#sara eriksson

[heliza24]

Let’s talk about parallels between Wilhelm and Sara in Season 3 of Young Royals

Because there are so many! This is a continuation of sorts of this meta that I wrote about them being A and B plot protagonists in season 1 and 2. I don’t know that I would describe them exactly that way in season 3, but I do think their plots, character arcs, and themes are meant to mirror each other very closely this season.

One of my favorite things about the parallels between Wilhelm and Sara this season is that comparing them really makes you hold Sara’s friendship with Felice on the same level as Wilhelm’s romantic relationship with Simon (and Sara’s with August) which I think is so important. Both Wilhelm and Sara go through breakups over the course of the season (I think Felice’s reaction especially frames her friendship breakup with Sara similarly to a romantic breakup, which I love). And both of their arcs are about mending those relationships.

Sara and Wilhelm both need to experience the world outside of Hillerska before they can mend those relationships. Sara is able to glimpse some independence, even just through getting her license. The whole world is open to her now, as Felice says in ep 6. I don’t know that she would have been able to make her decision not to go back to August without experiencing that freedom. And Wilhelm also needs to experience the full force of what life in the monarchy would be like before he is able to decide to leave it. Because of this they also act as our window into the two different worlds outside of Hillerska, the palace and Bjarstad. They create the larger context in which we understand Hillerska this season.

I love that both of their journeys of personal growth are symbolized through cars. Wilhelm is always getting trapped with his mom or a member of the court in a fancy car; it’s where almost all of the monarchy’s most onerous instructions on how to live are delivered to him. So it’s huge when he leaves his parents in the chauffeured car at the end of episode 6 and goes to find Simon, Felice and Sara in Sara’s beat up used car. Meanwhile, Sara has traded in horses for the car. This is stated pretty explicitly when her dad asks her if she would like to work with horses and she declines, saying that she has come to realize that horses are simply traded by rich people as status symbols, and her dad suggests she get her drivers license since it will help with any job she wants. In seasons 1 and 2 Rousseau is pretty heavily associated with August, along with the pressures put on August and the other elite kids at Hillerska to conform to expectations (@bluedalahorse has written the Bible on that here), so the fact that Sara swaps out the horse for a car that can take her anywhere feels like a step away from both August and the prescriptive norms of Hillerska.

Sara and Wilhelm both reject what they saw as their destined future. This is obviously really clear for Wilhelm; he assumed he would be prince and then king after Erik died, and his greatest moment of character growth is when he decides he doesn’t have to fulfill that assigned role if it will keep him from being happy and living authentically. I love the scene where Sara talks with her dad about her fears that she will fail in the same ways that he did because she also has autism and adhd. This is a less clear-cut assigned destiny, but that fear of becoming a self fulfilling prophecy is equally overwhelming, especially because Sara has already let down someone she cares about in a way that’s not dissimilar to how her father breaks promises. The fact that she’s able to come to terms with her dad’s influence in her life, but realize she really is in charge of her own future, is really powerful. (I also think it’s such smart writing about the way disability and internalized ableism can really affect your self image).

In order to break free of those predetermined destinies, both Sara and Wilhelm need to see a father/mentor figure as more than black and white. Wilhelm needs to acknowledge that Erik wasn’t perfect, and did help contribute to some of the abusive traditions of Hillerska. Sara needs to recognize that even though her dad isn’t a perfect parent, she still loves him for the care he is able to show to her and wants to have him in her life. I love that both Wilhelm and Sara learn to hold multiple conflicting emotions about their loved ones. They can be disappointed by some of Micke and Erik’s actions, but they can still value their relationships with those family members and recognize them as complex, complete people.

They also both go on a similar journey with how they see August. Wilhelm comes to recognize that August is both a perpetrator and victim of the class system and Hillerska’s systemized abuse. Sara similarly realizes that August is an adult who needs to be responsible for his own emotions. She’s no longer interested in saving him from his complex feelings of guilt, and recognizes his potential to find self healing. Both of those new assessments of August grant him more maturity and complexity than earlier in the show. (They also reflect the way that August grows, in fits and starts, over the course of season 3. If there was a season 4 of the show, I think we would really see August respond to Sara and Wilhelm’s new attitudes towards him in a way that would fuel future character growth).

Viewing Erik, Micke, and August more complexly also allows Sara and Wilhelm to forgive themselves for the ways they are similar to those people. They are able to acknowledge the shame they feel around their actions, but also forgive themselves in the same way that they forgive others.

Both Sara and Wilhelm have specifically let down Simon in pretty big ways (Sara by secretly dating August, Wilhelm by perpetuating the royal family restrictions onto Simon). But they are able to recognize those mistakes and reconcile with Simon.

Wilhelm and Sara both leave the monarchy (Wilhelm literally, Sara by refusing a relationship with August), but they also leave a kind of prescriptive romance behind. Wilhelm says no to having to monitor Simon, to having to roll out his relationship in a certain way to please the court, and to having their future together mapped out and their decision around children made for them. Sara says no to a smaller set of requirements, but the traditional ways that August sees romance are so influenced by the monarchy (which is in turn so influenced patriarchy) that they are similar in some ways. Sara says no to having to do August’s emotional labor, to managing him so that he will fit the image of a good heir. She says no to waiting for him to visit on weekends while he does military service. She says no to this grand plan that he has. (This was @bluedalahorse’s point originally that she shared with me, and honestly I think it's so smart). Wilhelm chooses a romantic relationship that he and Simon are free to create together without rules; Sara chooses a friendship based on honesty and support. Both are valid options that give the characters a sense of peace and freedom. And they would not have been able to make those choices without all of the growth they went through over the course of the season.

I think Sara and Wilhelm's arcs compliment each other so well, and it was one of my favorite things about season 3. I loved watching both of them get to grow so much and end up in such a happy place.

[bluedalahorse]

Hello there! Could you share some post-s3 Sara & Felice friendship headcanons?

What a lovely ask! Glad to share some ideas that pop into my head:

Sara is the first person Felice comes out to as asexual. (Specifically gray ace.)

Whether Hillerska re-opens or not, Felice refuses to go back and ends up at a school in the city somewhere. She and Sara send one another post cards. Felice’s tend to be cutely decorated. Simon buys Sara fun pens she can use to write Felice, though she tends to write only in one color. She still doodles, though.

They’re actually pretty good at keeping up a distance friendship. At one point Sara’s working a job in either Malmö or Copenhagen, and she and Felice still stay in touch and have a weekly phone call time.

At the same time, once Sara moves back to Stockholm, she and Felice are… kind of living together for a time? This is based on a headcanon @heliza24 and I discussed together, but essentially, Felice’s parents have bought her a nice townhouse in Stockholm. Felice ends up sleeping at work a lot though because she’s so devoted to her restaurant. So she invites Sara to come live in her townhouse, because Sara needs a place to live, and Felice needs her townhouse to look lived in. They’re better at being roommates than they were at Hillerska.

Felice gives Sara advice for whatever her love life is doing for the moment based on her horoscope. The advice is inconsistent in how helpful it is, so it’s sort of a joke at this point.

Felice likes to drag Sara along on random road trips related to her cooking goals. Like she’ll hear that a particular farm has phenomenal rhubarb and she’ll convince Sara to drive her there. They have set playlists they’ll sing along the way.

Hope that’s a good start! What are some of your headcanons?

[causetheturtle]

Obsessed with the Young Royals finale.

Obsessed with Simon, Sara, Wilhelm and Felice driving away from a shutdown Hillerska, free from a system which was never going to accept them, happy and together.

Obsessed with how there’s still a chance Hillerska could reopen because that system is next to impossible to take down and the upper-class rarely face real consequences for their actions.

Obsessed with August’s face when he saw Wilhelm walking away, realising that he was trapped. Wilhelm said August was the heir they needed but he couldn’t have been more wrong - that man has bucket loads of trauma, an eating disorder he isn’t even close to ready to confront and no support system around him, he’s not gonna do much better with the role of Crown Prince than Wilhelm did.

Obsessed with Nils coming out to his friends and them easily accepting him, because their issue with Simon really was the fact that he was poor and a socialist, and Nils both still believes in the system he’s in and his queerness doesn’t destabilise the system the same way Wilhelm’s does.

Obsessed with Stella ending up with Fredrika, because although Rosh might have been fun to hang out with for a night Stella also still believes in and upholds the system she belongs to and Rosh was never going to fit in that system or uphold the traditional feminine values needed to survive in it.

Obsessed with how the monarchy is portrayed as unchangeable and impossible to modernise because it’s built on such outdated ideals.

Obsessed with the mix of both happy and open-ended endings.

I just adore it so much

[jadenvargen]

det är august augusti hörni

[opaquebones]

wilhelm really heard simon say “i love you so much even if we have to be a secret it’s alright” and replied “that simply will not do” and confessed to the entire nation of sweden. is this show even real

[theaviatorthatcouldnotfly]

we’re in for a wild one.

disclaimer: personally, i’m convinced wilmon will be endgame, but it was just too good to leave out 🤠

[ppkritts]

[purplewilmon]

Sara and Simon l Young Royals S3

[writingfarintothedark]

Omar saying this about what Simon is thinking when Wille runs after him is making me think of the scene where Simon says Sara is right to not want to see Micke- and Sara tells Simon he is brave for giving second chances and loving people even when they're not perfect. Simon needed to hear that his quality of being such a loving person is actually revolutionary (it clearly was for Wille). And Simon hearing that probably makes him realize that he wants to give Wille another chance when Wille runs after the car...and this time Wille proved to Simon giving that extra chance was all worth it.

[tiredmoonslut]

absolutely GOBSMACKED thinking about how different the tone of the show will be in season 3??? Wilhelm isn’t gonna go five SECONDS without kissing Simon in public and holding his hand to classes. Simon is gonna refuse to talk to Sara and Felice will have to decide whether or not to forgive her and August is gonna be in a pile of shit and the press is gonna be going crazy and the QUEEN oh my god what is she gonna do and we still have to worry about the drugs and I’m--

[bberry005]

there's something so poetic about young royals ending with the four characters who's journeys of finding themselves were so influenced and ruined by hillerska and the system all driving away from it laughing and heading towards something new together. they are literally leaving hillerska and the story they lived there behind

[barrowsteeth]

I think it's my fault the school is closing.

FELICE & SARA YOUNG ROYALS | 3.06

@lgbtqcreators - creator bingo - favorite friendship

[wilmon]

YOUNG ROYALS 3.06

[korixae]

also also the way yeah simon and wille got to be together yeah 1000% but sara and felice!! god it’s so rare for any media to portray friendship and platonic relationships as just as important if not more important than romantic. but!!!!! they were also in that car!! they were endgame too!! it just brings me such joy that this silly angsty little romance can also put such value in friendship too <3 oh young royals writers just kill me

[botticellisflora]

I got it. My drivers license. But dad ... He was ... He was supposed to drive me there. He promised. But instead, he drank beer with his friends. I don't know. I didn't think that it-

THE ERIKSSONS | YOUNG ROYALS SEASON 3 EPISODE 5

[yooboointhemood]

Vincent to Simon in ep 4