#AFTG thoughts

[makeitmakesens]

i'll never get over andreil dirty talking in russian in fics. like babes no. erase it from my memory right now.

that and the fact that the revelation conversation in tkm happened in german

any suggestive conversation happening in any language but english is a no especially if I understand it to any degree

[feelingthedisaster]

AFTG is Well Written: a Masterlist

Many people have said the book series All For The Game by Nora Sakavic is badly written. However, I believe it is not. To prove this, I made a compilation of posts that explain why the books are meticusly crafted and amazingly written.

*disclaimer: I'm not claiming the books are perfect or have no mistakes, it is impossible for any book to be that way, I'm just saying that it's not even half as bad some people claim it to be

Plot

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

In defense of AFTG crazy plot

Characters

MCs and trauma responses by @skydaemon

Mirrors of eachother by @sirandking

Riko and Neil parallels by @notlacrosse

Jean: Number, name and the narrative by @owlarchimedes

Metaphors/Symbolisms

Characters and their respective chess metaphor

Number symbolims in AFTG by @darkblueboxs with additions by @whydamnitwhy

Writing style

Conveying feelings by @lochenfreh

Here by @joejhang

The reason for the simplistic language by @afurtivecake

Neil/Nathaniel switch by @obsessing-over-fictionn

General

Here by deactivated account

The reason why people tend to think the book are bad by @thetamingofspike

Here by @the-foxhole-clutter

If I'm forgetting something or you know a post that could fit in this masterlist, share it pls!

[sacredmedows]

I'm like 99.99% sure that Eden's is a gay bar. It makes so much sense. But just imagine Aaron never knowing after 4 years, despite working there with Andrew and Nicky, and Kevin also never realizing.

[jtl-fics]

Every day of my damn life I think about Renee being Andrew’s determined wing woman. She is doing the work, she’s listening to Andrew both on and off the medications (wild that he sounds more manic about Neil when he’s sober), she has a 14 step plan to get them to hand holding by the end of Junior year. She thinks she might manage to chip away at the world’s densest object Neil Josten by then.

Only for Andrew to call her one night and tell her “I said that I hate him, but that it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t blow him. I think it worked.”

She deserved a sainthood for not losing her whole shit.

[bookworms-lair]

Neil: i’m sorry for messing everything up.

Neil: i guess i’m just not cut out for the high-stakes world of having friends.

Matt:

Matt: i just wanted to know if you did the dishes-

[crazy-fangirl2524]

Apparently traumatised kids often fail to grow to normal height because all the energy goes to surviving and well no fucking wonder twinyards and Neil are so short

[broken-heart-raven-queen]

Sometimes I sit and wonder about the paralels in AFTG and I go like "Woooow Nora's brain" yk?

So here are some of them:

•Jean and Andrew both having suicidal ideations, being number 3, not showing their emotions on the outside but feeling so much on the inside (AND letting people think they doesn't care), protecting Kevin (and others in general) and not accepting help until the situation is critical.

•Andrew and Riko both being separated from their families at birth and creating one by force, Andrew doing it mostly for others while Riko did it for himself.

•Renee and Neil growing up in mafia/gang enviroment and scaping it, the whole Nathaniel/Nathalie thing.

•Matt and Aaron growing up with neglecful parents and them being the reason of their addictions (to similar things also) and being "helped" with that by Andrew's questionable means.

•Nicky and Allison being shunned by their parents for being themselves, forgetting all the other things they did to make them proud and loved.

•Seth and Neil trying to blend in (in different ways but still), dealing with jelousy and then Seth dying his last year with the Foxes and Neil who thought he was gonna die his first year surviving.

There are much more but I can't think of all of them now and didn't write them the last time I thought about this. For me it's awsome how maybe a little desition, a person, a moment... can turn you in an entire different person and this books show that SOOO WELL!!

[noe-clara69]

Can you imagine how fucking angry Neil was when he heard Jean say “So Drake’s not a biter then.”

Because I can.

In that one sentence Neil learned 2 things.

1) That Jean was sexually assaulted

2) What he (Jean) went through was something akin to what Andrew went through with Drake.

I also think that reminded him of everything (that he knows) Drake did to Andrew. I think it reminded him of the time when Drake ambushed him and was paid by Riko to do so. I think it reminded Neil that both of those bastards got of way too fucking easily.

I think Neil put a hit on Grayson not only for Jean, but also for Andrew, Kevin, himself and anyone else who was hurt by Riko, Grayson and Drake (that last one might be a stretch but you get my point).

I think Neil felt so angry and helpless at that point and when he was presented with an opportunity to properly get rid of someone’s abuser, he took it.

[ohtobangchan]

Happy Valentin to THEM and THEM only

[grooviestguru]

not to horrifically and offensively mix my book series here, but i’m thinking if aftg were ever told from andrew’s POV rather than neil’s, we’d have a real twilight/midnight sun situation on our hands. like neil just relays what he sees, is deeply unreliable, and despite being a very intelligent person has approximately three topics he thinks about with any depth of interest. andrew, meanwhile, is spouting poetic lyrical nonsense any time homeboy opens his mouth, and you just KNOW his brain is whirring 2463574 kms a minute, thinking thinking thinking. his POV of the same events would definitely be hundreds of pages longer

[groupielove21]

Andrew talking with Renee about Neil

[feelingthedisaster]

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 over 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.

[rapselsstuff]

I believe that andrew minyard’s gay awakening was the cartoon fox in robin hood and that years and years and years later he looks at neil and is like. Oh shit.

[jtl-fics]

Thinking about Neil and Andrew's house again and getting emo. Like they had their own places when they were on different teams. I think they'd be the type to take one another shopping for those apartments wanting to make sure they're good for one another. Andrew's apartment was near a running trail, Neil made sure that there was roof access on his. Stuff like that.

Then they finally get on the same team and they're getting a place together. Neil wanting a fenced in backyard, Andrew wanting something with a porch, Neil wanting a walkout basement, Andrew wanting a lot of natural light, and they both want at least a 2-car garage.

They never intentionally decorate but they've just accumulated stuff. Gifts from friends, things they saw and grabbed on road trips, gifts to one another, and now it is all in one place. Rearranging their furniture over and over again until they like it. Doing DIY on a lot to make it exactly how they like it.

Kevin keeps mentioning how their backyard would be perfect for a vegetable garden and they both make faces and never do that. Getting a couch that's perfect for sitting close or far apart depending on the day. Guest rooms for when friends visit that they decorate utterly annoyingly just because Aaron said something one time about it being so boring so now there's a cross stitch hung above the guest bed that Andrew did himself that says 'Home is where the heart is' with two little knives underneath.

Just space to do with what they want that is completely theirs.

[bookworms-lair]

Kevin: *about Neil* i think he has potential

Andrew: potential to be a fucking problem?

[crazy-fangirl2524]

My biggest flex will always be how I knew Neil was the more feral and dangerous one than Andrew this whole time even before tsc and seeing the entire fandom freaked out makes me want to kiss and hug Nora and just thank her for finally finally showing everyone and I’m not just crazy