#because there was no way a Kevin/Thea based ask was going to be quiet

[thespineoftherighteous]

My unpopular opinion that would get me murdered by the fandom is that I actually don’t mind Kevin/Thea. I see people being skeeved out by Nora saying in the extra content Kevin met her when he was 14 but like Nora also said that they didn’t really talk to each other or anything until Kevin was 18? And like idk I might be biased cuz I personally know people in happy and healthy relationships with the same age gap as Kevin/Thea but I just don’t think it’s that bad?

Like I agree with criticisms of the ship not being portrayed well in canon (like Thea was clearly a lazy way for Nora to show that Kevin is Definitely Not a Love Interest for Andreil lmao) but I see people treating the ship like it’s as toxic as Kevin/Riko and I just don’t agree, mostly because I think it would be completely against the values of Andrew as a character to let one of his charges stay in a toxic romantic relationship?

I also think there’s tons of unexplored angst fic potential in the idea of what if Thea was Kevin’s age. Like Kevin having to face his former brother, best friend, and lover on the court in that 1st Ravens game? Drama

(with all that being said, I’m an aro!Kevin supporter that likes him not being in a romantic relationship at all, so I really did just go on a long rant in defense of a ship that’s not even my favorite by a long shot lmao. Sorry)

oh we're getting into it now. I'm going to have to really disagree with you on this one, though i can respect such a bold take. i don't actually remember what the age gap between Kevin and Thea is so i won't chat too much on that but I'll just say that i don't think age gaps in general are necessarily bad, but they only work with adults. fully fledged, developed adults. it'd be a completely different story if they were both older but her waiting for him to turn 18 doesn't sit right. especially for a kid that she's known since he was 14.

even if we disregard that though, their relationship doesn't seem healthy. we only got about 2 seconds of it from the books and it seemed full of red flags, if i remember correctly. honestly i can't imagine any romantic relationships between former Ravens to be at all healthy, though they probably would have killer angst. i think most Ravens are probably too rough and jagged in all the same places to properly fit together. I'm not saying relationships have to be healthy and clean to be enjoyable, I'm just disagreeing with you saying that they're not unhealthy. (and yeah Andrew would intervene if he thought Kevin was at risk but this isn't directly his territory the way Aaron's relationship is.)

aside from whether it's morally good or bad though (because "bad" relationships can eat sometimes!) there's just nothing compelling about them? pick any—ANY—fox to pair with Kevin and that's automatically a million times more interesting. there's just nothing there?? it doesn't even require any effort to disregard their relationship because there's nothing between them to begin with.

HOWEVER. i think there's something to your point of imagine Kevin having to face his brother best friend and lover as a fox like that's such effortless angst (isn't it always, with Kevin) but yeah. I'm with you on that, circumstances being adjusted accordingly.