My reheated s3 take is that August not getting a scene to apologize to Simon and Wilhelm not getting a scene to build a relationship with Sara (beyond exchanging one line) are letdowns in a way that feel deeply interrelated to me.
To be clear: my intention is not to draw a false equivalence between the harm August does to Simon in releasing the video, and Wilhelm’s failure to build a relationship with his boyfriend’s sibling. Instead, I’m struck by how the show tells us that Wilhelm/Simon and Sara/August are both important, formative first loves. The writers also emphasize Sara and Simon’s bond, especially in terms of how they need one another to navigate Micke’s abandonment of them, and likewise stress the need for Wilhelm and August to grieve Erik’s death together. Therefore, it makes sense to close the loop on the Wilhelm-Sara and August-Simon undercurrents running through the series, especially when Simon and August’s conflicts drove a lot of season one and Sara and Wilhelm’s arcs were so paralleled early on.
Maybe I’m biased? As much as I enjoy characters who will move mountains for their love interests, I fall ten times harder for a character who will engage significantly with a third character who means a lot to their love interest. Jane Austen rocks this trope, honestly. I wish we’d seen it play out a little more in Young Royals.
TANGENT: This trope certainly guided heliza and I’s writing when we started Heart and Homeland. In our fic Wilhelm deliberately tries to make sure he learns things about Sara and wins her over because he cares for Simon so much, and he ends up forming a queerplatonic bond with Sara in the process. I’m so invested in their relationship, honestly! Meanwhile, August’s near-reform followed by a dramatic fall from grace (into villainy, even, because I do write a decent villain August if I say so myself) hinges on a vow he makes to Sara—one where he’ll patch things up with Simon—that he later breaks. And much earlier in the story, August does save Simon’s life while Simon’s in the process of saving Wilhelm’s, something that Sara witnesses and remembers.
Anyway, not everything needs to be like my fic. I know I’m being a little ridiculous here. Cough END TANGENT.
At the same time, it was truly surprising to me that the writers of YRS3 didn’t pull on those Sara-Wilhelm or August-Simon threads more. Especially since the creators are on record as saying they assumed the audience would assume that August would apologize to Simon and attempt to repair his harm someday. And based on Sara’s reaction to Wilhelm in the car, I guess we’re also supposed to assume they’ll be friendly and develop a deeper bond someday.
Sometimes it feels like there was meant to be more on the August-Simon and Sara-Wilhelm fronts though. There’s little hints here and there in earlier seasons. Wilhelm being a former rider when Sara loves horses. The fact that the production team cut a line from Wilhelm to Sara in the s2 field scene (the only line that they’d really exchanged thus far) as if they were saving their interaction for something big in s3. The time when August defends Simon against Vincent after the whole rowing team drama. The fact that August has a father with addiction issues in common with the Eriksson siblings. Like. Were there storylines or sequences of dialogue that got cut? What’s the behind the scenes story there?
I specifically wanted to talk about this as an issue of the choices the writers made, rather than an issue of what good or evil innately lurks in a character’s heart. Again, the writers assumed the audience would know that August has become the kind of person who will apologize to Simon and repair the harm he did. Malte talks about August’s growth in interviews—not overstating it, but being honest about how the character’s changed. And I can see plenty writing choices that support that idea of August’s growth! I think there’s a lot that fanwriters can play with and expand upon! Yet those writing choices are undermined by the writers’ choice to not close the loop on August and Simon’s earlier conflicts, and differentiate those as separate from August and Wilhelm’s conflicts. I personally tend to see this as a reflection of the writers’ failure-to-communicate rather than a reflection of the eternal evil of August’s corrupted soul or whatever, and approach my fanfic accordingly. Yet I still see some analyses argue that he’s “canonically” a villain and… it just doesn’t quite mesh with what I’m seeing from the show.
Meanwhile, maybe it’s just me who has this arbitrary goalpost that Wilhelm should have had more meaningful interaction with Sara beyond the one line they exchange and her car being his getaway. But it still feels like their s3 interaction was meant to be more significant? Sara is the beloved-then-estranged sibling of the guy Wilhelm is in love with, she is the cried-over-and-missed other best friend of Wilhelm’s best friend, she is the girl who turned Wilhelm’s jerkass playboy cousin into a puddle of vulnerable enamored goo. She is Fröken Ramirez’s favorite Lucia FFS! (Okay the last one was me being silly, but you know.) If I were Wilhelm, I might be more curious about Sara, especially after she returns to school again and is ostracized by the school population at large. And maybe Wilhelm isn’t meant to be curious about Sara, but that still feels like a thread that got dropped given how it felt like Sara and Wilhelm were deliberately kept apart in earlier seasons. (Has anyone asked the writers about this? Does anyone know the official response? I’m dying to know, now.)
Anyway, this isn’t meant to be a “fuck the writers! fuck season 3 forever!” post because I genuinely did like some of the character arcs and some of the choices and I should probably rewatch season 3 over my upcoming time-away-from-work so I can post about that. But the dropped threads re: Sara-Wilhelm and Simon-August are what I ended up thinking about this morning. I really cared about how those relationships were gonna play out.
There’s a whole other post I could make about Felice but that’s for another day. Perhaps after a rewatch!
I don’t think August really thinks of Sara as Simon’s sister. He dislikes everything about Simon, after all. If he thinks too hard about them being full siblings, he’ll have to face up to the fact that Sara is also the biracial working class child of an immigrant.
I suspect August thinks of Sara as one of the “good ones”. She’s socially ambitious and strives to join the elite, rather than dismissing the elite as pampered anachronisms who should pay more taxes. She’s not threatening because she wants to assimilate.
Plus, it’s a lot more socially acceptable for women to marry or date “up” than for men to do the same. If August thinks about Sara’s background at all, it’s probably to see her as a Cinderella figure he can rescue.
Plus, yeah, absolutely, August still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that he wrecked Simon’s life even worse than he wrecked Wille’s.
Don’t get me wrong. I do think August is genuinely in love with Sara. But he’s wilfully ignoring a lot of things about her. Her social background, her family, her neurodivergence, the fact that she’s tied to a massive royal scandal he created (her little brother having been in the video August leaked).
August finds Sara’s bluntness refreshing, even charming. But the royal court, for example, would find her an unsuitable possible consort. Sara would probably be just as miserable as Wille trying to make inoffensive, bland small talk all the time. Small talk is a major duty for both blood royals and people who marry into royalty, along with smiling and shaking hands.
But August is in denial about all that. Sara is perfect to him, and he trusts his own judgment. So obviously she must be perfect to everyone else as well. He thinks she’s adorably quirky, and romanticizes her neurodivergence. If 2.06 hadn’t happened, and he’d announced to Jan-Olof and the Queen that he’s dating Ms Sara Eriksson of Bjarstad, they would’ve been appalled. And I doubt he would’ve seen their reaction coming.
Sara was always the one who wanted to hide their relationship. August wanted to be out and proud as her new boyfriend. In a weird way it’s a credit to him that he doesn’t see the difficulties she would create as his public girlfriend, maybe someday wife. In S1 he publicly proclaimed her a freak, but by S2 he thinks she’s perfect in every way, can’t see the problems she would cause or the acute unhappiness she would likely experience.
But it’s also a case of wilful blindness on August’s part. If he doesn’t anticipate the difficulties she would have, he can’t fix them. So he doesn’t understand why she’s reluctant to go public. Especially since he’s in denial about how much the video he leaked ruined Simon’s life.
But Sara was there in the Eriksson house for the messy aftermath of the video. She can predict much better than August what will happen if scandalous Simon Eriksson’s sister goes Instagram official as the girlfriend of a member of the extended royal family.
She doesn’t talk about the video and its effect on Simon with August after 1.06. Presumably she doesn’t want to make August feel guilty. And doesn’t want to think about it too much or her own guilt will kick in. But she still witnessed all the epic fallout, the reporters showing up on the doorstep, neighbours whispering, etc. Sara is less scandalous, being a girl and August only being second in line to the throne. But there would still be media and public interest in her.
AU where August doesn’t film Wille and Simon together and his financial troubles don’t happen, but he still falls in love with Sara through a different series of events. And since Wilmon would still be a couple, just imagine all the chaos that could happen from both Eriksson siblings dating a royal and a noble
Awkward family dinners at the Eriksson household. Poor Linda trying to deal with the shock of her son dating a literal prince, and her daughter dating a literal noble. August having to actually make nice with Simon if he wants to actually make his own relationship work. Simon and Sara trying to be all protective towards each other’s boyfriends. Wille having a bit of a competition against August as “the best boyfriend ever”. Linda forcing both couples to go on a double-date because she’s tired of the tensions between Simon and August and wants them all to just get along, and said double-date is for Rosh’s soccer game because of course it is.
Everyone at Hillerska doesn’t know what to make of this new development. But all they know is that the Eriksson siblings must have some godly rizz if they managed to pull both a literal prince and a literal noble, lmao
I know that a part of the fandom disliked the Sargust storyline and among the various reasons mentioned, one made me think. Some were disappointed because August was given this sort of "redemption arc", some others complained about his arc being contradictory, as if the writers couldn’t decide what to do, whether to “redeem” him or not.
I think this wasn’t the point at all. I don't believe Sara and August love story was meant to be an actual redemption arc, for either of them (if anything, because as such it badly failed). This was just Young Royals doing what Young Royals does best. Namely, showing us once again that human beings are very much complex and nuanced when it comes to their feelings, decisions and actions.
It was easy to accept the not-all-black-and-white pov with Wilhelm and Simon because we love them, sympathize with them, we even identify with them. Doing the same with August and Sara is much harder. But even assholes can have a soft side. It's real. It's human. And it doesn't erase their wrongs.
I think what comes across as disturbing in August+Sara's story is that both of them have made terrible and selfish choices, both of them have betrayed their friends and family, and yet they get to enjoy some blissful moments of love, tenderness, and care. Moments of real happiness. And they do it exactly when Wilhelm and Simon are apart, heartbroken and dealing with a lot of issues. Somehow it feels unfair.
Love is often perceived as something that people deserve or don't deserve according to their behaviour or moral standing. Some sort of reward that we get if we are good enough. Then, how can an asshole who has done such shitty things be loved? Or how can a selfish, untrustworthy person be able to love anybody? These are the unspoken questions.
The thing is, love is not a prize. Love is just something that happens. Often in the most unexpected ways. It's unfair. It’s random. Uncontrollable. Messy. Sara puts it into words beautifully: "You can't control your feelings. Even if you have feelings for the wrong person, it can feel so damn right". And love is not a redeeming force either. The bare fact of being in love or being loved doesn't make a person better, nor it can be expected to.
Any redemption tropes left aside, their storyline shed light on some sides of the characters that we hadn't seen yet, adding layers and depth to both and making them even more interesting (to me Sara and August were already very interesting characters in S1). It challenged the viewers to question their perspective and to deal with mixed feelings (oh, wait he's the villain, I hate him... how comes that for a split second I found him so tender and I was rooting for them??). It gave us some sweet, fluffy moments in a season which was at risk to have none, together with some very realistic intimacy representation. It provided a good amount of drama for the final climax and it set things up for potential plotlines in s3 (lots of potential shit, depending on where the authors want to go). And despite Sargust being the most random, weird and unlikely couple ever, it felt believable to me. On top of everything, Malte and Frida showed great chemistry and their acting was truly amazing.
Sooo... I might be the only one here, but I really enjoyed Sara+August storyline in S2.
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!
Linnéa said that she told Lisa before they made season 3 that, as they were sending these characters off into the rest of their lives, she was interested in who they were going to become as people. They both wanted to delve deeper into who they were.
So it would seem that by putting all five of them through the conflicts and consequences of all their secrets being out in the open, their true characters and how they problem solve would come to the fore. This would then give us an idea of how they would manage and choose to respond to adversity in the future. Their strength of character was tested in the last season, and I would say that all five of them rose to the challenge.
August's I find interesting. He is having to reckon with who he is viewed as by the outside world, and he does not like the legacy he is leaving behind. It's interesting that the first people whose opinions of him he cares about are Wille and Simon. I guess no one likes to be viewed as a shitty person, and hearing Simon's mum shouting that he ruined her son's life must make him realise that he did a really awful thing, even if he doesn't care about Simon as a person. He cares about what that says about him as a person IN FRONT of the Royal Family.
Though Nils and Vincent laugh at his loss of agency and ability to party hard and live a life of Riley, August has never been a 'party prince'. He often sits in the society room at parties and has to put on a smirking mask to be amongst his partying peers. He takes the Society and brotherhood very seriously and doesn't like Wille belittling it and everyone's status at the drinking and drugs party.
But he is eager for his life to mean something. He's an overachiever at school, a natural leader. He remembers important people's names and is good at networking at public events. He is completely at ease in a public role. He is eager to please authority figures and is good at liasing conflict and seeing the bigger picture.
Whether Sara has helped him view his elitism in a different way is maybe still a question. He is more aware when side-eying the class import signifier that Vincent asks him to vote on. He has been made aware and has fully sat in the consequences of his actions. He's been lucky to get away with them, and I think he is taking his second chance seriously. I get the sense that he would take the Crown Prince role very seriously and be one that the Royal Court would love. He would totally uphold the nobility and be duty bound. He has become aware of his eating disorder, been validated that what was done to him in the first year was not okay, and he is more open to talking with a therapist. His future seems quite hopeful. He has, however, lost someone who he truly loved and who loved him for himself. I picture him thinking about Sara whenever he takes Rousseau out for a ride and treats that horse impeccably, the way Sara would have.
Unpopular opinion : this is a deep dive into August’s arc to explain why I have hope that he will become a better person.
His third year at Hillerska was a big slap in the face. He went from having everything he wanted to losing it all due to his bad actions. Throughout the 3 seasons, I think he slowly learned from his mistakes.
In season 1, we see a very arrogant August who thinks he’s on top of the school and that his actions have no consequences. He goes as far as telling Wilhelm that they could kill someone and no one would say a word.
He buys alcohol from Simon, knowing that he won’t be able to pay him and thinks it’s okay. He is also really fake, he has this whole persona that he can only maintain by taking drugs. At the end of season 1, he realises that people are actually going to hold him accountable. He leaks the video and loses something that mattered to him a lot, his relationship with the Crown Prince.
In season 2, he is very scared of suffering the consequences of his actions and wants to fix things. He lets Wilhelm punish him and strip him of everything he cared about in the hope that he will forgive him. When he sees that it doesn’t work and that he risks going to jail, he makes the bad decision to plot with Alexander, but it backfires and he loses Sara. He tries to buy Sara a horse to get her forgiveness but that doesn’t work either.
In season 3, this is when he really starts to reflect. He doesn’t know what to do because doing bad things makes people hate him and doing good things doesn’t get them to forgive him. Boris helps him realise that he sees things as transactional and that’s the problem. After that, he apologises several more times to Wilhelm, even though he knows at this point that he won’t get his forgiveness.
He opens up to Sara, he gets vulnerable and lets go of the persona he was trying to maintain. He is also very isolated from Vincent and Nils which I think is because he realises how shallow their relationship is. He isn’t happy about the titles he receives from his peers at his graduation ceremony because it’s not who he wants to be anymore.
His ending with Sara leaving him is the last lesson he needed. By choosing herself she shows him that everything does not revolve around him. Caring about someone means seeing things from their perspective and sometimes letting them go (kind of the same thing Wilhelm learned during season 2).
We don’t know if he will learn from this of course, so for me his ending is open. However, what we saw in the last season indicates that he wants to change and I hope he will continue in that direction.
I don’t think this is an original observation. I think someone else commented on it back in 2023 and my brain squirrelled it away for later. But in S2, when they’re secretly dating, August never tries to hit Sara up for ADHD meds.
In S1 when he barely knows her, he has no problem trying to buy her prescription meds from her. Also in S1, we find out that he’s been inducing Vincent, one of his best friends at the time, to “share” his own ADHD meds for quite a while. In 1.02 Vincent says he’s had to change psychiatrists several times to keep up with August’s need for the pills. It doesn’t seem to bother August that he’s jeopardizing the mental equilibrium of one of his best friends.
Now, in S1, Simon sold August quite a large stash of Micke’s ADHD meds. So it’s possible August was hoarding those into well into S2, and didn’t need to hit his girlfriend up for her own prescription. But it also shows just how shallow August’s relationships with Vincent and Nils are, that in S1, August makes use of Vincent like that. And then of course, in S2, Vincent and Nils turn on August at the first Machiavellian suggestion from Wilhelm. So I think those friendships were always quite superficial compared to August’s bond with Sara.
But it’s vaguely to August’s credit that he didn’t in S2 try to do to Sara what he was so willing to do to Vincent the previous semester. He genuinely cares about Sara, maybe even loves her, and he knows she needs her Vyvanse to function in the world. Even though she’d be an obvious source for him to go to after he runs out of Micke’s meds.
Now, it’s not necessarily all altruistic on August’s part. When they discuss his ADHD med abuse in S2, Sara is obviously worried about it. And he fronts for her and minimizes how much he relies on the meds. They don’t discuss Micke’S substance abuse onscreen, but it’s possible Sara confided in August about her dad being an addict offscreen during S2. It’s something she and August have in common, dads with addiction problems.
August needs to appear powerful and confident, even to Sara who saw him at his worst and loved him anyway (until he found a new level below rock bottom and she gave up on him). Notice he also didn’t confide in Sara about his money troubles in S2. Even to Sara, there’s a certain level of image to maintain.
Plus, August comes from a deeply conservative background and seems very traditionalist in his views of romantic relationships and marriage. I expect part of minimizing his addiction to Sara and not telling her he’s in financial trouble is about being a “good provider”. And a manly man, stoic and self-sufficient. Hitting Sara up for her Vyvanse wouldn’t fit with that.
Nonetheless, given August’s canonical addiction, it’s to his credit that he doesn’t ask for (or steal) meds from Sara.
One of the things that frustrated me most about S3 was that they completely dropped August’s addiction. Which was inportant to the overall plot in both S1 and S2.
I like how the show Young Royals has the forbidden love relationship be the straight relationship. How that relationship is forbidden is because of the amount of abandonment of Sara's loved ones and herself that that love would entail.
Sara could decide to keep being August's emotional support because she genuinely cared about him, and he would eventually learn to understand her needs and who she is and give her the same support. But at what cost?
Sara did not see what she did to Simon as a betrayal for ages because the damage had been done already. But when August didn't go to the police, she realised that he had deceived her with the knowledge she gave him about Simon to once again target her brother. He made her complicit in Simon's betrayal, and he didn't think what that would do to her.
She didn't realise until the gun scene how treacherous she had been to Simon and for how long. She had put her feelings for August above her feelings for her brother, who she felt had been disloyal to her by rekindling a relationship with their dad. Then she begins the relationship with August as a form of blackmail to keep her from telling Simon so she can get a place in the school.
Their relationship's existence was bad for their integrity and began with manipulation. When August tells her that she's just like him and she knows what needs to be done to reach your dreams, he is telling her that you know how to step on other people to get what you want. This is how he sees what she's done, and she's starting to see that that is what she's done with her blind ambition. That's not who she wants to be. She just wants to belong, have friends, ride horses, and be independent and not a burden on anyone. (She then goes on to find self-love, friendship love, and familial love that is wholesome. She even forgives Micke and accepts him for who he is fully. I also think that the reason we spend so much time on Sara's driving lessons and the fact that she got a car to drive anywhere at the end, is because this was symbolic of her gaining the independence she desperately wants. Not the problematic independence she got moving to an elite boarding school).
Young Royals doesn't reward this forbidden love with a happy ending. The homosexual love has the happy ending because THIS is the wholesome relationship.
Though Wilmon have problems in their communication, ultimately, they both care about each other's happiness and wellbeing. Simon loves Wille for the person he is, not the superfici role assigned to him. He loves him for his kindness and consideration and for really seeing Simon for who he is and valuing him in return. Wille loves Simon for who he is as his equal. He loves his integrity and his sense of self, even in elite spaces that see him as lesser than. Wille loves Simon's individualism, and he is learning to love that trait in himself as well. Wille has always just been someone's brother, someone's son, a country's Crown Prince. He is never valued for himself until he meets Simon.
(Also, edited to add, they love each other enough to let each other go. Simon sees his presence in Wille's life as putting pressure on his role as Crown Prince. He breaks up with him for his own self-love and boundaries but also because he wants Wille to figure out what he wants on his own without Simon muddying the waters. He wants Wille to make choices for his own sake. Not his mother's or Simon's. He makes the same decision of self-love and need for Wille's self-determination at the end of Season 1. Wille tells Simon how he doesn't want to hurt him but he realises that he is clumsy at times in how he comes across. He is letting Simon go because he respects Simon's boundaries even though it is hurting him to not fight and keep the relationship going. He realises he has to sort out his own problems. And he is eventually brave enough, after listening to Wille's Song, to choose self-love and tell his mother what he needs.)
The fact that the creators of this show had to fight to show Wilmon's love fully to the audience, tells me that this show was a revolution in how it shows what is forbidden love and what isn't. (Netflix didn't want the sex between the two teenage boys shown and Lisa had to explain that if the show had straight sex in the previous season, they had to equally allow lgbtq sex). Wilmon's love making is such important communication between the characters and between the audience and the characters. What we see, when we see it is important for the publically perceived couple in-universe but also to our society that sees so little wholesome homosexual love in teenagers on our screens. It shouldn't be a revolution to love another or yourself is one of the messages of the show.
I wonder what other ways Lisa and Rojda had to fight with Netflix to tell the story the way they did and how much compromise they had to make. I remember them nearly cutting the discussion about the Kris book in season 2. If they had more creative control, I wonder how much more story we would have got. Definitely more episodes, even if the story was told in three parts. Probably, if they were told they could have three seasons at the start, Lisa could have spread the plot points more evenly over the three seasons. Perhaps episode 6 could have been spread over 2 episodes.
Anyway, my rambly thoughts about some of the meta storytelling in Young Royals.
Sara in s3 became so strong. Strong enough to let go of her loved ones when she could see she was hurting them. Strong enough to accept they might never forgive her. Strong enough to forgive herself and forgive others for things she thought she wouldn’t ever forgive. Strong enough to see value in herself. And strong enough to choose between two loves, and holding down onto what she wants, instead of letting other dictate what she wants.
August asks her in this scene why just because she wants them to stay broken up, they should, and I feel like past-Sara would have definitely let that moment guide her into getting back with August, because she used to let other (more influential) people dictate what it is that she wants. But she finally reached a point where she can say no. Where she can say that indeed, her not wanting to be with August anymore is enough for them to not be together. It’s a really beautiful journey that unfolded within her.
Also that moment in the picture above is just iconic he was crying and getting heartbroken and she just tells him that? I’ve always loved her. You go girl👏
do you have any thoughts about the initiation August and he other 1st years went through by the 3rd years (including Erik)
just wondering if you have any thoughts because i really live your posts, and it seems like you’ve thought about this show a lot!
no pressure tho
OOOOOH YES! thanks for the ask, you're so sweet!
I have loads to say about Hillerska's frat bullying disguised as venerated traditions! This is going to be a long post.
TW content warning for hillerska initiations regarding what August and his classmates went through. I try not to be explicit about it, but I do mention some stuff.
YR does not shy away from the harsh topics of tradition steeped in misogyny, racism, homophobia, peer pressure, and the like.
Did Erik really believe it was a joke to undress 16 YOs and threaten them with a beat down if they reacted to gay porn? Did his 'friends' enjoy scaring them? Or were they all conditioned to believe that stuff like this is silly and fun and it's just a joke?
August lost his father in a horrific way. His funds were dwindling, he doesn't have a close relationship with his mother, he venerated Erik and the royal family. Coming to Hillerska was his dream, his salvation. His first-year letter talks about how he was determined to grow strong and be respected. He hated the way he was as a first-year, someone the older kids bullied. August needed support and love.
But he got an 18-yo crown prince who didn't have to worry about consequence because Hillerska hides the truth and the royal court protects him no matter what. Erik had so much power and authority, it probably went to his head a bit.
Maybe he regretted it. Maybe he somewhat toned down after graduation and joining the military. Yes, he did have 'questionable' relationships, but we don't know if they were genuinely good or bad or fleeting.
We also don't know what Erik truly thought about the LGBTQ+ community. People can grow and change. But Hillerska restricts growth at such a pivotal age. Their culture is a breeding ground for self-policing. It makes the kids believe this is how it should be. They are rich and elite, and thus removed from the majority of the population who are upper-middle, middle, and poor classes. They follow the rules their parents and forefathers followed with little room for advancement.
S3E2 mentions how an Hillerksa alumni spoke about the initiations of being forced to watch the video. But we know this happened to August's year and they're still at school. So this alumni is either
1. a classmate of August's who dropped out of Hillerska
2. older than August, from a different year
(I'm using he/him pronouns for this unknown ex-student of Forest Ridge)
if he left the school, it might be because of the violence of the initiations and subsequent treatment. We know Alexander gets pushed around by the Society and August every damn day. Why does he tell them the time and temperature in the morning? do they not have phones, laptops, apple watches, clocks, barometers???
if the ex-student is older than august, that means there's a chance Erik went through the same/similar thing! More than one generation of students were forced to watch porn and were threatened with violence.
Justice is not guaranteed. Punishment is avoidable. Trauma is brushed under the rug and called an unfunny joke.
Nils and August talk about how they kept their promise not to do the same to Wilhelm and his classmates. But S1E1 initiation is horrifying even without the porn.
So now, my understanding is that every generation goes through some shit. yes, even Kristina and Ludvig, and all the students' parents (see Felice and her dad talking about him facing overt racism while Felice faces microaggressions.)
And every generation possibly even tries to reduce the intensity of the initiation from what they faced. Maybe Erik had a truly nightmarish time and decided that "hey, at least we didn't make our first years strip down completely" or something like that. So he thinks he did his juniors a favor. Most people probably think this way that they personally are so much better and kinder than how they were treated. So it's okay, right?
The absolute worst part of the situation is that this happened for real in Lundsberg (the school Hillerska is based on) and that children were bullied, hurt, and degraded as part of tradition and secrecy. And no one came to their aid until a handful of brave people exposed the truth for the world to see.
August getting the crown was a way to punish him for everything he's done
Since season 1 they have been repeating the same phrase "the crown is a privilege, not a punishment", Wille always felt the crown was a punishment while for August it was a privilege, when he still could not fully understand what it really meant to have it.
August had idealized the crown and Wille's life. Wille had his parents, he had Erik as a brother and he had the crown; In August's eyes, Wille had it all, but the reality was that Wille's life was much more complicated and stressful than August believed.
In his last conversation with Vincent and Nils, when August tells them that he is Wille's spare, his friends tell him something like "that's actually a bad thing, being just his cousin you enjoyed the privileges of being related to the royal family without the responsibilities, pressures, obligations, etc. This is going to be better for us because we are your friends and we can enjoy the privileges of being 'the friend of' but you are now going to have the entire burden of the title on your shoulders."
This is when the series shows us that that phrase that they had been telling us since season 1 was not true since the crown is a punishment.
Everything August believed the crown was was fantasy and idealization but the reality of what it means to be the crown prince is much more complex and harsh.
Wille managed to be free by leaving the crown and in a way imprisoning August. He could not report him to the police and have him go to jail for the crime he committed, but he could arrest him with that title and condemn him to an unhappy life.
There’s something about August that’s just so fascinating to me
Yes, what he did to Wille and Simon was terrible, especially with the video. And yet, despite the anger I feel with regards to that, and for how he otherwise treats Simon, I can’t help but pity him and feel a bit sad for him at the same time
Like, he’s a deeply broken man tormented by so many personal demons. He doesn’t have the support system that Simon has, he doesn’t have any meaningful friendships like what Wille develops with Simon and Felice. Yes, he has Vincent and Nils, but he’s hiding a lot of secrets from them. The only person who truly made August feel vulnerable was Sara, and I do think he genuinely loved and cared for her, but his actions and deep-seated issues basically make it impossible for a long-term relationship to flourish between them
To me, August is what Wille probably would’ve become if he hadn’t met Simon or Felice; if he didn’t have such a strong relationship with his brother
There’s a whole host of issues and factors that played into how August turned out to be. But I think a key issue is the lack of meaningful support in his life. His mom basically shipped him off to Hillerska without giving him any time to grieve his father’s death. And yes, there was Erik, but a part of me wonders how much of his friendship with Erik was genuine and how much of it was rooted in lingering fear
Is it any wonder that he latches onto Sara so quickly when she shows him kindness? I can’t help but wonder what kind of person August could have been if he had actual friendships, if he had a proper support system to help him through his issues
This isn’t me trying to make excuses for August’s actions, but my way of trying to understand how and why August became who he is in the show
Basically, August is a very intriguing character, and Malte Gårdinger deserves an award for making me both hate and pity the character at the same time
What’s even better about Augusts fate is that Wille didn’t give him the title out of spite, as a final fuck you of some sorts. No. He’s forgiven August as much as he can. He thinks he’s doing him a favor.
ellievsbear
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
dededos
andulkaphoto
