Interesting Take - Tumblr Posts

Unpopular opinion but I don't feel like August got the short end of the stick or a comeuppance by Wille abdicating.

Sure, it would be a great narrative foil for him to have his heart broken by the one person he felt real around *and* get stuck with being a monarch so that he could never be real again. But I don't think that's what's happening.

There wasn't a single scene or moment in season 3 that made me think, "Hmmm August would hate being king and feel like a faker doing it." Yes, August has anxiety and mental health issues like Wille. But the difference here is that Wille's anxiety was triggered whenever he was forced to deal with his royal duties. August's wasn't. His anxiety was triggered by other things, and his royal obligations were an escape. (I keep thinking about him eating that piece of cake so casually at Wille's birthday reception, where during the rest of the season we mostly see him avoiding food and finding reassurance in hunger.)

Plus, I honestly think Wille would have felt more conflicted in abdicating if he thought it would make August miserable. He doesn't like August and I don't think he necessarily forgives August for what he did with the video (what does forgiveness mean anyway?), but in the interaction at the party, it seems to me like Wille was releasing his bad will toward August. Wille can see that August is, like himself and like Eric, a person who has made terrible mistakes and hurt people, and who wants to be better/more than his mistakes. He doesn't have to like August--and he *doesn't* like August--but he no longer wants to punish August. Wille would have hesitated if he thought abdicating would be a punishment on August.

Finally, August is how old? 19? He's got plenty of opportunities to fall in love again with someone he feels good around. His dating pool might be more limited, but that doesn't make it impossible. Most of us do not end up spending the rest of our lives with our first loves.

Sure, it can be fun to imagine your most hated character having an unhappy ending. But the thing I loved about the finale was the sense that all the central characters, and even many of the side characters, had their arcs resolved in a way that set them up for a better future.

I think what's interesting about Maul, given his upbringing, is that when confronted with a lover (and it is a confrontation), he doesn't know how to treat them tenderly or with affection.

If all he knows is the direct result of his upbringing, he understands the way of pain, the need to subjugate, to dominate, to control a situation that will rapidly degenerate if he cannot maintain the tightest grip, then our expectation is more of the same:

Suffering. Abstaining from pleasure in favour of control because everything is a test, and nothing is offered without wanting something in return.

It's just what he knows.

But what if his partner turned the tables?

What if the greatest threat Maul faces when confronted with tenderness is the paradigm shift experienced by feeling warmth from another? I think that just might ruin him.

More, I don't think he knows what to do with it, or you, Reader.

You might just need to teach him.