Whatever.

As Edvin said, "the kissing scenes were insanely good." Umm, understatement of the year

YOUNG ROYALS 2.06 | 3.06

Literally sobbing. A judge, a US judge defended us. A judge brought up intersex people, uaing the term intersex, to *defend* us by not allowing our erasure. I'm having a lot of feelings right now

Absolutely agree.

I want to add: Omar plays *dissociation* super well. For example, during the "Netflix & chill" date Simon has at Marcus's creepy apartment (f'real, something about that has always been unsettling to me... of course TVmicroscope has great theories as to why, but I digress...). After Marcus refuses to be a hook-up rebound and insists on taking control of the date & controlling the film genre they'll watch, Omar's face immediately flashes to one of complete dissociation, and it's frightening how well & how fast he does that. Like instantly a mask takes over. I've always been so impressed with that.

There's at least one other scene like this as well, but I forget atm.

Omar played Simon's lack of interest in Marcus soooo well. He's barely even looking at Marcus half the time they're talking.

Even when he finally looks at Marcus here, he actually looks *past* him before actually focusing on his face

Compare to him focusing on Wille who's like a magnet for him....

Quietly losing my mind over the fact that Elon Musk has straight up orchestrated a coup of our executive branch and like....I don't even know what, if any, system we have in place to fix this. Like... He's just taken control of the money and locked out the actual appointed officials. What the fuck.

WILLE AND FELICE YOUNG ROYALS | 3.06

Ok y'all, can we talk about Omar's acting this season? Like he's always been amazing, but he got a meatier storyline this season that actually allowed him to show off the emotional bandwidth, and he KILLED it? The scenes where he cries to Linda/cries on the bus after the rock incident? Like my heart was ACHING, my maternal instincts were kicking in strong. The way he portrayed yearning and passion in all the intimate scenes? Simon's horrified face when watching Wille throw the presents? Simon's little face crying when breaking up with Wille? The way we saw Simon feel more and more alone? The way he slowly lost his relationship with music? The subtle ways we saw him lose himself throughout this season? Just give Omar all the awards and flowers. I am so grateful we got him as our Simon, I truly don't think anyone else could have played him with as much understanding and nuance. (and as much lovability)

Wille & Simon | YOUNG ROYALS season 3

Is it easier to empathise with Wille?

I have a LOT of empathy with Wille. His vast loneliness, his anxiety, and having less than stellar parents resonates deeply with me.

This post is NOT about empathising with Wille or not. It's about power, hierarchies and privilege, and what they do to our empathy and who we empathise with. The very themes of Young Royals itself.

We all live in hierarchical cultures. Privileges are unevenly distributed; some have more, most have less. Privilges are interesting because they shelter us from experiences, which in turn makes us less emphatic. We see it in August, Felice and Wille, all being blind to the realities of people outside their sheltered world of privilege. Right, "Simon would go to the police so he shouldn't know who posted revenge porn of him on the internet" Felice and Wille?

Prefering one character over another isn't wrong in itself of course!

On the other hand, to empathise with Wille while NOT noticing Simon's suffering, or disregarding it as less important indicates a certain amount of privilege. Not to mention not even recognizing Simon as a whole human being with his own needs and wants, but merely something Wille deserves, a reward for his suffering.

It's a mindset we've been brainwashed with through culture since the beginning of patriarchy (some 5-15K years ago). For gender reasons I was somewhat aware of it, but not explicitely until the #metoo movement of 2017. I've watched so many movies and series where the female characters is a reward for the hero.

It's what we're taught, so of course we normalise that one person can act like a reward or comfort for someone else's pain and suffering. Doesn't Wille deserve comfort when he's hurting? Don't I deserve comfort when I'm hurting?

The problem is the word DESERVE. When we feel like we deserve something from someone else, it's time to take a step back and check if the other person is okay with giving that comfort, and if we're offering comfort in return when needed. That was another lesson Wille had to learn. And he did! Very curious about season 3 and how well he learnt that lesson!

Living in Norway means on a global scale I have massive privilege. Yet on a local scale I barely have any privileges at all. It's impossible to ignore the class issue to cheer for the white boy, because my life is profoundly affected in a negative way by the very class systems that Young Royals is critical of.

To quote my fav indigenous Saemien/Sámi artist, actor, author, slam poet and activist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen: "How do you endure, you ask? When the truth is that to live as a Sámi is a political act in itself. That just by breathing, I revolt."

It's impossible for me in any way, shape or form to empathise with Wille at the expense of Simon's emotions and integrity. I empathise with both; hierarchies hurt people in both ends of it. Wille is selfish for a long time, and though I empathise, I can't defend his behaviour. On the other hand, Simon had no one else to fight for him against the system of power and privilege so clearly rigged against him. It's the exact same system that is failing to protect disabled people from adverse health issues and social exclusion, perpetuates generational trauma and poverty, and continuing the massive ongoing cultural genocide of my own people in both Norway and Sweden.

Just like Simon, I lack the privileges required to shelter me from the realities of life at the bottom levels of the patriarchal hierarchy.

Emotional growth requires facing negative consequences for harmful behaviour. The older we are, the harsher the consequences need to be for us to learn. Look at August - on a path towards emotional growth, stopped dead in its tracks by the meeting with the queen. What he did was unforgivable imo, but I still hope he'll face the consequences required to learn and grow, because the alternative is so much worse for everyone else.

I much prefer emotionally immature boys to suffer the painful consequences of their actions, in order to mature into decent human beings - rather than being habitually coddled so that they never learn anything and continue perpetuating the patriarchy.

Wille wouldn't have learnt and grown unless Simon enforced his boundaries. The Wille who changed the speech wouldn't exist without having to face the painful consequences of his own actions, learning that other people's lives and emotions are just as important as his own.

Source: Young Royals: Season 3 (Netflix)