Edgar Allen Ravens - Blog Posts

how terrifying do you think it was for kevin to get a phone call from riko during christmas break while neil was at evermore? do you think his heart skipped a beat when he saw the caller ID? do you think he stared in shock and tried to fight off a panic attack while his mind spiralled to worst-case scenarios? what do you think kevin thought riko was calling for? to bring kevin back? to tell him that he took things with neil too far? to say that neil signed the contract and wouldn’t be coming back? or that he passed him off to nathan and neil was gone forever?

how do you think he reacted when riko told him that he’d inked neil? that he hadn’t passed neil off to nathan, but he might as well have? that he was practically painting a target directly onto him and begging someone to take aim? how worried do you think he was? how relieved when neil came back, harmed but alive? 

and most of all, how hard do you think it was for him to try and keep it together when he knew how it would eventually end for his smart-mouthed, runaway recruit with worlds of potential?

andrew, after his car is destroyed by ravens fans: in terms of money... we have no money

neil, with a quarter of a million bucks: *hands over his binder*

“Neil watched the airport disappear, watched signs blur outside the window, and let his eyes close. When he opened them again, he was flat on his back on Wymack’s couch.” (ch.16, trk)

wymack carried neil up to his apartment. wymack carried neil up to his apartment. WYMACK CARRIED NEIL UP TO HIS APARTMENT. 

i will forever be crying about this. it’s such a father-son thing to do?? he must’ve been so small in wymack’s arms. and neil is so familiar w wymack’s place that he didn’t even panic when he woke up on his couch, despite having just gotten back from evermore. 

also, and this is very important:

“Clad in jean shorts and a faded tee, Wymack looked more like a garage band rocker than a university coach.” (ch.1, tfc)

WYMACK. WEARS. JORTS. we make fun of neil for it all the time but PLS CAN WE STOP OVERLOOKING THIS OMFG. wymack wears a wife-beater when he first sees neil and jorts the second time. iconic. what a man. 

on the one hand, saying “make me” and refusing to kneel when tetsuji told him to is iconic. on the other hand, neil knew he’d be there for two more weeks and he still purposely antagonized him???? very in character but what the f u c k

my knowledge of west virginia comes solely from aftg and that one song, and i would like to suggest aftg where everything is the same except the ravens’ fight song is “take me home, country roads” 

honestly andrew probably got to neil in time by booking it across the court the second neil opened his mouth after the final match bc he just knew it’d be some dumb shit that would make riko want to kill him 

hc that andrew’s really good at drawing, and bc of his eidetic memory, he can depict scenes perfectly. he didn’t draw much when he was on his meds, but got back into it when he was sober again. here are some memories i think he would recreate:

the “you know, i get it” speech (this one is a kaleidoscope of colours bc of his drugged state)

neil at ground level, andrew’s cigarette between his lips, giving andrew a mock salute (that scene right after andrew returns from easthaven)

seeing neil’s scars for the first time

aaron and nicky dancing, carefree, at eden’s

bee’s glass figurines (he adds to this drawing every time he gets her a new one)

sparring with renee

neil sitting on the ground at the foxhole court after calling andrew during his panic attack

neil leaning over the bus seat

matt grinning during an exy game

neil at the baltimore reunion (the rest of the foxes are blurs in this one because he only had eyes for neil)

sleepy neil curled up in the beanbag chair

allison and renee curled up beside each other

kevin coming in, drunk, with his new tattoo 

nicky and erik hugging when erik came as a surprise

kevin and wymack right before the final match

riko with his racquet raised above neil (he wasn’t going to draw this one, but he couldn’t get the moment out of his head and thought it might help to get it down on paper)

aaron smiling for a split second at a sarcastic comment andrew made

neil, yawning and wearing andrew’s hoodie

matt ruffling neil’s hair

allison painting renee’s nails

neil sitting on the rooftop, the sunset setting his hair ablaze

ice cream at sweetie’s (no cracker packets in this memory)

the first goal robin blocked during a game

neil on facetime, staring at andrew like he could never get enough

the first house that andrew could really call home 

sir and king climbing all over neil

neil and kevin wearing olympic medals

neil and andrew’s hands linked together

aaron and his family when they come over for dinner

neil, soaking wet and laughing during a watergun fight in their backyard

neil, smiling and happy and home

i’d like to think that, when andrew feels ready to show neil his drawings, they hang them up around their home. and when the foxes come over, they’re in awe at the memories and the love that is captured in the artwork, but they know not to say anything. dan gives them pictures, though, to hang up alongside the drawings, and they do

when jean told neil that “fun is for children” at the winter banquet, he probably actually believed what he was saying. i doubt this traumatized man has genuinely had fun since he was a kid back in france - and even then it was probably rare bc let’s be real, if your parents sell you to the yakuza to pay off debts, it’s unlikely they provided a childhood full of sunshine

you know what’s painful? before the final match against the ravens when neil says that he can see how much matt loves his mom and that “sometimes he was still surprised at how blatantly that love was returned” 

like?? 

mary did her best to keep neil alive and they had a complicated relationship but, ultimately, neil loved her

this quote hurts though, because neil obviously didn’t really get that love reciprocated - yes, in her own way, mary loved him and tried to keep him safe and as happy as possible given the circumstances, but overall his life on the run was full of pain and fear and his mom added to that

so of course it’s weird for him to see randy love matt so fiercely and so openly, but my heart still aches for him

i picture renee talking w a customer service voice 99% of the time to stay sweet so that she doesn’t rip someone’s throat out

neil “i’m fine” josten telling wymack after coming back from evermore that no, no, he’s not alright just... pierces my heart every time i think about it. you can really see how much neil’s grown by how he finally begins to trust someone other than himself or his mom. he puts himself in such a vulnerable position when he reaches out, especially by asking for help from an older man (given his past). and the way that wymack drops everything during winter break to immediately rush to the airport, i just- 

a question that hasn't let me go since finishing AFTG:

in a timeline where the perfect court worked out, would neil be a striker or a backliner?

while he was at the nest, riko made him play as a backliner but he performed rather poorly, and yet riko marked him #4 for his perfect court.

even though his special potential only showed when he played as a striker for the foxes.

but the perfect court was supposed to be riko (1) and kevin (2) for strikers, and jean called neil his partner that got away or something so we can assume that the planned backliners were jean (3) and neil (4)

did riko really gamble on neil's ability to adjust to being defense, or would he have been a striker sub??

I love the idea of Neil sabotaging the Raven’s fight song. Imagine it’s a really high-stakes game between the Foxes and the Ravens and then right when the Raven’s fight song is about to play A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton starts playing instead, cutting through the tension like a knife.

I wonder what Kevin’s response to a bunch of the Ravens killing themselves during The Sunshine Court was. Like did he care or was he like ‘good fucking riddance’?

If Jean was a chess piece, he’d be a pawn. Not because of the expected reasons like the fact that he has been used as one for years, but because it’s the only piece that can make itself something better when it reaches the end of the board. The Ravens held him back for years, doing everything in their power to make sure he didn’t make it to the other end of the board, to make sure he didn’t see what he could really be. But with the Trojans, they don’t tear him down, they lift him up. And he makes it to the end of the chessboard. I don’t know what other piece he’d become but a pawn has a chance to better itself and move on from its role. A king is a king and a queen is a queen but a pawn could be anything.

Nora saying that Riko burned the number seven onto Andrew in a universe where Andrew becomes a Raven haunts me. What does it mean? Was it as a punishment for Riko catching Andrew smoking cigarettes? Was it just because of Andrew generally not cooperating? Where did he burn the number onto him? Because there is no way it could’ve been on the cheek where the perfect court tattoos are because that would a thousand percent cause an investigation into the Ravens. He must’ve burned it onto Andrew somewhere that was hidden by their gear. Maybe his back? Or possibly onto his wrists on top of his past self-harm scars? And don’t even get me started on the parallels between this and Neil being burned by a dashboard lighter by Lola and his dad’s men in the book.

I need to know more about Raven Andrew!! He haunts my narrative.

How would he have coped in the Nest? Assuming he was medicated at the time he joined the Ravens, I assume he wouldn’t have taken it all that seriously. He would’ve had to have it beat into him by Riko and Tetsuji, but I can’t see any of it actually sticking with him until Riko and Tetsuji start hurting other for his mistakes or misgivings. Watching people like Nathaniel (Neil), Jean or Kevin have to suffer for what he was doing would’ve messed with Andrew since, as we see in the series, he just wants to protect everyone around him, but what would his reaction to that have been?

Joining the Ravens would have fucked up his relationship with Aaron and Nicky beyond repair. There is no way Riko and Tetsuji would’ve let him communicate with them (maybe holding it over his head as a punishment for him acting out??) and he would’ve just have to live with not knowing how they were doing. For years, he didn’t know Aaron and Nicky existed and then, finally, he learnt about them and he had them, and their relationships were by no means perfect or even anywhere close to perfect but he knew they existed. I think having Aaron and Nicky for him so late in life only to have them torn away again would’ve messed with him.

In the series, while on his medication during the first two books, Andrew comes off of his medication for their games. Would he be able to do this at the Nest for games? Would his medication be withheld from him at other time, perhaps another punishment for acting out? If he was acting out, would Riko and Tetsuji have kept his medication from him, to see him have to go through those awful withdrawal symptoms? How long could Andrew have gone without his medication until he caved and did whatever they wanted him to do as long as he got his medication back? He hates his medications of course but the withdrawal symptoms are worse.

And one final thing, even if it’s not a behavioural thing, I want to talk about the numbers. Nora said if Andrew was a Raven he would’ve been number seven. It’s such a symbolic number for him. Seven as in the age he was the first time he was assaulted. Seven as in the age where he had to say the word ‘please’ so much, possibly reflecting how his time with the Ravens would’ve went. Then of course we have the way all the numbers add up. Andrew’s Raven number (7) and Andrew’s Fox number (3) would add up to make Neil’s Fox number (10). Andrew’s Raven number (7) and Nathaniel’s Raven number (3) add up to also make Neil’s Fox number (10). Even in universes where they don’t end up together, the traces of what could’ve been (and what was in the universe that we got in the books) still find their way into the story.

I just need more information about Raven Andrew and I don’t know what I’m meant to do to get it!!

What if the Trojan’s first red card is in their first match in the new season against the Ravens? Their first match against the Ravens with Jean. And the Ravens spend the entire time being mean to Jean, saying horrific things, trying to injure him and bringing up his time at the Nest and - of course - the rumours. But Jean doesn’t retaliate the entire time. He doesn’t fight back or respond, just keeps on playing the game. But Jeremy sees the entire match that the Ravens are not leaving Jean alone and it angers him. And then Zane just makes one more snide little comment and Jeremy just fucking punches Zane. They get into a fight, which Jeremy is very much winning, and Zane starts screaming and pleading for Jean to tell Jeremy to stop. But Jean doesn’t, because why should he? Jean must have screamed and pleaded for Zane to stop Grayson, but he didn’t. He laid on his bed while it happened and pretended like it wasn’t happening. Jean does the same to Zane as he pleads for Jean to make Jeremy stop. He ignores him.

Nora saying that if Andrew was apart of the Perfect Court he would have been number seven has a lot of depth to it - of course, he had his line ‘I was seven’ referring to the first time he was assaulted as a child but then we can also take into consideration the fact that his Raven number (7) and his Fox number (3) would have made 10 when added together which makes Neil’s number on the Fox lineup

me and my friend were discussing the comedic potential of the ravens having a pink away kit