My very important thoughts on AFTG (having now finished the series). Organized by sections as: Exy, non-Andreil relationships, Adult real life logistics, and other strong but uncategorizable feelings.
I am having lots of Andreil feelings as well, but this is not them. This is the other things. My other very strong takeaways.
Exy would absolutely for fucking sure not be an Olympic sport, or a 60k seat stadium NCAA sport after ~20 years of game play. Absolutely not. I played Roller Derby for 5 years. Modern Roller Derby is a sport with a meaningful history and following and regulation bodies, and extremely amazing athletes. This isn’t a perfect case study, given that derby is grassroots, and Exy is meant to have been fully designed by 2 people, but this was an area I had to very intentionally suspend my disbelief whenever it came up.
This book also absolutely would not be as compelling to me as a non-sports-person if it were about a real sport. Because listen, I love lacrosse and I appreciate hockey and I nod casually in the direction of soccer/football, but using a made up sport made this book approachable and interesting for me. I didn’t have to think “is this a real reference I need to know more about to earnestly appreciate this plot?” Because nope. It for sure wouldn’t be. Also I didn’t have to attempt to overcome my sports people prejudices/stereotypes, because I don’t have any of those about Exy.
The refs are *outside* the court? Sus.
That plexi has to get very smudgey very quickly. How do they clean it? This seems like a problem for spectators and (see above) refs.
Why is it called Exy? I don’t hate it, it’s just like...such a prescription drug name.
Non-Andreil relationships
Kudos to this series for having not a lot of relationship drama aside from...you know, the big one. I appreciate that this series wasn’t rife with drama in relationships
However: long distance relationships are so dramatic and hard and I don’t believe that Kevin/Thea and Nicky/Erik would have survived the series unscathed. I didn’t want to actually have to read more about either of those relationships, but neither struck me as particularly real.
Betsey/Wymack/Abby -- thruple. C’mon.
Adult real life logistics
Oh my god, no insurance agent ever in the history of real life would ever think that Andrew’s car wasn’t totaled after being vandalized as described. They’d cut him a check in like...two days. Though also as someone who has had a car totaled this year, it’s a fucking hassle no matter what.
Who is maintaining Nicky’s house!? Houses are energy pits. If he owns that house, someone needs to be up in there changing the furnace filter and flushing the water heater and oiling the garage door springs. And he sure isn’t.
Other strong but uncategorizable feelings
Before reading this series I was like “why would any person attend school and be there primarily in order to play a sport” but actually I kind of get it now?
KEVIN you are not supposed to meaningfully sweat for several weeks after getting a tattoo!
Why would a building planning official accept sleeping quarters underground that didn’t have egress? I guess bribes from gangsters. But c’mon. The Raven’s Nest would be condemned immediately!
I can believe that Nicky is fluent in German, and that Jean and Kevin are fluent in French, but the rest of them almost certainly wouldn’t be fluent enough to carry out the conversations as written. Totally willing to suspend my disbelief on it, though.
Man that Nathaniel/Neil section? I died. I knew what was happening and it still brought me to my knees.
