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@heartbreakprincewille

main blog- @queenslayerthepoet, Bhakti / 19. header credit- @earliglowedits

wille and simon were neighbors and best friends growing up... simon and sara had a tree house in their back yard that wille would hide away in when things got to be much...they'd kissed each other there, once, when wille wanted to know what it felt like to kiss someone... they drift apart a bit when they go to university in different cities, but then they're back over a holiday break and wille finds out that linda's planning to have the tree house taken down... he texts simon and they meet there and catch up and laugh and draw closer and night falls and they're still talking and wille sighs and whispers "i don't wanna go" and simon can't keep from glancing at wille's lips and he breathes "so don't" and they're making out, pushing shirts off, tugging at belt loops....

SOMEONE PLEASEEEE

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I always think how brave Wille was for this. At this point, for all he knew, Simon was still dating someone else. And he definitely knew Simon was furious with him and thought their kiss was a mistake. But he still went to Simon’s house. And even with Simon’s friends there (who he must be aware don’t like him), Wille declared his undying love by telling Simon he would give up the crown to be with him. And he did it without any idea of how Simon would respond.

Because that’s Wille. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s impulsive and emotional, but in the most endearing way possible.

It's as if he felt trapped in that moment...

...just like the frog

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Maybe it's just me who's very slow, but I've been struggling with reconciling the seemingly contradictorymeanings of the snow globe. It is obviously a metaphor for the trapped prince who is freed when it breaks, but at the same time it was a cherished gift from Erik, and Wille seems devastated when it shatters. How can it be both at the same time? The connection between its metaphorical meaning and its meaning to Wille suddenly dawned on me now - the main reason Wille feels that he cannot give up his position if there is no one to take over is that he doesn't want to fail Erik, and he feels very trapped by having to live up to Erik as crown prince.

When the snow globe shatters, it is both liberating and heartbreaking all at once. The duality is the point.

Ja visst gör det ondt när knoppar brister

"The duality is the point." Oh my god you're right.

Nothing is ever black and white in real life. Wille hates being a part of, and everything about the royal family and yet. he is attached to the snow globe because Erik gave it to him, as a symbol for his trust in him carrying the role of prince well. He hates being a prince because he feels he'll never be good enough as one, but the snow globe says otherwise.

I actually do believe that Wille sees his responsibility more as protecting Erik's image rather than the royal family's or the crown's image. The object of his devotion has a face: Erik was real person who Wille had genuine respect and love for.

And that's why it hurts. so. much. jfc to watch him go absolutely numb when the globe shatters, to watch him try to put it together through his own silent breakdown, as if that's how he's trying, and failing, to piece Erik back together.

It may be a symbol for him being trapped within the monarchy, but it's still the only thing tying him to Erik. If it wasn't for his brother, he would've had no qualms about kicking the monarchy to the ground. Erik wished the best for Wille and having to uphold that became his own prison.

His wish to do right by Erik is his own prison.

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What a great addition! Your points about the globe being a symbol for Erik's trust in Wille as prince, and him being trapped within the monarchy while it is also the only thing tying him to Erik are *chef's kiss*

And this part was so beautifully and poignantly put:

jfc to watch him go absolutely numb when the globe shatters, to watch him try to put it together through his own silent breakdown, as if that's how he's trying, and failing, to piece Erik back together.

Excuse me while I go sob over a little, confused crown prince in grief desperately trying to piece his beloved brother back together again

Adding that this part is so poignant:

"...the monarchy (is) still the only thing tying him to Erik. If it wasn't for his brother, he would've had no qualms about kicking the monarchy to the ground. Erik wished the best for Wille and having to uphold that became his own prison.

Owing a debt to a dead person is a life-altering obligation. Inserting personal experience: when my grandpa died, he made his 12 yo son promise to take care of his siblings and his mother. My uncle shadowed his youngest sisters to make sure they got safely to school - he never told them he did that. Of the 7 siblings he was the one who visited most, and he and his wife were legal guardians (a mess of a job for private reasons) for her until she died last year. He's also the one who has always taken care of his special needs big brother.

Sharing this to show that the obligation Wille feels - even self imposed and a result of survivors guilt - is a massive burden, and not something he can just easily let go of. It's monumental. I'm sooo happy he's in therapy and has begun uncovering his survivor's guilt.

All of that in a snow globe breaking.

@missbolt 😭😭🫂♥️

And I can't say this enough. Wille in grief is something that's done so so right here. (please go through the tws at the end)

Erik dying wasn't just some plot point that Lisa was done and had over with just to raise the stakes for Wille. His absence is always there, creeping up on Wille when he least expects it. When he's enjoying himself at a party, when he's with Boris, when he's being dragged away, even more painfully so when he's at the castle. Every. single. time. He can't fucking escape it.

And yea sometimes grief is one big cathartic release, but sometimes, when the emotion is so overwhelming and so beyond the body's capacity to process it, it is unfeeling numbness, a total shut down.

Like, this UW counselling centre article breaks down the 5 stages of grief into its behavorial patterns, and... do you see how Wille coded it is??

(the rest of it is also very telling of how he deals with the grief of losing Simon as well)

@darktwistedgenderplurall !!! I think you're so so right about Wille having survivors guilt, cuz your story shows how great a motivator it can be to do something life altering that the person might not have done otherwise, how it can even last someone an entire lifetime :(

And that made me wonder... is Wille even aware of how much he subconsciously masks his grief? Because this much is clear. Wille's mind actively tries to protect him the only way it knows, by processing all that grief in little pieces over time.

(Maybe that's why it makes so much sense that he still feels so much, that he acts the way he did with the snow globe, and that even years down the line, he'd be going about his day, and boom suddenly he'd remember that his brother died. And after a couple minutes of thinking about how his brother must've felt then, or maybe right before in the car, or during the phone conversation they'd had, and a thousand what ifs later, he'd continue with his day again.)

How young royals portrays Wille's grief is revolutionary. Not a single verbal reaction the moment Erik died, or even during the funeral. But it made a point to show that it'd stay with him forever.

[oki so i had completely forgotten about this in the drafts but i just read 'The Thing in the Mirror', a fic by @zee-has-commitment-issues and after like an hour of trying to recover from how absolutely. BEAUTIFUL. it was I realised that she just really really gets it and puts it into much better words than i ever could so go give it a read i beg u]

(tw: mentions of grief and coping with it. article tws: mentions of trauma, police brutality, alcohol and drug consumption. fic tw: pure unfiltered sadness.)

What a great thread! I love all of these points. To add my 2c, I see the shattering of the snow globe as not just a metaphor for a rejection of the monarchy but a foreshadowing of what is to come with Wille's personal journey and his struggles with the crown.

Wille initially only really sees the crown through the lens of tradition/history/family - the role of prince/king must be a certain thing, must act a certain way, because that is the way it's always been and that's what his mother is telling him it should be. He's not just "trapped" by his family/the expectations on the crown, but by his own perception of what it means to be a prince .

But the theme of young royals is the rejection of stale or harmful traditions. And Wille's arc in S2 is about him coming to the realization that he shouldn't have to conform to a concept of royalty that he doesn't agree with.

The big aha moment is of course the scene where his mother informs him that August is being groomed as his reserve, followed by his therapy session, which together help Wille see that he might not have to become king after all, that he could have a choice. Cracks in the glass.

But the glass doesn't truly 'shatter' so to speak until August betrays him again, and Wille decides in the moment that there could be a third path- he can be a prince but be different, be critical of what that means, reject outdated protocols, and create new standards. He can still be the frog with a crown on his head, but without the confines of the glass cage he was living in and seeing through previously.

All of this is so fascinating to me. The frog prince snow globe is probably my favorite little bit of symbolism in the show. To me it really does seem like what @atdawnweryd added. The snow globe being broken is showing that he still is and can be the crown prince, but without the confines of the glass that was holding him back. I feel like the glass breaking metaphorically speaking, is an important part of his journey.

Something I appreciate is that the snow globe doesn't get thrown out or hidden once it breaks. It stays there on his desk with all of its many shards. The shards are still there, they aren't gone but still surround the frog prince even if it's not a full dome of glass anymore. Those shards are too many to put it back together. It's no longer a snow globe but a little frog prince figurine sitting among the remnants of the glass which had been blocking him from getting out.

In S2E5 we also see this very pretty shot

where Simon takes notice of the frog prince, rotates the plate, and touches the glass. To me it feels like it's showing that Simon is part of the frog prince's journey. He's moving the plate and touching the glass, to me he's seeing and acknowledging the frog prince *and* its broken glass.

I love this fandom.

Also, this probably doesn't even make sense and I don't know if it was intentional on the show's part but frogs are amphibians- they can live on land as well as in water. Their bodies are designed in a way that allows them to live in both habitats. And as it was mentioned earlier in the reblogs- duality is the point.

The frog prince snow globe can be a dual metaphor for so many things at once- Wilhelm living as a prince and as a queer person when systematically and traditionally those two things cannot co-exist together. But that's whole of Wilhelm's conflict! The frog prince trapped in a shimmery, dreamy glass dome was a metaphor for Wilhelm being tied down to only one choice- to be a prince. Especially after Erik's death, he felt that compulsion in his bones- he has to conform or all hell will break lose again. But now that the glass dome has shattered, the frog prince can venture into the water again. Wilhelm could finally dive into the waters of healing and living and loving again. He can be a prince AND be queer, and I just love how these slow realizations slowly culminate into Wilhelm's decision to change the speech and admit it was him in the video.

And it's kind of symbolic that Erik gives him that snow globe- we get a glimpse of Erik struggling in his role as well, and him passing their grandfather's snow globe to Wilhelm is a classic metaphor for passing generational trauma unknowingly to the next generation. Power and privilege in a way, is the royals' version of that. Like Boris said, it all comes with a terrible burden. And on the surface, the snow glove shattering due to Wilhelm's non-conformity to this burden seems like a "failure" on Wille's part to live upto Erik's legacy, but to me it was beginning of Wilhelm breaking free from the cycle of trauma. Every ruler before him must have experienced all these feelings but no one ever put any effort to make it easier for themselves or for the future generations. But Wilhelm begins to understand how toxic this mindless continuation is. And it's kinda ironic that Kristina sends him to Boris out of all people- because even though parents are the ones who pass this burden to their children, they are also the ones who truly understand the extent of their pain and they just want the best for their children.

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Now that Wille declared he was the other one in the video, I can’t help but think that people will want to know what happened to the one who posted that video. When it wasn’t Wille in the video, I can imagine that people don’t care much about who would film and post it but now that the Crown Prince declares it was him? I’m sorry but the public will want to know who posted that and what happened to them. You can’t tell me that people won’t start to wonder (and give a shit) now that such a figure is involved. Especially when you just know the Crown can figure it out quickly if they want, which like duh of course they’d want to know who’s being such a threat. Because when it was just a random guy from a small town sleeping with a wannabe prince, people don’t care as much about who could post a video of minors; after all, those two boys aren’t really important. But when someone dares posting a sextape of the next King? People will want to know what the Crown (privately, since not a word got out) did about it. You can’t convince me otherwise. And the Crown will have to find a damn good reason for August to still be roaming around Hillerska (and that part IS publicized, through pictures at the Jubilee and the fact that the moment Wille decided to speak and replaced August was filmed for all to see). Because there is no way the Crown would not have known about August before then, there is just no way.

And then, it will raise the question of why he was there next to Wille. Especially when Wille got all vulnerable and said that he was scared and that it was a moment he didn’t want to share with the world. This just screams that the whole thing hurt him, and I’m sure the public will be on his side in the story. How will the Crown look at letting the sex offender roam around a school full of other minors? How will Hillerska look? When they don’t have enough applications already? This is why you don’t try to cover your dirt, it always comes back at to bite you in the ass. So yeah, I really wonder how the Crown will deal with that whole deal.

No because this is such an overlooked point. I can 100% see the public demanding justice be served, and therefore they would be pressured to release what they know about August. The people who are going to support their Crown Prince are going to be vocal about it, and they are going to demand answers.

We already know Hillerska is struggling. That's why they let Alexander stay. Their application rates were low and Wille's sex scandal didn't help. Now they're also going to have to deal with the fact that they did nothing to the student who made that video. They also did nothing to help or protect Simon or Wille after the fact. Nor did they punish any of the students who watched the video (child pornography) on campus. Hillerska is going to get a shit ton of backlash over it. Their one redeeming quality is that they gave Wilhelm a platform to come out. That's literally it. And they didn't even do it on purpose.

And then there's the Royal Family. They allowed/pressured Wilhelm to lie about his involvement in the video. They knew who had made the video and didn't go public with it. They didn't protect Simon. They made August next in line. They did everything wrong.

The people are going to be outraged if/when they find out about August. They're going to be outraged anyway. They're going to be calling for August and Kristina's heads on a spike.

I have a theory about that, which is that Jan-Olof will fall on his sword to protect Kristina’s image. I suspect it may come out at some point in Season 3 that immediately after Lucia, IT experts from the Royal Court removed the relevant computer from the Hillerska library. The media and the public will realize those IT experts must have found out the video was uploaded to the internet from August’s phone. And that the truth was covered up.

I can see a whole lot of negative publicity ensuing. What August did was child pornography of Kristina and Ludvig’s only surviving child. Everybody, not just August, will look bad. Cover-ups only stop bad publicity if the facts STAY covered up. If the facts eventually leak out, you’re dealing not only with the fallout from the original crime, but also the fallout from the failed cover-up. The Queen (and Ludvig) will suffer massive reputational damage.

Enter Jan-Olof, who’s devoted his entire career to protecting the monarchy. Tumblr seems pretty sure Jan-Olof is the Marshal of the Realm, the most important non-royal at the Royal Court. It’s highly unlikely any courtiers would have kept the truth about August being the source of the video from the Queen. But with Jan-Olof being so important, he could probably get away with publicly claiming he concealed the truth from the queen.

No courtier who was in a lesser position than Jan-Olof would be a believable fall guy. Even Jan-Olof isn’t THAT plausible. But if he says he covered up August’s involvement in the crime and kept the queen in the dark, that would be very convenient. Kristina could ostentatiously fire him and release a statement about how his behaviour was disgraceful.

Jan-Olof looks old enough to immediately start collecting a full pension if he loses his job. And he’s such an ardent monarchist, I could see him sacrificing his own image to protect his queen. This is a guy who clearly dislikes Wilhelm and thinks August would be a far better successor to Kristina. But he doesn’t cut August any slack at all.

In 2.05, when August refers to Wilhelm as Wille, Jan-Olof immediately reminds him he must call the Crown Prince by his title. Even in a private conversation nobody can overhear, Jan-Olof insists on the formalities of rank being observed. Yeah, from Jan-Olof’s point of view, Wilhelm is a chaos demon. But as first in line to the throne, Jan-Olof will treat him with deference and ensure everyone else does too.

Even in 2.02 when Jan-Olof orders Wilhelm’s own bodyguards to remove him from Hillerska by force, he still always addresses Wilhelm by his title. He has no problem with ordering a 16 year old be manhandled, because he’s just following the queen’s wishes, and she outranks her heir. But he will address the boy he’s trying to kidnap by his title at all times.

So yeah, I could see Jan-Olof taking the fall so Kristina’s public image is protected. He could claim he kept it from her because he was worried Wilhelm might not marry and have children. In which case August would be next in the bloodline, and he’d want to protect August’s image. Insiders would know Jan-Olof was lying to shield the monarchy. But it would probably pacify the public, to see the queen fire her most powerful courtier and condemn his actions.

Anonymous asked:

do you think wille will/should abdícate in the future or do you think he’ll become king one day?

The way this is worded I am 99.9 percent sure this is one of my friends trolling me, but I'll bite anyway even if it is, so strap in, because I have many messy, convoluted THOUGHTS. (in case it isn't sorry for presuming Anon and thanks for your question and being curious about my opinion)

The reason why I think this is a friendly troll ask is because you can't make this an or question and I have been very vocal about that in the past. I mean you can, Young Royals fandom is doing it all the time everywhere, but you shouldn't and yes I'll keep being nitpicky about that.

Why? Because In the context of monarchies and royalty the word abdication only applies to crowned monarchs and yes it does make a difference.

Let me use a (simplified) irl example: Harry didn't abdicate, William can't abdicate (yet), only Charles can and only now that he's king. Charles could have given up his rights to the throne in favor of William when he was still Prince of Wales, but that wouldn't have been an abdication, not if he had done it before becoming King himself.

The same is true for Wilhelm. Wilhelm can only abdicate after ascending the throne. If he's not king, it's not an abdication.

Yes I'll keep harking on about this until the end of my days, because while it might not seem like a big deal what word you use here, it actually makes a big difference legally and politically and on all levels if it's a crowned monarch and head of state formally abdicating or if it's an heir giving up their place in the line of succession.

So what we're actually all discussing here (most of the time) is should Wilhelm give up his place in the line of succession and right to the throne, and my immediate reaction to that (after no, never but also he's sixteen, it's way to soon for any of that) is, how and in what way?

We're all rooting for Wilhelm and want him to be happy, of course we are. Wilhelm is my absolute favorite, but I hate this trend in the fandom that's romanticizing what everyone likes to call "'Wille's abdication" or abolishing the monarchy in general, because just because "it's right", doesn't mean it's in any way easily or quickly done in a "haha and now Sweden no longer has a monarchy" kind of way. That's not how it works.

Don't get me wrong, I'll never romanticize the monarchy or any other systems enforcing hierarchies and inequality, not in irl nor in any of my fics. Tax billionaires until they aren't anymore, eat the rich and yes, of course get rid of all monarchies, but you can't just go "lol no longer a prince", especially when like Wilhelm, you're still a teenager and can't make a properly informed decision about what you're doing.

Now before you all come at me with pitchforks, of course teenagers can tell right from wrong and make informed decisions, but Wilhelm grew up not only with immense privilege, but also extremely sheltered and in a bubble. Yes he started out his first semester of 'high school' in a public school, but I promise you the majority of his classmates' parents weren't plumbers or tax accountants.

Wilhelm has no idea of real life, not even rich people real life. He doesn't go to the store or buy his own clothes, and neither do his parents, nor do they randomly go to restaurants or whatever. Wille has never been able to go out in public without being photographed and noticed and everyone making a fuss, and he has no idea how most things work because there's always staff doing everything for him quietly and in the background.

If, and I say if, Wilhelm is sure he wants to step back from his role, then he should still wait until his early to mid twenties before doing so, because doing so is complicated and not something he can change his mind about later. Also he needs to learn about normal life first.

But I digress. Lets say Wilhelm does want to give up the throne. He's brought it up himself as a possibility when he was still desperately trying to get Simon back in any way he could. That still makes him a prince and a duke.

He'd still be a member of the royal family/house (I hate how that seems to be used synonymously in English). Not being king wouldn't mean he wouldn't be expected to become a working member of the royal family once he's an adult, except now there'll be a different monarch, one he'll have to obey within the family hierarchy, and chances are it'll be August.

Okay, so we take this a step further. Wilhelm gives up his rights to the throne and doesn't become a working royal, but that would mean betraying his family (his words) and stepping away from them. Not just his parents but everything he's grown up with and everything he knows. And he'd still be a prince and a duke.

Wilhelm will never be Joe Average Wille (is Harry now? Was Diana? and neither of them were next in line), no matter how much he might want to, especially not after S02E06 and I know I've said it before but I'll say it again: he'll keep being hounded, he'll keep being seen as royalty, and the only thing that'll change is who pays for his security.

(which btw the security thing is no joke, I know Wilhelm has no Diana levels of celebrity yet, but he's now the first openly queer modern royal and heir to the Swedish throne, there will be significant international media interest and it will stay, especially now with smart phones being able to capture his every move, and I'm old enough to remember the shit show that happened when Diana no longer had official protection officers and police protection and it was not fun, hounded is an understatement and professional 24/7 security is expensive and private security will never be as good as those who also have government/Security Service resources)

Also I firmly believe that what Wilhelm hates is not being royalty or the future king, but being forced into a role, handed a script and expected to perform without any of his own input.

When that changes, and it will, his attitude towards it will also change.

People argue that he'll be happier once he gives up his place in the line of succession, but I disagree.

I think he might have been happier had he been born a normal kid, but also maybe not because then he'd be a very different person, so there's no telling, but he'd always live with the guilt of betraying his family and heritage, and people, both well meaning and not, will never let him forget that.

Yes he struggles now, and I don't want to make light of his struggles, but every teenager struggles with their identity and place in life and things will be different once he's grown up and more secure in himself.

My 'ideal' fantasy solution were this irl would be for Wilhelm to become the last King and to work with the government to ensure a smooth transition once he retires, because abolishing the Swedish monarchy is complicated, but do I think that'll actually happen? No. Because that's not the kind of person Wilhelm is.

Also Wilhelm has been born to immense wealth, privilege and soft power, all three of which he will to a degree keep all his life no matter what happens.

Of course he needs to put his own mental health and wellbeing first, and I'm aware that he never asked for any of this, but he still has it, and with that comes a duty, and I think it'd be absolutely selfish of him to just take that wealth, privilege and soft power and to let the "common people" deal with the mess he left behind, because let's not kid ourselves, if he announces he'll give up his throne tomorrow and sticks with it until he's eighteen and beyond, do you really think people in power won't do anything they can to keep the system in place?

Kristina loves her son and wants what's best for him, even if she's not the best parent, but she'll not dismantle the system for him.

She knew what August had done, and she still would've rather had him as heir instead of even so much as considering anything else.

The Royal Court most certainly won't, and even if the elected government wouldn't be opposed to getting rid of the monarchy (if, there's a chance but not a guarantee, depending who is in power when that happens), that's not the end of it.

You can't abolish the monarchy and keep the nobility, and there will be plenty of people, both obscenely rich and averagely well off people, who will do their utmost to keep their position of privilege.

It will not only become a matter of equality, Sweden is one of the most egalitarian countries in the world. It'll be about history and heritage and tradition.

It'll be a giant mess and if it wants any chance of succeeding, it'll need someone in power to actively work towards it, someone whose position the monarchists and traditionalists and conservatives respect, and that has to be a King Wilhelm, not a Crown Prince Wilhelm or a Prince Wilhelm or a Joe Average Wille who took his wealth and privilege and soft power and ran away because he chose to be selfish and leave a system in place no one was better able to do something about than him.

Now of course I'm once again talking about an adult Wilhelm, canon Wilhelm is still a teenager and shouldn't have to deal with or worry about any of that, and he gets to want to be selfish, because he's sixteen, but he won't always be sixteen, and when he isn't any longer his outlook will have changed as well.

Now we come to another point though, and that is that Wilhelm is not a revolutionary. He has his own head and a temper and doesn't want to blindly do as he's told, but he's not the kind of person who goes and topples a system.

I don't even think Simon is. He wouldn't mind the monarchy being abolished, sure, but I don't think he has the energy to become a political activist and to fight the system all his life, especially in a life without Wilhelm.

With Wilhelm it's different, there I'm sure he'll use the power he has for good. He'd be aware that he can change things and do his best to choose his engagements carefully should he become a member of the royal family.

That said, in time I don't think Wilhelm will mind being King, not if he also gets to be with Simon at the same time, and I don't think he should give up his place in the line of succession.

Finally, and most importantly, because we're talking about a TV show and a fic fandom here and not irl, I love playing with the idea of the Royal Court, the Swedish upper class, and all the conservatives and monarchists having to (figuratively) bow and scrape to an openly queer, headstrong monarch and the gay, biracial love of his life who also happens to be the son of a poor, immigrant single mother, because that is a very, very cathartic thought, and so yeah, King Wilhelm and Prince/Duke/King Consort Simon all the way, always.

That's what drew me to this show in the first place, a queer Crown Prince, and not a random queer teenager going about his normal life. There're plenty of other (great) shows for that.

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welcome to another episode of me going feral over the little details in young royals and today it's about the fucking song that simon sang in s2 ep1.

the song that is aldrig igen (må sådär) by cherrie and stormzy.

now we all saw how vulnerable simon looked when he was first introduced in s2 and the fact that he sang a song which is essentially about getting over someone is like a final nail in the coffin.

but. the lyrics.

let's talk about the lyrics. it's not too noticeable but i've been obsessed with this song ever since november and have been listening to it on a loop so i picked up on this very very minute detail.

we hear simon singing from this point of the song, the pre-chorus. first thing is the contrast of the song itself and simon's cover of it. though the lyrics of the song itself are sad, the pace is faster and more "pop-y". but the way simon sings it, its slower and if it were possible even sadder, almost a ballad.

then the first change in the lyric. in the original song, cherrie sings "vara ensam/ jag är starkast" but simon sings "jag är ensam, jag är starkast", which i am assuming is the first person conjugation of the infinitive "vara" (i could be wrong here) but there seems to be an almost personal tinge when he sings "i am lonely/alone"

and then as he reached the main chorus, it still seems the same, no major difference right? simon is singing about how he doesn't want to feel like that. well that's what i thought too. until

"jag vill må så där" - i want to feel that way.

the original song doesn't have this lyric. meaning simon added this by himself while he was singing this song which is essentially about *looks at smudged writing on hand* getting over someone. there's a reason why the original song has the lyrics "jag vill inte må så där" being repeated over and again as the singer laments about the difficult process of not feeling the way she feels about someone she used to love, used to care about.

but simon completely uproots that meaning of the song when he sings that he DOES in fact want to feel that way. and what is interesting is that he follows it immediately with the original lyrics

"händer aldrig igen" - never again

i don't if it was intentional but the way simon's emotional conflict throughout the season with wille was portrayed beautifully with how this song was sung just blew my mind away while i was rewatching s2 a week ago.

because this seemingly insignificant shift of lyrics changes the entire nuance of it. how a song about forgetting someone actively became a song of internal conflict about simon's feelings towards wille because there was just no way he could stop "feeling like that" when it came to wilhelm.

and the sudden shift from "jag vill må så där" to "händer aldrig igen" shows how simon who had allowed himself to let his emotional walls down around wille but immediately puts them back up in caution and vowing how he'd "never again" do it is just so POETIC in my opinion

Also now that we are talking about this song, I just wanted to add how perfect this song is for them and how Stormzy's verse almost sounds like something from Wille's pov:

"And I reckon that I tried to prevent it" the denial essentially

The first two lines about Simon's constant back-and-forth with Wille and Marcus because of his conflicted feelings. "But you're free now" WILLE LETTING SIMON GO

"You was blessed with a king" can be about both Marcus and Wille himself as well, like calling Marcus a "king" because he was "nice" to Simon and Wille as a "king", because, well, he's going to be a litrral King one day (unless he abdicates lol)

IF THIS ISN'T WILLE IDK WHAT IS

Thinking about parellel between the denial and Wilhelm and Simon's love confessions in the last episodes of both seasons. How in the first season the denial teared them apart and Wilhelm's confession of love was the only thing keeping their relationship tethered by the end. And how in the second season Wilhelm takes back the denial after Simon confesses his own love to him. How the statement which uprooted their blooming love deepened that very love even more by the end.

Earlier today I alluded to the fact that Young Royals has some interesting stuff to say about heterosexuality. Let me elaborate.

One of the many intriguing moments in Young Royals season 2 (in my mind, anyway) is the phone call where Jan-Olof asks August a lot of questions and ends with the question “Are you heterosexual?” To which August replies that he is. It’s only ever been girls! (I think that’s how the line goes, anyway.)

What intrigues me about this is the way it puts the emphasis on heterosexuality as a label—or, to put it more colloquially, on the idea of being heterosexual as a “thing.” After all, the whole notion of being straight or hetero is a fairly recent one in human history. The word heterosexual hasn’t been around too long, first appearing in German in 1869 after being coined (along with the word homosexual) by Karl Maria Kertbeny. In the late 19th century, western culture saw a shift in how people understood sexuality, and people started describing sexual orientation as more of an identity thing (who you are) than a behavior thing (what you do.) If Wilhelm’s family has been on the throne at least as long as the IRL Swedish monarchs, then the current Swedish monarchy in Young Royals predates the ideas of heterosexuality and homosexuality. The Swedish monarchy as an overall institution definitely predates heterosexuality as a concept. Social constructs, baby!

That said, Jan-Olof, the show’s keeper of tradition, still asks August if he’s straight. What he’s really asking, given the uncomfortable reproductive subtext of the conversation, is whether August is willing to produce a legitimate heir to keep the monarchy going. This is interesting because of the way it conflates heterosexual identity with reproduction. We know there are plenty of straight people who choose not to have kids and use various contraception methods to prevent pregnancies from happening or being carried to term. (Heck, August and Sara themselves have a whole conversation about condoms.) We also know that there are plenty of non-straight people who have biological kids. Ultimately, straightness doesn’t matter for that kind of thing! And yet, by including a question about heterosexuality in a series of questions that’s really about reproduction, wrapped in an even longer list of questions about fitness for the throne, this conversation is putting forward the notion that heterosexuality isn’t just about sex and romance. It’s also a political stance.

And that’s… that’s kind of fascinating. Usually it’s queer people who are said to be inherently “political.” Straightness, of course, is just as political. It’s just that no one calls it that. So I’m struck by the reversal of that dynamic in the show.

I’m also struck by how August’s heterosexuality is a matter of attraction, performance, and labeling, and each of these is addressed separately and a little bit differently by the writing. We know he has heterosexual attraction toward Sara (and possibly Felice, depending on how you read that relationship) based on the fact that he has ~those kinda feelings.~ But there’s also the public performance of heterosexuality, where we see August hitting on Felice in a very overt and aggressive way. In those moments, August’s performance of heterosexuality becomes an expression of power and privilege. This is further reinforced by some of the crude sexual jokes he makes about women. Even the softer stuff toward Sara puts him in a protector role that lines up with gender roles by the end of s2. If the performance of heterosexuality is an attempt to claim power, then what does claiming the label of heterosexual mean? I think perhaps we’re supposed to see it as August declaring his alleged right to power, within this particular social system where heterosexuality means something specific.

Labels can confer power on a person by giving them the power to define themself, but labels can also be limiting, in a way. August is, for the most part, straight in terms of his identity, behavior, and personal politics. He’s willing to claim the power and privilege that straightness gives him. However, there are times where his heterosexuality gets a bit fuzzy around the edges. That time where he’s (fakely) singing Simon’s praises and out of nowhere kisses him on the forehead comes to mind as kind of a weird moment. Like, where did that come from, August? The fact that August has watched the video of Wilhelm and Simon a few too many times also hasn’t escaped fandom’s notice. Finally, the fact that August labels himself as hetero in a scene where he’s lying through his teeth about other things, and when the palace is trying to fabricate a perfect princely persona for him, really shows how much of a social construct sexual orientation labels are. They describe something real, but they can’t describe all the nuances of it.

My point here is not that August is some sort of hidden bisexual representation sleeper agent—he really isn’t! (Like I said he is functionally straight, and also these moments above still involve him behaving in aggressive and dysfunctional ways.) Rather, I’m more interested in the way August ignores his own fuzziness-of-orientation (however minute) when claiming the strict heterosexuality label, and therefore cuts himself off from the possibility of empathy for Wilhelm and Simon, as well as enlisting himself in a system where he wouldn’t really thrive. Sure, there’s lots of other aspects of his personality that play a role in this as well. But I wanted to talk about this one today, so I did.

Anyway, binaries are harmful and divisive and reinforce weird power structures. Regardless of our orientations, we would all do better if we all embraced a degree of queerness in the world and in ourselves, don’t you think?

(Hey, are there other characters in the series where you want me to talk about their relationships to heterosexuality? Let me know with an ask or something; I’d be happy to ramble.)

I always love your analysis @bluedalahorse !! They are so thought-provoking!

I always saw August kissing Simon's head as a display of "male camaraderie" in front of the members of the rowing team. He may not care about Simon as a person enough to respect his integrity, but he does care about Simon as a team member, although that placeholder of a "team member" can be a sketchy line because again, he does not care who fills that placeholder. He showed the same camaraderie to Wilhelm in S1. We may see August standing up for Simon in S2 as a change in August's behaviour towards Simon but his further actions of blackmailing Simon with his father's medication just proves that he would have done the same for anyone Vincent chose to focus his wrath on. It was about standing up to Vincent, not about defending Simon. So yeah.

Also August watching the video- I totally get the interpretation people have about those scenes. But, I personally saw them as a "gears turning in his head" moments. The first time he sees the video again and again is in a state of shock- not only his own assumption of Wilhelm's heterosexuality has shattered to the ground, he is also thinking about what it will mean for the "future" of the monarchy. And it adds this weight on him because in that moment, he is the only one who knows about Wilhelm and Simon(Sara knew and Henry and Walter had assumptions, but August wasn't aware of any of them). The second time we see this, August has been humiliated by Wilhelm in front of his peers. And he is watching the video, devising a plan to get back on Wilhelm, and suddenly the video is a means of revenge(which further gives away the intensity of August's wrongdoing- it was revenge porn, plain and simple. A carefully thought-out scheme. Even if August did it out of spite and anger, he was still fully aware of every implication. And he was sorry for it only after his tution fees problem got solved).

I also like the idea of heterosexuality as a political stance. Wilhelm, through his speech, deviates from this stance in the eyes of the Royal Court. They can see it as a "resistance" towards the Monarchy itself, because for them a rigid, traditional political stance is a necessity. But I don't think Wilhelm's speech is a resistance, in a way. Atleast to the Monarchy. It was more like his own obligation to his conscience, which chided him during the speech because even though Simon hates the idea of it, he was still willing to be a secret for Wille. And Wilhelm still had the weight of the denial clawing on his heart. His rejection of traditions is, on the surface level, a political stance. But at the core of it, it was a personal revelation- and it's kind of poetic that he got to reclaim his own voice the way he lost it in the first place- through a public statement.

Wilhelm is not a threat to the Monarchy. He's more like a representation of change- a change the Monarchy have to adopt and embrace in order to survive in the modern times. If heterosexuality is the only default political stance for a Royal, maybe the default needs to change. After all, change is the only constant, right?

Anonymous asked:

if by intimacy we mean hugs and holding hands and soft kisses we surely will get those? it doesn't make sense to not to😭

That's a given. I think people ignore the fact that the reason we didn't get much intimacy between them in season 2 is because they spent it broken up. I didn't see it as intentionally having less queer intimacy; the time apart was necessary for their character development (even if people don't like how it was written, it was still necessary). It annoys me when people say season 2 was less queer; just because the characters aren't making out or having sex, the main protagonist and his love interest are still very textually queer and their love for eahc other drives the plot. They weren't intimate because they were broken up, not because the show was suddenly shy of queer intimacy. I understand some people were kind of annoyed by the cutting away after the curtain draw - I understood the symbolism but tbh I would've preferred it if they didn't cut there, but hey, what can we do? The show definitely didn't shy away from the fact that they were about to have sex. There was too much going on in episode 6 for them to have any downtime together. Of course we would've liked to see it but I understood the limitations. I understand why some people hate Sargust, but them having intimacy scenes in season 2 was necessary in order for their relationship development. People may have not wanted to see that relationship, but it did have a purpose in the story (I personally thought it was well-written even if I do wish we saw them just a little bit less). Wille and Simon's affection and attraction for each other had been developed in season 1 and in season 2 they needed to be apart for the sake of their character development.

Now, going into season 3, Sara and August are over and Wille and Simon are starting over, so that gives us an idea of what we'll see. Personally I've never viewed YR as a queer show - it's a series that has queer characters in it. It's telling a story, and it's not obligated to have intimacy in it just because there's queer characters. The lack of intimacy in season 2 didn't personally bother me and it doesn't make me anxious we won't get any in season 3. But, now that Wille and Simon are in a relationship, it would be kind of egregious to not see them get it on, wouldn't it? I won't pretend I'm not a gremlin - gimme the intimacy, I love it - but yeah, anyway, long-winded rant over.

None of this is directed at you and I'm sorry for the unsolicited rant LOL just getting some of my feelings about the show's intimacy out.

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I hadnt heard people saying it was ~less queer~ YIKES. I have always kind of felt like after august spread the video, the closing the curtains/fade to black was more of an intentional protection of their intimacy. Like these are their private moments and not even us as the viewer can have access to that anymore. Kind of like metaphorical protecting them or giving them the privacy that was taken from them. At least that was the vibe i got from the closing the curtain scene. I am guessing like you are saying s3 will have more intimacy bc they are back together now but I do think it will be different than how the other relationship intimacy scenes are presented.

I just think that we all forget that emotional intimacy is still intimacy, which Wilhelm and Simon displayed a LOT more in S2 than S1.

S1 focused on igniting their attraction and desire for one another, and putting stepping stones for the mutual love they will eventually grow into by the end of S2. And although they showcase an affinity towards good communication in the relationship in S1 as well, their own perceptions about the other's situation was still very much skewed. In their first piano room fight in S1, Wille had no idea about Simon's reasons for striking a deal with August and Simon had no idea how Alexandar's situation can affect Wille and his family. They did try to put their biases aside in the Lucia reconciliation, but putting the matter aside instead of talking through the implications of the situation would have doomed them slowly. Even in their meeting in the locker room after the video leak, there was this air of impending doom between them, the denial a very real possibility that Wilhelm would have to give in no matter how wrong it sounded(which did happen eventually).

I would say that they are still kids in a way and I really, really don't blame either of them for any of the things mentioned above. They both are human and the circumstances were very shitty as well. And they still managed honest displays of communication throughout the season, from Wille's Lucia confession to Simon communicating his hurt to Wilhelm in the breakup scene.

And S2, in a way, tried to take this skewed perception of both of these characters from S1 and said, "What if they actually get to know where the other comes from?" and they DID. From Wilhelm understanding Simon's need for space(albeit through trial and error) and letting him go, to Simon overcoming his own biases and limited perceptions towards Wille's position through his own journey of hurting and making amends, from Wilhelm giving the agency of the decision about police investigation entirely to Simon while ALSO laying his own dilemmas in front of Simon to Simon fully understanding the extent of Wilhelm's role with his role and duties- it's just a beautiful back and forth of emotional intimacy, which they VERY MUCH needed to make something lasting of their connection.

Yes, physical intimacy is the lifeline of their dynamic and I still think the intimacy scenes we DID got could have been a little prolonged, but they absolutely needed to work on their emotional intimacy together to make their connection something worthwhile, something which they are PROUD to defend and cherish, otherwise all of this culmination of limited perceptions would have turned their bond into a sore wound, which could only be filled by angsty hookups and constant back and forth, which sadly happens to many relationships and honestly for me it's the worst outcome out of a relationship which could have been something beautiful and worthwhile. It just kills the magic of it all.

And that's why I'm excited for S3 because even though I have no ideas about how they will handle their intimacy scenes, but I do know that now they are together and they have developed a capacity to understand and empathize with one another and know how to keep each other in check as well. They still have a lot to work on, but now, they can face it all together.

Something that really amazes me about the negotiation scene between Wille and the queen is how she says all the right things for all the wrong reasons.

  1. Wille doing it on his own terms my ass, what she wants is Wille to wait to turn eighteen and to be more "mature", which means she thinks he's being childish and hopes that by then he'll be more "reasonable". Aka, she doesnt want to deal with it and shes waiting Wille realize that hiding it is the "best" option
  2. She wants him to go to see a therapist for the same reason. It wasnt just a "Im your mother and im worried about you". It was a Im the queen and i expect you to control yourself.

Its just a hella good scene, and says a lot about what we could expect from the queen on s3.

I agree that Kristina telling Wilhelm he can come out when he’s 18 is a stalling tactic on her part. As his 18th birthday approached, I’m sure she would have tried to convince him to stay closeted.

That said, her insisting Wilhelm go to therapy isn’t a BAD idea. And I don’t think it was entirely motivated by “I’m the queen and I expect you to control yourself.” This conversation takes place in late January or early February. Erik died in October or early November. The video leaked in mid-December. Wilhelm also spent the entire Christmas break giving his mother the silent treatment because he feels she betrayed him (and he’s right, although of course Kristina doesn’t see it that way).

Kristina’s only surviving child has been refusing to speak to her for well over a month. And he’s been through a lot of trauma the past few months (some of it inflicted by her). When Wilhelm finally called her, it was to scream on speakerphone in front of all the top courtiers. If she makes him go to therapy, at least he’ll be talking to someone. And talking to Boris helped Erik, when he was a student at Hillerska.

I think Kristina’s motives for making him see Boris are a mixture of genuine maternal concern for Wilhelm’s state of mind, and queenly insistence he control himself. Kristina isn’t a black and white monster, she has nuance. That’s what makes her interesting.

I also find it deeply ironic that Kristina had to blackmail Wilhelm into going to therapy, but Boris turned out to be much more interested in his patient’s well-being than in the stability of the monarchy. Boris might be the first adult who’s ever been entirely on Wilhelm’s side. He doesn’t report to Kristina, except to confirm Wilhelm attended his sessions. The other adults in Wilhelm’s life all report to the queen in one way or another.

Ludvig’s his dad, but Kristina is clearly the senior partner in their marriage. The royal court staff all report to Kristina. Wilhelm’s teachers at Hillerska might or might not be kind, but Kristina’s paying the tuition fees. And we see from Kristina ordering the headmistress around in 1.06 that the headmistress has to do exactly what she’s told. The teachers would have even less power than the headmistress. The parents of Wilhelm’s friends and classmates? They’d suck up to him as the future king, but Kristina is the monarch right now. If her wishes and his wishes conflicted, they’d always side with her.

Boris is a free agent. He doesn’t see Wilhelm as the future king, he sees him as a troubled 16 year old patient who needs to learn to separate his crippling sense of obligation to his family from his wishes for his own life. Boris isn’t concerned with the succession, or the stability of the monarchy. He wants his patient to be in a more psychologically healthy state of mind. And Kristina’s the one who insisted on inserting Boris into Wilhelm’s life.

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Anonymous asked:

Hey, hope you’re doing well. I loved reading your analysis on Simon and Marcus. Speaking of those two, I’d like to read your take on their final confrontation in the last episode.

There’s a lot of mixed opinions on what Marcus said to Simon. Some would say that Marcus was absolutely correct in saying that Simon always plays the victim and loves the drama and that Simon needed to hear that. Others would say that Simon is a victim and that Marcus was out of line.

That line, “you see yourself as some victim among those rich brats” really rubbed me the wrong way. I’m not sure how Simon ending things with Marcus correlates to Marcus thinking Simon plays the victim at Hillerska. Plus it makes no sense too. What does Marcus even know about Simon? That he can sing, had an intimate video released, the prince screwed him over and he had an alcoholic father. He knows absolutely nothing about Simon’s social life at Hillerska. He never knew about the drug situation or the music room fight in season 2 episode 5. So where did that line come from? And if anyone was playing the victim here it’s Marcus. Simon warned him, he didn’t listen and then he got hurt. How are YOU not gonna listen then entirely blame someone for your decisions when you got hurt. Marcus can only blame himself.

Then the whole, “you say don’t want drama but that’s what turns you on”. Saying that to someone who just had their tape released is cruel. Like tf.

And honestly, was their relationship something to get upset over? They hung out 4 times, kissed 3 times (2 of which were initiated by Marcus), a bunch of ghosting and they never got to the talking phase. They know next to nothing about each other. And when they hung out, Simon looked uncomfortable and uninterested most of the time. I know some people can’t take the hint but Marcus was on another level of blind. And it doesn’t help that Simon already told him that he was not ready for anything serious. This “relationship” was doomed from the start.

What are your thoughts and analysis on Simon and Marcus’ final conversation? Thanks in advance for taking your time to answer.

Hey there anon! Thanks for sending me your thoughts about Simon and Marcus. I have to say I agree with you! I am in full sympathy with Simon through all of his and Marcus’s arguments, and I do agree that some of the things Marcus says are pretty cruel.  I dated someone a very long time ago, when I was not that much older than Simon, who treated me in the same way that Marcus treats Simon, so I find him pretty infuriating. And I think it means I have some insight into the dynamic of their relationship and how it breaks down.

In order to understand their final breakup scene, I actually think we need to backtrack to 2.3 when Simon first tries to end the relationship. To me this is the most enraging Marcus moment, and I think it illuminates the fundamental problem going on here. While Simon is trying to break up with Marcus, Marcus focuses on everything except Simon’s actual feelings in an effort to convince him not to leave. First it’s Wilhelm. Marcus thinks that Simon must be worried that he will hurt Simon in the same way Wilhelm did. Marcus claims to never have seen the tape (an assertion @bluedalahorse and I think might be a lie, but that’s headcanon), and assures Simon that he would never do something like that. Then it’s Simon’s family; he assumes that because Simon’s parents didn’t have a healthy relationship, Simon must not know how to appreciate a healthy partnership. This is the thing that Marcus says that grinds my gears the most. For him just to assume that he knows the extent and effect of Micke’s addiction, possible abuse, and abandonment of Simon is so presumptuous.

To be generous to Marcus here, I think this is a perfect example of a theory of mind issue. Theory of mind “refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them” (that’s from the wiki definition). Instead of seeing who Simon is, and trying to understand Simon’s emotions as he describes them, Marcus has created an image of Simon in his head. He has decided how the abuse (both familial and the video) that Simon has endured has affected him, and has also decided what Simon needs in order to heal those wounds. Crucially, Marcus has decided that Simon needs Marcus’s help to heal. Marcus is doing this out of generosity; wanting to heal Simon is a nice thought. But the violation here is in the assumption. Marcus never finds out how Simon really feels because he never listens to him. And you could maybe go as far to say that assuming that Simon needs to be “fixed” because of those experiences is a violation too. Those experiences are what makes Simon who he is.

To be less generous, I once had a very similar argument with my then partner, where I was trying to break up and he was trying to get me to stay. I was left feeling defeated, and like he had made such a good argument that I had to stay. His approach was similar to Marcus’s. He poked at all of my emotional bruises (and claimed to understand them better than me) until I felt too confused to assert my boundaries. So I really feel for Simon in that scene.

Another thing I want to mention is that Marcus is in some ways Simon’s antagonist, and his insistence that he knows and understands Simon better than Simon knows himself is the catalyst that prompts Simon’s season 2 arc, which is about him getting in touch with, accepting, and then acting on his true emotions. I wrote about that more in depth here. 

There’s another element to Marcus that I don’t see discussed much, which is the unique spot he occupies in the class system of the show. We’re used to seeing the upper, noble class that dominates Hillerska, and the working class represented by Sara and Simon (and also Rosh and Ayub). But Marcus is a representative of a kind of in between, and at first glance appears to be middle class. He goes to public school, and does manual labor at the stables. His little backyard apartment feels like something an upper middle class family might create for their teenage son. But his parents are actually land owners. They own the stables and the shooting range that they rent out to Hillerska. We never find out if Marcus’s family is actually noble and inherited that land, or if they’re new money and bought it on their own. But I think some of Marcus’s superiority complex comes from the fact that even though he has money, he isn’t, in his mind, spoiled or snobby like the kids at Hillerska. He surely could have gotten a place at Hillerska, for instance, because of the way his family supports the school. He surely doesn’t have to work to survive (I am basing this on the fact that his family has enough money to build him his own apartment.) But he stays humble and grounded by going to public school and working at the stables.  He’s so humble and good, in fact, that he is going to treat working class Simon right, unlike that stuck up prince who threw him to the royal wolves.  And some of the way that he turns on Simon in their break up scene, especially in the line you quoted– “you see yourself as some victim among those rich brats”-- feels like he has taken off his mask, and is exposing the classist way he actually sees Simon. If Simon, poor boy that he is, isn’t willing to let the benevolent Marcus rescue him, then he deserves everything those rich bastards can dish out.  There’s also a shade of bootstrap mentality here. Marcus works hard, even if his family has money. He’s earned his driver’s license, and he knows exactly the kind of relationship that he wants with Simon. Why can’t Simon do the same?

Obviously the answer is because Simon is a different person from a different set of circumstances. And then we’re back to Marcus’s inability to see Simon as a complete independent person.

So I completely agree with you when you say that Marcus is cruel in this scene, and misinterpreted Simon’s level of interest, and is making a big deal out of a relationship that never really existed in the first place. But I also think we as viewers are reacting to some of the subtle themes that Marcus represents.  The way he fits into the class structure of the show and the way that he connects to Simon’s arc is really significant. 

I know Lisa and Tommy were very positive about Marcus in some of the season 2 promo, in a way that irritated some fans. But I think I understand where they’re coming from. Marcus does have good intentions, even if those intentions are only skin deep, and it’s ok to acknowledge them. Tommy especially has to exist in Marcus’s mindset in order to play him, and it’s fundamental to Marcus’s character that he sees himself as a good guy. And for Lisa, Marcus is a great character because he challenges Simon and adds complexity to the way class is explored in the show. It’s hard to summarize all of that in an interview, especially in a way that isn’t going to result in fan backlash. So I don’t have a problem with how they portrayed him in promo.

Thanks for asking anon, and thank you for reading what turned out to be quite a long post! I think we all have some unresolved Marcus trauma that we need to work through. I know I did at least.

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