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heliza24 · 4 days

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I LOVE this, it’s like an extra bonus prologue fic for the Forest Ridge boys. So much friendship angst and emotions they don’t know how to handle or communicate 😭. I can really picture everything Blue describes here.

Hi Blue! If you're still doing YR asks, here's one: do you have any thoughts on/hcs about how August, Vincent and Nils became friends?

(From August's letter, it's a bit unclear if he's listing things that already happened over his first year when he says "you've made some friends" or if he's hoping to achieve that in his next two years; I lean towards the former based on his reference to hanging with Erik and the third-years, but I would love to hear your thoughts whether our ideas of the timepoint align or not!)

Hi friend! I love this ask so much, thank you for sending it.

Apologies for this taking a while. I was letting all my thoughts cook together into a nice stew.

I don’t know if I have a definitive origin story for the August-Nils-Vincent friendship, but I also don’t know if it’s the sort of friendship that has a distinct origin story or a moment that can be pointed to as the moment they all became friends. Instead I can see a series of scenarios that bring them together in their first year. I also have some thoughts on the mindsets behind that and how dynamics in the group shift over time.

So the first thing I’m thinking about is the forced proximity of dorm life. We know based on how everyone responds to Wille’s single room that first years rarely get singles, so they all would have had roommates, and it’s possible two of them end up rooming together first year.

For the purposes of me picking something specific, let’s say August and Vincent are assigned to one another as roommates first year. Nils is the odd one out. He has a different roommate—an international student with a long distance girlfriend, and they’re always on the phone being incredibly lovey-dovey with one another without any care that Nils is trying to study one desk over. This Blatant Display Of Heterosexual Privilege annoys Nils, so he never really bonds with that roommate and starts spending all his time at August and Vincent’s across the hall, even sleeping over time to time.

Initially Nils sleeps on the floor in someone’s sleeping bag, because he’s pretty in the closet after initiation and Vincent’s joke of “sharing a bed isn’t gay if we’re lying in opposite directions” is well-meaning but… very unhelpful, to say the least. Eventually August and Vincent feel bad for Nils sleeping on the floor all the time, and August volunteers to swap so he’s sleeping on the floor and Nils is sleeping in his bed. He clumsily explains this by being like, “Erik has been telling me about his upcoming year of military service and maybe I’ll do that too because my father would have wanted me to, and in the military you have to sleep in uncomfortable conditions and on the ground and stuff so this is training.” And Nils and Vincent are like “o…kay then, weirdo” but they let August sleep on the floor. The next time Vincent adds himself to the rotation and sleeps on the floor, saying he’s not going to let August out-Sparta him and develop more abs than everyone else. And so they fall into a rhythm of rotating who gets a bed, and their double room becomes an unofficial triple. Nils still worries from time to time that the bed thing is gonna become weird though.

They notice a lot of things about one another during that time then but don’t really talk about it. Nils and Vincent notice that August really struggles with sleeping and occasional nightmares in the middle of the night, and will often sneak out to go for a run when it’s dark. When August starts to notice that they’re noticing, and they notice that he notices, they diffuse the tension by teasing him about having a secret girlfriend he’s sneaking off to at Manor House, and then a whole roster of secret girls, some of whom live in Bjärstad. Erik catches wind of this and the third year boys get in on the teasing too, and this is what starts to cement August’s reputation as a bit of a slutty bad boy. He’ll lean into that reputation more his second year, because he starts to internalize it more at that point and because the guys respond to him positively for it. But first year he’s in more of a fumbling “what are girls even???” state and is mostly managing a clumsy hookup here or there, while also being very earnest (off-puttingly earnest, even) about the idea that he has to find the girl who will help him run Årnäs someday. (I actually think the clash between what people say about August’s relationship reputation at Hillerska, versus how he actually behaves in a relationship, are something we’re meant to notice.)

Vincent, meanwhile, is really struggling with his studies and his recent ADHD diagnosis and his self-image around school. I imagine August and Nils are focused on getting good grades, and can probably study in the same room without annoying one another. (August is a bit more likely to pull an anxiety all-nighter, though—more on that in a bit.) Maybe he and Nils have a little bit of a friendly competition going about their test grades.

Vincent, however, really struggles. His meds help him up to a point—mostly so he isn’t bouncing around his classroom and chattering nonstop while the teacher tries to teach, which is how he went through his pre-Hillerska school years. Since he’s diagnosed relatively late for a boy, he’s way behind on developing study skills or habits that would help him succeed, and he’s afraid to use accommodations or strategies like notepad planners or the pomodoro method or similar. Nils and August sometimes try to help him out, and sometimes help him through unintentional body doubling for certain academic tasks. But sometimes they also get frustrated with him for distracting them while they work, or for constantly cracking jokes when they try to focus, and end up snapping at him. At that point Vincent will pull away and say he doesn’t care because his family can pay for what he needs in life, and being good at school is stupid. Inwardly he’s dealing with a lot of shame and negative self-image, which comes out as anger and snark. He’s especially jealous of August’s academic abilities—August and Nils get about the same grades, but Nils seems to be more calmly organized whereas August runs on a little more messy anxiety and Vincent thinks he should be doing worse at school than he is. (If that makes sense?)

Outside of dorm room life, they have shared activities first year. They all make the rowing team and take it pretty seriously. August takes it the most seriously, and spends too much time in the gym, leading Vincent and Nils to have some time to hang out when he’s not there. I imagine Forest Ridge has a seriously significant rowing victory their first year that August plays some role in, and that’s where the famous photo of August and Erik comes from. Maybe that’s what leads to third years finally adopting August a bit. Nils and Vincent are excited about the victory too, but they’re a little envious that August gets pulled into the third year circle whereas they don’t as much.

In addition to rowing, there’s also chess. August, Nils, and Vincent have a chess board in the common room they like to play with. The third years claim the nice chess boards, so they’re stuck with one that’s missing a few pieces. They’ll usually replace these missing pieces with coins (or at one point, an unopened condom.) Chess leads to a lot of subtextual drama between the three boys, because only two of them can play at a time, and the other one has to watch. It’s just, a bit of a platonic love triangle situation. August, due to the eternal curse that is rejection sensitivity, sometimes worries that Nils and Vincent prefer to play chess with just each other, and that they’re just tolerating him. One day he comes back after hanging out with the third years, they joke that he’s not allowed to play with them that night… so he never plays with them again. Nils and Vincent are honestly pretty baffled, but they never ask August about it because it’s weird to talk to the guys about emotions.

This kind of leads to my final idea… I think August would go through a lot of this stuff, not just chess, and assume he’s just being tolerated. I read him as having a pretty negative self-image, and he just doesn’t think of himself as likable at all. (Yes, he’s arrogant when we meet him, but that arrogance is so obviously a front and a defense mechanism.) He does like Vincent and Nils and think they’d be good friends, but he can’t possibly imagine that they like him as much as he likes them. And he takes little moments like the chess moment above as confirmation of that, and holds people at arms’ length. I think this is part of what’s behind what he says in the letter. I do think there were moments where August was overtly bullied and rejected. I also think there were moments where people were reaching out to him on good faith, and really did enjoy his company, and he couldn’t accept the truth of it because bullying and trauma make you more prone to rejection sensitivity, and you doubt that people really do like you.

I also like to imagine that there was a significant moment of August-Nils-Vincent fracturing that happened in between first and second year. August and Vincent were sort of beginning to get on one another’s nerves at that point, and they both secretly asked Nils to be their second year roommate, leaving Nils caught in the middle of them. Nils ultimately went with Vincent. (Secret reason: he was starting to feel some attraction to August at that time, which he got over sometime in second year but you know, he was having a Moment. Nils was not in the mood to put himself through an “oh my god they were roommates” type situation.) August’s rejection sensitivity brain went into overdrive at that point like, SEE NILS AND VINCENT LIKE ONE ANOTHER BETTER THAN THEY LIKE ME. He acted cold and closed off to them a lot of second year, even if they still all did stuff together. This is also about when August leaned a little bit more into the serial dating of multiple Hillerska girls, because at this point his brain has swallowed the toxic masculinity poison of “you don’t reach out to your bros for emotional support, only your wife.” And at that point he was looking for a wife, trying to earnestly convince girls he was Serious About Relationships while trying to play it off to the guys like he was a total player sleeping around and hooking up. One of the unfortunate girls who had to deal with August at this stage in his life was likely Unnamed Manor House Prefect, who he mentions briefly to Sara in 1.6. He’s like “oh yeah I’m close with her, I’ll talk to her about getting you a dorm room” and like. What a weird line. What happened? Did he write her an incredibly shitty Valentine’s ball poem? Did they date and did it go disastrously? Did she refuse to date him, but he ended up respecting her anyway, because her spreadsheet-making game was stronger than his when they organized a movie night for their dorms? Was there a weird fake dating situation that never panned out into real dating? Fanfics for all scenarios including Unnamed Manor House Prefect are due on my desk at the end of the weekend.

Anyway. Tangent! My point is that August was very very sad when Nils and Vincent decided to room together and leave him out, and he pulled away. And it wasn’t until season 3 that he started to realize they might actually like him for real, especially the part where they hug him after he’s sad school is closing. That didn’t erase every issue they’ve ever had, and they’ll obviously all have to work on friendship more and learn how to grow up and communicate honestly and such. But I do think it’s an interesting trio dynamic with a lot of excellent teenage messiness, and I love it.

#young royals #august horn

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heliza24 · 4 days

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One of the things I’m most excited about in Season 2 is new Daniel Hart score material. I really hope we get a musical motif associated with Armand (or maybe one for each ship?? Armandstat motif? Loumand Melody? Armandaniel music?? We already have a couple of different motifs associated with Loustat, so why not?) And I hope we get to hear a big orchestrated version of Nicki’s music box melody from season 1.

#interview with the vampire #just posting through the excitement and pre-travel nerves

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heliza24 · 5 days

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“i have stored in my blood the memory of your voice” — Sonia Sanchez

#interview with the vampire

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heliza24 · 6 days

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hi hi <3

I’ve read somewhere in one of your answer-posts today (I think it was the interview with a vampire question), that you’re not completely uninterested in the possibility of bisexual August :3. As someone who has been on the bi!August ship since season 1 (and as someone who has thought the ship might have set its sail already) I screamed a bit 🥸 so I would love to know if you have any headcanons and ideas about the realisation, exploration and the how‘s and when’s of it all. (maybe also with who he has these experiences) (it can be nsfw too)

Thank you 🩷💜💙

Hello!

This ask made me so happy, mainly because @bluedalahorse and I have a long standing agreement about August being a 2 on the Kinsey scale (aka not fully straight). It usually takes the form of one of us talking about something August did in canon and the other person going “🗣️ Kinsey! 👏🏻2!👏🏻” whether or not it makes a ton of sense and then we collapse into giggles. This is somewhere between a joke, headcanon, and serious interpretation for us I think, so it’s fun to find someone else on the bi August train.

Ok in terms of my thoughts about it here are some possible headcanons/interpretations:

1. I think it’s interesting to imagine that August, along with Nils, was one of the boys who got semi outed at the initiation. I think he would have been in the closet even to himself until then (being queer would definitely not fit into the aristocratic worldview August was raised in), and he would probably try to repress any revelation the initiation prompted in him afterwards. But canonically it’s clear that August and Nils were both really affected by the initiation, and that could be an interesting way to explain why.

2. I am personally in favor of Nils/August for this reason! I know Vincent/August is semi popular on AO3, but if Hillerska era August is gonna furtively hook up with any of the Forest Hill boys in fic, I think Nils makes much more sense, since he is already canonically queer and they have the initiation connection. I also really like the idea of August and Nils getting together in the years after Hillerska. Not in a serious romantic way, but in a “I’m having a lot of confusing feelings about missing Hillerska, maybe we should have sex about it?” way. Blue is currently working on some future fic along these lines and I am excited to read it. I do love embracing the “no gods no masters” thing in fic and creating unconventional pairings like this.

3. I think it’s SO easy to read August’s mean-spirited fascination with Simon as sublimated attraction. I mean look at those weird forehead kisses! I gotta shout out @all-things-sigust here, a blog that is usually Sargust themed (which I also love) but switched to Sigust recently and has made some very funny posts/memes about August/Simon.

4. I would also be interested to read a more serious coming out arc for August in a post-canon fic. I could see it being really hard for August to come to terms with his own queerness after what he put Wilhelm and Simon through (and it would be interesting for him to realize that maybe posting the video was motivated by internalized homophobia). How would he feel about basically copying Wilhelm’s journey? How would he handle being queer and in the royal family? Would it prompt him to leave the line of succession like Wilhelm? It’s interesting to think about.

Those are my ideas! I fully support anyone who wants to explore more unconventional pairings in fic or send August on a journey of self discovery he didn’t get to go on in the show. We have a completed canon now and the joy of that is getting to play with it. And I of course will always be in favor of Kinsey 2 August Horn 😉

#young royals #ask box #currently accepting silly and serious young royals questions!

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heliza24 · 7 days

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Hello!

I'd like to hear your thoughts about August's letter to himself. I was very surprised by it and frankly couldn't believe that his status could have been so low in Hillerska (since he's so close to the royal family) and then turn upside down in a short amount of time. Then again the focus of my attention has never been so keenly on August. I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts.

Also, sorry, if you have already posted about this. In that case, could you point me in the right direction?

Hello! Thank you for this question. I haven’t written about it yet, so let’s talk about it! (Also, I consulted @bluedalahorse on this one as my favorite August expert so you are getting both of us for the price of one.)

I think it’s worth remembering that the Hillerska initiation and prefect system is designed to emotionally isolate first years and make them dependent on third years. August went through a really abusive initiation first thing when he arrived at Hillerska. He was basically sexually assaulted, and part of that assault was the third years laughing at anyone who displayed difference or vulnerability (ie anyone who got turned on from the porn video, or presumably anyone who tried to protest or back out from the “test”). The initiation puts him in competition with his peers right away, and teaches him that the third years hold the key to him either being accepted or laughed at until he himself is a third year and holds the power they do now. The insidious thing about these types of initiations is that they often effectively pull people in to an abusive system. They create a trauma bond between the older and the younger students, and they create a sense of survivors bias— we survived this, it’s just the way it is, and now we must do it (at least to an extent) to the new students under us. So the initiation August went through was effective in creating a sense of inferiority within him. It was also effective in fostering competitive relationships between the Forest Hill boys that don’t have a lot of emotional intimacy. I think you can see that in August, Nils, and Vincent’s relationship as third years.

So that’s one element of it. Another is where August was coming from when he landed in this abusive system. His father had just died by suicide. That means he would’ve been in the pits of grief, but also potentially full of guilt. I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to imagine that he might have felt in someway responsible for letting his father down or felt like he had a duty to be stoic and support his mother (in the same way that Wilhelm did) instead of healthily processing his grief. All those emotions, combined with an environment where he cannot share those emotions, contributed to August feeling lonely and broken in someway.

I think it’s likely that August, Nils, and Vincent became friends early on, but August’s own insecurities kept him from realizing that those friends really liked him, and the Hillerska culture kept him from being really open with them. There’s also the fact that his closeness to the royal family might make him question the genuineness of friendships even more- do they really like me as a person or do they just like me because of my preassigned status? And that could make him more insecure.

So of course he’s going to look at Erik, who has all the power of a third year plus the absolute security of knowing that he belongs and is very valued by his family, and envy what he has. He’s going to see that Erik is well respected at school and he’s going to do everything he can to be close to Erik, in order to emulate him and also to feel like someone is filling that empty father-shaped hole in his life. I think August is clearly a very adept leader and builder of community when he puts in an effort. I think you can see that when he calls the whole room to silence during the sit in. So it’s not super surprising to me that August accomplished his goal and became a powerful player in the Hillerska system quite quickly.

So those are my thoughts on August’s rocky early years at Hillerska. I hope it was useful!

#young royals #my meta #ask box #currently accepting silly and serious young royals questions!#august horn

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heliza24 · 7 days

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Hi! I have a Young Royals ask for you:

Which characters ending in the story was the most satisfactory for you? Is there an alternative route you could see that ending going (or having gone)?

I hope your day is lovely :)

Hello! Thank you so much for this question.

I don’t know that this is super unique, but the answer for me is absolutely Wilhelm. I have wanted Wilhelm to leave the monarchy since I first watched season one in 2021. There were a lot of reasons why-- it was the only way I could see him and Simon ever being happy together, and it was the only way I could see Wilhelm being happy as an adult. I also had a lot of personal investment in the idea of a story about how revolutionary quitting can be. I wrote a lot about that in this meta, which still kind of feels like my definitive fandom work to me. I wrote it at a time when it felt really controversial to advocate for Wilhelm to step down from the throne. But I stood by the ideas in that post and it was really gratifying to see that Lisa agreed with me. The only other way I could see Wilhelm’s story ending was if he remained in the monarchy and he and Simon broke up permanently. In that case the show would’ve been a tragedy with a hard lesson at the end rather than a story about hopeful change. (in some ways season three is actually structured like a tragedy, but it has a reversal and happy ending right at the end of episode six. I might write more about that at some point because I think it’s so interesting.) but in my mind, there was no way for Simon and Wilhelm to remain together happily while Wilhelm was still Crown Prince.

@bluedalahorse and @sillyunicorn can attest to the fact that I was stressing out hard during episode six because I even though I was so convinced Wilhelm needed to leave, I was also so nervous that it wouldn’t happen because Lisa made us wait right to the end to get our happy ending. But the relief and excitement the ultimate ending brought me was huge.

#young royals #ask box #currently accepting silly and serious young royals questions!

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heliza24 · 7 days

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What would make August reject the crown prince title?

This is such an interesting question! I know @bluedalahorse will have a more detailed response as the resident August expert amongst us but I will take a crack at it too.

I think there are probably three things August needs in order to feel able to leave. The first is just time. He needs to experience how onerous royal life is first hand, which he has been shielded from because he has not been the direct heir until now.

I also think he needs to continue therapy. I love how he kind of got tricked into doing some individual sessions with Boris in season 3, and I hope he’s able to continue that in the imagined future past the show. He has so much grief and family stuff to work through, which I think he needs to unpack before he could make the decision to separate himself from the monarchy. I have also always had a headcanon that August does actually have ADHD which is why he’s self medicating. So I think it would help his self esteem to get that actually diagnosed and treated, and that would help too.

The last thing he needs is some kind of community waiting for him as he leaves. He needs the equivalent of Sara, Simon, and Felice waiting for him in Sara’s car. August has always been a fundamentally lonely character who has gone about seeking connection in the wrong ways. I think part of the reason he likes being a part of the monarchy is because it means he is wanted by other people. If he was able to develop strong relationships outside the monarchy, it would cease to have such a strong grip on him.

I actually think that given enough time, Wilhelm could become a part of that community for August, if they continue to mend their relationship and August continues to put in the work over time. In some ways August will have an easier time leaving than Wilhelm, because he’ll be able to follow Wilhelm’s example as a way to leave and carve his own life path. But the things that August needs to leave aren’t unique. They’re all the same things that Wilhelm needed and got over the course of the series. So I think in an imagined future, it’s very possible that August will continue the healing and accountability we saw him tentatively start in season 3 and find his own way away from the monarchy as well.

#young royals #ask box #my meta #august horn #currently accepting silly and serious young royals questions!

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heliza24 · 7 days

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Ok I’m gonna let you pick:

Question A. Assign a character from Interview with the Vampire (no repeats!) for each of the main five YR characters to hang out with one-on-one. What activity does each duo get up to, and what do they talk about while they hang out?

Question B. Tell me a NSFW headcanon you have for each of the main five.

Thank you so much for letting me apply my current vampire brain rot to Young Royals. You really do know me so well.

OK so let’s start with the easy pairings. Felice is absolutely hanging out with Claudia. They are taking down corrupt schools and even more corrupt coven together. They are trying on fabulous outfits and bonding over how difficult it is to be young Black women in stories dominated by men. Maybe they are even solving crimes together. Next, Sara and Daniel are autistic hyper focusing together. They are chasing a story and asking brutally honest questions together. (I have never really headcanoned Daniel as autistic until now or thought about journalism as a potential career for Sara in the future but I think both of those things work very well actually.) last you’ve got Simon and Louis working together on a new album. The album is about Louis’s various heartbreaks and he finds it much more cathartic than the interview with Daniel.

Now we’re left with the most deadly interview of the vampire characters left and we run into more of a conundrum. Initially, I thought to put Lestat with Wilhelm just because of the prince connection I think, but then that leaves August with Armand, which is such a bad idea because Armand will spend that time either a. Teaching August how to be the most despotic ruler of Sweden possible or B. Running an extra judicial trial in which he can condemns and then murders August for his crimes. I think ultimately this ends up with Armand drinking August regardless, and that seems like a bit of a waste. So instead, I propose Lestat and August have an aristocracy-who-can-be-brattier competition (also maybe Lestat can introduce August to the joys of bisexuality, I think it would be good for him) and I send Armand with Willhelm simply to avoid a disaster. I think that Wilhelm has enough qualities in common with Lestat that Armand would probably fall in love with him, and therefore not kill him. Maybe Armand can teach Wilhelm how to paint. That boy needs a hobby after all.

OK, now let’s do a quick NSFW round of kinky head canons below the cut just for fun:

Wilhelm and Simon discover that Wilhelm really likes to get tied up (subspace is good for him!) and Simon gets really into learning different knots and rope techniques as like a sexy artistic practice.

Felice comes out as gray/flux ace and aro so sometimes she’s into sex sometimes she’s not. Sometimes she just likes to tell her partners what to do and watch. (does this happen when Felice hooks up with Wilhelm and Simon in the poly triad of my imaginings? I think it does.)

It takes some time and maybe some work with a sex positive therapist but eventually Sara pegs August and it really works for him actually.

(Do I just want the Eriksson siblings to dom their respective nobles? SO WHAT IF I DO 🙈)

#young royals #ask box #currently accepting silly and serious young royals questions!

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heliza24 · 7 days

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Darcy!Wilhelm is my fave to write! Thanks for loving him too @margotdanslebois 😊

Our conversations about books and reading are always so fun. What book would you recommend to each of the main five YR characters?

Well well well ! What an interesting and tricky question ! 💜

📚 Simon : some of those iconic books that forge your young mind and your awarness : 1984, Fahrenheit 9/11 or Brave New World. (Even if I don't think he is unaware of the hard reality.)

And I'm sure he would enjoy some sassy Jane Austen (he is soooo Elisabeth Bennet !!!)

📚Wilhelm : Lorenzacio of Alfred de Musset, because (as much as I remember...) the protagonist is becoming more and more "evil" by spending time with bad people and adopting their ways, even if it is with a greater goal.

And also, some romantic and gothic stories or poetry, because he likes big feelings : Frankenstein and Les fleurs du mal of Baudelaire.

And how didn't I think about Lord of the rings ! It's perfect for him !!!

📚 Sara : The little prince, because I think she could both like the stories in form of tales and fables, and because of the illustrations. And some mythology.

📚 Felice : some empowering adventure stories like Wild from Cheryl Strayed

📚 August : Oh, let him read A story of ice and fire (Game of thrones) ! He will enjoy the schemes and the darkness (he is such a mix between Jon Snow and Jaime !).

(Yes it took me forever to answer this but I had a lot of fun, thank you Blue 💜💜💜)

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heliza24 · 7 days

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Reblog if you want random YR-related asks in your inbox

#young royals #if people want to ask I will attempt to answer!#headcanons or analysis type questions allowed

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heliza24 · 7 days

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Hello there! Could you share some post-s3 Sara & Felice friendship headcanons?

What a lovely ask! Glad to share some ideas that pop into my head:

Sara is the first person Felice comes out to as asexual. (Specifically gray ace.)

Whether Hillerska re-opens or not, Felice refuses to go back and ends up at a school in the city somewhere. She and Sara send one another post cards. Felice’s tend to be cutely decorated. Simon buys Sara fun pens she can use to write Felice, though she tends to write only in one color. She still doodles, though.

They’re actually pretty good at keeping up a distance friendship. At one point Sara’s working a job in either Malmö or Copenhagen, and she and Felice still stay in touch and have a weekly phone call time.

At the same time, once Sara moves back to Stockholm, she and Felice are… kind of living together for a time? This is based on a headcanon @heliza24 and I discussed together, but essentially, Felice’s parents have bought her a nice townhouse in Stockholm. Felice ends up sleeping at work a lot though because she’s so devoted to her restaurant. So she invites Sara to come live in her townhouse, because Sara needs a place to live, and Felice needs her townhouse to look lived in. They’re better at being roommates than they were at Hillerska.

Felice gives Sara advice for whatever her love life is doing for the moment based on her horoscope. The advice is inconsistent in how helpful it is, so it’s sort of a joke at this point.

Felice likes to drag Sara along on random road trips related to her cooking goals. Like she’ll hear that a particular farm has phenomenal rhubarb and she’ll convince Sara to drive her there. They have set playlists they’ll sing along the way.

Hope that’s a good start! What are some of your headcanons?

#young royals #i love these headcanons that we've devised so much #there will be a future fic from us eventually #and I'm excited to write it!#sara and felice as friends is so important actually

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heliza24 · 8 days

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Let’s talk about parallels between Wilhelm and Sara in Season 3 of Young Royals

Because there are so many! This is a continuation of sorts of this meta that I wrote about them being A and B plot protagonists in season 1 and 2. I don’t know that I would describe them exactly that way in season 3, but I do think their plots, character arcs, and themes are meant to mirror each other very closely this season.

One of my favorite things about the parallels between Wilhelm and Sara this season is that comparing them really makes you hold Sara’s friendship with Felice on the same level as Wilhelm’s romantic relationship with Simon (and Sara’s with August) which I think is so important. Both Wilhelm and Sara go through breakups over the course of the season (I think Felice’s reaction especially frames her friendship breakup with Sara similarly to a romantic breakup, which I love). And both of their arcs are about mending those relationships.

Sara and Wilhelm both need to experience the world outside of Hillerska before they can mend those relationships. Sara is able to glimpse some independence, even just through getting her license. The whole world is open to her now, as Felice says in ep 6. I don’t know that she would have been able to make her decision not to go back to August without experiencing that freedom. And Wilhelm also needs to experience the full force of what life in the monarchy would be like before he is able to decide to leave it. Because of this they also act as our window into the two different worlds outside of Hillerska, the palace and Bjarstad. They create the larger context in which we understand Hillerska this season.

I love that both of their journeys of personal growth are symbolized through cars. Wilhelm is always getting trapped with his mom or a member of the court in a fancy car; it’s where almost all of the monarchy’s most onerous instructions on how to live are delivered to him. So it’s huge when he leaves his parents in the chauffeured car at the end of episode 6 and goes to find Simon, Felice and Sara in Sara’s beat up used car. Meanwhile, Sara has traded in horses for the car. This is stated pretty explicitly when her dad asks her if she would like to work with horses and she declines, saying that she has come to realize that horses are simply traded by rich people as status symbols, and her dad suggests she get her drivers license since it will help with any job she wants. In seasons 1 and 2 Rousseau is pretty heavily associated with August, along with the pressures put on August and the other elite kids at Hillerska to conform to expectations (@bluedalahorse has written the Bible on that here), so the fact that Sara swaps out the horse for a car that can take her anywhere feels like a step away from both August and the prescriptive norms of Hillerska.

Sara and Wilhelm both reject what they saw as their destined future. This is obviously really clear for Wilhelm; he assumed he would be prince and then king after Erik died, and his greatest moment of character growth is when he decides he doesn’t have to fulfill that assigned role if it will keep him from being happy and living authentically. I love the scene where Sara talks with her dad about her fears that she will fail in the same ways that he did because she also has autism and adhd. This is a less clear-cut assigned destiny, but that fear of becoming a self fulfilling prophecy is equally overwhelming, especially because Sara has already let down someone she cares about in a way that’s not dissimilar to how her father breaks promises. The fact that she’s able to come to terms with her dad’s influence in her life, but realize she really is in charge of her own future, is really powerful. (I also think it’s such smart writing about the way disability and internalized ableism can really affect your self image).

In order to break free of those predetermined destinies, both Sara and Wilhelm need to see a father/mentor figure as more than black and white. Wilhelm needs to acknowledge that Erik wasn’t perfect, and did help contribute to some of the abusive traditions of Hillerska. Sara needs to recognize that even though her dad isn’t a perfect parent, she still loves him for the care he is able to show to her and wants to have him in her life. I love that both Wilhelm and Sara learn to hold multiple conflicting emotions about their loved ones. They can be disappointed by some of Micke and Erik’s actions, but they can still value their relationships with those family members and recognize them as complex, complete people.

They also both go on a similar journey with how they see August. Wilhelm comes to recognize that August is both a perpetrator and victim of the class system and Hillerska’s systemized abuse. Sara similarly realizes that August is an adult who needs to be responsible for his own emotions. She’s no longer interested in saving him from his complex feelings of guilt, and recognizes his potential to find self healing. Both of those new assessments of August grant him more maturity and complexity than earlier in the show. (They also reflect the way that August grows, in fits and starts, over the course of season 3. If there was a season 4 of the show, I think we would really see August respond to Sara and Wilhelm’s new attitudes towards him in a way that would fuel future character growth).

Viewing Erik, Micke, and August more complexly also allows Sara and Wilhelm to forgive themselves for the ways they are similar to those people. They are able to acknowledge the shame they feel around their actions, but also forgive themselves in the same way that they forgive others.

Both Sara and Wilhelm have specifically let down Simon in pretty big ways (Sara by secretly dating August, Wilhelm by perpetuating the royal family restrictions onto Simon). But they are able to recognize those mistakes and reconcile with Simon.

Wilhelm and Sara both leave the monarchy (Wilhelm literally, Sara by refusing a relationship with August), but they also leave a kind of prescriptive romance behind. Wilhelm says no to having to monitor Simon, to having to roll out his relationship in a certain way to please the court, and to having their future together mapped out and their decision around children made for them. Sara says no to a smaller set of requirements, but the traditional ways that August sees romance are so influenced by the monarchy (which is in turn so influenced patriarchy) that they are similar in some ways. Sara says no to having to do August’s emotional labor, to managing him so that he will fit the image of a good heir. She says no to waiting for him to visit on weekends while he does military service. She says no to this grand plan that he has. (This was @bluedalahorse’s point originally that she shared with me, and honestly I think it's so smart). Wilhelm chooses a romantic relationship that he and Simon are free to create together without rules; Sara chooses a friendship based on honesty and support. Both are valid options that give the characters a sense of peace and freedom. And they would not have been able to make those choices without all of the growth they went through over the course of the season.

I think Sara and Wilhelm's arcs compliment each other so well, and it was one of my favorite things about season 3. I loved watching both of them get to grow so much and end up in such a happy place.

#young royals #my meta #wilhelm young royals #sara eriksson

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