynton, who turns in a high-octane performance as Fickelgruber in the film Wonka, is turning his attention to the other strings in his bow.

At the end of January he’ll step into the role of Bottom in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He’s also writing a comedy film (details are being kept under wraps) and will show off his more serious acting side in the upcoming BBC Three series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, a crime thriller based on the bestselling novel.

As a student, Baynton initially studied directing, earning a first-class degree at the Rose Bruford drama school in south-east London. After being drawn towards comedy, he attended Philippe Gaulier’s famously idiosyncratic clown school in Paris. “We used to say half of the fee is like a ticket just to watch him, because he’s hilarious. He plays the persona of a curmudgeonly, philo­sophical, French sort of half-wizard,” he recalls, adding: “Philippe’s got an incredible ability to help you learn what the audience sees in you.”

“If people tried to act up an idiot character, he’d say, ‘Don’t pretend to be more of an idiot than God already made you. He did a good enough job’. You don’t need to exaggerate it or pretend to look stupid. What you need to be is honest about the thing about yourself that people find funny, and then access that and allow people to laugh at it.”

This advice helped Baynton climb his first rungs in TV comedy to play Deano in Gavin & Stacey, a work colleague of Smithy (James Corden). He would go on to co-create and write the RTS award-­winning The Wrong Mans with Corden, the co-author of Gavin & Stacey. By the time Ghosts began, he had worked in TV comedy – featuring in Peep Show, Spy and The Armstrong and Miller Show, among others – for more than a decade.

“You’ll hear people saying, ‘Comedy was best when I was young’. I always think, ‘Well, you’re just not paying attention, then’. There will always be great stuff and if it doesn’t speak to you, it’s probably because it’s for people younger than you.”

While being a dad of two has limited the amount of competitor benchmarking he’s doing, he’s impressed with the greater breadth of voices in contemporary TV comedies.

“Bridget Christie’s The Change springs to mind, with menopausal women as the central characters, and the specificity of the location of the Forest of Dean. You couldn’t say that’s like any sitcom that’s come before,” he says. “We Are Lady Parts is another one, so is Stath Lets Flats.”

“I don’t know why I’m only naming Channel 4 shows, seeing as the BBC has been so good to me…”

Making comedy inclusive is no constraint to a writer, Baynton believes: “I’ve read the odd interview where people have said that creators are self-censoring to the point where they can’t be as instinctively funny. And some people see comedy’s function as being able to say the unsayable.”

“I can only speak for myself, but I know that my best work comes from writing and rewriting. What emerges is always something cleverer than I am, because in life you only get a first draft when you’re having a conversation. It’s not a bad thing to realise that a joke could maybe hurt someone, and it sounds like a better idea that I should rewrite if my intention could be misconstrued.”

As the curtain falls on Ghosts, commissioners are clamouring to find out what’s next for the Them There collective. Happily, they still have the same personnel and are mulling over their next project.

“We’re mindful that we can’t just do a modern sitcom where we’re wearing jeans and T-shirts. It just isn’t our tone,” says Baynton. “When we look for ideas, we’re thinking, what’s the playground that we can put ourselves in? Where we can do something with a heightened silliness, where potentially we play more than one character, and where there is a costume element to it.”

With this tried and tested formula as the base, their continued success seems assured. The legacy of Ghosts is preserved, too, persisting in the corridors of Button House and, indeed, TV history.

[fan-a-tink]

Young Royals S3 thoughts

EP 1

First word of the season is crown prince.

The queen is ill. taking pills. Simply depressed or something else too? 

„Was this how you imagined it would be?“ „No, this is better.“ My heart.

Settling the video issue outside the courts. Simon just wants it to be over - Linda why are you not listening to your son?

Fuck you Rickard for telling everyone about Simon and the drug thing anyway. That was so unnecessary!

And then they all just signed anyway?

The queen having a breakdown scares the shit out of me. Wille is going to have to take over so soon, and the responsibility will be the death of him and Simon.

Madison is the only one seeing that something is actually wrong with Felice, and she’s trying to be such a good friend. 

Farima seems cool!

Simon grounded. wtf, I don’t like it. And it’s not exactly his fault he didn’t tell Linda about everything that was going on - like she has to take some blame there too.

Vincent you fucking idiot. I hate you. You don’t get to blame Wille for this. And don’t you DARE talk to a reporter.

That kiss, in the library, and everyone going absolutely quiet - AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Crown prince.. and your boyfriend! - AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

I’m not sure they are really listening to each other, actually. Please guys, no more miscommunication!

YES, Wille!!! Show off your boyfriend and shut down their reactions with that look of ‚that’s my boyfriend, and if anyone has a problem with that, they have a problem with me!“

Fucking hate Vincent. „You and Wilhelm can sit together on the bus out to the slums.“ Fuck you Vincent. - Also, is it bad that I think August actually handled that situation really well?

Sara, my love - do you need a hug? 

That heart on the hand is a heartstopper reference, and no one will ever convince me otherwise!

So Marcus talked about Simon to the press. As if we needed any confirmation that he was a dickhead. Good riddance.

Simon don’t respond to the tweets!!!!

Foolish. But brave. - Yes, that sums up Wille pretty well :)

Wille saying „I wish I could ask him“ about Erik breaks my heart. Look at his eyes when he says it! There is so much grief which he has not processed at all. 

Sara going to Micke. I love that he takes her in, but also, she should really talk to someone else, not rekindle the extremely strained / non-existent relationship with her dad which was so traumatic to her! Saraaaaaaaa, please talk to your mum, or a therapist. Anyone!

Wille waking up peacefully smiling and redrawing the heart on his hand. This is joy. 

Ok that initiation shit sounds traumatizing as hell - who the fuck thought that would be a good idea? 

And no, Vincent, shut the fuck up, you don’t get to blame Wille for any of this!!!! Just fuck right off!

Did Simon keep that seat for Wille? 🥰

Simon’s expression at ‚Is it true? Did it happen to you?‘ And ‚what about the other stuff?‘ - just not able to comprehend how Wille could have done any of it. Ohhh, I smell drama on the horizon, and I don’t like it.

I love that them hearing about the restrictions makes them hold hands even tighter. I love that they can just do that now, in public, in school, in front of everyone. Still not over it. 

The new principal’s smile gives me serial killer vibes.

Aaaaahhhhh, I’m not ready for the drama, I’m not ready for the discussions, the tensions, the secrets, for any of it!!! I’m scared to keep going, because I don’t want them to have to go through any of it - haven’t they suffered enough? Haven’t we suffered enough? 

[uh-velkommen]

Young Royals Fan Exam Questions and Answers

*Note that the questions are asked in a different order every time

Which character primarily speaks English?

What does Simon wish for Wilhelm?

What animal sits in Wilhelm's snow globe?

Which of these scenes is NOT shown in seasons 1 or 2?

What color are the students lockers?

Simon's fish are named Oski, Olle, and what?

In which scene do Simon and Wilhelm share their first kiss?

What colors are in the Hillerska uniform tie?

Who gave the final speech of season 2?

What charm is on Wilhelm's necklace?

Why was Wilhelm sent to Hillerska?

Which cartoon character is featured on Simon's pencil case?

What does Simon like on his Spaghetti?

Where does Simon live?

Who is the head mistress?

What color are the lights in Wilhelm's bedroom?

What genre is the movie night?

What year was Hillerska founded?

What does Maddie yell in this season 2 scene?

Who gave Erik the snow globe?

Which horse is NOT Rousseau?

What is Simon's voice type?

What school does Rosh and Ayub go to?

What number is Simon's locker?

What does Wilhelm knock over in the music room?

Which is the correct statue stood behind Hillerska?

What does Wilhelm ask the royal court for?

What does Wilhelm find in Erik's jacket?

What does Wilhelm do to calm himself down?

Who had a kleptomaniac phase?

How does Stella cheat on her exam?

What does the outside of Wilhelm's bedroom look like?

What kind of hotdog does Simon get at the game?

What is Wilhelm's bad habit?

When will August begin his military training?

How does August wear his ring?

How long has Boris had his watch?

Who is Rickard?

What did Wilhelm call the king of Belgium?

What game does Boris have on the table in his office?

What do you do when the royal family passes by you?

What scandal did Stella plan on having at the royal jubilee?

What does Simon have on his keychain?

What does Sara's mom cook for her birthday dinner?

What did Simon want to improve on for the rowing team?

What is Frederika's horse named?

What do the girls drink mulled wine out of?

What city is pictured above Micke's couch?

Madison makes the heart bounce like what?

What score does Sara get on her math test?

Answers below the cut:

Maddie.

To have a nice Christmas.

A frog.

A boy getting his head shaved.

Green.

Felle.

The hallway outside of the movie room.

Blue and red.

Wilhelm.

A cross.

Because he got in a fight.

Garfield.

Ketchup.

Bjärstad.

Anette Lilja.

Red.

Horror.

1901.

Fuck the patriarchy!

His grandfather.

A horse gated out in a field.

Tenor.

Marieberg.

36.

A drum.

A man holding a discus.

Two Poke bowls.

A cigarette case and a lighter.

He rubs his chest.

Felice.

She writes the answers on her thigh.

A plain green field.

Boiled (they were out of grilled).

Biting his nails.

Autumn/Fall.

On his Pinky.

40 years.

August's mom's boyfriend.

Rudolf.

Chinese checkers.

Step aside and smile.

A nip-slip.

A middle finger.

Pabellón.

His stamina.

Indigo.

A shampoo bottle.

A bridge (San-Francisco?).

Badminton.

B+

[raincitygirl76]

Someone on another platform was calling the Young Royals character Alexander stupid, and I got to thinking about it.

I don’t think Alexander is necessarily stupid on an intellectual level. But he comes across as having little self-confidence, and being easily influenced by people who are more decisive and strong-willed than him. Someone can be booksmart, but still make shitty decisions because they trust other people’s judgment over their own and let themselves get talked into things.

August has a strong will and knows exactly what he wants. Alexander has always been easy for August to manipulate. Alexander has known since 2.04 that Wilhelm got him expelled last term and then acted like his friend this term. All Alexander has done since 2.04 is stew on that fact and avoid talking to Wilhelm. He was clearly feeling betrayed (and rightly so). But he didn’t actually DO anything about it. He didn’t confront Wille, didn’t hatch his own revenge plot. He only started thinking about concrete revenge strategies when August brought it up in 2.06. And of course, August had an ulterior motive.

That said, August would’ve been careful to frame the plot as low-risk, high-reward to Alexander. August probably said truthfully that he’d spoken to his stepfather the lawyer, but carefully left out the part where Rickard had said it was child pornography and could bring a prison sentence. Plus, August is a legal adult while Alexander is a minor. Child pornography made and distributed by a fellow child wouldn’t be as harshly dealt with as August. And also because he’s a minor, the media couldn’t report Alexander’s name.

Furthermore, Alexander knows how the system works for rich people. He got expelled for drugs in December, but the school didn’t notify the police. Expulsion was considered enough punishment. AND a month later, Alexander got un-expelled, because his rich daddy made a generous donation to the school. Yeah, Alexander was the scapegoat for drug use by the Society boys, but he didn’t face any permanent consequences.

If Alexander takes the blame for the video, his parents will yell at him for screwing up again. Then they’ll hire excellent lawyers and get him out of it. The way August explains it, Alexander must think this is a great plan. He either doesn’t realize or doesn’t care that August is weaponizing his justifiable anger with Wilhelm to get himself out of a sex crime.

But note as soon as Wilhelm starts shouting at August and Alexander, and saying it will never work, Alexander looks EXTREMELY worried. He doesn’t speak, but his facial expressions speak volumes. Alexander had an idea in his head of how this confrontation would go. But once Wilhelm walked in, everything suddenly went off script.

Wille is just as strong-willed as August, and he is LIVID in this scene, with both co-conspirators. I think Alexander suddenly realizes in this scene that taking the blame for August means Wilhelm now perceives him as an enemy. Wille still doesn’t hate Alexander as much as he hates August, but Alexander is probably now in the top three of people Wilhelm wants to destroy. Alexander considered Wille his enemy already. But August didn’t give him a chance to reflect on the fact that if he took the fall for August’s crime, Wilhelm would consider Alexander an enemy right back.

In early S2, Alexander watched Wilhelm systematically manipulate the third years to undermine August, until August lost his prefect position and captaincy of the rowing team. Alexander already knows Wille is hella vindictive towards his enemies, and Alexander has just made himself one. I think Alexander is freaking out during that whole confrontation. He’s now faced with some of the consequences of the deal he made with August, and second-guessing himself.

Also, the next day at the jubilee, Wilhelm outs himself on live TV and confirms he was the second boy in the video. August’s plan was for Alexander to take the blame for a video featuring a working-class non-resident with no social clout, plus an anonymous second boy. It’s one thing for August to ask him to do that.

Now the whole world knows the perpetrator surreptitiously filmed the CROWN PRINCE and then leaked it all over the internet. The calculus for Alexander taking the blame has changed significantly. The media and the public, domestic and international, will care much more about child pornography involving royalty than child porn involving two random minors. That’s a much bigger ask from August now.

The media technically couldn’t report Alexander’s name if he were charged, because he’s a minor too. But the whole WORLD will want to know who the culprit is, now the Crown Prince of Sweden is officially one of the victims. Alexander’s name won’t appear in news articles written by professional journalists, but it will be all over the internet in comments on Twitter, Instagram, etc by private individuals. And as Simon could tell Alexander from bitter experience, once your name is out there and linked to a huge scandal, your privacy is gone forever.

Finally, August’s cunning plan has one tiny problem. In order to convince Alexander to take the fall, he had to confess to Alexander that he filmed and leaked the video. That’s one more person who knows the truth. At this point, Alexander probably seems like a safe person for August to tell. Alexander is easy to push around, and they have a mutual enemy in Wilhelm. Plus, it’s August’s word against Alexander’s.

But what if in S3, Alexander decides even though he hates Wille’s guts, Wille is more likely to become king someday than August. Alexander could put himself in a position where the future king owes him a huge favour. And Alexander wouldn’t even have to confess to a crime he didn’t commit in order to get Wilhelm in his debt.

All he’d have to do was set his phone to record and approach August about negotiating new and improved terms for the deal whereby Alexander would take the fall for August’s crime against Wille and Simon. It would never occur to August that meek, subservient, obedient Alexander might dare to double-cross HIM. Of course, all of this is unlikely. Alexander doesn’t seem like he’s strong-willed enough or decisive enough to think up something like that and then go through with it. But it would be a smart way to parlay the information he has into an advantage.

Finally, on a very different note, although I love the show’s commitment to diverse casting, I really wish Alexander wasn’t the only East Asian YR character with lines. Because there is a media stereotype about East Asian males being meek, subservient, and less manly than men of other ethnicities. Obviously that stereotype is bullshit, like other ethnic stereotypes. But YR, by having only one East Asian male character with lines, and giving him Alexander’s timid personality, played into that stereotype. I’m quite sure they didn’t do it on purpose, but they did it.

One of the things I loved most about the movie Crazy Rich Asians was that it had multiple different male characters played by East Asian actors who were presented as sexy and desirable. Even though I’m a lesbian and wasn’t attracted to any of them! If Young Royals had another East Asian male character with lines in S3, and that character was outspoken and decisive, Alexander would come across as less of a stereotype. Even if that other character didn’t have many lines, there would be a cross-section of personalities shown among East Asian male characters in the show.

[naeleys]

CHAPTER 02 — the queen of love and beauty

author's note. both damon and robert aren't knights in particular since they are future lords but participating in the tourney like daemon had while being a prince. but i had called them knights in here so let us pretend that they took knighthood here before becoming lords of their houses.

< previous chapter >

Years had slipped by since the birth of Princess Rhaenyra, each one weaving a tapestry of peace and prosperity around her life. From the tender age of five months, when her father, King Aerys, had proudly declared her "The Realm's Delight," she had been cherished by all. Now, at fourteen, Rhaenyra had blossomed into a stunning young woman, her beauty celebrated far and wide across Westeros. Her name was immortalized in songs, stories, and poems that praised her grace and allure.

"There's nothing for you to fret about; you're beautiful," Vivienne Hightower, her lady-in-waiting, reassured her gently as she braided the princess's long, silver hair. "You are the beauty of Westeros for a reason."

"Being the beauty of Westeros doesn't guarantee a good husband," Rhaenyra replied, her voice tinged with a hint of melancholy. "Men will come for my title and appearance, not for who I truly am."

Vivienne paused, her hands stilling as she glanced at the mirror, catching the despondent expression on Rhaenyra's face.

"You don't have to accept a suitor if you don't feel a connection or happiness," Vivienne consoled her. "The King and Queen would never allow their only daughter to end up in a miserable marriage."

As she finished braiding, Vivienne rose and gently pulled Rhaenyra to her feet. "Come now, we mustn't be late for the tourney for Prince Viserys's nameday."

King Aerys had arranged a grand tourney in honor of the first nameday of his youngest son, Prince Viserys. Nobles from across the realm had been invited, making it a prime opportunity for Rhaenyra to find a suitable match, as her father had subtly suggested. She was, after all, of marriageable age now.

"I heard a certain heir participating in the tourney has his eyes set on you," Vivienne remarked with a sly smile as they settled into the royal box beside the Lord Hand and the King.

Rhaenyra exchanged pleasantries with Cersei Lannister, the daughter of Tywin Lannister, who was of similar age.

"Is that so?" Rhaenyra inquired, arching an eyebrow at the smirking Alicent.

"Rumor has it he's an honorable man," Vivienne chimed in, her voice carrying a note of intrigue.

"Lord Rickard Stark has also arrived with his sons: Brandon, Eddard, and Benjen Stark," Cersei added, causing both ladies to glance her way in surprise. "They've come to seek your hand.”

"But doesn't Eddard Stark have a lover?" Rhaenyra asked, her brow furrowing. "I heard she's from House Tully."

"Perhaps," Cersei said with a nonchalant shrug. "But what use is a lady when he could have a princess?"

"Speaking of which..." Vivienne murmured, her gaze shifting. The others followed her line of sight to see Lord Stark and his three sons approaching the royal box, each of them tall and striking.

"Gods be good," Vivienne whispered, clearly captivated by their presence. "Is there something in the air at Winterfell?"

Cersei giggled at Vivienne's remark, a lightness in the air as they watched the Stark men draw near.

"Your Grace," Lord Stark greeted with a deep bow, his sons following suit.

"Lord Stark! It is a pleasure to see you. How do you find King's Landing so far?" the King asked warmly.

"Very different from the North, Your Grace," Lord Stark replied with a hint of a smile.

"We hope you find it comfortable," the King continued, before gesturing to the young men beside Stark. "May you present your sons?"

"The eldest, Brandon Stark, heir to Winterfell," Lord Stark introduced.

Brandon stepped forward, bowing to the King before turning to Rhaenyra. "Your Grace," he said, his stormy grey eyes locking onto hers. He was undeniably handsome, and his intense gaze sent a shiver down her spine.

"Princess," Brandon added, his voice deep and steady.

Eddard, the second son, stepped up next. "Your Grace," he greeted with a kind smile directed at Rhaenyra. His long brown hair and prominent beard lent him a more mature appearance, and if not for the introductions, Rhaenyra might have mistaken him for the eldest.

"And lastly, Benjen Stark," Lord Stark concluded. The youngest son approached, his eyes setting on Rhaenyra with a mix of admiration and awe. He had heard tales of her beauty and kind heart but had never seen her in person. Her generosity to the smallfolk was well known, and it only deepened his respect for her.

"Your sons are fine young men, Lord Stark," the King said, bringing Benjen out of his thoughts. "May they accomplish great things in the future. Daughter?"

Rhaenyra rose gracefully and approached the Starks with a warm smile. "Lord Stark, it is a pleasure to finally meet you all."

"Princess Rhaenyra," Lord Stark said, taking her hand and kissing it gently. "It is an honor to meet you."

"I heard that you're seeking a husband?" he asked, his tone respectful but pointed.

Rhaenyra's smile faltered slightly. The pursuit of a match had almost slipped her mind amidst the grandeur of the tourney. Queen Rhaella had always assured her that marriage would bring happiness, especially with the prospect of motherhood. Rhaenyra wanted to believe her, but she couldn't ignore the reality of her parents' troubled union. The sadness in her mother's eyes spoke volumes. King Aerys might have been a loving father to her, but he was far from a devoted husband.

"That I am," she replied, her voice steady but tinged with uncertainty.

"Then let's hope you find a suitable match," Lord Stark said, glancing subtly at his sons, as if suggesting one of them might be the answer.

The three Stark brothers took note of their father's look. Brandon puffed out his chest, determined to make an impression. Though he didn't love the princess yet, he was prepared to fulfill his duties as a husband and, perhaps in time, grow to love her.

Eddard, however, avoided his father's gaze, clearly uncomfortable with the idea. His heart was already promised elsewhere.

Benjen, the youngest, felt overshadowed. As the spare, he had little to offer in terms of inheritance or status, with the birthright belonging to Brandon. Still, he excelled in swordsmanship and could offer protection if nothing else.

Returning to her seat, Rhaenyra let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"How was it?" Cersei asked, her curiosity evident. "Did any of them catch your eye?"

Vivienne, too, turned her gaze toward the princess, awaiting her response.

"None of them particularly interest me," Rhaenyra replied, her tone measured, though she added, "Brandon Stark isn't entirely unattractive."

Vivienne offered a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, you may find yourself drawn to him in time."

Brandon Stark, with his confident demeanor and striking looks, had certainly left an impression. His intense gaze lingered in her thoughts, and she couldn't deny his appeal. But as Vivienne had pointed out before to her, physical attraction alone didn't guarantee a happy union. Eddard's distant manner and Benjen's youth made them less appealing in her eyes, but she couldn't dismiss any of them outright.

The burden of her title weighed heavily on her. As the only daughter of King Aerys, she knew her choice of husband would have far-reaching consequences. It wasn't just about finding a man she could grow to love; it was about securing a future for the realm. The stakes were high, and the pressure to choose wisely was ever-present.

The horns blared, and the crowd erupted in cheers as the grand tourney in honor of Prince Viserys's nameday commenced. The air was thick with the sounds of clashing swords, hooves thundering on the dirt, and the excited murmurs of the gathered nobility. Knights, eager to prove their skill and valor before the royal family, paraded onto the field, their armor gleaming under the sun.

Rhaenyra sat in the royal box, flanked by her parents and her lady-in-waiting, Vivienne. Although the festivities were in full swing, her mind wandered back to the Stark brothers and the looming prospect of marriage. The burden of her future weighed heavily on her, even as the crowd's enthusiasm surged around her.

Suddenly, the next joust was announced, pulling Rhaenyra's attention back to the field. A knight in shining armor, his shield emblazoned with the sigil of House Strong—three rivers (blue, red, and green) on white, flowing from a black escutcheon displaying a white hand—rode out with confidence. The sunlight glinted off his polished helm as he took his position, his posture exuding both strength and determination. Across from him, his opponent, a knight from House Arryn, prepared to meet him in the clash.

"Lord Damon of House Strong!" the herald's voice rang out over the crowd, naming the challenger. The spectators leaned forward in anticipation, eager to witness the skill of the man who had captured the admiration of many.

Rhaenyra's gaze fixed on Damon, a mix of curiosity and admiration in her eyes. There was something undeniably captivating about the way he carried himself—proud, yet not overly arrogant. As the joust began, the tension in the air thickened. Damon spurred his horse forward, lance aimed with precision. The crowd held its breath, waiting to see which knight would emerge victorious in this contest of skill and bravery.

The crowd murmured in anticipation as Lord Damon Strong took his place on the field. The tension in the air was palpable, with eyes fixed on the formidable knight who had earned a reputation for his strength and fearlessness.

"There he is!" Vivienne whispered excitedly beside Rhaenyra. "Lord Damon Strong, son of Osbert Strong, heir to House Strong. He's renowned for his unmatched prowess in battle."

"They call him Lord Damon 'Breakbones' Strong," Cersei added, her voice tinged with admiration. "Some say he's even better than my twin brother Jaime."

Vivienne leaned closer to Rhaenyra, her excitement barely contained. "He's quite the warrior, isn't he?”

Rhaenyra nodded, her gaze fixed on Damon as he readied his lance. "Yes, but being a good warrior doesn't necessarily mean he'll make a good husband."

Vivienne smiled, her voice softening. "True, but it's a start."

As the two knights charged at each other, the sound of clashing steel filled the air. Damon's skill was undeniable—he unseated his opponent with a single, powerful strike, sending the knight of House Arryn crashing to the ground. The crowd erupted in thunderous applause, and Rhaenyra couldn't help but feel a flutter of admiration at his prowess.

Damon dismounted and removed his helm, revealing his sweat-soaked hair and a triumphant smile. His eyes searched the royal box, and when they met Rhaenyra's, he bowed deeply, a gesture of respect that held a hint of something more. The sincerity in his gaze made her heart skip a beat, and she felt a blush creeping up her cheeks. Embarrassed by the unexpected reaction, she quickly turned away, feigning interest in the next match.

But Vivienne had noticed the exchange and leaned in with a teasing smile. "You may not be as indifferent as you claim, Rhaenyra."

Rhaenyra huffed, though a small smile tugged at her lips. "He's impressive, I'll admit. But I'm not making any decisions based on a joust."

"That's wise," Vivienne agreed. "But remember, you should follow your heart, too."

Rhaenyra's smile faded slightly as her gaze drifted to her parents. Queen Rhaella watched the tourney with a serene expression, yet Rhaenyra knew the sorrow that lay beneath that calm exterior. Her father, King Aerys, cheered loudly, his mood as unpredictable as ever. Their marriage had been a strategic alliance rather than a love match, and Rhaenyra couldn't help but fear that she might face a similar fate.

As the tourney continued, she realized the burden of her position. The prospect of marriage wasn't just about choosing a husband; it was about securing the future of the realm. Despite her feelings, she knew she had to tread carefully, balancing duty with the desire to forge her own path.

"Lord Damon Strong is now going to choose his opponent for the second battle!" the announcer's voice rang out, cutting through the roar of the crowd.

Damon Strong, having finished his first bout, rode back to his horse and made his way along the line of waiting knights. His gaze swept over the contenders, and Rhaenyra noticed Cersei Lannister stiffen as he stopped right in front of her brother, Ser Jaime Lannister. For a tense moment, Cersei's face paled, but relief washed over her as Damon's horse veered away and continued down the line.

"You're afraid he might crush Jaime?" Rhaenyra smirked, noting Cersei's anxious expression.

"I am merely concerned for my brother's safety," Cersei replied, her tone defensive.

"Of course," Rhaenyra chuckled. "But this is a tourney, Lady Cersei. Knights are expected to compete fiercely for their honor."

Damon's horse came to a halt in front of another knight, whose shield bore the sigil of House Baratheon. With a deliberate and confident motion, Damon pointed his lance at his chosen opponent.

The announcer's voice boomed again, "Lord Damon has chosen Lord Robert of House Baratheon as his opponent!"

The crowd erupted into applause and cheers at the news. The clash between Damon Strong and Robert Baratheon promised to be a spectacle, each knight known for his strength and skill. Rhaenyra's attention remained fixed on the field, eager to see the outcome of this high-stakes match.

Rhaenyra had yet to meet Robert Baratheon in person, but she had certainly heard whispers about him among the ladies of the court. He was famed for his bravery and strength, his reputation as a fierce fighter preceding him. Many of the court's ladies had been captivated by his charisma, and his name was spoken with a blend of admiration and infatuation.

As Damon chose Robert Baratheon as his opponent, the excitement in the air grew palpable. The crowd buzzed with anticipation, eager to witness the clash between two of the realm's most formidable knights. Rhaenyra felt a flutter of curiosity and interest, eager to see how Robert would perform.

Cersei, having regained her composure, now watched the scene with a focused gaze. "Lord Robert Baratheon," she said, her voice thoughtful. "They say he's as wild and untamed as the storm that bears his house's sigil."

Rhaenyra agreed, her eyes following the two knights as they prepared for their joust. "He has certainly earned his reputation. But Damon is equally skilled. This promises to be a clash of titans."

As the knights readied themselves, the crowd fell into a hushed silence, the tension mounting as the two warriors prepared to face off. The outcome of this joust would not only entertain the spectators but could also potentially shift the balance of power and influence within the court.

The two lords took their positions, lowering their visors and readying their lances. The air was thick with anticipation as the crowd fell silent, the only sounds being the rustle of banners and the distant call of a horn. Then, with a thunderous burst, the horses charged, hooves pounding across the arena.

Rhaenyra held her breath as the two lords closed in on each other. The impact was spectacular, the clash of lances ringing out through the stands. For a moment, it was unclear who had the advantage—both Damon and Robert remained steadfast in their saddles, their lances splintering from the force of their collision.

Robert Baratheon, with a roar of defiance, urged his horse forward again. His lance, now broken, was discarded as he readied himself for hand-to-hand combat. Damon, quick and agile, dismounted gracefully and drew his sword to meet Robert's challenge. The two lords circled each other, the crowd erupting in cheers at the unexpected turn to melee combat.

Rhaenyra's eyes were locked on the duel. Damon was precise and controlled, his movements strategic and fluid. In contrast, Robert fought with raw power and unbridled energy, each swing of his sword like the charge of a bull. It was a contest of finesse versus might.

Cersei leaned in, her voice a soft murmur. "Robert fights like a man possessed. He's relentless.”

Rhaenyra nodded, her heart racing as the fight grew more intense. Damon managed to parry one of Robert's mighty blows, using the momentum to land a strike of his own. Robert staggered momentarily but quickly recovered, his face set in fierce determination.

The battle seemed endless, each lord pushing the other to their limits. Finally, with a masterful maneuver, Damon disarmed Robert, sending his sword clattering to the ground. The crowd erupted in cheers, their admiration clear. Damon's victory was met with enthusiastic approval, the display of skill and strength leaving a lasting impression on all who witnessed it.

Robert, breathing heavily, stepped back and raised his hands in surrender. "You've bested me, Lord Damon," he said, his voice tinged with grudging respect.

Damon, ever the gentleman, extended a hand to Robert. "It was an honor, Lord Robert."

The two clasped hands, and the crowd erupted in a roar of approval, their cheers resonating through the arena. The display of mutual respect between the combatants was met with admiration from all corners.

As the dust settled and the lords made their way back to the sidelines, Rhaenyra felt a deep sense of admiration. The tourney had been filled with unexpected moments, but the clash between Damon and Robert stood out as the highlight of the day.

Cersei, her eyes still focused on the departing males, seemed pleased with the outcome. "It appears that Lord Damon has made quite an impression today," she remarked, a note of admiration in her voice.

Rhaenyra smiled, her gaze following Damon as he returned to his place. "Indeed, he has. But it's not just the reputation he's earned. It's the honor and skill he's displayed that truly matters."

The sun dipped lower in the sky, casting a warm, golden light over the tourney grounds. The final events of the day had come to a close, and the air was charged with anticipation. The crowd fell silent as Lord Damon Strong, the day's victor, dismounted from his horse and made his way to the base of the royal box.

Rhaenyra, seated amidst her family and court, felt her heart quicken. The honor of being named Queen of Love and Beauty was a rare and coveted accolade, and she had watched many of her peers receive it before—Vivienne Hightower had been crowned twice in the past year alone. But now, as Damon approached, Rhaenyra found herself the focus of attention.

Damon's armor gleamed in the dying light, bearing the marks of his arduous battles. Despite the sweat and dust, he carried himself with an air of pride and confidence. As he neared the royal box, Rhaenyra's gaze met his, and in that fleeting moment, the world seemed to fall away. She saw not merely a knight but a man of remarkable honor, skill, and grace—qualities that had been evident throughout the tourney.

At the base of the royal box, Damon paused, holding a crown of flowers delicately woven together. His eyes never wavered from Rhaenyra's as he spoke, his voice carrying across the hushed grounds.

"Princess," he began, his tone both respectful and earnest, "it is with great honor and admiration that I present to you this crown, in recognition of your beauty and grace. You have been the true queen of this day, and it is only fitting that you should wear this token of our esteem."

The crowd's collective breath seemed to hold as Damon extended the flower crown towards Rhaenyra. Her heart swelled with a mix of emotions—surprise, joy, and a hint of something deeper. As she reached out to accept the crown, the setting sun cast a warm glow around her, making the moment feel both magical and timeless.

The evening air was filled with a palpable sense of excitement and wonder as Lord Damon Strong stood before the crowd, his voice ringing clear and strong.

"My lords and ladies," he began, his tone carrying a weight of sincerity and respect. "Today, I have fought not only for honor but for the admiration I hold for a woman whose beauty, grace, and spirit are unmatched in all the realms. It is my privilege, my honor, to name Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen as the Queen of Love and Beauty."

The announcement was met with a thunderous applause, the cheers and clamor of the crowd echoing through the twilight. Rhaenyra sat momentarily frozen in her seat, the unexpected honor leaving her stunned. However, the excited nudges from Vivienne and Cersei—both practically bursting with enthusiasm—soon jolted her into action. Rising to her feet, Rhaenyra ascended the steps to the royal box, each step feeling both surreal and momentous.

As she reached the top, Damon awaited her, the crown of flowers held delicately in his hands. With a gentle, yet ceremonious touch, he placed the crown upon her head. The lightness of the flowers was a stark contrast to the profound emotion she felt. The gesture carried a depth of meaning that transcended the mere act, and as their eyes met, Rhaenyra felt a soft, genuine smile form on her lips.

"Thank you, Lord Damon," she said, her voice carrying a warmth that reflected her gratitude. "You honor me greatly."

Damon bowed deeply, his gaze remaining locked with hers. "The honor is mine, Princess."

With Damon stepping back, the crowd's cheers grew even more exuberant. Rhaenyra glanced around the royal box, seeing the pride in her father, King Aerys's eyes, the soft smile of her mother, Queen Rhaella, and the mixed emotions of admiration and perhaps envy from the other nobility.

But it was Damon's gaze that she returned to. In that moment, with the crown of flowers resting upon her silver hair and the cheers of the crowd ringing in her ears, Rhaenyra felt a connection to him that went beyond the simple gesture of the day.

As the evening sky darkened and the stars began to appear, Rhaenyra knew that this day would be one she would remember for the rest of her life. The title of Queen of Love and Beauty was fleeting, but the memory of Damon's gesture—and the way it had made her feel—would stay with her forever.

< masterlist > < next chapter >

[destroyerofnations92]

Chapter one of up unto the overturned keel has been made public on my Patreon. If you enjoy Daemyra, are Team Black, or just really like the Rogue Prince and his Delight, go have a read.

If you're interested, I have several other multi-chaptered WIPs, as well as more chapters of the above-mentioned story. All of them are set in the wonderful World of Westeros (Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon).

up unto the overturned keel [House of the Dragon]: “Tales of great kings and mighty warriors are whispered with revery amongst the smallfolk, but how do things change when a peaceful king makes way for a martial one?”

a dragon’s wroth [House of the Dragon]: “Much had been written about Daemon Targaryen – brother to a king, husband to a queen and father to yet another queen – and even more had been said of him, but none could deny the devotion to his blood.”

i wake and feel the fell of dark, not day [House of the Dragon]: “Rhaenyra and Daemon’s rage would be whispered of for generations to come. As would the bloody trail of death and despair that followed in their wake.”

the girl in the green dress [House of the Dragon]: “Only fools wake a slumbering dragon. Let this fool not be wearing green as well?”

amidst salt and smoke [Game of Thrones]: “It has been seven years since Bran the Broken was named Lord of the Six Kingdoms, and Tyrion Lannister has rebuilt the realm, bringing forth peace and change. However, tensions with the independent Kingdom of the North and the Lords Paramount endanger the prosperity created by the Lannister lord’s Handship, as does the Hand’s own instability—for he dreams of those he has lost. What is real and what is not?”

You're in luck because there is also a one-week free trail before you have to commit to anything. 😉

For those interested, below is a short snippet of chapter one.

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The maesters murmured amongst themselves for days after the birth, with lesser courtiers chiming in at times, whispering about the queerness of the young prince: silent, yet according to the few maids that were allowed near him by the babe’s mother, he burned hotter than a Dornish summer’s day.

What newborn does not weep? Does not shed any tears at all? Instead just watches those that stand over his hand-carved dragon crib with those deep purple eyes. No smiles, no tears, just staring. And that damned heat.

The royal family must have heard the whispers. How could they not? Yet, it was only when the Prince of Dragonstone confronted Lord Rickard Connington about his gossiping and threatened to disembowel him in front of his young wife and children, that the overt speculation died down. Though Prince Aemon knew there was still talk of his beloved sennight-old nephew within the halls of the Red Keep, at least it no longer happened within his or his lady wife’s earshot, nor that of his brother and their sister.

When born, the prince’s eyes had been the darkest of purples, closer to black than anything, yet with an unmistakable shine to them. As expected, the few tufts of hair on the babe’s head were the traditional Targaryen platinum, but more silver than white. The maesters believed that both might change in time. His eyes could lighten up and his hair might to on more of a blonde or white hue, but decades later, both would remain the same.

The birth of any prince or princess of the blood was always a cause for celebration, and while the King was jubilant at the birth of his youngest grandchild, it was Alysanne who adored the newborn prince above all else. The Good Queen would spend entire days within the young prince’s chambers, just looking at him, while he stared back at her.

Daemon. A name the prince and princess had only settled upon a day prior and which would be formally announced to the court soon enough. While many would assume the newborn prince was named after the Conciliator’s uncle and former Hand of the King, or even the Conqueror’s first Master of Ships and his most loyal of supporters, those who truly knew the Spring Prince and his sister-wife knew better.

Prince Baelon and Princess Alyssa, more than any Targaryen since the sorceress queen had perished four decades earlier, had a deep-rooted admiration of the ancient Freehold and its near-mythical prowess. When dragons still roamed the sky by the dozens, grand buildings were erected, perfect roads lay with the magic of blood and fire, and Lords Freeholders were worshipped as gods come flesh, a great dragonlord sat as First Lord for more than half a century… Daemon the Blackhair.

The Blackhair, much like his name suggested, missed the famed Valyrian white hair. Born a scion of the House Volterys, many assumed he was a bastard born of his mother’s dalliance with one of the lower blood, a servant maybe, though his powerful father seemingly paid the rumours no mind. His ascendency to the parriarchy of his ancient house at the age of seven and ten would have been considered controversial if he had not yet claimed the dragon Ghidorax. Nearing her fourth century, the grand she-dragon was considered the mightiest mount in at least ten generations.

Though the Volteryses were considered traders rather than warriors or politicians, Daemon would make a name for himself within the Civic Legions, and be granted command of its most elite of brigades at the young age of one and twenty. There started his meteoric rise: from command of the First Brigade to the entire Civic Legions, Archonship of Mantarys and Consulship of the Gierūlnon – the ancient assembly of lords freeholders – and finally, to the vaulted office of First Lord. The most powerful man in all of Valyria, maybe even the known world. For three-and-fifty years, the Blackhair sat on the Blood Throne and in that time he brought Ghis to heel, forced the Dothraki from their borders, and even settled an outpost in the west.

Who better to name their son for?

******************

Also, check out my Linktree for all my social media and fanfiction accounts.

[bluedalahorse]

Two decisions I really liked about YRS3 (but not the only decisions)

Also posted on my dreamwidth. Left unrebloggable for the sake of setting boundaries. Comments and thoughts welcome though!

Today I want to talk about two decisions made by Lisa and the other Young Royals Season 3 writers that I really liked. This is an analysis post, to some extent. In line with my new priorities, I also want to talk about how these decisions could work on a craft level to fuel my creativity, and—more fannishly—where they might leave me with inspiration in my fanfiction. Because everything from here on out is spoilers, and because it is long, I am going to cut it.

The writing decisions I want to focus on today are a) starting the season with a private settlement to resolve issues around the video/the gun/the drugs, and b) digging deeper into the ambiguity of Erik. As a heads up, both of these decisions felt particularly catered toward my reading of the show and what I wanted from it to begin with. But I figured, why not start with what one loves about a thing? So we will begin there, and perhaps, if I let myself rewatch episodes during the break, we will move on to other things, too.

The private settlement

This was something @heliza24 speculated might happen in the months leading up to season 3’s release. In fandom, there was a lot of discussion around whether the legal system would be able to deliver consequences to August re: the video or not, and whether Wille or Simon could be prosecuted for the field scene and the drugs and such. For me, one of the most informative posts on the matter was sflow-er’s post about how each boys’ actions would be labeled and classified, and what the penalties might be. I don’t know the Swedish legal system too well, so it was quite informative.

In my opinion, kicking off season 3 with the arbitration/settlement outside of court, and refusing to provide catharsis through the legal system itself, was the best decision the writers could have made. I also love that it was all wrapped up in an episode. We know that rich Hillerska families often settle things discreetly behind closed doors, and the legal system tacitly allows this to happen, so this felt in line with the series worldbuilding and the real world interactions it is grounded in. I also feel that Young Royals works best when it’s at least partially anchored in Hillerska, and secondarily anchored in the family interactions characters have at home. So taking things into the courtroom for too long wouldn’t feel quite right, even if season 3 does, to some extent, open up the world more for our characters.

What also struck me was the way the adults behaved in this scene, and how a lot of it felt… not so great? You can tell that the adults all care for their respective boys (however imperfectly they express it before, during, and after the settlement.) But the way they all swoop in and try to flatten the last two seasons of conflict into who owes what to whom is sort of fascinating, and feels parallel to the housemother trying to mediate between Sara and Felice at the end of 2.6. You realize how little they know of the nuances of what happened, and how quick they are to take away the agency of their boys when they think it protects them. I really want to hit this point hard—the boys all have their agency taken away in that moment, and I use the word “boys” deliberately because it is adults who are putting them in that position. You can see some of that persist in the aftermath of the settlement; FFS Linda is making Simon pee into a cup every day.

(Not to mention the hint of personal investment each set of parents has in the case. Rickard can’t resist doing lawyerly flexes, and Linda’s constant references to Swedish values show that she’s worried she immigrated in vain. I’m sure there’s a blank we could fill in with Ludwig and Kristina, but I’m operating on memory here and I don’t remember their lines precisely.)

As icky as the settlement scenes feel, and as much tension as they create, they are also necessary for marking the importance of past conflicts while propelling the narrative forward. It does matter that August released the video—it matters enough that he had to sell his estate to compensate Simon, and it’s absolutely appropriate that he should have. And it does matter that Wille waved a gun around and Simon brought drugs to school and sold them. 

At the same time, what the show is saying here is, legal consequences and lawyers (especially Rickard) can’t solve all the show’s problems. No amount of money from August is ever going to fix Simon’s mental health by itself. August being locked away forever wouldn’t have magically taken away the fault lines in Wilhelm and Simon’s relationship, which we see over the course of the season have as much to do with Wilhelm’s relationship to the monarchy as everything else. And in some alternate universe where Simon and Wille get in trouble for the drugs and the gun but August faces zero punishments at all, he wouldn’t exactly be magically cured of all his trauma and live a pretty life from then on.

Ultimately season 3 seems to be saying not that the legal system is 100% ineffective, but that it has its limits in how much healing or catharsis it can bring to people. Especially because of the way settlements and trials focus on incidents in isolation, and limit the agency of the people they are supposed to defend. I actually don’t think season 3 is telling us to let go of the legal system entirely. But what it is doing is asking us to understand offenses beyond the strict binaries of crime and punishment, and how they fit into broader contexts of societal prejudice. And finally, it is telling us to look to vulnerable human-to-human connections as another space for healing. Which is where all the juicy, interesting, complicated stuff is. I’m glad that S3 chose to follow those threads instead of just sticking us in a courtroom for five episodes.

A note before I continue: I know I’ve talked to a few friends who were disappointed we didn’t see August sell Årnäs, when we know it’s important to him. I haven’t decided how I feel about that yet. I have decided that this is one of the things I’d love to ask Lisa about in more depth, to see why one of her writing decisions was to leave that out. I suspect August has already started to pull away from Årnäs a bit in season 2 already, given that he’s willing to sell art to buy Rousseau for Sara, but I don’t know if he’s consciously there yet, and I think fans might be looking to see him grapple with that. In retrospect, it also seems like August’s arc over 3 seasons is him trying to figure out who his family is. The material reality of Årnäs and how much he wants to keep it is sort of an externalization of that, but also his way of deflecting from talking seriously about his grief for his father. So, I see why this is a tab left open in people’s brains. Maybe I’ll be able to close it on rewatch. But Simon’s also supposed to be getting that money, and that tab is left open in my brain, too. I hope Lisa reads this and has an answer for me.

Anyway. Onward to those human-to-human connections.

Erik’s ambiguity and his role in the initiations

I never fully trusted Erik. I say this not to “gloat about being right” but mostly to establish what my baseline reading of the character was in season 1. I do think he was very loving of Wilhelm and meant a lot to him, but I didn’t trust him to be a full-on LGBTQIA+ ally, and I didn’t trust him not to have gotten up to abusive fratboy shit in the past. Part of the reason I gravitated toward this reading of the character is that I found it way more interesting than Erik being perfect. In my personal experience, family members are never exactly who you need them to be, and part of the struggle of growing up is knowing when you can lean on someone (or their memory) for support and when you need to protect yourself. Fiction that deals with these themes is endlessly fascinating to me. It’s the kind of fiction I try to write, that I’d want to someday publish. So naturally Ambiguous Erik is my preferred Erik.

As someone who’s always sort of approached Erik’s memory with a less-than-trusting reading of his character, the minute the homophobic initiations came up, I knew that Erik’s role was going to be a key point of revelation. So much of season 3’s momentum was tied up in Wilhelm finding out and processing that, and August being able to put into words how Erik and the other third year boys’ actions traumatized him. The knowledge that August, Nils, and Vincent chose to remove the most homophobic practices when they initiated first years adds a twist of the tragic knife. We have three boys who are trying (however imperfectly) to break the cycle, and yet none of them got the support they needed in processing what happens to them. August even ends up releasing the video and perpetuating the cycle of abuse. But it’s hard not to look at that now and not see an element of untreated trauma driving his actions.

I suspect for some fans of the show, that revelation about August (and Nils, and Vincent) essentially being a sexual assault victim is a pretty uncomfortable one, because it can feel like an excuse for his actions. But I don’t think the show is excusing August’s actions so much as explaining them, and even more importantly, the show instead seems to be focused on just how challenging breaking the cycle can be, and just how much time and effort is required. Moreover, understanding August’s vulnerability is crucial for Wilhelm’s character arc.

In my restorative justice meta a while back, I talked about the dangers of the Hillerska students being able to villainize someone like August, because they could so easily deflect from their own actions by imagining him as an individual monster and ignoring the parts of the system that enabled his worst deeds. When I wrote this, I was primarily thinking of characters like Nils and Vincent. I did not expect it to be Wilhelm buying into the myth of August the Monster while disavowing his own flaws. And yet, in season 3, we could see Wilhelm’s black-and-white villainizing of August as something that got in the way of his empathy and better judgment, primarily toward Simon. Like. Wilhelm is, to put it lightly, a pretty crappy boyfriend to Simon at the beginning of the season! (If this post also included a third thing I loved, it was that a lot of the wilmon boyfriends stuff early on in the season was always just a little too yikes to be fully cute.)

And yes, you can look at the part where Wilhelm’s making Simon delete stuff off social media, and eventually delete all his social media entirely, and talk about how Wille is responding to the pressure of the palace, and his mother’s mental health struggles and so on. But IMO it’s similar to the way August lets himself get caught up in the pressures of his social role at Hillerska to try and escape his grief and trauma. Both boys fear and disgust the ways they’ve been made vulnerable (something they react to when they see their vulnerability reflected in one another) and try to play their social role within the system they are most familiar, to gain back a sense of strength and agency. Ultimately, however, they become the weapons of that system, and hurt those they love and care about. It was pretty smart of the show to recognize that Wilhelm reconciling with August and Simon reconciling with August are actually two different flavors of Thing, and the reason a Wilhelm-August reconciliation is different is because of the amount of social power that they hold in the system.

No character symbolizes the reasons for August and Wilhelm’s struggle with the system more than Erik. This is not to say that Erik Is Evil—he’s not! We also know that August and Wilhelm love him, and that he has helped them and cared for them—merely that he strands for what they’re both grappling with. Both boys have to recognize Erik beyond the idealized version of him in order to heal and move forward and actually break the cycle. And they have to recognize Erik’s place in those cycles too. In the last scene we see of Erik, he’s day drinking, and we know he visited Boris for therapy. Could he have struggled with guilt over what he did in the initiation? It’s possible. In a way, the biggest tragedy of Erik’s death is that he doesn’t get a chance to break the cycles alongside Wilhelm and August. But maybe his soul can rest easier knowing they are a little closer to being brothers than they were before.

Where this leads me as a writer, especially of fanfics

I likely started with these two aspects of season three because they already line up so much with what interests me in storytelling. When I think about the kind of writer I want to be, I want to write the complex entangled family history stuff that’s hard to sort through, and I want to write it well. Young Royals gives me another solid mentor text in that regard, alongside books like Patron Saints of Nothing and A Sitting in St. James.

On the fanfic side of things… well. I’m glad the legal stuff is taken care of already! I honestly didn’t want to have to be dealing with the courtroom all that much in my fanfics. Maybe someone else will want that, and I think the option is still there. Someone could do some really cool fics with a character choosing to study law in the future, or similar. But I’m glad to have that off my plate for the time being.

As for what these parts of the season have made me more interested in than before, I’m really captivated by the idea of Wilhelm and August becoming brothers to one another, even if—especially if—it’s a fun multi-year slowburn with lots of heart-wrenching emotions. What would their relationship look like? How would they navigate around Wilhelm’s break with his mother and August’s newly forged relationship to one another? What kind of time would August and Wilhelm choose to spend with one another to work on their relationship, and what do the boundaries look like? Could August one day leave the monarchy too, and would Wilhelm support him in that? (I hope so.) For some fans, I think they’re just content to leave Wilhelm and August’s reconciliation as that conversation at the party, and I think that’s valid. But I do know that in whatever I write going forward, I’m interested in seeing how their relationship can develop and change over time. And that feels hopeful in a way I like.

So maybe… just maybe… some of the things I’m going to write will involve Wille and August developing a better relationship. And I think I’m ok with that.

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #49: Robert's Rebellion, but make it gender swap

The thing I love about Robert's Rebellion is that its causes and motivations are far from clear. Was Lyanna kidnapped and raped? Did she go willingly with Rhaegar and chose to stay with him even after her disappearance led to war? Was Robert fighting for the woman he claimed to love or the Iron Throne? Every side has its own opinion, and that is just so viscerally real I can't help but love it.

So naturally I thought: what can I do to twist the narrative even further? Or: What if Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen were gender swapped?

Just imagine it:

In 281, King Aerys and Queen Rhaella have two living children: Rhaelle, 21 and heir apparent to The Iron Throne, and Visneya, 5.

For lack of viable Targaryen alternative, Rhaelle married the Dornish Prince Elias Martell two years previously, but it's far from a love match. They try, but active, outgoing, worldly - even mystical - Rhaelle has little in common with sickly, introverted, salt of the earth Elias. The more they try to make their marriage work, the more they rub each other the wrong way.

Then the tourney at Harrenhal occurs and Princess Rhaelle meets Lyman Stark, the third son of Lord Rickard, and it's love at first sight.

(She's also introduced to Robert Baratheon, who falls in love with her instantly, but the feeling is very much not returned.)

The first signs of trouble come when Lyman Stark wins the tourney and crowns Princess Rhaelle queen of love and beauty. It's not unheard of for unbetrothed knights to crown members of the royal family, but the way he does it sets the Dornish party on edge.

Rhaelle and Lyman begin corresponding after the tourney and, shortly after Rhaelle births her second child, she disappears from the Red Keep.

Robert's Rebellion hits all the same notes, but in a slightly different key.

Brandon Stark, rather than demanding the return of his sister, enters the Red Keep with his father to answer Aerys' summons. When neither profess to know the location of the crown princess, Aerys has both executed. It's this that sparks the rebellion, with Robert being the face of it not for the theft of his betrothed but for his proximity to the Iron Throne. (There should be a decided feeling that Robert would have tried for the throne if Rhaelle ever succeed her father.)

Elias dies at the Red Fork. Jaime kills the Mad King before he can blow up King's Landing. Princess Rhaenys and Prince Aegon are killed by Lannister knights. Robert takes the throne. Visneya and Daenerys are spirited off to Essos.

Throughout it all, there's no sign of Rhaelle or Lyman.

Ned eventually finds them both at the Tower of Joy, where he learns Lyman caught a fever and died shortly after learning of Brandon and Rickard's death. Rhaelle has been keeping his bones next to her bed a la Gustav II - and has recently given birth to a young son she's named Aenys.

When Rhaelle refuses to hand over Lyman's bones or return to the capitol, a struggle ensues. It should never be clear if Rhaelle went the Juliet I'd rather die without my beloved route or if Ned accidentally wounded her during the struggle.

Ned claims Aenys as his bastard son, renaming him Jon, and canon proceeds apace.

Very little should change in the lead-up to the books save that Rhaelle's actions are held up by men in power as just another reason women shouldn't be allowed to inherit. Dorne insists that the crown princess was kidnapped from her loving marriage with Prince Elias, the North insists that she went with Lyman willingly. Robert mourns in his cups over his lost love Rhaelle, who he would have treated so much better than Prince Elias, but still maintains the strongest bonds of brotherhood with Ned Stark, who he doesn't blame for Lyman's actions, saying he would have stolen Rhaelle away too if given half the chance. He also still wishes to murder her sisters hiding in Essos to secure his throne.

...and that's where the plot bunny runs out. What happens during the events of canon because of these changes is very much dealer's choice.

Bonuses include: 1) The rampant misogyny endemic to ASOIAF and the clear suggestion if you just treated women as human beings you wouldn't be in this position, but Rhaelle's decision to run away with Lyman not treated as a victory of feminism so much as an abdication of the responsibility she accepted when named crown princess; 2) Suggestions of Aerys' madness echoing in all members of the Targaryen family at various points throughout, but never explicitly seen in another until the Tower of Joy; and 3) Ned, remembering Rhaelle's final moments, always looking for signs of a similar madness in Jon and openly encouraging his desire to join the Night's Watch.

And that's all I have. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you decide to do anything with it.

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