The Kings Men - Blog Posts

I can’t stop thinking about the fact that Andrew used knives and cigarettes to cope

Only for Neil to be torn apart by a couple knives and a cigarette lighter.

An interesting scene in tkm to me is when Neil dismisses Kevin on the bus to Binghamton.

It's the middle of the bus ride, and he's trying to decide where to sit after their rest stop as Kevin talks to them all about the stats of the team they're on their way to play. As he's making that decision it says he "felt trapped, stuck between what he wanted and what he needed, what he'd never have or be and what he had but couldn't keep."

The former of both oscillations, in my opinion, is referring to Andrew and what he feels with and for him and the team in general, and the latter are referring to exy and what Kevin could bring him to in this season and in the future as a pro.

Ultimately, he chooses Andrew, but in doing so Kevin reacts by telling him to stay and listen and "Remember that you gave me your game." Neil responds to this by saying that Kevin has given up on the team and "I'm taking my game back. I don't owe you anything."

This is Neil ending his deal with Kevin to keep playing despite knowing what is coming for him, right before he goes to do the same with Andrew.

The differences between these cutting of deals is compelling to me.

With Kevin it is more implicit in the "I'm taking my game back." In Kevin's anger and exasperation at Neil's "spoiled child" act, I don't think he recognizes what Neil is doing and meaning by ending their deal. It's not just 'Kevin gave up, so I don't owe him anything', it's Neil letting go of his ties as he prepares for what the "0" on his phone will bring.

Andrew, I believe, does recognize this. Neil ending their deal, framing it as "Let me learn to fight for myself." It is him once again cutting ties, but also releasing any blame for what is about to happen to him, especially since Andrew is very serious about his promises and so needs to be explicitly released from them if ever. Andrew doesn't know that the countdown has ended, or that there was one to begin with, but he can see that something has shifted for Neil in him asking for this. Just as he sees after their game from "the strain in Neil's mask." and the "Thank you. You were amazing."

Neil knew something was coming that day, what and when he wasn't certain, but the "0" was demonstrative enough. I think the way he ended those two deals displays a lot of his emotions towards those two things he valued.

He needed exy, but had already released the idea of keeping it. So he dismissed Kevin and anything he owed him in relation to their gameplay, still ending their deal but in a way that speaks of having understood when he started that it wasn't something that would last. He wanted safety and comfort and love, but didn't believe he'd ever have that life or be that person. So he asks Andrew to let him go, showing that he understands how Andrew works with deals, that he values him enough to end it before it's ended for them, and that their 'this' isn't something he expected to happen or knows how to want or be. Both are endings of deals, both are releases of blame, and both display to the recipients that something has changed for Neil, whether or not they recognize it.

But he chose to go to the back of the bus and to ask, he chose Andrew, even if it was only for whatever time he had left before the result of that "0".

I'm not sure if Nora has discussed the answer to this before, but which birthday does Neil use after his identity is made legal? Which one did the fbi put on his new ID and passport and stuff?

I recall that in the extra content Nora responded to an ask related to this saying that the 'crazy' party Dan wanted to do for him did end up happening in March, but in another she also explained how Neil doesn't really like large gatherings or celebrating things like anniversaries. That party doesn't necessarily designate that as the date he chose or that he celebrates at all, maybe just that the team wanted to plan something for him and that was the day that worked best in the timeline of the aftermath of tkm.

I've seen people post a happy birthday thing for him on both January 19th and March 31st, so it seems as a fandom we consider both accurate, but I wonder which one Neil chose... something to ponder.

about to cry bc this lyric reminds me so much of the twins:

"Little Andy soft in your newborn skin,

Only one little Andy will you return again?

I believe we can renew,

and you could be my brother again"

like don't think about aaron thinking this about andrew ://// aaron and andrew love each other so much ik it in my heart of hearts

i’m rereading aftg rn. like. just started. still on chapter one. anyway. i forgot that the court was the same size and a soccer field… like?? hello. i pictured them playing on like a basketball court. wtf. omg i can’t believe that.

Was listening to music and it clicked:

“I don’t remember “ by rebzyyx, is I think a perfect Portrayal of Andrew on his meds throughout TFC and TRK. On his conflicted feelings of Neil, his brain being messed up on meds not meant for him and a maybe a bit on Aaron w the line “let’s go kill our exes,” but could also be andriel too but neither rlly had exes (excluding Roland bc he was Just a hook-up buddy) before themselves

Give it a listen and LMK! <3

I forgot what a good movie series Kingsman is, it’s just. Yes. I wanna come up with some headcannons for Eggsy, what a lad. Very blorbo.

I love ethnicity ambiguous Kevin and headcanon that he lets his hair grow UP after the king's man

Ask and yee shall receive ✨✨✨ …. (belatedly)

The following things must be drawn for me right away please and thank you no time to delay. Kevin like that but the sash says queen:

And then this but it’s Kevin on the board and Jean looking. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR THE ART (SOMEONE BETTER GET CRACKING GUYS)

Just read the newest chapter of soulbound by @elesary and I have to say *chefs kiss * delicious ✨✨

So yeah I just had to draw Andrew fighting his Desmond with magic your honour.

So this is a little project I’ve been working on on and off since like beginning of 2019. I finished the newest section two years ago but and then forgot about it. But now that our collective spirits have been reawoken by the holy bible that is the sunshine court I thought it might be time to post this somewhere.

Enjoy ✨✨✨

Nathaniel Wesninski everyone

I am soooooo happy with this

The characters are Neil and Andrew from the “all for the game “ series by Nora Sakavic

It’s a book series about the Mafia, murder and crime but also love, found-family and sports. (There’s also LGBT+ representation 🏳️‍🌈)

if you have not read it, you are missing out!!

Song: Guillotine by Jon Bellion

This is just a bit of something I’ve been working on

I’ll post all of it next Monday but for now this’ll have to do

Enjoy Neil Josten from the “All for the Game” book series by Nora Sakavic

andrew and aaron are so funny as a concept. no good twin evil twin they're both just evil

i need aftg as a mockumentary more than anything. imagine the confessionals after neil says or does anything. the amount times andrew would just look directly at the camera.

nora saying that if aaron and katelyn have time off from work they'll probably go visit andrew and neil for christmas is my roman empire i think about it all the time

this kills me because it implies that andrew and neil had something to say too

i'm not sure what the technicalities were before kayleigh day's death, but the idea that she might have trusted tetsuji, the man she cofounded exy with, her legacy, with her son, and he betrayed that trust in the most horrendous of ways, the idea that they might've been been friends at some point. it's just so devastating

deleting all the dating apps so i can find love the old fashioned way (i join a sports team made out of misfits with the purpose of giving them a second and third and fifth chance and the goalie and the striker are kind of intense but i end up promising the goalie to keep the striker here if he protects me from the literal mafia and i join their group that's referred to as the monsters by the rest of the team and the goalie gives me keys and truths and cigarettes and he says the thing between us is nothing and that he hates me but i know that the simple fact that he even bothers to express these things means something because he's usually so apathetic but sometimes he shows feelings to me and he trusts me and i trust him and the thing between us is not nothing even if he claims he wants to kill me most of the time)

kevneil is everything to me. neil trusting kevin with the truth, neil trusting kevin with his binder over winter break, kevin believing in neil's potential, kevin being so convinced about it that he says it publicly, knowing he takes what he says to the public very seriously. kevin telling neil he should run away, he should survive. neil staying and giving his game to kevin, neil arguing with riko on national television for kevin, kevin teaching neil raven drills, kevin telling neil he will stay sober on thanksgiving so neil could drink if he wanted to, neil promising andrew to take care of kevin while he's away... neil and kevin man

despite all of their traumatic connections to exy, kevin and neil just love and enjoy it so much. when they had nothing, they had exy or the memory of exy. when everything crumbled down around them, exy saved them. in the form of a coach taking them in, in the form of a team having their backs, in the form of a boy promising to protect them and telling them to stay... fell to my knees in walmart crying over these jocks

thinking about wymack just looking at his foxes one day and realizing that they are doing okay, they are doing so much better than they were the moment he took them in. they're learning to heal, they're learning to accept love and care and affection and to give it back. they are fighting for each other instead of against each other. they're good people and they deserve good lives, and if he had even the smallest role in that, he's happy. he did good by them.

let's talk about how kevin and andrew's love languages are gift giving. kevin, going on his trips outside of the nest and buying little souvenirs for jean, taking neil to get his first heavy racquet, andrew buying little figurines for betsy, giving neil his keys, buying neil his outfits, buying neil his armbands...

schrodinger's andreil where the thing between them is both Totally Nothing and Absolutely Everything

neil was on the run from his father, doing his best to anger the son of a mafia boss publicly, getting texted an ominous countdown every day and he was doing little side quests like fix twins relationship. are andrew and renee fucking? must find out. nope, andrew's gay thank god. what to do about renee tho? give her jean moreau's number! oh no andrew's car is completely unfixable. now what to do about that?

the way any combination between neil, andrew, jean and kevin works is so funny you can pair any of them or all of them it just works

i think at least once a day about what andrew and aaron's relationship could've been if nothing bad ever happened to them. if they hadn't been failed by everyone in their lives. if they had each other if no one else

im so normal about kevin day i swear to god. imagine your mom invents a sport, imagine you grow up with this sport being your entire life, you get abused and punished and shoved into the spotlight from a young age, all for this sport. you don't know anything else. it's all you've ever done and all you've ever been. you have to be the best at it. and one day you get punished for that too, and this sport you've poured everything into gets ripped right out of your hands by the boy you've grown up forced to consider your brother. you have to learn it from zero with your non dominant hand. you have, in an incredibly short span of time, to get as good at it as you were before the injury. of course you're fucking obsessed with it to the point of being unsympathetic sometimes, of course there's no other choice. the pressure is unimaginable. you cannot afford to be anything but the best. you cannot afford to relax and let go of it even for a second. you left the cave but the shadows are all you've ever known

love how neil is always up to something. a little scheme. a little plan. maybe giving a crazy statement in front of a camera. he'll probably give it in writing too if you ask him. he survived so much what's a little public beef going to do to him? perhaps even committing some murder. fixing some relationships. teaching some people that they're worth saving. antagonizing some fbi agents. iconic