#ignore all typos weird phrasing etc i did not proofread

[jeanmoreaux]

hello. i saw your tags about dan x matt x neil as a trouple and i am now so curious about your thoughts. because i feel like that part of the ec is like. never touched with a ten foot pole. and im just curious what your opinions them as a ship are! if you have any that is

i am so sorry it took me ages to reply to your great message. i have been sitting with this ask for two reasons: firstly i simply did not find the time to answer it; secondly i had to stop and really sit with that ship to figure out what my opinions even are. and i still came up kind of empty because yeah what do i think about a dan/matt/neil throuple? and the answer is it is something that i would love to see explored and that i think would be a wonderful thing to happen to a neil in a universe in which andrew does not exist. but what exactly would that even look like, right?would neil even meet dan and matt in a universe like that????? like. would neil have been a fox in that universe? and if so, would exy and the foxes (specifically dan & matt) have been enough to make neil stay the moment riko figured out who he was? would he have wanted to stay knowing that he didn’t need to protect dan and matt because they had others and each other to look out for them? the answer to all of these could very easily be a clear yes as it could be a resounding no.

although frankly i think if neil had ended up with anyone other than andrew it would have had been in a throuple or other poly constellation. andrew is able to give neil the stability & safety & bone-deep understanding he craves because that’s just who he is as a person: an unmoving object for neil to lean on and draw strength from; someone who sees him in his entirety and doesn’t shy away the darkest parts he finds because these parts are a familiar reflection. of course dan & matt are strong people as well—they went through a lot and can sympathise with neil, but only to a certain degree. they’d need their combined strength to hold neil up in the moments he’d really need it the most. they are a little to removed from that sort of darkness to offer the kind of unquestioning & all-encompassing understanding & loyalty that andrew can offer. and of course over the years he’d spend with them and learn from them, neil would definitely change and grow into the warm and casual kind of affection dan & matt offer and they, in turn, would get better at supporting him. but i think, compared with the level of intimacy that neil and andrew share, it would take much more time for dan, matt, and neil to find their way to each other in that way. and neil would have that time without andrew around. their friendship would have the opportunity to evolve into romance & probably even a much more conventional romantic relationship than what we get with andreil. and i’d also love that for neil—for all three of them really!! because i think neil would flourish with them too ((btw if it wasn’t clear already none of this is meant to make or imply any moral judgment. not saying one relationship dynamic is better/worth more/etc. than the other.))

but with andrew around it’s very much impossible for me to see a version of this story that ends with neil choosing dan & matt over andrew. a lot would have to go down differently. and for that to happen not only the story but the characters would have to be very different from the versions we have, which would also make it a completely different book series. and who knows how we would see the ship dynamics then! and in my opinion if you had andrew dying at any point after tfc neil simply would be too preoccupied with that to have any space in his head for anything sooooooo…. idk idk

basically what i am saying is that the dan/matt/neil dynamic appeals to me A Lot in theory but it is not something i can see happening in the story we got with the characters we got, if that makes sense????? that’s barely an opinion but it sure is a thought and i don’t think i can do much better than that i am so sorry 😭

#and that’s my two cents on these very short statements in the ec and nora’s mentions of the dan/matt/neil throuple 🧍🏼‍♀️ #would love to hear yours djjdjdjdj #ignore all typos weird phrasing etc i did not proofread #answer #aftg #anon #i do not wanna tag it with the aftg tag but i kinda have to for the blacklists