Textual Metaphors: The Music metaphor (example: “Young Royals”)

Did you ever wonder why, during the piano scene in episode three (season one) of ‘Young Royals’, Wilhelm and Simon go so unexpectedly from sitting all lovey-dovey on a piano bench, talking about sheet music, to Wilhelm abruptly rejecting Simon and telling him to forget about their kiss? Why the sudden mood shift?

Why do they leap from discussing one thing to talking about an entirely different thing in a matter of seconds?

Because they weren’t talking about two things to begin with. They were always talking about one thing and one thing only. But they were doing so metaphorically.

It’s all a metaphor!

And it’s no coincidence that Wilhelm tells Simon not to play the soprano part, but to stick to the tenor voice…

But let’s back up a bit:

In the first installment of this little blog post series on the show ‘Young Royals’, we have talked quite a bit about the use of visual metaphors on screen.

Visual metaphors are a clever and artful way to get your point across as a filmmaker. With some practice, they become relatively easy to spot. All you need as a viewer is a pair of eyes to see, and you can start to decipher the approach to cinematography a particular movie or show has chosen (framing, blocking, shot composition, lighting, camera angles, etc.).

Textual metaphors are much more difficult to spot because they require far more than just a keen eye for visual storytelling. To spot a textual metaphor in the wild you need to have scoured a nice stack of books or two for literary devices in your time.

Textual metaphors are such an important instrument in the toolbox of literary devices that they are taught in every literature class in school, and yet they are often forgotten the moment students graduate and drift from classic media like novels, dramas and poems to movies and TV shows.

Nonetheless these same movies and TV shows make just as much use of textual metaphors as any novelist or poet. What appears on the big and small screen is, after all, also scripted, written by writers who are raised in much the same literary tradition as any other author in our culture.

In short, spotting textual metaphors is difficult because they aren’t based in visual cues to the same extent that visual metaphors are, but they are the building blocks of any screenplay; they are what a script is actually made of. Once you hone your skills and start to develop a bit of a sixth sense for literary devices, spotting textual metaphors becomes intuitively easier.

‘Young Royals’ provides us with one of the most beautiful metaphors I have ever seen used on TV, and it does so consistently and coherently scene after scene, episode after episode.

It is the use of ‘music’ as a metaphor for ‘love’.

I first caught on to this metaphor in the above-mentioned piano scene. 

Wilhelm and Simon’s interaction seemed so warm-hearted and lovely at first sight and Wilhelm’s subsequent rejection of Simon so sudden and jarring that I instinctively grasped that there was more to the story – at least from a writer’s point of view.

Let’s, at first, quickly examine what actually happens in this scene and what is being said by the characters: I’ve read, again and again (in various comment sections underneath a whole variety of different reviews and scene analyses), that this scene allegedly shows us Wilhelm teaching Simon how to play the piano.

I think it’s very important to point out that this is most decidedly not what is going on here.

Wilhelm is not teaching Simon how to play the piano; Simon can play the piano. He actually plays it quite well. We can hear him play a few minutes earlier while Wilhelm is still standing outside in the hall, listening to him play.

The point that this scene is trying to make is not that Simon can’t play the piano, it’s that Simon cannot read sheet music.

Simon is most-likely a self-taught autodidact who plays the piano entirely by ear, but he does so beautifully! This we can most definitely hear ourselves in the opening scene with Wilhelm outside in the hall, and it is even specifically pointed out to us by Wilhelm in a line of dialogue, when he literally calls Simon’s playing beautiful a few moments later. (The English subtitles here have Wilhelm say: “But you played so well before,” but I think I can clearly make out the Swedish word ‘fin’ in there somewhere.) So, we can all agree that Simon can, in fact, play the piano and he does so beautifully.

What Wilhelm is trying to teach Simon in that scene is not how to play the piano. He is trying to teach him how to read sheet music, specifically a few notes of the traditional Hillerska song, the sequence of which he then proceeds to demonstrate on the piano.

At first glance, this whole set-up seems to be just a clever characterization device employed by the writer to unobtrusively give us some rather enlightening information on our two main characters’ respective backstories, their different upbringing and the class structure of the country the show is set in, without being too heavy-handed about it all:

Wilhelm can read sheet music because he undoubtedly received the necessary musical instruction to do so. Through just that one brief scene, we basically get a glimpse of his backstory: the seemingly endless piano lessons with some private tutor back at the castle he most likely had to endure from early childhood onwards. In short, it’s a sudden flash of light illuminating his posh upper-class background.

Simon, on the other hand, comes from a working-class family; he most likely never received any formal musical training. And yet we know that he doesn’t just sing in the choir, he is its main soloist! (Singing in a choir would normally require a lot of sheet music reading. And if he does all of it by ear, he has my utmost respect.) Also, we have just heard him play (beautifully, as Wilhelm points out) on the piano, as well. This too he does all by ear. 

Doing all of this is no mean feat; it speaks of an enormous musical talent on Simon’s part and a rather high IQ to boot.

So, at first glance, this little scene seems to be just a clever device to illuminate these characters’ respective backstories and highlight the differences in class, upbringing and talent between the two of them.

And yet, it is so much more than just that!

If you accept my premise that, on this show, music acts as a metaphor for love, then this scene suddenly becomes so much more coherent:

Simon tells us that he’s singing and playing by ear, i.e. music only works by ear, for him. If music is, indeed, a metaphor for love, then that would mean that this statement actually tells us how Simon loves: He loves just by following his heart. When he’s in love, he doesn’t follow any instructions written on a piece of paper. He doesn’t follow any rules. He just goes where his heart tells him to go just like a singer following his inner sense, his ear so to speak, when following the natural flow of a tune. Love is natural for Simon, this tells us. Love is a melody to which his inner sense is so attuned that it just naturally calls him and leads him where he needs to go.

Things are much different for Wilhelm, unfortunately. Because, you see, Wilhelm has been taught how to read sheet music. Oh, that thrice-cursed metaphorical ‘sheet music’!

Translation: Metaphorically, Wilhelm has been taught all the rules and regulations that come with love; he has been taught the metaphorical ‘sheet music’ of dating. 

And rules there are many in the system of music notation of the Western classical canon. 

So when you read music as a metaphor for love, and ‘sheet music’ as a metaphor for rules and tradition, it becomes pretty clear that Wilhelm has been raised to adhere to a rather strict code of conduct when it comes to love: who to date (a suitable girl, someone of the same class background, preferably an aristocrat, certainly not a boy), how to date, when to date, for how long to date, when to get engaged, when to get married, when to have children and how many, etc. You could say that even his other relationships (friendships and acquaintances) have to fit into the stiff corset of artificial rules and regulations (metaphorically: the ‘sheet music’).

Wilhelm is not free to follow his heart (metaphorically: his ear). His personal and love life follows the same strict ‘sheet music’ rules that, say, a sonata is built on…or a prelude, if you want. (My little joke about the prelude will pay off in a later blog post, I promise.)

Anyway, Wilhelm has been raised like this, and he has internalized all of these rules (this ‘sheet music’).

Just to be absolutely, 100 % crystal clear: What I mean to say is that following the ‘sheet music’ is the bad thing on this show, the thing you have to unlearn to an extent. Playing ‘by ear’ is the good thing, the natural thing. And yes, the ear is a metaphor for the heart. Just as music is a metaphor for love. (Because ‘music’ is what goes straight into your ‘ear’, you see. That’s how that works metaphorically.)

Here’s your decoder ring basically:

• Music = Love

• Sheet Music = Rules on Dating

• Hillerska song = Tradition

• Ear = Heart

See how that works?

What’s all the more heartbreaking is the fact that Simon actually tells Wilhelm he’s trying to learn how to read sheet music (read: Simon has been making an effort to try and understand the web of rules Wilhelm is trapped in), but it isn’t working. Simon just can’t. He doesn’t get it. It’s not in his nature.

And it is no coincidence that the piece of music that Simon struggles to read off the sheet music and play and that Wilhelm tries to teach him in that scene is the traditional Hillerska song.

This song, in a sense, represents tradition and rules on this show, as we will see most clearly in season two. It doesn’t come naturally to Simon at all (the parallel here being that the underlying classist and frankly homophobic rules on dating that are all-pervasive at the school don’t come naturally to Simon either). It doesn’t come naturally to anyone who just follows their heart (metaphorically: their ear). 

Did you think it was a coincidence that the show uses the Hillerska song in that piano scene between Wilhelm and Simon? That it is specifically the Hillerska song Simon is struggling to play here? If this weren’t meaningful, they could have easily had Wilhelm teach Simon how to play Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’ or any other simple piece of music that piano-tinkering kids at school usually aspire to play (The Flea-Waltz, anyone?). But they didn’t do that. The Hillerska song is so, so important here.

Because, you see, Wilhelm has to ‘teach’ Simon how to properly read the Hillerska song off the sheet music. The Hillerska song (read: tradition) is what’s printed on the metaphorical ‘sheet music’ (read: the rules on dating).

So, Wilhelm does just that: He teaches this boy what conduct between them is appropriate and what conduct simply isn’t. Because, just as with a classical piece of music, there are rules to this: Kissing in darkened hallways is not part of the deal, and they should quickly forget about that. Wanting to stay ‘just friends’ on the other hand is A-okay according to the rules (metaphorically: the ‘sheet music’).

Which is exactly what Wilhelm tells Simon, not even a full minute after they manage to play the rather boring main motif (that simplistic F-D-C-C, F-D-C, F-G-A-A, G-G-F tune) of the Hillerska song off the sheet music.

It’s clearly not what Wilhelm wants either, but it’s what he has internalized (metaphorically it’s the ‘sheet music’ he’s been taught to stick to).

As I said, these two aren’t suddenly going from talking about one thing to talking about another; metaphorically they’ve been talking about the same thing the entire time: Music is just the metaphor here. And what this scene basically shows us is the underlying conflict between these two characters: They have different ideas about what love is and what it can be because they have been raised differently.

Their dialogue here actually contains one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it details that are easy to overlook, yet so enlightening ones you pick up on them:

Wilhelm chides Simon for trying to play the soprano part. He is a tenor, Wilhelm reminds him, so that’s what he should play: the tenor part!

Once again, if music is a consistent metaphor for love on this show, then this short little line wasn’t put in there by accident.

A soprano is, classically speaking, a female singing voice. And Wilhelm specifically points it out to Simon that Simon has got it all wrong. If Simon wants to follow the ‘sheet music’ (remember what the ‘sheet music’ metaphorically stands for!) and to follow it properly, he shouldn’t be playing the soprano voice: Metaphorically, Simon should stop acting like a girl when it comes to Wilhelm, he should stop kissing Wilhelm in darkened hallways and holding his hand during movie nights. Because doing all of that would be an, ahem, ‘soprano’ thing to do. It’s what girls, and only girls, should be doing with Wilhelm (at least according to the metaphorical ‘sheet music’ that Wilhelm has been raised to follow).

Instead, Wilhelm reminds him, Simon should be playing the tenor part. A tenor is a male voice, i.e. metaphorically Wilhelm is telling Simon here to behave like a man in his interactions with Wilhelm: presumably to just be a bro and forget about all the touchy-feely stuff between them.

Note how well developed the whole metaphor is here, how it is consistent even down to this tiny little detail: It’s not that Wilhelm just tells Simon that he’s playing the school song wrong, no, the script specifically has Wilhelm tell Simon, “You are a tenor,” (metaphorically: you are a boy!) and “You are trying to play the soprano voice,” (metaphorically: you’re acting like a girl when you’re interacting with me).

Did I just ruin the piano scene for you? That seemingly oh-so-warm-hearted scene? Well, we did already see in the first installment to this blog post series on ‘Young Royals’ that the show is stacked to the rafters with scenes that seem lovely and warm on the surface, but are actually quite melancholy and sad once you take a deeper look at their metaphorical meaning.

You know what might just save this scene for you?

The fact that Wilhelm calls Simon’s piano playing beautiful! 

When Wilhelm is still outside in the hallway, he hears Simon play; he’s obviously been listening to him for a while. He was drawn to the sound before he even knew it was Simon who was playing (we see Wilhelm walk along the corridor almost like in a dream, he starts drifting towards the music room as soon as he hears the piano).

So, in a sense, despite his upbringing and all of the rules on dating he has internalized (i.e., the metaphorical ‘sheet music’), despite all of this, Wilhelm is still drawn to Simon’s music (read: he is drawn to Simon’s love) on an instinctive, subconscious level. He is drawn to it, and he calls it beautiful (or ‘so good’ if you want to follow the English subtitles).

Simon’s music, the music that Simon plays just by ear (the love Simon clearly exudes just by following his heart, a love without stupid traditionalist rules) is something that Wilhelm instinctively feels is beautiful. It is something that draws him in, draws him to Simon like a magnet all across the school building.

Now, just a quick note on the actual music the show employs to get its point across here: 

When we hear Simon play his own music (by ear) and watch Wilhelm listen to it with a dreamy, yearning expression on his face as he walks towards the music room, Simon plays the tune with both (!) hands; you can clearly hear that.

The lovely, dreamy tune in the right hand that meanders around the notes D-E-F-E-D-C-D-D and the accompanying broken chords in the left are balanced nicely. (Simon seems to first set the melody to a broken D-minor chord and then switch to a B-Major with an added 9th – a bit of a jazzy thing to do harmony-wise. This interval, the 9th, then pushes the melody into a key change. Since he is playing all of that by ear, improvising, and most likely just made it all up on the spot, I think we can safely say that Simon is a very talented young musician.)

Also, you can clearly hear that there is just the right amount of pedaling on the piano pedal underscoring this improvised song of his. All in all, this little idea he is trying out there sounds harmonious, balanced between the different registers of the piano, and the rhythm flows easily…all as long as Simon is playing by ear (metaphorically shows his love by following his heart).

The moment Simon switches to the Hillerska song, it becomes jarring and discordant; he starts to hit the wrong notes. And once Wilhelm tries to teach it to him, they both play with just one (!) hand instead of two; hell, they actually play more or less just with one index finger clumsily tapping away at the keys. The pedal is completely forgotten and might as well have died an early death and gone back to piano-factory-heaven.

Their playing has lost all of Simon’s earlier spontaneity and beauty.

Again, Wilhelm doesn’t teach Simon how to play the piano (metaphorically how to love) here. If anything, it’s quite the opposite. There is clearly some sort of regression going on here: from the beautiful to the boring and dull.

If you showed up to your first piano lesson with the kind of skill level Simon obviously has and are then taught some crappy one-index-finger-tapping technique by the teacher, please ask for your money back.

In other words, as long as you follow your ear (read: follow your heart) the music (read: love) is beautiful, balanced and just right. The moment you try to fit it into the tight corset of the sheet music of the Hillerska song (read: tradition and rules), it becomes stiff, artificial, simplistic and downright jarring. It’s not good music anymore.

Wilhelm isn’t teaching Simon anything here, he is putting the brakes on the music flowing between them. And when I say ‘music’, I mean love.

On some level, subconsciously, Wilhelm seems to know this. There’s a reason he calls Simon’s earlier playing beautiful (read: subconsciously, he already finds Simon’s love for him beautiful even though rationally he has to reject it a moment later). There is a reason why the expression on Wilhelm’s face is all dreamy as long as Simon is playing by ear.

And there’s definitely a reason why Wilhelm gives a slightly uncomfortable smirk when he finds out what it is that Simon is trying to read off the sheet music and play. He asks, “What are you trying to play? Oh, the Hillerska song,” and the expression on his face says, “Oh, that old thing.” (Eventually, in season two, he will even come to call it “that old boring original” out loud.)

When you watch Wilhelm’s facial journey in that piano scene, how his face goes from dreamy outside in the hallway to almost-smirking as he mentions the Hillerska song, you can see that the actor was most likely directed to play the scene in that particular way: He is supposed to look enchanted by Simon’s beautiful music and just that tiny bit disdainful when faced with the Hillerska song (metaphorically: tradition).

Note that once Wilhelm starts to demonstrate how to play the Hillerska song on the piano, Simon isn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to it. He is so enraptured by Wilhelm that he keeps staring at his face instead. (Metaphorically, he isn’t interested in the ‘sheet music’ of rules and tradition. He wants to keep following his heart.) Simon then messes up when asked to play back what Wilhelm just played (read: he is still not interested in the metaphorical ‘sheet music’) and even needs a repeat demonstration.

The use of the Hillerska song as a metaphor for traditionalist ideas about love and dating becomes glaringly obvious in season two when Simon single-handedly updates the old version and turns it into a new song he has written himself (which incidentally turns out to be a love song we are explicitly told is written for and about Wilhelm). Talk about music being a metaphor for love!

Note that it’s not an entirely different song; musically speaking, it still uses the same core motif as its starting point, but Simon updates it quite significantly (the melody evolves differently, the chords are different, the whole choir arrangement is changed, the entirety of the lyrics is new and thus the song’s meaning, etc.). So it’s a reform of something old and traditional. He keeps just enough (musically speaking) to make it still recognizable, but turns it into something incredibly beautiful in the process.

Simon, the character who plays music by ear (read: follows his heart when it comes to love), changes the traditional Hillerska song into his own composition. He essentially updates those traditionalist rules about love and dating and makes them into something that comes only from his heart: love.

He then proceeds to sing that new Hillerska song at the Valentine’s Ball of all places. (What did I say about music being a metaphor for love? Yeah, about that…) The Valentine’s Ball follows hot on the heels of weeks and weeks of students frantically trying to write the perfect love poem for their respective crushes, and here you’ve got Simon Eriksson – the boy who doesn’t just write a poem, but sets it all to music, then harmonizes the melody with fitting beautiful chords, in essence writing an arrangement for an entire choir, and proceeds to sing it, with the choir, in front of the entire school (and Wilhelm) at the Valentine’s Ball. That’s about as obvious as the music = love metaphor on this show ever gets.

Let me reiterate once again that writing a song like that and arranging the harmonies for an entire choir (seemingly without any music theory instruction) speaks of some serious talent for composition, a fact that Simon’s music teacher instantly picks up on (as she should). If we apply the music = love metaphor here again, then Simon's considerable musical talent, that finds its outpouring in a love song of that skill level, shows you just how capable of love he is: This boy has an astounding capacity for deep and profound love…is what this metaphor means.

It’s no coincidence, then, that Jan-Olof scraps Simon’s song for the jubilee celebrations the very minute he hears it. On the surface of the text, he does it to keep Simon from singing a solo right behind the Crown Prince to avoid any reminder of the leaked sex video popping up in the public’s mind.

But metaphorically, he doesn’t want Simon's song because that kind of ‘music’ is not allowed to exist in the Royal realm. And when I say ‘music’, I mean love.

What’s more, the official reason that Jan-Olof eventually gives for scrapping Simon’s song is that it would be easier for all the guests to sing along with the traditional Hillerska song because everyone would know its lyrics.

I’ve read that this gave some viewers a bit of a headache and made them argue that, no, Jan-Olof was lying; it was all to avoid Wilhelm being associated with Simon and had nothing to do with the Hillerska song being better known among the attending guests.

But those two motivations needn’t be in conflict with one another. Metaphorically they are exactly the same thing.

The metaphorical message of this show couldn’t get any more obvious here: Everyone in the upper class knows the old Hillerska song (i.e. which rules to follow, what traditions to uphold), knows the metaphorical ‘sheet music’, so to speak. And nobody knows how to deal with this new kind of ‘music’ (love) that Simon is challenging them with.

The two reasons for scrapping Simon’s song (the one Jan-Olof gives and the one Wilhelm suspects) do not contradict each other at all. Metaphorically speaking, one is fuelling the other.

By the way, one of the curious little details about Simon’s song is that Wilhelm at first doesn’t understand that this song is for and about him, and this is more than just a funny little side joke.

It shows us that (at least at this point in the story), Wilhelm still has some work to do. Metaphorically, he hasn’t fully grasped yet just how deep the love Simon feels for him runs. At the ball, he seems to instinctively find the song beautiful and even somewhat overwhelming (he found Simon’s piano playing in the above-mentioned scene beautiful, too), but he doesn’t fully grasp its significance yet.

Does Wilhelm, on some level, instinctively understand it all? Yes. But it’s not the conscious kind of knowledge yet. He needs some time to digest it all.

But once he gives his speech in the finale of season two, he has fully understood it.

It’s no coincidence that Wilhelm brings up the whole song debacle in his speech once he breaks protocol and comes out. He’s upset that Simon's ‘music’ (love) was banned, and he says so right in his speech in front of the entire school, the Queen, the Royal court and the rolling cameras.

That’s because metaphorically Simon’s song is more than just a song. Nobody would be this upset if this were just a case of an actual song being banned. It’s not just about music; it’s about ‘music’! And when I say ‘music’ (repeat after me, please), I mean love.

The finale of season two gives us such an eye-opening (ear-opening?) contrast to the finale of season one at and in front of the church after the Christmas service.

In front of the church in season one, Wilhelm specifically calls Simon singing Ivar Widéen’s Christmas song ‘Gläns över sjö och strand’ beautiful and thanks him for singing it. Note that even at that point (the two of them have just broken up and have a lot to work through) Wilhelm calls the music (love) beautiful and is grateful to Simon for having given that to him (past tense!). (Who’s crying? I’m not crying. I’m chopping onions as I’m typing this, that’s all.)

To make things far more heartbreaking for the viewer, Wilhelm then proceeds to whisper, “I love you,” into Simon's ear (saying it straight to his heart!), and Simon doesn’t say it back. 

But in a sense, obviously, Simon already did. The writers made sure of that: The music (love) is there. And that ‘music’ is beautiful, we are told.

Listening to Widéen’s Christmas song, however, you will quickly realize that it’s more than just beautiful, it’s also strangely sad. (Maybe sad is the wrong word here. It’s certainly not the sorrowful kind of sad. The lyrics of the song express a strong feeling of yearning, after all: The yearning for the star of Bethlehem that you might already see in the sky, but can’t touch yet. A very peculiar and yet beautiful song that gets exactly the right kind of mood across, music befitting two star-crossed lovers who can’t (yet) be together and are still yearning for just that.)

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but in a particularly clever little sleight of hands, the showrunners actually cut off the very end of Widéen’s Christmas song! 

If you stray over to youtube and listen to “Gläns över sjö och strand”, you will quickly realize that this song, which is largely written in melancholy E-minor chords, actually lightens up at the very end and leads into a bright final E-Major(!) chord. In other words, it has a hopeful ending full of light. But the showrunners wanted to build up to the sad, heartrending scene of Wilhelm and Simon hugging in front of the church, and so they cut off the ending, leaving it strangely unfinished, in that state of perpetual yearning, which is also where they left the viewers at the end of season one.

This cutting off of the final (happy) chord is a very clever use of the soundtrack to manipulate our subconscious auditory processing system. As viewers we don’t even know what it is that the show is doing there, but we feel it nonetheless.

When you look at music as a consistent metaphor for love, many otherwise elusive scenes on this show suddenly fall into place, as well.

Why do so many of Wilhelm and Simon’s fights happen in the music room, for example? Well, because that room is at the heart of the story, that’s the metaphorical ‘space’ the story has carved out for these two: the ‘music’ (love).

Here’s another one:

Why is Wilhelm wearing a t-shirt with the inscription ‘New York City Opera’ on his chest at the beginning of episode six (season one)? Because even at the height of his desperation about the sex tape being leaked, when all he can do is scream into the void, he is still wearing ‘music’ right on his body. And when I say ‘music’, I mean love. His love for Simon. Because, you see, the t-shirt is purple (Simon’s colour on the show).

Note that it’s not a t-shirt from the Metropolitan Opera and thus not something aimed at the top 1% who tend to be the main Met attendees. It’s specifically a New York City Opera t-shirt, the NYCO being known as the ‘people’s opera’ due to its much more affordable prices, a subtle commentary by the show on the accessibility of high culture to working class people (like Simon!).

Or how about this one:

Why is Wilhelm so often shown with his earbuds in? He seems to be listening to music quite a lot throughout the two seasons we have seen so far. As a matter of fact, one of the first things we ever see him do on the show is sit in a car, face bruised and beaten up, listening to music (in episode one of season one).

Well, if we assume that music is a metaphor for love and if we further assume that this metaphor is consistently used throughout the entire show, then this means that Wilhelm is in desperate need of love. This is a boy who requires love; he keeps his ears open for it, so to speak (hence the earbuds).

We have already seen that ears metaphorically represent hearts on this show (what with Simon playing music ‘by ear’, i.e. loving by following his heart). The two times, on this show, that the words, “I love you,” are uttered, they are actually whispered into Simon’s and Wilhelm’s ear respectively (in other words: straight to the heart).

And don’t even get me started on the metaphor of Simon practically biting Wilhelm’s ear off once they make love in season two. Yeah, that scene…Simon is metaphorically going straight for Wilhelm’s heart there.

When Wilhelm dreams of Simon at the start of season two, he specifically dreams of dragging his nose through Simon’s curls and towards his ear(!). Other teenagers have very, ahem, different and, shall we say, more explicit dreams, but interestingly, Wilhelm’s dream revolves around being able to come near Simon’s ear again (read: touch Simon’s heart again) and pressing their clasped hands to the left side of his shoulder/chest area (where his own heart is) because Wilhelm is essentially a deeply romantic character.

So, if the ear is a metaphor for the heart, then having your earbuds in and listening to music all the time, clearly means something, too: In season one, Wilhelm might not consciously know it yet, but his heart (metaphorically: his ear) needs love, is open to it…because there’s clearly not enough love in his life.

So it should come as no surprise that once he enters the church at Hillerska and hears Simon sing for the first time, he is smitten right away (and seriously, who wasn’t when they heard Omar Rudberg’s voice in that scene?). Another rather obvious use of the music = love metaphor.

Wilhelm, the boy with the earbuds (i.e. who’s got an open ear for love, who’s wanting for love, has a need for it) sits in a church, hears the voice of an angel (as we discussed in our first installment on the visual metaphors of this show) and this voice goes straight to his ear (heart): Simon is this embodiment, this outpouring of love (metaphorically music) for him, and he instinctively picks up on that right away.

Keep in mind that the earbuds come back full force in season two once Simon has broken up with Wilhelm: Wilhelm is listening to music in the scenes where the heartbreak and jealousy become almost too hard to bear. It’s where his need for music (love) becomes most acute (cf. the ‘Lonely Ones’ scene in episode three of season two).

And it’s no coincidence that Wilhelm comes close to a nervous breakdown when he sees a video of Simon ‘making music’ with another man. Because, as I keep saying, music is a metaphor for love. (We will come back to those Marcus scenes in a minute, I promise.)

Incidentally, one of the few times we see a melancholy Simon listen to some music with his headphones in his ears is when Wilhelm has just rejected him after his brother's funeral in season one. He’s on the bus home, clearly heartbroken to have been asked to delete all their texts. This is the moment Simon needs some (metaphorical) headphones.

The second time is in season two: Simon has just found out about Wilhelm and Felice and is trying to mend his broken heart by inviting Marcus to the ball. In the evening, we see Simon sitting in his room, headphones in his ears, staring at the fish that featured in a rather infamous scene between him and Wilhelm. The headphones again express his need for love, showing how much he misses Wilhelm. Incidentally, it’s at that point that Marcus enters the room and only a few minutes later, Simon famously lies about his fish having no names.

Apropos Marcus. Let’s talk about Marcus for a bit. Because, you know, I’ve already said that music is a very, very consistent metaphor on this show:

In season two, when we meet him, Marcus first shows interest in Simon when he hears Simon sing and play. Marcus, too, is drawn in by Simon’s music (metaphorically: the capacity for love that Simon is just oozing out of every pore, if you will).

Note the important difference between this first meeting of Marcus and Simon and the first time Wilhelm catches sight of Simon at the church, though:

When Marcus hears Simon’s ‘music’ for the first time, Simon has his back to him. 

This is very much in contrast with Wilhelm catching sight of Simon’s face at the church and smiling at him. The fact that Simon has his back turned to Marcus is a brilliant little visual clue foreshadowing the fact that these two are not endgame in any way, shape or form and that Simon will, at no point in the story, fall in love with Marcus. 

I mean, if you ask me, there’s also a stark difference between hearing the voice of a metaphorical angel at a church and hearing something you like on your way to the toilet (of all places). One scene equates love to a profound spiritual experience, to a revelation of sorts, well and the other… the other shows where the Marcus-Simon relationship is headed (yes, down the toilet is what I meant to say, let’s not mince any words here; if the writers didn’t want us to think that, they could have made up literally a hundred other reasons for Marcus to walk by Simon’s room, but it had to be on his way to the toilet. Talk about being obvious.).

But we didn’t want to talk about visual metaphors in this installment of our ‘Young Royals’ analysis; this is all about textual ones. Let’s keep it that way. 

Can you tell I’m itching to sketch another scene storyboard-style? But not in this post, I promise. So no drawings of Marcus desperately trying to hold it in as he makes (ever-yellowing) eyes at Simon, sorry.

So, back to Marcus’s interest in Simon’s, ahem, ‘music’.

Do we think it’s a coincidence that, when we hear Marcus sing at his favourite karaoke hangout, he objectively sucks at it?

Why would the writers insist on making him this bad at singing if it weren’t for the music = love metaphor? He hits all the wrong notes, both literally and metaphorically, when it comes to conquering Simon’s heart. He is just the wrong music (love) for Simon.

Once Simon and Marcus start to sing together, it seems to get even worse: The two of them don’t harmonize together at all. I’m sure, this whole karaoke scene had every viewer turn the volume down to stop their ears from bleeding. Translation: These two people don’t form a harmonious union and never will. Music is a metaphor on this show, and it never lets you down.

What’s more: Think of where this scene is set. It’s karaoke, i.e. metaphorically speaking: This is fake. It’s not a real concert. It’s make-believe. Karaoke is the very definition of not doing the real thing, of not being the real deal. It’s fun, but nothing serious. It’s singing, yes, but it means you fake your way through a pre-arranged, pre-recorded track. That’s what Marcus and Simon are doing. 

Metaphor-wise you couldn’t be any clearer that these two aren’t the real deal, at all. I mean, what music could be more fake than karaoke as a metaphor for their relationship? Playing the air-guitar? Pretend drums?

The metaphorical subtext is very clear as to what it thinks of Marcus and Simon’s relationship: It’s not real; it’s just metaphorical ‘karaoke’. And on top of that, they are just so out of tune with each other that it sounds discordant and jarring.

How different is that from the actual concert Simon gives (for Wilhelm) at the Valentine’s Ball, singing an actual original song that he wrote entirely himself. What a difference to karaoke that is! This is the real thing. This is what actual, real music sounds like…and yes, when I say ‘music’, I mean love.

Hell, if music is such a consistent metaphor for love on this show, what does it say about Marcus that he is so, so very bad at, ahem, ‘making music’? What does it say about his skills as a lover? Perhaps Simon should be glad that his ill-thought-out attempt at a hookup with him never went anywhere. If Marcus is as good in bed as he is at singing, then…well, thankfully none of us ever had to find that out, but the music metaphor on this show never lies, that’s for sure.

So, think of that metaphor and Marcus and cackle a bit, producing sad trombone sounds, if you like. I’m sure I will.

The main point here is that Simon has the choice between two types of music: Music that is horribly off-key and just fakery to begin with (Marcus) and music that, at least for now, follows the strict rules of classical sheet music (Wilhelm). This is a difficult situation to be stuck in for sure. Poor Simon.

So, is it any surprise that when, in season two, Simon and Wilhelm fight in the locker room, Simon brings up the fact that Marcus likes his ‘music’ and Wilhelm goes ballistic, “And I don’t?!”

Hint, hint: Metaphorically, they’re not talking about actual music at all. It’s a “Well, at least he loves me!”-“What, and I don’t?!” type of conversation.

But if Simon and Marcus are so very ill-suited to each other (musically and otherwise), as the music metaphor suggests, what about Simon and Wilhelm making music together? Do we ever see Simon and Wilhelm sing together? Do they harmonize nicely with each other?

Well, actually, so far there have only been a few hints at that on the show:

We see both, Simon and Wilhelm, sing together on Parents’ Day at the church. But they're not the only ones singing there. The entire choir, all the parents, students and teachers are singing, as well. And they’re all singing the Hillerska song (the epitome of tradition and rule-following on this show, as we’ve discussed above).

Nonetheless, both Simon and Wilhelm are smiling at each other as they sing along. And unlike Simon and Marcus later on, they clearly are in tune with each other, but also with everyone else around them.

Translation: They are both happy because they have just agreed to spend an entire weekend – just the two of them – together (in Wilhelm’s room, no less). They are happy and in the budding stages of early romance. They are also, however, still hiding inside the traditional structure of the school. Their love isn’t happening out in the open yet (metaphorically: they’re singing in tune with the entire school and all the parents, i.e. the older generations and upper hierarchy of society), and their music (love) is still hiding inside the Hillerska song (tradition and rule-following). It’s undeniably there, but it’s still folded into that traditionalist worldview. It’s not ‘out’ yet.

Now, if I were a writer on this show, I would make sure to give the viewers at least one scene of Wilhelm and Simon singing together in season three (which is, after all, going to be the final season of the show) as a pay-off for this slow metaphorical build-up. 

These two should be singing together, and they should harmonize beautifully with each other. A scene in which Simon sings and Wilhelm plays the piano might work, as well, as long as it’s crystal clear that this is the exact opposite of Marcus’ and Simon’s awful duet, as long as we instantly understand that this is beautiful and real as opposed to whatever acoustic torture we had to endure during Marcus’s karaoke scenes. 

And this time, no cutting off the bright and happy Major chord at the end of the song, you hear me?

Anyway this is my prediction/speculation. It’s what I would do, if I were a writer on this show. Alas I’m not, so who knows…

There has actually been another hint very early on on the show that Wilhelm and Simon would harmonize (musically and metaphorically): In the very first episode of the show, we actually hear them sing together. It’s just that they’re singing very quietly, in part disjointedly, in part humming and stopping abruptly in between syllables.

What scene do I mean? Well, the one we’ve discussed at length already in the first installment of this little ‘Young Royals’ analysis: when Wilhelm and Simon decide to leave Wilhelm’s initiation party, go outside and spend time together. 

We hear a drunk Wilhelm half-hum, half-babble the lyrics of the song Simon had sung earlier at the church, and for a few short lines, Simon joins in and half-hums, half-sings along.

Translation: It’s still very, very early in their developing relationship, but already they are singing just that tiny little bit together. The music (read: love) is not fully formed yet, but they’re already instinctively driven to singing with each other. And as they do it, they smile, and Wilhelm tells Simon that he heard him sing ‘from his heart’, as though he has already subconsciously grasped that ‘music’ is metaphorically ‘love’ on this show.

So, maybe that little disjointed and impromptu ‘singing’ scene in episode one did indeed foreshadow some type of music these two will be making together at the end of this show. It would only be fitting for the whole metaphor this show has developed so beautifully and so consistently throughout the two seasons shown so far.

Let’s not forget that, when Wilhelm visits Simon in Bjärstad to, ahem, ‘game’, a large poster can be seen on the wall behind them as they’re kissing. It doesn’t say some specific band’s name (which is what you would usually expect in a teenager’s bedroom), no, it just says ‘Music’ in big bold letters. Around and underneath the depicted guitar, the sentence runs on in at least two dozen different ways: “...makes life look beautiful,” “...makes my soul ache,” “...brings a tear to my eye,” “...rocks my world,” “...is fearless,” “...is passion,” and notably, at the very bottom of the poster, in big bold letters: “...keeps my heart beating.”

That’s what music does to Wilhelm and Simon. And when I say ‘music’ (you’ve guessed it), I mean love.

Once Marcus enters the picture in season two, however, the bottom half of the poster is actually covered, the words about a beating heart having disappeared behind two football stickers, which once more underlines the lackluster feelings on Simon’s part when it comes to that relationship.

But back in season one, as he kisses Wilhelm right in front of that poster, the words are clearly visible behind them because this is what is happening between the two of them: Music (well, at least metaphorical ‘music’) is making their hearts beat.

~fin~

Bonus scenes: What about Simon’s father?

As we have seen, the music metaphor binds Simon and Wilhelm together right from the start of season one. There is, however, another character that is bound to Simon by the same metaphor, and that’s his father. There the same symbolism is used in a more shattered way, though, to underscore how utterly broken that relationship is.

I think what a lot of viewers instantly loved about this show is that none of its characters are one-dimensional. It would have been so easy to make Simon’s dad (the alcoholic and drug addict, the violent and abusive father) a cartoon villain homophobe as well, but he isn’t a homophobe.

He has a severe addiction problem. He most likely physically abused his children and wife (we see a hint of that when he pushes Simon violently against a wall). His behaviour led to the family falling apart. The estrangement from his children and his binges must have taken a heavy toll on him because he can’t even remember his son’s sexual orientation (what a thing to forget about your own child!).

And yet, a homophobe he is not. 

And he clearly loves both his children dearly and wants to restore his relationship with them, which makes the scenes with him so difficult to watch. The show is just so brutally honest here about how the dynamics of a broken family like this work.

In short, Micke Eriksson isn’t an evil person; he is a sick person and a bad and abusive father. But he can love, and he does love.

And what do we see in his crappy little apartment when Simon visits him? Music – the number one metaphor for love on this show.

There is a keyboard by the window, and the first time Simon shows up at his dad’s place, there is a heap of unfolded clothes lying right on its keys.

Note how the show highlights the fact that this man is capable of love (music), but doesn’t really ‘use’ love in the way one is supposed to (the keyboard is used as a clothes rack or piece of furniture, essentially). This man feels love but doesn’t know how to really, truly express it, this tells us.

At one point (during a later visit), Micke specifically asks Simon if Simon wants to jam with him. This is a father reaching out and offering his music to his son. (And when I say ‘music’, I mean love.) The keyboard is now uncovered and open.

Simon, notably, doesn’t want to.

A few moments earlier, we do actually see Simon play a few disjointed notes on said keyboard.

Translation: Deep down Simon clearly still loves his dad, but he is not ready to restore that relationship (turn it into an actual complete song together with him). He doesn’t want to get hurt again.

His father reaches out to him again, brings up the idea of going to a concert together, and Simon half-heartedly hums a yes (mainly because he isn’t listening to his father anymore and is instead rummaging around in his cabinets). There are memories there of concerts they went to when Simon was still a child. Memories of taking Sara. Music as a metaphor for love, again…and again…and again. And in the most heartbreaking context imaginable: the broken relationship between a parent and their child.

Their whole interaction seems to imply that it was actually Micke that Simon learned music from; it’s where his musical talent most likely comes from. Think about that for a moment: Music is a metaphor for love and Simon ‘learned’ his ‘music’ from his dad. Yeah…

On the one hand, Marcus was clearly manipulating Simon when he told him that, having grown up with a father like that, Simon hadn’t had the best role model for love. On the other hand, and that’s what really makes this show so multi-layered and brutally honest, that’s probably still a true statement. (It’s just that Marcus hadn’t earned the right to say that to Simon in any way, shape or form. You know a show is good when even the baddies get to say true things even when it’s in a context where they should have better kept their trap shut.)

Because, you see, Simon probably did learn ‘music’ from his father, i.e. he learned what love and relationships look like from the catastrophic smouldering ruins into which his father had turned his marriage and the family life they had had. And yet Simon still loves his father, and his father still loves him. There’s still music there. There’s some broken-up and shattered melody there that these two share, and it’s truly heartbreaking.

To be honest, I don’t have a good feeling when it comes to Micke Eriksson in season three. I fear Simon might lose him one way or another, lose that one discordant, broken-up tune, but gain an entirely new melody with Wilhelm. But who knows…

And now for a little encore:

Now that I’ve undoubtedly made you sad with all the talk about Simon’s dad, let me throw you a tiny fun crumb right at the very end of this long blog post – a little treat for everyone of you who made it through the whole thing:

Let’s talk about Verbier!

I haven’t seen anyone discuss this before, but Verbier (which is mentioned quite a few times on this show) isn’t just a ski retreat for the rich and powerful, it’s also the venue of a rather important music festival in the classical music scene.

And what the Verbier Festival particularly prides itself on is the promotion of young talents. A certain young composer and his accompanying choir would fit right in.

Obviously, I know that the show doesn’t have the kind of budget to actually film any scenes in Verbier, so the festival will most likely never be mentioned on ‘Young Royals’.

But just to be sure we are all on the same page here: If Wilhelm ever went to Verbier, it wouldn’t be to order anything off Nils’ menu (if you know what I mean). 

No, Wilhelm would only go there because Simon would be there. He would go there to support him, to hear him sing; he would go there for his music. And when I say ‘music’, I mean…

Addendum: This article about the Music Metaphor now has an addition called “Working symbolism into the Original Score”. It features (among other things) more scenes with a metaphorical musical subtext on ‘Young Royals’.

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