#zeljan kurst

In the book he sort of just happens to be in the area (after falling out of space off the Western coast of Australia) and the Australian Secret Service are like "hey that's a freebie, let's make him do a job for us even tho we have doubts about his credentials" and then whoops, there's an international incident happening in the area.

So what I'm gonna do is have Alex and the gang on vacation in Singapore because Kyra has turned 18, and is no longer technically a ward of the state but still too young to inherit her family's fortune. She can now hire a lawyer who can make sure her shit stays in escrow for her to inherit when she's 21. Or whatever, I'll figure out the legalese for Jack Starbright to pull out later.

Anyway, the fact that Alex is in Singapore right when SCORPIA is transporting a bomb thru Indonesia has SCORPIA convinced that he's onto them, so they arrange for Ash to keep him busy which ironically puts him onto them.

There's a meeting in the book after Alex (allegedly) destroys a building where SCORPIA exec Zeljan Kurst meets with Major Winston Yu in London to tell him to stop playing with his food and Yu declines to stop playing with his food. I'm putting the meeting at the top of ep2 before Alex does or does not destroy anything and it's gonna go something like this:

KURST: Regarding the Alex Rider situation.  YU: Alex Rider won't be a problem. KURST: You understand that he was involved in the failure of our last three operations? And now he's in Singapore. I do not believe in coincidences. YU: He is not, in fact, in Singapore. He is well on his way to Bangkok by now. And I'm telling you, he won't be a problem. I've got Laertes on it. My best agent. KURST: I believe this warrants additional resources. Our reputation is at stake. Send [code name, code name] or Cossack. Cossack worked on the operations that Rider thwarted. He would have a personal motivation.  YU: (scoffing) Cossack was Julia Rothman's agent, not mine. Let's not mix our peas and carrots. Laertes can handle this on his own. Besides, Cossack doesn't do personal motivation. [Cut to: Yassen listening in with a bug on the table]

Horowitz introduced the concept of code names by telling us that John Rider was called Hunter and Yassen Gregorovich is Cossack and then as far as I can tell, never brought up the concept of code names ever again.

In the book, Yu says he's got someone pulling Alex's strings but refuses to tell Kurst who--when the opportunity to give Ash a code name is right there so I'm correcting this. Now Yassen will have a code name to give to Alex and Kyra for who is coming after them.

[Just so we are clear, the concept for this came from a TikTok-er who does a good amount of Alex Rider content/analysis!)

Julia Rothman: 0/10 She'd call me 'girly-pop' in a heartbeat. Julia Rothman is such a Girl Boss (derogatory), that she'd become transphobic. She'd not believe that I was actually agender and be fully convinced that I'm only saying this because of internalized misogyny or something. She'd be calling me 'young lady', 'girly', 'Ms./Miss', any and all gendered terms because she'd know that it made me uncomfortable and that I hated it. Also, seeing as I'm not a literal underage boy, she probably wouldn't care too much about me in the first place... I don't think that Julia Rothman should be around children in general. She needs some Jesus...

Zeljan Kurst: 4/10 I get the sense that he'd find me pretty annoying as a person, so I'd already be on thin ice as it was. He wouldn't understand what being agender was and he probably would just have me labeled in his head as a girl, but he'd use the correct pronouns and otherwise not make a big fuss out of it. Zeljan Kurst really would just be trying to do whatever he could to not have to deal with me more than he absolutely would have to.

Max Grendel: 10/10 He gives supportive grandpa vibes! He might not always understand or get the pronouns right all the time, but he cares! A bit lost at times, but immaculate allyship!

Major Winston Yu: -1/10 Not only am I an American (i.e. NOT British) and am actively beefing with the concept of England in general, he'd already be having issues with me. Not only that, but he wouldn't understand what was going on and absolutely refuse to learn/get an explanation. He'd be misgendering me left and right in the most oddly polite way ever. Like, bro would look me dead in the eye and say "My dear girl" and then start ranting about his plans and how great England is or whatever.

Brendan Chase: 7/10 It'd start off fine with him being very accepting and supportive, but I could see it getting really weird real quick. He'd probably start asking me some really personal/probing questions about being agender and wouldn't see anything wrong about asking about it. But if/when I told him that it was personal/I wasn't comfortable with the questioning, he'd back off and apologize right away!

Abdul-Aziz Al-Razim: 0/10 He'd want to study the psychological pain of experiencing gender dysphoria and transphobia... He also just gives homophobic/transphobic/misogynistic energy in general. He'd actively hate crime me and observe my response for ~ScIEnCe~ and pleasure.

The Grimaldi Twins (they'd want to be counted as a single person): 6/10 They'd be pretty chill about it, I can't see either of them taking issue with me being agender. They'd be supportive, but they wouldn't care too much. It's pretty much just that. Nothing really to say here. If they killed me mafia style, it'd be because of something I did to fuck up their plans. Not because I'm agender. We stan equal opportunity kings! (Not really though.)

Doctor Three: 11/10 He's a strong ally! Dr. Three understands and respects how gender is fluid/relative/a social construct and he'd be very supportive! He'd also be out there actively fighting transphobia in the medical community through normal personal measures, but also through murder if he must!

Oliver D'Arc: 4/10 He just wouldn't care that much. If I told him my pronouns, he'd just be like 'ok' then immediately proceed to misgender me. He would never do anything outside of that though.

Yassen Gregorovich: 10/10 As a professional, Yassen would be using my preferred pronouns no questions asked! He'd also politely correct people who got the pronouns wrong or kill them because he's a ride or die like that (I may not be a Rider, but I feel like Yassen would still have my back in this area though).

Desmond Nye: 100/10 HE IS AN ALLY YOUR HONOR!!!! DESMOND NYE HAS PRIDE FLAGS IN HIS OFFICE AND ALWAYS ASKS FOR PREFERRED NAMES AND PRONOUNS! AND HE RESPECTS THEM! WHEN HE WAS IN CHARGE THERE WERE VERY STRONG ANTI-DISCRIMINATION POLICIES IN PLACE AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL! (As you can see I am very calm and normal about this headcanon.)

Nile: -11/10 He'd only be this level of unsupportive because he'd hate me and want to make me feel as uncomfortable/invalidated as humanly possible. If it was anyone other than me, he'd be fairly supportive, like, a solid 5/10! But we do have to take into account that Nile is totally very petty and that I'd bet good money he'd get very creative with his transphobia in a not-good way. In short, NILE IS A HATER!!!

Karl Steiner: -2/10 He'd psycho-analyze me and try to gaslight me into being cis. He'd straight up become a conversion therapist in an instant, but he'd also try to ease into the role to not scare me off and then go from there. But that would be his secondary goal. His primary goal would be to see if I'd make a good assassin and IDK how I'd do on his tests and that's not what we're talking about here. All in all, would not recommend this man as a therapist for anyone ever.

Anthony Sean 'Ash' Howell: 5/10 He'd just nod and say "nice" before going back to smoking and being angsty which, honestly, slay! (Not the smoking part! Don't smoke kids, it's very, very, extremely bad for you!) I can't see him being transphobic, but I can't see him being an ally either. He's just a guy. He's just Ken.

Gordan Ross: 8/10 He is a supportive man! As long as I was tuned into his lessons and knew what was going on, then we'd have no problem! I could also see him correcting people if they misgender me which is an added bonus.

Eijit 'Jet' Binnag: 8/10 Jet would use the correct pronouns and would have a general understanding of what being agender means, she'd also occasionally correct people if they used the wrong pronouns. Mostly all she'd care about was whether or not I put effort into her classes and knew what was going on.

Amanda: 10/10 Asks for pronouns, uses pronouns, corrects people when they use incorrect pronouns, not notes! Only good ally vibes!

Walker: 8/10 He's got nothing against being agender and would definitely use they/them pronouns, but he'd also just say some really out-of-pocket stuff about trans/non-binary/agender people and unintentionally make things uncomfortable. So, he gets points off for that, but having said that, Walker would totally correct people if they got my pronouns wrong and it wouldn't JUST be because he's a little bitch who likes to correct people to be annoying!

Begins with Russian Roulette so everyone knows what Yassen’s deal is

Smithers becomes a prime target for revenge/kidnapping

Cray begrudgingly respecting Alex for dropping Skoda on a police conference

Sharkovsky twists how he treated Yassen: “He ate fine food every day!”

Everyone compares their henchmen

Grief being his charming racist self

Rothman gets called out for her creepy behavior (like seriously, she called a 14-year-old her “boy toy”)

Sarov still caring about Alex

Yassen is mocked for his attachment to the Riders

Every character tears into each other’s mistakes

In the end they’re all transported to before the series began. What changes do they make?