Whenever you’re dealing with a love story between two male characters, major clashes tend to erupt between its fans over the question of who of these two men does what in the bedroom, with each side aggressively arguing their point in a manner reminiscent of the fervour with which supporters of opposing sports teams tend to club each other half to death with bats and shovels after a disputed tie.
Fans will argue about the ‘Top-or-Bottom’ question until they’re as blue in the face as the characters are in other (so far painfully underused) parts of their anatomy because the show in question might draw out the inevitable and leave everyone unsatisfied: the viewers in front of their TV sets demanding to find out things that not even R-rated films and shows depict openly without a good helping of subtext…and the characters in-universe because they are forced to wait for that specific form of sex to happen until an important storytelling intersection in the narrative is reached – because, unlike in real life, nothing in fiction just happens at random when two people just, well, feel like it on a sunny Thursday afternoon; everything either serves a symbolic purpose or furthers the plot.
To be quite honest, I always find it a bit baffling to hear that people are this invested in the question of what role who prefers between the sheets, but when there might be subtext in a fictional context pointing us in one or the other direction, I’m totally game to put said subtext under the microscope. (If you’re a long-time reader of this little blog, you might have realized by now that I basically live for subtext. So, the chances of me leaving anything subtext-driven well alone are exactly zero.)
When it comes to real people you know in real life (and that should go without saying), invasive speculations of this sort are obviously off-limits. It’s also more likely than not that you’re going to guess wrong because real people’s sexual preferences in real life are surprisingly random. (That’s actually the most important difference between fiction and reality: In real life, things happen at random. The weather you, dear reader, are enjoying or cursing right now, for example, doesn’t come with any metaphorical meaning attached to it; it just is! In meticulously constructed fictional universes, on the other hand, things don’t just happen by coincidence. They are meaningful. That’s the most important difference between the realm of fiction that you might travel to with a book in hand or lounging on your sofa in front of the TV screen and the real world that surrounds you.)
By the way, the correct answer to this particular question if it’s posed by, say, a tone-deaf colleague or other insensitive acquaintance of yours is, of course, “We switch sides at half time. There’s a stopwatch, a whistle and everything.”
Obviously, things are very different when we look at fictional characters in a fictional context; nothing should be off-limits here: In a well-written story, everything about these characters (even their sexual preferences in the bedroom) symbolically interacts with the rest of the subtext or informs the wider plot and characterization.
The writers, for one, should definitely know which of the characters they’ve created does, likes and prefers what in bed – even if they never directly show anything of the kind on screen.
One of the things that I noticed is that all these heated arguments among viewers about this particular question will curiously stay entirely on the surface of the text: The points that are routinely brought up are usually superficial and textual in nature and reflect direct (non-subtextual) aspects of a scene or a few lines of dialogue. (“The character looked/moved/walked/talked/held himself in this particular way vs. that particular way,” etc.) Some of the, shall we say, simpler arguments even point to outward appearances. (“Character A is taller while character B is shorter.” “Character A is more delicate and slender while character B looks more brawny and tough.”) To which I say…well, I don’t think I even have to say anything here; just insert your own eye-roll emojis at this point.
If you’re reading this little blog, chances are you came here because you, too, are intrigued by the fact that good stories have subtext and really good stories can do pretty much anything with that subtext. So, when we ask a question of a work of fiction (even a question as fraught as this particular one), we should always try to approach it with a subtextual lens in mind:
What symbolism have we got? What literary devices does this story use? What about metaphors, motifs, symbols, allegory, etc. How do the different layers of subtext interact with each other? What symbolic functions do the characters serve in the text?
Which is exactly what we’re going to do now!
We’re going to look at the subtext (not the text!) to try and find out something about…that which shall not be named and might forever remain hidden underneath several obfuscating layers of symbolism and Wilhelm and Simon’s bed sheets.
In the text below, I will show you how I approach this question and (without claiming to be right, of course) I will suggest at least one possible reading of the, ahem, bedroom arrangement as it might be unfolding between the two main characters of ‘Young Royals’. (You can consider or like this interpretation or just dismiss it outright, and perhaps season three will add some new subtextual information for us, that will prove or falsify my hypothesis.) I will show you how I approach and analyze scenes, and we will do it together step by step.
The reason why we’re going to do it now (before the final season comes out) is because I want you to keep an eye out for it together with me once those last six episodes air; I want you to be aware of the particular subtextual elements I have my eye on, and then we can all compare notes at the end, have a nice chuckle together in case season three vindicates my theory or just collectively shrug our shoulders and dismiss it if season three disproves it.
What do you think? Are you game?
In order to take that ‘Top-or-Bottom’ question apart from, well, top to bottom, we will now have to examine a scene we have already discussed and try to determine if it is, in fact, a double-coded scene, i.e. if underneath that one layer of subtext which we have already addressed, there lies hidden a second layer of subtext…
…a second layer that is actually sexual subtext.
Follow me under the cut if you want to know things you cannot unsee. (Or don’t – if there are intimate things about your two favourite characters you would rather not know and feel are better left unsaid.)