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raincitygirl76 · 3 months

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Omar Rudberg is a very attractive young man. So I find it hilarious (though somewhat sobering) that nobody at Hillerska seems to notice Simon is gorgeous. All because he’s a lowly non-resident (and a socialist to boot, who refuses to act grateful to be allowed around his social betters), they pretend Simon’s looks are nothing out of the common way. It shows the pressure of class solidarity.

Makes me wonder, though, how many Hillerska boarders secretly have crushes on Simon. Because, you know, they have eyes, even if they don’t dare admit it to their friends because it would be social suicide. Are there girls in Simon’s classes who wistfully sigh over how aesthetically appealing he is? Or fellow choristers who covertly watch him sing when they’re supposed to be watching the music teacher and/or reading their scores?

I wonder how many girls quietly cried themselves to sleep right after the video came out. And told their curious roommates they were crying because apparently the Crown Prince is unattainable. But really they were crying because apparently Simon Eriksson is gay. And therefore definitely off the market, if those girls ever got up the guts to cross class lines and acknowledge how crush worthy he is.

P.S.

Incidentally, I don’t think Simon intentionally went back in the closet when he moved to Hillerska. It’s just we know from 1.01 that hardly anyone has spoken to him since the start of the school year. It’s kind of tough to come out to people who are pretending you don’t exist and won’t talk to you.

And then Wilhelm arrived, and was obviously interested but extremely closeted himself. So Simon had a large incentive not to arouse the suspicions of their Hillerska school mates by coming out himself. I don’t think Simon was hiding in S1 so much as just not choosing to actively bring it up. I’m pretty damn sure if someone had asked him flat out, he would’ve said he’s gay. But nobody did ask, so he and Wilhelm could continue to fly under the radar as close platonic friends.

We can also infer from Saran’s comment in 1.03 “Why are you sneaking around?” That at Marieberg, Simon was out and proud. But he wasn’t a pariah at Marieberg. People actually talked to him there. And he wasn’t deeply in love with a closeted guy at Marieberg.

It could also be another reason (as if Simon needed another) that Simon feels so betrayed by Wilhelm denying the video in 1.06. Simon has already compromised his principles for Wilhelm even before the video, by making allowances for Wilhelm’s closeted status and sneaking around secretively. And Wilhelm repaid Simon having previously compromised his principles by abandoning him altogether.

It’s one thing to let people assume you’re platonic friends and not actively correct them. It’s a whole other ballgame for Wilhelm to actively lie to the press and the entire world. Assertively affirming his (nonexistent) heterosexuality and his single status.

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prncewilhelm · 1 year

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there’s just... something so insane about the way the show circles back to wilhelm publicly confirming it was him in the video. he did exactly what he couldn’t do at the end of season one and the only way he got to that point was the development in season two. everything needed to fall apart. the traditions and systems holding wille back beforehand, needed to be exposed and seen explicitly by everyone; wille needed to go to therapy and work through the guilt he feels towards his family and the responsibilities he bares, simon needed to get to the realisation that it wasn’t wille’s unwillingness to be public with him — but that he literally couldn’t without upheaving everything. they needed to be apart, be messy, kiss other people and make mistakes — because it brought them right back to who they’ve always been. two boys in love vs the world. except this time, wille has the confidence to have agency, to take what was taken from him and reclaim it. with the prospect of august becoming crown prince and falling back into those traditions and keeping the systems upheld, he knew he had the power to change things and finally he’s in a place where he feels like he can.

#it’s like there was no mention about like #wille going back on his word and declaring it was him on the video #everything got caught up in all the other lies and secrets #that wille just told the truth #and the truth set them free!!!#gahhh this show is insane #young royals #yr s2 spoilers

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kingsandbastardz · 2 months

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So this is a thing that’s been bouncing around in my head for awhile, but I hadn’t really had a good starting point for it because it was just a billion fragmented pieces. I kinda have to write it now, though bc I think it’s giving me mental constipation and actively preventing me from writing other things. Anyway, forgive me for being long-winded.

---

Regardless of how you see the ending – whether you think he reached enlightenment/ascended, or he died, or he lived -- llh’s story is about escaping the narrative.

FDB meanwhile is about being a catalyst of change or transformation, whether it is for his own life or llh’s. He exists in a shifting narrative space that's difficult to define and creates narrative movement from that.

DFS… well. He's still trapped.

First, what exactly is ‘the narrative’ I’m talking about here? It’s a thought or concept, it’s alive yet also not. It’s essentially the words of a story strung together and told and retold, adjusting to the whims of the storyteller and the desires of the people hearing it. It lives and changes organically based on call, response and group consensus.

It’s a crowd of people sitting around an old man in one town, nodding along and yelling when they don’t like the direction a story is going – and then in the next town, that same story teller making adjustments so he gets more tips that evening. It’s people in other towns asking repeatedly for the same story over and over because they like that one hero and each time, the storyteller obliges them, with small details being added or falling off. It’s the collected gossip that morphs as it moves like lightning through an entire city. It’s the records found in a courts’ archives where the ink has become smeared and illegible because a scribe dropped it in a puddle and the next scribe did his best to write in the margins what he thinks it said. Probably.

It is the men at the beginning and end of MLC telling the crowd about Li Xiangyi’s great feats while dressed in white, and heroically battling evil.

This changing, amorphous thing is The Narrative. Now, see the entirety of MLC as such a story—this narrative being told by all these different voices to the audience (us).

So LLH escapes it. FDB defies it and changes it and refuses to live by it.

DFS is… he is part of it. If he ever cared about what anyone says about him, dfs has long since given up on changing the narrative. He’s learned to accept it because it literally doesn’t matter what he says or does – ppl will always spin it to suit the needs of the story, which will then get passed around as fact. So he lives within this framework of societal expectation for the villainous. He weaponizes it to use it to his advantage. And, ultimately, he’s trapped by it.

Imagine a yin yang symbol. Imagine llh standing on one dot with dfs standing on another. Imagine the yin yang spinning as they both walk forward. They’re interlinked, never to be separated. They’re mirrors, but at the same time always moving in opposite directions of each other as the symbol spins. This is the position I image DFS being when in relation to llh.

Narratively, DFS both parallels and moves in opposite directions to llh.

Mirrored parallels, let’s go with that - Where they are the same but on opposite ends of it:

Visually dark vs light in clothing etc, even their masks are black vs silver and on opposite sides of their faces

Skills and energy-wise: both utilize pure yang energies but fast and overwhelming vs slow and steady

Positioned as great rivals/oppositional forces of equal skill

He’s just as trapped by the narrative as LXY but as the demon lord instead of the hero

Repeatedly placed on opposite sides of the screen as a visual cue

Dfs = chaos, llh = agent of order

Llh femme presenting for a very heteronormative appearing sect and storyline while dfs is extremely masculine/heteronormative appearing, but at the helm of a sect that is full of fringe elements and is potentially queer

regarding personal health - llh uses risk percentage as an excuse to not try to heal himself – meanwhile dfs will take any risk to heal himself even if it means he dies

Dfs rescued himself as a child while llh is picked up and nurtured by others

Dfs is a self-taught genius while llh is a trained genius

Dfs survives so hard he doesn’t understand what it means to want to die, llh wants to disappear so badly that he doesn’t understand what it means to desire to live

Oh right, and the thing I didn’t mention before. Not only does DFS live in the narrative. DFS is narratively bound to llh. He is not and was never independent of llh. Not due to lack of skill or for want of trying, dfs is narratively incapable of succeeding at his greatest goals without llh’s help – or ultimately fails due to llh’s actions. Either outcome, llh is involved.

He leaves the story when LLH does (disappearing into the ocean after the Donghai Battle) and returns to the narrative (leaves seclusion) the very moment FDB forces LLH to become active again and LLH starts moving to tie up loose ends.

His attempt for establishing peace was destroyed by Shan Guado and Jiao Liqiao, yes, but it ultimately fails because lxy declares war and ‘kills’ him. It takes LLH revealing himself to everyone and establishing events for things to quiet down.

Unable to reach the guanyin elixir without llh’s help

Unable to figure out the secret behind shan gudao’s death and the war between their sects without llh’s cooperation

Succeeds in finding the styx flower, not for himself, but for llh’s benefit

Unable to reach the next level of Beifeng Baiyang without help from llh and Yangzhou Man

Continuously bids for freedom and agency – but his first attempt is foiled by not being able to get rid of the mind control bug. Then during the amnesia arc, his ‘freedom’ from his enemies comes at the cost of being kept by llh as a servant. Then as soon as he was able to get rid of the mind control bug, he’s captured by jlq and his freedom/autonomy is taken away again. If the narrative was a sentient being – it’s watching him claw his way up the side of a mountain and every time he almost reaches the top, it chops his hand or fingers off to send him flying back down below. Ultimately, DFS is only able to regain physical and mental freedom when llh rescues him and choses to give him that freedom (see amnesia arc where llh tries to keep dfs as his servant/weapon).

Cure llh/save his life – ultimately stopped by llh’s actions.

Simply put – while llh exists without dfs. As far as the narrative is concerned, dfs does not exist without llh. Jinyuan Alliance is replaced completely by Shan Gudao as the bad guys in the story. (Which he was- but there is no mention of DFS or the alliance's roles - everything is attributed to lxy's heroism and return from the dead.)

So what happens post canon in a world where llh is dead? What then? We have fdb, right?

I’ve been bothered by this – and as much as I go on about how fdb is the future of the story. That he’s the inheritor of everything llh, including dfs... There is no guarantee of anything because he’s the guy that writes his own story and transforms his narrative.

We get the bit of bonding with each other in the zombie village when llh deliberately leaves them alone with each other (could this be an example of llh facilitating emotional bonds between the two?). We get fdb’s sense of betrayal later on when he thinks dfs turned on them. And then later his happiness when he realizes dfs was on their side. We get him calling dfs Lao Di. But then we have the moment at the eastern sea with the letter - where we get him running off to investigate alone until both men just happen to arrive at the beach at the same time from opposite directions. Because fate, I guess. I think dfs and fdb’s relationship is meant to be a 50/50 swing by design because we don't know the future and Fdb is ultimately the catalyst for whatever direction the story goes.

As two men who loved the same man and who tried their best but ultimately failed to keep llh alive, will he care enough about dfs to maintain ties with him or… just… walk away after saying his goodbyes --- you know, they way they often do in jainghu.

So just for speculation’s sake. Let’s say, with no additional input or relationship development. Let’s say they take the second route and go their separate ways. FDB doesn’t reach out further to DFS and DFS never tries to find fdb for a replacement fight. They never try to bridge that llh-shaped gap.

This is where we come to the third thing – Narratively, dfs’ purpose is to remind llh of the true past and to provide information or vehicles for him in his quest to address that past.

So what does that mean for dfs when LLH dies? Dfs, as a survivor, cannot physically do the same. How will he die narratively? Imo, with the way his movements mirror llh's and his role for llh, it makes sense that dfs will do what llh did - he goes back to where he was in the past. He returns to the beginning.

And from there? Maybe, DFS returns to seclusion, or a form of seclusion at least, once again in mourning. Because otherwise what else does he have left that holds meaning for him? Jinyuan Alliance? Whatever remnants remain... he never cared about it and I’d argue that at the very start of the series, he was already 1-foot out the door with retiring from leadership. Strength was freedom – he has both, so now what? Power and skill? The one person he wants to fight is gone.

DFS goes away. Days become months, become years and life continues on. New heroes and villians will rise and fall. And one day, fdb will remember he used to know a powerful guy. Whatever happened to him? And the people around him will shrug. Some may even be young enough to be like, “Who?” FDB lets it go because he’s a busy man. He’s got businesses to run, students to train, etc – can you blame him? His life is full. Eventually, he forgets he ever asked a question.

This is how the last living piece of dfs in the worlds’ consciousness dies. He fades away from memory, absentmindedly.

Maybe one day, a student or scholar will crack open a book about the history of li xiangyi and if they don't skim, they’ll come across a line or two talking about some guy that fought lxy that one time and ultimately failed to kill him. Maybe they will be motivated enough to look further into him, maybe not.

Llh remains alive as a memory – his legacy kept alive by fdb who’s his student and his students’ students. Sigu Sect and Baichuan Court remain as pillars of society.

DFS? Who is there to remember him? Who is there to see how his story ends? Does it matter? Who is DFS without llh?

There are plants that exist without their natural pollinators or creatures that eat their fruit because they are so ancient, those creatures no longer exist. We only know what they potentially look like based on the shape of the flower/plant/tree.. They survive because they have evolutionarily figured out stopgap measures to make up for the deaths of their pollinators. But one day those measures will no longer work. Stopgaps only buy time. That plant exists as a living memory of something that used to exist and then one day it too will die.

DFS is like that remaining plant.

You know that question about whether a tree exists if no one is there to hear them fall in the woods?

Now, here is me, getting a leg cramp in the audience. I’ve always loved the antagonists, the monster-shaped beings that weren’t really monsters inside, and all the random side characters that fall off the story one after another. I’ve always bothered the hell out of everyone bc I’m the person going “So what about x? What about y? Where is z now?”

So consider this me asking – in a story where his existence is swallowed by a narrative that no longer needs him - what about dfs? Where is he now? What is he doing now?

#But here's the thing. This is about dfs. I like to think that one day the story picks up again w/ a rich young shaoye and a guy named a-fei #they argue in the street constantly to the amusement of all the aunties #but everyone knows to go to them if your cat ends up in a tree or you lose anything or if someone mysteriously dies and the yamen ignore it #Or if your sister gets sold. She'll be back on your doorstep the next day with enough money for you to run away with her and start anew #mysterious lotus casebook #di feisheng #my royal ramblings #meta #li lianhua #fang duobing #me and my insomnia induced shitty takes

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lost-my-sanity1 · 1 month

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I DIED HERE.

#here lies my ashes yall pay respect to it #BECAUSE WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT WILLE-#i will never find peace again bye #🙂#young royals season 3 #young royals

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aledlastbestie · 7 months

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I tried to make a Wilmon fanart using a panel from the manhua Here U Are

#yr fanart #here u are #young royals #wilmon #yuyang #li huan #prince wilhelm #simon eriksson #young royals fanart

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aerithsflowers-daisies · 3 months

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xxxx

• I like Hira and Kiyoi (My Beautiful Man 1, 2 and movie: Eternal).

• The videogame Cyberpunk 2077 and the DLC of it, Phantom Liberty.

• The couple Wilhelm and Simon (Young Royals).

• The videogame Detroit: Become Human.

• The soundtrack of Life is Strange 1, the LiS 2 and Before the Stome (BtS).

• And waiting BTS in 2025.

#cyberpunk 2077 #phatom liberty #my beautiful man #hira x kiyoi #simon young royals #wille x simon #wille young royals #life is strange #lis 2 #before the storm #detroit become human #dbh connor #dbh markus #dbh kara #bts #bts 2025

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hilliska · 1 year

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Every time I remember Simon has four fish I lose my mind a little

Simon named his fish Olle, Oski, and Felle, but he has FOUR fish and the fact that

logically

metafysically

the fourth fish should be named Omar but that never has and probably never will be confirmed canonically????

it drives me UP THE WALL

#brought to you by lis-doesn't-want-to-go-to-bed-yet #young royals #simon's fish

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cienie-isengardu · 5 months

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Now that you've mentioned it more than once, the old Lin Kuei and the Umgadi have quite a few similarities and differences. What do you think they all are? Does Liu Kang not intervene because the Umgadi is in Outworld, so it's out of his jurisdiction?

Generally speaking, I think it all comes to Liu Kang’s own flawed sense of duty that blinds him to the questionable nature of Umgadi and even of his own version of Lin Kuei. Not saying that duty is not important or there is no honorable thing about pledging your own life to protect others or even the whole realm, but that should be a choice made by each person, not something forced upon children fed by someone else’s idea (tradition!) their life means little compared to people they are supposed to serve.

Lin Kuei in older timelines were an assassin clan that for ages abducted children to turn them into killers. In more modern times, the abduction happened less often as Lin Kuei had their own share of children born into clan and some people even joined their rank on their own (Smoke and Cyrax), but generally speaking, the nature of clan did not change overall:

Lin Kuei served those who paid the best

clan members were indoctrinated to blindly serve the Grandmaster that could - and would - kill them for failing a mission,

friendship, as personal bonds between warriors, was seen as weakness and forbidden

no one was allowed to leave the clan - and those who did were hunted down and either killed or forced into C.I. project

In Mythologies: Sub-Zero, the original Bi-Han was introduced as one of the most cunning Lin Kuei assassinations yet during mission he plainly admitted if he did not steal ordered thing, he would end dead, which shows that even successful warrior is always one step close to own death, either by dying on mission or as punishment for failure.

Of course, Liu Kang’s version of Lin Kuei and Umgadi are far away from what the old Lin Kuei was at its core, at least as the source material showed so far. However there are still things that personally rub me the wrong way. Tanya and Li Mei’s official bios and intro dialogues are full of the worrying details about Umgadi, the Palace Guard protecting the Royal Family we are meant to root for and see as the good guys... Only to learn how fucked up is the whole system maintained for who knows how many generations.

Umgadi recruitment & their ties to biological family?

[Tanya’s BIO] Chosen as an infant from Outworld’s first-born daughters, Tanya was raised by the Umgadi’s priestesses. She’s never known her birth family.

[Li Mei’s BIO] As her parents’ firstborn daughter, Li Mei was claimed by the Umgadi, the warrior priestesses who guard Outworld’s royal family.

Scorpion: Your parents' identities were kept from you? Li Mei: To ensure my loyalties were only to the Umgadi.

Raiden: It must be hard, not knowing your birth family. Tanya: My Umgadi sisters are all the family I need.

Kenshi: "Umgadi come from all over Outworld?" Tanya: "All first-born females become postulants."

Kitana: "It's time to gather the First Born." Tanya: "And train the next generation of Umgadi."

Their personal bonds, including romantic/sexual ones?

[Tanya's BIO] As an Umgadi, Tanya is sworn to piety and chastity. That is why her bond with Princess Mileena, were it known, would cause a scandal. By following her heart, Tanya risks not only her position but also her life.

Tanya: "The bond I share with your daughter --" Sindel: "Is forbidden to an Umgadi!"

Sindel: "You, above all, must obey Umgadi rules." Tanya: "I must obey my heart, Empress."

Ashrah: There is nothing evil about you and Tanya. Mileena: There is to those wedded to Umgadi tradition.

Leaving Umgadi?

[Li Mei's BIO] But it all fell apart when a terrible tragedy unfolded. Li Mei was blamed for this and In the aftermath, she did the unthinkable: she quit the Umgadi. Friendless and alone, Li Mei needed a new purpose. She joined Sun Do’s constables, the Outworld capital’s rough and tumble police force. Over time, she became their First Constable.

Raiden: I thought no one left the Umgadi. Li Mei: The circumstances left me no choice.

-> as the story and tie-in material proved, Li Mei was unfairly accused and was a victim of Umgadi Matrons intrigue. Her stepping down from the role of leader of Palace Guard makes sense, as death of the king on her duty is a valid reason for resignation (an act often considered honorable), but there is no implication that Li Mei even got a fair trial? Granted, she chose to leave Umgadi and was allowed to do so, which is much better than old Lin Kuei's harsh punishment by death, but also shows that Umgadi does not have many options once accused of failure or ostracized by her own “sisters” & Royal Family.

Umgadi training and growing up?

Sub Zero: "The Lin Kuei are trained from childhood." Tanya: "As are the Umgadi, Sub-Zero."

[Tanya's BIO] As she grew older and saw other initiates wash out, Tanya feared that she would share their fate. But that fear spurred success; after many attempts, Tanya passed her trials and became a full Umgadi.

-> and if parents’ identities are kept from the initiates, what happens to those who did not pass the trials? Were they allowed to come back to a family they did not know at all? Did Umgadi even keep any record from which family each little girl was taken? Li Mei, who left Umgadi is said to be friendless and alone, which suggests no ties to the outside world, be it biological family or other people.

-> also, Tanya succeed because of fear of becoming one of wash out. Not the blind faith in the rightness of the cause, but fear of failure.

And sure, Umgadi is way better than old version of Lin Kuei presented in various source material, but it still share some serious similarities, like taking away children's freedom to choose for themselves or considering personal relationship (friendship for Lin Kuei, ties to biological family or the sexual & romantic one for Umgadi) as forbidden, to ensure their blind loyalty to the Grandmaster or Royal Family. And this is just what we learned about Umgadi in the first game, the introduction to Liu Kang's new era and I won't lie, it took me out by surprise because the game itself presents Sindel and her Family as someone we should like, while Umgadi system cast a different light. And I do not have an idea if NRS did that on purpose or if the studio did not think enough about the implication both for Edenian society and Liu Kang. Especially with intro dialogue like this:

Geras: "The Umgadi was one of Liu Kang's best innovations." Tanya: "My order sprung from his mind?"

And if Umgadi was one of Liu Kang's innovations - a system whose whole purpose is to protect the Royal Family at the expense of countless number of first-born daughters, then maybe Bi-Han's claims about Lin Kuei's enslavement shouldn't be treated as baseless either.

#mortal kombat #my replies #umgadi #tanya #li mei #lin kuei #liu kang #i don't mind that umgadi protect royal family or choose to stay virgins I MIND HOW THOSE CHOICES WERE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOUNG GIRLS #best innovations? please Geras like you know what freedom even means

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raincitygirl76 · 1 month

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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.

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