I saw the YR confessions poll, and while I wouldn’t say I ship Walty, I enjoy reading them sometimes. And I particularly like your version of them! Please don’t despair. Your stories are wonderful and your versions of these characters are so compelling 🧡
Thank you anon for your incredibly kind words, and for reading and enjoying my stories about Henry and Walter! Your message made me smile 🧡
I'm sure there are people out there who, like you, enjoy the occasional Walty fic even if they don't ship them! But conversely, I think there are also a lot of people who will vote to ship on these polls (the more ships, the better!) but aren't actually interested in fics or posts about them.
[Putting a cut here because as usual, this turned into a rambling thought piece]
The fact is that most viewers simply don't get attached to minor side characters, and that's particularly understandable when it comes to the Hillerska students in YR. I've noticed that many fans are not only indifferent to these characters, but they actively dislike them. A lot of people never forgave them for shunning Simon in S1, and the glimpses we saw of their elitism in S3 didn't do them any favours either. They represent a world that Simon doesn't fit into and Wille is meant to break loose from.
I regularly see posts questioning how anyone could like these characters, and even the occasional bad faith take on why they are popular. I assume those people are in the minority; the majority just scroll past posts or fics about Walty, Stedrika & co because they simply have no interest in exploring them further. (I keep thinking of how someone once told me directly that they couldn't stand any of the privileged brats, which was why they hadn't read my fics.)
In the immediate aftermath of S3, there was in fact a small surge in enthusiasm for Walty, as the meadow scene moved their relationship from "strictly platonic" to "open to interpretation" in many people's eyes. In my poll on their canon status, the result of 42.9% shippers/fans was probably skewed by my followers being more likely to ship than the average YR fan, but there was also very real excitement on their tumblr and ao3 tags. Many new posts and fics (by non-Wilmon standards), good responses to those, and new kudos/hits on older fics too.
However, that surge was virtually over by May, and since then, interest seems to have plummeted. Walty still appear in some fics as a side ship or as part of an ensemble, and there's one post-S3 WIP focused on them that has 130 kudos, but there have been very few new tumblr posts or fics focused on them since the spring. When people do make posts or publish fics, they don't get much of a response.
Of course, the immediate reasons are many fans moving on from YR as a whole since canon ended, and summer happening in between. But if we disregard those and just look at the fandom at any given time, there is a definite "Wilmon only" trend that I feel has grown stronger as the fandom has grown smaller. (Here's a link to my thoughts on said trend after S2.)
Take, for example, the fic numbers for other ships on ao3 (for the sake of clarity, I'm only including fics tagged with /): 121 Salice, 110 Walty, 86 Stedrika, 28 Vingust, 23 Madirosh, 22 Nilcent, 21 Sigust, 5 Vindie, 2 Madisander, 2 Nilgust. Plus 106 Sircus and 92 Sargust, but few of them are shipfics.
Even if these were all separate fics focused on each ship, they would only make 420 (+198) to Wilmon's 4,799 fics as of this morning. In reality, most of them are either fics primarily focused on Wilmon with other ships on the side or in the background, or multi-ship fics.
To bring this back to Walty, those 110 fics make six pages on ao3. If you sort them by kudos, only five fics on the first page are primarily focused on them, with 1,227 (OPS in which Wilmon are prominent side characters), 561, 517, 469 and 423 kudos. There are way more Walty-focused fics on the second page, but the decline in kudos is pretty steep. The bottom of page two is already down to less than 200, and only the very top of page four is over 100.
As a non-Wilmon author, I do find it sad how often I see people say that they aren't interested in anything else. I don't blame anyone for feeling that way - it was Wilmon's story that hooked us all in the first place! Everyone should get to enjoy fandom in their own way, and there's a strong sense of community in people being obsessed with the same ship and keeping it alive with all their love and creativity.
But for those of us who are also interested in the other aspects, the heavy focus on Wilmon can become a demoralising cycle. New fans coming into the fandom don't see much enthusiasm for other ships or characters, which means they don't get invested in them, which means there's even less incentive to create more fanworks or posts about them. There are no subcommunities for us; just the outer perimeter of the already small YR community.
For me, personally... Let's just say it has been an adjustment to go from OPS, which had 700 to 1,200 hits per update, to TRD where 200 hits per update are a windfall. That's partly my own fault for taking too long between updates (creative burnout is a bitch) and insisting on such a niche angle (ace/allo fics simply aren't as popular as allo/allo). But interest in Walty has also been on a steady downward trend I would say since the long wait for S3, and the brief upturn after S3 was very likely the last one. It's good to set my expectations accordingly the next time I post something.
Which I fully intend to do! I still have one or two new stories to tell and one WIP to rework and finish, and the "write for myself" approach is working for now. The "share for others" part will be harder than ever, but I'm keeping faith in my small group of loyal readers. Some of them may have been swept away by other things, but some have already reassured me they'll be there.
So you don't have to worry about me throwing in the towel just yet, dear anon, but thank you again for your supportive message! It really means a lot in light of everything I wrote above 💜
"The fact is that most viewers simply don't get attached to minor side characters"
@sflow-er well, even August, Sara and Felice get swept aside and ignored by many fans. If they (despite their status as main characters) get that treatment, we shouldn't expect any better for minor side characters. I get it, I feel for those who care about non-Wilmon elements. However, the fandom is too small to allow for sub communities and it's past its peak now. Things are not going to change.
I loved Heartstopper 😍 Unlike YR where I mostly enjoy the romance between Wille and Simon and don’t really care about the other characters, Heartstopper made me care about everyone, including the side characters - indeed my absolutely favourite was not one of the main couple but Tao ❤️(even enjoyed that son of a b*tch Ben Hope, he’s hot which doesn’t hurt 🤣)
The last part 😂😂😂 Glad you loved it 💕 Charlie and Nick are cute and adorable but in terms of central romance, I prefer Wilmon because their chemistry is off the charts. When it comes to the supporting cast, I definitely preferred Heartstopper’s. They were more memorable and likeable to me and I felt more invested in their respective storylines.
Finished binge watching Heartstopper and it’s such a lovely show! It will give Young Royals a run for their money 🏃🏻♀️💶 just joking 😂 they’re both awesome shows and I love them both with a great central romance between the boys. But have to point out something, after finishing Heartstopper and entering a period of reflection to discern things I enjoyed most about it (and also what I least enjoyed), I realized that I liked the side characters in Heartstopper much better than the ones in YR. There was definitely better team cohesiveness and dynamics. Now that I think about YR, they sort of became islanded by their own storylines , like for example I don’t ever remember Wille having a direct conversation with Sara, Wille’s friendship with Felice is undeveloped despite establishing them as childhood friends and Simon also never interacts directly with Felice despite the two being members of the school’s choir.
Whoever this new character is, I hope it won’t take up much screentime in S2. No, I don’t want a love triangle because the crown is already enough of a problem for Wilmon and then it starts to sound more and more like a cheap soap opera. Whatever is the purpose of this new character, I realise that I’m not really a fan of introducing new characters that play a major role because it makes the transition between seasons more jarring. Couldn’t they use one of the minor characters introduced in S1 to serve that purpose and avoid the risk of having an overcrowded cast? Several of the supporting ones are very undeveloped and it would be nice to see more of them. I don’t think the writers of Young Royals are perfect (no one is), they can of course make mistakes but for now I’ll have faith and just wait and see.
Rather intrigued about how everyone knows his room. Wilhelm doesn’t even seem the kind of person who invites a lot of people into his room. He doesn’t even have a roommate who could potentially gossip to the others what his room looks like. On top of that, they would have to bypass his bodyguards to enter it. I guess Hillerska students could possibly recognise it as one of the standard double rooms from the school but the video itself doesn’t even seem to show a lot of it.
Can we talk about that moment when Felice shows Wilhelm the video, trying to show him who took it and Wilhelm just turns his head to the side ??? It just makes me so sad, that intimate moment they shared and being so close together just by themselves. It probably is a very important memory for both of them and now everyone has seen it. Their moment. And seeing that video himself and from that angle, which was something completely different from his memory, I just hope he can remember that moment the way he experienced it and not how everyone else views it, because … no, I don’t want that
I think what makes Young Royals’ love scenes so incredible and deeply affecting is the way we see Simon and Wille always getting consent from each other before getting physical. It’s a nuance so rarely scene in shows like this.
In their first kiss, Simon approaches Wille very slowly and deliberately. He gets close enough to kiss him, but gives Wille enough space that if he didn’t want it, he could push Simon away. He holds his gaze for a few moments, giving Wille the opportunity to question what he’s doing. When Wille doesn’t do either of those things, he goes in for it. Although Wille doesn’t exactly kiss back the first time, he doesn’t push Simon away either, giving Simon the go-ahead to try again. When Wille starts panicking and Simon attempts to leave, Wille pulls him back, and this is when Simon allows him to take the lead, because it’s up to him now. Simon has indicated his interest and he’s not making any more moves until Wille fully reciprocates.
This is shown again the first time they have sex. This point in their relationship is very uncertain. Although Wille has expressed his feelings for Simon he next before, as far as Wille knows, Simon may not want to be with him anymore. Wille had already hurt him twice at this point. When they lie down to cuddle together and sleep, you can see sleeping is very much not on Wille’s mind, but at this point, he’s not sure what to do. He doesn’t start touching Simon besides the handholding, although you know he wants to. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was aroused already; he’s lying extremely close to the boy he’s been pining over. It isn’t until Simon tells Wille he likes him too that Wille makes the move. He slowly positions their bodies in an intimate way, giving Simon the opportunity to object if he doesn’t want it. He holds Simon’s gaze before going in for the kiss; Simon’s open body language and the way he’s stroking Wille’s face and hair indicates that this is something he wants as well and that’s when Wille kisses him. They begin taking their clothes off at the same time. As Simon pulls off his sweater, Wille pulls off his pants. No words are spoken, but the consent is so clear.
How many shows have you watched where a character will just throw themselves at someone and start kissing them/undressing them, and even when one character objects, the other keeps going? I know Edvin and Omar talked a lot about getting consent when they were practicing their love scenes and it absolutely shines through. The love scenes are not effective because of “fetishization”, as some people love to throw around; it’s because so much care was put in to make this intimacy feel right for the characters and earned. Obviously doesn’t hurt that the chemistry insane, but that’s just a bonus.
during the lockdown, Jens was in a very bad place and really needed Robbe so Robbe sneaked out to comfort him, and months later at a party Jens let it slips up and Sander is upset because he wanted to see Robbe so bad during quarantine but Robbe didn’t sneak out to see him!
Sander quietly grabs his Coke and gets up from the floor, walking around the coffee table to go sit on the couch instead, alone with his phone. The others are too busy playing spin the bottle to notice. It’s been a chill, boring night and so they decided to play that to make the night a little more fun.
Robbe didn’t even seem to care when Jens let it slip while answering Aaron’s question of who was the last person to be with him that Robbe was the last person to be in his bed. He quickly explained that it was during lockdown, Robbe was there without Jens’ parents knowing so they couldn’t get the extra mattress that they keep on the attic, and so they had to share Jens’ bed for a day or two.
Sander unlocks his phone and opens instagram to pretend like he’s doing something, not thinking about how Robbe didn’t take his pleas seriously when he asked to meet during quarantine.
He knows Robbe was worried about his mom, and Sander too, but now knowing that he left his home anyway to go see someone else bothers Sander more than it should. Jens, of all people.
Sander puts his head back, finishing his Coke, and leaving the bottle next to him on the couch, still looking up, resting his head against the backrest.
They’re all laughing loudly, talking over each other and Sander feels like leaving, bothered by anything any of them do at this point. He tries to think of something else to stop his thoughts from spiraling, but nothing he usually does is working tonight so he gets up, taking his bottle to the kitchen, leaving inside the already half full of empty bottles sink.
Sander wishes he could have Robbe all to himself without it making him too possessive or crazy.
Sander washes his clean hands and dries them with a piece of paper towel, dropping it inside the trash on his way back to the living room, putting his phone inside his back pocket, leaning down, putting his hand on Robbe’s shoulder, kissing his forehead when he looks up, a little startled like Sander wasn’t even supposed to be there still.
“I’m leaving, okay?” He lets him know without asking if Robbe wants to join him even though he wants his boyfriend to go home with him, Sander wants Robbe to take the initiative for once.
Despite my many criticisms of the show, that mainly relate to S4 and S5, I'm glad that they at least did Sobbe justice. In canon, they represent the healthy romantic relationship. No drama just for the sake of drama to "spice it up". Unlike Zoenne, whose troubling dynamics so early into their relationship made me somewhat disappointed in them in S3 and part of wtFOCKDOWN. Never understood why some people perceive that a stable relationship means it becomes boring. But Sobbe is that and I'm glad. The end.
No point in trying to mince words, Yasmina's season is awful that leaves this unpleasant, bitter feeling, all the more so because it's the final season. In all honest, not much better than S4. There might be some positive points in its favour - the acting - but not enough to be its saving grace. Even the regular cast from previous seasons give off this vibe of having given up on the show, only showing up in rare occasions (or not showing up at all) to half-heartedly support Nora Dari. It's sad the show decided to take this route. wtFOCKDOWN helped me cope with lockdown in April 2020 and I wanted to live with the good memories but S4 and S5 sullied the show way too much. I didn't interact that much within the fandom on Tumblr but I was the occasional lurker. I'm not sad about wtFOCK ending. I'll be much more dejected about the fact that the fandom will eventually die a slow (or not so slow) death. I feel it's already happening. I'll miss you, guys!
Been silently watching Yasmina's season and I have to say this: it's mostly pure trash with beloved characters suffering the most unbelievable character assassination (Zoë, now Robbe?). Is S5 trying to compete with S4 for worst skamverse season ever?
I guess on the surface it doesn't get the same level of hate bc fans are trying to hold back for Nora Dari's sake but let's be brutally honest here.
