WILHELM & SIMON In YOUNG ROYALS Season 3 (eps 1-5)

Aight, so a suspect has been caught. In the next couple of days we’re going to be bombarded with a cavalcade of information about Luigi Mangione. As we start this period I want everyone to remember:

Luigi Mangione is a living, breathing, human being. He has followed people you don’t like, held beliefs you disagree with, and possibly voting for politicians you think suck.

He still shot a man with the blood of millions on his hands. He still caused an outpouring of rage that caused BCBS to roll back its ghoulish anesthesia policy.

Carve that into your fucking minds. Mass media is about to do its damnedest to remind us to hate each other, not the top .001%. Do not let them do this. Y’all understand what I’m saying? Here, lemme spell it out more clearly:

DO NOT FUCKING PURITY TEST THIS GUY, ASSHOLES!!

And if you see people fixating on his purity over the message he sent, call them out on it.

We have lost again and again and again on healthcare because we keep letting the rich divide us. Remember: the people united will never be defeated.

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💜 Have a little friends to lovers fluff xx

“I want you to snuggle me.”

Simon isn’t sure he’s heard it right, at first. He’s trying to help Wille - a very drunk, very floppy and slurring his words Wille - to take his shoes off and climb into bed, but his best friend and flatmate is more interested in sprawling every which way, fully clothed, than actually getting under the covers.

“What?” He laughs, wrestling with Wille’s left sneaker, “What did you say?”

“Simon. Simon Simon Simon Simon. Simon,” he says the last one very seriously, propping himself up on one elbow as he struggles to make eye contact, “snuggle me. Right now. We should snuggle.”

“You’re very drunk, Wille,” Simon yanks the shoe free with a small huff.

Wille hums in agreement, “Snuggles, though.”

Simon shakes his head.

“But you’re so cuddly!” Wille groans dramatically, “Every time we hug I wish we were hugging more.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Simon giggles. He catches Wille’s other foot and starts picking at his laces.

“Does make sense,” Wille nods, “we make a lot of sense. Us.”

“Right.” It’s usually best to agree with Wille when he’s in this state. Otherwise he gets pouty and morose and Simon isn’t in the mood to deal with sad Wille tonight.

“Don’t you want to snuggle me?”

Fuck, why is he looking at Simon like that? His heavy lidded gaze is almost longing.

“Why do you want to snuggle me?” Simon tries to tease, tries to throw Wille off a bit, but his voice betrays him and he just sounds intrigued. Insecure.

“Cos you’re perfect, obviously.”

“Wille…” This is getting weird. He’s acutely aware that he’s helping Wille to remove an item of clothing, even if it is only a shoe, “Stop it now, OK?”

Wille frowns at him, “Did I upset you?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

Simon sighs, exasperated, “Yes. But you’ve had a lot to drink. You don’t want to say something you’ll regret tomorrow.”

“Won’t regret it,” Wille smiles, “I’ll still want to snuggle you tomorrow.”

Fucking hell! Simon grits his teeth. Wille is both infuriating and adorable, and, well… Simon’s seen him looking. He’s seen Wille’s eyes flutter over his bare collarbones when he makes coffee in the morning, wearing only his bathrobe, still damp from the shower. He’s seen the way Wille glances at him when they’re studying together, when he thinks Simon isn’t looking. The way he leans in closer and closer every time they go out drinking. He isn’t blind, but he isn’t stupid, either. Wille is far from ‘out,’ and they have to keep living together for the rest of the semester.

“If I cuddle you,” Simon hedges, “will you go to sleep straight after?”

Wille nods eagerly.

“OK, move up, then.”

Wille shuffles towards the wall, arms outstretched for Simon to fall into. Simon lays himself down carefully, turning to face Wille, but still keeping some distance between their bodies.

Wille grins at him, “This isn’t snuggling.”

Simon rolls his eyes. He groans in mock annoyance as Wille manhandles him into a bear hug, one arm under his neck and the other around his waist. They fit together surprisingly well, despite the height difference. His face ends up in the crook of Wille’s shoulder, breathing in the clean, spicy scent of the perfume he borrowed, and it’s fine. It’s nice, even. Then Wille’s thigh pushes up between his legs, and suddenly Simon isn’t breathing normally.

“Simon,” Wille’s hand is warm on his back, sliding up under his shirt to stroke in small circles. He nudges Simon’s nose with his, lips parted for a kiss, but Simon pulls back, pressing his palm against Wille’s chest.

“Not while you’re drunk, OK?” He whispers, nuzzling Wille’s nose so he knows it’s not a ‘no,’ just a ‘wait,’ a ‘hang on.’ ‘Let’s do this properly, because I really want it, too.’

“OK,” Wille whispers back.

They finally fall asleep all tangled together, limbs and warmth and mussed up clothing, Simon’s head resting on Wille’s chest.

director: “as soon as i saw them together i knew it was them” 😭😭😭😭😭

I already wrote this on Twitter and Reddit, but I like what I wrote, so I’m posting it here too. Meh. So sue me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

After sitting with Young Royals S3 for a few days, I have a new main takeaway, after letting myself feel the initial rage & grief & hurt & disappointment.

New takeaways:

While Seasons 1 & 2 were primarily a love story, S3 is a very serious, thoughtful, and important meditation on trauma + the impacts of abuse & neglect on kids.

I hate almost every single adult in the YR universe. They emotionally abandoned these kids in general life + during moments of severe crisis & trauma, both past & present. They set these kids up to fail. And when those children did inevitably fail, the adult washed their hands clean of responsibility and pinned the blame solely on the kids.

Very few of these children have any coping skills or communication skills at all. Even the ones who WANT to show up for each other properly, and who don’t want to hurt each other (one example being Wille), end up hurting others anyway because they’ve never learned any other ways of interacting.

Here's a "brief" list of some of the traumas (that we know about) these kids have endured:

Revenge CP sex tape

Online & in-person harassment (esp. Simon)

Homophobic hazings to terrorize, demean, & publicly humiliate them

Violence (related to #3 above)

Grief & loss, including death (but not limited to death -- see #s 8 & 10)

Familial betrayal

Familial substance abuse & possible DV (related to #6)

CONSTANT invalidation, dismissal, minimization, & victim-blaming (esp. with the Royal Family)

Emotional neglect & abandonment (closely related to point #8)

Even being on the receiving end of outright contempt & disdain from one's own family

Control & surveillance from the Royal Court

It's no fucking wonder these children are so messed up & don't know how to navigate life & relationships.

Of course, they're still responsible for their actions. Accountability still remains extremely important. (Which is where introspection, taking corrective action, & pursuing repair come into play.) I'm in no way arguing that this excuses anything. *And* simultaneously, the adults in their lives have failed them so badly -- leading us to arrive here, at S3.

It reminds me of one of my favorite adages that I use in my mental health line of work all the time: "It's not our fault what happens to us. But it is our responsibility what we do next."

Realistically, I don't know how kids are supposed to manage this on their own. Being wounded so much, surrounded & overwhelmed by so many pressures, with very close to ZERO adult supervision, support, or help. It just wounds my soul to see the impact it's having on them.

I'm thinking about all of this in the context of several characters... but in particular (obviously) Wilhelm & Simon. And truthfully, especially for Wille, because I had such a hard time empathizing with him this season. I felt so deeply hurt by his obliviousness to Simon's pain, as well as both offended by and disappointed in his "all queers" comment and dismissing the opportunity to value Simon's politics or opinions on how he could use his position as Crown Prince to do good in the world. I was angry with the writers, too: like, how dare they? I wanted Wille to show up as a more evolved version of himself. I wanted his besotted-ness to translate into being a "better" person.

But, then I got to thinking... like, how in fact would he know to do that? Wille isn't trying to be cruel. In fact, I think he is in all actuality trying his hardest with the tiny amount of social skills he has to demonstrate the care he feels. (That does NOT excuse his actions, of course. I mean, poisoned cake, anyone??).

However, he is a child who is EXTREMELY overwhelmed and wracked with guilt... and with no way to realistically handle this. He has ZERO parental or even adult support (the best he's got is Farima; he doesn't even appear to have individual sessions with Boris anymore). There are exactly zero adults helping him to navigate this. I actually don't know how a child should or could know how to do better with all this pressure, especially because it all comes back to decisions he's made (to not conform to family+royal pressure, to come out, to publicly challenge traditions, etc.). The overwhelmingness of it must be enormous.

Compounded with that, no adult in his life has ever modeled to him how to properly talk to another human being about emotions. When he had emotions, he was minimized, dismissed, shut down, ignored. He has zero idea of how else to handle it, even if he wanted to handle it differently. Where & when would he have learned these skills? So, of course when Simon brings up his online harassment, he really doesn't know what else to do besides sigh and say "ignore it." I don't think he's actively trying to minimize. I think he has absolutely no other language that he's aware of to use. He just has no skills, support, or role modeling when it comes to this. He's in WAAAAAAAAY way over his head and never previously learned how to swim. I do really think Wille is trying his absolute best. (Which is not good enough, and he does need to learn to do better -- not an excuse, just a building up of context.)

In an ideal world, someone at this point would hand him a book on Reflective Listening skills so he could learn to validate, normalize, and properly attune to emotions. I think he probably wants to -- I see how concerned his expression is every time he looks at Simon after the window-rock incident, and after they overhear their classmates mocking Simon's revolution love song. He probably feels totally helpless, confused, disoriented, frustrated, & self-critical in his process of trying to figure out on his own how to listen to & validate others (I mean, he literally does say his attempts are always "clumsy").

I imagine his internal shame at being terrible at attunement & communication must be immense. He makes it clear that he's aware he's terrible at all of this, but doesn't seem to know what to do about it. (And again, there are NO adults to help him figure this out! Except for maybe Boris's mediation sessions...?) I wish someone would hand him the Nonviolent Communication skills book & workbook. He'd probably be able to heave a big sigh of relief, knowing how to talk to & be there for the people he loves. He'd probably feel more empowered, too, as a result, and therefore less anxious. Win-win-win.

In summary: I just feel so freaking heartbroken for Simon, Wille, & a lot of the other kids, too. They are CHILDREN. Adults are supposed to be role modeling for them, guiding them, helping them cope & navigate the pressures of life. INSTEAD, they just heap on *even more* trauma.

So... yeah. I think it's intriguing that the writers chose to shift to make Season 3 a meditation on trauma and its consequences. And now that I'm reframing the season through that lens in my mind, I'm able to sit with the content more easily and understand it better.

I really really wish everyone would get SHITTONS OF THERAPY in the YR universe (and also in real life, ha). Even better: go back in time and put all the adults in therapy, so their kids don't have to emotionally handle + figure out everything on their own! It's really not the kids' fault that they wound up with no skills or tools, and just confusedly trying to fumble their way through things in the dark. My heart really breaks for a lot of these kiddos, just trying their best and fucking it all up.

i need edvin's reaction to this

we don’t deserve omar rudberg. the man has solely given us so much promo, he sings, he acts and models. he speaks 3 languages and serves style and is just a force of talent and beauty. always vocal about his latin heritage + the importance of representation for lgbt. I can’t wait to witness this next chapter for him.

These glances and smiles though. They're everything.

It's an open notes test and some dense motherfuckers still can't figure out the answers.