Saved by the Screensaver (example: “Young Royals”)

So, I’m really wiped out after writing (and proofreading) those first three Character Posts, but I didn’t want you to leave this blog disappointed and empty-handed this weekend, and I generally want to stick to a (roughly) weekly posting schedule, so here’s a little something for your Sunday evening. It’s really short, not even a snack, just a mint on your pillow, if you will. (And it’s free for everyone. We shall return to the locked Character Posts next weekend.)

Immediately after I had posted the article with the context-driven shot analysis of Wilhelm studying in episode one of season two (the one about Felix Nicolas Frillié’s painting ‘The Kiss of the Muse’ which was copied somewhat clumsily by Paul Cézanne) and had ranted at length about the fact that all props have to be read in the context of the shot they appear in and together with any other props that interact with them in the same frame, I received a lot of questions about the screensaver/lock screen on Wilhelm’s phone.

People pointed out that the colours in it (blue and purple) were suggestive of royalty and that purple was Simon’s colour on the show. One lovely and botanically savvy commenter even described the type of flower that can be seen adorning Wilhelm’s display in that shot and explained to me how that specific flower might symbolize magnanimity. All of those are very interesting and, I’m sure, important observations, and since I’m woefully uneducated when it comes to botany, I’m certain I couldn’t have made any of those myself.

But since you all asked me to write about it, here is at least the one answer about the screensaver that I think I can give you, and it’s based on the way film shots are usually supposed to be read: We have to read everything in the shot in its proper context and try to avoid going all ‘Fallacy of the Missing Context’ on it. (And yes, I know I keep repeating myself here, but it’s really important.)

As we’ve seen before, the shot basically consists of three elements: The Cézanne copy of Félix Nicolas Frillié’s painting ‘The Kiss of the Muse’, the text on the left page of the book Wilhelm is reading, and the phone.

Now, we had talked at length about that painting of the muse and the theme of Simon being subtextually introduced on this show as an angel (a topic that came up recently again when we saw how important that angel theme and the whole religious iconography on this show might be for what is going on sexually in the bedroom between these two and how it impacts their emotional relationship as a whole). I had also pointed out that reading that text on the left page of the book is most likely necessary to fully comprehend the shot, and while I can’t really make out the letters, I’m at least reasonably certain that the stab in the dark we took when we examined Wilhelm as a (Capital-R!) Romantic hero is more or less one that hit its mark.

We had then talked about the context: the phone shown to us in the very same shot.

And if you’ve read that whole post, you might remember what I told you about the following unwritten rule: When two props that appear in the same shot do implicitly have very different or even opposing connotations (the winged muse and the text about Romanticism in the book vs. the mother and Queen calling about the speech the Royal Court has scheduled for the main protagonist), then this invariably represents a choice for the main protagonist.

‘Choice shots’ like that are incredibly common on screen. Two props, two juxtaposed meanings, a character interacting with them…et voilà – you’ve got yourself some meaning for the shot as a whole: The character has to choose between whatever prop A represents and whatever prop B represents. Often the choice is the one, big choice™ the character has to make in the story that you’re watching, which makes the ‘choice shot’ in question emblematic for whatever conflict or struggle the character is going through, whatever dilemmatic challenge they are facing in the narrative at large. ‘Choice shots’ like that are widely used on screen (and if you want to, we can examine a couple of them from different shows and films at some point later on this blog).

Now, I did say three elements: The painting, the text on the left page, and the phone.

But technically there are four; there’s Wilhelm’s screensaver/lock screen, as well. Or rather…try not to think of it in terms of ‘Wilhelm’s lock screen’ because that could tempt you to once again jump from the detail in the shot straight to the character and his characterization. Try to think of it first and foremost as ‘the lock screen that appears in this specific shot’.

And I think that’s exactly the important thing to understand about it: It appears. Suddenly.

It’s not there to begin with!

We’re not shown the phone (flipped open with the lock screen visible) lying next to the book that Wilhelm is reading. 

The shot is not set up in such a way that the lock screen is already there to be seen, then the mother calls, and then the lock screen is there again. 

No, what we’re given (in order of appearance) is: The book (with the painting and the text), then a phone call (we see the word ‘Mamma’ on the display of Wilhelm’s phone), and then the lock screen. There is a clear progression happening in this shot (which is, as we’ve already determined, a ‘choice shot’).

And here comes the most important bit for understanding the shot itself: The lock screen doesn’t appear all by itself (because the phone rang for too long or whatever). No, it’s because of Wilhelm’s action in the shot that the phone’s display changes from one state to the other.

Action in a shot is very important (we will have to look at this more closely at some later point as well, I think; I had sort of touched upon that topic when we examined Wilhelm’s dream at the beginning of season two: I had only briefly mentioned that there’s an action in each and every single shot of that dream, but examining action in a shot is actually semantically very significant).

So, the action in this shot is Wilhelm’s. He is acting. He is making an active choice!

And that choice is to decline his mother’s call.

We have already looked at how important that is when it comes to understanding the whole ‘choice shot’: Wilhelm declining his mother’s call (I almost typed rejecting the siren’s call here) implies he will go with the other call – the call his muse (the love he and Simon feel for each other) is sending out to him.

But what’s also implied in that action of declining the call is the fact that he is replacing his mother’s name on that display!

The screensaver/lock screen doesn’t just appear on its own: It’s because of Wilhelm that the word ‘Mamma’ disappears and we then get a slight emphasis on the lock screen because the camera stays on it for just that split second longer than is absolutely necessary.

Wilhelm is replacing one thing with another thing in that shot. He is actively rejecting his mother and replacing her with something else.

Now, I know the whole topic of Team Coronation vs. Team Abdication is an active war zone when it comes to the fans of this show, and I have explained my views on this before:

I don’t think we have enough evidence right now to know for sure where the show is going, whether Wilhelm will abdicate or whether the show will imply in season three that he will be crowned King one day (or if he maybe even becomes King in season three itself).

If we want to find out, I’d strongly advise to leave the superficial plot-level of the text be. Because discussions à la, “But Wilhelm would make such a great King,” vs. “But Wilhelm never wanted that type of life,” aren’t particularly productive.

The best way to find out anything about the writers’ intentions on any show or movie is always to examine what they’re doing in the places where they hide their ideas: in the metaphorical subtext.

And I have told you before that we have several metaphorical weather vanes for this now.

So, even though I think we can’t tell either way for sure right now (abdication or coronation), I would very, very tentatively suggest that, at least for now, there are more apples in the coronation basket: They didn’t manage to burn down ‘The Palace’. Wilhelm’s suitcases look okay right now. The Frog Prince (actually ‘Frog King’ in the original fairy tale) wasn’t harmed but came out of his glass bubble instead. Michelangelo’s ‘David’ outside in the garden wasn’t damaged or destroyed…(and there are a couple of other metaphors and other literary devices that we still have to talk about that all point in the same direction). That’s not even mentioning the name of the show: ‘Young Royals’.

So, at least for now, I’d say the metaphorical subtext leans subtly more in one direction (coronation) than in the other (abdication).

All of that could obviously change in a second if the writers decide so in season three, so we have to watch our weather vanes with narrowed eyes there and adjust our judgement accordingly.

But, at least for now, I would very tentatively suggest that there seem to be more checks in the coronation column than in the abdication column (and I’m always talking metaphorical, subtextual checks, not plot-level checks, remember).

Well, so here comes one other item in that coronation column:

Wilhelm is replacing his mother’s name with his own lock screen. A lock screen that, as you’ve all pointed out to me, contains the royal colours.

I didn’t say that about those colours (and flowers), you guys all gathered the evidence without me and for me. Thank you very much for that. I just put it into the context of the shot it belongs in.

The context being: Wilhelm making his mother visually disappear and making something else appear…and (at least to my admittedly untrained eye) that something doesn’t look like some republican emblem but specifically like royal symbolism again.

You said it. I just put it its context. I wash my hands in innocence.

So, there you have Wilhelm replacing his mother by an active act of will (he carries the action in the shot!) with something else – presumably his own reign. (And if that clever commenter who wrote to me is right and the flowers do indeed denote magnanimity, then that’s what this new reign of his is going to be like. I say ‘of his’, but I should probably be saying ‘of his + Simon’s’, right?)

It’s Wilhelm who does the rejecting and replacing here, and he does it right above the Muse painting (meaning against the backdrop of his muse whispering to him and against the backdrop of the text telling us all about Capital-R Romantic ideas, i.e. referencing his being a Capital-R Romantic hero).

The ‘choice shot’ thus becomes a doubly emblematic one: On the one hand, just as we said, it shows us the choice Wilhelm has to make (the one between following the whisperings of his mother and the Court…and following his muse, a.k.a. his love and the chance to finally freely express his own emotions). As I’ve already said, it’s a choice, that he has to make before the end of the season because at that point he has to give his speech – a speech that the Queen and her Court want to have full control over (metaphorically: be the phone that whispers in his ear, i.e. heart). A speech in which Wilhelm has to finally find his voice (i.e. be inspired by his muse).

But that speech, as we’ve been told, is also very important: It’s his first one as Crown Prince. It will shape how he will be perceived in this role. It’s his first step on the road to eventually becoming King.

So, on the other hand, the shot is doing more than just foreshadowing the outcome of that speech: Since this ‘choice shot’ is showing us Wilhelm actively replacing his mother’s name with blue and purple (a royal colour plus another royal colour…that’s also Simon’s colour on the show), this is clearly foreshadowing something else, as well: 

This emblematic shot foreshadows the fact that the Queen’s days are numbered. And it will be an active choice made by Wilhelm to replace her. And he will replace her reign with his and Simon’s reign (hence the colours).

Now, whether we will, in fact, see the Queen abdicate in season three or whether that just tells us what the writers think will happen off-screen after the end of the show, I cannot tell you.

But his declining the phone call and thus replacing the word ‘Mamma’ with that screensaver is the action this shot is centred around: 

The replacement of Queen Kristina by the reign of Wilhelm and Simon together, their colours intertwining and blossoming like a flower.

And that’s the context.

~fin~

P.S.

For anyone who’s in the film appreciation club together with me: Did you notice the nice little focus pull in that shot? It doesn’t call attention to itself at all, but that’s the nature of focus pulling: We’re not supposed to notice it because it mimics the human eye.

Also, not to send you all on any wild goose chases, but keep in mind we’re shown a clock on that lock screen, as well: 16:29.

Because this immediately gave off strong Thirty-Years’ War vibes to my history buff eye, I looked it up and got a nice chuckle out of that: It could be that Wilhelm replacing his mother will mean he will reach some sort of truce, ending the ‘war’ with her in highly favourable terms for Sweden.

Please don’t be disappointed if it takes me a while to reply to all your comments. There are just so many of them; my inbox is bursting at the seams. I shall endeavour to answer each and every one of them chronologically. But they’re all very much appreciated. Thank you, guys.

Next weekend (give or take a day or two) we will take one further step on our Character Post journey: Part 4.

I had originally planned to introduce you to yet another standard storytelling technique by which characters are arranged around each other in screenplays, but since you’re all going bananas about Simon’s secret in the comments (and I can’t even keep up with all of them), I have decided to go quite a bit deeper on that front and keep the new storytelling technique for Part 5 later on.

So, next week, more on Simon’s secret and how we can tell more about it. (As all character posts, this one will be locked.)