6 things to love about Wilhelm in season 1: A Young Royals fan perspective

Here at Q+ Magazine, we can’t get enough of the Swedish Netflix series Young Royals! In season 1 of Young Royals, we meet Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) as he embarks on a journey through love and responsibility. Changing from public school to Hillerska, a boarding school for the rich and privileged, he meets Simon (Omar Rudberg), a scholarship student from a nearby town called Bjärstad. What begins as a friendship quickly blossoms into love, leaving Wilhelm torn between who he wants to be, and who he is expected to be. 

Here are six things in Young Royals season 1 to love about Wilhelm.

Wilhelm’s communication with Simon

When Wilhelm is with Simon, he communicates his wants and his needs effectively. If it’s simply the need for a hug or the need for honesty – for example, the question of whether Simon is dealing drugs – Wilhelm doesn’t hesitate to communicate with Simon. Wilhelm feels safe with Simon and lets him know this. Even though the Prince spends a good amount of time going back and forth between pushing Simon away, and then running back to him, he never fails to make Simon understand how he feels.

Wilhelm wavers a lot between the person he is, and the role he has to play as a monarch, but he always tries to let Simon know what he is feeling (even if his feelings aren’t always received by Simon the way he wants them to be). We see this occur in many instances throughout season 1. One example of this occurs in episode 5 during the St. Lucia Scene. In the middle of what kind of looks like a bit of an argument, Wilhelm tells Simon that he’s the only person Wilhelm can actually talk to. This crumbles Simon’s defenses, and they hug.

Viewers have seen the impact of Wilhelm having no one to really confide in other than Simon all throughout the season, but this is really the first time Wilhlem explicitly shares that information with Simon. Despite the difficulty of their situation, the words flow freely from Wilhelm, which stands in stark juxtaposition to his ability to communicate with literally everyone else.  

In the final scene of season 1, Wilhelm tells Simon that he loves him. What seems to be a romantic gesture, actually carries a more nuanced message: after being forced to deny his involvement in the video, Wilhelm makes sure that Simon hears the real message. Wilhelm ensures that he expresses his true feelings to Simon, thereby contradicting his public statement to the furthest point possible. Whether it’s received that way by Simon is unclear in this episode, however, Wilhelm’s attempt to communicate clearly with Simon here is unquestionable. 

Because of the institution he was born into, and the values that he was raised within, communication is not something that comes easily to Wilhelm, and we see that in his dealings with others frequently. It’s complicated enough to be the Crown Prince of Sweden and then fall in love with a boy, but somehow that boy becomes his only open, safe communication space

Rejection of tradition

In addition to documenting a beautiful love story, Young Royals season 1 addresses the issue of status and privilege at private schools like Hillerska. Being noble and rich is much very valued amongst rich students, as we see in the boys club, The Society. The club only affiliates with students who are male, of noble birth, are first born etc. Even at Hillerska, this includes only a small number of students. 

This tradition actively excludes literally all other kinds of students who attend the school. The Society dismisses values like equality, diversity, and inclusion, and promotes a patriarchal and conservative idea of an oppressive capitalistic society. Even though Wilhelm is invited to join The Society after Erik (Ivar Forsling) dies, he does so on his own terms. He acts the way he wants, not the way The Society expects him to, and he challenges these notions of tradition wherever he is met with an ideology he doesn’t agree with.

Wilhelm’s continual rejection of these traditions is further evidenced by the way he treats the people around him. Unlike his peers also born into nobility, Wilhelm treats everyone with respect, regardless of status. August (Malte Gårdinger), who lives and breathes these archaic traditions, is particularly bothered by this part of Wilhelm’s character. When Wilhelm chooses Simon, an outsider, over one of their own in the drug scandal, August is furious. 

The Prince’s kindness

We find Wilhelm’s acts of kindness everywhere, even in small gestures. For example, after Simon spends the night in Wilhelm’s room, *ahem – yes – that night* Simon makes a joke about not having breakfast when he sneaks out after Wilhlem leaves. Wilhelm smuggles some food for Simon into class so the boy had something to eat.

Additionally, Wilhelm when asks how people feel, he wants to hear a genuine answer. Unlike many others like him, he does care about the people in his life. He demonstrates kindness with Felice (Nikita Uggla)  on several occasions. He gives her his jacket when he stumbles across her during that weird ritual that she and Maddie (Nathalie Varli) are engaged in, and he goes after her at the Parent’s Day lunch when Sara (Frida Argento) spills the beans about Rosseau. Neither of those situations has anything to do with him, but he saw a human in need, and he acts accordingly.

A willingness to advocate 

We often see Wilhelm struggle with his role as Prince, and later as the Crown Prince, which is a role that he considers more of a burden than a privilege. However, his ability and willingness to advocate for himself and others is a strength that is befitting of a Crown Prince.

He is concerned about Simon’s involvement in the drug dealing situation with August, and he is interested to learn the reason why August didn’t actually give Simon the money owed to him. This is Wilhelm and Simons’s first fight, and Wilhelm argues that the drugs could affect his and the Royal Family’s reputation. However, apart from this, he is also very concerned about Simon. August told Simon that his family no longer has money, and when Simon conveys this to Wilhelm, this is news to the Prince. 

Wilhelm takes it upon himself to investigate if August was telling the truth or not, and as a means to figure out how he could help Simon stay at Hillerska. Evidently, Wilhelm has his own selfish desire to keep Simon at the school, but this is a clear example of how he tries to advocate for Simon, while he tries to do the right thing by the Crown at the same time. 

When it comes to his mother, Wilhelm tries desperately to advocate for himself and what he wants for his life. He tries to appeal to the mother inside of her, instead of the Queen, and attempts to find a common ground for them both. He asks for a more private life, and he tries to calm her down when she is angry with him. 

Wilhelm wishes to be with Simon without the public attention that his role as Crown Prince bestows upon him. We see him trying to navigate the complex connection between his love and his responsibility: he doesn’t want to hurt Simon (or himself) and he doesn’t want to leave him, but he also wants to fulfill his role as Crown Prince in the way his mother requests. At his age, this is a difficult thing to do and we admire his attempts greatly. 

His persistence 

The hardships Wilhelm faces could easily prompt someone to give up. However, Wilhelm refuses to do this and persistently fights for what he wants. Furthermore, the Prince adamantly refuses to give up Simon, even after publicly denying his involvement in the video. 

His reluctance to move on from Simon when a relationship now seems impossible also reveals how desperate Wilhelm is. In Simon, he finds someone he trusts and he can rely on – someone Wilhelm desperately needs. Simon’s decision to take some space from the situation doesn’t seem to hinder Wilhelm’s persistence in what he wants. 

The Queen instructs Wilhelm multiple times to stay away from Simon but Wilhelm refuses, hoping he can be with Simon and still be the Prince. He understands, after all, that the problem lies within his role and not within his relationship.

The strive for change

Because Wilhelm is aware that loving a boy is a problem for the Crown, he strives to change the traditions and expectations bestowed upon him by the monarchy. Loving Simon, and being loved by Simon, creates many points of conflict for Wilhelm throughout the show. He is clearly angered by the confines of his birthright and desperately wants something else for himself. 

We see Wilhelm reach his breaking point when he calls his mother to inform her that August was responsible for leaking the video of him and Simon. He clearly can’t understand why the Queen is unable to function as his mother at this point, instead of in a formal capacity as the Queen, and it’s clear that he can’t reconcile this within himself. Wilhelm obviously isn’t going to get this reconciliation with himself unless some change is implemented. 

If the Young Royals season 2 trailer is anything to go by, Wilhelm brings his furious motivation back to Hillerska after Winter break.

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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.