mine is in the shop

==What happened?==

We all played the game, so we should all be familiar with what happens in it, right? Well, apparently some people zone out during the dialogue and skip all the cutscenes, so it’s worth a refresher so we can all be on the same page. 

Here’s what we know about Gervan, in rough chronological order.

Gervan is born into a high-ranking noble family. He is a bright young child full of energy. As far as we know, he has no siblings. Gervan’s father is the Marquis Gervais, meaning he is a powerful land-owning noble, and Gervan stands (pun not intended) to inherit his title and the power, status, and money that come with it. 

When he is about ten or eleven, Gervan and his retinue are ambushed while out riding and he is the only survivor of the incident. His cat and all his accompanying guards are killed. Gervan remembers very little about the incident itself, only that it was the first time he saw dark magic up close. Upon waking up, he had lost the use of his legs. Gervan’s condition seems to be some kind of magically-induced nerve damage, because he can’t move his legs, but he still feels pain in them, which he drinks a specific type of tea to deal with. 

From then on, Gervan’s life is very different. He cannot walk and has to use a wheelchair to get around. His demeanor changes from energetic to quiet and serious. He “learns to take it slow.” There are a lot of disparaging comments being said about the Marquis’ heir being disabled. His place in line for his father’s title remains unchallenged, and he still has access to noble privileges, but Gervan claims his family “set him down like a cracked piece of porcelain,” devaluing him and setting their expectations low. 

This is where Silven comes into play. Gervan was already a student at the Lyceum before his accident (thanks to hefty donations from his family), which means Silven likely was as well (he almost wasn’t able to attend, but Headmaster Leymar vouched for him and helped him earn a spot). Silven, a young noble of the same age but very different status, hears about Gervan’s accident and figures if he could help Gervan, that could win him and his family favor in the eyes of the Queen. His initial actions within this friendship are shallow and self-serving, but he shortly realizes that Gervan is actually a kind and intelligent person and worth being actual friends with. Gervan picks up on this, but chooses not to say anything about it. The two stay close friends for years, and are even introduced to the audience as Those Two Guys.

Gervan is a very gifted student and is admired by his classmates. He is second only to Cassadee, the awkward natural prodigy. This doesn’t seem to lose him any favor with the rest of the class who view him as an equal rival to Cassadee, or to Cassadee who’s just doing her own thing, but despite Gervan’s calm exterior, it clearly bothers him a lot. Parallels are directly drawn between Gervan and Cyran, who was similarly always second best to Merlin.

Meanwhile, the Adamant Syndicate has infiltrated the Serene Lyceum by way of the Enchanted Cup scheme, luring students in with fancy drinks, then offering them contracts to boost their magic. These predatory contracts seem to have some sort of limit as to how much magic they can boost, as at a certain point, the students then lose all their magic. The Syndicate offers one of these contracts to Gervan, but instead of offering to boost his magic, they offer to heal his legs. Gervan “accepts without a second thought.”

The Syndicate hold this contract over his head, and in return they ask him to be their man on the inside at the Lyceum. A plan is concocted involving Magister Cyran, the court mage selection exams, and Merlin’s tower, with Gervan as the Syndicate’s key player. The Syndicate’s end goal is classified information about the Arcane Council, and a new court mage they can puppeteer. 

Gervan can now walk again, but he has to hide this from everyone, as they will find out he turned to dark magic to do so. However, Leymar finds out that his legs have been healed and privately confronts him, urging Gervan to tell the truth. Gervan seems to be afraid of being cast out from his family if he does so, and is so overcome with rage and fear that he impulsively kills Leymar in cold blood. He is able to get away with the murder… for now.

During the court mage exams, Gervan plays it cool with even-tempered emotions. If Merlin goes with him and Silven during the first task, Gervan separates from the other two to hide the fact that he can walk. He reveals little about himself so far. Where Cassadee struggles with her lack of social skills, Gervan far outclasses her in that regard. During the second task, he commands his fellow classmates with intelligence, patience, and understanding. It seems at this point that he might actually be a better choice for court mage than Cassadee. However, he is not without his faults. Hepler chastises him for being reckless and destructive towards an endangered species, but Gervan shrugs off his professor’s concern. There’s no possible way he could lose control of his moon magic, right?

After Silven unleashes the Arcane Disruptor and Leymar’s body collapses, Gervan is the first to collect himself and tell everyone they didn’t do anything wrong. He is instrumental in calming his classmates’ emotions, especially Silven and Pippa. Afterwards, he has a big long talk with Merlin where he reveals the truth about his accident and his desire to prove himself. (I’ll speak more on the details of this conversation later.)

In between the next tasks, Silven confesses to Gervan how their friendship started from a place of shallowness, and Gervan, in return, gives him an extremely expensive and powerful gemstone in exchange for nothing but sincere gratitude, so that Silven can repair his family heirloom weapon. 

During the third task, Gervan tells everyone to work alone so he can have an excuse to split from his friends and collude with Cyran and the cat (who seems to be Illucia). Unfortunately, he is caught in the act because Silven recognizes his scent from the tea he drinks. He angrily turns on Silven and tells him never to approach him again.

Merlin, Evie, and the gang know Gervan is suspicious and try to gather proof that his legs are healed, but Silven’s emotions get in the way and they’re unable to change anything before the final task. Gervan easily gets out of trouble thanks to Cyran and Durella, who are working directly with the Adamant Syndicate, and his influential grandfather who writes Evie a letter telling her to let Gervan go. She complies.

Atop the Tower of Memory, Gervan shows up to battle Merlin, Cassadee, Pippa, and Silven by unleashing the true power the Adamant Syndicate has given him - that of a Hypofiend. He dramatically monologues about his motives for accepting the contract, and claims it’s too late to turn back now. Silven’s heirloom and the ruby Gervan had given him are irrevocably shattered in the fight. 

After Gervan loses (of course he does), he tries to stab himself, but Merlin stops him. Everyone else gives him a lecture about responsibility and privilege, but it falls on deaf ears. Gervan doesn’t seem to acknowledge he did anything wrong. 

His final appearance thus far is in the sidequest Glorious Revival, where Silven bids farewell as Gervan is being carted off to prison in Savannah. Silven says he’ll hold on to the shattered ruby as a token of their friendship and hopes some day that Gervan will come around and want to be friends again. Gervan looks the other way. 

In the end, Evie’s report says that he ultimately did what he did because of his inheritance and the power and status that comes with inheriting his father’s title. This implies that the kind and thoughtful persona we saw through most of the game was a complete lie, and he never cared about friendship, only about himself.

….Or does it?

==What is Gervan’s objective?==

I don’t think Gervan’s inheritance is his true goal. (We don’t hear these words from his mouth, after all, only from Evie’s report.) His endgame is not necessarily his father’s title or his vast fortune, or the court mage position, or beating Cassadee… after all, he said it himself. 

“What I want most is to prove myself.”

Imagine, for a moment, being in Gervan’s position. All your life, you’re told that you are destined to follow in your father’s footsteps and become a great and powerful man. Everything in your life revolves around this concept. Then all of a sudden, something completely out of your control happens, and you’re disabled for life. Now, people say you’re not worthy to live up to your father’s name anymore. Everyone looks down on you. Your father can’t seem to look you in the eye. 

You’d want to prove them all wrong, wouldn’t you?

This burning desire to surpass expectations is what drives everything Gervan ever does. This is why he takes his grades and his rivalry with Cassadee so seriously. This is what makes him turn to Dark Magic and ally with the Syndicate.

But ironically, I believe this desire is also what makes Gervan a genuinely kind person.

Most high-class nobles in this world have no reason to consider anyone outside themselves. They believe they deserve the superior treatment they are given. They demand and demand until they get what they want (Evie’s acting at the Enchanted Cup seems like a situation those employees have seen before…)

But Gervan, who has “learned to take it slow,” claims at every turn that he doesn’t believe this of himself. Every time his status gives him a privilege his classmates don’t have, he turns to them and says he wishes it didn’t have to be this way. In his conversation with Merlin, he fully acknowledges the unfairness at play - and praises the late Headmaster Leymar for looking beyond status. After all, Gervan may be a noble, and reap the benefits of it, but he is also an outcast, which allows him a perspective most nobles lack. This allows him to prove that he’s more than the pompous noble he might seem to be. Of course, this courteousness could be a facade, but the rest of the details in the story lead me to believe it’s genuine.

During the conversation with Merlin, when we ask why he wants the court mage exam to continue, he lists all his classmates (with the notable exception of Cassadee) and tells us what they’ve been struggling with and why the court mage position would be so important to them. (He told me “Anita is mourning the loss of her sister” and I said “Who?!”) He pays attention to his friends, and comforts them when they’re feeling down - especially Pippa. He genuinely considers others’ problems and wants to help solve them as much as he can. His least favorite thing is seeing people lose hope, because he knows exactly what it’s like. His perfect world would be one in which nobody ever has to suffer, and there would be “no killers driven by greed to take another’s life.” (implying he wishes he wasn’t one…)

If all he ever cared about was his inheritance - if his friendly demeanor was a lie - why go so far out of his way to acknowledge and stand up for others? Why bother setting himself apart from the rest of the higher-class nobles at all? 

I don’t think he genuinely wants the privilege he has at all. For him, it’s just another means to an end - a tool he can use to get what he really wants - which is, of course, To Prove Himself. But to whom? To his fellow students? To his teachers? To his family?

During his villain monologue, he scoffs, “As for my family… what have they ever done for me?” He resents their treatment of him. If he craves his father’s power, it’s not out of pride, but of spite. Unlike Silven, Gervan has no loyalty to his family name. He doesn’t care about honor. He just wants to prove that everyone who ever doubted him was wrong. He undoubtedly realizes that the advantages he’s been given are unfair, but because of this burning desire, he’s willing to use whatever advantages he’s been given anyway, even if he knows it’s wrong. 

It’s entirely possible that in a world where he didn’t sign any contract, he could have used this position of power for good. Gervan was admired by his whole class because he was kind and understanding in a way most nobles never were. With a level head and an open mind, with both magic skills and people skills, he could have made a phenomenal court mage… had the Syndicate not gotten to him first. 

Gervan was absolutely exploited by the Adamant Syndicate, just like the rest of the students who fell for their schemes. It’s not mentioned exactly what kind of contract he signed, but it was definitely different than the mana-boosting contracts most other students got suckered into. Gervan doesn’t show any of the same symptoms as Niall or the others. Instead, in exchange for his help with the exam, they offered something no one had ever been able to accomplish before - to heal his legs. 

But why does someone who claims to have “made peace with [his] condition” so readily accept such an obvious trap?

==What is Gervan’s problem?==

The thing is, Gervan wants to “prove himself” so badly, but the person whose standards he needs to meet to fulfill this goal… are his own. He longs to be someone no one ever thought he could be, but the reason they had such low expectations of him in the first place was because of his disability. This one tragic accident caused all of his problems. 

So if he could fix that one problem, it would fix everything, right?

Obviously not. But Gervan has set impossibly high standards for himself, and hates himself for not being able to reach them. He hates himself for being disabled in the first place, and it’s exactly this self-hatred that the Syndicate is able to exploit. But Gervan is such a cool and collected guy… how would they know he secretly resents a part of himself that he claims to have made peace with?

I think it’s very likely that the Adamant Syndicate caused his accident in the first place. After all, who else do we know who uses dark magic? If it wasn’t supposed to be connected to them, why even mention dark magic in the first place? I think that’s precisely why they were able to heal his mysterious condition - something no other healer could manage at all. It would be much easier to undo something if you know how to cause it. 

Has Gervan been in the Syndicate’s sights the whole time? Was his “accident” not an assassination attempt, but a long con to get him on their side later on? Knowing what we know about our villains and how they love to manipulate people, I think it’s extremely likely.

Either way, Gervan allies himself with the obvious bad guys in order to fix the thing he hates the most about himself, so he can finally live up to his own impossible standards. It seems stupid, really, when you realize that he went through all that trouble and then could only use his legs when nobody else was looking. 

After all, he says in his confrontation with Leymar, that his family can’t find out he used dark magic, or they would cast him out. Leymar is immensely disappointed in him, but doesn’t ask much of Gervan - only for him to come clean and own up to his colossal mistake. 

Instead of doing so, Gervan kills him - an impulsive decision that he immediately regrets. He stumbles back and mutters “What have I done?” He respected Leymar wholeheartedly. He didn’t mean to murder someone he and all his friends looked up to so much. 

But he did, and he refuses to look back. 

In hiding his culpability in the headmaster’s murder, Gervan displays an unsettling level of cognitive dissonance. He’s phenomenal at pretending like nothing happened, and acts as if he can just keep on going with his life as is - attending his classes, hanging out with his friends, standing up for the outcasts, proving himself - and no one will ever find out! 

There’s one bit where he kinda lets slip, though… during the conversation with Merlin, he talks about how the headmaster “only got mad when you made a really big mistake”… and starts referring to him in past tense instead of present, before it’s confirmed that he’s actually dead. But in that same breath… Merlin senses a sadness in him that proves that unless he’s somehow a professional actor, he is genuinely mourning Leymar. I believe this is true.

Actually, I believe most of the things he says are true. The Gervan that we see at the beginning of the story is hiding a lot of dark secrets, but I believe we saw far closer to his true personality walking through the art gallery than we did at the Stellar Spire. 

Then why does he lean so hard into the villainous role he plays?

(shoutout to John Van Doren for performing this role immaculately!)

“Once I choose a path, I don’t turn back,” he says to Silven. He’s stubborn to a fault. He’s embroiled in a sunk-cost fallacy of his own making… because if he turns back now, then that’s admitting he made a mistake… and he can’t do that, even when he knows it’s true. There’s too much at stake. Someone like him can’t afford to make any mistakes, otherwise he’ll just be proving all the naysayers right. After all, failure is worse than death.

In order to keep walking this path, once he’s been exposed, he has to completely close himself off emotionally. He can’t keep up the cognitive dissonance of the double life anymore. Gone is the Gervan who remembers what each and every one of his classmates is struggling with, who is willing to lend a hand to those in need, to give up his valuables for the sake of a friend. He can’t be that person anymore. 

…Or can he?

==Where do we go from here?==

Some might say this is the end of Gervan’s character arc. It’s a tragedy. He’s a twist villain who got defeated and paid the price. He’s a boss now, and nothing else. 

But if this is the end of Gervan’s story, why does Merlin save his life? Why not just let him kill himself like Velara? Why does Silven even make a point of keeping the Phoenix Star if it will never show up again? Why does he mention the possibility of Gervan wanting to be friends in the future if it doesn’t even have a chance of being brought up in another arc? 

Hell, if Gervan is meant to be a one-and-done villain, why mention his fondness for cats (especially if it wasn’t used to draw a connection between him and Illucia)? Why mention his good-natured-but-misguided dream of a beautiful place where no one has to suffer or die or kill? What was the point of talking about how he’s never seen snow but has always wanted to? Why put all this detail into his character if it’s just going to be thrown out the window in the end?

What about the detail of the Lunarshard spell possibly going out of control? It doesn’t - in his Hypofiend form, he commands his lunar magic with just as much skill and precision as before - it only fails when Silven defeats him. The spell does absolutely zero damage to the Stellar Spire or any of the people in it, even when Gervan loses it mentally. Is this an oversight, or is there more to this detail that will be relevant if he returns?

Why leave his space empty in the login screen? As the scene evolves over the course of the story, characters move around and switch places… but by the end, Gervan’s space is still left empty. He’s cut out of his friend group, but his absence still hurts. Even when Silven stops reaching for him, that empty gap remains. Even the tabletop games are specifically mentioned to happen on moonless nights…

It’s narratively unfulfilling - and knowing that he’s still alive, leaving his story to end here and framing it as Justice Well Done would go completely against all the other consistent themes shown throughout the season. 

There are several quests, like the gummy quest, that reinforce the idea that there are no shortcuts to success and you have to do things the hard way, unlike what Gervan tried to do. But that doesn’t mean no sympathy for the wicked. We’re shown in the Lyceum reputation quests that sure, the students who signed magic contracts made the wrong choice, but still deserve an encouraging support system, not to have their spirits crushed. Even those who have caused tangible harm, like Candel and Sweep, or Talking Root, or the ghost professor, still deserve the chance to try again and find peace, friendship, or whatever they’re looking for. And Aurora, of course, specifically mentions having a soft spot for those who are disabled like she was in life, and wants to do her best to lift their spirits and give them good dreams. The final quest of her tale is even called Until The Next Full Moon… What’s stopping her from giving Gervan some sort of solace that, at this point, he desperately needs?

Though it is possible, I don’t necessarily believe that all of these are intentional clues that are supposed to lead us to this exact conclusion. But I see the messages the writers are putting into this story, and see one glaring unfinished tale that contradicts everything else they’re trying to say. Gervan was lectured about checking his privilege (which I’m pretty sure he already knew), but his self-hatred and internalized ableism have yet to be challenged. There are lessons other characters have had the chance to learn that he alone hasn’t… yet.

I’m glad they seem to be making us wait for it instead of pushing last-minute epilogue character development for him, though. I think his character deserves more justice than that. I want a redemption ARC, not an off-screen toggle between good guy and bad guy. Plus, like the birds from the quest with Cassadee and Hepler, this kind of thing shouldn’t be forced. He has to decide to develop in that direction on his own. 

So if there is more in store for Gervan, what is it? 

I don’t feel like speculating too heavily on what’s in store for the next season, as I know a lot of it will involve new characters… (Gwyneth?!) …but there will also be a lot of old favorites returning as well (fingers crossed for more Valen!). I’m going to let the specifics surprise me. But in terms of Gervan… 

Emotionally, I feel like it makes perfect sense for whatever’s left of his arc to be about accepting himself the way he is - what he couldn’t really do the first time. He needs to learn that he doesn’t need to live up to the external pressure of his family or fancy titles or anything to love himself. That way, the writers get both the narrative catharsis of a decent ending point to his character arc, and they get to reverse a lot of the criticism they’ve gotten about ToM - along the lines of “oh of course the guy in the wheelchair can walk and he’s evil, rolling eyes emoji” which is, yeah, not a good look. 

In the epilogue of Tower of Memory, we wrap up the fallout of the magic contract debacle, and it’s specifically mentioned that all the contracts have now been nullified. So if Gervan’s contract gave him the ability to walk… then that implies he no longer has that ability. Of course, the details of his specific contract are still not specified - was it Aurelian’s doing like the others? The dark magic that turned him into a Hypofiend… did that change more than his physical form? Did it also influence his mind, and if so, is he free from its influence now? Can that dark magic just go away with the contract, or does Merlin need to purify him further? But either way, if he officially is in the wheelchair again, that will give him a lot to reflect on, and hopefully he’ll start changing his mind and realizing what he did wrong.

As far as how this might happen, well, we are heading to Savannah next season, where Cassadee and Cyran are… and where Gervan is as well. It was specifically mentioned that he’d be going to prison in the royal capital, so if he’s nearby, there’s a high chance he’ll show up again in some capacity.

Anyway, Aurelian and Durella have been ousted, but the other Syndicate members who colluded with Gervan - Cyran, Illucia/the cat, and likely Franz as well… have yet to be dealt with. If Gervan were to find out the Syndicate has been playing him for far longer than he was aware… would he want to get back at them for manipulating him and exploiting his weakness - a weakness they probably caused in the first place? 

What about all the parallels brought up between Gervan and Cyran? We certainly haven’t seen the last of Cyran, and it’s likely our ongoing confrontation with him might come to a climax in this next season. During ToM, Cyran saw a lot of his younger self in Gervan, and basically tried turning him into a second Cyran… If Gervan is able to move past his one-sided rivalry with Cassadee, that might be an interesting way to show the difference between him and his manipulative mentor, instead of showing the same thing play out twice in a row. Gervan is still young and has the capability to move past his hatred… whereas Cyran is constantly stuck in the past, obsessed with one-upping someone who has so much more important things to worry about, and who never hated him in the first place. Maybe the biggest difference is that Cyran had a Cassadee but not a Silven, with no other support to distract him from his obsessive rivalry. (Let’s be real, there’s no way Cyran’s NOT Envy. He WISHES he could be Pride.) Plus, Gervan vs. Cyran could be super cool… I’d love to see Cyran get smacked in the face by the moon…

Maybe it will take wisdom from someone besides Merlin to help get Gervan back on track. There are certain characters whose perspectives he could really use - like Lily May, who was also groomed by the Syndicate into doing a lot of bad things and went to jail for it - or Hugin, who has a very refreshing view of his own disability, and would probably love to help Gervan get back on his feet (with machinery, it could even be literally!).* 

But if we’re talking narrative parallels, the character whose arc should be most compared to Gervan’s is actually one completely outside of the world of AFK Journey. 

==Narrative Influence==

[This section contains UNMARKED spoilers for The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (First Scenario and Second Scenario).] 

AFK Journey is known for being a beautiful game, but it’s not necessarily known for being the most original. Some of the game’s artistic and narrative influences are more subtle, others are… not quite. Sonja and Nara are Vi and Jinx… Sal’thorin is Suramar and Ishgard at the same time… The Serene Lyceum itself also has an extremely obvious source material that it’s based off of…

…that’s right - Shiz, the magic school from Wicked! 

Jokes aside, it’s clear that Wicked was at least somewhat inspirational for the AFKJ writers - after all, it too has a character in a wheelchair, who ends up both begging for the magic ability to walk (at least in the stage version), and turning evil. 

But Nessarose is not the character I want to talk about here. Gervan’s Hypofiend form looks less like the Wicked Witch of the East and a lot more like…

…Oh wow. That is some rather blatant influence, isn’t it?

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy was released a year ago now (April 2025), and Tower of Memory half a year after that (January 2026). Judging by how quickly AFKJ releases new seasons (3 a year!!!) I think there’s no doubt they were inspired by this game and the popularity of this character in particular.

This is Eito Aotsuki, the twist villain of the first arc of the game. Like Gervan, he hides his true self behind a mask of camaraderie. He’s supportive and friendly, but not very forthcoming about himself, and a little too useful at spurring the plot along the way he wants. In the end, he shows his true colors and transforms in a burst of purple power into a floating scythe-wielding angel of death (complete with unholy halo!). “Aotsuki” even means “blue moon” - which also undoubtedly applies to Gervan.

The thing is, Eito and Gervan’s motivations are completely different. Gervan was a model student who made one wrong move, and then got caught up in the deception and turned into a different person than he was before. Eito is actively malicious and duplicitous from the start. He secretly sabotages the group over and over again, kills several times without hesitation and without mercy, motivated by a deep seething hatred for all humanity. His true personality is far closer to what lay behind the mask than what he was pretending to be.

Eito also has a mysterious medical condition that prevents him from seeing eye-to-eye with his peers… except literally, in his case. Whereas Gervan’s condition could feasibly exist in real life without the dark magic causing it, Eito’s cognitive disorder is a far more fantastical version of its real-world counterpart (prosopometamorphopsia). Without getting too much into the details, he sees all humans as grotesque monsters and wants to kill them not only because they are ugly and smelly, but because humanity has brought untold destruction onto its own planet. So, he’s got a point, but is taking it way way way too far. 

But in the end of the game’s Second Scenario route, Eito, despite all odds, manages to turn it around and become an uncompromising ally. By putting trust in him and allowing him a second chance he’s proven he doesn’t deserve, the main character Takumi wins Eito’s favor and inspires him to put aside his hatred and fight with the rest of the group. He does have to mutilate himself to do so… but that’s beside the point. 

Because of this two-punch face-heel-face turn (as well as his appearances in other routes), Eito became by far the most popular character from The Hundred Line. His merch sells out faster than anyone else. Writer Kazutaka Kodaka is still fielding questions about him - and still writing more about him, apparently. So it’s not a surprise if the devs of AFK Journey saw his burst of popularity last year as something to try to emulate.

(Also, it's worth noting that a large part of this popularity also has to do with the fandom's investment in the romantic relationship between Eito and Takumi - which, for once, is not just queerbaiting and has an actual canon basis. And that risk paid off - fujos love to spend money! Just sayin'... cough cough...)

So if Gervan is indeed at least partly inspired by Eito… well... If someone as unapologetically evil as Eito can win himself an earnest redemption… then why on earth can’t Gervan?!

==Really, why not?==

At this point I hope I’ve stated my case well enough for a redemption arc, which I very much hope would lead to Gervan being a playable unit. But I see a lot of counterarguments saying that he won’t ever be playable, so I’d like to address some of those arguments.

“Because he’s evil!” We’ve already recruited characters who are far more evil than Gervan - Cyran and Velara are often cited as examples. And even beyond the most egregiously evil, the list goes on… Thador, Cecia, the Dead Tide Fleet, every Hypogean except Kulu and Contess… I have a feeling King Thoran is headed this way as well… So, morality shouldn’t be a problem. 

“But none of the other Ravaged Realm bosses have ever been playable before!” So? None of the Ravaged Realm bosses have ever had the makings of a playable character before! It makes sense that we wouldn’t be able to recruit a giant kraken or an ancient dragon or a literal goddess. They would be too overpowered compared to everyone else on our roster, not to mention too large to fit in one tile on the battlefield. And of course, you can say the same about Gervan’s boss form… but luckily he has another visually distinct form that already fits the bill. He’s already modeled. He’s already got a unique magical skill. He’d fit right in, and honestly it’d be great to have him as visibly disabled representation even if he stays evil. We have several characters with prosthetic limbs (Korin, Hugin, Hodgkin…) but a character in a wheelchair would be on another level, and a huge W in my opinion. 

And honestly, he was already really cool before the Hypofiend stuff! I want to throw the moon at people!!! That was my favorite spell as Balance Druid in WoW - I LOVE throwing the moon at people!! Let me throw the moon!!!!!!

“You’re only this invested in Gervan because you ship him with Silven. It’s never going to happen” I will readily admit to shipping the two of them together, but I hope it’s clear by how little I have mentioned Silven so far, that my interest in Gervan as a character goes way beyond whatever their relationship is or was or will be. And yeah, of course I know it’s not going to happen. I’m advocating for a redemption arc here, not a queer romance. They’ve given us ship bait before, but honestly, I don’t see them going in that direction, and I'm not sitting here expecting them to. (…which is why I wrote that version of it myself!*)

“They wouldn’t actually add a guy in a wheelchair, that’d be lame” Now that’s an opinion to ignore if I’ve ever seen one! If it’s not clear by now, Gervan is a compelling character, not despite but because of his disability. I’ve seen a lot of people who got attached to him because they related to him with their own disabilities, but then felt like they got thrown under the bus after the twist villain reveal. A proper redemption arc would not only help this feeling of disappointment from half the audience, but also Gervan tackling his own internalized ableism would help get rid of some of that bigotry from the other half of the audience as well.

“It doesn’t matter if you want it, they’re not gonna do it” If Lilith isn’t going to let me throw my money at them then that’s on them TBH. Gervan earned fans for being an interesting multi-faceted character (and I won’t deny his pretty face helps), and if they put all those resources into creating not one but TWO extremely complex character designs for him and DON’T want to give people the opportunity to empty their wallets for him as a playable character… then idk what they’re even thinking. I personally believe they’re holding him over our heads for now, and he’s going to come back later like Lorsan. See, there’s a precedent! 

“His model doesn’t have an idle animation like other characters who became playable so they have no plans to add him” Maybe not soon, then, but animations can always be added to models that already exist. Or maybe they’d go all out and make him a third unique model, who knows?

“If they make him a Phantimal then it’d be weird to have two versions of him on the same team” Actually, that would be awesome and they should totally do it. 

“AFKJ writers aren’t afraid to pull punches so if they do bring him back it’ll just be to kill him off” Now that does seem like an actual possibility to me. They very well could take everything I’ve pointed out that’s leading to a possible redemption arc and subvert our expectations. I do enjoy the tragic twists and turns of AFKJ’s storylines, and if a cruel bait-and-switch is Gervan’s future, then I’ll of course be very sad, but I’ll accept it.

In making this post, I’m hoping to not only convince new people, but show the devs that there are already a lot of people who are interested in this character. I know I’m not the only person to make a post about wanting Gervan as playable - but honestly even beyond whether he’s playable or not, I just want to see him in the story again. I’m going to keep holding onto that hope that one day, Gervan can come back and pick up all the narrative crumbs he’s left behind. If Silven is going to hold onto that broken ruby and choose to believe that he’ll come around some day… then so will I. 

Thanks for reading! If there's anything that swayed you, or any reason you're still unconvinced... let me know in the comments!

Also, thanks so much to @geigercounter for factchecking and proofreading this beast of a post!

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*I wrote a fanfiction called “perspective” that involves a lot of what I personally would like to see from a redemption arc for Gervan, like the fact that it takes him a long time to get his head out of his ass, some more fleshing out of his family situation, and the inclusion of other existing characters and locations from AFKJ (hint: there’s snow!). If you liked the aforementioned idea about Hugin… then I hope you’ll like seeing it in action! Yes, this is ultimately a Silven/Gervan fic, but the romance only comes into play in the final two chapters, so even if you’re not invested in the ship I still think there’ll be a lot to enjoy. If even one person gives it a read, I’ll consider that a victory!