What makes you say there wasn’t a love vs duty conflict? Duty was what kept Wille in the role so long. Love was sure Simon but also wanting a normal life outside of the public eye, however he felt that his duty as crown prince (really his duty to his family and Erik) was so important he couldn’t leave. Just because in the end he chose love doesn’t mean there wasn’t a conflict and people can be conflicted about what to do even when it’s clear what they really want.
(I say with a friendly tone, not trying to be rude)
I don’t mean to tell you how to feel about the last season or the ending - it for sure was flawed!!
I just don’t think it’s fair to say that „love vs duty“ was false advertising..
Another thing you wrote a while back, sorry, about how normalcy was missing and you can’t imagine wilmon having a conversation without fighting. That’s why I hate these short seasons, we need filler episodes to see that our characters can be happy and be happy together! It’s always just drama after drama..
Indeed, a very nice and friendly message. Thank you.
What I meant by saying 'love vs duty' conflict never existed was the response to the sentiment shared by the anon: Wille never wanted to be a public figure. And by the end of the story, he still doesn't want to be one.
In a story about a prince I thought this decision would be something harder to make, you know. If he never wanted that life, if he never even valued whatever his family represented then where's the conflict about it? For two seasons I thought he struggled to make this decision because his role was something important to him as well. If it never was, then...
As I said, season 3 made it very clear that he was only carrying this role for Erik... When Erik turned out to be... um, less than an optimal person, Wille suddenly didn't want this role - at least that's what it looked like when it comes to his internal motivation.
Yes, I'm aware all the additional drama was there to make sure everybody saw how stressful and difficult that life was supposed to be so the audience would feel relieved when he finally leaves that life.
I would argue however that the problem wasn't the length of the series or the number of episodes. The creators were very aware of these restrictions. The problem was that they threw in so many conflicts, so many things they wanted to touch on they couldn't resolve any of them properly.
There was no room for Wille's relationship with Simon - that's one problem. The other one is that I think the show was trying very hard to elicit the highest of emotions by creating all the drama all the time. In the first season, there was already enough conflicts for two more seasons to dismantle. Instead, s3 created even more conflicts (that weren't a natural progression of the story) and it felt very dissatisfying to watch that rushed ending. It was like: look! there's a happy ever after! The prince is free, you can imagine the rest yourself!
It didn't make me imagine a happy future for Simon and Wille. Not with what the s3 did to their relationship.
