Character Establishing Moment: Ludvig (example: “Young Royals”)

I’m still proofreading the long post about the horse, I’m afraid. But I didn’t want to send you all to bed disappointed on this fine Sunday evening, so let me just throw this page in your direction quickly, so you have a little something to chew on while I get the long post ready for you.

A lot of you have asked me to write a few words about Wilhelm’s father recently, and I promise I will (eventually) because there are actually quite a few interesting things we can uncover about him.

But for now, let me just point out one tiny thing that isn’t even in the subtext: It’s in the text itself.

I’ve told you before that, in films and TV shows, there is such a thing as a character establishing scene/moment. 

First impressions are important because, as viewers, we take in a character’s behaviour – both consciously and subconsciously. So, a proper first impression is what a screenplay usually tries to provide the audience with.

It doesn’t have to be the first scene a character appears in (but it often is), and it’s usually used to sum up a character’s personality, characterization and, crucially, motivations in a concise way. A character establishing moment like that can employ symbolism, but it can also just deal in plain text, so to speak.

August, for example, gets a very classic character establishing scene on ‘Young Royals’, whereas other characters get more complex introductory scenes (the show splits Simon’s character establishing scene into several parts, for example).

Now, with Wilhelm’s father, it’s strange to even speak of a character establishing moment because, so far, the man hasn’t really been a character worth speaking of (not on the surface of the text, at least).

Ludvig is as close to a cardboard cutout as you can potentially get without being made of PVC foam. There just isn’t a lot of character to establish, to be quite frank.

And yet that first moment he appears on screen is just so, so telling.

I would like to shine a light on it for a moment, so you can use it as a springboard for your own discussions and ruminations:

In episode one of season one, Wilhelm has just made the acquaintance of a well-aimed fist (not in that way, take your mind out of the gutter, please) and is being prepared for his mea culpa speech on national television.

Ludvig inquires if Wilhelm has read it. “Did you go over the speech?”

Wilhelm replies, “Yes,” and adds, “but everyone will know I’m not being sincere, Pappa.”

“You have to exude some sort of sense,” Ludvig advises.

(I would like you to really take in what is happening here. It’s very important. Wilhelm is questioning this extremely strange advice, and so should you, to be honest.)

Wilhelm literally asks, “A sense of what?”

But he doesn’t get an answer, and we tellingly just cut to Wilhelm’s mother, the Queen, after that.

What Wilhelm’s father is asking his son to do here is to give the speech in such a manner that people will believe him. He never tries to convince his son to believe it himself.

What this boils down to is, essentially, advice on how to be a better liar, how to be more convincing when you lie – so convincing, in fact, that an entire nation will believe you are being sincere when deep down you’re being as disingenuous as one can be. 

Those are literally the first words out of this strange character’s mouth. We get them before we even hear a word from the Queen herself or Wilhelm’s older brother, for that matter. It’s the first thing to be said by any member of Wilhelm’s family we encounter over the course of the show.

Now, as you rethink the advice this father gives his son (learn how to get better at lying; learn how to be more convincing as a liar, learn how to lie in such a way that even the cameras and millions of people in front of their TV sets won’t bother you anymore when you lie, exude that certain je-ne-sais-quoi that will make them believe you), what does that actually tell you about the character of Ludvig?

How on earth can anyone assume that this is the nice member of the family? The understanding, good dad? How can anyone assume that there isn’t a huge pile of something very unsavoury hidden in whatever this man considers his private business and hides from the public and perhaps his wife, as well?

Wilhelm asks, “A sense of what?”

And that question is just left hanging in the air, unanswered, because that’s the key to understanding Ludvig, and the show isn’t going to give away too much at this point in the story, right?

Food for thought? I hope so.

For now, I bid you all, “Goodnight!”

See you very soon in the Hillerska stables where we will finally take a closer look at that horse.

Yours,

tvmicroscope

~fin~