helsnyc

main, sides @helsync for writing

[sonja-cherno]

We've talked about Grace's rainbow symbolism in this scene, but I haven't seen anyone pointing out the detail of Stratt having a line of countries' flags behind her on her first appearance

[butchandrew]

Kevin's treatment and relationship to the other foxes (namely upperclassman) makes a lot more sense in the context he prob thought they were all gonna be dead / kicked out of school / ruined before that year was out.

like the best case scenario they win and riko only kills some of them along the way but not enough to end the season. the program lives another day and maybe they have enough bodies to survive another year & Tetsuji doesn't destroy the program as an ERC chair.

worst case the program gets shuttered and riko has a bunch of vulnerable people who already have the image of "Foxes", aka people no one cares about to kill / harm.

[butchandrew]

Kevin runs to his father's side in a dissociative daze after getting a glorified death sentence from his brother / owner and effectively puts the entire Fox line up as collateral for it. Hell, the entire university as the Campus gets bomb threats, smeared in the media, and vandalized by Raven fans for taking him and his talent away from Egar Allan. And that's just his sophomore year as an assistant coach with a broken hand. When he's playing????

I mean look at this line regarding his relationship to Allison in the wake of Seth's death:

Taking any stand against Riko will have devastating effects on each and every person around them including death. Getting closer to them puts them in more danger, and this isn't even touching the Jean "Haunting the Narrative" Moreau of it all. If Riko didn't hold Kevin in check with his Foxes, he always had his hostage right there in the Nest.

Andrew, and later Neil, are the only one who really consent to what being an ally to Kevin Day means, and even then I don't think either of them were prepared for what it would cost them. Who would be?

Kevin is never leaving Palmetto because he can never go back to the Ravens. Kevin is putting every single Fox at risk by doing this. He has to find a way to make this remotely OK. The only talent he has is Exy. The only worth he has is Exy. The only way he can protect them, their program, and Wymack himself is through Exy.

"Why does Kevin only care about Exy?"

[just-a-silly-jellyfish]

something about ryland grace erasing Who Am I? off the whiteboard to replace it with flight plan back to rocky. something about the question of who ryland grace is is no longer important to him, because it doesnt matter who he is if rocky is dead. something about him letting go of his distress over his amnesia and his will to go back home in favour of saving his friend.

[barkilphedros-hat]

“I make door, you close door” was Rocky’s equivalent of going “WERE YOU BORN IN A FUCKING BARN??????”

[sadclowncentral]

to me, the cruelest thing that eva stratt does is not the kidnappig itself. it's that she tells grace that he does not even have a dog. dr ryland grace, a man who dedicated his life to the greater good, first to science and then to teaching, does indeed not have a dog. and because of this, he has to spend his last precious moments on his home planet with the full knowledge that while he might be smart enough to save the world, he is not loved enough by anyone on it to be worth saving

[vastlyblindingfragment]

Like the idea that even years later Kevin still has a hold over all his situationships but now it pisses them off more then tortures them how easy it is for him to get them give in to his whims sometimes. The Kevin Day of it all only makes it worse.

[queenconsort]

this feels like a lukewarm take but i really love how it’s implied (if not outright stated, i can’t remember) that kevin was made to be so unlikeable in the eyes of the other ravens because if kevin is the bitchy diva then riko is the likable one. riko can be the reasonable one, can act just as annoyed as the rest of them, roll his eyes and act the victim. and having kevin be the “common enemy” gives them all someone to bond over hating yknow

[the-inner-musings-of-a-worm]

aaron minyard most underrated comedic character in aftg

the man’s timing? delivery? sarcasm? impeccable

on jeremy and renee- “they’d get killed. wars profitable, no one wants their world peace nonsense.”

when asked about andrew and neil - “it’s not something to be proud of.”

on neil speaking german - “you’ve managed to completely embarrass yourself in both languages”

he’s also SO little brother coded - doesn’t want anything to do with his embarrassing asf family, dedicated to hating is brothers bf with a significant passion, had no problem immediately moving out of his family’s dorm, in general annoying and doesn’t understand his brother

[the-ghost-of-jason-todd]

i'm nearing the end of arkham knight and

there is something to be said about how villain!jason always, ALWAYS shows, at some point, just how much pain he's in. it's the same in arkham knight as it was in UTRH/lost days. he is competent and terrifying and evasive--smug and, hell, even furious--all the way up until that final confrontation, when he has bruce as a captive audience. he just... he can't help but show his true colors then. show that, hell, he was just a kid. just a little kid, just a teenager, just one small robin.

because if jason todd is anything, he's a victim--before he becomes red hood, before he becomes the arkham knight, hell, before he becomes robin he's a victim. it's baked into his story. a fledgling, broken and sick--calling calling calling for someone who wasn't there when he needed them. you might think his anger is the loudest, but... it isn't. it never is. because every single time, without fail, without pause, when it all comes down to nothing but him and bruce, his anger turns to pain--and his voice always carries the farthest when he's talking about the things that hurt him. when he's asking impossible questions, pleading with bruce for answers he can't give, demanding affirmations and assurances that just don't exist.

i think that's what a lot of jason todd media forgets. it forgets that he's not a blade, forged in fire and flame. he WAS the flame--lit without care, a bright flare that burned out too fast. when his armor comes down, it isn't the arkham knight or the red hood that's left underneath--it's the ashes. whatever is left of that bright little boy. a child who just keeps asking why he couldn't ever be loved enough.

[prlssprfctn]

Jason Todd should have dropped the UTRH plan and go pursue the acting career, instead. Confronting Batman? Easy and ineffective. Having your face plastered across the whole city, and intentionally picking up roles in remakes of your father's favourite movies? That is scary. That is haunting.

[broosepayne]

Evacuation

[glitter-stained]

Jason didn't come back wrong he came back angry and violent as a consequence of plenty of things that happened when he had been alive. He wasn't made evil by the lazarus pit his pain was the consequence of so many people's choices and failings and the ways he chose to cope with that pain are also the result of some people's choices and failings. He didn't come back wrong he is the fruit of an entire infrastructure that is fundamentally wrong and he is aware enough to know the architecture of his world is wrong and wish to change it but not enough to truly think outside of the machinery. He is the fruit of all that was already wrong when he was first alive, crystallized in the evidence of his death.

[vastlyblindingfragment]

I pose to you a deliberately ignorant Kevin instead of oblivious Kevin. A Kevin who learned to ignore others interests in him because acknowledging the attention meant putting them direct danger of Riko’s wrath . A deliberately oblivious Kevin as a coping/protective mechanism. One that takes a while to unlearn.

[autisticlittleguy]

"Grace Ryland is Rocky's dog" is such a funny fucking dynamic when you think about it

Eridians are further behind than humans technologically right? They dont have computers, relativity, quantum mechanics, etc. In fact, Eridians probably dont even know about the Big Bang because their atmosphere would filter out most of the cosmic microwave background radiation we use to detect it. On a human timeline, theyre anywhere between like early-mid 20th century. Rocky's basically a cosmonaut.

So the human civilization is pretty advanced from Rocky's perspective. Rationally he understands this. On a conceptual level he knows this to be true.

But at the same time... imagine youre one of the first ever cosmonauts to make it into space. Then you meet a 10 year old alien dog who cant do 2+2 without pulling out its calculator. It forgets everything constantly and has to keep notes everywhere, like it basically lives in Memento (2000). Also if it doesnt nap constantly it gets even stupider. And you somehow has to reconcile this with the fact that this dog has a better understanding of physics than your entire civilization does. Like the dog knows how the universe started.

[icaseybaybee]

[moaloves]

“Oh my god, I can't believe Kevin day fumbled two different situation ships” Kevin Day who surgically removed himself from the people he loved when he realized he was not the better option. Kevin day who even when he's the first option knows he's never the best option. Kevin Day who lets people use him as they learn to love each other and themselves until he has no use anymore and lets them go even as they rip parts of himself away when they leave. Kevin day who is always the first choice and never the last.

[northorsoutheastorwest]

I think we don’t talk enough about Neil’s understated sex appeal. I just know he lifts the hem of his shirt to wipe the sweat on his face on the treadmill, and on the one next to him Kevin trips and almost falls. I know his running shorts ride up at one point and there is a loud thump from the direction of Andrew’s leg curl machine. I know he pours a bottle of water on his face and chest while running outside one day and some poor freshman girl gets a stroke unrelated to the heat. And the best part is he’s completely unaware of it.