Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers - Comfort Crowd

So…Young Royals.

The point of this post is solely to get you to start watching Netflix’s new Swedish teen drama Young Royals.

To give a short summary it’s a love story between 2 boys and one happens to be a prince with the backdrop being that of an elite boarding school.

So it’s about a young prince called Wilhelm. He gets into a fight at a party one night and the next day the entire countries heard the story. The Queen and Kings solution is to send him to the fancy boarding school his older brother went to. He doesn’t want to go, as he’ll be leaving all his friends and any semblance of a “normal” life. When he gets there he meets his extremely intense and elitist cousin August and Felice a girl he knew at elementary school. He also meets Simon who he immediately feels a connection with, possibly a romantic connection.

One of the best things about it is the cast of characters so here they are:

Wilhelm

Wilhelm’s our lead. He’s the second in line for the throne after his older brother. He doesn’t want any part of royal life and after an altercation that went viral he’s forced to go to a boarding school for rich elites (his worst nightmare). He meets Simon and romantic feelings come to fruition which he struggles to deal with.

Simon

Simon is way more than just Wilhelm’s love interest. He’s a local, isn’t a boarder and he’s nowhere near as wealthy as his classmates which has left him as an outcast, he’s resigned to not make a single friend at this school. He’s openly gay and dreams to move away from his home town. When he meets Wilhelm he expects him to be like the other rich kids but he’s sweet and they get along. He’s such a talented and adorable sweetheart and you will want to love and protect him with your entire being.

August

August is Wilhelms second cousin, he’s extremely entitled and classist. He constantly puts down those he sees as lower than himself. He’s the row team captain, a prefect and most popular guy in school. He’s also always had an unrequited crush on Felice. And he tries to insert himself in Wilhelms life more than necessary. The actor is brilliant, the character…hard to like.

Felice

Felice is the richest girl in school. She knows about August’s feelings but says he isn’t royal enough for her. She knew Wilhelm when they were young and she’s started obsessing over him. The more we learn about her the more layers are revealed, she’s not as perfect as she wants to be perceived. It took a while for me to understand her but once I did I enjoyed watching her grow.

Sara

Sara is Simons sister. She’s also an outcast and spends all her time at the stables as she feels she understands horses better than people. Although she says she’s fine being alone when the chance to become closer with Felice arrives she starts to like her. She’s a really interesting character and her relationship with Simon can be adorable, he loves and cares for her so much.

After seeing the trailer I was so excited for this show but it’s 1000 times better than I was expecting and just such a beautiful, wonderful young queer love story! A lot of people have compared the love story to the book Red, White and Royal Blue or Skam and whilst fundamentally similar they are very different at their heart. The chemistry between the lead’s is just crazy good, their first kiss in particular was just beautiful. The soundtrack is this awesome scandi electronic music that just fits the story perfectly. And the direction is way more complex and interesting than most teen shows I’ve seen. Also crazily they’ve actually cast real teens, most of the cast is 18 and they all have acne and blemishes…it’s so realistic and refreshing - I haven’t seen something like that since Skam!

So basically I’m in love with this show, even more in love with it than Wilhelm and Simon are with each other (and that’s a lot) *sobs* THEYRE JUST SO BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT! LOOOK!!!

sunah and yohan

sunah is behind yohan because of her role in the story. she’s a bigger player than yohan initially realized. she’s behind his back and slightly above him, but he’s aware of her presence.

however, that’s also why she’s covering one eye. because yohan is blinded and cannot see the entirety of sunah’s plan. mainly because he didn’t know it existed in the first place. he only has one eye open because he can only see what he knows. she’s literally impacting his eyesight.

then, there’s the fact that she’s covering his right eye. the left has played a significant role in the show, with both gaon and yohan on the left. gaon, the precious sidekick who sits at the left, and yohan, who earns himself a scar on his left hand. soohyun was gaon’s right, but yohan is his left. this can also mean yohan has only had tunnel vision for gaon and his own plans for him.

gaon and yohan

their positions indicate one is more dominant than the other, but in this case, i think it’s more along the lines of gaon isn’t just a looming presence for yohan, he’s literally giving and the reason yohan has light on his face. but gaon’s back is turned away from the light and toward the darkness. this represent the story arcs each character goes through, with yohan walking into the light by the end of the show, and gaon having to walk through the darkness to get to a neutral, more hopeful place. he rises above despite the dark.

gaon and soohyun

similar to the middle poster, gaon’s back is turned away from the light while soohyun is facing it. she represents gaon’s hope, and she’s staring at gaon in judgment. gaon’s face is tilted down, almost as if he’s ashamed that she’s looking at him for choosing the side shrouded in darkness.

You’re the only one I want

A translation of this IG post of P’Aof’s, by sanspeur14 on Twitter.

*cries in bad buddy

Sehyoon mocking YG while wearing the hot pants that YG also happened to criticize, they don’t call him Wow for nothing 👀

Do we all agree that ‘conceding’ the bet came so easily for Pran here…

…because Pat had already confessed here:

The Devil Judge EP 1 → EP 16

“I couldn’t find him an adopter so I adopted him. You don’t have to worry now.”

MY LOVE MIX-UP! THAILAND (2024) episode 03.

Can you talk more about “I don’t want to fall for a man” because I am curious about your thoughts!

OOooh YES I CAN!

So I am an out and proud bi woman, and I grew up in a household where my parents (even my terrible one) told me it was okay to be gay. 

BUT I also grew up in a conservative town full of anti-gay rhetoric and lots of conservative ideas, so no matter how much my mum told me “it’s okay if you like girls” everything outside the walls of my house told me that that wasn’t true. 

I didn’t hate gay people, I wasn’t outwardly homophobic, in fact I outwardly was very supportive of the lgbt+ community, but the internal homophobia was VERY real. I convinced myself that everyone looked at girls like that, that even if you’re not gay, everyone knows that girls are just attractive, that’s just a fact. In my defence, it is, but I digress. 

There’s an annoying trope that comes up in so many Thai BLs like “I’m not gay I just like [INSERT NAME HERE]” because as everybody knows, you’re 100% straight if you are in love with, live with, marry and grow old with another man. These are indisputable facts. 

Almost none of them ever say they are bi or demi or pan, it’s pretty much always “not gay just you” or “oh I’m gay now, weird that” despite expressing interest in only women before that, and firstly that’s a massive amount of biphobia so jot that down. Secondly, it’s an incredibly heterosexual way to portray lgbt+ stories, and it’s honestly just boring to see at this point, like I had such high hopes for Tonhon Chonlattee and then it played itself out in the straightest way possible and I was just sort of baffled? by the time it finished. 

But Zhou Shu Yi doesn’t say “I’m not gay” he says “I don’t want to fall for a man”. When he tells Gao Shi De he has feelings for him, he doesn’t say “I’m not gay I just like you” he says “Because it’s you. I have no choice.” and those are VERY VERY different things. 

“I don’t want to fall for a man” is the kind of phrase that I think almost everyone in the lgbt+ community has thought some variation of. It’s something I thought a lot growing up - “I don’t want to like girls” “I don’t want to be a lesbian” “I don’t want to have a crush on [insert name here]”. I imagine - although I can’t confirm this - that it is NOT a phrase that straight people would be so intimately familiar with. For straight people who never question their sexuality, the statement would be “I’m not gay” not “I don’t want to be gay”. 

Why would you worry about wanting something if you know you don’t?

It’s a fear response to knowing you have those feelings but not wanting to address it: “I don’t want to feel that way because if I admit that I do, then it’s admitting that I’m different and that my life is going to change.”

And when Gao Shi De says “I thought you didn’t like boys” Shu Yi doesn’t say “I don’t, I just like you” he says “Because it’s you.” It’s not a dismissal of queer feelings or people, it’s an admittance that Gao Shi De is the thing that makes him stop wanting to suppress the thought of falling for a man, that he’s already fallen so there’s no point trying to run away from it anymore. 

Honestly it’s some of the best bisexual/demisexual representation I’ve ever seen? On this tiny Taiwanese BL with nowhere a big enough fanbase that deserves WAY more? and I just… It made me feel SO seen, it acknowledged a part of queer culture that I don’t often see on TV, even in BLs and I think that’s beautiful.