#Neil is an important charater in ok ko

[firecooking]

* Neil train pulls up to the Neil station * so tell me a little bit about him ;P

You wanna talk about Neil! Well you’ve found the god damn driver of this train

Let’s discuss Neil

Do you see this mans? This man is the most important character to me of all time only behind Darkwing Duck [that’s for another day]

Reasons I love Neil are plentiful so let me show a diagram

I personally relate to the fact he looks like he doesn’t know how clothes work and doesn’t wear pants

There is a lot to unpack on that image so lets take this point by point

- East Asian Features

OK KO arguably has some issues with how it portrays skin tones and body types, but with Neil he very constantly has a pale east Asian complexion, while stylized and not 100% Asian [race and ethnicity is kinda hard to place in this show] his body type, hair colour, skin tone, and face shape actually lines up with common east Asian traits [I can’t say 100% what he lines up with but I hc him as half Chinese]

- Neuro Divergent Traits

Neil Is shown in several episodes with ‘odd’ characteristics, which are commonly played as jokes, however I think it’s important to take a step back and think about what characteristics correlate with common ideas about Neurodivergence. For one he’s shown as relying on note cards when public speaking [I don’t have time to unpack his comedy routine but that also has big ND vibes]. His ‘I don’t want this bread’ scene physically vibes with me, getting so overwhelmed you can’t even remember why you have a loaf of bread and you can’t articulate whats wrong cause you where ignored so long. There is a lot more but i don’t wanna go on and on.

- Explorer Scout

Solo Hero scouts is Explorer Scouts, Sidekick scouts is Explorer Club Scouts. It’s really cool to see an adult Character in a scouts program like Explorer Scouts, not many people realize you can be up to 22 years old and still be an active scout [btw, Explorer scouts isn’t like you think boy scouts is, it’s about learning job skills in a advanced field of work, I’m an Aviation Explorer! My backup career is working as a gate agent/flight attendant! I teach youth classroom workshops about aircraft safety and help them go on young eagle flights! I wanted to talk about this lmao]

Side note: Neil’s mom signing him up for solo hero scouts is great also a point for neurodivergence

- Goofy and Unhinged, but kind and helpful

Self explanatory tbh

- Clear and visible disabilities

Neil’s a triple amputee, and that’s important to see on screen and for kids to just, see a dude with three prosthetic limbs hanging out and chilling like a normal person. I also think it’s cool they canonically gave him struggles with his limbs

- Very clearly Nerdy and unashamed

He literally held Radcon, he brought dnd dice in another episode, his hero inspiration was comic books/old heroes

- No Knee’s

I lost my knees and Neil lost his knees; it’s a sign

- Pants fucking suck

Neil agrees by not wearing pants at anytime in the show besides during plaza prom when he tried to dress nice

SPEAKING OF PLAZA PROM

The French cuffs, the tight cut shirt, the salmon coloured tie, the flower, the tight tailored pants [probably just black skinny jeans], the fact he’s not wearing shoes and his shirt is missing the collar, a absolute disaster but still stylish, he probably read like one hipster style blog before doing this

COMBO BREAKER

Can’t talk about Neil without discussing his son

This mans was SO down to adopt a kid in Sidekick Scouts, he was seconds from shoving KO under his arm and running. I think it’s really cool they gave Neil and CB each other, it’s really nice to see a young man playing mentor/father figure to a kid, especially since they both seem to still have a lot of room to learn and grow. Also when Neil cried over CB getting toasted in the finale, that genuinely felt natural even tho Neil probably should have attempted to kick ass as well. Also Neil sobbing as CB get’s into POINT prep, that’s a real feel good moment.

I don’t think Neil is ‘big hero’ material, even if his dream is to be. He has a very home town feel to him, I can totally see him settling down to helping his community and teaching young heroes. I have head cannons for what he’s going to college for and his goals in life but I’m gonna stick to what we know in cannon for this ranting page [we know a lot about him huh, guess why!]

Neil was Toby Jones’ childhood oc!

Yes I asked him about Neil, I care a lot

Beta Neil slaps, so cute, love the dumb cape design, and the glove *chefs kiss*

Anyways, I’m going on a very big ramble about this but Neil’s really important to me! He helped me figure out I’m Uranic and a Demiguy! He helped me see that I can still do what I love and be disabled! He helped me see it’s okay to be yourself in public! He helped me learn it’s okay to sometimes forget social norms!

I think it’s important to have diverse characters in media, I think it’s important to have socially weird and quirky characters, and disabled characters, and you know what, Neil meets a bunch of those check marks!

Also

Where are his limbs Toby