so this is among the many pictures of Avan on my phone, right, and of course I know this is Avan on an intellectual level, but so help me, every time I scroll by it, I'm just

whomst

I plurked a couple of weeks ago how I think he looks better with the glasses on than with them off as an adult and that was a bit of a lie because he is definitely at his most handsome here without the glasses and with his hair down but also. he doesn't look like Avan at this point

same man???

Honestly I kind of love that for him, like

Who is that strange hunk

the fact that Avan looks the part of the hero with his glasses off and his hair down, but obviously is like

Clark Kenting it, for lack of a better term

like he even kind of uses his glasses the same way

they're even the same kind of glasses!!!

I like how he's a little incognito since when he was active as The Hero the curls were a comparatively subtle flip in the back and he had no glasses but he still goes around introducing himself by his full name when nobody else in the setting even royalty does that

Kinda like Clark Kent but also kinda like Tony Hawk

even the full name is a roundabout incognito thing, since the relatively few people who get a name for The Hero just get Avan instead of the full thing

like if Tony Hawk was professionally known as Tony the Skater

Tony, The Pro Skater

anyway I will never shut up about Avan being secretly hot because it is honestly hilarious to me

the sheer whiplash between the initial impression of "oh this man does not fuck" and the later truth of "oh this man does not fuck on purpose"

I've said it before and I'll say it again, his design so perfectly encapsulates his character

No character has ever had to try so fucking hard to be uncool as Avan de Zinuar III

this man puts SO MUCH EFFORT into not fucking

the deck is stacked so hard in favor of him being fuckable, but by god, he manages to overcome it

AND ANOTHER THING: there's definitely something to be said for how Avan looking his hottest is also Avan at one of the lowest points in his life

Fifty years of hurt comfort fanfic ain't wrong