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heliza24 · 1 year

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The Radical Act of Quitting (and Wilhelm)

This is a little more personal than my Young Royals metas normally are. It’s really one-half personal essay, one-half show analysis. It’s something of a spiritual successor to my post about radical acceptance and Simon’s arc in season 2. And it’s also about the reasons why I want Wilhelm to renounce the crown by the end of season 3. (I am stating that early, because I know many people disagree. Feel free to engage but please do so with kindness; a lot of this is quite vulnerable for me.)

I’m disabled. Specifically, I have a chronic condition that began in my early twenties, and slowly got worse and worse until I was finally diagnosed at 28. I’m 31 now, and I’ve had to grieve the person I once was many times over. I used to be a dancer, I used to be an adventurous eater, I used to love to travel. My chronic pain and restrictive medical diet have taken those things away from me, piece by piece. But the thing I mainly want to talk about right now is quitting my job. At the time of my diagnosis, I had worked at my job full time for three years. For a few years after my diagnosis, I tried to remain at my job part-time, because I loved it. I worked in the music industry, and I had the best team of coworkers. I had a great work/life balance, I was never stressed about work. I looked forward to each day in the office. When I went to events and had to introduce myself during an ice-breaker, I would usually include a fact about my job. I found a lot of my identity there. All of my work directly supported musicians, which was something I was very proud of.

So I tried very, very hard to hang on to my job. My company gave out these ridiculously heavy plaques for employees who had been at the company for 5 years, and I was determined to get one. But it was really hard. I could no longer type sitting up for more than a few minutes, so I did every day from my lap desk in bed. (This is still where I write all of my fic and meta!) I struggled to talk to customers on the phone while I was in pain. The office was closed because of the pandemic, but I would have had to work from home regardless because I couldn’t handle the commute. Every day was a slog. And my pain and fatigue weren’t getting better. In fact they were continuing to get worse as time went on. Finally, my five-year work anniversary arrived. I made it, but I felt like a runner barely stumbling over the finish line. It was the end of 2021. I talked with my friends and my therapist and my disability benefits lawyer. “I don’t think I can keep working,” I would say. And then I would cry, because the thought of letting go of this last part of my identity, when my illness had already taken so much, was so horrible.

After several months of deliberating and grieving, I quit. My boss begged me to reconsider (God bless him, honestly). Was there anything he could do to better accommodate my needs? Could I work a different schedule to let me sleep more? Could I work freelance on specific projects they really needed me on? I wanted to say yes so badly. But I knew. The longer I held on, the more I fought, the worse my health would become. And the worse my health would become, the more I would struggle with work. The joy I had felt during my first three years in that office had already drained away. I was fighting just to get through each day, and I didn’t want to fight anymore.

I recognize that having the resources and disability benefits to even consider quitting is a huge privilege. There are a lot of disabled and chronically ill folks who struggle through work at great detriment to their health because they can’t afford not to keep working. So I recognize how lucky I was to be able to quit. I am so grateful for that option, even as I mourn all the things I have lost.

In my meta about Simon, I talked about radical acceptance and how it has been my guiding light as a disabled person. Embracing radical acceptance means that I have done my best to accept what I can and cannot do, and what I can and cannot control, without judgment. I accepted that I needed to walk away from my job. But how was I supposed to define myself without it?

Capitalism defines most peoples’ self-identity, whether they realize it or not. We identify with our jobs, or with the “grind” culture, or with the moral goodness associated with working hard. But here I was, without a job. And I had my whole adult life ahead of me. I had to find a way to make a new identity outside of work.

Around this time, I started to gravitate towards stories where characters are faced with similar decisions, even if I didn’t realize it yet. And let me tell you, there aren’t many of them.

@bluedalahorse and I talk about this a lot. In our ultra-franchised world, the point of stories, even those that are supposedly about rebellions, is often to return characters to the status quo, so that the next movie/comic/episode can pick back up where the last one left off. And when there is a significant change in the status quo, it is usually because the characters worked, and pushed, and struggled to achieve that change. It’s very rare to see a story about someone who walked away from something that was harming them. It’s rarer still to find something that deals with the aftermath, as characters work to re-establish themselves.

I’ve found a lot of comfort in true stories of people leaving cults and high demand religions, and of queer people forced to leave their conservative families behind. In all of these cases, people are consciously abandoning a predominant belief system that is harming them, and have to start over as they craft their new sense of identity. (I am also queer, which adds an additional level of connection). Often people in these situations come to rely on their found family, a thing I have also found to be true in my own life.

I quit my job in between seasons 1 and 2 of Young Royals, and I don’t think I realized how many themes connected my experience to Wilhelm’s until I was watching season 2. Wilhelm is the protagonist of Young Royals, and his central dramatic question has always been: will he fulfill his duty as a royal? Or will he quit, and discover who he is beyond the system he was raised in? Simon is a huge part of this decision, obviously, but the question has never been strictly about Simon.

While I have no personal experience with the monarchy, I do know what it’s like to consider walking away from a role that you assumed you would fill for the rest of your life. I know what it’s like to think about quitting your job.

There’s so much pressure on Wilhelm to assume the role of perfect Crown Prince. He’s told constantly—by Kristina, by Jan-Olof, by the court-- that he can’t let his family or his country down by deviating from this role in any way.

This is a pretty common experience for people who are trying to quit something. They are told that they will let down those around them if they leave. People who are leaving high demand religions are told that they will not be able to enter heaven. Queer people in conservative families are told they can’t come out because “it would break [elderly relative]’s heart and kill them.” When I quit my job, I thought a lot about how I’d be letting down my coworkers and everyone who knew me as a hyper-competent career-driven person.(This included some of my doctors by the way, who expressed their disappointment in my failure to adhere to their idea of a “worthy” disabled person, i.e. someone who soldiered through the pain and continued to work. Some withdrew care because of this and honestly I will never forgive them). And maybe I was letting people down, and maybe ex-Mormons really will spend the afterlife in outer darkness, and maybe all the grandmas of queer people will be so upset that they kick the bucket when their grandkids come out. But ultimately, if your happiness or safety or well being depends on leaving, it doesn’t really matter. You have to do it anyway. You have to abandon the things that you can no longer carry. You have to discover who you are on the other side of religion, of the closet, of capitalism.

I think about this every time people in the fandom talk about how Wilhelm leaving the line of succession will create a constitutional crisis, or impact all of Sweden negatively. I am personally pretty anti-monarchist, but I honestly can’t even tell you if I think that Wilhelm removing himself from the line of succession would bring about the end of the Swedish monarchy or not. Honestly, I don’t really care. I care about Wilhelm. I want him to seek happiness, to search for the future that must live on the other side of this oppressive system he finds himself in. A constitutional crisis? That’s Kristina’s problem, that’s Jan-Olof’s problem, that’s the government’s problem. Radical acceptance means focusing on the things you can control, and Wilhelm can only control his own happiness.

When this issue gets debated, I often see people argue that Wilhelm is too young to make the decision to give up the throne. But the reality is that we ask teenagers to make decisions about their futures all the time. @bluedalahorse wrote a great piece of meta about that here. I love what she said so much I’m going to quote it directly:

Nonetheless, we ask teenagers of Sara and Wilhelm’s ages to think about decisions that affect their future all the time. We ask them to consider what career they’ll pursue or what university to attend. Teenagers who grow up in various denominations of Christianity consider whether they’re going to go through with Confirmation or sometimes Baptism. Other religions (ones where I can’t speak from as much personal experience) have various other rites of passage around this age, and various cultures have coming of age rituals. For some teens, they do these things willingly and with their whole heart, whereas for others, they do it to please their parents or families or for the social norms of it all.

And if Wilhelm is too young to decide to give up the throne, how can he be old enough to decide to keep it? Surely the decision to take on the governance of a country, even in a symbolic way, requires as much, if not more, maturity than the decision to pursue a less high-powered career elsewhere.

When people in the fandom claim that Wilhelm is too young to make this decision, I hear Kristina telling Wilhelm to wait until he’s 18 to come out, because only then will he be responsible enough to deal with the consequences. That’s a delaying tactic, and nothing more. People who don’t want you to leave will ask you to delay your decision over and over again, because they think that if they can kick the can down the road just a little farther, they’ll never have to lose you.

I also see people argue that Wilhelm isn’t qualified to make a decision because he doesn’t know enough about the “real world” to know what he is choosing. To be honest I don’t think most teenagers know much about the “real world”. I definitely didn’t. But we ask them to make decisions that will affect their futures anyway. And here’s another way to look at this: Wilhelm has plenty of places he can look to for examples of how “ordinary” people live. He can find out what it’s like to be from a noble but non-royal family from the students at Hillerska. He can talk to Simon and Linda about what their lives are like. He can read the millions of books, or watch the thousands of movies and TV shows that feature non-royal protagonists and were created by non-royal artists. But only Wilhelm knows what it is like to be Crown Prince. No one else has had that experience. So I would argue that actually, Wilhelm is the only one qualified to make this call.

Ultimately, the agency and mental capacity of people who are quitting is often doubted, usually by the people who have the most to gain by keeping them in place.

So many people have so much invested in maintaining the status quo. And as soon as you invest in a system, someone daring to leave puts your world view into question. Why are you dealing with so many oppressive rules if someone else can just leave? We see this a lot with high demand religions and cults; if someone threatens to break free, the members often join ranks and work together to pressure them to stay. What has your sacrifice as a woman in a patriarchal religion meant, for example, if another woman can decide to simply walk away? Does Kristina’s grim life of duty and sacrifice matter, if Wilhelm can just opt out and seek happiness instead?

Then of course, there are all the benefits that an oppressive system confers on its most privileged members. Those benefits are in danger of disappearing if enough people quit, so high ranking people will work to keep others in line. Think about all the people who benefit from the monarchy: all the staff who work for the royal family, all the nobles who get their reputation by proximity to the monarch, and everyone in Sweden who in general benefits from the image that a long-standing institution of white, straight, conservative power projects.

And those aren’t people Wilhelm needs to be responsible for (or should be concerned with placating, to be honest). If the monarchy fails because Wilhelm leaves, it’s because there’s always been a fault in the system. Those relying on this outdated system have signed their own fate.

No one knows fully what life will be like after they quit. That’s the radical acceptance part of quitting. You have to make a blind leap, and discover a whole new world once you land. Wilhelm is no more sheltered than anyone before they take this leap. Everyone who quits—a religion, a cult, a job—has to go through this process of rediscovery. You have to learn by doing. People do that successfully all the time, and I believe that Wilhelm can too.

When I was talking about this meta with @bluedalahorse, we talked a lot about Plato’s allegory of the cave. That story goes something like this:

Several prisoners have been kept inside a cave their entire life. They are chained to the spot, and cannot move. They are facing the back wall of the cave. Behind them is a fire, and in between them and the fire, their captors walk back and forth, casting shadows on the wall. Because the prisoners have been kept in the cave their entire life and have only ever seen shadows, they think the shadows are real. They think the only thing that exists in the world is shadows. Until one day, one of the prisoners is set free. He goes outside for the first time, where he is blinded by the sun and overwhelmed by stimulus. But he discovers the real world. He now knows that the shadows he was used to are pale imitations of the real things. He’s so excited that he goes back to tell his fellow prisoners what he has learned. But the prisoners get angry at him for challenging their world view. They don’t believe him, no matter what he says.

There are a lot of ways you can interpret this story. Some people think that Plato is talking about the role of philosophers in society. Some people use it to explain a philosophical concept he writes about elsewhere called “forms”. But I think one thing is clear. Plato didn’t write the allegory of the cave (and it didn’t stick around in human imagination for thousands of years) because he thought you should stay in the cave. Leaving the cave is hard. You will be met with resistance. But discovering the real world, when you were only seeing shadows before, is worth it.

I want Wilhelm to leave to be happy, to see the real world instead of shadows. But I also believe it’s what the story demands. It’s the only answer that makes asking the dramatic question—should Wilhelm conform or rebel?—worthwhile to me.

To be king, but to be the first gay king, would be such an unsatisfactory ending for me. It reminds me of how hard I tried to keep my job—by working from bed, by reducing my hours. My boss could do the best he could to be accommodating, but ultimately working was harming me. You can’t adapt the monarchy enough to make it a non-damaging space for Wilhelm, because there will always be people pressuring him to conform to its straight, stoic ideals. Those ideals have been around for hundreds of years, and to put all of the burden of reforming them on Wilhelm is unfair and unrealistic. If he does stay, I see him struggling to change a system that is not designed for him. Even if he does make small victories for representation or inclusion in that context, it will come at an enormous emotional cost. I just don’t think it’s worth it. Not when there’s a whole world where Wilhelm could be doing good, important work– in whatever arena he chooses– that won’t also come along with inherent emotional trauma.

Believe me, there’s a whole world to be discovered after you walk away from something that’s damaging you. You grieve, yes, but you also grow. Since quitting I’ve been able to love my friends harder, to treat myself better, to give back to the disabled community. I think if you talk to most people who have committed a similar act of radical quitting they’ll say the same thing. I want this future for Wilhelm, but I also want this kind of story to exist for all of us. I want there to be a story that represents those of us who have had to make these kinds of decisions. I want there to be a story that can encourage people who are currently wrestling with their desire to leave and the pressure to stay. And I want there to be a story that shows the hope, the bravery, and the self-belief that is required to walk away and seek a brighter future.

#young royals #prince wilhelm #wilhelm young royals #my meta #my crip media reviews #this turned out to be very long thank you if you read it all

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totalcharliespringsimp · 1 month

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K stop

The ending of young royals stop ok STOP

OMG 😭♥️

Ok my honest opinion warning slight spoiler alert

It was a good show but I don't think it deserves all the hype it got. In my opinion there was too much fighting between William and Simon like I wanted them to get together and yes they do in the end like William breaks free of the royal shackles and then confesses his feelings to Simon and they drive off.

But I actually wanted to see that relationship like it a good show but I feel like it wasn't amazing it was only so so. I genuinely don't get the hype and I would've rathered see a much Happier and less depressing show. I wanted Simon and William to have more happy moments in the show I hated how sad it was. We have enough sad queer shows and based on the hype it got I assumed it would be similar to Heartstopper where there's sad part but untimely was a good happy show.

Anyway I'm going to go cry in the corner because the end going to make me ball my eyes out :)

I feel like Young royals fans are going to give me a lot of shit for this but yeah this was what I thought. If you do like a little sadder darker queer shows I would definitely recommend and it wasn't a bad show it just wasn't what I wanted and expected from it.

But overall 6.5/10

Please also let me know if you'd want to see more of this kinda movie/TV show review kinda base because personally I have a hard time watching new shows and not just recycling old ones but this would give me a little motivation anyway that's all. Young royals fans please don't kill me when I sleep 🙏🏼😭

#young royals #film #review #queer #lgbtqia #gay #overhyped #please don't kill me 😭🙏🏼#for saying this!#tv show review #netflix

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jessread-s · 2 months

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✩🍄💍 Review:

This book made me forget time existed and left me begging for more!

“The Prisoner’s Throne” follows Oak Greenbriar as he tries to regain Wren’s trust from the confines of his icy prison. With High King Cardan and High Queen Jude willing to use any means necessary to ensure his return to Elfhame, Oak will have to decide where his loyalties lie—with the girl he’s always loved or the kingdom he will one day rule.

Having been introduced to Oak in the Folk of the Air series, I was beyond excited to read from his perspective and Black does not disappoint! Like her other characters, Oak is very complex and layered. Black reveals that shortly after the events of “The Queen of Nothing”, Oak adopts a coy, spoiled prince persona. We learn that he does this so that he becomes the target of assassination attempts instead of Jude and Cardan. His motivations stem from the belief that he owes his family a great deal for all they sacrificed to protect him as a child.

Wren is the one person that Oak cannot hide his true self from and I loved watching him grovel after he realizes the effect his betrayal had on her. He draws out her lingering attraction for him with his charm and little games. I was overcome by emotion at the end when he laid bare his heart. Their messy love story is one that I will not soon forget and I cannot wait to see what role both of them play in the next faerie adventure!

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

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magnorious · 2 months

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Young Royals Perfectly Understands Frustrating Teenagers

*Spoiler Alert for the whole series*

This Netflix-produced Swedish teen drama just wrapped up its third and final season. It follows the second-in-line to the Swedish throne, Wilhelm “Willie” navigating a fancy boarding school rife with toxic social hierarchies and a crippling addiction to dangerous traditions, while also discovering his sexuality. Suddenly, his older brother dies and he’s now the crown prince, when no one ever expected him to have this responsibility, including himself. His jerk of a cousin records him and his new secret boyfriend being intimate and so ensues three seasons of drama surrounding the chaos of this poor kid being outed to the whole world, and the damage of publicity on his relationships.

*I watched this with subtitles and cannot comment on the quality of any dub.

This show is incredibly frustrating, because its characters are frustrating—because they’re incredibly believably teenagers who stake their entire futures on a high school fling. Willie and his love interest, Simon, are in a constant struggle over Willie’s great expectations as the new crown prince and Simon, of a lower social class, having a great many demands over how he thinks he should be able to live his life.

The characters have a ton of depth and that goes well beyond the two leads. The villain of the show, August, the evil cousin, is a hot mess who can’t do anything right. One that absolutely expects to peak in high school and sail through adulthood on his family’s legacy. He’s also Willie’s spare if he abdicates the throne, a rather unique twist on the prince trope I haven’t seen very often. Willie doesn’t want to be king, but he hates the idea of August on the throne even more, and, if only to spite his cousin, strays way outside of his comfort zone and ignores his own wants and desires to make sure he becomes king.

Other side characters include the dudebro boys of their school, also all dickish aristocrats, the ladies’ side of the school, and Simon’s sister's relationship with these socialites and her awesome best friend, Felice.

—

*spoiler alert again*

These two characters, Willie and Simon, are terrible for each other. Simon is too young and immature to understand and appreciate the demands of being royalty in a modern setting. He gets upset at Willie for all manner of things—that Simon has to watch what he posts on social media, who he talks to, who he takes pictures with, what statements he makes, and his unrealistic expectations of any politician. Every time he gets upset, I understand that he’s 17, but I’m also scowling at my TV thinking, “What exactly did you expect, dating royalty?”

Willie, on the other hand, bends over backwards for this guy and desperately needs to actually attend his therapy sessions instead of angsting over his doomed-to-fail romance. They’re entertaining, but they are so, so stressful to watch, whether it’s their many arguments or whenever they start making out in a public place where they can be caught.

They break up, get back together, break up, get back together. In the 11th hour of season 3, Simon officially breaks it off and I actually cheered. I figured the finale would end with the sick queen’s funeral and Willie reluctantly accepting his birthright.

That did not happen. Instead, Willie and August have a rushed “all’s forgiven” conversation, he abdicates, and runs after Simon to be free of a responsibility he never wanted. On the one hand, yes, he never wanted to be king, that much was clear from the moment he found out he was the new crown prince, but on the other hand—Willie wasn’t the character who needed to change for this relationship to work.

Simon was.

Simon, who argued with him constantly over the conservative nature of the monarchy, for all the stances Willie wasn’t allowed to take because of his rank. Simon could have ended this season either breaking up with him for good, or committing to the responsibility of loving royalty, and the two could have looked to a future of slew of progressive changes once Willie had the authority to enact change as king.

August won’t enact shit. August who, upon telling his friends that he’s the new second-in-line, realizes acutely how miserable he’s about to be for the long rest of his life. I half expected this guy to not survive to the end of the season with how self-destructive he is.

It feels like they had a different direction planned for the finale and someone somewhere cut it down. That, or Netflix's "3 season" rule made no exceptions and they had to rush to the finish line.

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Overall, they’re frustrating, but they’re also incredibly well-written teenagers. The constant pop/club music over actual score got annoying but it’s an exposure to artists I never listen to. The acting is fantastic across the board, as well, along with the editing and cinematography. The actual plot, up to the finale, was engaging and well thought out, with these two heirs duking it out in a cold war with the entire school caught in the middle.

Maybe I just don’t understand Swedish teenagers. I certainly can’t speak to if this at all reflects the reality of Swedish culture and living under a monarchy. It’s a shame that, in my opinion, it didn’t quite stick the landing with the messages it wanted to send, but the show’s a solid, if stressful watch, and a short one at that.

#review #netflix #young royals

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thatsmybook · 2 months

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Young Royals Is Officially Over & LGBT Media Will Never Be The Same… *se...

youtube

#young royals #yr s3 spoilers #one of my favourite yt reviewers of queer media #Youtube

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raincitygirl76 · 6 months

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A terrific review of Young Royals Season 2 in The Sophian.

The Sophian is the student newspaper of Smith College in Northampton, MA, USA. I don't know how long college newspapers keep their archives up, so just in case, I copy-pasted the article below. But assuming the link above works (and it worked just fine right now), please go to the link, don't read my copy-paste.

All Things Real: a Review of “Young Royals” Season Two

BY CATE CHRISTINIDIS ON NOVEMBER 15, 2022 |

ARTS AND CULTURE, POP CULTURE, REVIEWS AND TV

Photo by Robert Eldrim via Netflix.

Hillerska: a private boarding school tucked away in Sweden; horseback riding, rowing, rowdy parties and, most notably, 16-year-old Crown Prince Wilhelm. Still, “Young Royals” (2022) is no fairytale. A simmering pot of angst, romance, betrayal and battles of the conscience, “Young Royals” displays unadulterated teenage reality. Season One ended with Hillerska’s most scandalous term to date, and Wilhelm, played by Edvin Ryding, reluctantly left it behind to the promising tune of Elias’ “Revolution.” In the rubble of Season One, audiences couldn’t help but wonder: would Season Two be that revolution?

The short answer is yes. The romance that blossoms between openly gay Simon Eriksson (Omar Rudberg) and closeted Crown Prince Wilhelm enters uncharted territory. Wilhelm’s self-discovery is thwarted by the looming sense of duty pressed upon him by Sweden’s royal court, who deem queerness as a threat to the monarchy. Yet, the essence of the story does not lie in Wilhelm’s royal title, but in the title of the show itself: “Young Royals.” It is easy to forget, and equally important to remember, that the students of Hillerska are just kids. Their mistakes are children’s mistakes, and their resilience and bravery are monumental.

This also means that every catastrophe is that much more devastating. Both seasons deal with a case of child pornography –– a cellphone video of Simon and Wilhelm, recorded through Wilhelm’s dormroom window. Regardless of social power, money or fame, the problems that overwhelm Wilhelm and Simon’s relationship are unmistakably larger than they are.

“Young Royals” is all things real –– the bodies and situations portrayed on screen all reflect some semblance of teenage existence; simultaneous chaos, uncertainty, imperfection and beauty. The series doesn’t shy away from the ugly side of teenage life: where partying and stress meet drug use and where jealousy leads to impulsive, criminalizing mistakes. “Young Royals” is both dark and refreshing, unusual in its ability to look life right in the face.

The American media tends to place a beauty filter over the formative years. Audiences lapse into patterns of falsified viewing, scarcely aware enough to ask themselves: Hey, aren’t teenagers supposed to have acne? “Young Royals” doesn’t blink twice at these “blemishes” –– acne, crooked teeth, etc. In fact, they are clearly embraced, normalized and desirable –– clear skin and perfect teeth are not deal-breakers for being the most popular girl in school or the Crown Prince.

“Young Royals” likewise considers the psychological realities faced in the war between authenticity and duty. Season one introduced Wilhelm’s struggle with anxiety, but Season Two pursues the extent to which anxiety and panic consume Wilhelm after Season One’s events. It may sound cliché –– the prince who can’t handle the pressure of the crown –– but Wilhelm doesn’t ask the audience to feel sorry for him, and neither does “Young Royals.” Wilhelm is much messier in Season Two. He explodes with emotion –– fear, pain, anger, guilt and sadness –– and, without Simon, there is nowhere for it to go. He is selfish, rude, depressed, spoiled and makes bad choices. But Wilhelm’s reasons for not wanting to be Crown Prince are rightfully selfish; at 16, he is resigning himself to an empty and dishonest life. Forced by his mother, the Queen, Wilhelm begrudgingly sees a therapist, and while he resents the need for it, Season Two’s “revolution” finds Wilhelm overcoming his personal barriers to enact change.

Wilhelm and Simon are separated by class more than anything. Wilhelm, as a member of the royal family, is an elite, while Simon, a non-boarder, can’t afford to live at the school. While Wilhelm tries to understand Simon (and vice versa), there are times when their differences speak louder than they do. Simon’s inability to understand why Wilhelm, as Crown Prince, can’t disregard the crown and take a stand, clashes with Wilhelm’s inability to see how Simon’s social status caused him to receive the brunt of the backlash for the sextape. Season Two is a testament to revisions and the rightings of wrongs; as Wilhelm works through his own emotions, he learns to use his power and status for progress.

Season Two of “Young Royals” is all about decisions; specifically, revising and listening to one’s conscience to make the right one. Which decision will start a revolution, which will fuel it, which will kill it? Despite the tumultuous path to togetherness, Simon and Wilhelm have an incredibly realistic and healthy relationship. They show love through communication; their need to be seen, heard and understood by each other is unshakable. It makes the moments when they do touch –– which are surprisingly few and far between –– feel all the more worth fighting for. Wilhelm certainly agrees; each season begins and ends with his eyes locked on the camera. This is his story, and he’ll go to war for it.

#young royals #wilmon #prince wilhelm #simon eriksson #young royals analysis #young royals season 2 #simon eriksson analysis #prince Wilhelm analysis #young royals favourite posts #young royals reviews #wilmon analysis #young royals best posts #character analysis young royals #media young royals #press young royals #the sophian #smith college

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chocolate-apple7 · 2 months

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Young Royals s3 spoilers for all 6 episodes

Alright, let's try to make this short because it's already almost midnight and I need to go to bed. (Edit: Of course it's not short, I apologize in advance)

I can't believe it's over. This has truly been a great ride and I am so thankful that we got a completed ending. I know I said I would write a fuller review when finished but now that it's over, I don't think this has to be an essay. Here are just some quick thoughts

The fandom has been pointing out that Wilhelm abdicating and August becoming king is so fitting. Because while it was the one thing he thought he wanted for the longest time, he actually realizes that losing Sara is worse. Now he has this ever ending punishment and will have to be owned by the monarchy forever while losing the love of his life. I didn't love that August became king at first but after seeing that analysis it is truly so fitting and I am fine with it!

Another brief note with August is that he actually cried so many times in this last episode (I counted 3 in the first 30 minutes alone). I am glad he was finally able to open up a little even if he did not get his ideal ending. (which I am ok with because he deserves it!) Also glad he and Wilhelm made semi peace with one another.

While I loved that Stella and Fredrika finally got together, I wish we got to see it a little more! Just because it was a bigger storyline in season 2 and I feel like those kind of stories always get tossed to the side in the end. I'm still happy they're together, I just wish it was a little more developed. I know they were short on time though and I blame Netflix for that. (This finale totally could have been an hour and a half long)

I love how the show opens with Wilhelm starting at Hillerska against his will in order to be a better crown prince and ends with the school closing and him leaving a free man. It's so fitting and I love that.

Love that Felice and Sara actually talked and rekindled their friendship. Their relationship and the friendship between Felice and Wilhelm are the ones I truly valued on this show and I am glad I got to see them end properly.

I do wish that we got a little more closure with Felice and her other friends. Like she kind of just ditched them when they went to New York. I know that they may not have fully understood her in the end but they were still her friends and they could have wrapped that up a little better.

I loved that scene at the end and all the flashbacks! I love how it is clear that Wilhelm gave up the throne for HIMSELF instead of just for Simon. You could tell that he never wanted it, even before he met Simon so that decision did not feel spontaneous and I loved it (and I was team Wilhelm stay king before this episode but of course Young Royals worked their magic in the last episode again 💜)!

I don't know where to put this but I also loved that we got to hear both of Simon's songs for Wilhelm. The one he made for his birthday and the one from last season with the improved school song. That made me so happy and Omar Rudberg's voice is so angelic!

Also side note but the Erikson's were so wishy washy in this episode. Like they both kept saying goodbye to their respective lovers then kissing them later and acting like everything was still semi normal. Like if I was Wilhelm or August during any of those scenes in the middle of the episode I would have been so confused.

I still have so many questions. Will Simon and Sara move? Where is Wilhelm going to go to school after this? Will he be able to officially abdicate this young or will he have to wait until he is 18 (I have no idea how abdicating a throne works)? Will Simon and Sara try to see their dad again? What will happen with Rosh and Ayub as I feel like their story was kind of abruptly over? Will the Queen get better or will having to train August to be king just make her even more stressed and sick? Still so many questions, but I feel like that happens with any series I finish. I have to remember that this series is just a pocket of time for these characters and they will live on past this series. I feel at peace with them and confident that their futures will be ok and to me that is all that matters.

I still have to watch the documentary and cry all over again with that. I am so glad this series exists and I promise I will stop gushing about it soon. Thank you Netflix for not letting me down for once! I hope everyone had a great time with the end of this series and all feel at peace with this story!

As always, I'm happy to have some conversations in the comments!

💜👑💜

#young royals s3 #young royals #yr3spoilers #yr s3 spoilers #ending #review

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bigalockwood · 26 days

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we'll make a home on the cracks (glowing review)- chapter 2

Dear Wille, Writing letters is romantic, and I appreciate the thought, but can we please start texting, too? Reading a letter from you every second week is not enough. Below is my number. Either you text me or I’ll make Felice tell me what yours is. That’s it. That’s all you’re getting from me until I see your bleached buzzcut on my phone screen.

An entire year apart, told through letters and text messages. One mission: to get to know each other and stay connected. But is it enough to sustain Wille's and Simon's budding affection?

Another Friday, another chapter. This one’s a bit different and certainly unlike anything I’ve published as fanfiction yet. I had an absolute blast writing it though, and hope you have as much fun reading it.

(Thanks for all the love you showed chapter one. Words can't describe how happy that made me 💜💜).

You can find the second chapter here.

Or, if you haven’t started the story yet, go here.

Bonus chapters/missing moments can be found here.

#yr fanfic #young royals fanfic #wilmon fanfic #simon eriksson #wille eriksson #young royals #we'll make a home on the cracks (glowing review)#lia really shouldn’t be writing #talking shit for the hell of it

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toallthebooksivelovedbefor3 · 2 years

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So I just finished watching young royals;

First, I wanna say this better get a season 3 and 4.

Second, I love the way willie always a wanna talk whenever he and Simon fought. Despite Simon always walking away, I love how Willie always tries to communicate.

Third, it was love at first sight and no one can tell me differently. Willie literally fell for Simon the moment he saw him. He just didn’t know because he never thought he could feel intimacy for a boy. I’m sure he thought he was so sure of his sexuality until he saw Simon, I mean y’all saw the way Willie look at Simon at the initiation party. That was pure intrigue; a want to know who this boy is. And the way he chased after him when Simon left to look for Sara, he wanted to be in this boy’s company and don’t let me mention the way he went in for thirds and fourths when they first kissed -THE SHIRT PULL!!! Let me also mention when Willie asked Simon if he liked it there and we all know Simon didn’t but to not answer, Simon redirected the question to Willie and he said yes, even though we all know he didn’t. I mean he said himself he didn’t want to go to some fucking boarding school and he didn’t want to be around Annoying August. They only started to like the school because of each other and in that moment when they were hiding from September and Nils, I think there was a slight realization from Willie that he might like Simon in the same way he liked girls and from Simon that the prince might be gay.

Fourth, Felice. I didn’t really like her much in season one but season two? Felice came into herself. The transition from her straighten hair to curly/natural I loved that and if we get a season 3 (praying we do) I think we’ll see her explore her sexuality because I thought sis was in the closet when I saw pull out Maddie’s hair in s1ep1. Also in that’s same scene when she says she’s not hungry, I got an eating disorder vibe, don’t know if it’s just me but then I didn’t notice anything else relating to a ED so Idk.

Fifth, I seriously believe that there is something wrong with August mentally. I mean, there has got to be some kind of effect to him taking all those drugs. He needs help or Jesus, maybe both. I also believe he knew that Wilhelm liked Simon, just refused to believe it because of who Wilhelm was. I also believed he really loved Sara because in s2 we see him wanting to go after Sara but instead chose duty. I’d like to see more of their relationship explored.

Sixth, Sara, honey, I know you are a trying to help but sometimes the best way of helping is to not help.

Seventh, I love how they incorporated Omar’s culture with his character. Omar is Venezuelan-Swedish and at school we see Simon speaking svenska (Swedish), but at home it’s mostly Spanish with his mom mixed with svengelska (Swedish-English) with his sister and friends. I would like to see Simon speaking Spanish to Willie and him not knowing what to do or say because he doesn’t understand the language.

Eighth, Fredrika knows that Stella is in love with her and she wrote the poem, she’s just waiting for her to get some courage and confess, that’s a canon I believe will happen. But on the reals, Stella is a girl boss and Fredrika is a sweetheart and someone (Sara) needs to accidentally spill the beans so these two can be together. I love a grump-sunshine relationship.

Ninth, I wish I saw Erik and how he would react when the tape leaked. I fully believe he’d support his brother.

Tenth, in conclusion, young royals deserve a season 3 and 4 where we see how people will react to the Crown prince and his Prince consort, Felice and finding herself, Maddie and Felice? Maybe, Sara and August, August redemption because we all know he regretted what he did, STELLA AND FREDRIKA, 2nd and 3rd year to see how they’ll handle the pressure and the transition from teens to adulthood CONFIDENT WILHELM, the queen being a mother and getting to her son’s boyfriend, MORE WILHMON MAKEOUTS, rosh’s ex actual name, Wilhelm and Alexander make up, August and Wilhelm going from enemies to acquaintances (not friends bcuz I don’t think Willie would forgive him so quickly especially since he almost lost Simon), Simon realizing the pressure that Willie is under in the Royal Court, WILHMON PDA, Willie and Felice being bestie pt 3, Simon and Sara make up, Felice and Sara make up.

Any more you can think of feel free to comment.

#young royals #prince wilhelm #wilhelm x simon #stella x fredrika #crown prince wilhelm #young royals season two #young royals season 2 #review by lee

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noveltyreads · 2 months

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All of Us Villains (All of Us Villains #1) By Amanda Foody and C.L Herman

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I have recently been finding myself gravitating towards dark fantasy this year and honestly? I love it. Dark fantasy brings forward everything I love in books: enemies to lovers, forbidden romance and magic schemes that make you wish the world was a little more magical than it actually is. All of Us Villains had the perfect recipe to become a newfound favourite.

I was lucky enough to read a few pages of the book before it was out. I enjoyed the sampler so much that I bought the book (and its sequel) already knowing I would be transfixed and pun intended, spellbound.

The book has been pitched to me as The Hunger Games but make it magical and villainous. The book is told in four perspectives: Briony, Alistair, Isobel and Gavin, four of the seven champions forced to fight to the death to win high magic, a rare magical commodity. The book spends a lot of time showing us how the champions have prepared and strategised for the tournament, building up the characters and showing how they all cope with the knowledge that they'll one day fight to the death.

To me, Alistair was an instant stand out. I loved reading his perspective. He reminded me of Lira from To Kill A Kingdom in that he was raised to be villainous but really, his villainous behaviour was a result of what his family expected from him. He may be morally grey but I could tell he had a softer side and the way he cared for his brother, Hendry was really sweet and wholesome.

Isobel started off as a character I really enjoyed reading but towards the end, I started losing interest with her character. Her parts were better in terms of plot and moving things along but as a character, she lost me towards the end.

Gavin was a character I was very interested in. I am a sucker for the classic underdog story where the odds are stacked against them and they manage to be victorious. Gavin's entire family haven't won the tournament in all the centuries it's been happening. Gavin is seen as a dead boy walking and he wants nothing more than to prove people wrong. Out of everyone in the tournament, he and Elionor seemed the most ruthless in their pursuit to win and eliminate competitors.

Briony was the last of the perspectives however, she never really grabbed me as a character and so, I wasn't as excited reading about her as much as I was for Alistair or Gavin. I won't lie, she sort of annoyed me. The other side characters I enjoyed were Hendry and Reid. Hendry was such a sweetie he's easily one of my favourite characters. Reid was a character I predicted would have a huge influence on the plot. He kind of reminded me of Harry Hookfrom The Descendants mixed with Yungblud and a bit of Palaye Royale. I hope I get to see him more in book two.

The characters were a big win for this book. As in, all the characters felt unique with their own personality that I could easily tell apart. The only real negative I had was the book at times felt a little slow. I also wanted more suspense and tension from the competition. I knew the stakes were high but I didn't feel the danger or risk from the tournament even when things started going pear-shaped. By the end of the book, I started getting that anticipation I was looking for with the book ending on a tantalising cliffhanger. Naturally, I have started the sequel instantly.

ACTUAL RATING: 4.2 STARS

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