#this is what kevin does

[lucky-slice]

Do you understand how much kevin respects neil? And i don't mean when it comes to exy, like sure there's a whole lot of you're not good enough followed by you will make court bluh bluh bluh, i mean fundamentally as a human.

Kevin and Neil's conversation after the truth of Neil's father is revealed drives me absolutely insane because I think it highlights a lot about how Kevin views Neil.

so indulge me for a bit....

I think a lot of people forget, in light of Andrew choking Kevin for not telling him the truth, that Kevin's initial reaction was to tell Neil to run.

*sorry for the quality - these are all screenshots off my phone

Kevin's instinct is to tell Neil to save himself, despite what that would mean for the team's success and for Kevin himself. This is significant to me for two reasons.

It highlights that Kevin genuinely cares about Neil outside of his exy potential. For most people, this would be a pretty obvious response to finding out your teammate has a guaranteed death sentence if they stick around, so it might not seem all that meaningful, but Kevin was raised in such an environment were you continued to play no matter what - even at the risk of death. Kevin is unflinchingly callous when it comes to exy and his teammates (*see his reaction to Seth's death), but he is frantic in his concern for Neil in contrast to his fairly passive response to basically anyone else's wellbeing outside of exy. Neil's death will have no real impact on Kevin. If Neil dies or goes to the ravens, nothing changes for Kevin. He is not at a greater risk of being hurt by Riko or the Moriyama's nor will his exy career be effected. That's not to say he would tell Neil to stay if he cared about him any less, but there is a desperation that implies a depth beyond just that of a teammate.

The fact that Kevin is frantic and desperate for Neil to leave, gives weight to his decision to keep teaching Neil in the aftermath of the revelation.

Neil doesn't want to run - he wants to be Neil Josten until the end. He gave Kevin his game and now he's asking him to keep it and Kevin obliges.

This is essentially Kevin promising that he will keep Neil's secret. He will allow Neil to wear his mask and continue teaching him despite the fact that Neil is essentially a dead man walking. This, to me, is Kevin ultimately respecting Neil and his choice. At any moment, Kevin has the ability to got to Wymack or Andrew and give Neil the chance at surviving, but that would mean betraying Neil.

Some people (certainly the foxes) would view refusing Neil's request as the proper and morally correct thing to do. But I think Kevin's immediate acceptance of Neil's decision is both immensely meaningful to Neil and also a signifier of a shared understanding between to two.

Imagine how impactful it must be for Neil, who has never had autonomy over his own life and has been marked for death basically since he was born, to be told that not only will his decisions and his autonomy be respected, but there is someone who will stand by his side on the court, knowing the whole truth, until the very end.

Kevin doesn't have much to offer Neil at this point. He can not give him a future - he'll be long dead before he can ever make court, and Kevin is a coward - he is not andrew, he can't stand up against the Moriyama's or Riko or Neil's father. Kevin can not protect Neil in a way that matters. All he can do is promise to keep Neil's secret and offer him a few more months of being Neil Josten.

I'm not including this to disparage Andrew or to suggest that he does not respect Neil, but this highlights that Kevin knows the decision to keep Neil's secret is one only Kevin would make. Andrew without a doubt would immediately try to get Neil to leave or attempt to get him into protection. I'm not passing a judgement of morality on what would've been the right thing to do, but I do think Kevin's reaction is indicative of the fact that Neil and Kevin understand each other in a way that no one else really will.

Neil and Kevin are a parallel's in a number of ways. Kevin lived the life that Neil was supposed to have and they are two parts of one story.

To them exy is not a game, but it's not really about exy either. It's about deciding to stay just to play for a couple more months even though you'll wind up dead because playing means you finally get to live after years of being a ghost. It's about playing to be the best no matter what, even though the consequences are having your hand smashed and the life you know completely demolished. It's about playing even though you're shaking with fear and anxiety because you need proof that your life, whether it be running to survive or living under an abusive hand, was not a waste.

Kevin agrees to keep Neil's secret because if the roles were reversed, Kevin would like to believe that he'd be strong enough to ask Neil for the same thing. This is obviously conjecture and a heavy heavy reading between the lines, but I'd like to think there's some truth there.

Finishing up with this line because it makes me a little emotional.

Kevin starts the conversation by calling Neil "Nathaniel" and ends it by calling him Neil again. Its right there in the text, "it was a promise". Kevin is offering Neil a life that is fully his - not his father's, not Riko's, but Neil's to do with what he would like, even if its only for a couple more months. If that's not respect, than I don't know what is.

#kevin day #neil josten #gnat be quiet #aftg #screaming and smashing bottles and shouting do you get it at the top of my lungs #do you get it? #this is what kevin does #he believes in people until the very end because that's only thing he can offer #I think there's a lot to delve in here about choices and freedom and growing up without either #and about what it means to live for yourself #even when that means dying for yourself too #maybe kevin doesn't know how to be brave but he knows how to give other people the chance to be

[be-queer-do-arson]

Okay so I'm not generally a sports person but I can't stop thinking about all the ways the foxes revolutionized exy. For example, the way their tiny team structure made them focus on endurance and coordination rather than brute force? Amazing. And related to that, the way that they adapted by training players to fill multiple positions? That must have had huge implications for how they understood other players needs and allowed for flexibility of they needed someone's specialty in a different position (see the final game). BUT ALSO the way Kevin and Neil specifically shook up the game was insane. Kevin being ambidextrous and using it to make his moves unpredictable. Using heavyweight racquets to put more strength behind their shots. Communicating only in French so opponents don't get any warning but they're still in sync with each other. I'll bet you anything other teams were scrambling to catch up and figure out how to play like the foxes did

#the foxes winning season would have had insane implications for the way exy is played i can feel it in my soul #other teams would've been scrambling to catch up and copy what they were doing but no one can do it like them #the ravens had their time ruling exy but i think the foxess' unpredictability and determination kicked their playing style in the mud #insane about this if you couldn't tell #aftg #neil josten #all for the game #kevin day #the foxhole court #the kings men #the raven king #NOT TO MENTION ANDREW #but during the series what he does is more raw talent than innovative play style #if you disagree and can think of something specific he did please feel free to add on though

[dayurno]

honestly you can say anything about the ravens (and you'd be right to) but you can't say the concept of them isn't delicious. a group of collegiate athletes in their intimidating raven motifs and their black uniforms who are basically bred to become the best of the best in a bloodsport. the adrenaline rush of every game being a competition between yourself and your teammates. knowing you're not just gearing up towards court but following in the footsteps of the alumni before you. the parties and the victories and the mindless sex and the way everyone around you somehow seems to always be thinking the same thing as you are. you are never alone and you will never be again if you just do as we say. who knows the kind of relationships that can happen in a place like that?

#<- her ass would be easily sucked into a cult #BUT SERIOUSLY THEY FASCINATE ME. delicious as a concept #i think we as a fandom have a tendency to take the piss on them because theyre theatrical enough to be noticeable #and because neil himself does not respect them nor riko #but it is easy. i think. to lose sight of their humanity #of their morning classes and their college parties and their personhood beyond what the cult stripped from them #yes its fun sometimes to oversimplify the ravens #and they were terrible whenever they could #but i dont know. i dont know really where i was going with this. just musing i guess #its interesting to me #all for the game #aftg #kevin day #jean moreau #riko moriyama #the foxhole court

[crunchy-rocc]

google blow this guy up

#my art #aftg #all for the game #riko moriyama #jean moreau #kevin day #has anyone else been chased by their siblings with a knife. both of mine did #riko feels like the type of guy whod do that to kevin and jean #peep jean not putting his hand on rikos shoulder. bro does NOT want to touch him any more than he has to #thank you dread for choosing what kevin would wear. hes rocking the shrimp shirt #he makes me feel like im microdosing on poison. anyway ❤️ #dont know what to caption this as ….. it was that or something about riko woulf have loved the joker movie #he as in riko . for the poison thing not kevin

[brainrotisseriechicken]

..

extra:

(it was a spring morning)

(he was a frail boy with no friends)

(he ran into you from across the wall)

(you said hello to him, and asked him to play along)

(at that very moment, he received his lifelong—)

extra 2: oscar boogaloo

yeahhhh....iykyk

#ozpin #professor ozpin #it never gets less embarassing tagging this #rwby #ugh #wait hm #ozma #salem #not tagging ozlem because its kinda giving ottokallen and ergh #oscar pine #sighs anyways #both of them have the same role functionally #they parallel eachother via #hold on im getting ahead of myself #he really does remins me of otto #theyre like prometheus #but with the gift of flight instead of fire #(haha flight as a heavy-handed metaphor for civilization) #they both give said gift through something of the previous civilization #im playing fast and loose w otto but he gave the gift of flight through ingenuity #thus wooden planes #ozpin gave the gift of flight (quite literally) through his magic #thus #gestures vaguely #i have so much more to say but alas ... #horrible corvid anatomy cw #while ozma is kinda su coded tbh...immortal brown dudes dealing with their megalomaniac white-haired situationship core #if you know what im referencing im so so sorry #EVERY NIGHT BRINGS A DREAM BUT THE DAYYYY RELENTLESSLY KEEPS ME AWAKEEEE #honestly idk where the quote is from kevin said it so it must be true

[anominous-user]

HOOOOOH it's finally done - this was supposed to be for kevinsu week day 7 (free day) but i ran a little late as you can see so consider this a late submission. this whole thing has been on my mind since last year but its only until a few months ago that i actually thumbnailed and june/july that i sketched and rendered all the panels... BUT what matters is that i finished it so (salute emoji)

#honkai impact #kevin kaslana #honkai su #kevinsu #kevsu #kevinsuweek23 #a-u art dump #a-u pmv stuff #thats a tag now #unfortunately once i post/save this draft i cannot edit this in any way so what you see here is final...on this post #quite a bit of this was inspired by another rty song comic (salute emoji) #i used the legacy editor for this so i can fit in 70 images #so if editing reblogs of this doesnt work then thats why #or if it somehow fucks up the editor entirely #it does for me! #anyway #once again don't be like me and attempt to fully render 60+ frames in less than 3 weeks you will burn yourself out #but its done and thats all that counts

[samijey]

why are they always like this.......

bonus Jey responding with some serious "i love you // i know" energy:

#sami zayn #jey uso #samijey #wwe #kevin owens #wweedit #stuff i made #he's just like me fr #don't think i need to tag the codester here #this ain't about him #he's an ally tho he'll understand #dude who responds to “i'm happy for you” with “that's true”??? go to jail with your leia/solo bs brooooo #also sami is talking about something that was traumatic to them both and my dude just looks at him fondly and cracks a smile #and if that's not love then i dunno what is #does anyone even read these why do i bother writing them #these wrestling gays have me screaming into the void i hate it here #even kevin was sick of their sh*t at that point

[franklyimissparis]

honestly still cannot believe that straight white blokes can get literal john lennon rpf published professionally but anyone who writes anything exploring john/paul’s dynamic in an even slightly un-heterosexual way (fanfic or academically) is discredited

#despite the literal evidence that - at the very least - there were feelings there on john’s part #this is why it’ll be so interesting to see what ian leslie’s book says tbh - i wonder if it’ll be a turning point for things #the literal john lennon rpf i’m specifically referring to is the novel beatlebone by kevin barry #have yet to read it but knowing that john’s internal monologue in the novel does not include gay thoughts abt paul is a turn off for me #like BOOOO NOT ACCURATE MORE GAY YEARNING #the beatles #john lennon #mclennon #john and paul #paul mccartney #beatles rpf

[legionofpotatoes]

disney be like "encanto maxed out our Women Muscles quota for the fiscal decade so she-hulk just gonna be a tall slender green person now"

#can you imagine the relentless exec notes lmao #mark ruffalo can grow into a zero body fat gym rat but kevin we have to make her fuckable for the maga demo #i dont really know the history of the character so this is me punching in the dark but it seems so off lmao #giving off those warcraft orc vibes #text #edit: unfortunately this made it into the fandom tags so let me reiterate. i am dissapointed in a very casual sort-of larger popculture way #i have no granular context on the character/her history/comics interpretations; i just know what the word 'hulk' means #and what ruffalo's hulk looks like #and what the general state of the mmo sex options debacle is. and it just sucks to me #the overall optics of all this. that is all #i mean she does look like a slightly larger green woman so why the CG at all? why make it uncanny? but that's a separate topic altogether #please just dont take this whole post too seriously

[dayurno]

No but for real killing Jean like that would be like an objectively bad writing choice. Same thing I think with the Kandreil draft where everyone thought Andreil was cheating on Kevin. There are some previous drafts things I think that are geniunely better as Nora's inside thoughts

it’s not that i disagree with you or anything but the reason i shared that snippet of her saying that in other drafts jean would have committed suicide while ON THE PHONE with KEVIN is that i think it’s deranged. it’s insane. it’s crazy enough to be funny. i’d give everything to read that draft

but on a more serious note: a world where something like that could happen is interesting to me. the way she put it didn’t even seem like jean’s choosing of kevin to witness his last moments was a punishment — instead kevin was, as simply put as possible, the person jean wanted to sit with him while he did perhaps the scariest thing he’s ever done. i think suicide as a theme in a story like aftg might feel as the author refusing to give a character the place or the time to heal, but in this specific situation, perhaps it *was* the choice that made jean feel more at peace with himself. ritualistic, almost, in how he reaches out for the only friend he’s ever had and asks him to accompany him to the other side. the sending off of an old friend, even if i can’t see kevin ever recovering from that phone call

in the end it might not be the dignified ending people would want for a character as beloved as jean. and it’s understandable! really it is. what matters to me is less that it happened in a draft far far far away, and rather what this says about jean and the fact that he thought the only way he could meaningfully show any support or love for kevin was to die. how he was willing to sacrifice himself again and again in every draft because he felt kevin’s & neil’s lives were worth more than his. i think this goes over most peoples’ heads when they consume mostly fanon, but jean was described in the books as having blind loyalty towards riko: when he’s taken to palmetto, he tries to go back TWICE before kevin sits him down and convinces him to stay. you didn’t think i was joking when i called jean a dog, did you?

#asks #jean #kevjean #jean is quite literally the loyal dog in this book because hes been groomed and beaten into that role #he does everything riko asks of him because he knows what the punishment for disobedience is #kevin and neil and renee spark the flame of rebellion in him #but even to the end jean wanted to go back #he doesn’t know anything but #anyway. woof woof doggy

[fxvixen]

unkindness (noun)

1) inconsiderate and harsh behavior 2) the collective noun for a group of ravens

Jean and Kevin, two characters of the characters most affected by the unkindness of ravens finding comfort/inspiration/safety/trust in the kindness of the Trojans

#aftg #tsc spoilers #sunshine court spoilers #the sunshine court #the sunshine court quotes #aftg quotes #jeremy knox #jean moreau #all for the game #tsc #nora sakavic #you genuius #HELP I'M ABSOLUTELY FERAL THINKING ABOUT THIS #i simply HAVE to share this #*shaking you* DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE WHAT I'M SEEING HERE #THIS BEING THE THING KEVIN SAID THAT CAME BACK TO HIM

[quietwingsinthesky]

hellhound glasses also revealing a little of angel true forms is one of my favorite headcanons btw. so is kevin being able to see them just because prophet reasons.

and so what i want you to imagine is charlie & kevin sitting together able to see lucifer. hellhound glasses on the table in front of them. and charlie gets curious, slides them over to herself and puts them on. stares. O-O

takes them off. slides them back across the table. kevin hasn’t even looked up from what he’s doing.

‘yeah, he always looks like that.’

‘woah.’

#sam can’t… ‘see’ Lucifer per say but Lucifer was in him so he knows what he looks like #he knows the shape of him. he knows how he feels. his grace is Sam’s grace as Sam’s body is his body. #does that make sense? #but Kevin & Charlie look at him and he is sooo soo shiny. and scary. and beautiful. #spn #lucifer spn #kevin tran #charlie bradbury

[normystical]

wAIT

hhh headcanon that kevin is atheist and raised by atheists 💞

because he doesnt know about holy water. AND. thats what i am. and my family. yay for projecting onto fictional characters <<<333

#IDK WHY BELIEVING A FICTIONAL CHARACTER IS ATHEIST MAKES ME HAPPY BUT IT DOES #LIKE I NEVER THOUGHT ATHEIST REP MATTERED UNTIL I FOUND OUT GRUNKLE STAN WAS ATHEIST AND I FELT HAPPY IDK WHY #yk what. if christians get nice pleasant search results so tf can we. #i dont want “atheist” to always yield “haha were better than you fuck religion” NO SHUT UP THATS RUDE ASF #i fw theists 💪 #and kevin. he's my boy. i love him #kevin spooky month #spooky month kevin #spooky month 6 #hollow sorrows #atheist #atheism #giggles and kicks my legs #idk #atheist rep #reddit type atheists fuck off ♡

[rosalinesurvived]

Again thinking about how downright murderous Andrew was at Riko coming to Kathy’s show, Andrew punching a window over it

#I can’t even #what was the point of that? Nora?? #Andrew know’s Kevin’s frightened of Riko and he his so angry at them being in proximity he does a form of self harm?? #not to mention the whole ‘you can have him tomorrow’ only hours earlier #I wanna know what convo went on between them in that room #kandrew #Kevin day #Andrew minyard #shitpost #aftg #all for the game #neil josten #the foxhole court #riko moriyama

[neriumdelusion]

People need to stop acting like Charles is in any way misguided or naive for getting with Kevin. He knew EXACTLY what Kevin stood for. He saw Kevin giving a speech about how important it is that everyone dig a hole. Charles went oh that’s very attractive. Charles is not stupid and he knows exactly what kinda guy Kevin is. And he finds it hot. And he’s right.

#wtnv #wtdb #kevin desert bluffs #charles the theologist #I’m sick of like ‘oh poor Charles doesn’t know what he’s getting into’ yes the fuck he does #he may not know about strex but he knows exactly what he’s getting into #frequencies #dbgirlmoments

[varyagated]

queer comic creators 🤝 putting Yuri and Viktor into their creations

#bloom comic #yuri!!! on ice #yuri on ice #yoi #kevin panetta #savanna ganucheau #bloom #bloom graphic novel #T H E M #the boys #i s2g i looked at them like 3 mins like why does that man have such a heart shaped smile yuuris glasses etc #rebecca sugar #is it mila far left? what do u think? #varya summer reading club!!!