Once Again Thank You Jeremy Knox For Being The Only Person With Enough Sense To Go "hey! Isn't It Weird

Aaron looked at Andrew, who was staring, unseeing, at their shared birthday cake with a party horn in his mouth. The Foxes (mostly Nicky) were enthusiastically singing Happy Birthday around them, and Aaron hadn’t said a word to Andrew all evening. Perhaps the fact that no one would hear them gave Aaron the courage to say something he’d been thinking to the entire party. “Happy Birthday, Andrew,” he whispered. What it really meant was I care about you. You’re important to me. Andrew turned his blank stare on him, and then proceeded to blow his party horn in Aaron’s face. I care about you too.

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.

You know what I want?

Well I'm getting ahead of myself already. You know what I like?

I like those fics where someone says something untoward about Andrew (usually about his character, usually in reference to violence, and sometimes in reference to be worried about Neil's domestic safety) and Neil just,,, immediately starts tango-ing with his instinct to commit violence (sometimes an immediate 'oh. i gotta kill them now' or 'they mean well and also don't understand, don't kill them don't kill them don't-').

I also like those fics where Neil confronts his ability to be violent, but in a way that contains too much willingness and not enough shame, thus triggering his Wesninski Prodigal Son Issues (best when it's because his violence comes from either survival instincts or protective instincts - 'better them over me/my family').

With that in mind, you know what I want? I want a post-canon fic that is a big character study on Neil's capacity for fatal violence vs his desire to preserve life. First half of the fic being the tragic "Am I really my father's son?" angst where the person who keeps helping him through it is Andrew. Probably someone said something Quite Accurate But In Bad Faith about Neil in the media, which gathered attention, and it hit home harder than anticipated and now Neil is spiraling.

Do this a few times, Rule Of Threes and all that.

Then have a scene where Andrew does some violence (someone says something sexual about anyone under Andrew's umbrella of 'I care about this person but don't tell anyone I said that') and Neil stops him from doing something *clears throat* Not Great When Caught On Camera, and as a consequence someone expresses something about Andrew.

And Neil? Responds accordingly. Very Wesninski coded (I refrain from saying Nathaniel coded because that one fic somewhere on my pinned post convinced me that Nathaniel was never a cold blooded violent type - that was never his purpose. Nathaniel takes hits and survives them, he gets cut and makes sure he doesn't bleed out, he gets cornered and finds an out to run through. Nathaniel was never a predator, he was always prey, and that's why Nathan always saw him as a failure because Wesninski's were always supposed to be Apex Predators- but i digress)

Cue Neil unrepentantly embracing being Very Very Scary and later Andrew asks him how that little show is holding up with his issues. Neil shrugs and spouts some unintentionally romantic shit about not letting shit slide in regards to besmirching Andrew's character in front of his face. Cue Andrew saying something about 'Wesninski's would never commit violence out of protective affection. Only a Josten would do that.'

and suddenly Neil's spiraling is over via the power of Realizing Things, there's some banter about letting each other fight their own battles, Andrew says he hates him, questions get whispered and yeses get exchanged and lips get locked and other things get extracurricularly activitied-

Yea, that's what I want

disagree with me if u want but I think it would be so hilarious if, after Jeremy becomes one of the first and only people that Neil immediately decides he likes, Jeremy just LOATHES Neil. Because in tsc we learn that Neil Josten just gives scary vibes. He’s harsh, he’s unpredictable, and he has that manic smile he shows more and more that’s just unsettling. And WE know that he can actually be very caring and empathetic when he likes someone, but Jeremy has barely ever interacted with him. Neil’s perception of Jeremy that we see in tkm is that he’s just this really chill, nice guy who’s great at exy and is just someone Neil really appreciates. But Jeremy only knows Neil through a) his not so flattering public reputation, and b) his pretty complicated relationship with Jean. Jeremy’s most significant memory of Neil is that one day, Neil just randomly shows up in California and Jean just looks terrified, they disappear for five hours and when Jean gets back he has a huge breakdown and looks like he’s going to cry. Wouldn’t it be so hilarious if this just taints any perception that Jeremy has of Neil? and so when they actually meet up, captain sunshine—the most accepting and kind man alive who is just friends with anyone—thinks that Neil is just an absolute asshole.

Bonus if Neil is completely oblivious to this. They start talking after a game and Jeremy is being super cold to him, to the point that even the foxes notice how awkward the conversation is, and then later that night Neil’s just like: “Jeremy’s the best, one of the only exy captains I actually have respect for.” And the other foxes are like ???

I mean yeah we all know that Neil is a good liar and all, but I think sometimes we forget to what extent.

Like he got literally plucked from class one day and put in front of his father’s boss, totally unprepared, and put on an oscar-winning performance of a lifetime. Bitch was like “I am not saying your brother is out of line my lord 😔😔😔 I am afraid of what will fall back on you 🤔🫢 🤧” and fucking manage to convince ichirou to kill his own brother.

What a man…

They deserve a good nap 😴

i found this and brb im crying again

art by @eeriethacus

when I read aftg the first time I thought the best scenes were "thank you, you were amazing" "it's always yes with you" "i am nothing and as you've always said you want nothing"

but now I can see that the best scene is clearly when Neil asks Andrew how he can stand their relationship after everything he went through and then he tries touching his arm and Andrew says "no" and Neil stops and "that's why"

destructive

even though renee isn’t in the books as much as some of the others, i’d argue that she’s on the same level as andrew and kevin in terms of importance, not necessarily because of her impact on the main plot but more because she symbolizes something these characters desperately need: hope. first of all, it has become increasingly obvious to me that she’s a narrative foil to neil. not only do they leave their sketchy pasts behind, change their names, and dye their hair, but their birth names (natalie, nathaniel) are incredibly similar. renee represents who neil would be if he actually processed his issues instead of running away from them (“i’m not proud of my past, but i’ll never heal if i hide it”). neil is so unsettled by renee because she’s the person who neil has been told for his entire life that it’s too dangerous to be. he dyes his hair to blend in. she dyes her hair to stand out. and she’s HAPPY. she’s not dead like neil’s been brainwashed to believe. then, of course, there’s her iconic friendship with andrew. i’m not going to say that she’s the only one who andrew likes, because we all know he’s very protective of his cousin, brother, and neil. however, renee is the only one who andrew never lashes out at. if renee hadn’t intervened when andrew was attacking allison, who knows what would’ve happened? finally, there’s her connection to jean. jean was denied color for years, surrounded by black and red, never thinking that he would escape. his first interaction with renee always stands out to me because for the first time, he’s left speechless. he sees renee and her rainbow hair and can do nothing but stare. how could he not fall in love with a girl who goes so directly against the rules of his abusers? and she gets him out of the nest. she’s the reason why he defies all the other drafts and stays alive. throughout the books, she grounds andrew, saves allison, and gives jean a reason to keep living. the events of all for the game and the sunshine court couldn’t have happened without renee. none of it could’ve. she was at the center of it all the whole time

imagine the foxes doing a tiktok challenge or something after a game and when they're getting out of the locker rooms they get asked to name which teammate is the funniest and most of the foxes saying matt, or allison or nicky, but neil going like: 'andrew', without missing a beat, and then andrew going: 'me' all serious and done with that kind of stupid social media stuff (because neil always laughs at his jokes and he's the only audience he cares about), and everyone in the comments are like: 'are they joking right??' 'neil is messing with andrew because they hate each other lol', but actually, in neil's opinion, andrew IS the funniest person ever specially because he tells his jokes with the best poker face and has the same dark and twisted fucked up humor as he does 😂

anyways, I just imagined that video so clearly and I need a socmed fic with this scenario now 😭