Just Thinking About Andrew Having A Rough Session With Bee And She Just Gets Up In The Middle Of It And

as a lesbian I can confidently say that betsy dobson is 100% a lesbian because only a lesbian would like Andrew that much. her wife gave her an Minyard 03 jacket and she cried i SAW it!!! they bake a cake together for Andrew's birthday every year, they call it Choco Explosion and it is heart shaped

andriel headcanons

• andrew really pushes neil to enforce his own boundaries. sometimes neil is too wound up to be touched and the second andrew senses it, he makes neil say it aloud. "tell me to let go. enforce it. you know i'll respect it, this should be easy. tell me to back off."

• they try to raise plants. they fail miserably.

• the cats favor neil over andrew, which andrew doesn't necessarily mind.

• but when other players on their team bring their kids to practices or team events, all the kids love andrew and neil's a little jealous (even though he has no idea how to interact with kids).

• andrew has horrible seasonal allergies and neil doesn't.

• neil kicks all the blankets off in the middle of the night and andrew hoards them. they wake up in the mornings with the blanket on only one side of the bed and they never fix it.

• the first night andrew falls asleep facing the wall, neil doesn't say anything about it. but he falls asleep smiling.

• their relationship with aaron and katelyn is pleasant, and gets better with time, but the only thing that andrew and katelyn absolutely agree on is their disdain about neil using a 3-in-one shampoo/conditioner/body wash.

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.

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. 🥺

I've been thinking about this theory about Riko orchestrating Jean's sexual abuse as punishment for his attraction to Kevin, because Riko is not in the habit of sharing his possessions. And while at first glance it would seem that Riko does this because it's Kevin... looking deeper I get the feeling that his attitude extends to the rest of the Perfect Court too.

Consider Andrew.

Riko sets first Drake and then Proust on Andrew, and the implication is that Andrew cannot get away with "taking Riko's things." This obviously refers to Kevin, but I don't think it refers to Kevin alone. It's significant that Riko brings it up with Neil and Neil only, and it happens during this specific conversation.

Riko uses Andrew to taunt and intimidate Neil, immediately after Neil implies that Riko is not the only thing saving him from his father. We come to understand several things in the course of this conversation:

That Riko considers Andrew to be responsible for Neil's continued refusal to return to his place among the Ravens.

That he believes threatening Andrew's safety will be enough to convince Neil to come to Evermore.

Which means that Riko obviously has an inkling of what Andrew and Neil mean to each other (even if Neil does not yet). He weaponizes this knowledge against both of them, and while Neil ends up going to Evermore, it does not mean that Riko lets Andrew get away.

That's because he never intended to. When Riko refers to Andrew as the miniature one with the disgusting attitude who thinks he can take my things, his "things" refer not merely to Kevin but, to a heavy extent, also to Neil, and he punishes Andrew for his closeness to Neil the same way he punished Jean's closeness to Kevin.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, quite simply put, it's all because of the as-yet unexplained January incident that Jean brings up in The Sunshine Court.

We know that following Neil's departure from the Nest, Zane betrayed Jean by setting Grayson on him. What we don't know is what Riko did to Zane and Grayson afterwards, or why.

Jean brings it up several times, but only refers to it obliquely, and doesn't give us any details:

I don't think Riko cares about what happened to Jean, of course not. But it makes too much sense to me that he decided what Zane and Grayson did was an insult to him, Riko, because how dare they touch his property when he hasn't permitted it? How dare they take his things? How dare Grayson pretend he has some sort of claim to Jean?

I'm throwing this theory out because I have nothing to lose: whatever Riko did to Zane and Grayson was in retaliation to what they did to Jean, but not because Riko cares. He did so only because Jean was another one of Riko's things, and those who take his things away must be reminded of their place.

So, yes, I think all of this is an extension of the fact that Riko has an unhealthy obsession with the people he considers to be his pets or his property. Transgressions against his claim over them deserve to be punished for the insult.

Even if those transgressions are committed by the Perfect Court itself. Riko plays the part of the jealously possessive master, the one they should all devote themselves to, the only one with authority over them. No one else can have them — which means they cannot have each other either.

Whenever Jeremy does anything for Jean in TSC I’m reminded of the fact that it was Andrew who most likely did it for Kevin, in his own fucked up Andrew Way (TM).

Andrew followed Kevin’s schedule to keep the partner rule.

Andrew took him shopping for new clothes.

Andrew took him to sweeties full of awfully unhealthy food.

When Kevin wakes up at night, in a haze and he looks for the other bed in the room, it’s Andrew he finds.

When he’s afraid, when he panics, when shit hits the fan and he needs help, it’s Andrew he looks for, and Andrew is right fucking there.

They’ve spent the past year in each others pocket, in a way that the drowning hold on to a raft.

They’re complicated and ugly towards each other. They’re cruel and sharp and vicious, and they hit each other where it hurts, but nobody can ever tell me that the two of them are not best fucking friends.

I will never recover from the fact that if Neil and Andrew got married, Andrew picks Kevin as his best man, Kevin says yes.

there is no character who is more main character than kevin day. he literally drives the entire plot

neil wouldn't even be a fox if kevin didn't convince wymack they needed him, and then he also trained him every night even when he knew neil was destined for DEATH bc he was the BUTCHER'S SON!!!!! kevin knew andrew had worth and without that belief fuck knows where andrew and aaron and nicky would be!! jeremy wouldnt have accepted jean on the team if kevin didnt ask him to - hell, jean wouldn't even be fucking alive!!! edgar allan fucking switched districts BECAUSE OF KEVIN.

kevin day who literally stops a room when he walks in. kevin day who is truly that bitch, who NO ONE is immune to (not even and in fact especially not riko moriyama) kevin day the man that you are truly character of all time

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.

Is one of anyone else's favorite scenes in aftg that chapter in The Kings Men where the team is on the drive to Binghamton and Neil spends the entire second half of the trip talking to Andrew. Like:

Neil wanting to sit and talk exy with the rest of the team but that would mean Andrew would be left alone in the back of the bus.

Neil staring and not knowing what it was he found so interesting (beautiful) about Andrew's figure.

Neil calling Andrew just so Andrew would look at him and he'd be able to better study him. (And not being embarrassed or thinking anything of it because he is just admiring Andrew and he sees nothing wrong with that)

The whole "I knew I’d look out for only me when the world went to hell. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to go back for you.” conversation AND ANDREW GIVING IN

Neil talking about his life and all the places he's been and Andrew talking about his life after foster care (just the fact that they had this conversation with each other that they won't willingly have with anyone else)

ANDREW NEVER TAKING HIS EYES OR ATTENTION OFF NEIL AND LETTING HIM RAMBLE

I love something about Andrew being the one who tells Neil everyone is betting on his sexuality.

NEIL SAYING HE DOESNT SWING AND NEVER WILL BECAUSE THE ONLY PERSON HE WANTS IS ANDREW, followed by Andrew's "don't say stupid things", AND THEN FOLLOWED WITH NEIL'S "stop me" AND KISS (that he initiated)

Everything about this little portion of the chapter I love so much.