#moriyama brothers

[moontrader-arts]

Perfect court as horsemen of the Apocalypse

I don’t know why but for me this AU makes sense

Tell me if you want foxes in this universe

Riko as the Conquest (first)

Kevin as the War (second)

Jean as the Famine (third)

And Nathaniel as the Death (fourth)

[rikomoriyama01]

[broken-heart-raven-queen]

What if... the last tought of Riko was that Ichirou killed him because he lost (and Andrew broke his arm) and he could never be number 1 again??

[frobby]

the most unbelievable thing about blue exorcist to me is that rin didnt know about shiemi's existence at all. Like not at all?? I get yukio being able to lie and lead a double life but he never mentioned his childhood friend that he tutors like once a week? He was never in a situation where he was like 'oh i heard this from shiemi' not even a slip up??? Not even once??????? I feel like when rin met shiemi he shoulda known OF her at least.

[ulysses-s-wishes]

Okay the time has come for me to elaborate: I've seen a lot of discussion about who has a brotherly relationship in All for the Game and I do think a lot of it comes down to people thinking that found family needs defined familial relationships, which is a post for a different day. So first off, I'd like to put in my two cents about which relationships are not brotherly:

Matt and Neil. They are friends. They're best friends. They're adorable together. There is nothing brotherly about their relationship. At most, Matt is the cool brother-in-law/boyfriend-of-your-older-sibling who looks out for you.

Andrew and Kevin. They have a messed up relationship (affectionate) but it is not brotherly. It's friendship. It's based in protectiveness and understanding, as some have said they are the first two who really saw each other. Andrew does have a messed up relationship with his actual brother, but it is so quintessentially brotherly it's insane. They didn't grow up together, but they understand each others' minds, they squabble and they would throw down with or for each other without a second of hesitation. Kevin and Andrew are family, but they are family because of their close friendship, not because they behave like siblings.

Jean and Neil. This comes the closest to a brotherly relationship. But in the end, they are too similar. And simultaneously too different. They care about each other and would protect each other and see where the other is coming from, but they match too well. They are misplaced forever partners. They see each others' whole backstory, and even if they had been in the nest together, they would have been two young boys struggling through together as one unit. Not as siblings.

You know who are brothers? Kevin and Neil.

Neil is the surrogate brother Riko never was. Kevin was raised to see his court partner as his brother because that was the actual Moriyama encouraged dynamic between them. (Jean simply saw his partner as that - he wouldn't have seen Neil as a sibling no matter what). So when Neil shows up, becomes striker, he is taking the role of Kevin's partner that Riko formerly held, except he actually respects Kevin - and Kevin respects him! He believes in his potential! They are just like Riko and Kevin, except they actually support each other!

Moreover, Kevin and Neil understand each others' pasts and upbringings, not because of how similar they are (like Jean and Neil) but simply because they can see it in the way they live. They resent each other for having different lives. They fundamentally cannot conceive of the other person's mindset, but at the same time they understand it perfectly. Their worldviews are inherently opposed, worldviews that have been beaten into them, and yet they both, individually, spit in the face of that for each other.

Neil was raised to put himself before everyone else, to form no attachments, to cut and run to save his own skin. He was raised to think nothing mattered short of his own survival. And yet he tells himself, tells the ghost of his mother "'one of us has to make it, Mom.' It wasn't going to be Neil...But maybe Kevin could do it... Neil couldn't leave until he knew Kevin would be okay." Neil spends two pages thinking about how it's unfair that Kevin got a family and a game even if that family was awful, thinking that Kevin has all of these people devoted to him, Andrew, Wymack, Neil himself - and Neil resents him for that. But in the same breath he reaffirms that he is devoted to Kevin, and thinks his own death would be worth at long as Kevin turned out okay. Which is so siblings stuck in a toxic environment? Constantly making sacrifices, hating their siblings but loving them more?

Neil hates him at this point, is furious that Kevin is so bossy and condescending, and this is before he even knows Kevin thinks he's court material, but when Kevin tells him how to improve, he does it, because he respects that Kevin is better than him, and Kevin respects that Neil can get as good as him - the very thing that was lacking in Kevin and Riko's partnership/brotherhood.

And on the reverse side! The premise of the books was the founding principle of Kevin's childhood: All for the game. Exy is the only thing that matters, and anything else can and should be sacrificed so long as Kevin is winning. Anything that is a distraction from the court, or the Court or the Perfect Court is a waste of time and energy, and must be disregarded. So when Kevin decides he's going to make Neil the best, it's okay because it's in service of the game. But then he finds out that Neil is going to die. Finds out that Neil has no plans of making it through the year, that even running won't save him. And Neil asks if he will still train him - it would make sense if he said no. Neil isn't going to make it to Court, he isn't going to be a phenomenal exy player, he isn't going to last long enough. He has, essentially, become a waste of Kevin's time. and yet still, Kevin promises to train him every night. Not to get him to Court, not to help them win championships and create a great team out of the Foxes, but because it's Neil's dying wish.

When Neil tells the press about his tattoo and he and Kevin fight, first of all, Andrew lets them because he knows they would never actually hurt each other - even Matt doesn't get that consideration, because Neil and Kevin's relationship is unique. But more importantly, Neil confronts Kevin. Tells him he's not judging him for his fear, but that he needs to be able to hold his own, needs to think of himself as capable of being free or this is all for nothing and most importantly says he doesn't understand how Kevin can keep his head down when he's the one of the two of them who will actually survive, will be good enough for court, will have a life. And Kevin says that Andrew had told him the same - but it's clearly hitting differently coming from Neil - and that he isn't like Neil. He admires Neil's refusal to take anything lying down so much, even though he can't conceive it. There are characters in this book who are similar, but none who are so different yet so in tune with each others' mindset.

They fight, they bicker, they insult each other, Neil smacks Kevin upside the head for being a pessimist, and then they turn around and have each others' back. They aren't protectors like Andrew is for them, but they are protectors like Andrew and Aaron are for each other. They aren't partners like Jean and Neil would have been, they're partners like Kevin and Riko claimed to be.

[slidetoleft]

y'all ever think about how kevin's side of the dorm in the nest was left untouched for over a year, ready for him to return to at any moment?

[nerd--club]

Had more thoughts in the community comment section and this quickly turned angsty 😶

Oops 🤭

I would like to propose the very silly hc that Ichirou Moriyama only had a vague idea of what exy even was before Neil’s freshman year, but after meeting with him, while watching the Foxes v. Ravens match he found himself… actually kinda enjoying it?? So now he is an avid fan of NCAA stickball and has to hide his obsession from his mafia allies & employees

[afurtivecake]

I don't know how much thought or choice Kayleigh Day put into deciding to leave Kevin to Tetsuji, but what if she chose Tetsuji not just because he's her close friend whom she trusts, but because of Riko? What if she saw how good Riko seemed to be at getting Kevin to do something other than play with his toys by himself - usually by dragging him off to pass around exy balls instead? Or how responsible he was for making sure Kevin got a share of everything during meal times and finished everything on his plate, even the vegetables? Or how mature Riko was for never crying when he got hurt and how he seemed to be able to get Kevin to stop crying when he tripped just by telling him to? What if she saw how good Riko seemed to be with Kevin and didn't want Kevin to be alone if she were gone? She wouldn't have known that Riko's interest in exy was something Tetsuji was insisting upon rather than simply encouraging. That Riko's fixation on what they ate wasn't just a child insisting upon fairness at the table but a habit formed from strict diet control. Or that not crying when hurt wasn't the sign of an emotionally well-adjusted child but a response to being habitually punished for showing any weakness. What if she asked Tetsuji to care for Kevin with hopes that Kevin would have Riko by his side to push him out of his comfort zone, to watch out for him and to be there for him if she couldn't be?

[ffroppydisk]

I wonder how Kevin grieved Riko.

Because he did. He must have. They had grown up together and yes, he might hate him for all he's done to him (and Jean, and then Andrew, and Neil, and...) but he was his brother.

Don't you think that at least in the first years, things were at least slightly better?

Do you think Kevin has happy or happier memories from his childhood or is it all bad?

Do you think Kevin and Riko have had inside jokes at some point? Do you think that not too long after Riko's death, Kevin realised that the other half of those inside jokes is gone and there's no one else left to laugh at it but him? Because he can't explain the joke to anyone, they wouldn't understand. Perhaps Jean would or could, but Kevin is not selfish and he will not share inside jokes he and Riko had and that Jean had been left out from. It's unfair. So even those bits of nice memories get stained. Tainted forever.

Do you think Kevin ever subconsciously seems out Riko for something they used to do together and was theirs, only to realise again that he's not there? And not in a way that can be changed, you know. And not always in a negative way, for Kevin's fear for the king had infiltrated so deeply into his heart and head it sometimes felt like nothing but reassurance that Riko was not there anymore. But still. He had been his partner, for better and for worse, for a decade. A child born the same year they were partnered up would be in middle school, would be having thoughts, would be the same age they were when they partnered up.

Do you think Kevin ever cries about it? With Bee, or in his room, or Wymack, or in the lockers after night practice when Neil can't see him.

Do you think Kevin ever let himself feel the grief without feeling guilty about being relieved?

Do you think Kevin ever grieved Riko even before he was dead, grieving the Riko he had been when they were kids?

I don't know, I just think Kevin's grief is so, so, so deeply intricate.

[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

[rikomoriyama01]

Riko vs Ichirou

HELP THIS IS SO FUNNY ANd THEY BOTH GO TO THE SAME BUSINES MEETING

[laribooherss]

I actually felt my frontal lobe develop when I fully considered Kevin Day’s parentage and came to the jarring realisation HE’S NOT JAPANES E

[lucky-slice]

low key i think to deny Riko's trauma is to deny his narrative importance in the story.

like Riko's trauma related to his father parallels neil's. His concept of brotherhood adds complexity to Andrew and Aaron's relationship. He acts not just as an antagonist but as a foil to other character's relationship to trauma and violence.

to solely view riko through the lense of his actions is to miss the point. He is a character in a story, not a real breathing human being.

[leeahl]

I'm going back to the blue Exorcist fandom because a new season has come out and honestly i'm already tired of the fandom. All of Yukio's hate is produced more out of "he's mean to Rin😭😔" than any other personal reasons. Fuck off from him, he tried to commit suicide three times. He's 16 for fucks sake.

he is not a universal evil, he is not a bad person, he is just a teenage boy who is traumatized and broken. and there's no shit "but rin—" no, no rin anymore. For Yukio, this has always been a big trigger, he needs his own personal comfort and not the throwing of his brothers in his face.

And that's OKAY. just because Rin loves him doesn't mean that Yukio feels loved. It's terrible to blame people for like "you cant see how I love you, you ungrateful shit". Yukio had a purpose in life that was built to copy his father and his goals, Yukio lost everything when he found out the truth and his moral compass went astray. He is in terrible confusion, in fear and misunderstanding, he cannot explain his feelings and deal with them himself, he feels absolutely alone. his fake identity is starting to crack at the seams and it's physically painful because this "mask" has grown into his skin. even if he is surrounded by people who can help him, he does not see it, he does not feel safe and understands that he will not be understood at the level he wanted.

Seriously, he could have done a ton of shit and I'm still going to defend him because he's acting like this not because he's just an asshole, but because he's in pain and we all get angry when it hurts. especially if it hurts all the time. especially if you're tired, but you can't sleep it off because it's not your body that's tired. It's your soul.

Im stand with my cancelled husband :((((

ps. His bro too, i saw last chapters.

[chryseiswriting-blog]

I need someone to draw the day Kevin met Riko, the day he thought he was getting a brother and instead got an owner and a leash that he would wear for the rest of his life, even after the monster was long dead.

Just two kids with dead mums, absent fathers, and very different ideas of the path ahead.

[yomai]

Happy Birthday Rin & Yukio!💙💙💙

@tonarinngo on twt

@ao_dango on twt

@keppon_ on twt

@1013_1014RT on twt

@sun60915408 on twt

@kitama_YangOv0 on twt

@miz_sak3 on twt

Wishing these boys the best for the future chapters of Blue Exorcist, and excited to see them animated for the new season!