lazy

《 20 || any pronouns || aftg centric || NSFW 》 pfp by lunapiq • this blog is for the posts i don't want lost in the reblogs • main is @lazybookangels (https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lazybookangels)

[drewsday]

anyone else a kevriko fan mostly out of spite?

[afurtivecake]

The tragedy of Riko is that he was so desperate for validation from people who were completely incapable of giving it to him that he cut out every part of him that could have responded to kindness and destroyed everything he could have had - only to end up alone and crushed for craving something so fundamental to humanity as the simple acknowledgement from family.

As far as anyone concerned who may have been watching knew, Riko won that contest between him and Kevin. He could have taken that victory and been lauded as the best. Kevin would have dutifully sang his praise, the whole thing would have been tabloid fodder for a couple of weeks until season started up again and everyone would have moved on. Any praise he could have gotten from his "victory" over Kevin wouldn't have felt real and Riko couldn't live with that.

The thing is, Tetsuji probably didn't intend for things to turn out the way they did. The fact that Tetsuji beat Riko badly enough to take him out of play for it suggests to me that Tetsuji may have been perfectly happy with the result of Riko and Kevin's contest. Either he couldn't tell that Kevin had thrown the contest, or if he had guessed, he was fine with it. It may even have been what he intended to prove - that no matter what circumstances Kevin and Riko are put in, Riko will always come out on top because Kevin knows his place. Thoroughly subjugating someone like that is in itself a form of victory. Except Riko couldn't see it like that.

You would think that Riko had been brought up to view control and subjugation as victory. But I think the fact that he reacted the way he did suggests that the lesson he learned growing up, that every scrap of attention and validation he got had to be fought for and won through his successes, cut in way deeper. When you grow up striving to meet expectations and never being praised for your successes, no amount of success achieved will feel like meaningful validation; it just feels like barely staving off failure. Anything short of smashing success is an abject failure. I don't think Riko was thinking about having Kevin's loyalty or being in control of Kevin in his worst moment; I think he just felt utterly forsaken, like a useless failure instead of a person. I don't think he really wanted the validation of being praised as the best, I think what he wanted was for his existence to be acknowledged by his uncle and maybe even his family - to feel like a person in their eyes.

And of course the tragedy is that Riko doesn't understand this about himself and instead pursues the most destructive (and self-destructive) course of action all because of a crippling fear of failure.

[cryptkeepersshadow]

Just to make it clear, because apparently I need to, I'm not invalidating Riko Moriyama's trauma at all. I'm just saying that people justifying him doing what he did to multiple people because "he's traumatised too" isn't the argument you think it is

me being abused didn't cause me to assault anyone else, it made me go actively out of my way to not do that to someone else and got therapy to sort my shit out after years of trying to please everyone whilst trying to look tough as shit to not get fucked with

I never did half the shit Riko did because of my trauma, even when I was actively encouraged to and yet Riko, who got punished for punishing Jean, did and people justify that as "oh but he's traumatised"

Kevin and Jean are definitely dicks but only in the way that they're closed off from everyone else, they've never gone out of their way to hurt someone who did nothing wrong

trauma affects people in different ways, yes, but justifying the shit that riko did is Not it

[cultpastorkevin]

nobody ever justifies anything he does actually 🤏🏻 idk why everyone in this fandom lacks reading comp w each other lmao but god damn it needs to start improving

Anyways, let’s get into this and get it over with yeah?

When people say “he was traumatized, this is why he acted this way and did those things” it is not a justification, it is an explanation and it takes ZERO effort (actually) to understand, if you’re capable of it, that when a child grows up in a home that does not tell them right from wrong, does not provide caretaker support, does not incite love but it rewards violence, when it is a cult and when you are discouraged from gentleness but your thorns are forcibly grown—

THAT is what people mean when they say Riko’s actions are a result of trauma; it means he stood no chance because he had no way out and wouldn’t know to take an out if he was given one because he thought his life was good and everything that was being done had some sort of ulterior purpose and meaning and he was acting and doing exactly how he was supposed to do and taught to do

Anyone having a .05 capability of brain power should be able to recognize this and understand that, but if you would prefer to ignore everything that’s being said to you in honor of assuming people are using trauma to justify his actions and saying he didn’t do anything wrong when actually everyone I know who loves Riko says he is in the fucking wrong, be my guest actually!

in fact please go ahead because every time something like this happens, the Riko fans in the corners of the AFTG fandom tend to double down and create more content, more art, more redemption arcs, more fics where he receives kindness, etc. because they are frankly sick of seeing this dead horse beat and ngl I hope y’all’s sticks break at some point bc it is getting tiring watching this make its rounds with people purposefully not listening when anyone who likes Riko says something

explaining why he did what he did is not a justification, it is an explanation, stop conflating the two

[tisaqslur]

aftg fandom when not every character with sexual trauma is touch averse

[rayrosier]

[tisaqslur]

@drewsday

[dykemd]

can you please promise you will try having reading comprehension skills? for me 🥺

[drewsday]

hey can we please talk about this

[vanta-bat]

No Riko did not had the power to end up cycle of abuse anyone who thinks that need go back and read up books on abuse dynamics not re read aftg for third time. Riko was groomed and shaped by his environment, never loved never cared for, you want this character to start witting poetry in language he never even heard

[zazzander]

Doesn't he literally flinch back from Tetsuji in the one scene where we actually see their dynamic? He had no power in the Nest that Tetsuji didn't allow him to have. Unless Tetsuji died first there's no way Riko could escape it much less break the cycle. Nora very much established that!

[vanta-bat]

Jean said multiple times at the beginning of tsc that Tetsuji was beating Riko for overstepping constantly. Riko was just a tool of much more experienced player. Nora mentioned on twt once that Riko hoped that his fame as exy player would let him free himself from Tetsuji I have it tattooed under my eyelids

[vanta-bat]

I'm sure there is better way to word it but characters like riko are excellent exercise in empathy and emotional maturity you dissect behaviour understand it consider the environment and external factors consider the mistakes problems things that affected the subject and then you have people who will cry and yell "you are excusing abuse" no I am analysing characters life and understanding what pushed them to it, no action in life happens without reason the good deeds do not lose their merit if they were inspired by someone yet no one is in hurry to claim credit for the bad ones Equating understanding and maybe some sympathy to absolving someone of responsibility is sign of emotional immaturity at best or attempt at using emotional language to shut up people who enjoy different fiction content at most annoying

[bloodyknucklez]

Y'alls weird obsession with immediately diagnosing and assigning Andrew with any disorder you can find to justify or explain his actions/reactions but then immediately shutting that down when it comes to Riko and only assigning Riko disorders that you want to purposely stigmatize as villain-centric is incredibly harmful. Newsflash; Antagonists and Non antags can have the same fuckin disorder. Disorders themselves aren't an antagonist and don't abide by y'all's weird need to assign them moral criteria. I need y'all to stop trying to gatekeep which characters can have what based off of your own perpetuations of stigma.

[butterflypeaflowertea]

breaks my heart when i see people being dumb online 🥺 like stoppppp omg stop it for reallllll i’m gonna end up killing myself because you had such a stupid ass opinion i couldn’t take it anymore and the blood will be on your hands 😭

[drewsday]

kevin is a coward anon here. the one and only. you guys are so funny tbh. kevin day is a coward btw 😏

hi! this is the only reply you'll get out of me, since more than enough people have already tried explaining it to you rationally.

Kevin ended up going against the literal mafia, and you're too cowardly to use your real url arguing a braindead take to get a rise out of people. If you truly believed Kevin Day is a coward, you would stop hiding behind anon so we can all finally block you and be done with this childish argument.

I'm sorry if your life is miserable enough for you to get your dopamine from being obtuse and bothersome on the internet, but please take your pathetic wail for attention elsewhere.

[drewsday]

I salute everyone currently in the trenches for my buddy Kevin Day

[cultpastorkevin]

I see your:

“do you understand the violence it took to become this gentle?”

and I raise you:

do you understand the violence it took to become this destructive

when I say violent I mean

broken bones and bloody noses we’re discussing being turned into something considered more bruises and blood than skin I am saying that from shoulders to thighs it is free game we’re talking about being driven into a corner with the only option being to kill the ones next to you so you can climb out kind of violent

when I say violent I mean

cold words and cold hands you can’t be gentle if you’re never shown what it’s like in the first place at least Kevin was held with love before the nest you can’t strangle a toddler and expect them to know not to do the same we forget that gentleness is taught it is not easy but it is easy to be violent because it is all you know if you are never shown how to touch without snapping bones and praise comes in less bruises than usual and disappointed anger means three days barely conscious how are you to know that you do not need to rip open throats and break fingers to forget your own violent gasps

When I say violent I mean

iced out and isolated ironically catapulted to fame with no one to hold you we’re talking being 18 with the worlds eyes on shoulders broken into perfect form I’m talking about a perfect court perfect team perfect family something to fill a void created from being considered lesser; a child knows when they are not wanted so you must prove you’re good enough to be useful and anything less than perfect means heavy hands and a rageful retribution that will thrum like shockwaves throughout the team

when I say “do you understand the violence it took to become this destructive” what I mean is

having violence etched into your bones from birth is heartbreaking you came into this world screaming and you left it just as shocked you were born into violence and never being good enough there was never an option to be soft when you’re a little god underfoot and a champion in the making so every fucking bruise counts and you learn to sink your teeth in to prove you’re number one and you become so used to the taste of your own blood you start to mistake it for water and what do you do when you’re dying of dehydration you start to dig except this time you’re digging into flesh and bone around you and fuck you are so desperate for water you learn to enjoy and seek out the destruction you create so well because if you are going to suffer then everyone else around you must as well

.

at least Kevin was held with love before the nest

[drewsday]

"x aftg character is kinda problematic actually bec-"

THAT'S THE POINT

[foxufortunes]

Thinking about how Tetsuji designed the Raven('s careers) to burn bright and die young. Like Tetsuji is a smart man (probably) who's studies sports science and has been coaching and involved in sports for a long while. There's no way he doesn't know that the Ravens' brutal training regiment, practicing more hours than a lot of fully grown pro athletes and without rest or recovery days (not even going into the actual abuse and their mental situations), will leave them with long term injuries and chronic pain that will likely see most of them crash out of any professional career by the time they're thirty at best. Sorry Kevin and Jean and Riko (if you'd lived) you're not actually destined for long and glorious careers, you're destined for aching joints, lots of surgery, and ominously telling people you can feel the storm coming in your bones (which honestly feels like Jean would enjoy but that's not the point). Thea's career has almost certainly already peaked and now it's just a slow downhill as Tetsuji's training slowly makes it more and more painful to keep playing.

[drewsday]

the aftg fandom after completely and thoroughly missing every single point the entire series has ever made

[drewsday]

I was told to add this, proved my point in less than an hour that some people simply cannot read 💀