I just love love love that Ayub goes to the Erikssons to have dinner with them on a school night. Makes me wonder if that’s a regular thing and if Simon goes to his place for dinner as well. The fandom mostly makes up lovely families for Ayub and Linda asks after Ayubs mum and that’s a nice exchange, but theoretically the possibilities are endless.

Simon Eriksson - Mr. "what are you talking about?" but there's no denying! 💜🥰

To be perfectly honest, I found 3.06 a bit of a letdown. All Wilhelm’s problems won’t magically disappear just because he’s abdicating. And I found Kristina’s acquiescence deeply implausible. If someone has acted one way for 17 episodes, it’s tough to believe they’re magically a reformed character in the eighteenth episode.

There were a lot of things I really liked about the episode, don’t get me wrong. But for me, the entire third season didn’t hang together the way the first two seasons did. This last episode felt like such an abrupt tonal transition from the darkness of 3.01 through 3.05.

I loved that the boys (and Sara and Felice) got a happy ending. But I was hoping for….more. This ending didn’t feel entirely earned to me. The first 5 episodes of the season dealt with the downward spiral so well, and then they tried to abruptly bring everything back up again in a single episode.

Apologies if I’m going against the general zeitgeist here. But at this point I’m simultaneously relieved my four faves all got a happy ending, and feeling let down. Because they patched everything up in the space of an hour, and it was a rush.

That said, there were things I thought were spot on. Sara and Felice were note perfect. Nils and Vincent being dismayed about August’s promotion to working royal was great. And Stella and Fredrika being sapphic, but still being classist, snobby bitches. Being queer doesn’t automatically turn someone into a nice person.

But in terms of the central pairing, I’m feeling a bit let down. Like they didn’t quite earn their happy ending and I’m not quite sure it’ll really stick in the long term.

"It's been a month since Young Royals officially ended and, if you're like me, you're still sobbing over that beautiful finale and missing Prince Wilhelm, Simon, and the entire squad from Hillerska (and Bjärstadt).

Don't worry, I've got some royally good YA book recs for your favourite characters from YOUNG ROYALS that you can add to your TBR to fill the space we're all missing after watching this fantastic series."

From YA author Julian Winters on IG @wintersjulian

Happy 20th birthday to the bravest boy, I wish you the most normal and peaceful life, you deserve it 🎈🧡

5+1 fic set during the summer after s3 where wille does five things he always wanted like painting his nails purple and shaving his head and getting a heart tattoo and a buncha other stuff +1 thing Simon does now that he's free too 🥲

There’s something powerful about this scene:

Wille sees Ayub and Rosh from the car yet he still goes talk to Simon. He doesn’t ask them to leave or ask Simon if they can speak in private. No, he keeps his distance, leaves Simon with his friends (his emotional support, probably, in this scene) and speaks his truth. And the first Thing he does is apologize.

Wille doesn’t hesitate to speak freely in front of Rosh and Ayub, even though he could have some reservations. Yes, they know Wille and Simon were together but that doesn’t mean that he has to feel comfortable telling Simon about August being next in line in front of them. Them knowing about it doesn’t mean Wille has to trust them --especially when they’re the best friends of your ex whom you hurt a lot... He must know they don’t like him very much.

And as if it’s not enough, he doesn’t ask anything of Simon. He’s only there to tell him what’s up. And by informing Simon of the situation and then going, he gives Simon the chance to think about it with his friends. Now, did they give the most helpful advice this season? Not really. I don’t know if Wille knows that but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Wille let’s Simon think about it with people Simon trusts.

So yeah, I just think this is a very important moment because it’s Wille being honest about the situation, expressing his feelings which is not the easiest thing for him to do, in front of people who aren’t Simon, Felice, or his mother, who were previously the only people he was somewhat honest with. It’s also important to Simon because it shows him that Wille can like him openly --in front of certain people, at least. But those people, even if they aren’t the whole world, are important to Simon. And here, Simon is being given some important information in the open.

Simon: Guys, I'm in love with the prince.

Ayub: seriously?

Simon: yeah, thoughts?

Rosh: and prayers.

"The only one who can decide what you wanna do is you."

Happy Friends' Day!

Today is Valentine's Day in most parts of the world, but in my country, the focus is actually on friends instead of romantic partners. So if you don't vibe with Valentine's Day and even if you do, today is also a good day to celebrate the people who are always there to...

...tease you for getting into some silly new thing...

...welcome your new friends from the thing into their group (and tease you for the one you're very clearly crushing on)...

...and cheer you on when you don't feel cut out for the thing because even if it's silly to them, it's your thing now and they want you to succeed!

One of my absolute favorite scenes of the show isn't a Wilmon scene. It's the one where Simon comes home late from rowing practice and Ayub and Rosh are sitting in his room.

There is so fucking much going on there and most of it non-verbally. I cannot believe how good that scene is and how superbly acted by all three of them (Rosh especially).

Are we loosing you? Are you becoming one of them? Are we not good enough for you anymore? Do you think less of us because we'll probably be staying in Bjärstad for all our lives?

Do you think less of me because I don't want to stay? I'm experiencing new things that you are not part of - does this mean we're drifting apart? Do you think less of me when I befriend any of the rich kids? What if I like parts of that other world? Will you hate me for that? Will we stay friends when I get out of here and leave you behind?

from the setup of this shot, it looks a bit like sara and simon are hanging out at the party (seeing as if they weren't simon would probably be on the opposite side of the room) AND ayub is there with them- look at the hair and the side profile- and he's talking to sara. so assuming this party happens towards the end of the season, somewhere around episode 5, I think it's safe to assume that simon and sara are at least amicable again!

(and if ayub is there... maybe rosh will be, too????)

bonus: assuming that really is sara and ayub with simon, they're gonna be direct witnesses of this Wilmon Staring Contest! and if the hallway scene does take place after this, they're likely gonna notice that simon and wille have both disappeared. hmmmmm

can’t believe they cut this scene from season 3 💔

Simon doesn't repress his emotions, actually

There seems to be a widely held fanon understanding of Simon that goes something like this: Simon hides and represses his emotions, and his relationship with Wilhelm is what opens him up. I disagree with this characterization. In fact, I think Simon is actually very in touch with his emotions, and expresses them openly to his family and friends. Wilhelm and August are much better examples of emotional repression than Simon is, and if anything, the show is commenting on how the restrictive class system that raised Wilhelm and August fosters emotional repression. 

I can think of lots of examples where Simon is very open with people he loves and trusts, even when that openness might lead to conflict. I think he is really pretty open with Sara in a lot of ways. Their argument towards the end of season 1 is such a perfect encapsulation of this. He expresses how much he loves Sara and wants a good relationship with her, and also how frustrated he is by how she is pulling away from the family. 

He is also consistently open and unguarded with Rosh and Ayub. He tells them about how he’s feeling about his relationship with Wilhelm in season 1, about how he feels during the fallout from the sex tape, about his changing feelings about Marcus in season 2, and about the prospect of getting back together with Wilhelm.  The scene where Simon falls asleep on the phone with Ayub is one of the most tender, emotionally open scenes I’ve ever seen on television. 

Simon also channels his emotions into his music, which is a healthy and appropriate way to deal with the heartache he’s experiencing. We see him slowly crafting his song over the course of season 2, and returning to the keyboard when he’s feeling especially distraught. Creation of art like this requires self introspection, and I think Simon has that in spades.

What Simon doesn’t do, especially in season 2, is confide in Wilhelm. But this isn’t because Simon is afraid to talk about his feelings at all. He’s making the conscious decision to withdraw from Wilhelm, because Wilhelm deeply hurt Simon and betrayed his confidence at the end of Season 1. Drawing conscious boundaries like that also requires self introspection; working to keep yourself emotionally safe is not the same thing as repressing your emotions.

I think it’s easy to interpret Simon not talking to Wilhelm as Simon squashing his emotions because Wilhelm is the protagonist of the show, so we naturally see the world of Young Royals through his eyes. So when Simon doesn’t share with Wilhelm, it feels like he is also refusing to share with us, the viewer. But that’s why Lisa and the writers chose to create Rosh and Ayub, so that Simon would have confidants that he trusted, that were outside of the hostile class system of Hillerska. They are great characters, but they’re also devices that allow Simon to show the audience how he is truly feeling. 

In my post about Simon and radical acceptance, I talked about how I see Simon’s arc in season 2 being about accepting that he is still in love with Wilhelm. I should maybe make it clear that I don’t think that he doesn’t understand or express how he’s feeling at the beginning of season 2. He tells Rosh and Ayub that he is still stuck on Wilhelm, and he starts writing his song to express his heartbreak. But at the beginning of season 2 he is trying to move on from those feelings, and leave the drama with Wilhelm behind.  The change comes in the way that he accepts that he is in love with Wilhelm by the end of season 2, and decides that it is worth walking towards their relationship, even if it could lead to him getting hurt.  I think as a fandom we need to be careful not to reduce all of Simon’s emotions to whether or not he is actively pursuing Wilhelm. He is a complete character who expresses his emotions whether or not he’s with Wilhelm.

It kind of baffles me that Simon gets brought up when we talk about emotional repression, but Wilhelm and August are never mentioned. Both were raised in families where stoicism is valued above all else. (This is especially true in the Royal Family). Both are grieving (Wilhelm for Erik, and August for Erik and his dad), but we hardly hear them talk about this after the initial loss, even as it continues to motivate their actions. Both have physical manifestations of the emotions they are trying to repress (Wilhelm has physical symptoms of anxiety; August punishes his body through disordered eating in an attempt to maintain control of his emotions.)  Wilhelm is eventually able to open up to Boris, but it takes a lot of coaxing over several sessions. August flat out refuses to be honest with Boris at all.  

When @bluedalahorse and I were discussing this idea of emotional repression, the male characters’ relationship to anger came up a lot. I think the stereotype of emotional repression in men is that they are pressured to appear perfectly still and stoic at all times. But in reality, anger in men is often viewed as neutral or logical, and is therefore the socially acceptable method for engaging with any and all emotions. 

I think a large part of Simon’s character is a sense of righteous anger. We see this come up in different ways for him. He gets angry at the class system of Hillerska, at his dad, at August, at Marcus, and at Wilhelm. He often manages to translate that anger into an assertion of boundaries, which is a healthy way to use those feelings. He manages to set up boundaries with Wilhelm and with Marcus, for instance. And even when he does explode in a way that is unhelpful or dangerous, he has Rosh and Ayub to call him out and reel him back in, like when he jumps on August in season 1. I’m not saying Simon has a perfect relationship with anger; he definitely doesn’t. But I think he has a much healthier relationship with it than August or even Wilhelm, who uses anger as a substitute for sadness and grief.

August spends most of season 1 translating his distress into being a bully to the boys in Forest Ridge and shitty boyfriend to Felice. Shooting and posting the video also feels like a way to channel his sadness through anger to me. He records Wilhelm the same night that he admits that his dad’s suicide made him feel guilty. This is the only time that we hear him talk about his dad at all, and he immediately covers up this moment of emotional vulnerability with an act of aggression against the person he shared it with.

Wilhelm has a really hard time dealing with the sadness he feels at the loss of Simon in season 2. Wilhelm spent so long repressing his emotions, and finally felt like he could confide in someone when he met Simon. But in season 2, that one emotional outlet is taken away from him (with good reason from Simon’s point of view), so instead he lashes out, first at his mom and then at August, neither of whom are directly responsible for the breakup in the same way that Wilhelm is. 

So if we’re going to talk about emotional repression and growth towards openness and vulnerability in Young Royals, I think we should be talking mainly about Wilhelm and August. A big question of the show is if these two characters are going to arrive at a place where they no longer repress their emotions. Right now Wilhelm is moving in the right direction, and August is backsliding. But it will be really interesting to track how they evolve in season 3. 

Ayub and Simon have a beautiful friendship, I don’t make the rules.

This was one of my favourite moments.