nonsense

it's really interesting that a lot of people have interpreted wille's reaction to simon telling him he doesn't find joy in singing anymore as him "brushing it off" or "not thinking it's important" or it "going over his head" when he doesn't say anything and instead asks when simon's bus leaves

i actually think he did recognize the weight of simon's words but he felt like his best course of action was to comfort him in the best way he knew how, by worshiping him and showing him how he feels about him. i don't think he was brushing it off, i think he just didn't know what words he could use that would make it better

that's not to say i don't think they still could've/should've had a conversation about it, but the interpretation that wille just didn't care feels off to me.

we saw them most of the season struggle to have conversations about the bigger aspects of their relationship and fall back on their physical relationship when they couldn't find the words for each other

in fact this post by @belly-aches put it pretty much perfectly

so i think it's very likely that in that moment wille just couldn't think of the right words, but still wanted to find a way to show simon the love he has for him

Not because I wanted Wille to hurt more - because having that become public knowledge would have been devastating for him.

I just thought it’d be interesting to have the final Royal Scandal being centred on Erik rather than on Wille.

So much of the show has been driven by Wille doing things and it becoming a scandal when the public find out, the club fight, the sex tape, Wille’s speech.

So the Queen and the Royal Court have been able to tell themselves the lie that they aren’t the problem - Wille is the problem.

But if the big end of the season scandal that had happened in Season 3 had been that Erik had participated in enacting homophobic sexual violence, in direct contrast to the LGBT positive image they are trying to push through Wille, it would have gone a long way narratively to putting a dent into the Royal Institution.

And honestly, I think this is why personally I found S3 so emotionally satisfying. Because the real tragedy of the show is that these two teenage kids who should just be able to get to be young and in love for the first time, with no worries beyond their maths homework and why hasn't he texted me back yet? are having to deal with these huge, adult problems about the future of the monarchy. No 16 year old should ever have to go on TV and give an interview about their first relationship because the country thinks they have the right to know.

Whether they're soulmates and destined to be together forever, or whether it's a teenage infatuation that would have fizzled out naturally in a few months anyway doesn't matter. That's not the point. Either way - or anywhere in between - they should have been able to just enjoy their first relationship together like any other kids, holding hands and making out and passing notes in class without these huge questions hanging over them.

And then S3 poses the question - okay, we've wrapped up the video issue and the drugs issue and the August thing, so do they get to just be kids together now that's all resolved? And the answer is no, they still can't just be a couple of kids in love, because the issue was never just August. It was the role and the restrictions and the institution itself that's the real problem.

But hear me out. Would you go into bed with someone who just scared you? Would you?

Also, in that heartbreaking scene, Simon says that he sees how the situation his hurting Wille and that seeing him hurt hurts him too. I think with that outburst, Simon was shocked to see how deep Wille's trauma is, how deeply he is hurt by his familly. And that hurst Simon too because he loves Wille and he hates seeing him like this.

And someone pointed out that Simon is fully aware of Wille's temper. He saw that video of him getting in a fight in that club. He saw Wille treatening August with a gun. And he never said anything about it.

So I really believe that Simon wasn't scared of Wille in that scene. I think he was scared for Wille. And that's another thing.

To me, it's Wille saying "I love you but I respect your wish to break up so I won't say it." So instead he references a moment when Simon couldn't say he loved Wille. Wille may not have known it back then at the end of S1 but in hindsight he absolutely knows that Simon loved him then but it was impossible for him to say it in the situation they were in, so he used "I hope you have a nice Christmas" as a stand-in for "I love you too." And now Wille calls back to that moment, knowing that Simon will understand, and Simon does.

Wille this season is trying to do what he thinks he’s supposed to do, he tells us his plan in ep1: he will be a crown prince and he will be Simon’s boyfriend. Only being a crown prince is getting progressively harder which in turn makes it harder to be Simon’s boyfriend. But Wille refuses to accept it.

He is in denial that he needs to make some drastic changes if he wants to be happy and everything that points out to him that he needs to do it either makes him upset and mad or he is trying to hide away from it. Kristina and Ludvig telling him he might need to step in soon, Simon explaining to him what is wrong with the monarchy, reminding him that it’s hurting him and proposing what he could do to make changes, the way people treat Simon because of his position. Then on top of that he gets hit with the Erik revelation which rattles his cage even more.

And he is so desperately trying to keep things the way they are, when it’s not really possible anymore.

“I just want to be with you”

“I just want a somewhat normal life”

Simon became his salvation and his distraction in all of that, so he tries to keep them the way they are as well and he is asking Simon to play this game of pretend with him too.

While Simon is trying to keep his own pain to himself as well. They both don’t answer each other’s phone calls when they feel sad. Simon thinks bringing up the hate he’s getting is stupid. Wille doesn’t want to talk about Erik with Simon. After the breakdown scene with Linda Simon only tells Wille “I talked with my mom, I’m not grounded anymore” and then they are making out in the music room. The hallway scene happens right after Simon talked about not enjoying singing anymore to which Wille didn’t know how else to react except distract them both.

Wille was never given the luxury of choosing his own hobbies or his own interests because he always did what was expected of him. He was forced to take music lessons as a kid. He joined the rowing team because that’s what his brother did. He partook in royal duties in season 3 because he felt like he had to. He has no idea what he likes or what he wants to do because his life was always planned out for him, even more so when he became the crown prince.

When he frees himself from the expectations of the crown and his family at the end, he’s now free to figure out what he likes, what he wants to do, where he wants to go. The world is finally his oyster. He’s fucking 17-years-old. He has all the time in the world to figure it out. I didn’t have the pressure of the monarchy and I had literally zero clue what I wanted to do. Wille has all the time in the world to figure it out. He doesn’t have any practical skills, but he’s also literally 17-years-old. In what world does even a regular, everyday 17-year-old have any or all that are needed? I personally didn’t even get a job until I was 19 and didn’t enter my current career until I was 26. He has time.