Ok so young royals. I think it's really cool that a Swedish series was such an international hitbut what I feel a lot of non Swedish people don't know are the levels of gay there are.
1. When Simon sings "It Takes a fool to remain sane".
So Omar Rudberg(Simon) was already a preatty well known singer but after young royals he became something of a queer icon. Also the song is originally from the band, the Ark, who were preatty big in the 90's and early 2000's. The lead singer of which, Ola Salo, is openly bisexual.
No surprised there. Just look at them!
Edit: just listened to the original version of the song and a part of the lyrics stood out.
"Cause they've forgotten how to play, Or maybe they're afraid to feel ashamed
To seem strange
To seem insane
To gain weight, to seem gay
I'll tell you this:
///Oh, it takes a fool to remain sane///
Oh, in this world all covered up in shame"
And the music video is literally Ola walking around Stockholm in a leather jacket and vibrant red hair singing this very gay song.
2. The school, Hillerska internat, is extremely conservative. Sweden is a very secularised country so the fact that they have to pray at mealtimes and gather in church is not only strange but a little controversial. A few years ago it was actually banned to have the end of term celebration in church, due to religius freedom. It caused a preatty hot debate when I was in high school. However, in the show, it is a very tangible way to show the kind of pressure these kids are under to "stay in line" and "don't cause a fuss". Yet the kids are all modern, normal swedes. So when Wilhelm and Simon are outed, nobody except the principal really seem to care about the fact that they're gay. They're empathetically upset about the consequences because Wille is the prince and can't have a normal life.
3. Sweden is one of the most tolerant places in the world for the queer community, according to statistics. However, because it is generally normalized, there isn't really any designated queer spaces. You'd be lucky to find one distinct gay bar in a big city and even they aren't exclusively gay. So gay culture is increasingly mainstream. Also the "don't ask don't tell" culture is still very strong in large parts of the country. So when Wilhelm has his identity crisis at a conservative school in the midde of nowhere, he doesn't really have anyone to turn to. Which is something a lot of young queers struggle with. Funny then that I suspect that the name Hillerska was inspired from the really old high school I went to in Guthemburg, Schillerska. But Schillerska gymnasium is known for attracting teens that almost all are leftists, socialists, alternative, hipster or geeks and yes very lgbtqia+. Just a fun parallell.
