#aftg discourse

[yourleftpinkytoe-blog]

You know what’s crazy to me? When some people act like Kevin is this tragic figure who will never form a meaningful connection because he haven’t (so far) ended up in a romantic relationship with “someone better” then Thea.

I’ve seen so many posts where is just lamenting how Kevin is never going to be happy or heal because he doesn’t have the support of a partner.

…BRO HAS THIS FUCKING FANDOM JUST FORGOT THAT THE FOXES EXIST?! THAT AT THE END OF THE FIRST SERIES HES FORMING A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS DAD!!

Like come on ik people don’t like Thea let me say this now, and repeat after me… “Someone doesn’t need a romantic relationship to be happy. Kevin can be happy and heal with the help of his FAMILY”

[stick-ball]

"I'm so tired with the discourse" "why can't this fandom be normal" friendly reminder discourse and fuck-up starts when someone comes onto another person's post and starts throwing shit. Not when the post is made. I think that's an important addition to make to the current conversation, since multiple people are talking about the discourse, which, I guess we could stop calling discourse at this point bcs it's just dead dove purging. You know you should not eat the dead dove, you look inside anyway. That's on you, nobody else, so take your pitchfork and go home.

[allforthe-gays]

why are people confused that matt and neil are BFF’s, when they canonically share a deep dislike for kevin day?

8 pages into the raven king and we get this banger directed at kevin:

“One day I want you to look up ‘insensitivity’ in the dictionary,” Matt said, annoyed. “I’m sure it’ll do your ego wonders to see your picture printed there beside it.”

and then when neil tells matt that they probably don’t have much of a chance at finals because they only have him and kevin and neither of them is good enough, matt says:

“Hear that Kevin? Your sub said you’re incompetent.”

they are meant for each other.

[ultimate-marysue]

A part of the AFTG fandom acts awfully entitled when it comes to Nora. I would assume it's because they're not used to interacting so casually with their fav authors, but I don't see people talking like that to fanfic writers either (for the most part).

Reviews are for the readers goes both ways and I don't understand why you tag and @/ her on Twitter just to bitch about the things you dislike. For starters, If you're a fan of the books it means you must like them. So why on earth would you choose to complain about the "bad things" when faced with the opportunity to talk to the author? I would ask her questions, fangirl about my fav moments, share my fanworks... Not talk about the specific singular thing I didn't vibe with. Because, guess what? I didn't write the book

I really don't understand it. I've criticized some elements of the books but I don't tag Nora. I'm not commissioning her for a story. She wrote the books, we bought the books. We got what we paid for, she doesn't owe us anything else. If you want more, write it yourself or commission a writer. Especially the Thea shit. My problem with that character is that she exists for less than one page, you could easily ignore it. I don't get the need to @/ the author saying "you should have edited this two paragraphs out because given the near non-existing info we get on her I think she's a bad person" (as if aftg isn't full of bad and questionable people, as if characters can only be good instead of interesting, as if we know anything about her).

I hate the way people talk about art and creative works as if they are, not only something to consume, but something that is owed to you. Like the author's owe you making all your headcanons canon. You people have lost your minds, that's not how it works. You're allowed to have your headcanons and share them with the fandom, but so is the author??? Only the books are canon, and not even the author can prevent you from skipping over the Thea parts if you want to pretend they're not there.

I'm hoping this is just kids getting into the books now, because I cringe at the thought of adult people seriously expecting their fav author to make their whims canon. Canon divergence is the beauty of fandom! Taking something you already like and giving your own two cents. Creating something out of love for the source material even if it's flawed. Harassing the author because you dislike a character that's barely there sucks the joy out of fandom. We don't deserve Nora, and she definitely doesn't deserve having to deal with this shit.

[crimeronan]

basically my standards for gay/trans media these days are that it has to be something i'd still enjoy even if none of the characters were gay or trans. bc otherwise the whole thing is a waste of my fucking time. in 2012 i was so starved for gay representation that i'd consume anything that so much as mentioned queerness just to feel less alone but that's not the world we live in anymore and i don't want to go back to that world and i would be miserable continuing to pretend that gayness is the pinnacle of good writing in 2023 it feels so.... gross. i like being spoiled with a rapturous amount of gay content to choose from and plenty of the gay content i DON'T like is beloved by other queer people and i don't have to love every gay narrative or pretend to. so i'm no longer touching any shit that doesn't do the kind of cool storytelling that compels me. i did my years in the trenches.

[rekikiri]

hi I’m possibly about to offend some people here so if you have a problem then maybe skip bc I’m discussing thea and roland.

I’ve seen people who talk negatively about kevin and thea’s relationship because of the age gap (which yes, same for me as well). BUT some of those people don’t have that same energy towards andrew and roland

andrew and roland are so much worse than kevthea. andrew was 17 when they began hooking up, had to tie his hands so he wouldn’t push against his boundaries. thea was (presumably) the same age as roland (22-23). so the age gap is bigger AND we have confirmation that roland wasn’t respecting andrew’s boundaries??? and yet there are people who are against kevthea but not the other?

idk. maybe it’s me projecting how much I personally hate roland here but if you condemn kevthea but not andrew/roland that’s a big yikes to me

[joanofexys]

pssst friendly reminder that the only canon label we have for Neil's sexuality is demi (aspec) and that he's otherwise unlabeled. hc what you want but stop trying to push it as canon or putting it over his only canon label.

i'm tired of seeing y'all erase aspecness as a valid sexuality and always feeling the need to pair it with another identity as if aspec people aren't valid just identifying as aspec and also erasing us from the conversation entirely

[sunriseabram]

Yes. Riko was an abuser. Nobody can deny that he hurt, sexually abused and tormented people physically and emotionally.

Yes. Riko was abused. He was hit by Tetsuji when he got things wrong, conditioned to believe that he had to be the best or his life wasn't worth living. He was abandoned by his father because he was second born, ignored by his big brother, and not even congratulated after he tried everything to gain their approval.

Yes. He hurt Jean out of anger. He used Jean as an object because that is all he had ever been to his father and family. He was a way to make money, but his father never saw him as anything more than that. It allowed him to feel powerful and in control of someone when everything else in his life was out of his control.

Yes. He flips after his father dies. Of course, he does. When you've worked your entire life to be acknowledged, spending thousands upon thousands of hours training to win, winning trophies, doing sponsorships, raising great chunks of money for the family, only for your father to die before even showing an ounce of pride for you? Of course, he flips. Jean just happens to be there, someone he knows he can hurt and get away with. Someone less than him at the bottom of the food chain. Perhaps the only person who sees the anger for what it truly is: failure. And Riko doesn't like that.

Yes. He hurt Kevin out of jealousy. Riko grew up in a world where failure was unacceptable. Failure meant pain, death and suffering. Exy was all Riko had and all he ever had. He couldn't stand to be second best because second best is all he had ever been. He would not be second in the one thing he was meant to be the king of. He hurt Kevin out of jealousy, and was beaten to an inch of his life for it.

Yes. He grew up sheltered. Riko was groomed to be a star by Tetsuji. He was groomed and exploited for money by the only person who had ever looked at him and seen something. He lost his mother. His father didn't care about him. He had nobody. He lived underground in the nest for most of his life and played exy every single day for most of his childhood. He probably had no friends his own age until Kevin came along. There was nobody who understood what Riko was going through.

Yes. Riko hurt Andrew. He had Andrew hurt as another power trip. It was to show he had great power and could do what he wanted with it. He had no boundaries. Throughout the series, Riko is shown to be insecure. He craves power and acknowledgement and wants to prove he has a place in the mafia family next to his brother.

Yes. Riko is more complex than a simple villain. He is self-destructive and works to the bone to try and be worth something. He uses anger to cover up his blatant abandonment issues. He is never and will never be enough. And if he can't be enough, then nobody else can. Nobody can take his place.

He is scared of Kevin, frightened of Neil, terrified of Andrew. He is constantly trying to stop his precarious tower from tumbling in the only way he knows how.

If all his mistakes were punished with pain, disappointment and anger, how can he know any different? He doesn't know the world really and hasn't experienced it outside his little box of stardom. He doesn't know what is 'normal.' For him, failing means getting beaten. Failure means losing his status. Failing means falling from power. It always has.

No. Just because Riko was abused and groomed does not mean that his abusive behaviours were justified. He chose to become an abuser, despite everything he had suffered.

No. He wasn't born evil. He is horrible - don't get me wrong - but he shouldn't just be cast off as coming out of the womb with horns and a tail. He was shaped by his experiences, negative and positive. We all are.

Riko thought beating people into submission would show his power and prove his worth to his family. In the end, it resulted in his downfall.

[saywhatyouwillbut]

i love all of you wonderful aftg creators making social media aus and in-universe memes, choosing to completely ignore the fact that exy rpf would 100% exist

[walkingcorpse03]

i hate you aftg tiktok and twitter

[youdontknowhowtodiequietly]

neil josten is demisexual, and, i argue, demiromantic too. he said he didn't swing because he was never allowed to form any meaningful contact with anyone outside of his mom. but he was aware he was capable of attraction. that is why he is demi. i love Nora, she gave demi people recognition in a time where everyone was very hostile to asexual people in general (tbf they still are hostile because people are fucking idiots) and i think it's beautiful

[problemduetest4life]

Say what you want about Nicky but he is seriously the strongest soldier. Mans gave up his whole life to take care of his two cousins, one of which is openly homophobic and the other being Andrew Minyard. That's love bitch.

[chilledstrawberrysoda]

My ultimate aftg pet peeve is when someone from booktube or booktok reads the books one time and thinks they can make a video explaining it like no get out of here, I have read these books 10+ times over the last 9 years and listened to the audiobooks 5 times and this morning I still noticed something that I misinterpreted upon the first 15 read throughs. I think the only person that would be genuinely qualified to do a full plot analysis and breakdown would be Nora because these books have so much nuance and complex characters and world building that reading it once is not enough to explain it to other people.

[scholliski]

there’s always some sort of discourse floating around about this topic but despite that I do thoroughly enjoy that the aftg fandom can be divided into their niche sub-fandoms, there are people who almost entirely stick to writing about, talking about and drawing the Ravens or the perfect court, those that lean towards the Trojans and make their content surrounding that, and even within the foxes there are those that focus on the upperclassmen, the upcoming freshmen, or the pre-canon seniors; I really think that it makes for a well rounded fandom experience where even the most niche topics and characters are explored and analysed in such depth and everyone eventually finds their own calling within the fandom

[jtl-fics]

Fluent Freshman - Part 16

PREVIOUS

Sweeties is very busy tonight but they get a table relatively quickly. He sees some people looking at their group all dressed in the ‘required’ attire for going out to Eden’s and reminds himself that maybe it’s for the best that people remember him tonight. It MAY help the police find his body in a shallow grave somewhere if they can piece together his last few hours.

Nicky stops by the salad bar and grabs three packs of crackers. He hands one pack to FF who just stares blankly at it before shrugging and figuring his stomach needs something so he opens the pack and just eats the crackers.

Nicky looks at him with an abundance of fondness that he doesn’t understand but shakes his head and hands a laminated menu over to him to order dinner from. “I know you’re not drinking but you still gotta take your meds before we leave.” Nicky reminds and FF nods. He reaches into his pocket to confirm that they’re there and feels something cheap and plastic.

Oh god, he forgot to take his Happy Meal Toy out of his pocket. No one needs to know that.

He shoves his hand into his other jacket pocket and the sandwich baggy with his single dose for his Ulcer is right there.

He starts to look at the menu when he realizes that everyone else already knows what they’re going to order since they apparently come here regularly. He tries his best to never be a regular at any place where they can see him and repeat his order back to him (Hello CVS girl, yes thank you for holding some Pepto for him. No he is very brand loyal and would not like to try Tums thank you.)

FF stands behind the art of the panic pick.

He has cultivated this ability over his many years of panicking. He can look at a menu and pick an item that might not be the thing he most wants on that menu it is something that he can eat or drink. Then while he has that pick queued up and ready to fly if a member of the waitstaff comes over before he’s actually read what’s on offer he has his panic pick.

A place like this has GOT to have a burger.

He finds it under the sandwich section easily enough and now he has his panic pick as he peruses the rest of the menu.

The waitress comes far faster than he had anticipated and slams waters down at each of their spots. “What can I get you?” She asks and before anyone says anything Nicky and Aaron slide over the two packets of crackers that she takes before looking at the empty packet in front of FF, “Just two?” She asks.

WHAT KIND OF CODE IS THIS?

“Just two.” Nicky says grabbing his trash and handing it over to her.

She shrugs, “Anything else on the menu I can get you boys?” She asks.

They all make their orders and Nicky, bravely, steps in to remind him he likes his burgers well done when the waitress asks.

“Sorry, I should have warned you.” Nicky laughs bumping his shoulder against FF’s “This place has this stuff called cracker dust, it gets you high but it’s not addictive.” He says.

Every single 80’s PSA goes off in FF’s head all at once.

NICKY “FLIPS TURTLES BACK ONTO THEIR FEET” HEMMICK DOES NOT LOOK LIKE HOW THE ‘JUST SAY NO’ ADS HAD SAID HE WOULD.

There’s not a trench coat! He wasn’t even wearing a hoodie with the hood up! There’s no sunglasses! Nicky had given him a baggie for his ulcer meds but IT WAS A SANDWICH BAG.

“I see.” He says out loud.

“Do you wanna try some.” Aaron asks. He double checks and yeah Aaron is still in the same club clothes he had left the house with. He has on a hoodie but the hood is down.

He does as any 80’s teen sitcom protagonist does by the end of the episode.

“No thank you.”

He thinks Mr. T would be happy that he said No. That ad had been especially nerve wracking as a kid when Mr. T ‘shakes some sense’ into the camera.

“Alright, no worries. Neil and Andrew don’t do any either.” Nicky says quickly.

The drugs come with the food and Nicky and Aaron pocket them before handing over cash to the waitress who just counts it right there. He focuses on digging into his burger and realizes it has jalapeños on it but Nicky volunteers to eat them with his nachos and lets the conversation weave around him as he polishes off his burger and takes his ulcer meds. “Oh cool, hand me the bag so I can keep our stuff in there.” Nicky makes a grabbing motion with his hands and FF just hands it over.

He zones out as he eats his fries. He wonders if Great Gran is upset watching him or if she’s happy that he said no to drugs. Maybe he should have said yes, then he could at least be blasted out of his mind when Andrew dragged him to the basement.

Well, it’s too late now.

The waitress comes and clears out their plates but picks up her notepad and pen again. “So, what ice cream do you boys want tonight?” She asks and looks straight at FF.

But FF is prepared.

Ice cream places are easy. His panic pick is a given, it’s Vanilla. Every ice cream joint has it so he barely even notices how his heart rate kicks up to 190 BPM and his palms grow instantly sweaty.

“Vanilla.”

“Sorry Hun, we’re fresh out.”

OH GOD. QUICK, SAY SOMETHING ELSE.

“Surprise me.”

NO YOU IDIOT SAY CHOCOLATE.

“Surprise you?”

RETRACT, IT’S NOT TOO LATE.

“Yeah. Surprise me.” He repeats and he can FEEL Nicky vibrating with laughter next to him.

“Alright Hun, I’ll surprise you.” She winks at him and he blinks back at her.

The rest of the table all order (They’re all normal people who order strawberry (neil), the special with chocolate (Nicky), Lemon Sorbet (Aaron), and Brownie Fudge (Andrew).

“Surprise me.” Nicky whispers to him.

“I panicked.” He whispers back.

“Yeah obviously.” Nicky snorts but pats him, “It’s fine. The worst is you might end up with Pistachio or something.” He pats FF on the back.

FF likes Pistachio and the world loves to make FF suffer.

“Here you go hun. We just got this in, it’s Mango.” She says setting down two scoops of a bright orange ice cream down in front of him, “With a little surprise.” She winks again as she sets the other ice cream down.

They all get started.

Why is the Ice Cream kind of spicy?

He eventually puzzles out that the waitress has served him a Mango and some kind of pepper (probably habanero) ice cream. She smiles when he thanks her for the surprise, tries not to let it show how much the spice is KILLING his stomach let alone the acid of the mango.

Andrew has his eyes narrowed on him and he’s sure the man doesn’t want him to make a scene at a place that seems to be a frequent haunt for the family. So he eats every last bite and ignores how his lips tingle.

“Ohhh it must have been good. Maybe we should get you her number.” Nicky says looking at his empty bowl.

“No, I’m good.” She was pretty but considering the acid currently swirling in his stomach she probably thought he was an asshole for asking for her to ‘surprise him’. Even if that wasn’t the case, what if she thought it’d be cute to serve him this spicy ice cream as a cute couple thing? His stomach can’t take that.

“Aw man you’re no fun.” Nicky pouts.

They pay for their meals and the waitress hands him his receipt with a wink. He nods back at her before shoving the receipt into his pocket next to the Megamind toy. “Have a good night.” He says.

“You too Hun.” She says.

They head out for Eden’s and in a way the ice cream is a blessing because his stomach hurts enough that he barely even notices his anxiety about being at the place where Andrew most certainly is going to stab him at least once by the end of the night.

MASTERPOST FOR ALL PARTS OF FLUENT FRESHMAN AU

NEXT

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The requests to be added to the tag list got spread out across a few  different mediums on this one so if I missed you I swear it wasn’t malicious I’m just brunch dumb at the moment. Remind me in the replies!

As stated before if you’re up here and I spelled it  right but you  didn’t  get a notification there might be something  switched around in  your settings that won’t let me tag you properly?

[djungelscog]

for a largely aro & ace fandom... why are so many of you pressed that andrew & neil — mr & mr 'family means nothing to me', mr & mr 'the most untypical relationship', mr & mr 'you like me' 'i hate you but that doenst mean i wouldnt blow you' — don't say i love you or get married. if we're all so progressive about strange or weird relationships that don't push the expected norms, why are so many of you uncomfortable settling outside of normalcy?