Thinking About Kevin Mimicking Jean (probably Subconsciously) Because He Sees Him Healing And Wants The

His monstrous queen, her gentleman demon

Constantly obsessed with the concept of a man forced to be a myth. What do you do when every step you take is embedded into the text. Every word you say prose to read. You're part of something bigger than yourself. The narrative tugs you along like water currents. There is no time to rest, to be human. You must be great, you must be legend

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫

i think maybe the reason so many people see kevin as a coward in comparison to neil is because... they are approaching the year the series takes place from vastly different mindsets. neil has already come to terms that he's running out of time. he knows he'll be dead by the end of the year and he has nothing to lose. he is, in comparison, unafraid/brave/whatever you want to call it, because he has already accepted the inevitability of death and so... there's nothing else to be afraid of.

but kevin – kevin is desperate to live. he's finally out of the nest and facing his first chance at a real life, and that means he has everything to lose. he has a new family, he has his father, he has a very precarious chance at freedom, and he has an abuser who is actively trying to sabotage all of that. to him, any act of defiance has the potential to take everything he has, including his life. you can't judge his character through the same lens as neil because it's entirely incompatible with him.

neil has nothing to lose and kevin has everything to lose, of course he's going to seem "cowardly" in comparison

fandom talks a lot about kevin being a cult survivor and that shaping his personality & world view but a lot of the time the fact that he was also an abuse survivor on a personal level out of the conversation like even before riko broke his hand, he was very much abusing kevin, maybe not as blatantly and visibly as he was abusing jean, but it was still happening. that kind of persistent emotional and verbal abuse is so so damaging, and it can be even more insidious when it's coming from a "loved one." remember that at one point, kevin and riko considered each other family. they were children together, they loved each other. kevin loved and trusted riko as a brother, so when the abuse began mounting and mounting, it wasn't just coming from a teammate or coach, it was coming from someone he loves

i think sometimes people judge him way too harshly for his fear and coping mechanisms and attitude, but like. you can't ask someone who has suffered like that to be well-adjusted

kevin “my brother is the worst man alive and I am his favourite” day

Shadow and Bone season 2 doodles ✨

One of my most favorite moments is when Inej appears and Jesper gets scared to death 😭

everything starts and ends with kevin day. do you get it? everything starts and ends with kevin day. of course everything has to start and end with kevin day it could never be any other way

TBH I’m not even scared of 1000 demons

Kevin Day isn't actually a coward, Neil and Andrew just have very different ideas of what it means to be brave. Kevin is a survivor. He spent most of his formative years walking a middle ground of being useful but not so much that he showed riko up. He had every reason to be afraid of riko. He was the only one that truly understood what riko was capable of aside from Jean. Neil and Andrew are fighters, they are all or nothing types, they don't understand how someone could walk a middle ground just for something that resembles safety when they fought so hard to not give in to threats until it threatened someone they care about and almost killed themselves in the process. Kevin didn't even know he was ALLOWED to fight back because that was never an option. Leaving the only life he's ever known was so much braver than anyone gives him credit for. It isn't until he has something to fight for and is given permission (not just by the moriyama's and Neil but by himself) to be his own person for the first time that he is able to defy his abusers.

It's not cowardly to do what you can to stay safe. Not everyone has Andrew and Neil's blatant disregard for their own personal safety. Being afraid of pain and death is perfectly reasonable.