Character Structure – Part 4: Hidden in plain sight (example: “Young Royals”)

This article is pay-walled because it’s part of the ‘Young Royals’ character analysis series, which will be locked in its entirety . (If you’re interested in the free content, you’re always welcome to check out the metaphor series, which starts here.)

Please read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the character analysis series before reading the post below. Nothing in this article will make any sense if you don’t read those three posts first.

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Imagine there’s a mirror in your house. 

Maybe it’s one of those antique carved Mahogany affairs from the Victorian period, with the leaded glass pane all stained with time. Maybe there’s an ancient moth-eaten velvet curtain thrown over it to hide the horror hidden underneath. Maybe it’s been banished to the dustiest and darkest corner of your house where it stands covered in cobwebs, glass turned to the wall. Or maybe you’ve carried it up that creaking wooden staircase to the attic above where nobody will ever stumble across it. 

Or maybe…you’ve just hidden it in plain sight, made it an inside panel of the door of some antique armoire (closet?) that nobody in your house ever opens, so nobody suspects a thing when they pass by this piece of furniture day in and day out.

Because, you see, this Gothic monstrosity does something other mirrors don’t ever do:

It gives you the reflection of a person…although no one is standing in front of it!

Is it a ghost? Someone long dead? Someone from the deep, deep past? Or is it just simply the reflection of someone who’s not physically there? Someone who’s absent? Someone who lives on an entirely different continent? On a different planet? In a different reality altogether, perhaps?

Nobody in your house knows. 

Because nobody is allowed to know. 

You’ve hidden the mirror pretty well to make sure nobody ever notices anything out of the ordinary. And if you’re a writer, then you’re particularly good at playing your cards close to your chest: You’ve hidden it in plain sight, and nobody will ever suspect that that thing is a mirror at all.

But it’s a mirror, alright. A haunted mirror that contains all the spine-chilling horrors your show is actually built around.

Now, what does this creepy story have to do with ‘Young Royals’, you might ask. And how do we find out more about Simon’s backstory? How do writers hide information in plain sight? And how do you tell the story of a character who’s been completely absent from the show so far?

Well, follow me and we will examine the darkest, ugliest and most terrifying corner in the show’s subtext.