#aftg analysis

TKM has been critized a lot for not following the conventional plot structure, because it doesnt end inmediatly at the resolution of the climax, like they taught us in class. But it actually has a reason behind it and it think that is what makes AFTG unique and Nora Sakavic an amazing writer. I'll explain.

So, we all know AFTG has a lot of chess metaphors, however i think it doesnt contain the metaphors, it is the metaphor. Each character represents a piece of the board (Riko king, Kevin queen, Neil pawn, Andrew knight, etc) and exy is the chess, but but but, a chess game not only involves the pieces, the game cannot exist without someone playing, the chess masters (which would be Kengo, Ichiriu, Nathan and all the mafia stuff).

So, AFTG is divided into two plots happening at the same time: what happens on the chess board (exy season) and what happens outside it (the mafia mess).

Of couse, the climax has to be about the outside out, because who cares which one of pieces move in which way if the players are pointing guns at eachother under the board? The guns are more more important. So who cares? The pieces on the board care, the ones that are being played with. And who is the narrator? The character that represents the pawn, the less important figure of the entire room.

Yeah, the 'outside of the board' plot is over half way into the book, but it doesnt matter because that happens outside the board, the chess game has not ended yet. The pawn cannot go back to rest in the box until the game is over, until the king dies. The book cannot be over until the chess game our protagonist is a piece of ends. The books have to end with the king's (Riko) death and that is exactly what happens.

I've jotted down a bunch of loose ideas for fics but I'm currently stuck on the tension that's been building between them. Like going from mutual attraction, to the realization that they're both into men, to a bunch of moments that bring them face to face with that attraction becoming pressing, to the scene with Jab in Jean's lap and Renee's "every three out of five texts has been about him"

Jean is still getting used to being allowed to want things. Jeremy wants to prioritize Jean's agency (and thinks he taints everything he touches, his attraction or his lust is a poisnonous thing). idk I love the idea of them just having to kind of deal with things coming to a head

like what if they're in the trojan's locker room and they think they're alone. practice has long since ended and they're getting their things together, taking their time with it. jean doesn't realize that jeremy's standing so close to him. he turns around and jeremy is right there and everything just kind of hangs between them.

time slows to molasses and jean catalogues each moment -- greedily hoards them away to examine later, when he's alone. the way jeremy's mouth hangs open, halfway through a word. jeremy's attention flicking rapidly between jean's eyes and his mouth. how jeremy sways toward him, so easily that it feels more like a magnetic pull than a conscious decision.

the sound of the door banging open around the corner. xavier and emma's voices distorting this quiet, isolated moment between them until it becomes something claustrophobic.

INDEPENDENCE & SELF SUFFICIENCY

Andrew spent all the money from Tilda's death on that car BECAUSE he didn't need the car - he wasn't gonna go pay college fees or groceries or whatever bc he didn't need Tilda to survive - he didn't need her while she was alive and he didn't need her now, he could support himself. So of course he wasn't going to use the money from her to buy essential things - he bought that ridiculously expensive car solely because he did not need it and he wanted the money gone.

"Neil didn't know how long he played with his little league team, but his hands remembered the weight of a racquet as well as they did that of a gun. That thought was sobering, as it put him right back to square one and the fact that Neil Josten was a fleeting existence."

But then something really interesting happens. When thinking about exy, he can only end up thinking about Kevin because with exy, all roads lead to Kevin. In the next sentence as the one quoted above, Neil continues:

"It was cruel to even dream he could stay like this, but Kevin had escaped, hadn't he? Somehow he'd left that bloody room behind at Edgar Allen and become this, and Neil wanted the same so bad he could taste it. 'You,' Neil said at last."

Neil Josten isn't real (yet), there's literally no future for him to imagine. In order for that to even exist, he needs to be real. You know who fucking makes Neil real? KEVIN. For all we talk about how Neil helps Kevin grow a spine, I think it can get missed that Kevin leaving the next is a small yet piercing moment of hope for Neil to leave his own bloody room of a life as a runaway nobody. Back in Millport, Neil says that

"Neil's past was locked in Kevin's memories. It was proof he existed, same as this game they both played. Kevin was proof Neil was real."

Sure, he ignores the countdown to his death day so he can keep kissing Andrew, but he also ignores it so that no-body else finds out. He knows that if anyone tried to come after him the likelihood of Nathan killing them too was ridiculously high and he couldn't have another death on his shoulders. And then on top of it all, when he's miraculously rescued and given another chance at life, he honestly believes that the foxes - that Andrew - won't take him back.

Although numbers generally play a large role in the progression of AFTG, such as the importance of dates or Neil's countdown to his kidnapping in Baltimore, there are a few standout instances, rich with symbolism, that tend to go unnoticed.

4: The number four is deemed unlucky in japan, so much so that it’s often skipped when creating hospital rooms due to the intense negative stigma, this is because the number quite literally translates to death; a fact that definitely wouldn’t go unnoticed by Riko. The idea that Neil was quite literally branded with death and his life only officially beginning as Neil Josten once the 4 was removed after Baltimore therefore signifying his freedom. This number being removed by the thing supposed to kill him no-less is a twisted form of irony, leaving scarring to forever remind him of this near-death experience and the final run-in with his father, A man being the literal personification of Death in Neil’s eyes.

13: thirteen is presented as Andrew lucky number, with Betsy being Andrew 13th therapist, finally leaving the Spear household at 13 as well as moving in with Aaron being his 13th and final household. Andrew and Neil’s jersey numbers add up to 13 also, suggesting the idea of the two are inherently parallels of one another, destined to meet. This plays on 13 inherently being an unlucky number, creating a contrast to defy expectations; as per the norm with Andrews character of whom revolves around defying boundaries and breaking stereotypes.