Wilmon

Wilmon is the slash ship between Prince Wilhelm and Simon Eriksson from the Young Royals fandom.

Canon
Wilhelm takes notice of Simon on his first day of school at Hillerska Boarding School, where Simon is singing in the choir as part of his welcome. He is visibly fond of the boy’s singing, but the pair do not talk until after class one day when Wilhelm strikes up a conversation with Simon to introduce himself and compliment his contribution to a discussion on politics. August calls Wilhelm away from Simon and tells him to sit at the head of table with the third years. Later, Simon goes to his dad’s apartment to ask for help acquiring booze, and when his father suggests that he’s trying to impress “a cute boy,” he doesn’t deny it and smiles. Wilhelm once again approaches Simon while drunk at his initiation party, and invites him to hang out outside, where they discuss the choir performance from earlier and Hillerska. When August comes looking for Wilhelm, the prince tells Simon to hide because he doesn’t want to talk to his cousin. Simon begins to mimic August’s calls, and Wilhelm covers his mouth so he doesn’t reveal their location. Episode 1 ends with them staring at each other.

In the next episode, the two have started a friendship. They are shown sitting by each other in meals and classes, and because Simon is trying out for the rowing team, Wilhelm offers him advice. They are interrupted once again by August. A few days later, Wilhelm is reluctant to go to morning rowing practice and lays in bed scrolling through Simon’s Instagram profile. August comes to fetch him, but Wilhelm doesn’t make any move to go until he looks out the window and sees Simon, to which he starts rushing to get ready and cuts off a phone conversation with his brother Erik. They interact a little during practice in the form of laughs and smiles. They are also later shown to study together after school, although August once again comes and makes Simon uncomfortable when he shifts the conversation to their differing class and ethnicities, and Simon leaves with Sara.

Later, Simon invites Wilhelm to skip rowing practice and go watch Rosh’s soccer game, and Wilhelm agrees. He fakes feeling under the weather to August, sneaks out of his dorm room, and takes a bus to meet up in Simon’s hometown Bjärstad. Wilhelm goes to get hotdogs for Simon and him, and Ayub teases Simon for like-liking Wilhelm and getting flustered. The three stand side by side watching the game and Simon records some of Wilhelm’s reactions.

After the game, they drive home on the back of Ayub and Rosh’s motorbikes. Wilhelm attempts to sneak back into school undetected, but August intercepts and reprimands him because he saw his cousin on Simon’s Instagram story. August gives him Alexander’s dinner duty for sneaking out without permission and warns him against his association with Simon, saying that he may just be using Wilhelm for popularity.

Meanwhile, Simon returns home and finds Sara sitting at the kitchen table drawing. She tells him he missed dinner, and he says he was showing Wilhelm around Bjärstad. Sara asks what happened to him not wanting to make any friends at Hillerska, and he says people change. To which she replies, “Isn’t that the thing about the royal family? That they never change?” Simon doesn’t reply, and he gets a text from Wilhelm asking him to take down the story showing him.

The final scene of episode 2 occurs at a horror movie screening in school. Wilhelm and Simon are sitting next to each other and Wilhelm lays his hand on his knee with his pinky finger overlapping onto Simon. Slowly, Simon starts to interlock their fingers more. Wilhelm looks at him with a straight face, before holding Simon’s hand tighter and starting to smile, but when he sees Sara glance down at their hands, he panics and leaves the room.

He hurries down the hallway and pauses at a school plaque reading, “You own the school. You are responsible for its legacy.” At this point, he is also biting his nails, breathing heavily, and holding his hand up to his chest, which are all indicators of his anxiety. Wilhelm sits on the windowsill and opens the window for fresh air, and Simon starts coming down the hallway after him to make sure he’s okay. Wilhelm tries to play off his exit as due to the temperature of the room, and Simon kisses him. When Wilhelm doesn’t react, he kisses him again, and Wilhelm breaks away after hearing the students in the other room scream at the movie. He begins to say, "I'm not..." but never finishes his sentence. Simon turns to leave, but Wilhelm grabs him by the sleeve and finally kisses him back. ...

Fanon
Despite the show having only been released recently, there is a large fandom surrounding it already. As Wilhelm is the protagonist of Young Royals and his relationship with Simon, who is also a main character, plays a major part in his story, Wilmon is the most popular ship in the Young Royals fandom. Majority of the fanfictions so far are based around resolving the conflict that season 1 leaves off on, which is where Wilhelm and Simon break up due to Wilhelm's wish to remain closeted and the public denial of their relationship. There are also many crossovers that deal with Wilhelm seeking guidance from Henry of Red White and Royal Blue, as that series is also about a queer romance between a prince and someone not of aristocratic blood. In these fanfictions, Wilhelm publicly comes out against the wishes of his family and his want to keep his life private and attempts to rekindle the relationship with Simon.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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