We're Probably Going To Have To See How Lucas Mourns Btw

Andrew and Neil are two freakishly observant people. And yet they lose themselves in each other.

Andrew and Neil don’t believe in the concept of love. And yet they devote the rest of their lives to one another.

Andrew and Neil are not generally giving people. And yet they give unfiltered pieces of themselves to each other.

Andrew and Neil are not trusting people. And yet trust is woven so deep into the fabric of their relationship it’s almost indistinct.

Andrew and Neil are not well-adjusted people. And yet they fought for and built the kind of well-adjusted relationship many people can only wish to have.

Andrew and Neil shouldn’t work in a romantic relationship, let alone with each other. And yet they go together like lightning and thunder goes together—just a fact of the universe.

Just once, I need Neil to get angry at Andrew for being so careless with his life. Just once, I need Neil to make Andrew understand that the terror Andrew felt that night in Baltimore, when Neil walked willingly into death's cold embrace without telling a soul what was waiting for him, or at the championship game, when Riko's racquet came within inches of crushing Neil's skull-

That's the very same terror Neil feels when Andrew walks a little too close to the edge of the roof. It's the same terror Neil feels when Andrew speeds a little too fast in the Mas, when he weaves between cars like he's got a death wish. Its the same terror Neil feels when, after Aaron's trial, Andrew drinks a little too much and disappears for a little too long, and he doesn't leave a note and he won't answer Neil's calls, but he took the car and nobody knows where he is until he miraculously turns up at Wymack's at nearly five in the morning.

I need Andrew to realize that as terrified as he is of losing Neil, Neil is just as terrified of losing him.

The King's Men's plot structure is genius.

TKM has been critized a lot for not following the conventional plot structure, because it doesnt end inmediatly at the resolution of the climax, like they taught us in class. But it actually has a reason behind it and it think that is what makes AFTG unique and Nora Sakavic an amazing writer. I'll explain.

So, we all know AFTG has a lot of chess metaphors, however i think it doesnt contain the metaphors, it is the metaphor. Each character represents a piece of the board (Riko king, Kevin queen, Neil pawn, Andrew knight, etc) and exy is the chess, but but but, a chess game not only involves the pieces, the game cannot exist without someone playing, the chess masters (which would be Kengo, Ichiriu, Nathan and all the mafia stuff).

So, AFTG is divided into two plots happening at the same time: what happens on the chess board (exy season) and what happens outside it (the mafia mess).

Of couse, the climax has to be about the outside out, because who cares which one of pieces move in which way if the players are pointing guns at eachother under the board? The guns are more more important. So who cares? The pieces on the board care, the ones that are being played with. And who is the narrator? The character that represents the pawn, the less important figure of the entire room.

Yeah, the 'outside of the board' plot is over half way into the book, but it doesnt matter because that happens outside the board, the chess game has not ended yet. The pawn cannot go back to rest in the box until the game is over, until the king dies. The book cannot be oend until the chess game our protagonist is a piece of ends. The books have to end with the king's (Riko) death and that is exactly what happens.

If this isnt excellent writing and one of the best examples of know the rules so you can break them, i dont what is.

Thinking about how, after Riko's death, maybe Kevin was given a box when he and Wymack attended the funeral. About Kevin getting back all of his books on history, his favorite hoodie, all of the things that he'd left behind when he ran.

And maybe, just maybe, tucked into the box among his other abandoned possessions, he finds old photographs of himself and Riko as children, grins wide with missing teeth and little league exy racquets in their hands. Of awkward teenagers in suits that make them look like they're playing at being grown as they attend their first press conference. He finds old, folded notes written in Japanese and scrawled on torn sheets of notebook paper passed between them during their homeschooling lessons.

Kevin feels safe enough with his father at his side to allow himself to grieve not only the loss of his best friend of twenty years, but also the people that he and Riko could have been if things had been ever so slightly different.

To Jean, the worst part about Evermore was his own physical limitations. Also, I gave him a duck tattoo for Elodie ♡

(The Raven King, ch.14)

This one line lives in my head rent-free. Neil may be antagonistic, but he never hated Aaron. He wanted him to be happy from the beginning.

if u think about it, Aaron being the one to kill drake but it only being possible because Neil brought a heavy racquet to thanksgiving is kinda symbolic of how Aaron is going to fix their relationship but Neil made it possible by giving him the tools to do so (even lowkey against Aaron’s will lmao). Nora Sakavic ur mind, ugh

Sometimes I lie awake at night thinking about how in the shower scene, Andrew took off his armbands. He wasn’t scared of getting them wet or anything; he was literally wearing the rest of his clothes, but he knew that he was seeing Neil’s scars so he let Neil see his

I will say that at the heart of Jeremy and Neil's stiff attitudes towards the other is that they are worried about Jean. Jeremy sees Neil show up at a bad time and take Jean out and brings him back an even bigger mess, so of course he would be a little put off. And when Neil showed up, he saw Jean all beat up and immediately asked Jean in French if the Trojans did this to him. It will all probably be cleared up, maybe, but i love that they are so protective of Jean. 🥺

what did you expect, captain?