August confides in his friends that he's Wille's back-up, brags that he's going to work for the royal family and will get an official title, and waits for them to pat him on the back appreciatively, only for them to tell him how much it's going to suck.
Nils and Vincent tell him in no uncertain terms that this is the worst possible outcome for August. He lost everything that was great about being assocciated with Wille only on paper. You can see on August's face how that realisation hits him.
You want to be close enough to the top to benefit from the power and privileges, but you don't really want to be at the top to bear the responsibility.
And that is exactly what they will do now and benefit from being close to (Crown Prince) August, who will have a hard time fulfilling his duties.
And to really hit the nail on the head, the scene is framed by a shot of the queen of the chess set, the most powerful piece in the game.
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Speaking as of March 17, the day before 3.06 drops, I don't see August's arc in 3.01 to 3.05 as a redemption arc. Yeah, he's done one more genuinely nice thing in his life than before S3: for his third years, walking back from the homophobic sexual degradation that he experienced in his own initiation as a first year. Go him.
That's a good thing he's done, no question. But he still organized terrifying initiations (even if they weren't quite as bad as his own), he still got booze from Simon for the initiation party that he'd never had any intention of paying for.
August also allowed his lawyer to make that outrageous statement in 3.01 denying that the video was defamatory. The only reason he's not in jail awaiting trial on CP charges is because he has money and connections to make his criminal act disappear. That's not original, about the money and connections, but I forget who said it first. @unfortunate17 or @billfarrah , maybe... He was also smug rather than penitent while everybody was signing the paperwork.
Also, August persists in walking all over Sara's boundaries. He visits her at Micke's without warning, and doesn't apologize for the position he put her in. He uses that Conversation to remind her that she and he have similar dads, except Micke is alive and Carl Johan is dead. He's trying to play on Sara's sympathy. Even though the whole reason she feels she has to live with Micke is because of august's past bad actions.
And he repeatedly defies her wishes about not wanting to read his first year letter. He follows her out to the dumpster and insists on reading it to her to tug on her heartstrings. Even after she was clear she didn't want to read it and gave it back to him.
Now, was August being manipulative in S3 on purpose? No. But he and Sara aren't an example of a healthy relationship just because in S3 Wilhelm and Simon have an unhealthy relationship. I know I shouldn't use the word healthy, but at the moment I can't think of a suitable synonym.
So yeah, now he's done exactly two nice things in his life that we know of:
Buying Sara for Rousseau
Dialling back the sexual intimidation on the Forest Ridge initiations when he was a third year. Although the initiations August presided over were no walk in the park, so let's not give him too much credit.
I'm not saying he's a soulless monster. He's only 18 going on 19, he has time to improve before we write him off altogether. But he has STILL never apologized to Simon and Wilhelm for the sexual violation he inflicted on them. As soon as the NDA was safely signed, his own bad actions regarding the video were in August's rear view mirror.
So yeah, he listened to Boris and he tried to do a nice thing or two. But he’s still August.
I think the most despicable thing I realised about August is the fact that when he tries to “apologise” to Wilhelm and says,
[“I understand that what I did to you is unforgivable”]
— he doesn’t actually mean he knows what he did was morally wrong. He means that he knows what he did broke rules, defamed the Royal court, ruined his friendship with Wilhelm, the Crown Prince.
We see where August’s values lie when he shares exactly what he took out of the situation, which was,
[“I have accepted that you will hate me for the rest of your life”]
He understands ethically that what he did was illegal, and that there are serious consequences to it, but the extent of his shame and guilt only goes as far as its impacts on the Royal Court and his standing with the Royal Family. He thinks Wilhelm just hates him for posting the video, rather than hating him for all the flow on effects that it has caused, such as Wilhelm being forced to lie, his break up with Simon, his fallout with his parents, the lack of trust he has for everything August represents at the school, the loneliness of feeling completely abandoned by everything and everyone that was supposed to protect and support him.
And there is an element of lack of awareness on August’s part to a degree, but we clearly see that he doesn’t actually feel bad about how it has personally impacted Wilhelm. And given how he’s so quick to jump to blackmail, threats and scapegoats, he clearly does not care, either.
just your average young royals fan obsessed with how Simon’s signature colour for when he’s most romantically involved with wilhem is purple, the colour of royalty
Simon (to August): Fuck you.
Simon (to Alexander): Fuck you.
Simon (to Sara): Fuck you.
Simon (to Jan-Olof): Fuck you.
Simon (to Marcus): Fuck you.
Simon (to Wilhelm, after seeing him with a shotgun): Fuck me.