⁺˚*･༓☾august☽༓･*˚⁺

they/he all the people are fake, they’re made out of metal, but i like you, and that is not fake

[destielcowboy]

i have a headcanon that professor mcgonagall had a daughter that died around the same time as james and lily, but the reason for this headcanon is for one reason and one reason only. so sirius could sing stacy’s mom about mcgonagall. i imagine her name would be vickie (short for victoria)

[destielcowboy]

the perfect phone layout doesn’t exi-

[destielcowboy]

i must admit something. i’m a converse guy through and through, i have three pairs of the black high top chucks because they get worn down but i’m too emotionally attached to throw them away. that much of a converse guy. but after heartstopper and the nick gender hit, i was like ya know what, that pair of vans i bought and wore like twice? let’s try it out and put em on and oh my GOD. i literally can not explain the feeling of having these shoes on. am i insane? i feel so hot and there is gender coursing through my veins. someone help me

[lovelierbitsoflife]

So uh…there’s a prince between my legs

[drarrydoodles]

Okay guys...I'm back with the origami thing AGAIN.

So. I looked up how to make one of these lil' [redacted] and it took about 15 mins. (I had a lot of distractions going on in the room at the same time. - a relevant point hang on)

Draco made his while they were in lesson, so this throws up some thoughts.

1. Did he practice making these regularly and if so, was the intention always Potter?

2. Pre-meditated. Had he doodled the pic while he was on the sidelines watching Harry play Quidditch?

3. Was he utterly focused as he sat at his desk, hurriedly making the crane and snapping at Crabbe and Goyle to stop distracting him so he could finish it in time before the lesson started?

Who knows. Anyway. To sit there and carefully fold the paper (you have to be precise else it looks a bit wonky - as pictured below) takes some time and thought and I'm yet again in pieces by the damn symbolism of this scene.

[atpaftmoom-bily]

this might be a crazy suggestion but… he is a wizard

[destielcowboy]

i’m sorry to break this to you guys but the gentleman’s guide to vice and virtue is just a 1700s non-magic wolfstar au

[beccs]

Young Royals | 1.01

[atpaftmoom-bily]

sex education thoughts, just finished (spoilers) 😩

the way i said to myself “watch her be racist or something” when all the kids thought hope was cool and then RIGHT OFF THE BAT she ignores jackson and thinks adam is head boy 😭 fuck her but also she was such a Good villain so props for that

anyways stan adam. i hate eric rn like i love him but my boy you didn’t have to do adam like that, he deserved better

as for otis and maeve,,, i didn’t want them to get together and i didn’t reaaaally like him and ruby (stan ruby though she didn’t deserve that) idk he should just stay single. rights for aimee and maeve tho

lily and ola are my actual favorites i love them so much <3 let her write alien smut

AND CAL 🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐 their friendship at the end with layla literally had me crying,,,, the representation i have needed and they’re so,,, i love them so much and dua saleh ugh my heart i’m obsessed

dear sex education producers, as a nb person in love with jackson marchetti, you have absolutely crushed my hopes and dreams. i hope you sleep well at night because i will not be

[atpaftmoom-bily]

petition to change the ship name from wilmon to sille, but let’s pronounce it like “silly” bc they’re both so fucking stupid

[atpaftmoom-bily]

[atpaftmoom-bily]

which one of y’all-

[atpaftmoom-bily]

if you pronounce simon like fricken,,, love simon and not how it’s pronounced in the show do not interact with me please

[atpaftmoom-bily]

Young Royals Season 2 ???

I was doing a little bit of researching on the filming locations of Young Royals because I'm going to be visiting there in the spring, hopefully. Upon finding the name of the location of where Hillerska was filmed, Kaggeholm Castle, I then did a bit of digging, only to find this airbnb listing. Just looking at it, it seems too good to be true, right?

Well, I found the castle on Wikipedia, which then linked to an official website for the castle, which then linked me right back to the same airbnb page to rent it, just in Swedish this time. I don't know, you take a look at it here.

The reason I bring this up, is because they would have to rent it out if they were to be making a season 2, right? RIGHT?! Then explain to me why the entirety of December has been rented out. If they're sticking with the six-episode seasons, then that's just around the amount of time I'd expect, as well as the time frame of when they'd be filming.

Please let me know y'alls thoughts on this because I'm gonna go insane.

[atpaftmoom-bily]

Thoughts about Erik, why Wilhelm wasn't allowed to come out, and more.

Be warned, this is long, confusing, and I'm not even sure if I made any valid points. But I had thoughts on Young Royals, with no one to talk to, so here you go.

I've seen various different takes on Erik and what people thought his reaction would have been if Willie had come out to him, most of them being positive, and some as well saying how sad it was that Willie never got to come out to his brother. I have a different take, but bear with me it's gonna take a second to get there.

Something that I found interesting in the first place was that when August found out it was Simon and not a girl, he just seemed shocked, but not in a homophobic way that I had kind of been expecting.

Additionally, let's take a look at the comments on the video, I've split them up into three different groups. General comments (disbelief, surprise, pity, etc.), comments sexualizing them, and negative comments. (I've translated these as well as I could as they were not all captioned, but if I've made a mistake feel free to let me know!)

General Comments "OMG Have you seen this?? The Prince is gay!!!!" "Who's the other guy?" "I'm dead" "Finally some news to put Sweden on the map!" "Poor boys, I feel sorry for them" "So clumsy to get caught on film" "I know where he lives!" "I think the video is fake" "Love for the boys"

Sexualizing Comments "Royal porn" "Sexy" "Love" "Sexiest video ever"

Negative Comments "How will the monarchy survive this?" "The end of the royal family, time for Sweden to become a republic!" "Never been ashamed about being Swedish until now" "Class traitor! Your mother cries for your sins"

Now, there are quite a few things I want to point out about Sweden that I feel should be taken into account here. Of course, we don't know the exact dates that the show took place, but we do know it is modern-day, and though it is a work of fiction, I am going to assume that anything that is currently true in Sweden at the moment, give or take a few years, would also be true in the Young Royals universe.

The first point I would like to make is that Sweden is one of the most LGBT-friendly countries, even being named the most friendly country in 2019. Looking back in history, 1944 was when Sweden decriminalized sexual relationships between consenting adults of the same sex, though it was still thought to be an illness. However, in 1979 it was no longer considered an illness. Fun unrelated fact, but Sweden was the first country to legalize gender change in 1979. (If you'd like to read more on LGBT rights in Sweden here are some resources. One. Two.) If Sweden is that progressive and is that LGBT-friendly, then I wondered what the problem was with Willie coming out, so I dug some more.

I'm American, so my understanding of many parts of the world is unfortunately skewed or incomplete, but I'm working on changing that. However, because of this, one thing that surprised me in my research was that the monarchy in Sweden is more of a unifying symbol than anything else. They have no political affinity or formal powers, but rather "the King’s duties are mainly of a ceremonial and representative nature." Of course in the case of Young Royals, the Queen inherited the throne, and Wilhelm would after her.

Something else I found interesting about the monarchy in Sweden is that the current Queen, Queen Silvia, did not come from a line of nobility, so when Queen Silvia and King Carl Gustaf married in 1976, it was highly unusual. (See more on the Swedish monarchy here.)

There is one last thing I want to point out about the current King and Queen. "In summer 2000, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden made history when they ate under the rainbow flag at Djurgårdsterrassen, a Stockholm restaurant owned by gay owner Arto Winter. At that time, the decision was seen as controversial, and played a valuable role in moving conversations forward – while making the royals’ position abundantly clear." (Source)

Now, of course, I understand the difference between a fictional work and real-life situations, but at least in my opinion, these same ideals should carry through to the show that we see. If the King and Queen in real life have been openly supportive of the LGBT community since at least 2000, then although specifics might not be the same, some of those ideals should carry through to Young Royals, so what is the problem, right?

I'm not trying to erase the reality of homophobia altogether, because of course, that exists. We even see in the show through comments that there are some people who are worried about the state of the monarchy, are disgusted, or downright still think that not being straight is a sin, but we also see other comments as well. If Wilhelm were to come out, what would happen? Would there be some backlash? 100%. Would there be people who would support him? Also 100%. Would it make his life harder? Probably, but would he be happier? In my opinion, yes, but I guess that's a question that Wilhelm would have to gauge on his own.

Now I want to look deeper at the conversation that Wille has with his mother, the Queen, in the car on the way home so he can give a statement to the media. Below is an excerpt from their dialogue.

---

Wilhelm: Why can't I just have a relationship with him? And not say anything. Just live a normal life.

Queen: You're the crown prince. And that's a privilege, not a punishment.

Wilhelm: Yes, but I didn't ask for this!

Queen: Well, nobody has ever, ever asked for this! You are the only one who can take over the throne after Erik. Don't you understand that? You are so young. When you're young, love feels like the most important thing in the whole world. When I was your age, I too had an unfortunate romance. That was before I met your father. What I mean is, is it worth it? If you feel that the attention you've been getting so far is unacceptable, it's nothing compared to what you will endure for the rest of your life. We have a chance to cover this up, I urge you to take that chance. You may not get another."

---

Something I find interesting is how much Willie just wants to live a normal life, which I get. He is under so much pressure, from being a role model, his brother's death that he hasn't even had time to process, preparing to be king someday, and (kind of) being outed to the entire world, but at least his school. It's enough to make anyone want to live normally. I think the biggest thing we have to think about here is the Queen's question as well. Is it worth it? She is right of course, the attention he will get will always be there, but I do think that Willie would be able to find a way to be happy along with being King. It shouldn't have to be a case of either-or, and ultimately I don't think it is.

Now I'm going to move back to Erik, and really, this ties everything back to the start where I mentioned I had a different take on Erik's reaction to Willie being not straight. I think that Erik already knew. It would make sense for a variety of reasons. In the show, it is obvious that the two of them have a good relationship. We also hear Erik tell Willie, "you can trust him, he's like a brother," in episode one when speaking about August, showing that trust is something strong between them as brothers. I'm not exactly sure how old Wilhelm is meant to be in the show, but I estimate somewhere around sixteen. I would like to assume that sometime before attending Hillerska, he may have had a crush or felt some attraction to a guy. We also can see from their phone call in episode three, that they're not afraid to joke around with each other about such things, meaning that Erik would most likely be the first person that Willie would go to about such things.

Another thing that makes me believe Erik already knew has to do with people assuming that Simon is the first guy that Willie has liked. Now, I know things are not the same for everyone, but if we consider what happens when the video is posted, and Willie had to deny it is him, we can conclude that being anything other than straight in their family is not okay, simply because they are royals, and the media attention will be too much. Imagine you've known your whole life, you can't be something, the first instance you encounter that, you're probably not going to give in right away. I'm talking at least some minor internalized homophobia here or something.

So put that into the context of Simon and Willie's first kiss in episode two. Simon kisses Willie twice before Willie says "Well, I'm not... I'm not... Stop! Wait, wait, wait!" and immediately pulls Simon back towards him. Let's reflect back to episode one where Willie says "I’m not… I’m not allowed to speak about political issues." I'm not allowed. Of course, there are TONS of restrictions on what he can and can not do, kissing guys, probably being one of them. But if he was going to say I'm not gay or I'm not like that, why would he instantly pull him back in, contrasting what he was just going to say. In episode three, Willie does say, "I'm not like that," which makes sense. He's had time to think and isn't in the heat of the moment. What other explanation can he give? Sure, he could say he's not allowed to be like that but saying that would admit that he is. It's a circle, a very messy circle, but it is a... loop.

Going back to what I'm supposed to be talking about here, Erik. This isn't Willie's first rodeo, but Erik was there for the first. One last thing I want to talk about is the phone call that Erik and Willie have in episode three. Below is an excerpt from their dialogue.

---

Erik: You've met someone.

Wilhelm: I, uh... Yes, okay, but I... I don't think we're a couple or anything. I don't know what it is but can we just...

Erik: I get it. I get it. You don't have to tell me any... I don't wanna hear any details. Hey. Willie, enjoy yourself. Soon enough people will start having opinions and-

Wilhelm: They don't care about me. 'Cause you're the Crown Prince that they have opinions.

Erik: I don't get it. Why are you sitting in your room sulking when you have a crush to hang out with?

---

Firstly, Erik refers to Willie's crush as completely gender-neutral. "You've met someone" could very easily be "you've met a girl". The same goes for "you have a crush to hang out with". Very well could have been "you have a girl to hang out with". Sure, it could be completely coincidental, but we live in such a heteronormative society that it would just make sense for Erik to use female-gendered words. Unless, of course, he knew.

Secondly, "Hey. Willie, enjoy yourself. Soon enough people will start having opinions". This sounds very much to me like, enjoy your time while you can be yourself without backlash because soon you won't have that privacy. While I feel that, yes, the same may happen with anyone Willie was to date, him having a same-sex partner multiplies that, by a lot.

In conclusion, Erik knew Willie was not straight, Willie should come out, but when he is ready, and August is a really deep character that people don't give enough credit to. Gosh, I hope I covered everything, I probably forgot so much, but it's fine. Please let me know your thoughts if you've made it this far into the post.

One last thing. I hope you'll notice how in this post, I never referred specifically to Wilhelm's sexuality, and I did that for a reason. I often see gay used to label him, and though I am unsure if that's being used as an umbrella term or specifically as in he only likes men, I think it's really important to realize that they're specifically making him unlabeled. In this youtube video Edvin Ryding, the actor who plays Wilhelm, says "What we're trying to do... We're not labeling Wilhelm's sexuality. I think that's good because it's like, it portrays that it's okay that way too. You don't have to. You shouldn't have to come out. It should be allowed to be a bit fluid, a bit out there." I just think that it is important as it's another type of representation that is not seen often.

[egyptienneallure]

Young Royals Fanfiction Recommendations - A Masterlist

So the Young Royals fandom is absolutely amazing, there have been almost 400 fics published on AO3 as of today! Here is a master-list of my favourite ones so far, they all deserve so much praise! I will keep adding to it as I find new ones I like :)

These are all Wilhelm/Simon. Remember to leave kudos and nice comments for the authors!! If you have criticism let it be constructive

Multi-chaptered

Let's Start a Revolution by darlingedvin - a look at what Season 2 could be, fluffy and sweet, WIP [2k, Chapters: 2/3].

She's not you, Simon, and you're the only one I want by mentally_unstable_kid - A four-part (so far) series about Wilhelm x Simon over the Christmas break, fluff galore plus some angst, but still overall sweet and wonderfully written. Definitely give the whole series a read! Implied sexual content and alcohol/drug use references [8k across the four parts published]. Read: Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

i ask nothing of you by wyoheartsmusic - author summary: Five months after the sex tape scandal, the Hillerska rowing team is going on an away trip for the Nationals. When they get to their hotel, it turns out there’s been a mix-up with the rooms and Simon didn’t get assigned a room. Despite things still being awkward between them, Wilhelm offers that Simon stay in his room with him. Multi-chaptered fic that is beautifully written, creative, fluffy, pretty much everything you want in a fic! It made me smile so much! Must-read. [34k, WIP, Chapters: 5/7]

A Snow Globe's Chance by im_having_a_crisis - I absolutely love how this author writes Wilhelm and Simon, very true to their characters. Another Christmas break/Season 2 fic, Wilhelm and Simon can’t fully stay away from each other. Lots of mutual pining, angst and Wilhelm’s anxiety. [9k, WIP, Chapters: 3/?]

Running with a crown on your head by vernice - another Christmas break fic, 2-part series. Wilhelm’s mum isn’t so bad in this one and his parents are pretty supportive. Lots of romance and sweetness, warning: sexual content included, don’t read if that’s not your thing. [4k, 2 parts] Read: Part 2

You Can't Always Get What You Want by GeekingOutDaily - pure fluff. It’s short but creative. Feels very true to the characters like it could’ve actually happened in the show. Includes mention of sexual tension but it's not explicit. [1k, Chapters: 2/2]

We could just kiss (like real people do) by Sofia_with_an_f - canon-compliant, multi-chaptered fic exploring the aftermath of the “sex tape” being leaked. Hurt/comfort, Wilhelm/Felice/Madison friendship, and Simon/Wilhelm’s relationship following the tape leak. [11k, WIP, Chapters: 10/?]

Alex, ¡ayúdame! by toffeelemon - part of the author’s Red, White and Royal Blue crossover series. Wilhelm and Simon go to Alex Claremont-Diaz for help with sexuality, coming out and sex advice. Wholesome and fluffy. Discussion of sex and sexual content included, it is done very nicely but don’t read if that’s not your thing. [14k, Chapters: 2/2]

One-shots

let's start a revolution by villiageidiot - so so beautifully written. Season 2 fic about Wilhelm being happy Simon didn’t leave Hillerska, and Wilhelm asks Simon if he can still see him sometimes. Lots of pining and sweetness. [1k, One-shot]

Hillerska Missteps by princewilhelm (ranpoandpoe) - the one where Wilhelm and Simon get their weekend together at Hillerska after all, basically AU where Erik didn’t die at the end of Episode 3. Fluff, sweetness and Slow dancing. [1k, one-shot]

After episode one, Wilhelms eyes closed and the music starts by embracedthevoid - short piece showing the “missing moment” after Wilhelm closed his eyes at the end of Episode 1. The tension is captured so well, seeing into Wilhelm’s mind in those moments. Absolutely loved it. It’s the first part of a “Missing Moments” series. [1k, one-shot (for now)]

Keep Me Company by cmere - another “what if Wilhelm and Simon got their weekend at Hillerska after all and Erik lived'' fic. Which I love so much. You get Wilhelm + Simon banter, awkwardness and Erik teasing. [2k, one-shot]

unlove's the heavenless hell and homeless home by Yubnubforhire - beautiful piece about Wilhelm being alone post 1x06 and Simon deciding to be there for him, and what happens when they get back to Hillerska. Very emotional and lovely dialogue written between Simon and Wilhelm. [5k, one-shot]

my thoughts are filled with you by lazybug16 - a lovely rewrite of 5 scenes where Wilhelm and Simon were interrupted by August, basically an AU where they weren’t interrupted and we get to have the full scenes. Very fluffy and lots of pining, guaranteed to make you smile. [3k, one-shot]

worst kept secret in history by toffeelemon - Wilhelm holds Simon’s hand in public the first day back from Christmas break. They slowly just let things happen, letting people think whatever they want. Exploration of Wilhelm’s anxiety. It’s funny and SO fluffy. [10k, one-shot]

Love Over Fear by Werewolves_are_friends_not_fiends - AU where Wilhelm comes out to the press in Episode 6 and Simon and his family comfort him. Hurt/Comfort but also fluffy. [1k, one-shot]