i think the tragedy of kevin day is that everyone was watching. the entire world and all of its cameras trained on castle evermore. two boys being paraded in front of tv screens, put on team after team, court after court. news article after news article on their upbringing, their inheritance, their talent, on their skill. yet no one saw. or perhaps it's more accurate to say, that no one cared?
people knew something was wrong--they aren't blind. the way that tetsuji was running the show, the way kevin and riko were, it rang alarm bells: something wasn't right.
and even if this is based in the mid-2000s, where social media and the internet weren't as widespread as it is today, I'll eat my shoe if fans weren't pulling apart every tv clips or news articles they could find on kevin/riko.
people knew. it just didn't matter.
as Nora puts it in the extra content:
and i think that's the tragedy of kevin day and I think it's also a tragedy that we, as a fandom, don't talk about the intricacies of fame and how it shaped kevin as a character.
we get snippets of it throughout the series but it's never really touched upon except in tfc when seth and neil have this conversation:
we have these individual characters with their suffering and horrible, horrible childhoods and i think for many, there's this lingering idea that my life was horrible but if i was loved, it would have made a difference--it would have better. that is not to say they're wrong but to say they were right, would also be a disservice.
the crux of it is, is that kevin knows better.
the whole world was watching Kevin Day and it still didn't make a difference. it didn't protect him. rather, he was loved yet the world watched him (and riko) be irrevocably broken because the show he put on was more important than his pain.
there's this association for many of the characters that fame = protection/love.
andrew even weaponizes it here, when he convinces neil to stay. make it your shield he says. The moriyamas won't kill you if the whole world is watching.
but kevin grew up in front of the camera and the only difference it made was that his bruises had to be hidden, and not even particularly well.
in the extra content, nora tell us:
i wonder if andriel had told him their plan, what kevin would have said. i think he would have told him it wouldn't work.
and to be fair, maybe it did save neil from immediate execution but i think kevin would have been right.
after all, riko still tortured neil in castle evermore that winter and then let him walk right out with a number on his face, wounds for everyone to see if not for the foxes' interference. after all, it still didn't stop riko from trying to murder neil on live television. after all, it didn't stop riko from showing up at kathy ferninand's show and attacking kevneil back stage.
fame's only a shield because the money keeping you alive is worth more than your death. just because the world's watching, doesn't mean we can't hurt you. it doesn't mean you're off limits.
we get these lines thrown in. people are always willing to bleed for him and they're there for kevin every step of the way and the world is dying to give him anything he wants but I think the narrative has shown us that they're not.
after all, when the show isn't turning out the way they want them to, they turn on him. the raven fans turned on him when he walked away after all. in some respects, we see the same thing with the foxes and neil when kevin isn't the person they expect him to be.
we talk about kevin's cowardice in bits and pieces in this fandom but i argue that it's less cowardice, and more learned helplessness. when the entire world is watching and it still doesn't save you, wouldn't you too be scared?
all eyes on you, and you're still not safe. all eyes on you, and you're still a pet on a leash. all eyes on you, and they can still cut your throat any minute. all eyes on you, and money will stay pave the way to silence and apathy.
all eyes on you, and they love but any of them can and will turn on you any minute.
kevin day is not a person. kevin day is a show, a story, a toy on a shelf. and when the show isn't fun anymore, when the story is different from expected, when the toy is broken...well.
