Young Royals analytical thoughts pt. 2
From minute 7:18 to minute 8:20 in S2E2, there is this masterful either acting choice or directorial move, but it honestly floored me when I watched it again tonight.
There are no seats left in class, and so Wille is forced to sit next to Simon. Wille makes some smartass remark about how he thought Simon might want that space he likes so much. Simon comes back with the most honest, badass rejoinder: “I was just trying to be honest about my feelings. Maybe you should try it sometime.” And in the moments after this, as they stand up, salute the teacher, and sit back down, we get three very distinctive glances passed back and forth between Wille and Simon — each conveying something distinct about the circumstances and the characters. Wille and Simon can’t take their eyes off each other, but they each go about it a different way.
Wille wears his heart on his sleeve. You can see every thought on his face before he says it out loud. He is an open book, and so his glances are filled with unreserved longing, as well a lot of hope and sorrow (mourning as though he has already lost Simon). One thing, though, that is very telling is in the distinct lack of anxiety Wille has over being caught staring. He will move his eyes away, yes, but he is typically too slow to really do so effectively. So, Simon is privy to the knowledge that Wille is always looking at him, pining for him, missing him. It’s very expressive of who Wille is as a person. He hasn’t faced wanting someone this badly, hasn’t ever really thought of loving anyone like this: because he’s never had the opportunity to get close to someone in this way before.
Simon, on the other hand, keeps his face impassive. You can’t really read every emotion, except perhaps when he is smiling or laughing. He has his guard up, especially around Wille right now. So, he doesn’t meet Wille’s glances or stares, but in the off chance he does, he looks away as quickly as is humanly possible and avoids any further confrontation.
Sometimes, Simon will determine he is in the clear and risk a look back at Wille when the stakes have lowered or the discourse in the room takes precedence. And it is quick, quicker than Wille’s woeful looks, but it shows that Simon is no stranger to weakening under the impulse desire to see Wille’s face.
And this is so indicative of both their characters.
Wille’s never had to learn to hide away the heartbreak and longing from others, especially not from the person who is the subject of it all, because he was never allowed this. The instinct to shield what he is feeling from Simon does not really exist for Wille, because it is not something that has ever been in the cards for him. And this results in unabashed stares of yearning that Wille can’t help sending Simon’s way at every available opportunity.
Simon has adopted a closed off countenance: not just romantically, but in situations he feels warrant it and kind of in general. Simon has grown up with a great deal more adversity and heartache than Wille, through not only growing up a working class person of color in Bjärstad, but also because of his addict father and the responsibility of being a primary protector/caretaker of his mother and sister.
A comment that has stuck out to me while rewatching this week was in S1E1 when August, Vincent and Nils are brainstorming how to get alcohol for Wille’s initiation. One of them suggests the “nonboarder,” Simon. Nils and Vincent then have this moment where they mock and jest about how Simon, when he first started at Hillerska, had tried to approach them for a conversation — potentially to make friends. From day one at the school he started attending for the sake of his sister, Simon is ridiculed and treated as less. That’s why when August first speaks to Simon in a friendly manner, Simon’s response is to ask whether it was a prank. And with Wille, Simon had finally let his guard down and was met with betrayal and heartbreak. So, of course his walls are raised, right? But even with his walls as high as they are, Simon cannot help but glance over once more at the boy he loves, the one he can’t seem to stop loving — try as he might.
I love these subtle things, the ways in which we can glean even more detail from the body language, as well as the dialogue or storyline themselves. It’s just poetic cinema, god I love this show.
