#i... i seriously don't think it's normal...

What does Kevin think about Riko that he won’t say aloud because he knows it’ll just upset/piss off the people around him? We know from Nora that Kevin visibly mourned Riko & attended Riko’s funeral even though the Foxes scorn him for this. I think some fans of Kevin don’t even really want to engage with Kevin genuinely caring about Riko & having good memories of Riko b/c it means acknowledging their favourite character… loves the character that hurt all the other fan favourites. I think it makes Kevin more complicated than some readers may want to deal with b/c Riko was terrible and if Kevin genuinely loves Riko they feel like it diminishes Kevin.

Riko complicates Kevin’s relationships with basically every other character. Riko tortured Neil & orchestrated Andrew & Jean being raped. These are Kevin’s friends - his only friends - and they’ve all been harmed by Riko. How can Kevin bring up the good memories with any of these people? There is no one to bring up the good memories with. And when someone dies, it is so much easier to focus on the “good memories” but no one is ever going to want to hear about Kevin & Riko’s happier moments. The only people who want to hear “good things” about Riko are his fans who don’t really know him. So Kevin is basically stuck where he can’t have an honest conversation with anyone about Riko.

I know a lot of people focus on Riko telling Neil that he would enjoy hurting him like he hurt Kevin, but that Riko is speaking POST breaking Kevin’s hand. How often did he actually hurt Kevin? How obvious did he make it that he enjoyed hurting Kevin? Did he do the typical apologizing & showering him with gifts after? Did he tell Kevin he loved him? Did Kevin believe him? Up until Riko broke his hand Kevin had to be genuinely convinced Riko loved him, which means that Riko had to be doing things to keep re-convincing Kevin. Part of that was probably Riko keeping Kevin attached & part of that was probably Riko also genuinely loving Kevin. They hated each other. They loved each other. Their futures relied on always being together. No one else would ever understand them but each other. They were toxically codependent on each other. Riko kept Kevin’s side of the bedroom as a shrine to Kevin, expecting him to return.

I am so excited for the most fucked-up Kevin & Riko dynamic possible. Jean is not giving us enough insight. Kevin & Riko would take their punishments from Tetsuji together. How often did Kevin want to avoid making a mistake not so he wouldn’t get hurt but so RIKO wouldn’t get hurt on his behalf? Did he ever delude himself into thinking Riko was trying so hard to be the Perfect Striker b/c he didn’t like to see Kevin punished on his behalf either? Did Riko ever apologize to Kevin for a stupid mistake on the court that got Kevin hit as well? Did they take care of each other’s wounds after?

Everyone focuses on the fact that Riko made Kevin do his history homework (which, yes, exactly the kind of bullshit Riko would pull ‘I don’t care about our major if you want to be distracted from Exy that is your choice but I refuse to be distracted any more than necessary’) but Riko would still have to do the quizzes & the exams & the tests on his own and pass. Kevin would have needed to help him study. To quiz him on events and dates and names. How often has Kevin brought up History to the Foxes and they have no idea what he’s talking about and Kevin is just thinking “Riko would have understood that reference. He actually did okay on that test.”

The Day & Moriyama family dynamics is so fascinating. Kayleigh Day was friends with Tetsuji Moriyama for years. Close enough friends that she made him the godfather of her son & told Tetsuji who Kevin’s father was. Obviously he wasn’t acting like a cult leader-child abusing asshole around her. Testsuji mourned Kayleigh when she died & was angry at his brother for killing her (because of something Testsuji stupidly said to him) but then abuses her SON. However, we also know that Tetsuji was so furious about Riko breaking Kevin’s hand that he tortured Riko after the fact. And yet still lets Riko run around making the stupidest choices ever. What the fuck is Tetsuji’s motivation? Does he recognize that he fucked these children up for life & feels some minor semblance of guilt he basically lets them commit whatever crimes they want to make up for his own failures?

Tetsuji also looked after Kevin even before Kayleigh died. We are told that Kevin spent most of his summers at Evermore when his mother was traveling. Obviously, Testsuji couldn’t have been a child abusing dictator when Kayleigh was alive otherwise she probably wouldn’t have continued to leave her son with him. Jean seems to imply that those summers would have been equally horrible, however, Jean may be coming from his own biased background of his parents being abusive child traffickers. Nora has said Kayleigh knew nothing about the Moriyama’s crime life. That means it’s more likely that Kevin spent his early childhood years having a relatively normal/healthy relationship with Tetsuji (and Riko) only for Tetsuji to turn on him as soon as he had 100% custody of Kevin and no living mother to answer to.

Same with Riko. Kevin was just his childhood friend who visited in the summer & then became his “property.” Realistically, Riko didn’t immediately start torturing Kevin. Neil’s memory of Kevin & Riko as children seems to describe them as happy - they certainly must have acted more well-adjusted than Neil if he thought watching Nathan murder someone was going to freak them out.

I think if Nora does a good job of writing Riko from Kevin’s POV, we shouldn’t need a Riko POV. However, I think a Riko POV could be relatively interesting (however, also a bit tricky: I know some people are interested in Riko having internalized homophobia. I’m already not the biggest fan of if we get Riko’s POV that the only canonical character of color POV AFTG will have is the villain that tortures everyone else, I don’t think I’d want the only Japanese POV character also being a self-hating gay homophobe). Riko’s character frankly already needs to be handled pretty delicately considering there are still no other major Japanese or Asian characters in AFTG.

I think being in Kevin’s head should make us sympathize with Riko. I know that’s not what everyone wants b/c Riko is such a horrifying villain to everyone in AFTG & Kevin is such a fan favorite that having him in particular sympathizing with Riko would put people off (even though logically it makes sense for Kevin’s character & Kevin’s character only) but I think adding depth to Riko’s character & giving him and Kevin such a complex, fucked-up bond that suggests Riko DID love Kevin to some capacity & Kevin had good reasons to love him back & fear wasn’t the only thing stopping him from running away.

The kid’s sort of quiet. Lando’s theory so far is that he doesn’t like speaking unless he knows for sure he has something valuable to say. Or maybe he just genuinely doesn’t have anything to say. But Lando doubts that. Lando saw first hand the almost grotesquely determined look he got in his eye when Tom gestured for him to take his place in the opening faceoff during his first game with the team. His first game in the League. Lando and his A’s had talked about doing that as a sort of welcome gesture for Oscar after he’d been traded to Philly. Make sure he knows he’s not only welcome on the team, but valued too. Low fucking chance he’d felt anything like that back in New York. But he's on Lando's team now. And things will be different here.

Now what Lando hadn’t expected was just how intense Oscar would be once he arrived. All first overall picks have this weird mix of an overinflated ego and a bone-deep want to do good by their team engrained in them — Lando certainly does, he doesn’t think any amount of locker room chirping will make him grow out of that — but Oscar is just. Kind of insane, Lando thinks. 

He’d had his fair share of having to be dragged off the ice after morning skate but he’d learned it wasn’t really gonna get him anywhere but further in his head after maybe a month or two into his rookie year. Oscar’s been with them for almost five now, and Lando thinks he’s chilled out a little bit compared to how he used to be already, and yet, as he’d walked out the rink’s showers and heard the characteristic clink of the puck hitting the crossbar he’d known he’d find Oscar still on the ice. 

Most people would probably just write this sort of thing off at the behaviour of a player who knows he's talented, would say Oscar is just driven to bring out the best from himself. Lando prefers to call shit like this obsessive. It can be a good thing, sure, it is kind of their job to try and bring out the best in themselves, but it gets to a point. And if there's any chance Oscar might be the same genre of perfectionist Lando is, then he'd rather nip habits like these in the bud before Oscar starts mistreating himself the way Lando's been guilty of so many times.

And as Oscar's captain it's kind of Lando's duty to make sure Oscar at least knows no one but himself expects this from him. So. He'll go babysit.

He pulls up to his locker, one hand still rubbing leftover wetness from his face and the other clutching onto the towel around his waist. He chucks the thing away without a care in the world, not even bothering to check whether anyone else is in the room with him after nearly six years of always being the last one out of the showers on the entire team. No amount of chirping or lewd jokes had managed to convince him bringing the combined stink of a day on the ice and a locker room full to the brim with disgustingly sweaty men into his home is a better alternative to just taking his damn time. Besides, he prefers to source the man-sweat occasionally clinging onto his bedsheets from much different places.

He stuffs himself back into the outfit he'd arrived in this morning — nothing fancy, just a loose pair of slacks and a warm sweater, he couldn't be arsed to doll himself up for a voluntary skate session — and waltzes back through the tunnel to the ice, both his skates dangling awkwardly from one hand, just in case.

"Oscar [hey], did no one bother to tell you free skate was over?" Lando hollers once in earshot.

Oscar startles, his grip on the stick slipping halfway through the motion leading into a shot. The puck flies catastrophically wide of the net. Lando doesn't actually laugh, but it's a close thing.

Oscar just stares at him for a few moments, the bunny teeth peeking out from his open mouth making him look a bit stupid. He says, "uhm, no, I— they did tell me. I'm just…" he nods vaguely in the direction of the empty net, "practicing."

"I can see that," Lando retorts.

"Right." Oscar says, following Lando with his eyes as he walks the rest of the way up to the rink and takes a sharp right to the bench, seeking a place where there's no plexiglass to get in the way of them talking face-to-face.

He lets his skates fall down to the rubber-padded flooring with a heavy thunk and leans against the barrier separating him from the ice, outstretched arms planted on the railing.

"May I ask why?"

Oscar squints at him but doesn't hesitate before speaking again. His eyes haven't left Lando for even a second. Lando's not sure he's even seen the kid blink since coming down the tunnel.

"I mean. Stella himself said we needed to improve our scoring percentage. And I missed the net like, fifteen times in the last five games. So it's kind of— I mean it's definitely my responsibility to work on that." Oscar says, his eyebrows do a complicated little dance on definitely. Lando doesn't think he's ever met someone with such a monotone voice have as an expressive face as Oscar does. It kind of fascinates him.

"You're a talented kid, Oscar. I don't think you need to worry about—"

"I'm twenty two."