#young royals S3 spoilers

[purplewilmon]

1.01 l 2.01 l 3.06

[omarcitoloves]

simon has lost everything that made wille fall in love with him and wille doesn't even notice.

it's a heartbreaking story to watch but in a brilliant way i'm fixated on it. and not in a simon deserves better than wille way but in a they both need to find themselves again in order to be happy.

simon is proud of his morals and who he is as a person, he's never been apologetic of it and wants people to know because it is deeply important to him to have a strong self identity in a world where he comes from a broken home, where he's gay, where he's lower socioeconomic class, where he's poc in a hugely white community, and where he has leftist ideals in a monarchist country. when wille tells him he can't post on socials because it reflects on something the crown can't have a position on, he feels he's losing his voice. and all wille can see is trying to minimize a headache.

singing has been simon's lifeline throughout the show, and something thats important to him because it is one of the good memories he has with his dad. when wille sees he posted himself singing all he can see is simon drawing more attention, it needs to be deleted. he doesn't even comment on simon's singing or let alone the lyrics which they make it seem he clocks what simon is saying this season as apposed to last but he's too focused on himself.

and then when simon admits to wille outside he feels he's losing his voice and confidence, everything has become too much. he can't enjoy singing, he's not pursuing a solo this season for the first time and he can hardly string together his song. but it goes over wille's head, he can't even notice the gravity of what simon is trying to say to him

at the sit in simon initially stands his ground and calls out all of their hypocrisy and rightfully points out wille only takes a stand when its low risk for him, but he caves lated because he doesn't want to disappoint wille and doesnt want wille to be mad at him. and despite wille saying he likes that they learn from the other's perspective, he doesn't make a move to understand any of simon's pov.

simon had to throw up a white flag in ep 5 becuase not only had simon shriveled into a shell of himself and wille not noticed, this change of simon was enabling the way the monarchy breaks wille. previously, and in glimpses this season we have seen simon show wille where the monarchy goes wrong and tries to pull wille into safety a bit but wille can not see past the status quo this season. he got simon so why should he worry right? but this is not the simon he loves, there is no point to this simon. if this is the guy you wanted to love you could've found anyone who was ok with a private relationship why go after the proud boy who is the antithesis to you?

this gives me hope for ep 6. i think wille needed a rude awakening desperately because he was depriving simon of the oxygen he needs to flourish and letting himself drown at the same time. wille needs to see why he fought so hard for simon, why simon was so important to them. they are so special, wille needs to get past the weight of the crown

[korixae]

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

[allthefakepeople]

i cannot get over how in this shot before their last kiss they're expressions are both very much "is this real? do i really get to have this? do i get to hold on instead of let go?" followed by the realization that "yes i do get to have this. this is where i'm meant to be"

[wasteofart]

I'm sure people have said this before but that look on Simon's face when Wille yelled at his parents wasn't worry or hurt or shock. It was plain fear. He saw himself in the future being the one Wille is yelling at, he saw the anger in his eyes and he saw his dad. He saw himself in the same place his mother was in when Micke left them. Especially with what happened with Sara and his dad, he realized people don't change even if they try to. He didn't recognize Wille anymore, the caring person he fell in love with but he saw the angry alcoholic he might become.

[haley770]

wilmon fanart? for valentines day? say less!

this definitely wasnt an excuse to draw my favorite clip from the season 3 trailer nope

[perfecteggpartyland]

We won people we won 😭we made it- and Simons song I can't -

[othervee]

So hear me out...

With regards to this s3 promo still:

I think this might be the filming of some material for 'The Year With the Royal Family'.

Since Wilhelm's speech has changed the narrative, the Royal Court has no choice now. They have to show the Queen and the family in general as being welcoming to Simon. How better to do this than an official scene of Simon being formally introduced to Kristina and Ludvig?

That would explain the suits, the welcoming smile on Kristina's face and the positive expression on Ludvig's, the presence of the maids and other staff, and even the blocking tape on the floor (although I know there's a version with tape and a version without).

They might even frame it as if this was shot before the Jubilee, to try and take back control of the narrative and make it seem as if the Royal Court and family were always in favour of Wilhelm coming out in his own way. Of course the candid footage taken by the students and the news cameras still exists, but let's face it, they're going to try to spin it no matter what.

[fan-a-tink]

Young Royals Ep6 thoughts

Things they need to resolve in episode 6

Wilmon, endgame? Will they actually have gone through all that shit only to break up at the end? Is that really the message Lisa wants us to take away? 

Sara & August: will they be together? How is that going to work? Would they tell people?

Sara & Felice: how will Felice react to hearing about Sara and August? Will she be friends with Sara again? Are they finally going to properly talk? Pleeease!

Eriksson family: Will Micke come back? Any kind of resolution for that whole sub-plot? Are they going to move house? 

Royal family: are they having any kind of conversation about Erik? About how they neglected Wille? 

Hillerska: What is the result of the report? Will the school close? Is everything just going back to normal? 

Wille & August: are they just going to hate each other for eternity? Are they still attending their couple’s therapy? Will they talk things through about Erik? 

August’s eating disorder: is that finally going to be addressed properly? 

Frederika & Stella: are they just leaving that story hanging? Is it ever going to be addressed?

Are the girls going to New York, and is Sara coming? 

What is Simon’s second birthday present for Wille? 

+ scenes we know are still coming: 

Neon party

Lake scene (swimming & crying)

Simon: „Can we just forget about everything that’s happened, just for tonight?“

Car whooping scene

Wilmon staring at each other during (potentially) a graduation event

Simon & Linda comforting each other, and Simon & Sara talking by the car

The girls hugging in Felice’s room

Kristina: „Wilhelm, one day you will be an amazing king.“

Wille: „What if I don’t want to?“

That one picture of Felice and Sara together at (probably) the neon party

Did I miss anything? 

And more importantly: How the fuck will all of that fit into one 50-minute episode? 

[heliza24]

Wilhelm's Journey of Radical Forgiveness in Season 3

So this is the next entry in my unintentional series, about how Young Royals embraces truly radical story telling. Previously I’ve written about Simon in season 2 and his arc of radical acceptance, and about how radical the act of quitting the monarchy could be for Wilhelm (and I have never been so happy to be right about anything). But now I’m ready to start talking about season 3, which I loved, and specifically about the theme of radical forgiveness, which I thought was laced throughout the whole season beautifully and drove Wilhelm’s arc specifically.

Before I jump in, I want to pause and really define the concept of radical. When I’m using "radical" in this context, I’m talking about something that challenges the nature of what we assume to be true. I’m talking about embracing an idea that may not seem logical at first, but feels emotionally true and necessary. And I’m talking about ideas that are revolutionary, that have the potential to change people and societies.

When I went in to season 3, I assumed from the beginning that it would end with Wilhelm leaving the monarchy. I have always seen this as the fundamental question of the show (will Wilhelm stay and fulfill his predetermined destiny, or leave and find his own path?). Wilhelm’s relationship with Simon is a catalyst for that decision and their ability to stay together depends on its answer. (There’s no world where Wilhelm remained prince and Wilmon was still endgame.) But during the gap between episodes 5 and 6, I realized that even if you could sum up Wilhelm’s overall series conflict as crown vs freedom/Simon, that was not the major thing driving him in season 3. Or rather, there was another dramatic question he needed to answer, or internal conflict he needed to solve, before he could decide to walk away from the throne and fix his relationship with Simon.

Season 3 starts with the private arbitration/settlement negotiation, and immediately establishes how inadequate legal and financial reparations are at mending the divide between Wilhelm, Simon, and August. Instead this setup pushes Wilhelm into more conflict with August, making him feel like he has to defend his family from August’s incursions. At the same time, the season also opens with the initiation reveal, and the immediate implication that Erik was one of the perpetrators of the sexual abuse that occurred and that August was one of the victims. Suddenly the audience is able to see that the perfect family Wilhelm thinks he is defending— including Erik’s memory— is so much more complicated than Wilhelm realizes. And at the same time, the supposed threat that August poses is also much more complex. No one is as black and white, as good or as evil, as we would like to believe. And Wilhelm’s arc this season is all about understanding this.

There’s one more component to Wilhelm’s arc this season, and that’s his relationship with Simon. As the season goes on, we see Wilhelm become more and more complicit in the abuse Simon suffers. As the season progresses, Wilhelm becomes an enforcer of the palace, asking Simon to give up more of himself, to compromise more of his values, to be with him. By episode four he is saying some pretty homophobic things (“do I have to represent all queers just because I’m in love with you” feels like a slap in the face) and by episode 5 he is subjecting Simon to a violent outburst, even if it’s not directed at him. Wilhelm says almost the exact same thing to Simon that Erik said to him in season 1 (“everything you do now represents me and the royal house”/“everything you do reflects on us as a family”). Kristina is explicitly asking Wilhelm to step up and fill Erik’s shoes this season, and Wilhelm obeys in more ways than one. Wilhelm begins to pass on the same cycle of abuse that is currently affecting him to Simon. The same cycle that has affected Kristina, Erik, August, and Wilhelm is affecting Simon now as well.

In order for Wilhelm to break this cycle, he has to be able to see what he is doing. And he cannot do that until he recognizes and accepts the nuances in both Erik and August. He can’t move on until he has made some sort of peace with both of them.

I think it was a genius idea to trap Wilhelm and August in Hillerska’s version of couple counseling (lol) and force them to talk to each other. (As an aside, I really do love how this show treats therapy as a thing worthy of being dramatized. It’s so powerful.) I also think it was important to see August begin to make some steps of his own, both in therapy and in the way he begins to give Wilhelm and Sara more space. We don’t really see the end of August’s arc of slow self improvement— by the end of the show he’s still very much trapped in the royal cycle and dependent on Sara in a way that’s problematic— but that’s ok because he isn’t the protagonist, and the important thing is that we notice that he is beginning to change, and so does Wilhelm.

The scene at the end of 3.4, when August tells Wilhelm about what happened during the initiation, is so important. August delivers that information genuinely, and not as a threat. And in that moment Wilhelm’s perception of his brother (and secondarily, of August) is flipped upside down. I think even more important is the kind of unspoken question lurking under this new information for Wilhelm: if I idolized Erik, and I detested August, and my image of both of these people was incomplete, then what does that say about me?

I think we can see Wilhelm questioning his perception of his family and of himself in a lot of subtle ways over the last two episodes. We see him put on nail polish and take it off. We see him afraid to ask his dad for more information about Erik on the phone, and then screaming at his parents for the way they abandoned him. We see him struggling to integrate this new information, and he completely neglects Simon because of it, leading to the breakup.

By episode 6, Wilhelm has lost Simon, reached a sort of catharsis with his parents, and maybe most importantly seen Hillerska itself— the setting where the abusive system seems to be baked into the very walls— crumble. All of the things he though were untouchable (his love for Simon, his parents’ authority, the everlasting nature of Hillerska) have completely changed. And I think all of that instability is what allows Wilhelm to finally accept that his understanding of both Erik and August doesn’t have to be permanently fixed either. I love the scene where August and Wilhelm meet at the party, August apologizes, and Wilhelm accepts his apology. And I also love the scene where Wilhelm throws out the broken frog prince snow globe, the one enduring symbol the show has associated with Erik and Wilhelm and their shared role over and over again. I know different fans will have different arguments about how Wilhelm feels about August at the end of the series, but for me their last interaction symbolizes radical forgiveness. By this I don’t mean that Wilhelm has to forget about what August did to him, just like he doesn’t have to forget the bad things Erik has done to others. But he does have to accept them as they are- full of flaws, but intricately connected to him. As part of his imperfect family. And he lets go of the violent anger that has plagued him through much of the series in that moment. That’s a type of forgiveness that makes a real change. It opens up a whole new avenue of possibility for Wilhelm. Because in extending that radical forgiveness towards August and Erik, he’s also able to forgive himself for the way he too has failed the people he loves.

Actually, I think there’s one more component necessary for that self forgiveness, which is Simon telling Wilhelm that he never gave up on Wilhelm himself, only on the Royal family and its rules. That one line is such a gift to Wilhelm. It allows him to see himself as an individual who is separate from his family and able to make his own decisions for the first time. It allows him to fully forgive himself, and to make the decision to leave for his own sake. It allows him to save himself. And then because he has saved himself, he and Simon can be together again.

So in the end Wilhelm ends up answering the driving dramatic question (crown or freedom?) but only after he extends radical forgiveness to his family members and to himself. I think it’s so beautiful, it makes me cry every time I think about it.

This theme of radical forgiveness is everywhere this season, not just in Wilhelm’s arc. It’s in Sara and Felice’s reconciliation, and in Sara and Micke’s relationship, and in the ways that Sara forgives herself and moves beyond shame (expect another meta from me about Wilhelm and Sara season 3 parallels soon, because there are many and I love them). It’s in the way that Linda and Simon forgive each other, and the way that Simon forgives Wilhelm, and the the way that Simon forgives Sara. It’s even in the ways that August grows in fits and starts this season too. I feel like I learned so much from this season. It challenged my assumptions about characters I thought I knew and reminded me to that there is beauty in acknowledging nuance in the world. And I think it will serve as an ongoing reminder for me that even when I mess up and do not live up to my ideals, I am still worthy of radical forgiveness. Growth can’t happen without that compassion towards ourselves and others. And if that isn’t the most perfect message to take away from this beautiful show that I have loved for so long, I don’t know what is.

[purplewilmon]

Wilhelm and Simon + holding hands

[waybeforeyourtime]

My thoughts on E6 and what is endgame

Lisa has always been writing an anti-fairy tale. Falling in love with a handsome prince isn't a happily-ever-after.

So, does that mean no happily-ever-after for Wilmon?

Happily-ever-after implies that the couple is together at the end of the story and forever after that.

Endgame means different things to different people. For some that means happily-ever-after, and some that means 'happy-for-right-now.'

Right now, tbh, storywise, it could go either way and make logical sense for me. However, I believe that Wilmon will be endgame in the happy-for-right-now category - We have problems, and we might not make it in the long run, but I feel you're worth trying to overcome them.

Because I don't think Lisa put these two beautiful queer boys and their love out into the world to crush them in the end. She knows how queers have been screwed over in what little representation the community received.

I think if YR was posted on Ao3 the tag would be 'angst with a happy ending'.

[chrisginny]

so anyways i am unwell

[allthefakepeople]

ok this is a super quick moment, basically just in a flash of the trailer, but i can't help but kinda lose it how even in this short second, wille still looks at simon with so much awe no matter what has happened between them up until this point

he's still so surprised by simon being soft with him and i just love that even after all this time he still looks at simon in the same way as when he first saw him

[m4rs-ex3]

i don't exactly know if this still applies but i just had to share it with you

[haley770]

season 3 is almost here!!! its making me so nervous ! this took me almost 15 hours to draw😭 LOOK AT THEMMM<3 i knew i had to draw it as soon as i saw this picture💜

heres this just as appreciation too because the bookshelf itself took me almost 10 hours and half of it is covered up by wilhelm(still love you though wille). 189 books btw if you care(i do, i care)