6 things to love about Simon in season 1: A Young Royals fan perspective
As the Young Royals Palooza continues in anticipation of the release of season 2, so does our commentary on this incredible show. If you’ve seen the show, you’ll know well that it’s the story of Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding), who meets Simon (Omar Rudberg) after he starts attending Hillerska boarding school. We already gushed about the 6 things to love about Wilhelm in season 1, so now it’s time to turn the spotlight to our beloved Simon.
The connection between the two is instantaneous upon Wilhelm’s arrival at Hillerska. On day one of his enrollment, the Hillerska choir (of which Simon is a member) sings a welcome song for the prince, in which Simon performs a solo. From the moment his angelic voice fills the space around them, Wilhelm is unable to take his eyes off the beautiful boy. Like Wilhelm, there are many things we love about this character. Although the full list is exhaustive, here are our favorite 6 things to love about Simon.
His courage
Simon is a scholarship student from the nearby town Bjärstad, and he has a harder time fitting in with privileged students of Hillerska. Despite this, instead of making himself small, he stands up for himself in various situations. He meets the snarky remarks of his peers in politics class with bold comebacks and challenges their narrow-minded viewpoints and opinions. This characteristic of his impresses Wilhelm, who then decides to approach Simon during their lunch break after witnessing his antics in class one day.
Simon shows courage in more serious situations as well. For example, after he provides alcohol for August (Malte Gårdinger) for Wilhelm’s party, he demands that August pay him back, but August refuses to. Simon approaches August multiple times (out of desperation mostly) and August finally admits that he doesn’t have enough money. Not a lot of people would have been willing to take on August the way Simon does. And whether it was done out of desperation or something else, the courage was still in him. Others would have given up a long time ago.
One of the scenes that impressed us the most occurs in 1×06 at Simon’s house after Wilhelm released his official statement regarding his involvement in the video. Wilhelm promised Simon that he wouldn’t lie about his involvement in the video, but he did anyway, therefore denying Simon in front of the whole world. Simon is hurt, obviously, and his betrayal runs deep. Simon makes the decision that he can’t be with Wilhelm, despite his feelings for the boy, and chooses what he knows is right, rather than how his heart feels.
This is courageous because it’s hard to walk away from those you love, even when they’re not doing the right thing by you. Simon shows impressive self-worth in this scene, despite the fact that he broke all of our hearts (and Wilhelm’s) in the process.
His empathy with struggle
Simon definitely seems to understand that Wilhelm is having a bit of a queer identity crisis, and the two boys are not in the same place when it comes to this issue. Wilhelm’s back and forth with Simon and his feelings for him are met with at least a little patience in the beginning. After Wilhelm takes back his “I’m not like that” Simon quickly agrees to spend the weekend with him at Hillerska. He seems to understand that Wilhelm isn’t ready to declare his sexuality to anyone but Simon and silently agrees to the terms Wilhelm is offering him.
Simon’s patience and empathy are demonstrated again when they fight about Simon dealing drugs to August. At first, they’re both angry and say a lot of things to each other that are hurtful, but Simon is able to think about things and reflect on what happened. While it’s Wilhelm that reaches out before the Lucia festival, Simon caves when Wilhelm explains his feelings.
They embrace, they kiss, and they shattered all of us just a little during this scene.
His interaction with his father
The way Simon interacts with his father requires some nuance, but we think it warrants a mention. Simon and Sara’s (Frida Argento) parents are separated and they live with their mother, Linda (Carmen Gloria Pérez), on account of Micke’s (Leonard Terfelt) substance abuse. Although they haven’t seen each other in a while, we see Simon visiting Micke and asking him for alcohol. This is because he wants to make his sister Sara feel more included at Hillerska and he has been told he can’t show up at the party unless he supplies the booze.
Simon knows that his father is beholden to his addition. And while he manipulates this relationship with his father for his own gain during the show, in a conversation with Ayub (Inti Zamora Sobrado) it’s revealed that Simon does hear from his father now and then, unlike Sara, who has cut him off completely. Simon understands very well how hard it is for his father to get sober but at the same time, he’s angry and frustrated to witness it. This complex relationship between a child and their parent who struggles with addiction is represented artfully in season 1.
His determination to change his situation for the best
Simon is smart enough to know how the world works, and he understands that he is going to have to work a little harder to get what he wants. He is independent, and he actively participates in his quest for more. He refuses to accept everything as it is and heads out each day trying to put his best foot forward.
He is unhappy with his grade in maths, and instead of being discouraged, he organizes extra lessons for himself so his grade will improve. He joins in all the extracurriculars he can because for him, this means a bigger shot at a good university. For the other kids, these extracurriculars are just that – they’re going to get what they want regardless.
He doesn’t get bogged down by the unfortunate circumstances of his life. He takes them as they are, and charges forward.
His relationship with Sara
Season 1 of Young Royals portrays the sibling relationship between Simon and Sara in a beautiful way. Simon and Sara each have their own storyline but they find support in one another. For example, he realizes that Felice (Nikita Uggla) is rude to Sara in the beginning of their time at Hillerksa, and he tells Sara that she deserves to be treated better. Simon also looks out for her when August approaches Sara asking for drugs, telling August that he shouldn’t be talking to Sara. For Simon, August means trouble and he doesn’t want his sister anywhere near that mess.
Additionally, Simon finds much strength in Sara. We witness this when Sara encourages her brother to advocate for himself since Wilhelm seems to be trying to keep them a secret. In this scene, the roles are reversed and it’s Sara who reminds Simon that he deserves to be treated better than that. Only after this important and beautiful conversation between them, Simon finds the courage to stick up for himself in front of Wilhelm.
His voice
When Simon sang at the Prince’s welcome assembly on Wilhelm’s first day at Hillerska, everyone was blown away – us too! The young man’s passion for music and singing is something beautiful to watch his character develop, and it’s something that he can do better than everyone else at Hillerska.
However, Simon uses his voice in other ways too. He speaks up about things that bother him. Although he is very patient with the people around him, he speaks up as soon as he feels like he is treated unfairly. When his father gets mad at him for stealing his medicine, Simon reminds him very clearly about how his father isn’t in a position to educate him on his behavior since his father still struggles with addiction.
Wilhelm meets this side of Simon during their first fight. After getting angry at Simon for jeopardizing the Royal Family’s reputation, Simon claps back that Wilhelm has to consider the Eriksson family just as much as the Crown. He refuses to give Wilhelm a pass here and uses his voice to remind him that his world doesn’t revolve around the Royals.
The list of things we love about this character is endless and we would be here till next Christmas if we went into detail about them all. But alas, we can’t do that because November 1st is right around the corner and we’ll be walking on a whole new journey with Simon as Young Royals season 2 smashes onto our screens. We can’t wait to see what this dynamic character does this time.
Season 1 of Young Royals is available to stream exclusively on Netflix. Season 2 of Young Royals will premiere globally on Nov 1. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!
