Young Royals: Things That Make Me Wonder

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin (2018), dir. Arwen Curry

Unintentionally ominous sign a friend took a photo of at a JoAnn's that's closing.

Chapter 5: A Friend From Finland

Simon hated him. He hated that Wilhelm made his skin buzz in a way he had not felt in years, had not even considered. He hated that Wilhelm looked at him with respect and regret and arrogance all at once, daring Simon to look closer, begging him to. Whimpering sheep one moment, biting wolf in the next. He hated that Wilhelm was the personification of everything he stood against, and yet Simon wanted him anyway.

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“There are probationary employees who are new in government service and those who are labeled as probationary because of a job switch but who have continuous government service prior to their current job. If you are in that latter category and are fired as a probationary employee in these category terminations taking place now there is a good chance your termination was illegal. And it is illegal in a way that courts will vindicate. Obviously there are details and nuances about how this works. But if this applies to you you should at least speak with an attorney who knows this area of law. There’s a good chance you have a case and can receive compensation and/or reinstatement. Needless to say I am not a lawyer and I am certainly not your lawyer. But I say the above after conferring with someone who has relevant expertise and experience in this area of law.”

—

Important Note for Federal Civil Servants - TPM – Talking Points Memo

Signal boost.

The YR parallels are paralleling!

Thoughts and predictions based on the clip and on season 1 and 2, which I spent way too much time on writing.

Both in season 1 and 2 Wille isgazing longingly at Simon in Singing and/or playing piano. In season 3, he's also gazing longingly - but now they're together.

In season 1 and 2 we see Wille in front of mirrors so many times - but now it's Simon who's up for the scrutiny. And mirrors means parallels, parallels all the way down.

It's Simon who's standing in front of the mirror, and Wille is walking, moving, observing him.

This means that this season, Simon will parallel Wille's previous seasons, with media scrutiny. And boyfriend drama.

And what do we know about Simon? He's a boy with many secrets.

Lisa Ambjörn mentioned before, I think in an ask on insta, that all her main characters have a secret that they think will destroy them if it came out. And by now, we know all their secrets - or do we?

August: his family is broke, but even worse, that he posted the video.

Sara: she knew August posted the video, and that she was in love with him.

Felice: the sale of Rousseau. And the things she told Sara in the stables.

Wille: that it was him in the video, that he's in love with a boy.

Simon: that he sold drugs and booze. But is that all?

There are several parallels between Simon and August, such as their dads being addicts, having divorced parents, and having less money than their peers. The court asked for August's passwords to his socials. Nobody helped Simon lock down his accounts. He turned off his phone after the video, Rosh and Ayub came to his house to see him because he didn't answer them. So anything he posted would be there.

Nils is also a parallel character to Simon, they have a lot in common right? They're both gay, they're poc, neither Simon's nor Nils's family have generational wealth. And what does Nils do? He's on Grindr.

For those of you who've seen SKAM, you'll remember that Isak went on Grindr too. It's a common thing to explore. So it's likely - VERY likely - that Simon has or has had a Grindr account. He may have posted pictures there too. Imagine those pictures being spread online, that'd be both traumatic, a publicity nightmare - and potentially cause boyfriend drama; how would Wille react? I very much doubt "It's better not to tell unless someone asks" Simon has told Wille about his sexual history, if he has one. Despite his "No more secrets between us" from last season.

I couldn't find the right gif so you'll just have to suffer watching Wilmon kisses. How sad.

Jumping back to to happier parallels: Wille walks over to Simon and says hi. This is a reverse character parallel to when Simon walked down the closet corridor, where he kissed Wille for the first time. But now there's no closet! And again, this time, Wille and Simon are reversed. More hints that Simon's storyline will parallel Wille's from season 1.

Simon and Linda are there to make a joint statement statement. As a parallel to the first season - except this time, it's not Wille who lies, saying things it's obvious that he doesn't mean. It will be the queen who doesn't mean anything of what she's saying:

"In season 3 episode 1, the unresolved plot and the parallels dictates a statement supporting Wilhelm and Simon must come from the queen, possibly a joint statement with Linda. The queen will be forced to give it, it will be filled with lies, and she will not mean what she says. As a consequence,she is thrown into a new and scary situation where her position is under threat"

We don't know exactly why, only that it's not pleasant. The media must be going crazy. In season 1, the statement lead to Wille becoming a boarder at Hillerska. It's very likely that this statement will lead to Simon becoming a boarder at Hillerska. As we've seen, he's mirroring Wille now! That means there may be an initiation - a harmful tradition it's unlikely Wille would want Simon to go through.

On the other hand, I suspect he may very well parallel Sara and leave again. The interesting question is whether Wille moves in with the Erikssons in Bjärstad instead.

Wille says "I can't believe you're here, while he looks at the room he's in, and Simon mirrors him. That's a parallel to when Wille came to Bjärstad and said Simon's room was cozy. It's the wrong gif but I couldn't find the right one and that's one of my fav scenes, you'll just have to suffer it.

@books-books-smolderinglooks hit the nail on the head with these parallels - the first pair of gifs are from when Wille invited Simon to stay over at Hillerska after parents day, the last is when he says "I can show you" and Simon giddily hums in agreement. It's shot with the exact same angle on Simon's face, so we know what Wille wants - and we know exactly what he dreamt of. And again, this is a season 1 parallel.

And now we see the giddy smiles and playful behaviour from the lake date. Note that Simon invited Wille to Bjärstad, and Now Wille invites Simon to ...his room, probably. It also reminds us of when Wille invited himself to hang out with Simon in Bjärstad right before Erik died. This suggests that something will happen that may tear them apart. And it's probably related to some secret that Simon has, possibly related to his socials, to Grindr and whatever he did on there. Woops.

And here's the thing. Young Royals is heavily influenced by the Norwegian show SKAM. Even Wilhelm's name is the nickname Noora gave William in season 1, to mock his status. And Noora has a past that is revealed, and a plotline that is pretty traumatic, and I'm beginning to suspect that Simon have a similar past. I'm very happy about this though, because to me, their story was pretty problematic at times, in ways Young Royals is not.

Go watch SKAM if you haven't! [Head over to @skamenglishsubs on desktop to watch with English texts.]

To end on a happy note, Wille says, "They won't start without us." As long as they stick together, they have a lot of leverage now! And Wille isn't afraid to use it. This also reminds me of when Simon asked Wille to skip class - again, their roles are reversed.

Looks like we'll get them together for a Bjärstad repeat, but in the palace, to shore us up for the drama that is coming. With a huge potential for boyfriend drama too. BUT also with an equally huge potential for Wille and Simon challenging the toxic traditions at Hillerska - and the royal house itself.

Anybody else sad and angry about the treatment of Wilhelm and Simon as characters and wilmon as a relationship in s3 and how much they were done dirty?

How Wille was such a shitty friend towards Felice and a shitty bf towards Simon, deliberately ignoring both of their troubling predicament and feelings about Sara in pursuit of his own happiness and was never there for them and put his own issues behind for once, no, it was always Simon and Felice who had to swallow down their own feelings and support him even when they weren't feeling good and he never even seemed to notice or care.

I hate how Wille was painted as extra selfish and self-centered this season and unaware of his privileges and not once truly acknowledging and recognising that and his own faults and taking responsibility for his actions. Or being interested in speaking up and inspiring change and not wanting to hold up the status quo. And stopped going to therapy and working on his anxiety and other problems. I hate how he regressed from S2 and any of his growth and parts of his character were ignored for the message they wanted to convey. I love him to bits but S3 Wille is not my Wille. Honestly it's character assassination and it makes me furious.

And there being such an emphasis on the negative and the narrative making Simon suffer so much and be so miserable for most of the season. It sucks. Also Simon reacting the way he did to online hate, him being uncharacteristically naive and clueless and putting so much weight on what people say on the internet about him. I understand it's something that affects you and they're both teenagers who don't always behave rationally and their situation is a lot to handle but I still expected from Simon to understand their circumstances better because I think of him as clever and smarter than to be against having a private insta and responding to trolls.

I want to put a huge disclaimer that this is not me hating on the characters! I love them both and that's why this behavior is so upsetting to me. I'm not so much judging them, I'm more judging the writer's decisions for these character developments.

If you have to twist your characters like that to make your plot work and bring across your message then maybe that plot is not working...

And how wilmon was never allowed to have good communication and growth but only had fanservicey makeout moments in between the fighting and always talked past each other and were not truly able to be there for each other and work with each other as a united front and have meaningful conversations about their lives and get to know each other better, which is all we wanted from s3. But instead they were torn apart and their relationship made worse and worse, only succeeding on proving how incompatible they are and what a terrible couple they actually make.

And no, it was not necessary to do all these things. I absolutely refuse to accept the argument that this is all the crown's fault and that's the excuse for Wille's behavior and they could've never been happy and Simon has to give himself up and lose himself. No. That is a choice. The writers decided this is the only way they can bring their message across and get to the outcome they wanted. I'm not saying there shouldn't be any conflict but we could've had problems and drama that built off of what has been established in s1 and s2, showcasing the growth they both went through and find a way for them to work it out and be genuinely happy boyfriends in the season. The writers just didn't want that.

It truly makes me upset that I can't even enjoy their "happy"/makeout scenes because they are only enjoyable out of context but I can't appreciate them for real because it doesn't actually feel earned and they were only little reprieves in midst the miscommunication and Wille and Simon were not really in a good place for almost all of it.

And now I'm supposed to be happy for them and believe that everything is fixed and better in the future without them having given me any indication about it in the show? Ignoring facts that will always be true for them. Being in the public eye. Having to deal with hate comments. Wilhelm always being a part of the royal family. That allegedly they don't have to deal with any of that in the future anymore?

They specifically made this arc and made their gap and differences so wide and severe in s3 to tell me they are not capable of working through and handling these things together that will realistically always be a part of their relationship no matter what but I'm supposed to be rooting for them?

Like any of their mistreatment is justified and worth it for the "happy" ending they got and makes it all okay. It is not, they were done dirty and they (and we) deserved better.

Video captions: And stop trying to show your ex what they missed out on! Stop trying to teach your family a lesson for not believing in you! Stop trying to shit on your haters! Do it for you! Do it because you deserve it! Do it for YOU! Water your dreams with love! Don’t put no hate and resentment, and try to — “oh Imma fucking show them, Imma show” — FUCK THEM! Fuck them, do it for you! They don’t matter! They NEVER mattered.

To anyone who knows: Is there any chance Young Royals will get more international recognition with awards and things? Like are International Emmy awards for TV shows a thing? I want to see them really get proper accolades -- and yes I know winning awards isn't everything, but Lisa, Edvin, Omar, et al deserve it, damnit!

YOUNG ROYALS 3.06