#is baffling

'that neil would never do that'

so i want to examine these ideas and claims because i really, really, at this point, feel like i'm reading a completely goddamn different series to other people. also, listen, mischaracterisation is one thing and it's annoying but i really, really dislike some of the ways people are talking about victims of abuse. kevin, jean and neil (during that period) were all minors. while these are characters i think there's something to be said about not spouting rhetoric that suggests a child victim is in some way responsible for stopping the abuse or allowing abuse of another child.

user chuvstvovanje made this amazing post about neil and riko. in it she mentions that neil never holds anything against his mother despite the abuse he went through because she did what she had to do to get neil away from the mafia. if neil had wound up in riko's clutches at age ten would he have really actually not fallen into line? riko is giving him the chance to play exy, to get out of his father's hands, and to have a purpose. neil has shown that he will grasp onto a purpose, a home and exy with everything he has even after a life on the run and the possibility of being killed for doing so.

we also know that riko never had an issue with being given nathaniel/neil. neil was a connection, in many ways, to kengo. neil's father was kengo's right hand man. riko had no reason to treat neil the way he treated jean, a surprise purchase made because of business dealings and tetsuji seeing a random opportunity. jean was never destined to be perfect court. neil was. in many ways, neil was even more destined to wind up in riko's life in evermore than kevin. kevin had to be secured by the murder of his mother when said mother refused to just hand him over to tetsuji for training. and tetsuji didn't even arrange that, he mentioned it to kengo and kengo did that without tetsuji's knowledge or desire for that specific outcome. neil? neil was an unwanted son from a man deep into kengo's pocket and likely always would have been sent to evermore. jean was a fluke. and jean also caught the attention and care of kevin, that pissed riko off. kevin and riko had a room to themselves, together, until jean's arrival. after jean's arrival kevin acts differently:

kevin offers to learn french from jean. riko doesn't know this part but for kevin to learn a language fluently? he had to have spent significant time trying to be with jean alone.

kevin tries to distract riko from jean. kevin develops a sassy and biting personality in front of other players to distract THEM from going after jean.

kevin wants to be there to patch jean up after jean is hurt.

kevin goes out of his way to get things for jean when he goes on trips and bring them back to him. even if riko for some reason didn't notice kevin doing it on those trips he had to have noticed the things up in jean's room and the only person who could have been getting them for jean? kevin.

kevin and jean found kayleigh's letter together. this means they were spending time alone together in the master's rooms.

jean himself said that kevin tried to protect him in the nest. and that kevin couldn't. we have to remember that jean is very very hurt over kevin and struggles with that hurt which colours some of his language in the books, especially early on. but he does state in canon that kevin tried to protect him.

kevin made jean make a promise not to die, but his promise was entirely dependent on kevin not dying. do we really think kevin never wanted to die? do we really think that that promise was not also a shackle on kevin too?

kevin said he tried to get to the bottom of jean's rapes and get jean to make a statement about them and that he would support that. which means going up against riko. do we think he didn't speak to riko about any of that at all?

this was also brought up in a reply: 'jean and neil would bond more with each other than kevin because they would both know what it is like to be bought rather than adopted'

kevin also wasn't adopted? it's been stated time and again that kevin was an outsider. he was not family. he was not a moriyama. he was a pet, an asset, and a possession. he was given to riko the same as any other of the boys. the only difference between him, jean and nathaniel is that kevin came with a name attached. he was born as kayleigh day's son, and had a media presence from birth. this meant he had extra duties and pressures attached that jean and nathaniel did not. he was abused and then had to get on camera, perform, and not give away that he was being abused. we also know from the EC (since I'm assuming where the later claim is coming from) that tetsuji and riko considered anything from armpit to groin free real estate on kevin's body (and on riko's). it just couldn't be seen on camera. there's also so, so very many methods of torture that are a) not physical or b) do not leave physical marks. kevin had metal cuffs attached to his bed for use on him. i don't think this is in any way indicates that kevin is an adopted member of the moriyama family and above jean and nathaniel's status as possessions. yes, his mother didn't sell him. he was forcibly stolen from her after she was murdered. her death was arranged in order to secure him so he could play goddamn exy. and he probably is very aware of that, too.

in all likelihood kevin would have tried to look out for nathaniel, who came in at age 10. but nathaniel would have grown up with abuse and falling into line in order not to receive it and surrounded by violence. remember how scared he was of his father? remember that he does not push back against that man? especially at age ten??? the nest wouldn't have been that shocking. and riko has given him a purpose and a goal. nathaniel has no reason not to listen to him and not to follow orders (as opposed to jean when jean arrives later). he fits right in. he lives in their room with them. it's quite possible that riko has him assist him in torturing kevin and vice versa, making them traumatised and complicit in each other's pain and abuse. neil is very apathetic about everyone's pain and suffering at the beginning of the trilogy, it's only through repeated exposure and connection to kind people who care that he starts to change and grow. he has no reason to go beyond that survival instinct in the nest, and riko would be actively encouraging him not to. neil without the foxes, without matt and wymack and dan and andrew and, yes, a safer kevin, would not be the neil who tries and fights and cares. he would also be there for roughly what... 3-5 years before jean enters the picture? plenty of time to decide his survival is integral and following riko allows for that. he has no reason to care about jean, especially beyond the whole you're my partner and your failure is my failure.

if nathaniel did, indeed, turn his back on kevin reaching out to him in order to focus on his own survival, this also impacts kevin and jean's future relationship. kevin may be scared that jean will be yet another person to side with riko in hurting him. he may decide it's hard to reach out again. he may push past it because jean is fighting back so hard and jean is losing himself and make the same offer of french. a language, in this version of events, that nathaniel does not know. nathaniel may hate jean because jean is fighting riko and the master tooth and nail and jean is his partner and that comes back onto him. he may try to punish jean himself. he may tell jean to stop fighting. he may help riko hurt jean. it may be that only through seeing kevin and jean try looking out for each other, being kind to each other, patching one another up and holding on tight that he starts to change. kevin had a loving mother. jean had a loving relationship with his sister. they know love and they know care. nathaniel's mother loved him in her own way but she didn't express it, he doesn't know or understand kindness.

nathaniel could also push kevin out of being riko's favourite if he fell into line and participated heavily. this would be so interesting if he did start to change and grow from watching the other two and then finally turning his back on riko and helping the other perfect court members leave/fight back/escape. neil has a temper in him, yes, and he also has a lot of fight in the original trilogy. but this fight is because he's spent eight years on the run and buoyed by his mother. it's an interesting thought exercise to think how much that would still be there after becoming riko's pet, and his survival relying on passivity.

It has been confirmed that had Neil been a Raven he never would have left Jean.

i'm not sure where this claim has come from but i'm going to treat it as it stands.

if neil had been a raven he entered at age ten and would have had to bend to every whim from the master and riko for what, eight years, before getting (i'm assuming) his hand broken for being too good? and let's say that neil is friends with jean and everything was all good there, which i'm not certain it would be. and that neil ignores his own screaming need to survive, which he only does in the original trilogy because he's changed from apathy to caring about people from witnessing and being surrounded by kindness and connection. so even if we keep in all of that what's the takeaway? kevin is only not killed for two reasons: kevin has known riko SINCE BIRTH and kevin has a celebrity status that is an asset and way to make money meaning tetsuji would miss him even if he could not play exy anymore.

neil doesn't have either of those things. he joined at age ten. he has no further asset beyond playing exy. neil would not break a hand and live if he stayed. neil would die. (in fact, he might have been killed on the spot.) neil staying is sentencing jean to further abuse and death. there's no other way around it. if neil was the thing keeping jean alive that's what him staying would have done. kevin knew this. he also knew he was the only one who knew what was happening with jean. if kevin dies, no one else knows. if kevin dies, jean dies. if kevin stays, and jean himself acknowledged this, kevin would kill himself and jean would get to kill himself too. and that's if he didn't lose it on riko first and made riko kill him instead. either way you look at it, staying or leaving, it's selfish in one way or another. there is no good choice here. that is the tragedy of it. kevin made a choice that yes, meant pain for jean but also meant life for both of them. he retrained his nondominant hand and returned to the exy court to face riko and win back his only source of power, influence and value. with those things he can make a difference. he can get jean back. and he's spent every moment he can making up since, even when it costs him personally and even when jean continues to hate him.

neil staying also doesn't mean less pain for jean? neil would have no value at that point. he can't protect jean, if you think that he could before even. jean would continue to be hurt. jean would have to get a new partner. if jean was distant from kevin in this scenario, like people seem to want him to be, he's actually left with no one. he's in a worse off position than before. he might come to resent neil for not trying, or kills himself (either he doesn't have a pact with neil like he did with kevin, or neil dies and that allows him to do so). he wouldn't have less trauma than in the main series either. trauma and abuse is tricky. changing one or two things does not necessarily guarantee that someone won't come to be upset with your new choices, or that the abuser wouldn't switch something up.

Kevin 'chose to ignore the bulk of the abuse that Jean endured'

did he? we have active comments that suggest that kevin knows exactly how much jean went through and tried everything within his limited power to stop it, ease it, or help jean afterwards. i feel like it's necessary to remind people here that kevin was a) only nine when he was taken, b) suffered at the hands of the moriyamas for 5-6 years before he met jean and c) was a minor with absolutely no power. in the same EC that people are using here to justify their takes on neil we know that riko made kevin lose his virginity, in front of riko, to a woman riko chose and also lost his virginity to. nora is not clear on most of kevin's abuse in evermore, and i'm not sure why that it is, but we know he was abused. we know riko liked to abuse him and make him scream. we know riko was obsessed with him. we know tetsuji beat him. we know that kevin was paraded around and expected to perform for people while never giving anything away. if you do not understand CPTSD or dissociation or child abuse and so on i beg of you to further look into things before saying shit like 'Kevin chose to ignore the abuse Jean endured'. he was a literal child, just like jean. with no power. he did everything he could think of for a fellow victim, while surviving himself. he walked away because otherwise it was death, for both of them. put your mask on before putting on someone else's. if you pass out before putting on someone else's mask then you're both dead.

'Neil would never do that' (ignore Jean's abuse)

please tell me what survival at any cost, total apathy neil prior to making real connections would have done instead of kevin? what vast amounts of power would neil have had in these situations that kevin did not? and things that would not have been beaten out of him in the 3-4 years before jean arrived, if he even had them to begin with, considering his history at ten when he entered the nest. and would he not have done that for kevin prior to jean if he's so desperate to save another person? wouldn't that have proven to fail when riko not only tortured him but then tortured kevin in front of him? did that to jean later? what could neil have done in the nest that kevin didn't already do? i don't know what to say here other than it seems nonsensical to me. they're all teenage boys in a horrific abusive environment with no power and no way out and no one there for them but each other.