does anyone else suffer from the aftg effect? i remembers the moment i finished tkm and I was looking into the air thinking "nothing its ever gonna top these books", like, yeah, after aftg I read more books, but i wasnt able to connect as hard as i connected with the Foxes; and it never matters how long i stay away from the books bc im busy with my life, every single time i go back to them without fail, to the way too sweet andreil fanfics, to the beautiful fanarts, to this cursed fandom that always likes to suffer for some reason, they always drag me back. it never fails to impress me how much these silly little books mean so much for me and for many people too, and thats the aftg effect, the feeling of knowing ur fucked bc theres no way ur going to get over the books in this lifetime or the next one, once u start liking the characters, theres no way back.
Calling Neil "a rabid little fox who'd had a lifetime to master his lies" is such a move. Jean sees the vision. He understands that Neil is just a dangerous feral creature.
NO YOU GUYS DONT GET IT.
Jean wouldn't call Jeremy with Mon cherie or mi amor, he would only use those endearing names with people he wants to piss off (cough neil) or people like catalina or laila as a friendly way!! He will use it to taunt them.
He can't fathom calling Jeremy any cheesy moniker so he instead calls him stuff like petit salaud or garce!! Everytime he sees Jeremy he flushes and lets out a string of curses in French bc he doesn't know what to do with his emotions.
For the few years that Andrew and Neil are on different pro teams Andrews team knows next to nothing about him. Now since he got off his meds and significantly mellowed out after graduating, its not that his team mates don’t like him, they just don’t know who he is outside of being an amazing player. When his teammates release their lack of Andrew Minyard info the “who the fuck is our goalie” coalition is created. They share all the information they have on Andrew in order to paint the picture of who the hell this man is.
One day one teammate comes across Andrew after practice reading a book in the players lounge. As they step closer to desifer the cover Andrew glances up at them with a questioning look. When they ask what the book is Andrew gives a surprised raise of his eyebrow and gives a shockingkly well put together synopses of the plot. After the player goes home that night they look up the book only to discover that the fantasy adventure novel that was described to them was not only an extremely sappy romance, it was also the last part of a queer YA series.
Andrew is spotted soon after at a local coffee shop drinking some sort of whip cream topped chocolate concoction with reading material much different than before. He sips his drink and peruses some large fancy looking book. With only a quick google search they realize that its some complex scientific book about Homo sapiens through history?
A few weeks later another of Andrews teammates walk in on a pacing Andrew with his phone clutched to his ear. He’s talking in an intense whisper, not angry but concerned, about some sort of cat sitter falling through. After Andrew spots them he hisses out a quick goodbye into the phone and hangs it up. When they ask what the call was about, Andrew contemplates for a second then explained that he’s visiting family and the cat sitter he had sceduled wasn’t going to be able to come after all. When the teammate volunteers to do the job Andrew only sighs but accepts their offer. After a weekend of cat sitting and semi snooping around Andrews apartment the brave cat sitter reports back to the team with all their suspicions confirmed.
Andrews pro teammates have concluded this: Andrew Minyard is not the violent and cruel man the media and his past can make him out to be. Andrew is actually a cat loving book nerd with a spotless apartment decorated in soft cream and earth tones. He is sarcastically funny and incredibly smart. And maybe, just maybe, Andrews pro team are some of the first people to see him for who he truly is under his sandpaper exterior.
might be reading into it too much but you know what? I think Jeremy not being able to have a real golden retriever because his family is allergic is symbolism for the fact that Jeremy’s family isn’t happy with the current Jeremy that they have and instead he has to put up a fake cardboard version of himself to please them and everyone else. But that might just be me 🤷♀️
Of course Nicky will never clock Kevin as bisexual. Of course he never clocked andreil as queer. Of course he can't ever see the members of his own community.
As far as we know, Nicky's first time actually being in a big, queer community was the camp. I feel like people overlook this. He was raised catholic, and no matter how gay you turn and how much sinful sex you have, you're always going to be catholic. The hymns are embedded in your vocal cords. The wine flows through your veins. It's all he's ever known until it suddenly isn't.
I'm pretty sure that he grew up thinking that gay people were only this caricature, this nameless freak, like many of us did. Gay men always dress a certain way, they're annoying, loud, touchy, and lesbians are always disgusting and manly and smelly. This is what he was taught, and there's no indication that he ever grew *out* of this mindset.
Yes, I believe Nicky enjoys a lot of the things he does, but I also think he's portraying the part of who he thinks he *needs* to be. And everything outside of those boundaries is still new and unbelievable. He's still a child, and relatively new to being openly gay.
And he's so proud. He can't think of anyone being anything other than proud of what they are. Nicky sees things as very black and white (completely gay or straight as a rod, hatefucking or about to get married) and probably thinks that if you're not out and proud, you're working with internalized homophobia. He never wanted anything other than to be free, and he cannot even think about the fact that some people don't want that level of fanfare.
He expects anyone who's queer to immediately come and talk to him. He's trying so hard to be the safe, iconic gay that other people can look up to and latch onto. He thinks that the only thing stopping people from screaming their sexuality to the world is homophobia, therefore they would at least tell him.
He doesn't get that people (Andrew, Neil) might just want to keep things private, because, to him, privacy equals secrecy, secrecy equals shame, and, well, there's nothing to be ashamed of!
Or maybe I'm just rambling. Idk guys this is my hot take of the week or whatever
Neil Josten wears a gold band around his left ring finger and is absolutely cheating on his partner.
Before he ever joined the Santa Fe Cougars, Josten was part of a pride campaign for Nike. So was Andrew Minyard. It was a big deal. The interviews around it said every athlete in the campaign was LGBTQ. Josten talked about his husband. Minyard talked about queer foster kids.
That, the Cougars speculate, is where Josten and Minyard reconnected. They went to college together, separated when Minyard moved to Santa Fe and Josten moved to Jersey, saw each other again at this campaign, and then, a year later, were on the same team again.
None of the Cougars have ever met Josten’s husband. Even at team parties, Josten never brings him around. Probably he thinks it would be too risky.
None of them have gotten close enough to Minyard to figure out his relationship status. But, the Cougars collectively believe, Minyard’s relationship status can only possibly make a bad situation worse.
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Neil loves his name. One time he wrote his name in his notebook with a heart instead of a dot above the 'i'. Aaron caught him by looking over his shoulder and laughed so hard he almost passed out. Years later on the invitation for Katelyn and Aaron's wedding Neil's name is written with the heart. Andrew thinks it's just how Katelyn writes, but Neil knows that it's Aaron trying to piss him off.
"Why are you writing Neil's name with a heart?" Katelyn asks her fiancé as they are filling out the wedding invitations.
Aaron looks at her with a diabolical smile on his face. "It will piss him off, you'll see."
andrew dresses up as kevin for halloween one year. brown wig, green contacts, jersey he's swimming in, and even draws the queen on his face with sharpie. and stays in character for the entire night. he will not respond to andrew, you may only address him as kevin, kevin day, or queen of exy. he will not spend the entire night draining the candy bowl like usual and is instead angrily altering between a protein shake and straight vodka on the couch and mindlessly staring at trojan games. he goes on a twenty minutes long tangent about jeremy knox's arms and the roman empire, then calls anyone who tries to stop him (kevin) brutus repeatedly whilst pretending he's been stabbed. and when people stop playing attention to him he chucks exy balls at their heads.
was it originally to prove a point to kevin on how annoying he is? yeah. did he get way too into the character? maybe.
but will he pretend it never happened the next morning? absolutely. he pins it on aaron and never mentions it again.
I think it's my civic duty as a member of the aftg fandom to remind you all that before getting his first paycheck, Neil canonically donates the rest of his life-on-the-run money to a safehouse for homeless youth in Baltimore
misplaced forever partners will always be the most painful part of neil and jean's dynamic to me. like What do you mean they were always going to be together, be matched with each other, in every way that mattered, in every universe except the one where jean survived.