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Thoughts about Simon Eriksson below cut, responses in good faith welcome.

I’m thinking about Simon right now, because in the fic I want to write next, I want him to get in a fight with Sara, and I want Simon to be Wrong about what they’re fighting about. To clarify, Simon being wrong doesn’t mean Sara is 100% right—that would be boring, wouldn’t it? Anyway they’re 14/15 and 16 in this fic, so they’re a little younger, and it’s part of a canon divergent universe that goes in a very different direction from canon long before canon even starts. Sara is the main character. It’s her story.

So here’s the thing: I want fourteen-year-old Simon to be wrong and I want him to be a little petty and vicious about it and I even want him to be not a good brother to Sara for a time.

I actually like Simon a lot, even if I tend to write him mostly as a secondary character in my fics and not a main character. There is one fandom narrative about Simon, however, that isn’t personally appealing to me as a fanfic writer and fan, and that is the narrative of Simon as Perfect Martyred Angel Who Did Nothing Wrong Ever In His Life. I do enjoy Simon’s moments of moral clarity and maturity, and I do think the people around him sometimes take advantage of his patience with them.

On the other hand, I like that Simon is actually… imperfect and human and we don’t have to put him on a pedestal or wrap him in a soft blanket? Like he lies to Linda and hides his secret tutoring from her, he does things for Sara she doesn’t ask him to do, he sees Micke behind Sara and Linda’s back, he pulls Rosh and Ayub into a physical fight with August that they don’t want to be part of. And sometimes Simon is boldly speaking truth to power but other times he’s just being a little bit cheeky and provocative the way that teenagers can be.

In short, Simon can be as messy as many of his peers at Hillerska, especially in season 1, but hey, the rebound with Marcus in season 2 also counts! While individual instances of messiness can be more or less sympathetic depending on a situation, I feel people do Simon a disservice when they retroactively frame his entire character through the lens of the put-upon martyr. Also it’s just… less fun and more boring to me to view Simon as Always Right and Always Suffering.

On the other other hand, I also understand where some of the Saint Simon fanon is coming from. My theory—I think at least some of it is a response to an imbalance in the show’s writing (especially by season 3?) and how the writers drop threads related to Simon’s arc in season 1. I’ve talked in posts before about how the Simon-August conflict is totally dropped when it shouldn’t have been, and something should have closed the loop between them. I won’t elaborate too much on that, for now. I do actually feel that Simon and Sara’s conflict was effectively resolved in s3 but I also know there are still Sara haters out there in the year 2025 who think Simon should have left Sara to rot. So, you know.

In addition, enough critical-of-s3 fans have raised the idea (one I agree with, generally) that… Wilhelm is not always a great partner to Simon. A lot of folks see a narrative where Simon’s often taking care of Wilhelm’s feelings, but Wilhelm isn’t doing it in return for Simon. And then a lot of us are worried by Wilhelm’s anger issues and Simon bearing witness to them. I don’t know if this is an impression the writers intended to convey to the audience? Like I believe Lisa is on record as saying that the video stuff has died down and isn’t affecting Simon as much by season 2, but that seems to contradict what we see in s3 when Simon’s facing unprecedented internet harassment. I think the Wilhelm-adjacent pain Simon faces often gets swallowed up by Wilhelm’s pain. The writers find Wille’s pain pretty. I don’t think they realize how much they do.

Long story short, I think some of the Simon Did Nothing Wrong fanon is an attempt to respond to the part where the show does kind of neglect Simon’s emotional needs. And that’s valid. And I get it. And I know some people mean it in a tongue-in-cheek way whereas other people mean it in a much more serious way.

But on my end I kind of want to do right by Simon by letting him fuck up sometimes. Let Simon Do Wrong Things, and not even in a hot way! Because that is an interesting part of his character and I wanna explore it!

Anyway let me know if you’re open for me bouncing fic ideas off of you, I am in search of others who will discuss Nuanced Simon Eriksson with me.

Now I'm not saying that JD Vance killed the Pope, per se. I just think his actions raise some questions, like for example: Did JD Vance kill the Pope?

been missing them :(

Silence

Neither of them has said anything in the past forty-five minutes, and it is not comfortable at all. The opposite if he is being honest. For the first time in his life, he feels warm and safe, not needing all the idle talk just to make it look less weird. He is studying for his finals, and Wille is at the other side of the room, but not too far away, reading his new novel, which he is glued to these days. They make eye contact from time to time and smile at each other as if they are sharing a secret. Wille had gotten up and made them their favorite drinks earlier, coffee for Simon and tea for himself, and they are back to their own thing.

That was the thing he lacked with his ex-boyfriends before. The familiarity and safety of sitting in complete silence, not feeling the need to fill up the room with any conversation, or not having any strange feeling in his gut because he doesn’t know what to say and what the other person will think of him. Is he too boring? Too chatty? Too emotional or too distant. He doesn’t think twice with Wille. He can just be. 

He has never been in love before. Or he didn’t know what love was. He didn’t think he would recognize it even if he saw it, but right now it is all there, in front of his eyes. It is in the way Wille turns the pages silently. The way his eyes widen with something exciting happening in the book, but he doesn't make a noise because Simon is studying. The way he left Simon’s coffee beside him and massaged his tense shoulders without uttering a word with a kiss on his head before he left. No words spoken but it tells him everything he needs. This is love.

1.06 | 2.06 | 3.06

yr animation :D

Still figuring out how tumblr works :)

Song: jungle - Emma Louise

this line right here!!!

Currently praying my exams r over soon so that I can go back to drawing silly little animations. MY HANDS ARE ITCHING.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has to re-read the last chapter of my fic before writing the next one. I straight-up almost forgot the existence of an entire character :'). Would be a little bit embarrassing.