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bluedalahorseAlright, comrades. I am in the middle of Grade All The Things weekend and I am about to start my rewatch of Young Royals season one episode three. This is my break during grading. We’re also less than two weeks out from the finale, and they keep dropping still images. Like at this point the season is gonna be a flipbook. I just need them to take pity on my constitution. I’m feeling a lot of emotions and I don’t know how to deal with them.
Episode three is my favorite in both seasons, and I could give intellectual reasons for that. Ultimately however this just comes down to August being one of my tragic problematic faves. I’ve been obsessed with his arc since, if not day one, at least day three of being a Young Royals fan. I fell quick and it’s not pretty.
Dreamwidth, it was nice knowing you. I am certain season three episode three, will leave me dead just like both previous episode threes did.
Everyone’s going through their lockers. So much happens in the locker room, it’s such a liminal space. We saw the pink haired girl again and I just feel like she’s queer coded.
Simon at the piano! Wilhelm is wistfully gazing at him and now he’s going to flirt in the most awkward way.
I do have a thing about people sitting at the piano together. It doesn’t have to be romantic—it can be platonic or any kind of relationship. There is a Renoir painting of I think two sisters at the piano and it’s my favorite. Of course Utena had a lot of significant people at pianos too. So now we got Simon and Wilhelm and this absolutely fits my vibe. I think this is another reason to show ingrained itself so deeply in my psychology. I spent a lot of my childhood on the piano bench because of the role music plays in my family. Disclaimer: I also can’t play for shit.
This awkward conversation about the kiss feels like it would turn into a musical number in a musical where they can’t quite manage to sing a duet and they keep not hitting harmony. Later there will be a reprise where they’re getting it and their duet is working.
Sara! Sarah and the horses! Rousseau does not like being ridden.
I’m really struck by the way Felice is in these earth tones that kind of blend into the stable, and then Sara‘s purple vest and blue fleece is making her pop. I’d have smart thoughts about that, but my brain is a fried egg.
Sara talks about her father being a bad person who can’t take care of himself. For the first time I am thinking about Sara herself, and how Linda and Simon are always treating her as someone who needs to be taken care of. I wonder how much negative self image Sara has for herself and to what extent she actually compares herself to her father. Especially since he mentions having ADHD.
August trying to converse with Wille while he’s rowing feels very much the cyclists that drive through my neighborhood on Sunday mornings having full on conversations. Like y’all are doing sports, stop trying to talk.
God, Sweden is so fucking beautiful. I know there’s like shitty looking parts of Sweden but the show is determined to like be a tourist ad.
Wilhelm is bored by the heterosexuality, and me too.
(That’s a lie. Sara and August can be heterosexual. I accept their lifestyle. No one else in fandom does but I do.)
I love how everybody’s little situps and such looks so realistically gym class. Like, no one is happy about having to do this exercise. It conveys the awkwardness in a way that reminds me so much of high school.
I also love Simon’s giant striped shirt something about that is very baby queer fashion. Not in the trying too hard way but in that way where you know he evolves this look into something super gay and inspiring in his adulthood. Also oh my God, Wille. Your flirting game… is a lot.
Thanks for explaining the schedule. Genuinely one of my favorite Simon lines in season one.
Sarah brushing her hair again! She tells Simon to put his plate away and I’m 100% with her right now, because my students never put their stuff away. They just leave it on the desk for me to clean up.
OK why are they letting August do the seating arrangements for parents’ weekend? Did he ask? is this just to keep him busy? His sweater is really good though. Why is his sweater always so good? I am in distress.
August, you little shit, you don’t have money either. (Okay, you can send me to he ll, but August and Simon do kind of have angry sexual tension. I know everyone in fandom is like nooooo but I feel like we would have written it in 2003. So maybe we can just acknowledge it.)
All the families are showing up. I feel the stress level personally. Oh hey, it’s Klare from fleabag.
Honestly August’s mom is like a super bougie Whole Foods Mom, but I do love her blue cloak shawl thing. I probably would wear it and that is my inner Whole Foods Mom speaking.
I really like the school song and how it sounded with the harmony. It was cute! We love harmony!
Can’t stand Felice’s mom and her heterosexual bullshit. I’ve told my friends this before but I have this headcanon that Felice‘s mom was actually bullied growing up. If she was ever popular she was like the second or third in command to like the head popular girl. Maybe she got into that position to avoid being bullied. Which is why she’s like no Felice, you have to be on top. If I had infinite time, I would write that into fanfic too.
Oh, Alexander has family!
God, the independent school public relations are stabbing me again.
OK so now August is talking to Simon and Sara, and he’s being a jerk. If we go with my theory that Sarah‘s attraction starts prior to episode four, what’s going through her head here? Is she like oh my god he’s coming to talk to us wait is he being a dick? No, he said he’d work out the tables. Sara‘s like not gonna put in the time to work out how genuine he’s being because Sara has to put in the effort with literally everyone in her life and it’s just a lot of effort. I think fandom should believe my headcanons.
Crown Prince Erik, once again the spokesperson for Apple FaceTime.
Eric‘s advice to Willhelm about pretending to be someone else… his last advice is not actually what Wilhelm needs long-term. I think Lisa is trying to tell us some thing with that.
The last thing Willhelm tell Erik is that he is being annoying.
OK I really love this little clip of the Eriksson family, watching the Hillerska staff set the lunch table and squeeze them in. Everybody is so their character. Linda’s like it’s gonna be fine, Simon‘s really pissed off, and Sarah‘s like let’s not draw attention to ourselves’. I love a little moment that captures everything.
The girl with the scrunchie at August’s lunch table is just like practicing her I am listening, but secretly my brain is elsewhere face. Perfect for her future marriage to a rich guy in this fucked up class dystopia. Oh my god August you’re such a mess.
Do they have like piano playing in the background? Is there a live piano player at their parents’ weekend lunch?
So this is one of the few times where we get Wille and Sarah together in the scene. They don’t really interact. I don’t know what the show is sitting on but like clearly their first interaction is going to be so important.
Oh no, not the Rousseau misunderstanding! Sara, I feel you. I said like 10 things today I shouldn’t have and we’re just vibing with it.
Felicia‘s mom does look a little bit like evil Leslie Knope sometimes. Or something like that. It may be another sitcom character I can’t really put my finger on it. I have bad facial recognition.
Okay, Felice is crying. Wilhelm is trying to talk her through it. He says something that kind of leads her on, but also I do want Willhelm to grow up to be a therapist. That is my headcanon profession for him. (I don’t think he should kiss his clients. Felice is going in for it now, so that’s happening, and Wilhelm’s not responding.) Anyway, I do think it be a good profession for him. I think he would do good talking to people about their problems. I prefer this to him as king.
Oh no, August’s conversation with his mom. This hits me right in the gut for personal reasons. I know I keep saying that during this episode but I just can’t be normal about it. Get this boy to therapy, get Louise to therapy too. Sounds like Louise and Carl Johan had a pretty bad marriage, and I just want everybody to come to terms with everything that happened.
Simon-August fight! Simon-August fight! Everybody is having the worst timing.
Wille, meanwhile, has no idea any of this has gone down and is like I’m gonna make out with someone tonight.
The scene, the little montage, where all of the students are breathing as side relief because their parents are gone is another really well done thing. It just reminds me of being that age. If my parents read this, they’ll probably be upset. But I think at that age, you feel like you can’t be yourself fully around your parents.
Rosh and Ayub are here. August is not ready to leave the gym yet. I love this fight so much—what do you mean? I like to watch boys fight. Malte’s hair is great in the scene. Boy fight, boy fight, boy fight! Okay, I am extremely loopy today because I don’t usually have this reaction. I love Rosh pulling Simon off of August too. She has the clarity to be like look someone’s going to get in trouble for this, and it’s gonna be you Simon, and I don’t want you to get in trouble. I really want to see Simon and August fighting in season three. But I don’t know if we’ll get that. And even even more than seeing them fight in season three, I want them to come to understand each other unexpectedly because I think their actors could do a hell of a good job with it. I would cry. I am so not normal help.
Rosh is like, at this point it’s just like I’m not mad I’m just disappointed and Simon feels that in his bones.
Simon is lying to Linda and telling her that he is okay. Oh Simon, you are not okay. Sara has caught on the fact that Simon and Wilhelm are in love, and this is one of her very very good scenes. It is not her only good scene. (I know a lot of people in fandom talk as if they only ever like this scene with her and I wish they’d mention her other scenes as good too.) That said, I still like this scene. Sara and Simon are very cute. Oh no, they’re very cute.
Also, Sara is truly winning in this scene. Simon‘s been in his tie all day, but she gets to be in comfy clothes now.
The shot of like the school staff cleaning the room after parents’ weekend is also so good because it’s just another thing that shows the consequences of the upper class partying. Like, oh here’s the people who clean up at them after them. Why is this show so smart?
NO FELICE DON’T DO IT. THAT AVOCADO IS NOT YET RIPE.
This is my asexuality talking, but I’m not sure how August and Felice are making out with the wall shelf near them. Like someone’s gonna hit their head on that. Find a different spot, kids.
I think you could play a drinking game where it’s every time Simon lies to Linda.
Oh, the part where Walter and Henry find out their parents dated is so great. Like, whoops.
Wilhelm and Simon are leaving the building together and now we are at the moment! So this moment where we find out Erik has died, this is when the show clicked and fell into place for me. This is when I went, oh, this is what Young Royals is about. It raised the stakes right away and it let me know that this is not going to be a show that lets up or goes easy on its audience. Whenever I see a post wondering what would’ve happened if Erik hadn’t died I really struggle to get into it because usually they’re imagining a universe where he would have protected Wille and I don’t know if I see that playing out.
Also, can we just shout out Pernilla August’s acting? She’s over the phone, like we don’t even see her and you hear her voice is so full of emotion and character. If I scream into my phone, I don’t know if my phone is going to pick up the dictation correctly. Rest assured, I am shaking, and my voice is shaking.
Credits are rolling and I am done!
Episode three is my favorite in both seasons, and I could give intellectual reasons for that. Ultimately however this just comes down to August being one of my tragic problematic faves. I’ve been obsessed with his arc since, if not day one, at least day three of being a Young Royals fan. I fell quick and it’s not pretty.
Dreamwidth, it was nice knowing you. I am certain season three episode three, will leave me dead just like both previous episode threes did.
Everyone’s going through their lockers. So much happens in the locker room, it’s such a liminal space. We saw the pink haired girl again and I just feel like she’s queer coded.
Simon at the piano! Wilhelm is wistfully gazing at him and now he’s going to flirt in the most awkward way.
I do have a thing about people sitting at the piano together. It doesn’t have to be romantic—it can be platonic or any kind of relationship. There is a Renoir painting of I think two sisters at the piano and it’s my favorite. Of course Utena had a lot of significant people at pianos too. So now we got Simon and Wilhelm and this absolutely fits my vibe. I think this is another reason to show ingrained itself so deeply in my psychology. I spent a lot of my childhood on the piano bench because of the role music plays in my family. Disclaimer: I also can’t play for shit.
This awkward conversation about the kiss feels like it would turn into a musical number in a musical where they can’t quite manage to sing a duet and they keep not hitting harmony. Later there will be a reprise where they’re getting it and their duet is working.
Sara! Sarah and the horses! Rousseau does not like being ridden.
I’m really struck by the way Felice is in these earth tones that kind of blend into the stable, and then Sara‘s purple vest and blue fleece is making her pop. I’d have smart thoughts about that, but my brain is a fried egg.
Sara talks about her father being a bad person who can’t take care of himself. For the first time I am thinking about Sara herself, and how Linda and Simon are always treating her as someone who needs to be taken care of. I wonder how much negative self image Sara has for herself and to what extent she actually compares herself to her father. Especially since he mentions having ADHD.
August trying to converse with Wille while he’s rowing feels very much the cyclists that drive through my neighborhood on Sunday mornings having full on conversations. Like y’all are doing sports, stop trying to talk.
God, Sweden is so fucking beautiful. I know there’s like shitty looking parts of Sweden but the show is determined to like be a tourist ad.
Wilhelm is bored by the heterosexuality, and me too.
(That’s a lie. Sara and August can be heterosexual. I accept their lifestyle. No one else in fandom does but I do.)
I love how everybody’s little situps and such looks so realistically gym class. Like, no one is happy about having to do this exercise. It conveys the awkwardness in a way that reminds me so much of high school.
I also love Simon’s giant striped shirt something about that is very baby queer fashion. Not in the trying too hard way but in that way where you know he evolves this look into something super gay and inspiring in his adulthood. Also oh my God, Wille. Your flirting game… is a lot.
Thanks for explaining the schedule. Genuinely one of my favorite Simon lines in season one.
Sarah brushing her hair again! She tells Simon to put his plate away and I’m 100% with her right now, because my students never put their stuff away. They just leave it on the desk for me to clean up.
OK why are they letting August do the seating arrangements for parents’ weekend? Did he ask? is this just to keep him busy? His sweater is really good though. Why is his sweater always so good? I am in distress.
August, you little shit, you don’t have money either. (Okay, you can send me to he ll, but August and Simon do kind of have angry sexual tension. I know everyone in fandom is like nooooo but I feel like we would have written it in 2003. So maybe we can just acknowledge it.)
All the families are showing up. I feel the stress level personally. Oh hey, it’s Klare from fleabag.
Honestly August’s mom is like a super bougie Whole Foods Mom, but I do love her blue cloak shawl thing. I probably would wear it and that is my inner Whole Foods Mom speaking.
I really like the school song and how it sounded with the harmony. It was cute! We love harmony!
Can’t stand Felice’s mom and her heterosexual bullshit. I’ve told my friends this before but I have this headcanon that Felice‘s mom was actually bullied growing up. If she was ever popular she was like the second or third in command to like the head popular girl. Maybe she got into that position to avoid being bullied. Which is why she’s like no Felice, you have to be on top. If I had infinite time, I would write that into fanfic too.
Oh, Alexander has family!
God, the independent school public relations are stabbing me again.
OK so now August is talking to Simon and Sara, and he’s being a jerk. If we go with my theory that Sarah‘s attraction starts prior to episode four, what’s going through her head here? Is she like oh my god he’s coming to talk to us wait is he being a dick? No, he said he’d work out the tables. Sara‘s like not gonna put in the time to work out how genuine he’s being because Sara has to put in the effort with literally everyone in her life and it’s just a lot of effort. I think fandom should believe my headcanons.
Crown Prince Erik, once again the spokesperson for Apple FaceTime.
Eric‘s advice to Willhelm about pretending to be someone else… his last advice is not actually what Wilhelm needs long-term. I think Lisa is trying to tell us some thing with that.
The last thing Willhelm tell Erik is that he is being annoying.
OK I really love this little clip of the Eriksson family, watching the Hillerska staff set the lunch table and squeeze them in. Everybody is so their character. Linda’s like it’s gonna be fine, Simon‘s really pissed off, and Sarah‘s like let’s not draw attention to ourselves’. I love a little moment that captures everything.
The girl with the scrunchie at August’s lunch table is just like practicing her I am listening, but secretly my brain is elsewhere face. Perfect for her future marriage to a rich guy in this fucked up class dystopia. Oh my god August you’re such a mess.
Do they have like piano playing in the background? Is there a live piano player at their parents’ weekend lunch?
So this is one of the few times where we get Wille and Sarah together in the scene. They don’t really interact. I don’t know what the show is sitting on but like clearly their first interaction is going to be so important.
Oh no, not the Rousseau misunderstanding! Sara, I feel you. I said like 10 things today I shouldn’t have and we’re just vibing with it.
Felicia‘s mom does look a little bit like evil Leslie Knope sometimes. Or something like that. It may be another sitcom character I can’t really put my finger on it. I have bad facial recognition.
Okay, Felice is crying. Wilhelm is trying to talk her through it. He says something that kind of leads her on, but also I do want Willhelm to grow up to be a therapist. That is my headcanon profession for him. (I don’t think he should kiss his clients. Felice is going in for it now, so that’s happening, and Wilhelm’s not responding.) Anyway, I do think it be a good profession for him. I think he would do good talking to people about their problems. I prefer this to him as king.
Oh no, August’s conversation with his mom. This hits me right in the gut for personal reasons. I know I keep saying that during this episode but I just can’t be normal about it. Get this boy to therapy, get Louise to therapy too. Sounds like Louise and Carl Johan had a pretty bad marriage, and I just want everybody to come to terms with everything that happened.
Simon-August fight! Simon-August fight! Everybody is having the worst timing.
Wille, meanwhile, has no idea any of this has gone down and is like I’m gonna make out with someone tonight.
The scene, the little montage, where all of the students are breathing as side relief because their parents are gone is another really well done thing. It just reminds me of being that age. If my parents read this, they’ll probably be upset. But I think at that age, you feel like you can’t be yourself fully around your parents.
Rosh and Ayub are here. August is not ready to leave the gym yet. I love this fight so much—what do you mean? I like to watch boys fight. Malte’s hair is great in the scene. Boy fight, boy fight, boy fight! Okay, I am extremely loopy today because I don’t usually have this reaction. I love Rosh pulling Simon off of August too. She has the clarity to be like look someone’s going to get in trouble for this, and it’s gonna be you Simon, and I don’t want you to get in trouble. I really want to see Simon and August fighting in season three. But I don’t know if we’ll get that. And even even more than seeing them fight in season three, I want them to come to understand each other unexpectedly because I think their actors could do a hell of a good job with it. I would cry. I am so not normal help.
Rosh is like, at this point it’s just like I’m not mad I’m just disappointed and Simon feels that in his bones.
Simon is lying to Linda and telling her that he is okay. Oh Simon, you are not okay. Sara has caught on the fact that Simon and Wilhelm are in love, and this is one of her very very good scenes. It is not her only good scene. (I know a lot of people in fandom talk as if they only ever like this scene with her and I wish they’d mention her other scenes as good too.) That said, I still like this scene. Sara and Simon are very cute. Oh no, they’re very cute.
Also, Sara is truly winning in this scene. Simon‘s been in his tie all day, but she gets to be in comfy clothes now.
The shot of like the school staff cleaning the room after parents’ weekend is also so good because it’s just another thing that shows the consequences of the upper class partying. Like, oh here’s the people who clean up at them after them. Why is this show so smart?
NO FELICE DON’T DO IT. THAT AVOCADO IS NOT YET RIPE.
This is my asexuality talking, but I’m not sure how August and Felice are making out with the wall shelf near them. Like someone’s gonna hit their head on that. Find a different spot, kids.
I think you could play a drinking game where it’s every time Simon lies to Linda.
Oh, the part where Walter and Henry find out their parents dated is so great. Like, whoops.
Wilhelm and Simon are leaving the building together and now we are at the moment! So this moment where we find out Erik has died, this is when the show clicked and fell into place for me. This is when I went, oh, this is what Young Royals is about. It raised the stakes right away and it let me know that this is not going to be a show that lets up or goes easy on its audience. Whenever I see a post wondering what would’ve happened if Erik hadn’t died I really struggle to get into it because usually they’re imagining a universe where he would have protected Wille and I don’t know if I see that playing out.
Also, can we just shout out Pernilla August’s acting? She’s over the phone, like we don’t even see her and you hear her voice is so full of emotion and character. If I scream into my phone, I don’t know if my phone is going to pick up the dictation correctly. Rest assured, I am shaking, and my voice is shaking.
Credits are rolling and I am done!
