August Horn of Årnäs

* Season 2
* Season 1

**August Horn of Årnäs** is one of the main characters in *Young Royals*. He is portrayed by Malte Gårdinger.

He is a member of the noble family Horn of Årnäs, a fictional family inspired by several real noble families in Sweden also named Horn. He is a second cousin of Prince Wilhelm's. In the second season it is revealed that he is himself of royal descent, likely via his paternal grandmother, and that he is now second in line to the throne. Pompous and popular, he is a very good friend of Wilhelm's older brother, Prince Erik. August is given the task of helping Wilhelm get used to the new school and incorporate him in his friend group at Hillerska. August has several problems and secrets of his own.

## Biography

### Background

He was born into a noble family known as Horn of Årnäs, clearly inspired by several real-life noble families called Horn in Sweden. He has inherited the estate of Årnäs from his late father, who was apparently a first cousin of the Queen. Though seen in the series as an aristocratic figure and the owner of a noble estate and an art collection, his family is struggling financially. This was shown when the headmistress told August his mother has not paid his tuition fee yet. August is reluctant to sell any part of his family estate or heirlooms due to his pride in his family. However, after he falls in love with Sara, he sells one of the valuable paintings he inherited from his father to buy the horse Rousseau for her.

In the second season it is revealed that he is, following the death of Crown Prince Erik, second in the line of succession to the throne, immediately behind Wilhelm. This probably means that his paternal grandmother was a Swedish princess, given that his father is a first cousin of the Queen and that he is a member of the (noble, but non-royal) Horn family on his father's side.

## Throughout the Series

### Season 1

When Wilhelm arrives, August immediately greets him and his brother warmly. During the choir performance, August expresses his interest in marrying Felice. After a conversation with Vincent and Nils after the choir performance, August realizes that Simon might be able to supply alcohol for Wilhelm's initiation party. August asks Simon to get him in contact with someone who can facilitate this and tells him that he will get invited in return.

At dinner time, Wilhelm initially asks August to sit with him, but tells him that first years all sit together at the end of the long table. The following day, Wilhelm joins Simon during lunch and chat with each other. Their conversation is interrupted by August, who encourages Wilhelm to move and sit next to him, claiming that he felt he had to "rescue" Wille from talking to Simon. After lunch, Simon tells him that he will bring some alcohol if he and Sara can attend the initiation party, and August accepts.

At night, he and the other boys dragged Wilhelm out his room, gagged and tied him up to a statue as they make him subject to many cruel acts of hazing that's part of the initiation. After Wilhelm gets cleaned up and the party eventually begins, and most students drinks heavily, including Wilhelm. During the height of the party, Wilhelm heads outside with Simon. After a while August comes looking for him, so they hide from him.

The morning after the party, August puts Wilhelm on the spot saying that he noticed how he disappeared with someone the night before. Later on in the episode, he effectively serves as an obstacle between Wilhelm and Simon. Wilhelm becomes increasingly frustrated with August, especially when August steals his phone to talk to Erik and tease Wilhelm.

### Season 2

#### Episode 1

In the season 2 opener, August is first shown alone at the school, wallowing in his own anger and self pity. He is working out, eating bland healthy meals and texting Wilhelm, begging for forgiveness. He prepares for the party, psyching himself up, alone in The Society headquarters, before going out to join Vincent and Nils. The two make him feel left out with their stories of their holiday. Later, Wilhelm and the other Forest Ridge first years show up, Nils and Vincent call him out to stop them from coming in. Wilhelm subtly threatens August, humiliating him in front of his friends, until he allows the first years into the party.

The next day at the church, the headmistress announces the 120-year-anniversary celebrations, and August is thrilled to be graduating in the same year. After the assembly, the boys welcome back Alexander, and August is uncomfortable as Alexander believes him to be the one who set him up with the drugs. At lunch, Wilhelm undermines August again, threatening him into allowing first years to eat before the third years. When he is walking outside later, Sara runs up to him to thank him for getting her into Hillerska, but he is angry with her because he thinks it was her who told Wille who posted the video. She assures him it wasn't her and he starts to hyperventilate. She brings him down from his panic attack, and then runs off, leaving him to breathe. That evening, he is sitting in the room when Wilhelm sees Ayub's story of Simon on a date, and gives his cousin an angry look.

#### Episode 2

In the morning, August arrives at the bathroom to see a queue forming. Vincent informs him that the first years have decided to use the third years' bathroom. Wilhelm comes outside, and Vincent expects August to tell him off, with the latter instead choosing to give in and walk back to his room. Later, when Wilhelm is potentially going to be removed from the school, August expresses the opinion that maybe he'd be better off, looking disappointed when his cousin reveals he is staying. He goes back to his room and takes some ADHD medication. At rowing practice, he shouts at his team. In the evening, Sara comes to visit him, telling him she has discovered it was Felice who told Wille about the video. She tells him to turn himself in before Wille can and then asks to kiss him and does so. She tells him she wants to sleep with him and leaves, with August left a bit shocked, but not unpleasantly so.

In the morning, he sees Vincent and Nils at breakfast, and the two ask him to come to the shooting range later. He refuses the offer of bread, noting that he is looking after his figure, and pointing out that Nils could do the same. After a run in the evening, he comes back to the dorm to find that the other members of Forest Ridge have ousted him as prefect and rowing captain in favour of Vincent. At the end of the episode, he listens to a voicemail from Jan-Olof, telling him to come to the palace to talk to the Queen. August assumes this is the retailliation he has been expecting.

#### Episode 3

August calls his stepfather to ask about the feasibility of turning himself in to the police. Rickard advises against it. At lunch the next day, Vincent tells August he is on dishes duty for skipping rowing training, and August storms out of the lunch room. In his room, he throws away his ADHD pills. Later, he heads to the stables to ask Sars if she would like to come round later to talk. She does so, assuming he meant 'talk' as code for sex. He assures her he just meant to talk, and tells her that the Queen has invited him to the palace. She talks him through it, telling him he will be able to get through it, and tells him she does not think he's the worst person in the world like he feels he is. They then sleep together.

At the rowing competition, the team do not win, and August is disappointed along with the rest of the team, although he defends Simon when Vincent shouts at him, saying that the whole point is to build a sense of community, 'which we don't have anyway.' Later, August prepares to visit the palace, clearly very stressed and scared. He is driven there and talks to the Queen. She surprises him by not telling him off, but instead informing him that he is to be Wilhelm's backup. He is very grateful but disappointed to learn that the Queen herself did not make this decision, and is still angry with him for what he did to her son.

#### Episode 4

Opens with August on the shooting range, very content in the knowledge that he is Wilhelm's backup. He watches as Wille is made to stand on the table by his housemates, and joins in somewhat unenthusiastically with the Forest Ridge song. He sees Sara in the locker bay, and texts her asking whether she is free. The two run back to his room together, and sleep together. Afterwards, he receives a call from Jan-Olof, asking for his social media passwords, and explaining some of the intricacies of the role of Wilhelm's backup. He takes the ADHD medicine out of the bin where he has discarded it, and she questions him taking it. He confesses to Sara about his new role, and invites her to come to the Valentine's ball with him. She agrees, telling him she likes him. However, later, as he is preparing for her to come round, he receives a text from her telling him that she is going to go with the girls instead. Feeling betrayed, he lashes out at the party by telling Alexander that it was Wille who suggested they let him take the fall for the drugs. Sara finds him to apologise, and he is upset, asking whether she was just using him for sex. The next day, he receives a text from Jan-Olof, attaching the script for the 120-year-anniversary speech.

#### Episode 5

In the evening, August is sitting with some boys from his house, when Wilhelm comes into the room to look at him angrily, before leaving. This unsettles August. In the morning, the school is preparing for the royal visit, and August talks to Jan-Olof about his speech.

Later on, Sara turns up at his door, crying because Felice has sold Rousseau to the wrong people. He comforts her and lets her in. In the morning, he phones his mother and asks her to sell a painting in order to buy the horse. He comes back and watches Sara sleep for a minute, a fond look on his face. He eventually wakes her up, and she apologises for hurting him, explaining that she was stressed about him hurting her and making complications like Wilhelm created for Simon as a member of the royal family. She makes him promise he won't hurt her and he does so. During the school day, August spots Sara, and grins at her.

Later, when Sara arrives back at the school, having had dinner at home, she runs into August. She warns him that Simon has found out about the video, and is going to the police. She tells him to go hand himself in before Simon can report him.

#### Episode 6

August calls Jan-Olof, and tries to ask for advice on what to do with the video, but is instead shut down, and told he is supposed to make no problems. Alexander comes to tell him what time it is, and he calls the boy into his room, scheming to come up with a way to avoid Simon going to the police. Later, he texts Wilhelm, asking him to meet him in the Palace. Here, he blackmails Wilhelm into stopping Simon, telling him he has convinced Alexander to take the fall for the video, and threatening to throw Micke under the bus as well.

Felice, Sara, Wille and Simon find August later on the shooting range. Wilhelm holds a gun to August's chest, forcing him to kneel and shouting at him to reveal the person who told him Simon was planning on going to the police. Sara eventually reveals that it was her and the others turn from her in disgust. Wilhelm spits at August's feet before leaving. August pulls Sara into a hug, but she pulls away, betrayed that he hasn't turned himself in.

He practices the speech, all while trying desperately to get Sara to talk to him. On the day of the 120-year-anniversary celebration, he greets the Queen and Duke, along with Wilhelm, lining up with them and the Headmistress for photos. He sees Sara on the way out of the school and stops her, telling her he bought Rousseau for her. She tells him that it's not the point, and leaves. He sits watching the celebrations, and Jan-Olof tells him he thinks he will have to do the speech. He is thrilled, but then disappointed when Wilhelm decides to do the speech after all. When his cousin starts to go off script, August is annoyed, thinking that if he had been the one to give the speech, this would not have happened.

## Physical Appearance

Tall and pale skinned with curly black hair, August is considered attractive by many. He is shown to have some self-image/body issues around episode 4, where we see him record himself while working out and being unsatisfied about his body.

## Personality

Sure of himself and of his status, August seems to think he is above many others (as shown by his treatment of Simon and Sara). He is confident, extroverted, a leader, and someone who, to many, seems like an ideal student. Because of his status, good looks, and open demeanor, he is attractive to many and therefore able to manipulate them.

However, August is not as confident as he lets people believe. He obsesses over the way his body looks in the mirror, works out excessively, and takes pictures of himself shirtless often. When he briefly dates Felice, he worries that she is not paying enough attention to him, and often works hard to gain attention from Wilhelm as well. When losing Årnäs, his home, is threatened, he becomes upset, since that is his only tie to the royal monarchy.

August values his social status very highly, emphasising on multiple occasions his closeness to former Crown Prince Erik, as well as expressing fondness for the Queen herself. He immediately attempts to tie himself to Wilhelm as a means of strengthening this connection. The loss of his money represents losing status, and he refuses to sell any land or paintings to afford to stay at Hillerska, as these assets add to his overall value. Vincent tells Wilhelm that August's whole life is his devotion to the role of prefect, and the school in general. August takes the role - and that of rowing captain - very seriously, and it is suggested that he is good at his job. When the Queen offers him the role of being Wilhelm's backup, August's joy at the prospect suggests this is his biggest dream, although a later phone conversation with Jan-Olof makes it clear that he has not quite thought through the implications of the role. He tries to assert himself in the role by suggesting improvements to the speech, and asking questions of Jan-Olof, only to be brushed aside, reminded once again of his subjugation to Wilhelm.

## Relationships

### Romantic

#### Felice

Felice and August establish an official relationship by episode 4, though it seems more due to convenience than because they really like each other. August is far more invested, and jealous and insecure, about his relationship with Felice than she seems to be. It is heavily implied that August wants to be with Felice because of her money and royal connections, whilst Felice wants to be with August because she couldn't get Wilhelm and he seems to be the next best option. When August kisses Sara to try and pry her for more information on Felice's relationship with Wilhelm, Felice publicly ends their relationship online.

#### Sara

The first suggestion of a romantic connection between August and Sara is in season 1, when August forcefully kisses Sara. The kiss seems to be less of a desire to kiss her and more of a self-centred desire to display his greatness and generosity to someone he views as weak and lesser. At the end of the season, Sara reveals to August that she knows it was him who posted the video, and he offers to help her get into Hillerska as a boarder in exchange for keeping quiet. Sara agrees and kisses him.

In season 2, August has assumed that Sara told Wille the truth, and she reassures him this is not true. They connect when she calms him down from a panic attack. This interaction leads Sara to question the truth in her friends' words, and she goes back to August's room to kiss him again, saying she wants to 'try something.' Upon kissing him, Sara declares that she wants to sleep with him. He later invites her back to his room to talk, and confesses his fears surrounding the Queen and the royal court in general. This leads to them sleeping together. Sara tells August she does not think he is the worst person in the world, which cements their relationship in a time when August feels like a terrible person. They spend more time together, and August confesses his new role as Wilhelm's backup, then asks Sara to the ball with him. She accepts but ends up backing out as she is scared August's role as backup will lead to problems in the relationship. August is angry and upset, but the two make up again when Sara goes to him crying because Felice has sold Rousseau to the wrong people. August promises not to hurt Sara. When Sara learns that Simon knows the truth about who posted the video, she warns August, begging him to confess before Simon can report him. He says he will, but does not, instead blackmailing Wilhelm and Simon. When this comes out, Sara admits she was in love with August, but when he tells her back, she pulls away, hurt and angry that he has betrayed her. He reveals that he has bought Rousseau for Sara, selling a painting to do so, but Sara tells him this will not fix anything. The fact that August is willing to sell the painting for her, but not to save his position at the school is telling of his feelings. Sara ends the season with a phone call to the police to report August.

### Family

#### Louise

August seems to have a poor relationship with his mother, seemingly blaming her for his father's death. When his money runs out, he seems angry, but cooly declares that at least he knows he cannot rely on her.

#### Rickard

It is implied that August did not take well to his stepfather, instead holding desperately onto the status his father provides him. When someone assumes Rickard is his father, August is quick to point out that he is not, instead describing Carl Johan Horn of Årnäs.

#### Prince Erik

Although they do not share much screen time together, August and Prince Erik seem to be close friends from their time together at Hillerska. August often steals the spotlight from Wilhelm when he's with Erik, like when he insisted they take a picture together, or when he stole Wille's phone to talk to Erik first. Erik, unlike Wilhelm, likes August and doesn't mind this behavior, laughing at his crass joke in episode 1 where Wilhelm does not.

#### Prince Wilhelm

Wilhelm and August are implied to have been friends from childhood, but this is most likely through proxmity rather than actual closeness. Wilhelm finds August annoying and overbearing when he is first reunited with him in season 1. August clings to his friendship with Wilhelm as proof of his closeness with the royal family. The two bond in episode 4 over the deaths of August's father and Erik. When August sees Wilhelm sleeping with someone, he starts filming, thinking it will be funny, however, when he discovers the partner to be Simon, August is lost for what to do. He spends the next few days watching and rewatching the video, trying to work it out. When Wilhelm learns that August cannot pay his school fees, his first instinct is to call the court and ask for it to be sorted.

#### Queen Kristina

The Queen represents the height of society, closeness to whom August strives for. He expresses disappointment at the fact that the Queen will not attend the parent's day at the school.

In season 2, it is clear that Queen Kristina does not like August, as she knows what he has done to her son. She offers him the role as backup, but is quick to make it clear it was against her wishes that this decision has been made.

#### Carl Johan Horn of Årnäs

Although Carl Johan Horn of Årnäs and August's relationship was never shown or mentioned. August seems to have been affected by his fathers suicide. During Parent dinner, when someone questions Rickard and Augusts relationship, Augusts makes sure to point out that Rickard is only his stepfather and his biological father is in fact Carl Johan Horn of Årnäs, implying that he's ashamed of Rickard being his dad now and not Carl (This could also have been said just to make sure that everyone knew his position and power).

### Friends

#### Vincent

August seems to be quite close to Vincent throughout the series, however the two don't seem to have anything more than a surface level closeness. At the open of season 2, it is clear that Vincent is much closer to Nils, and the two tease August for not joining them on their winter holidays. Through Wilhelm's manipulation, Vincent takes charge as prefect and rowing captain and August feels betrayed. He refers to his ex-friend as "Judas Iscariot".

#### Nils

The individual relationship between Nils and August is not really explored, but the two seem to be at least surface level friends. However, August does see himself as a higher class than Nils, stating proudly that his friend does not belong to The Society, with another boy explaining that Nils is "Nouveau riche".

#### Henry

The individual relationship between Henry and August is not really explored, but the two seem to be at least surface level friends. Henry is also a member of The Society.

#### Walter

The individual relationship between Walter and August is not really explored, but the two seem to be at least surface level friends. They both row on the Forest Ridge team.

#### Prince Erik

August and Erik were close friends at Hillerska, maybe even as close as brothers.

### Enemies

#### Prince Wilhelm

Wilhelm uses the fact that August cannot afford the school fees to force his cousin to shift the blame for the drugs off Simon and onto Alexander. In his anger, August posts the video he has taken of Wilhelm and Simon. He learns too late that Wilhelm has sorted the money problems, and tries to make it up to his cousin, bringing him breakfast and offering his help. When Wilhelm learns it was August who posted the video, he is blind with anger, declaring that August is no longer part of his family.

In season 2, Wilhelm burns August out of a photograph of him and Erik. When he reaches school, he explains to Felice that he is going to destroy everything that August values, which plays out when the prince undermines August's position as prefect and rowing captain, and sowing the seeds of doubt in Vincent's mind. Eventually, Vincent takes over both positions, and August breaks down, torn between anger and self-loathing. He is excited to learn he will serve as Wilhelm's backup, but clearly hates the fact that he is still beneath his cousin, being reminded on multiple opportunities to refer to him as Crown Prince. At the end of season 2, August blackmails Simon via Wilhelm into keeping quiet about the video, and WIlhelm snaps in anger and holds a gun to his cousin's head, shouting at him to reveal who it was who told him Simon was planning on going to the police. When he leaves, he spits on the ground where he has forced August to kneel. During the 120 year anniversary celebration, August is forced to watch as Wilhelm does the speech he expected to make.

## Trivia

* His dad committed suicide which is why he got sent to Hillerska Boarding School.
* The camera on his phone has a few dead pixels.
* He was the captain of the boys' rowing team and a prefect at Hillerska.
* He seems to struggle with body image issues (showing signs of body dysmorphia) as he is seen excessively working out and looking at the (very small) amount of fat he can grab onto on his stomach while doing so.

## Appearances

* *Episode 2*
* *Episode 3*
* *Episode 4*
* *Episode 5*
* *Episode 6*
* *Episode 2*
* *Episode 3*
* *Episode 4*
* *Episode 5*
* *Episode 6*